Google warns of News & Record website: "May harm your computer"

GREENSBORO, NC -- I've seen a lot of things in my (almost) fifty years, but I have never seen anything to rival the pigheaded refusal by the News & Record to achieve minimal competence on the web. They either have the most unimaginable incompetents in charge or some sort of passive aggressive death wish. Even without my personal puzzlement that they shut the door on offers of help from the highly qualified yours truly, their inability to otherwise find any path to minimal quality, much less excellence, is astonishing.

On the heels of their disastrous website launch—delayed, dysfunctional and wiping away years of archives—they have now allowed portions of their site to become infected with malware, leading Google to mark search results with warnings not to visit.

"This site may harm your computer," advises Google.

Dare to click on a link and Google gives you another warning, suggesting that you turn back:

If you insist on continuing, your installed anti-virus software will give you a message like this:

Google's details explain: "Of the 298 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 11 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent."

At this rate, and I'm not joking or exaggerating, the News & Record will be defunct in six months, for which the only upside would be that Greensboro will be rid of a source of great public embarrassment.

(Tip of the chapeau to Lex, who brought the malware to our attention.)

So you want to make things for the Internet? Try Lynda and Larry

I love learning. I think it is because I've had some great teachers, not the least of whom were my parents, but whom also included inspiring math teachers Mrs. Huckabee and Mrs.Williams, science teachers Mr. Huffaker and Mrs. Stone, the great team of Mrs. Banks and Mr. Cornelius (who took some of his sixth graders target shooting, of all things)  and the wonderful English teacher Mrs. Johnson (for whom I once dressed in a delivery uniform to deliver a rat in a box to someone -- long story).

The point is, I fondly remember and have a genuine appreciation of these people, not just because they were decent and kind, but because I was aware that they were making me smarter; made me smarter. What a gift, to be able to teach well.

Multiple times a day, I turn to search results for answers to specific web development questions, but when it comes to learning how to make things for the internet—actually increasing comprehension and building and a body of knowledge—there are two resources I would recommend for anybody with similar interests. They aren't magic—they take time and concentration—but they have the distinction of providing a great knowledge-gained to time-spent ratio. They teach well.

The first is Larry Ullman, whose book PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Websites (thanks, Paul!), opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about what it means to build for the Internet, inspiring me to think beyond just design and in terms of the total experience. He has some other worthwhile books too.

The second is not a person, more accurately, it's a collection or people: the instructors behind the video lessons at Lynda.com. These folks are good and, while I've never before seriously attempted to undertake a course of study by narrated video, I'm finding it to be a very efficient means of learning.  Some instructors are better than others, no doubt (especially Joe Marini and Simon Alardice), and you may run into an occasional instructor whose narrative style or vocal quality makes it hard to stay with the lesson, but most are very good teachers.

I initially expected that I might watch a few videos at Lynda.com during my free trial and that would be it. When the trial expired, I thought I would pay the $25/month fee just to maintain access to a couple more courses that had caught my eye. Six months later, I remain subscribed, have completed or have underway twelve courses and have eighteen more in my que.

If you want to learn how to make stuff for the Internet, or already know how to do some things but want to learn more, from beginner to advanced, you'll find both the books of Larry Ullman and the video lessons at Lynda.com great resources.

An open letter to some local media types

Dear Frank Mickens and Allen Johnson,

You gentlemen hold positions of importance within your news organizations. I assume that's because somebody thinks you know how to do your jobs, which I also assume means knowing how to communicate in the modern age.

It seems as if somehow you missed a ten second lesson on hyperlinks. You should try it, all the kids are doing it, and when we read posts by you (Frank's, Alllen's) that refer to something elsewhere on the Internet but that don't offer us any way to get there, well, it makes you look a bit like an old fogey — especially when your link-free text is telling us "look at this story."

So, here it is, in three easy steps, at no charge to you:

1. Highlight and copy the URL (link) for the article, post or tweet you are referencing.

2. Immediately prior to the text you wish to make into a link, type this:

<a href="thelinkyoujustcopied">

Replace thelinkyoujustcopied with the link you just copied leaving everything else, including the quotation marks, intact.

3. Immediately after the text you want to turn into a link, type this:

</a>

That's all there is to it. Welcome to 90's.

Cordially,
Roch

My next project

The essentials of the new Greensboro 101 are stable and working as intended. While I still have some significant work to do to upgrade the events calendar, I'm going to begin work a new project today: A web app for managing local campaigns, Greensboro city council campaigns to start.

At this point, I have a few specific ideas about what it should do, including contact, communications, scheduling, fundraising and reporting management integrated with geolocation (although, I hope I haven't just over-reached). Think about it for a minute, and you can probably imagine the possibilities for candidates as they are able to manage their campaigns while moving about the city with an app aware of where they are and who is nearby.

If you plan on running for office or otherwise think you might have a good idea for such an app, please let me know. You can leave a comment here or email me.

[edited @ 10:11 for clarity.]

What is pretty darn hard?

I just took the Jeopardy qualifying test. Fifty questions, some brain freeze. Maybe I got 20 right.

Verio Review: A case study in how to kill a good company

In 2002 I became a customer of Verio, a web hosting company, for a Virtual Private Server (VPS). At the time, they were top-notch. The best. Their support people were experts who had the distinction of almost always resolving an issue, no matter how complicated or originally mystifying, with a single contact. That's why I stayed with them for just over ten years: I was in good hands.

Why I left is a sad study of how to kill a great company, a case that I would not be surprised presages the demise of this company.

At some time in the Fall of 2011, Verio got rid of their expert support personnel and outsourced their support to a third party. Support is now routed to people with poor English language abilities and with even worse technical knowledge.

I don't care where a support person is from or where they are located if we can collaborate to successfully resolve an issue—competence is the bottom line—but when we have difficulties understanding each other and when issues drag on for days requiring multiple contacts, often leaving issues unresolved or fixed only by my own research elsewhere, that's unacceptable.

I have some pretty good knowledge and experience maintaining a web server. I don't know it all. I'm not an expert, but I know a lot, so when I need tech support, it is likely either for an advanced issue or because something has gone awry at the host that they need to fix. In the year that I stayed with Verio after they outsourced their support, I found dealing with them to be maddening in its futility.

Experiences included:

• Getting replies that appeared to be robotic attempts to divine a keyword or phrase in my support request without comprehending the context in which I might have mentioned "domain name," "reboot" or "user."
• Getting instructions that were about the keyword or phrase they had identified in general instead of addressing the particulars of my specific situation. This lead to things like receiving instructions to repeat the very steps I had just taken that lead to an error.
• Advice that was ineffective or irrelevant. 
• Emails that advised, "Reply to this email if you have more questions," that, when replied to, were returned with a message that "This is not a valid support email address."
• Joyful emails announcing that my issue had been resolved and the ticket closed even though the issue had not been resolved.
• Refusal to provide contact with management.
• When I found a phone number for U.S. corporate headquarters (in corporate filings, not on any Verio websites), it was never answered by a live person and messages left where not returned. Not one. Not even the ones that said, "I'm a ten-year customer and you're about to lose me."

