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UNC-Chapel Hill to Pay $1.5 Million for Misreporting Campus Crime Statistics

Canada Restricts Dealings With Hong Kong Over New Security Law

OTTAWA—Foreign Affairs Minister Francois−Philippe Champagne says Canada is suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong as part of a package of responses to the new security law China has imposed on the territory. In a statement, Champagne says Canada will also treat sensitive goods being exported to Hong Kong as if they were being sent to mainland China. That means outright banning some military−related goods from being traded there. China imposed strict new controls on Hong Kong this week, in what Champagne calls a violation of the “one country, two systems” philosophy that was supposed to last 50 years after Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997. Champagne’s statement says Hong Kong’s place in the global economy was based on that promise and needs to be reassessed. Canada’s moves…

UNC-Chapel Hill to Pay $1.5 Million for Misreporting Campus Crime Statistics

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will pay $1.5 million in a settlement with the U.S. Department of Education, after a six-year review found “severe deficiencies” in the university’s crime and safety reporting.

In a campus-wide message announcing the settlement, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz said the Education Department had been investigating the university from 2013 to 2019, and the weaknesses exposed by the investigation are “disappointing.”

The department looked at the UNC-Chapel Hill’s crime and safety reporting between 2009 and 2017 and found “persistent failure to compile and disclose accurate and complete campus crime statistics” in annual reports and federal surveys. The university acknowledged that some 16 crimes throughout that period, including sexual offenses, aggravated assaults, and robbery, were “unintentionally omitted” from those federal-mandated reports.

In addition, the university was found to have repeatedly failed to issue a “timely warning” when those crimes occurred within the campus perimeter, as required by the federal law.

The report (pdf) also determined the UNC-Chapel Hill failed to “properly identify the campus geography.” For example, the university’s own police department couldn’t tell whether a certain building complex was indeed owned and operated by the university as a residence facility, even though it was being advertised as “the best off-campus housing possible” in promotional material.

Under the settlement agreement announced on Tuesday, the UNC-Chapel Hill will pay a $1.5 million fine to the Education Department to resolve the dispute, without admitting any wrong doing. The university also agreed to implement organizational changes and will continue to be monitored by the department for three years, among other things.

The settlement over misreporting campus crime comes as UNC-Chapel Hill continues to delay releasing sexual assault records as ordered two months ago in a North Carolina Supreme Court ruling.

In a 4-3 decision, the state supreme court ruled in May that the university should disclose the records detailing how individuals found responsible of committing sexual crimes on campus were disciplined. The university previously said that it would be releasing the requested records by June 30.

“UNC-Chapel Hill has come under a lot of fire for denying the public access to what ought to be public records, especially in the realm of serious Title IX issues,” Brooks Fuller, director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition said, reported The Associated Press. “Public records are the property of the public and universities do their best work when they do it in the light of the day.”

Focus News: UNC-Chapel Hill to Pay $1.5 Million for Misreporting Campus Crime Statistics

Nasdaq-Listed Chinese Company Cheated Creditors by Using Fake Gold as Loan Collateral

Nasdaq-listed Chinese jeweler Kingold Jewelry Inc. (KGJI) has received 20 billion yuan ($2.8 billion) loans by claiming to use tons of gold as collateral in the past five years. However, the creditors discovered that some of the gold bars are gilded copper alloy. The loans were protected by insurance issued by Chinese state-run PICC Property and Casualty Company (PICC) and some smaller insurers. But the insurers refuse to pay for the loss of Kingold’s creditors by claiming that the insurance contracts defined that they won’t take care of the loss that was created by the policyholder. However, the creditors emphasized that the insurance agreement ruled that insurers will take responsibility if the gold that is supplied by the policyholder doesn’t meet the standard. Kingold designs and manufactures jewelry. It was…