Greensboro flash mobbed

"At 5:00 pm on Wednesday, November 18th, 40 Ignite Greensboro agents gathered and froze during rush hour on all four corners of Greensboro's busiest downtown street, Friendly Ave. The goal was to highlight cultural conformity of students who are not willing to reach outside their institution to learn about the culture and city of Greensboro."

Backstroking to the swim center

"If you look back on it, $20M was always the price tag for a “Regional Swim Center” and Greensboro is backing into that number slowly but surely.  People are pissed at the process, and rightfully so."

David Hoggard reminds us of the underhanded way in which we got here.

On year, smoke free

I quit smoking a year ago. Although I was not a life-long smoker, I smoked more often than not as an adult and the addiction seemed to have a firm hold for the past ten years or so. I never stopped wanting to quit, but the prospect just seemed more and more unlikely as time went by -- until I tried Chantix.

Friends have reported unpleasant side effects--nightmares and feeling "strange"--but for me, the only effect was that I simply did not want a cigarette. No cravings, no "high" (or "low"), just a sense of returning to normal. After twelve or so smoke-free weeks, I stopped the Chantix. I have not had a single smoke, or even bummed a puff since -- I haven't even been tempted. If you don't smoke, you'll shrug. If you smoke, you'll appreciate how remarkable the complete elimination of the craving is.

If you smoke and you want to quit, there may be any number of ways to do so. I found Chantix to be phenomenally effective.

Tell me again the N&R's policy on identifying sources

Lorraine Ahearn has an article in today's (Greensboro, NC) News & Record about complaints of people viewing pornography on public library computers. In it, Ahearn reports:

"Library associate Dwayne Eaker said the mother, who declined a request for a newspaper interview, was so vocal in complaining to librarians that she may have “tipped off” the violator to switch screens."

Why is the complaining parent not identified? Her complaint is the impetus for the story, but she remains anonymous. Why?

Susan Griffith of High Point. NC should meet Google

Susan Griffith of High Point, NC, has a letter to the editor in today's (Greensboro, NC) News & Record in which she writes: 

"Our most precious documents, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, mention God throughout."

You cannot just make stuff up, publish it in public and not expect people to scoff. How seriously should we take Ms. Griffith's point of view when she justifies it with make believe? Not very, I'd say.

The Declaration of Independence. The United States Constitution.

Break-in City

Crime problem?

These within the past 24 hours:

Ian McDowell, "My door was kicked in at 3:00 AM."

"Cops have come and gone. Took them twenty minutes to arrive, and then they drove past the building twice. CSI has come and gone. "CSI" being one lady cop with a flashlight and camera, who said the footprint on the door panel was too blurry to tell anything. The first cop tried to call the K-9 unit, but they told him the dog had gone to bed."

Brian Higgins, "A victim of crime."

"Coming home to a smashed front door and a bird flying out of my house was about as disarmig a feeling as I've had in some time. My wife and I have always told me that we feel safe in our neighborhood and I'm certain that we feel less confident about that than before."

Is your biz advertising with 336 Events? Beware.

336 Events' spam resurfaces. If the company's operators don't care that people find their tactics annoying, the businesses that advertise with them should.

Clear, tight, accurate: N&R's cancer near the landfill story.

The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record's Amanda Lehmert writes a piece on the high rates of cancer around the White Street Landfill. She didn't break the story, Yes!Weekly's Jordan Green did a week ago, but Amanda brings a broader survey of the facts and increased understanding to the matter.

Although Dr. Joe Guarino says the N&R story is all just so much hysteria, claiming (erroneously) to have already debunked the report's findings, I think it's appropriate to give Amanda kudos for a tight, accurate story that includes the salient facts.

• A state agency study found cancer rates around the landfill to be higher than they expected.
  
• The cause of the higher rates is not known, but there are several possible reasons.
  
• Pancreatic cancer is higher among African-Americans and that alone could account for the higher rates.
• Local officials want further explanation.
  

People will argue about the significance of the facts and try to massage them to fit their agendas, but Amanda is right where a reporter should be on something like this, dispassionately bringing factual context to information.

Higher rates of cancer around White Street Landfill? Account for race and you may be surprised.

Jordan Green's Yes!Weekly reports on a study by the NC Cancer Registry (NCCR) and titles it "Cancer rates Near White Street Landfill higher than expected."

Are they? The study summary (below) explains that the "expected" rate of cancers to which the White Street area population was compared was derived from state-wide cancer rates, adjusted for age and gender. But not race. Most of the people who live around the White Street Landfill are African-Amerian.

The North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics publishes rates for specific types of cancers by race. I compared these to the NCCR White Street study findings.