It's a remarkable shame that Verio could fall so far. Remarkable because they were so superior at one time, a shame because their degradation wasn't from circumstances beyond their control—they didn't suffer a natural disaster or hostile takeover—people in positions of authority and responsibility made decisions—conscious and intentional decisions—that may have netted a couple years of executive bonuses, but that likely have mortally wounded this company. (No wonder they don't want to answer the phone.)

If you've stumbled upon this post as someone considering Verio as a hosting company, my advice is unequivocal: Don't do it, you'll be sorry.

WFMY/Asheboro Courier Tribune, who copied whom?

GREENSBORO, NC -- Articles about record setting attendance at the North Carolina Zoo appear today on the websites of WFMY and Asheboro's Courier-Tribune. The WFMY article says it was "Written by WFMY," the Courier-Tribune article is unattributed. They both have paragraphs that are identical to each other. Who copied whom? Or did they both copy someone else?

Here is the article as it appeared on WFMY's website, the highlighted portions are identical to the Courier Tribune article:

Asheboro, NC-- If there is one place in North Carolina that people can't get enough of its the Zoo.

Visitors who went last year probably felt a little crowded and that's because NC Zoo officials said they recorded the highest attendance in 15 years, in 2012.

What brought the crowds? Zoo officials credit several factors for the increased numbers in 2012, including the popularity of "Dinosaurs," a temporary exhibit featuring 15 animatronic replicas of creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago. The park also saw the arrival of several noteworthy newborns during the calendar year, including a baby chimp in January, a new giraffe in July and not one, but two infant gorillas in August.

The gorilla deliveries marked only the second and third births of the highly endangered primates in N.C. Zoo history. The first had occurred 23 years before.

Zoo records [sic] Attendance [sic] for the recently completed 12-month period reached 761,964 visitors, the highest total since 1997 when 764,720 people passed through the zoo's gates.

In addition, 2012 ranked as the fifth highest calendar-year total in park history. The all-time record of 840,410 was set in 1995 on the heels of grand opening ceremonies for the zoo's second continental exhibit region, North America.

The other top-five marks were set in 1994 with 811,655 visitors and 1996 at 764,286

Plagiarism resumes at WFMY

GREENSBORO, NC — After repeated instances of plagiarism ( here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here), it looked like WFMY staff had finally stopped taking credit for things they did not write. They resumed today.

An article on their website under the grammatically incorrect headline of "A&T's Powell, Beckford Earns MEAC Weekly Honors" is identified as "Written by Brian Hall."

The article is actually a complete and identical copy of a press release from N.C. A&T University. Here is the article, the highlighted portions were copied.

GREENSBORO - North Carolina A&T put together its first two-game winning streak of the season in men's basketball and it was in large part due to the play of senior forward Adrian Powell and freshman center Bruce Beckford.

After wins over Radford at home and Georgia Southern on the road, both men were rewarded for their efforts with MEAC weekly honors. Powell earned MEAC Player of the Week for the first time in his career, while Beckford earned his second MEAC Rookie of the Week acknowledgement this season.

Powell (6-6, 188, Conover, N.C.) scored 43 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, recorded six steals and blocked three shots for the week. In the process, he shot 57.7 percent from the field, was 3-for-7 from 3-point range and 10-for-12 from the free throw line.

Beckford (6-7, 215, Silver Spring, Md.) started the week by scoring 15 points and grabbing a season-high nine rebounds in the Aggies 81-77 win over Radford on Wednesday. He followed up by hitting two crucial shots in the final minutes of the Aggies 71-65 win over Georgia Southern on Saturday.

With the game tied at 56 with four minutes remaining, Beckford pump faked twice and went up for a tough layup in the paint to give A&T the lead. After GSU tied it on its next possession, Beckford hit a baseline jumper to give A&T a 60-58 lead with 2:51 remaining. It was a lead the Aggies never relinquished. For the week, Beckford scored 24 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked three shots and had three steals.

The Aggies are back in action Saturday, Jan. 12 when they travel to Daytona Beach, Fla., to face Bethune-Cookman at 4 p.m. The Aggies have not won in Daytona Beach in 18 years. 

Welcome to the new Greensboro 101

The old is new again. It's a river of streams, a finger on the pulse, an end run around the gate keepers and a level playing field, lightly curated™. I hope you enjoy.

The beauty of precision

GREENSBORO, NC — As the launch of the new Greensboro 101 approaches (tomorrow, 1.01 at 1:01 P.M.), I am performing some final testing and fixing the bugs.

There is something beautiful about creating with computer code, but such beauty isn't easy. It is unrelenting in its demand for perfect precision. A single comma in place of a single period can, and does, render thousands of lines of code completely inoperable. Find it and fix it though, and it's like piloting a homemade spaceship -- exhilarating and satisfying.

As much as I appreciate and respect precision in writing, imprecise thinking rendered in the written word doesn't suffer the same immediate and certain punishment as does imprecise coding. Presume a condition that isn't true in computer code and things break in a very noticeable way. The language arts have no such throttle on precision. Nor should they, human language has its own beauty in nuance, but anyone who has scripted code for a while can't help but start to notice imprecise thinking in other forms of writing and be influenced because of it.

#Greensboro trending

Current trends on Twitter:

Interesting.

.

5 days and counting

Just over five days until the launch of the new Greensboro 101, on 1.01 at 1:01 P.M.

The process started with needing to make Greensboro 101 better suited for mobile devices, like phones and tablets. In examining how to do that, I recognized that many of the principles and means of interfacing with mobile devices could be used to enhance the desktop/laptop experience too. The results is something that looks and acts like an app no mater what the device. It's a web app. It looks and behaves a little differently at different screen sizes to create a native experience for the device being used, but it always has the same, hopefully intuitive, pathways to information.

I think you'll see Greensboro in a whole new light and in a way that is so easy it's fun.

It has been a real pleasure delving into this, even with it's maddening moments of frustration or schedule-busting detours while I learned how to do something previously unknown. Those moments are fewer and farther between than ever though, and my advancements in troubleshooting and efficient learning have made tackling the unexpected challenges more productive than ever.

As building was underway, new ideas kept popping up. Some were so intriguing that I stopped what was underway to design and code the new idea. Other ideas remain on the to-do list and will have to be gotten to after launch.

Well, the music's good and there are two solid hours until leftovers, so I better get back to it, I only have five more days.

1.01 at 1:01 P.M.

GREENSBORO, NC — The new Greensboro 101 will launch on 1.01 at 1:01 P.M.

New digs

I am moving Greensboro 101 and my email to a new server today — bigger, faster, better tasting. This may result in some intermittent connection or display problems. I apologize for any inconvenience you encounter.

A city revenue source dries up

The North Carolina Supreme Court has upheld the law that bans video internet sweepstakes  — what used to be video poker until the state outlawed video poker and the heartless fucktards who think steeling from people is a legitimate business changed the software so that the games were no longer poker but "sweepstakes ". Good for the judges. (Opinion here.)

