Don't go to your local NPR station for this scoop: the N & O reports that Joan Siefert Rose, the general manager of WUNC, will leave the station in August to become the director of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, a business-oriented nonprofit in RTP. Siefert Rose came to WUNC in 2001 riding the crest of their transformation from something like a quaint, bookish music-lover to a journalist interested in business, health, and science.

Yesterday's Chapel Hill News is the last edition of that paper before tomorrow's election. Surveying the entire news section of the paper shows that the only mention of this is in the endorsement letters, the political advertisements, and two opinion columns on the presidential race. Apparently the journalists at the News just didn't think there was anything new to say about the local election. However, they did find time to interview folks in the street about the nonexistent hula-hoop "issue."

WUNC is now publishing podcasts * of their local/state news coverage, and of the locally-produced program The State of Things. I applaud them for this step, as well as for their live audio stream and open archives. There's also an unofficial blog by Terry Maguire discussing WUNC, which could use some dialogue. It seems to be a well-kept secret (until now).