The study, without accounting for race, finds elevated rates of pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma around the landfill, but the rates for those cancers among African-Americans statewide are higher than the total population in North Carolina to begin with. Take race into account, and those cancers, while possibly still elevated around White Street, are likely not as elevated as the study reports.

The study, without accounting for race, finds elevated rates of brain cancer and non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but the rates for those cancers among African-Americans statewide are LOWER than the total population in North Carolina to begin with. Take race into account, and the rate of those cancers around White Street are likely HIGHER than the study reports.

Bottom line: It looks like there is something there, there. Joe Guarino gets into a thoughtful physician's caution against jumping to conclusions about cause (so does the study), but this cannot be swept aside.

Cancer Registry

We are divisible

Here is video of the Pledge-of-Allegiance-drives-the-liberals-crazy Congressman I wrote about earlier stumbling over the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance, to my hypocrisy

While eating lunch just now, I was watching some kind of "Republican health care" gathering on capitol hill on FoxNews. A congressman from Missouri was introduced to lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Before doing so, he took the opportunity to say a few brief words about how the phrase "under God" certainly belongs in the Pledge. Among his reasons: "It drives the liberals crazy."

The congressman then proceeded to lead the pledge and promptly forgot the words.

Yesterday's election. Historic? Monumental?

Yesterday's election: Historic? Monumental?

Oh, please. I know people are excited. Me too. But all one has to do is look at the wall of 200 years of mayors' portraits at city hall to realize that electing an older white man* is not some monumental break with history. Bill Knight deserves all the credit due for winning and maybe his tenure will prove monumental is some way, but his election is more of a return to the status quo than history in the making.

I'd also caution against thinking that everybody who voted for the winners all did so for the same reasons.

(* Nothing personal, Mr. Mayor)

You gotta show up -- turnout puts Knight over Johnson

Here is a map showing how turnout won the Greensboro mayoral race for Bill Knight.

Out of 106 precincts, there were only 11 where turnout was greater than 30% of registered voters. They all were won by Bill Knight. On the other hand, of the 18 precincts where turnout was less than 10% of registered voters, 11 of them were Johnson precincts.

Election results

Polls close at 7:30. Election results as they come in here.

Don't let the chowder heads at Heart Argyle get in the way of seeing good local TV political reporting

I can place video from WGHP here on my blog.

I can place video from WFMY here on my blog.

I cannot place video from WXII here on my blog.

Bill O'Neil had a nice piece on the Greensboro mayoral race. You might want to see it, even if the anal-retentive chowder heads up the corporate ladder at Heast Argyle think its okay to put WXII video on YouTube, where non-exclusive rights are assigned to Viacom, but are unwilling to make WXII videos available to bloggers.

I know nothink!

[Apologies to my younger reader who may not get the Hogan's Heros' reference.]

Ed Cone gets a reply to his inquiry of state Democratic party about the mailing they sent in support of some city council candidates. Short answer:

"Who, us?"

This is why I can never imagine being affiliated with a political party again. Too many things, like simple honesty, get subverted to partisanship.

So think you might want partisan city council elections?

I was talking to Ben Holder a few minutes ago and the issue of the non-partisan or not city council races came up. Ben had a very good point that he said his yard sign distribution commitment will keep him from blogging about: Non-partisan does not mean that political parties do not get involved, they have to varying degrees for years. It does not mean that a candidate's affiliation is not considered by those for whom that matters.

What it defines, simply, is the way in which candidates enter and advance through a city council election. In a non-partisan race, unaffiliated voters may enter and run without having to align with a party. It also means that the candidates who advance through a primary are not, through an artificial construct, necessarily each of differing parties. In an unaffiliated race, the most popular of the field advance whoever they may be--not the most popular Democrat and the most popular Republican.

For my conservative friends who think partisan elections might be a good thing for some reason, if the pure math is not enough for you (Democrats far outnumber Republicans in Greensboro) consider the effects of partisan races on this year's elections:

District 3 would be Zack Matheny vs. Jay Ovittore
In a partisan race, the highest vote-getting Republican (Matheny) would be running against the highest vote-getting Democrat (Ovittore). Those of you who like Republican George Hartzman would be out of luck. As it stands, made possible by non-partisan elections, top vote-getter Republican Matheny will face off against second most vote-getter Republican Hartzman.

District 1 would be T. Dianne Bellamy-Small vs. Charles Coffey
A partisan primary would have guaranteed a Bellamy Small reelection. As it stands, made possible by non-partisan elections, Democrat Bellamy Small will face Democrat Luther T. Falls, and there is a reasonable chance for new representation from District 1.