These games are horribly misrepresented to the people upon whom they prey. Nobody plays them for "entertainment," as the industry claimed. People play them because they think they might win a lot of money when all that happens is they end up losing money. Of course, the odds are never revealed, even though, as the industry admits, the outcomes are predetermined before you even sit down to play.

If this was any other kind of consumer product, it would be banned as fraudulent and the operators jailed as thieves.

Some discussion had occurred with Greensboro City Council about possibly using licensing fees from the operations of these machines to help solve the perplexing funding problem of a proposed downtown performing arts center. Obviously, that's not going to happen now, making the financial picture for the PAC even murkier.

City not meeting records goal, media getting faster response than public

The spirit with which public officials work to comply with the law is as important as the law itself.
— North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on public records law

GREENSBORO, NC — State law demands that public records be produced "as promptly as possible." The city of Greensboro's records request training manual advises:

Goal is to fulfill all requests for records within 2 business days

Something has gone awry.


(Response times are in business days)

According to city records, reporters from traditional news organizations receive records from the city faster than other citizens but neither group is getting them, on average, within the City's goal or within what would be reasonably considered to be the legally mandated "as promptly as possible." For records requests from January 1, 2012 through December 1, 2012, these are the average response times:

Media requester: 6.4 working days
Other citizens: 8.7 working days

Some records requests have gone unfilled for months. Here are a few examples from 2012*:

• 23 weeks, 4 days:
  Request by Don Patterson of the News & Record for something identified as "Landport project."
• 24 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by blogger Kieth Brown, also for "Landport project."
• 39 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by William Hill for "Law enforcement/off duty arrests."
• 4 weeks, 1 day:
  Request by this blogger for "Emails that reference phone conversation with mayor."
• 8 weeks, 1 day:
  Request by George Hartzman for "Water/Sewer trust fund."
• 12 weeks, 2 days:
  Request by Ben Holder for "James Hinson info, directives, voicemails, etc."
• 2 weeks, 1 day:
  A request by Travis Fain of the News & Record for "Jordan Lake Rules request."
• 13 weeks, 3 days:
  A request by "D. Unknown" for "Latin Kings email search."
• 4 weeks, 4 days:
  A request by Yes! Weekly's Eric Ginsberg for "Police officer information."
• 4 weeks, 2 days:
  A request by James Gibson for "Occupy Greensboro."

Keep in mind, as I know from experience, these are the periods until the city closed the request, which does not always mean it was fulfilled. If the City determines that they have given you all the information they are going to give you, even if it is incomplete, a request will be marked closed.


* The quoted descriptions of these requests are as the City reported them, not as they were worded by the requester.

Do you know what the City of Greensboro needs?

GREENSBORO, NC — Thinking a little about yesterday's question for incumbent city council members of what they can say he or she has specifically done to increase local government transparency and public access, I asked myself what would I do. Here's what I came up with, and I offer it as a head start for sitting council representatives who may want to have a good answer to my question during next year's elections.

The City of Greensboro needs an ombudsman.

The ombudsman will be a citizens' advocate employed by the taxpayers, working in city hall with great independence from but intricate familiarity with and access to city government; someone whose job it is to navigate the bureaucracy on behalf of citizens whose needs and interests may have some friction with other city employees or elected officials or who otherwise find themselves dissatisfied with the city's response to them through normal channels.

The ombudsman would have two primary areas of focus:

Records Requests

The ombudsman would:

1. Be a single point of contact for all records requests — stay on top of them, make sure they get to the right people, are explained precisely with regular reminders to city employees of what the law demands of those in possession of requested records.
2. Monitor records requests for timely and complete fulfillment.
3. Instruct and guide city staff when responses to records requests are deficient.
4. Advocate for citizens when records are delayed or denied. He or she would know the law, maybe even be a lawyer, so that he or she can make cogent appeals for the release of records denied by the legal departments. 
5. Escalate denied, delayed or inadequately completed requests to City Council, where he or she would advocate for citizens' requests on behalf of the citizens at public meetings as agenda items on which council can make formal and authoritative decisions.

Unsatisfied Citizens

The ombudsman would:

1. Be a resource for dissatisfied citizens who are unable to get adequate resolution to their questions or problems with city government through normal channels.
2. Be an independent evaluator of the City's responses to unsatisfied customers; to encourage and advocate for a more satisfactory response from the City on behalf of citizens.
3. If, in consultation with the citizen, they determine there is some specific action the city could take that staff cannot or will not authorize, bring the issue before City Council, where he or she would advocate for the citizen on behalf of the citizen at public meetings as an agenda item.

The ombudsman would be the primary person responsible for records requests and a backstop for other types of complaints and frustration. Let the city's customer service and departmental employees continue to handle problems and complaints to the best of their abilities, but for the most difficult and seemingly unsolvable customer problems, the ombudsman would be there to take the side of the people and work on their behalf.

That's my idea.

City of Greensboro records request failure

GREENSBORO, NC -- I made a records request of the City of Greensboro on November 7th. I just learned it was forwarded to the employees in possession of the records on December 6th.

I seem to be unable to convince City Manager Denise Turner that she has a problem, or she seems unable or unwilling to fix it, so I'm taking it to her bosses. Come next year's elections, my first criteria for supporting any incumbent candidate, my question at candidate forums and to the candidates directly for publication will be:

What steps have you taken to increase government transparency and improve the public's access to city records? Be specific.

New council representative Wilkins' first order of business: crumble like a cookie

[UPDATE: Wilkins says he took down his blog on the advice of a "political consultant."]

GREENSBORO, NC -- Tony Wilkins was sworn in to City Council yesterday as a replacement for the departing district five representative Trudy Wade. Tony then promptly proceeded to delete his blog.

That's pretty craven... and dumb.

I endorsed Tony partially based on the fact that he was a blogger. When council members started to question his character during the nominating process for some of his blog posts, councilor Nancy Vaughan came to his defense and said that the fact Tony kept his blog up despite the heat showed his character.

Once he was officially ensconced though, he took it down and made fools of both of us. And it was a dumb thing to do, because his blog is archived here, so he hasn't accomplished anything other than quickly causing us to question his wisdom. Maybe I should have known better.

(Thanks to Sam Hieb for bringing our attention to the missing blog.)

Is Greensboro preparing to block media coverage of mass Fourth Amendment violations?

GREENSBORO, NC -- The City of Greensboro announced in a Friday afternoon press release that city inspectors and police officers will be conducting a mass "room-by-room" search of all 177 units of Heritage House apartment complex beginning on Monday, tomorrow.

Constitutional Prohibitions
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution as well as city ordinance require that tenants — not their landlords, but the occupying tenants — give their explicit permission before government officials and police can enter their homes for these kinds of searches (even if they are called inspections) or that the inspectors have a warrant. The City said in its press release that this action is in response to a petition by the building's residents, but they did not provide the wording of the petition or the names or the number of residents who signed it. A petition from your neighbors does not give the government permission to enter your home — not without your permission or a warrant.

