No, no Chronic-les of Narnia; just more lacrosse stuff…

• The Newsweek cover story this week is on the Duke lacrosse scandal; here it is in all its glory. Most notable is the new-to-me revelation that “defense lawyer Bill Thomas told NEWSWEEK that in the first round [of tests] some DNA showed up under the woman’s fingernails, though tests were inconclusive about identity.”
• Robert KC Johnson has two good posts up at Cliopatria on the scandal: one looking at the rush to judgment by nearly 90 Duke faculty members in the case, and one on the Campus Culture Initiative announced by Dick Brodhead a few weeks ago, which thus far seems to be barrelling towards reaching its preordained conclusions about Duke’s alleged culture of privilege and rape. Similar themes appear in the discussion between Margaret Soltan and I at University Diaries about New York Times public editor Byron Calme’s apologia for the paper’s excessive interest in the scandal.
• The AP reports that alumni in Durham for class reunions have expressed their concerns about President Brodhead’s treatment of the lacrosse program and indicted player Reade Seligmann in particular.
• John in Carolina links a good column by Dallas Morning News columnist Mark Davis on this case.
• Righteous Townie DA Mike Nifong fails to get the endorsement of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People; African-American challenger Keith Bishop receives their endorsement instead.
• Last, but not least, if you thought this was going to be over any time soon—guess again. Nifong says the second round of DNA results won’t be back before the preliminary hearings for Seligmann and Collin Finnerty on May 15th. The Herald-Sun also reports “Nifong also denied an allegation by some defense attorneys that the second exotic dancer at the March 13 party where the rape allegedly occurred received special treatment from Nifong’s office so she’d cooperate with the prosecutor.”

The number that cabbie Moez Mostafa received a call from at 12:29 a.m. is in the 856 area code (including the exchange, 856–296-xxxx), if you pause playback during Rita Crosby’s interview with him. What’s weird is that Tony McDevitt, a junior Duke lacrosse player who has a striking resemblance to the indicted Reade Seligmann, lives smack dab in that area code according to this site. McDevitt, along with four teammates, was on the season watchlist for the nation’s top collegiate player before the incident.

Also, the 12:14 a.m. call, attributed to Reade Seligmann by the defense, is from the 973 area code (973–953-xxxx). This would seem to correspond with the part of New Jersey he is from.