Them's the facts. I'll be on the lookout for reason why partisan city council races would be beneficial.

Just make it as hard for me as you can to vote for Bill Knight, why doncha?

I am an unaffiliated voter (registered as neither Democrat or Republican). I switched from Democrat in 2002 when there was a Republican running for local office for whom I wanted to vote in the Republican primary. (Unaffiliated voters in North Carolina can pick a party's primary in which to vote.)

Two years ago, I voted for Yvonne Johnson for mayor. While there is no doubt she has some good things going for her, she hasn't lived up to my expectations.

In general, she doesn't seem too "on the ball." I have been sorely disappointed in her lack of (public) curiosity towards the "black book," for example, and what it did or did not imply and her lack of any leadership in taking the public to a reality-based understanding of that issue. (Her comment that, if we are going to have a book "like that" for black officers, there should be one for white officers too is illustrative of her confusion.) She has either lacked the intellectual curiosity herself to get to the bottom of things or, if she does understand now, she has not seen the need to correct the perceptions she previously publicly painted.

She has, like other city council members, said all the right things about transparency, then proved to be impotent in doing anything about it.

She said six months ago that she was personally going to recruit a broadband internet provider to compete with Time Warner Cable and apparently has not yet succeeded, but I do not know of the status because she declined to answer my email inquiries about her progress.

So no egregious missteps or bad intentions by Mayor Johnson, just a lackadasical term that has someone like me thinking we can do better. Thus I take a serious look at Bill Knight, but some of his supporters sure make it hard to want to touch the screen for him.

Jordan Green at Yes!Weekly transcribes this from a recent press release by Bill Wright, the chairman of the Guilford County Republic Party:

"The Democrat controlled city council and legislature operate under the same ideals of an ever expanding government, higher taxes and more infringement into individual freedom and property rights. Yes, the awakened voters of Greensboro have sent a chill rushing through the Democrat council candidates and the prospect of losing control of the Greensboro City Council is real and frightening to the Democrat establishment with their feeling of entitlement."

There is enough of the "right" language in there to make a conservative giddy: The Rush inspired "Democrat" instead of the correct "Democratic" (for a party that wants to make English the official language, they sure are eager to abuse it), "expanding government," and "entitlement." Wright hits all the chords and that is exactly the kind of stuff I DO NOT want to see infused into local government: That unthinking ideological call to arms for the indoctrinated.

I would like a numbers guy (Knight is a retired C.P.A.) with the knowledge and desire to put the budget under a microscope. I think Knight is capable of actually reducing taxes without crazy pain and with a little luck. I'd like a guy who is willing to face facts, no matter where they may come from--Knight strikes me as naturally inquisitive.

But I want this guy to be this way because it is pragmatic to be so--a good way to govern for the best outcomes--not because he is out to start and win some ideological skirmish. Bill Wright has me nearly convinced that the election of Knight would be an ideological victory--I mean, he is plainly saying as much in his press release. I have no interest in voting to get that started. I have no interest in voting for what some hope will be an escalation of partisanship on council.

I have a real dilemma.

Citizen journalist arrested for bringing gun to protest

On October 17, 2009 I wrote a blog post in admiration of someone who posted a video on YouTube under the pseudonym of jrpj1983. It shows the camera operator approaching a group of abortion protesters who are being questioned by Greensboro police officers and subsequently declining to answer an officer's questions after the officer notices the camera operator with a gun on his hip. I may not have agreed with the purposes for which he was exercising them, but I do admire people who exercise their freedoms as the law allows. Indeed, the video shows the GPD officer relenting to the camera operator, getting in his patrol car and driving away, suggesting that the officer determined the camera operator to be, in fact, within the bounds of the law.

It looks like everybody involved may have been unaware, however, of a state law that prohibits bringing a dangerous weapon to a demonstration at a health care facility. The (Greensboro, NC) News & Record reports that the camera operator, now identified as James Ronald Penn Jr, has been arrested and charged with "misdemeanor counts of possession of a firearm at a parade or demonstration, failing to store a firearm to protect a minor, and resisting a public officer."

News & Record circulation down 13 percent in six months; 16 percent annually

The daily (M-F) circulation of the (Greensboro, NC) News & Record is down to 70,617 according to the latest from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a decline of 13 percent from April* and 16 percent from a year ago when circulation was about 84,500.

The Sunday circulation is down to 91,599, a decline of 4.7 percent since April and 9.5 percent from a year ago when circulation was about 101,225.

In 2005, the N&R's weekday circulation was  95,119 and Sunday was 112,154, representing declines to-date of 26 percent and 18 percent respectively.

[*Scroll down to post of April 28, 2009, the direct link to this post has rotted.]