I have asked the City for copies of records of each tenant's authorization and for any warrants issued authorizing these inspections as well as for a copy of the petition. Absent explicit permission from the tenants of any given home or a warrant, it would be illegal for the City to enter, no matter how many neighbors requested it, as it should be in a country where citizens are safeguarded by the Fourth Amendment.

Media Blackout
While the City has sent out a press release inviting media to cover the raid and announcing that city officials will be available for interviews, they also have announced that the media will be confined to a staging area and no media will be allowed inside the complex where the searches will be occurring, assuring that the actions of inspectors and police will remain hidden from public scrutiny. What will the response of the inspectors and police be if they encounter a locked door, a hesitant tenant or a tenant ignorant of her rights? Due to the media blackout, we will not know. What will the response of the police be if they discover other illegal activity unrelated to building codes?

The City said the media blackout is necessary "for safety reasons" and, ironically, "to protect the privacy of the residents." At the very least, a pool reporter and camera person, chosen by the reporters present, should be allowed inside the complex to monitor this unprecedented undertaking. (Pool reporters then share their notes and recordings with the other reporters by mutual agreement.) Alternately, since this raid is scheduled over three days, reporters could rotate in and out.

Elected Officials' Responsibilities
Two more people inside the building at any given time should not cause a safety concern and reporters can stay in the hallways while residents decide for themselves whether they mind reporters accompanying the government officials entering their homes. Failure to allow even this minimal degree of oversight would be an alarming warning to our elected officials that something is wrong and that their intervention is required.

Actually, our city council has two responsibilities here. One is to intervene if media will not be permitted to cover the actual undertakings of the inspectors and police inside the building, but first and foremost is to assure that these inspections are being conducted legally and with respect for the rights of our city's citizens in the first place.

WGHP reports City's assertions of cause for arrested man's hospitalization unchecked

UPDATE: (7:27 P.M.) In a fine example of a prompt and direct response, WGHP has replied that the assertion had not been substantiated beyond the police press release and they have updated their story to reflect that.

GREENSBORO, NC -- After an alleged struggle with Greensboro police that sent a man to the hospital, the police department issued a press release that attribute to unnamed "medical officials" a determination that the man had a preexisting condition that contributed to his need for hospitalization. This is how they put it:

Zenon San Martn Ramirez, 52, is in Moses Cone Hospital following surgery after EMS personnel determined he had dangerously low blood pressure when treating him for an abrasion to the face he received while resisting arrest. Upon arrival at the hospital, medical officials discovered Ramirez was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the encounter.  [Emphasis added.]

WGHP then regurgitated the assertion of a preexisting condition word-for-word:

Ramirez was taken to Moses Cone Hospital and medical officials said he was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the struggle. [Emphasis added.]

Did "medical officials" say this to WGHP? Or did a Greensboro Police Department employee write in a press release that medical officials said that and did WGHP just copy and paste third-hand unattributed information into their story without actually substantiating it? I've asked WGHP to comment and will update this post when I hear from them.

 

Lack of leadership, Mr. Mayor? Anybody seen my hip boots?

GREENSBORO, NC -- Sam Hieb notices that Mayor Robbie Perkins is wagging his finger at his city council colleagues for what he perceives to be "a lack of leadership" on the proposed performing arts center.

Under the current proposal, $20 million of the $60 million projected total cost of the center is supposed to come from private donations, an amount backers say they have already met in pledges, but which they refuse to document in any fashion, such as the obvious — a list of donors.

The only leadership I've seen from city council on this matter has come from council persons Zack Matheny and Nancy Vaughan who refuse to dance the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™ and have insisted on some kind of substantiation or guarantee that the $20 million backers say they have really is in place. That's leadership.

If Mayor Perkins wishes to lead on this issue, as Vaughan and Matheny are, he will persuade the project manager for the performing arts center project, his former campaign manager, to provide some verifiable documentation that the project backers do, in fact, have $20 million lined up for the project. Otherwise, he can dance the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™ without us, thank you very much.

News & Record editorial dances the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™

GREENSBORO, NC -- Fast on the heels of complimenting the News & Record for not falling for some press release baloney, I am reminded by George Hartzman that the local daily still has a long way to go in tuning their B.S. meter.

George points to this claim from an unsigned (how quaint) editorial at the News & Record regarding funding for a proposed performing arts center in Greensboro:

"They have private pledges totaling $20 million."

That has come nowhere near being substantiated to any thinking person's satisfaction. It is an undocumented assertion.

In fact, the task force pushing the project has refused to identify any donors or otherwise provide any substantiation to their claims that they have $20 million to contribute to this project — as reported in the News & Record.

The anonymous writer(s?) of the editorial are trying to lead Greensboro in a whirl of the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™ and we're not going to dance along, thank you.

Kudos to the N&R

UPDATE: For some inexplicable reason, four hours after this blog post, the News & Record changed their headline to match the original deficiencies of its competitors now identifying the man who was a city employee at the time of the alleged crime as an "Ex-city employee."

WGHP MyFox8 changed their headline to "Summerfield man accused of exposing himself at Target." [end update]

GREENSBORO, NC -- It's a small thing, but an important thing, and amid the landslide of things going wrong at the local daily, it's good to find some glimmer of hope that someone at the News & Record still understands the fundamental importance of journalism: reporting an accurate portrayal of the truth.

Yesterday, a Greensboro city employee with the Parks & Recreation Department's cemetery crew was arrested for allegedly exposing himself. He was an employee when the events allegedly occurred, however, he resigned, according to the city, "immediately prior to his arrest."

This allowed the city to issue a press release that announced, "Former City Employee Arrested for Indecent Exposure" (emphasis added), which makes it sound like some guy who used to work for the city was arrested for indecent exposure, which has much different implications than what really happened which is that the guy was arrested for acts allegedly committed while he was an employee of the city.

Other news outlets dutifully regurgitated the City's headline.

"Former City of Greensboro Employee Arrested for Indecent Exposure," parroted the headline to a story at MyFox8.com (above) that has since been removed.

WFMY did nearly the same thing (below): "Former City Employee Charged With Exposure,"

The News & Record, however, saw through the City's attempt to manipulate the message and accurately reported, "City worker charged with exposing self to child, 2 others at Target."

This is one of the fundamental responsibilities of journalists: filter through the bull that accompanies the self-interested pronouncements of authorities and the powerful. I wish the N&R had more of an appetite for it. They could set themselves apart if they did this more often, but good for them for getting it right on this one.

Conservative values win

This is why I'm an independent unaffiliated voter. Today, in Washington state, it has became legal to smoke marijuana and for gay couples to get married, fulfilling the promises of the conservative ideals of states' rights, personal self-determination and limited government.

Tony Wilkins for Greensboro city council

GREENSBORO, NC -- With current district five city council representative Trudy Wade heading off to Raleigh as a newly elected state senator, the remaining city councilors must choose someone to fill her seat.

