and Clarey too.

Brian Clarey of Yes!Weekly reports on the Scott Sanders trial and acquittal. He reports the facts and manages to add some color without injecting opinion. Good stuff.

Read: "An innocent man"

Yes!Weekly's Jordan Green writes a must-read

Although I'm tempted to tell you why you must read it, including to bring to your attention the audacious quote by the Greensboro City Attorney that he thinks City records may be kept secret if they are "a part of an employee's duties," I'll just say this: An important subject explained with a degree of professionalism increasingly rare in Greensboro.

Read: "Greensboro leaders remain circumspect about police recordings."

News & Record's Ahearn cocooned

In the wake of the acquittal of Greensboro police detective Scott Sanders, the (Greensboro) News & Record publishes a Lorraine Ahearn column today. It is a diversion from Ahearn's failings as a reporter entitled "Wray's neighbor: Dogs that didn't bark in the night."

Maybe you would like to comment on it. Too bad, you can't. You can comment on N&R columnist Jerri Rowe's latest column; or Rosemary Roberts'; or Ed Cone's; or Doug Clark's; or Allen Johnson's.

But not Lorraine Ahearn's.

So, are you surprised?

WFMY get your facts straight.

In a story about the acquittal of Greensboro police detective Scott Sanders, WFMY reports of the SBI's investigation:

"The investigation eventually led to the resignation of former Police Chief David Wray."

Wrong. This is not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of time line, Wray having resigned prior to the SBI's investigation (which cleared Wray of wrongdoing, by the way). Get your facts straight WFMY, Greensboro deserves better.

Sander's acquittal on the blogs

The acquittal of Greensboro Police Detective Scott Sanders and the dismal of the only other charges even remotely related to the alleged bad deeds committed under the command of former Police Chief David Wray have local bloggers abuzz.

From legitimately wondering why city manager Mitch Johnson is still employed to questioning if former Mayor Keith Holliday and former city councilors Tom Phillips and Sandy Carmany were full of it when they encouraged us to be patient, that once the investigations were complete, once we "knew what they knew" we would understand why accusations of wrong-doing were legitimate:

Sam Spagnola: "Sanders Not Guilty"
Joe Guarino: "Congratulations to Scott Sanders and Tom Fox"
Sawdust for Brains: "Thoughts on the solution to the mess in Greensboro"
The Troublemaker had a lot to say, then takes it back.

No posts on the subject at any of the News & Record blogs yet.

Attorney General: N&R’s coverage was inaccurate and prejudicial

Jerry Bledsoe comments at Joe Guarino's blog:

"This appears to be a clear case in which the N&R and Johnson colluded to taint Sanders on the opening day of his trial in the apparent hope of prejudicing potential jurors. It did attract the court’s attention. Deputy Attorney General Jim Coman, who is trying Sanders, informed the judge that the N&R’s coverage was inaccurate and prejudicial."

I'm quite confident this will be another error by the N&R that they fail to correct.

More.

Phantom City Council Meeting

At the February 3rd, 2009 meeting of the Greensboro City Council, blogger Ben Holder (the Troublemaker) spoke from the floor to ask that the city release information regarding the surreptitious recording of citizens by police three years ago.

In defense of governmental secrecy, city councilor T. Dianne Bellamy-Small said that city council had a closed session meeting with police chief Tim Bellamy and the citizens who were taped and that she recalled them saying that they didn't want the recordings released. (Video: at the 28:25 mark)

I requested the minutes from that meeting. Assistant City Manager Denise Turner replied: "We have not found that any such closed session minutes exist."

Are there no minutes of the meeting (a violation of state law) or did the meeting not take place? I have asked Turner if there is any record indicating that this meeting happened.

Afternote: City councilor Zack Matheny has proposed that the city council record all closed sessions. It is an incredibly sensible idea that should be approved and implemented post haste.

UPDATE: Ben Holder is reporting that one of the citizens surreptitiously recorded requested copies of the tapes made of her. Ben says she was told she could not have them. Welcome to the city of the lie.

UPDATE II: Assistant City Manager Denise Turner follows up to say that Bellamy-Small was referring to a closed meeting between Chief Bellamy and the citizens surreptitiously recorded and that the reporting of that meeting to City Council took place in "small group sessions."

"Now Greensboro has reached the Orwellian stage where the lie is truth, and truth a lie."

"Now Greensboro has reached the Orwellian stage where the lie is truth, and truth a lie. At this point, the lie prevails."

