It's about time

Via Billy's blog comes news that John Hardister (R, Guilford) has submitted a bill to the state legislature that would make operations of the state lottery more transparent.

I haven't read the bill, but from Hardister's press release, it sounds like something long overdue. The free market does not mean that marketers are free to dupe people and lottery advertising with its emphasis on the largest of prizes with little if any mention of the preposterous odds is a form of deceit that should not be allowed -- especially by the state.

It is another form of fraudulent marketing to sell scratch-off tickets with no information about whether or not the prize being promoted— the big top prize—has already been won. There is no notification at the point of sale when the top prize has already been won and your chances of winning that prize have become exactly zero. It's a rip-off plain and simple to sell scratch-off tickets advertising a top prize of x amount when winning that prize has become impossible. I don't know if Hardister's bill addresses that too, but it should.

Riiiiiiiight

GREENSBORO, NC -- Roy Carroll, recipient of $2 million in City tax credits, a block of a city street onto which he will build apartments and a noise ordinance specially crafted to (successfully) close the rooftop bar below his penthouse condo, supports a proposed redistricting of Greensboro city council because he doesn't think city council has been business friendly enough.

Is Carroll a business whiz or less than sincere?

The following from the Triad Business Journal makes one wonder:

"[Carroll] sent an unsolicited $16 million bid for the News & Record to Warren Buffett, the Omaha billionaire who bought the daily two years ago."

and

"Carroll wrote in the letter to Buffett. 'If a local daily publication is out of touch with the needs of its constituents, I can only wonder about its financial performance.'"

Carroll added to his letter "This is not a publicity stunt."

If it's not a publicity stunt, we have to take it at face value: It's a $16 million offer for a newspaper, the value of which the prospective buyer admits he can "only wonder."

Is this revelation a reflection of Carroll's sincerity or of his business acumen?

Cumcumbers?

GREENSBORO, NC -- I've watched with anticipation the renovations to the restaurant space near the Fresh Market on Lawndale Dr., hoping it might be something local and unique. It's a Charbar 7, from Charlotte.

Not having heard of them, I took a look at their menu where I found them offering "vegatables," "oinions" and the very unappetizing sounding "cumcumbers. "

They also offer a "Two Elows out Burger" topped with "thinly chaved ribeye" on a "pretzle roll."

Other ingredients include "tomatoe," "american cheese" and "Tator Tots."

Still, that Seared Ahi Tuna Salad does sound pretty good. I might try it -- without the cumcumbers.

Speaking of idiots

A Mark Underwood writes a letter to the News & Record in which he takes to calling the victims of the November 3rd, 1979 murders by Klan and Nazis in Greensboro "idiots."

Mark then goes on to write:

"Passions still run high among the few interested, but the true facts are impossible to determine."

Let's get this straight: Mark is convinced that the "true facts" are impossible to determine yet, despite this, he is confident enough to know that the people killed and wounded were/are idiots.

That's the convenience afforded by ignorance: One can put forth any opinion at all if one willfully leaves them unexposed to the facts.

Mark should read the Truth & Reconciliation Report. It's chock full of "true facts," gathered from a vast array of reputable sources. Were he to read it, Mark might come to understand who the real idiot is.

Ladd on fire

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record's Susan Ladd is making the most of her new position as an advocacy journalist. In just a few short weeks, she is raising the bar for both her editorial and news reporting colleagues. I have not agreed with everything she has written, and some topics are more serious than others, but she is singlehandedly slaying stupidity and deception in a way I thought I'd never see at the News & Record again. It's refreshing, inspiring and, if she keeps it up, Greensboro will be better by her efforts.

Today, on developer Roy Carroll's furtive plan to reduce the number of Greensboro City Council representatives, Ladd writes:

What he wants on the council, Carroll wrote, is a “diversified majority of business executives and owners.”

Really? Why not a majority of environmentalists? A majority of preservationists? A majority of educators?

A majority of any one constituency would unbalance the council. The council needs members from diverse backgrounds and different segments of the community to represent the people it serves. A council dominated by business owners might well make decisions that disenfranchise all the other groups, including homeowners and neighborhoods.

“The simple answer is that a business professional would rather be part of a smaller decision-making group in which that person could effect change,” Carroll wrote.

Is effecting change anything like getting your way? It sure sounds like that.

Maybe, for example, it would be easier to get the city to close a street to benefit your development. Or to convince the city to enact a noise ordinance that placates your condo owners but hurts nightclub businesses.

Oh, wait. Carroll won both of those battles despite the objections of residents and other business owners.

How much more power does he need?

And just how is a plan to change the council’s size going to guarantee a body dominated by business people?

Oh, right. Donations.

It’s worth noting that Carroll contributed $5,300 to Wade’s campaign last year and $9,000 to the campaign of state Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), who has said Wade “may very well be on the right track” in proposing a smaller council in Greensboro.

But what’s good for Greensboro is apparently not good for Eden. Berger has made no attempt to reduce the size of the council in his hometown, a city of 15,000 residents represented by a mayor (elected at large) and seven council members.

The fact is that the Greensboro City Council, aside from an occasional spat, is a high-functioning body that broadly represents the residents of Greensboro.

This district-and-at-large system was created to ensure minority representation, and it has resulted in a more balanced and representative council, which currently has four women, four men, three people of color and a woman as mayor.

If anyone decides how and if that body is going to change, it should be the voters, not a lone senator who can trade favors in the legislature to ram through a partisan plan that helps only a select group of businessmen.

Especially when most of those businessmen hide behind cloaks of anonymity.

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