I don't know the other candidates who have nominated themselves to replace Wade, but I think nominee Tony Wilkins would be a good choice to replace her. Here's why:

Similar to Wade
Tony aligns with Wade politically. He's not a replica, but similar. It would be unfair to the citizens of district 5 for council to try to shift its composition significantly by selecting someone very dissimilar from the departing Wade. 2013 will bring an opportunity soon enough for voters to elect someone else if the council's choice is unsuitable to district five voters, until then, council should respect the last known preference of those voters: A mainstream conservative.

He's engaged.
Tony has experience serving on the War Memorial Commission, as executive director of the county Republican Party and as an active campaigner on behalf of others. He's politically engaged, aware and not likely to get buffaloed because of naivete.

He Blogs
Well, a little... lately. He used to much more and it is my hope he will resume if he's appointed. He has probably stopped because he's under consideration for this open seat, which is not admirable but probably practical. As a blogger, he knows the value blogs can contribute to the information stream as well as what it is like to be on the uninformed side of government secrecy. Those are insights we hope he'll not forget if appointed.

He is a business person, but not a developer
Like Wade (a veterinarian), Tony owns his own business (Furniture Connections) which he has operated for the past 30 years. I think business experience is helpful, although not required, for elected officials. It gives them a certain kind of insight and, unlike developers, retail business owners do not think that economic development means cut, plow and build.

I've also had lunch with Tony a couple of times. I respect a man with a hearty appetite and culinary curiosity, but I have even greater respect for a man who has an interest in sitting down and talking with someone with whom he knows he has some significant disagreement. To be able to do so cordially and to maintain mutual respect throughout is a sign of maturity that is appropriate for city council. He'd serve us well.

A big, slow, dumb hippopotamus sitting on our chest

GREENSBORO, NC -- A big problem with this town? Entrenched institutionalized mediocrity and incompetence suffocating innovation and new ideas. (Another problem, the people who think it's only polite to defend it. "It may be a big, slow, dumb hippopotamus, but it's our big, slow, dumb hippopotamus and it's rude to point."

The following post was originally published on October, 24, 2008. In light of the News & Record's new website fiasco, it could have been written again today. Hippopotamuses are hard to move.
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News & Record history online goes "poof"
October 24, 2008

This morning I was trying to research some of the media coverage of the events surrounding stripping former Greensboro Police Chief David Wray of his authority and his subsequent resignation. I am frustrated and disappointed to find that search result links to News & Record articles lead to page after page of broken links: "Page not found. We're sorry, but the page you've requested does not exist."

This blog post by News & Record editor John Robinson about the N&R's reporting of the Wray affair has seven links to what the editor purports to be relevant News & Record articles. Each one is broken.

The local newspaper should serve as an historical record. It doesn't. It sucks. The whole enterprise should be gutted, torn down and rebuilt from the ground up with the goal of some modicum of competence; or someone should start a new media enterprise to replace the N&R. That could probably be done for a quarter of the rumored sale price of the N&R and without the drain of a legacy culture and financial overhead that weigh like an anchor of perpetual incompetence around the neck of the N&R.

Newspaper editor on website fiasco: "My soup's cold."

GREENSBORO, NC --

Reviews have not been good. The paper takes a beating all week about its functionality-challenged website and in his Sunday column editor Jeff Gauger writes about cold soup. During the Amendment One debate he wrote about blue yard signs. Right before the election he wrote about grits.
-- Sam Hieb

Sam is right, since arriving from Ohio this spring, News & Record editor Jeff Gauger's hokum has been an insult to the people of Greensboro. We are a city of five institutions of higher learning, two of them historically black, of inspiring participation in the civil rights movement and of national renown for our blogging and citizens media. Quaker influences still resonate as we stake a claim to a progressiveness that separates us from most of the rest of North Carolina. Our economic history is of a city built on a triumvirate of tobacco, textiles and furniture powerhouses and the subsequent challenges of having that base disintegrate in quick order by globalization. Our present is about us keeping our heads above water while we remain ever hopeful of revitalization. That's Greensboro.

Grits, Duke blue v. Carolina blue and our soup not hot enough for his liking? Gauger sounds like he's writing to his meemaw back in Akron while passing through, not to the people of his new hometown of whom he has apparently yet to gain any significant understanding, insight or respect.

skeuomorphs

In product design, the simplest thought exercise is to make additions. It’s the easiest way to make an Old Thing feel like a New Thing. The more difficult exercise is to reconsider the product in the context of now. A now which may be very different from the then in which the product was originally conceived.
-- Craig Mod, in his essay Subcompact Publishing

Skeuomorph [skyoo-uh-mawrf] — a design element of a product that imitates design elements that were functionally necessary in the original product design, but which have become ornamental in the new design.

It's hard to let go of skeuomorphs, they're cozy and familiar, and sometimes they are intentionally maintained, as Steve Jobs was apparently fond of for iPhone designs. But there are some really interesting things happening out there by people who are eschewing old things and thinking completely "in the context of now."

 The News & Record's new website design utilizes a lot of skeuomorphs. Do they enhance the user experience or are they the product of legacy thinking layered on an old thing to make it feel like a new thing? Do these leftovers from newspaper design help or a hinder the use of the site?

• A masthead 
• Columns (layout, not written pieces, although those too, perhaps).
• Sections
• A division between writers and readers
• Galleries
• Editions

I wonder what the News & Record would look like on the internet if they stopped thinking about putting the "paper" online and asked themselves what is the most interesting and valuable digital product their resources are capable of producing.

The appalling consequences of the News & Record's incompetent management

GREENSBORO, NC -- Jeff Martin has a post about the News & Record's website fiasco. He says they owe us an explanation. I say, we'll never get it. There has been a virtual blackout on any commentary by them on this matter so far except for one "thanks very much for your patience" blog post from editor Jeff Gauger. For at least the past seven years, the News & Record has never demonstrated a willingness to explain itself to our community that I can recall.

If ever such an explanation were warranted, it would have come from events surrounding the unjustified firing of former Greensboro Police chief David Wray when the slow but inevitable revelation of facts was found to contradict, in great measure, the reporting on the topic by the News & Record.

The paper never explained how it got things so wrong or, most importantly, never followed up with news stories to correct the record. The N&R's editorial pages, that had demanded we get to the bottom of the affair, grew quiet when the bottom came into focus and reflected poorly on the News & Record.

If something like the Wray fray did not inspire the News & Record to make amends with the community, their website fiasco won't either. And it's time for that to end. Management's disdain has reached the point of causing real harm

As much as I think Jeff has a point, as much as I think the community is owed an explanation of not only what happened but of how the N&R is going to avoid letting us down so harshly in the future, those expectations are secondary to what is owed to the reporters and columnists of the N&R.