Jerry Bledsoe cuts to the cold hard truth about what Greensboro's "leaders" have allowed this city to become in "The City of the Lie."

The people in positions of power and leadership in this city (Jerry calls many of them out) used to seem big to me -- a little larger than life -- as if they had some things about the world figured out that I hadn't quite grasped yet. I no longer have that opinion of most of them.

What I see now is that their claims of love for this city and to want what's best for Greensboro all too easily yield to petty personal grudges, fear of embarrassment and a desire to avoid confrontation or complicated thinking.

I wish I could give the leaders of our new found idicoracy a good shake with a "Snap out of it." Awake. Be as big as others once thought you to be. Stand tall and stand up. The pretending, the sleepwalking, the genteel ignorance may be comforting to you, but they do not well serve Greensboro. You underestimate your fellow citizens if you do not understand that your fate is irrelevance if you insist on rooting yourselves in the swamp of mediocrity and mendacity.

Modern Native American Music

I've been continuing my exploration of musical genres unfamiliar to me. My previous foray was into Goa/Psy/trance (without the drugs, thank you). Recently I've discovered an "online station" called In Tune With Spirit. It is music inspired by (mostly) western indigenous cultures, northern and southern hemispheres. Included in the mix is a hefty dose of modern American Indian pieces. Some of it is bad, it sounds like the worst of Holiday Inn lounge band influenced by Spaghetti Western soundtracks (think "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" meets Kenny G). Much of it is really good though: Organic, genuine and moving.

Tune in here (choose your player, top left, under "live radio"). Don't say I didn't warn you--you'll get a dose of schlock--but the good stuff, especially if you've never heard it before, is worth the rough patches.

Cricket broadband anybody?

Is anybody using Cricket "broadband" mobile internet access? I need a mobile solution for the Greensboro area. Cricket advertises theirs as "unlimited," but the fine print pretty much says, "Not really." Has anybody tried it?

This is how you do it: Ben Holder applies new media to civic engagement

It does not have to look like Spielberg put it together, and it does not. But Ben Holder makes a video mash-up of the expectations and promises previously made by civic leaders then shows it to Greensboro City council at their meeting. The message, loud and clear: Respond or make us a community of hypocrites.

Like the editorial pages of a newspaper (when editors are willing to face the truth), Ben forces our community to take a hard look at itself. Unlike the editorial pages, Ben does it with mixed media, in person, on live TV, and supports it with his own passionate and informed appeal. Great job, Ben.



Afternote: Where are the community leaders who originally publicly said that they expected the truth of this issue to come to light? Why are they now letting Ben Holder carry their water? Are they a bunch of paper tigers? Yes, I'm talking to the dozen of you from the Greensboro Partnership who originally lined up to express your concerns that we get to the bottom of this issue. Next time we hear you express some concern or expectation on a civic matter, is there any reason why shouldn't just sigh and think, "Empty suit?"

"I believe these blogs are getting out of control. Next thing you know, there will be dancing!"

"I believe these blogs are getting out of control."

So says North Carolina Senator and Baptist minister Steve Goss as he explained to the News & Observer's Under the Dome blog his introduction of a bill that would make bloggers criminally liable for libel. The law would make libel by bloggers a Class 2 misdemeanor criminal offense and subject them to penalties greater than those for print publications found guilty of libel.

Our local state senators are:

Guilford County
-----------------
Phil Berger (District 26)
Stan Bingham (District 33)
Katie G. Dorsett (District 28)
Don Vaughan (District 27)

Rockingham County
---------------------
Phil Berger (District 26)

Forsyth County
-----------------
Peter S. Brunstetter (District 31)
Linda Garrou (District 32)

Randolph County
------------------
Jerry W. Tillman (District 29)

Alamance County
------------------
Tony Foriest (District 24)

Find state senators for other areas of North Carolina here.

Correcting the record: Doug Copeland, Triad Business Journal, Not Spammers

Doug Copeland of the Triad Business Journal called me today to comment on a post I had made previously about local spammers. I had referenced a post by Sue Polinsky where she was complaining about receiving what she thought was spam from Doug. Doug explained to me that the email to Sue was, in fact, a personal email. The confusion apparently was caused by Doug's email signature which includes instructions for "unsubscribing" by default.

Doug lamented that this is "One of the problems with blogs" -- that mistakes can take on a life of their own. Sure. I suppose. Like a lot of forms of communication. One of the advantages though is that corrections can happen lightening fast and with the same prominence and exposure as the original, something I'm happy to do, here and as an update to the original post.