Their work, the entirety of their careers in some cases, has been wiped from public view by the News & Record's web fiasco — or "stumble," as editor Jeff Gauger called it. That's right, all of the previously online articles, columns and comment threads written and inspired by N&R staff have disappeared from the web. Search "Joe Killian County Commissioners" and results for anything older than a day or two are broken links. It's the same for everyone. Doug Clark? Gone. Travis Fain? A ghost. Amanda Lehmert? Erased.

If you are a journalist in the twenty-first century, your body of work is what is on the internet. What you have backed up on your computer doesn't count. It is what search engines can find that matters. The News & Record just wiped these people's professional reputations from the face of the Earth for all practical purposes. That's not a stumble, it's malpractice.

I don't know how much longer the rank and file there will put up with the management that allowed this to happen. As I wrote at Jeff's blog, they should stage a walkout and demand that the owners provide them with some leadership worthy of their dedication.

I don't doubt that the community would support them, as we too deserve better. Think about this, it's not just those poor people who have been shat upon, vast swaths of Greensboro's story — our history — are gone too. Greensboro has been made podunk by the sociopathy of a few individuals too narcissistic to see that their incompetence is harming people and the community they purport to serve and, dammit, we all deserve a hell of a lot better.

A win for digital due process

It's just one step, but an important one for bringing law enforcement in the digital age back in line with the Fourth Amendment.

In a win for privacy advocates, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation on Thursday designed to strengthen electronic privacy protections.

Most notably, the bill-called the Leahy Electronic Communications Privacy Act Amendment-requires a search warrant before law enforcement can review emails or other electronic communications.

Wired in with some Argentinian new new age

One of my favorite scenes from The Social Network is when screwed over co-founder of Facebook Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) storms into the office looking for Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) who is working on his laptop with headphones on, oblivious to outside distraction, and Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) tries to wave off the charging Saverin with "He's wired in. He's wired in."

I find that certain aspects of web development take enormous amounts of concentration for me. Coding doesn't come easy or naturally. It helps to get wired in -- headphones on with the right kind of music: no words, nothing too sleepy or frenetic. I like psy trance, down tempo, classical and new age.

I've found a great streaming new age station out of Argentina: Cienradios.com, which you can listen to here. It stretches the boundaries of traditional new age, yet retains that meditative and spiritual essence that is the hallmark of new age. It's not predominately South American, as far as I can tell, but it offers a broader mix than I'm familiar with from U.S. new age stations. Flavors of jazz, spacey and the occasional electric guitar join the familiar lush hypnotics. I find it great for getting wired in.

Here's the scene from The Social Network:

What's a web app?

Web apps are web sites that are made with open and common components of web design (HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript) to deliver an internet experience to users that is more like that of interacting with an application or program than what we have commonly experienced when visiting web pages through the years. In fact, the whole notion of "pages" generally takes a back seat in a web app to the experience of interacting with screens or portions of screens.

Web apps are not Android apps, iPhone apps or Window's apps that are created specifically for those operating systems and are capable of utilizing some features of mobile devices that web apps cannot (yet) such as the accelerometer (the thing that is aware of the orentation and movement of your phone). Web apps do have an advantage for developers/designers though in that they can run on multiple platforms and devices — a build once/run anywhere method of development that has obvious advantages of its own. While web apps rely on a device's web browser to function and actually reside at an address on the web, they can be added to a phone's desktop with an icon so that users can launch them directly, just like other apps.

Project Greene River, my redevelopment of Greensboro 101, entails making the site into a web app, essentially. I'll have more about my thinking on the ergonomics and user experience in another post, but I've been doing a lot of thinking about what it is Greensboro 101 can do and should do for users and how its current design has grown stale and deficient in meeting those goals.

I have no firm launch date yet, but it won't be long.

Why is the News & Record not on Greensboro 101?

You may have noticed that the News & Record's blogs and news feeds have disappeared from Greensboro 101. Their new site design broke the connections from which Greensboro 101 collected their excerpts and I don't see any updated links to replace them. I've emailed the editors and publisher to inquire about new links and hope to hear back soon.

In the mean time, I've added local TV stations WGHP and News14. These feeds are less than ideal because their "Greensboro" excerpts include stories from well outside this area, but they are still mostly local. WFMY does not provide a feed that does not also include world news and is not included for that reason.

Operation Greene River nearing completion

Operation Greene River is nearing completion. More soon. Please stay tuned.

Dispatch from inside the bubble: Tim Duncan on the impossibility of reality

Greensboro Guardian columnist Tim Duncan prior to the election, in predicting defeat for President Obama:

These polls [those showing an Obama lead] also serve another purpose — which is to support the meme-in-waiting among those on the Left that Romney "stole" the election.

Greensboro Guardian columnist Tim Duncan after the reelection of President Obama:

Make no mistake – this election was defrauded, and stolen, by the Democrats on a massive scale.

How does Duncan know this? Because of the polls that showed Romney with a lead. His predictions could not have been wrong, he says. They were actually, he says, based on "pretty solid" data—those being the inaccurate polls.

Information that backs up one's wishes but doesn't match reality is not pretty solid data. It's the opposite. Fool's gold. Yet, this is where Duncan plants his flag: Those polls that were wrong—those that predicted a Romney win—were really right and those that made accurate predictions were wrong.

To explain the incongruity between the information he really, really, really wanted to believe and reality, Duncan reaches the only possible conclusion: the election was a fraud and "Obama is not legitimately the President of the United States."

Welcome to the inside-out reality of life inside the Bubble.

Ensconced in his womb of denial, Duncan finds himself exactly where he predicted "frenetic and desperate" Democrats would be after the election, using bad polling data to justify claims of fraud. Pathetic (and frenetic and desperate).

Life in the Bubble goes beyond just being wrong a lot about a lot of things, however. It fosters a threat to American ideals. With an incomplete and inaccurate view of the world, it's easy to suppose there are two kinds of people, "us" and "them." Failing to grasp the empirical truths of the world, it's easy to remain blind to the mockery made of self-determination and to the footnotes appended to "all men are created equal" that result too often from the opinions of those immersed in intentional ignorance.

America needs better. However many good ideas one political party may have, America depends on a vigorous competition of ideas. That cannot happen if one side is sliding into intellectual atrophy. Republicans have four years to realign their party. There are steps they can take to have broader demographic appeal, but none of them will work if they continue to accommodate stupidity. They should issue an ultimatum: Think or leave.

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Related: The right wing Bubble is not an abstraction. It is manifested clearly and forcefully in the conservative media. Conor Friedersdorf of the Atlantic does an excellent job of explaining in How Conservative Media Lost to the MSM and Failed the Rank and File. An excerpt:

It is easy to close oneself off inside a conservative echo chamber. And right-leaning outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh's show are far more intellectually closed than CNN or public radio. If you're a rank-and-file conservative, you're probably ready to acknowledge that ideologically friendly media didn't accurately inform you about Election 2012. Some pundits engaged in wishful thinking; others feigned confidence in hopes that it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy; still others decided it was smart to keep telling right-leaning audiences what they wanted to hear.

But guess what?

You haven't just been misinformed about the horse race. Since the very beginning of the election cycle, conservative media has been failing you. With a few exceptions, they haven't tried to rigorously tell you the truth, or even to bring you intellectually honest opinion. What they've done instead helps to explain why the right failed to triumph in a very winnable election.

Four years without a cigarette

I quit smoking four years ago today; not a single cigarette or puff since then -- haven't wanted one. I quit using Chantix, obviously it was quite effective. If you are thinking about trying it and have any questions, use the comments here or email me.

Time marches on; Bill's Pizza now a memory

"Bill's?"

It was always on the short list for off-campus lunch among my friends at Smith High School. Even before I had my license, good friend Nancy and her AMC Gremlin provided the exhilarating freedom of a thirty minutes of escape. I liked school and even liked the cafeteria food, so it wasn't so much about leaving something behind as it was about getting out in the world, even if it was just down the street.

Among the usual choices, Bill's was a special temptation requiring consideration beyond what to eat. If we chose Bill's we knew we'd get some of the best pizza around. Although we all agreed, and  reaffirmed with a snicker each visit, that the sausage topping looked like rabbit pellets, it was the key to the full enjoyment of a Bill's pizza.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/10/11/article/bill_s_pizza_pub_on_high_point_road_closes

Sharp drop in News & Record print circulation

GREENSBORO, NC -- After leveling off somewhat in 2011, the News & Record's print circulation returned to a years' long trend of decline. Sunday circulation fell by 5.4 percent in the six months ended October 31st and was down 6.1 percent year over year. Weekday circulation was down by 4.3 percent in six months and 4.7 percent for the year.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation:

Sunday: 81,600
6 month change: -5.4% (-4,634)
12 month change: -6.1% (-5,332)

Weekday: 54,789
6 month change:  -4.3% (-2,485)
12 month change:  -4.7% (-2,700)




There are anecdotes that reader disappointment with publisher Robins Saul's decision to prohibit the paper from taking an editorial stance on North Carolina's anti-gay marriage amendment may have contributed to the resumption of decline, but it's likely, in my opinion, that may have only been an aggravating factor in a larger industry trend. I wonder how their online audience is doing?

Since 2005:

Sunday circulation: Down 27% (-30.054)
Weekday circulation: Down 42% (-40,330) 

Cheer up Republicans

With significant wins at the state and county levels, Republicans here in Guilford County North Carolina may need less consoling than those elsewhere. Still, this from Will Saletan rings true.

Dear Republicans,

Sorry about the election. I know how much it hurts when your presidential candidate loses. I’ve been there many times. You’re crestfallen. You can’t believe the public voted for that idiot. You fear for your country.

Cheer up. The guy we just re-elected is a moderate Republican.

I know how stupid that sounds. Barack Obama is the head of the Democratic Party. For five years, conservative politicians and media told you he was a raving socialist. In the heat of the campaign, when you’re trying to beat the guy, it’s hard to let go of that image of him, just as it’s hard for Democrats to see past the caricatures of Mitt Romney. But now that the campaign is over and you’re staring at a second Obama term, the falsity of the propaganda may come as a relief. By and large, Obama’s instincts are the instincts of a moderate Republican. His policies are the policies of a moderate Republican. He stands where the GOP used to stand and will someday stand again.

Read the whole thing.

Election predictions

My predictions for the 2012 general election.

Presidential popular vote
Obama: 50.15%
Romney: 48.75%

Electoral College
Obama: 318
Romney: 220

Senate change
Republicans: +1

House of Representatives change
Democrats: +4

North Carolina presidential
Obama by 40,000 votes.

Endorsement kibosh

GREENSBORO, NC -- Four of North Carolina's five largest newspapers have made presidential endorsements (all for Obama). Can you guess which one slunk away?

Time Warner Cable earnings miss on falling demand, glad I could help

Time Warner Cable missed third quarter profit estimates because of a decline in video subscribers. From Reuters:

The company lost 140,000 video customers during the third quarter.

I was one of them.

Time Warner Cable treats its customers poorly. It jerks them around on price and offerings. Until they learn to treat people right, price their products reasonably and give their customers some respect, they should expect nothing less than people saying goodbye. The letter I received from Mike Munley, President of Residential Services painting a 50% increase in my bill as "additional savings" was contemptuous. The subsequent decent into the hell that is Time Warner "customer service" was the final straw. Good job, Time Warner Cable.

Guilford County Commissioner candidate fails to file timely finance report

Transparency is fundamental to the health of democratic elections, so it is vital that candidates file timely and accurate campaign finance reports. All of the candidates for the Guilford County Commissioner races have filed their third quarter campaign finance reports by the October 29th deadline except for Democratic candidate for the 6th district seat Linda Kellerman.

(HT: Joe Killian)

The choice: a straight shooter or a chameleon on plaid?

People here in North Carolina used to say of their support for the late Senator Jessee Helms, "I may not agree with him on everything, but at least I know where he stands." At times frustrating to hear, there was a nugget of reason within that thinking: If you cannot trust a politician to speak honestly, it doesn't matter whether you think you agree with him or not because you have no real idea of what your agreements or disagreements may be.

I supported Barack Obama in 2008 and I think he has done a lot of good for our county. Yet I recognize that he has been less than perfect so, with room for improvement, I was keeping an open mind about whomever the Republicans would offer. Would they put forward someone who would be better?

I have my answer and it's no. I'm an unaffiliated voter and I will be voting for some Republicans and some Democrats this year, Republicans as high as at the congressional level. They do not suffer from the disqualifying fundamental flaw that infects Mitt Romney: a lack of trustworthiness.

Romney's recent fear-mongering deceptions about American auto companies sending jobs to China, roundly refuted by the CEOs of Chrysler and GM, are just the latest examples of his lack of truthfulness. We've had presidents before who had disdain for the sophistication of the American people — who have had no qualms about intentionally deceiving the public. It doesn't turn out well.

Obama, on the other hand is a straight shooter. As the Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie said of Barack Obama this week: "He says what he means." Like Jessee Helms, you know where he stands. Not Romney.

Look at the self-contradictory positions Romney has taken on a variety of issues and it is inescapable that he has no compass — no discoverable core. He leaves voters to guess his true convictions — if he even has any real convictions beyond a commitment to his own advancement.

Social Security
Does Romney favor privatizing Social Security or is he against it? He has said both.

Gun Control
Does he support an assault weapons ban or is he opposed to gun control? He has said both. (In his first presidential run, he claimed an endorsement by the N.R.A. that he had not received.)

Roe v. Wade
Does Romney support Roe v. Wade or would he prefer the overturn of Roe v. Wade? He has said both.

Mandated Health Insurance
Is he for health insurance mandates (he called his Massachusetts mandate a model for the nation) or does he think they are unconstitutional? He has said both.

Immigration
Does he support a path to amnesty for undocumented workers or does he want them to get out of the country? He has said both.

Gay Marriage
Does he think gay people have a "right" to adopt children (as he provided for when governor) or is it a matter for the individual states to decide? He has said both. (And does he think such matters are really for the states to decide or does he support a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage?)

Tax Cuts
Does he favor a capital gains tax cut or does he oppose it? He has said both.

Carbon Taxes
Does he favor taxing carbon emissions or, wait... he probably still does.

Campaign Finance Reform
Does he support campaign spending limits or oppose them? He has said both.

Gay Soldiers
Is he in favor of allowing gay people to serve openly in the military or does he oppose it. He has said both. (Or does he favor it again)? 

On these issues and more, Romney has taken contradictory positions. He is a chimera, a mirage, a chameleon on plaid. It may very well allow him to win the election, but I think — hope — that Americans are smarter than that.

If you support Mitt Romney because you cannot bear Barack Obama, that's one thing. No risk may seem too high to you to oust the "foreign born socialist," if that's your view. But if you are supporting Mitt Romney because you think you agree with him on his positions, that demands an answer to a simple question: which positions? Those he has adopted weeks before the election? Those he took while campaigning for the Republican nomination? Those he adopted as governor of Massachusetts? You think you know where he really stands? If he's elected, which Mitt Romney do you expect to show up and how do you know? Fingers crossed?

Are we not better off reelecting an experienced straight shooter over an inexperienced panderer from whom we don't know what to expect? You will make up your own mind, of course, just as I have, but you owe it to yourself and to your country to know what you are voting for.

Greensboro Guardian editor Davenport tells a whopper

GREENSBORO, NC --Editor Charles Davenport, Jr. at the Greensboro Guardian:

[H]ere is an excerpt from a “fact check” feature at WRAL: “If you look at the graph, it looks like the General Assembly [controlled by Democrats at the time], cut the K-12 education heavily in 2010-11. It also seems to show that after Republicans took over in 2011-12 they put more into the schools than was there even [in] 2009-10. In terms of state spending, that is correct."

The Guardian laughably reinforces the worst stereotypes of its contributors—that they are insulated and detached from the world— by rarely embedding hyperlinks to the sources it cites, and Davenport did not do so for this quote either. That may be with good reason, because the next paragraph from WRAL, which was not included by Davenport, destroys his point:

But the graph is misleading in terms of the money that was actually available to schools. It ignores key pieces of the 2009-10 and 2010-11 budgets. Taking a more complete view, the budget proposed for 2012-13 is actually $330 million less than the one enacted in 2009-10.

Good enough for federal workers... and the rest of us.

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record's Doug Clark recently wondered why the health care available to federal workers wasn't also available to the public at large. Noting that the federal government provides health insurance to its employees by "contracting with private insurers," Clark asks (sarcastically, if I'm reading him correctly):

"So if this approach works for millions of federal workers and retired employees, why is it such a horror to consider comparable options for the rest of us?"

It turns out, such an option is, in fact, included in Obamacare. So if Clark really thinks this is a good idea, he will be happy to learn it's coming, unless Obamacare is repealed. From the News York Times:

"The Obama administration will soon take on a new role as the sponsor of at least two nationwide health insurance plans to be operated under contract with the federal government and offered to consumers in every state.

"These multistate plans were included in President Obama’s health care law as a substitute for a pure government-run health insurance program — the public option sought by many liberal Democrats and reviled by Republicans. Supporters of the national plans say they will increase competition in state health insurance markets, many of which are dominated by a handful of companies.

"The national plans will compete directly with other private insurers and may have some significant advantages, including a federal seal of approval. Premiums and benefits for the multistate insurance plans will be negotiated by the United States Office of Personnel Management, the agency that arranges health benefits for federal employees.

"Walton J. Francis, the author of a consumer guide to health plans for federal employees, said the personnel agency had been “extraordinarily successful” in managing that program, which has more than 200 health plans, including about 20 offered nationwide. The personnel agency has earned high marks for its ability to secure good terms for federal workers through negotiation rather than heavy-handed regulation of insurers.

"John J. O’Brien, the director of health care and insurance at the agency, said the new plans would be offered to individuals and small employers through the insurance exchanges being set up in every state under the 2010 health care law."

City committee rides roughshod over Fourth Amendment in inspections discussions

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. -- (Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution)

GREENSBORO, NC -- Minutes from the committee looking to update the City's inspections of possible substandard housing show a troubling disregard of renters' Fourth Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has established that the Fourth Amendment applies to renters too, that their rights may not be overridden by a landlord and that government officials may not conduct a search of a rented property without the consent of the tenant or a warrant.

Indeed, that was the reason why, when Greensboro was implementing a rental unit inspections regime, it added this to the city ordinances to make sure that the city avoid violating anybody's Constitutional rights:

No entrance shall be made into the premises without the permission of the person in legal possession thereof, or absent permission without first obtaining an administrative search warrant issued upon a finding of probable cause that a violation of the building code may exist. --  (Greensboro Municipal Code, Sec. 11-31(b)3b)

Despite this, the committee's minutes show that it is considering:

• Targeting properties for inspection based on neighborhood crime rate.
• Targeting properties for inspection based on demographics.
• Targeting all properties of owners with more than 2 code violations at any properties.
• Targeting areas based on the recommendations of the Chief of Police.
• Targeting some areas for "concentrated" inspections.
• Setting a threshold for multifamily units to be able to inspect all units if some are found in violation.

Worst of all, though, was this, a proposal that city staff shall:

"[H]ave a right to enter on any premises within the jurisdiction of the department at all reasonable hours for the purposes of inspections of inspection (sic) or other enforcement action, upon presentation of proper credentials."

The city cannot confer rights unto government officials that are contrary to those guaranteed to renters by our Constitution. While new state law permits cities to conduct these kinds of inspections with reasonable cause, that law, by itself, is deficient in meeting the demands of the Constitution which require a warrant based on probable cause or the permission of the TENANT. Renters are not second class citizens and have no less a right to privacy than home owners. That's not me, that's the U.S. Supreme Court.

An inspection regime that relies on deficiencies in state law to violate the Constitution is a prescription for trouble for the City and should not be pursued. Any new efforts to improve housing standards must preserve the existing city ordinance that requires permission of the tenant or a warrant. The Constitution demands it.

Here is a summary of some of the relevant case law:

Camara vs. Municipal Court of San Francisco--This landmark 1967 US Supreme Court decision laid the groundwork for many court decisions regarding property rights that have followed. The court held that a San Francisco ordinance allowing warrantless inspections in nonemergency situations was unconstitutional, that the renter therein did indeed have the right to refuse warrantless inspections of his apartment by a city inspector, and could not be prosecuted under the ordinance for doing so. The right to refuse a warrantless search of one's home in nonemergency situations has been reaffirmed many times--see, for example, this 1999 Philadelphia case.

In Park Forest, Illinois, renters of single family homes were being subjected to warrantless inspections, ostensibly to "ensure the quality of the housing stock." Read a summary of the case, a litigation background and a 1995 press release. In 1998, a federal district court judge struck down major portions of the law that allowed warrantless searches of Park Forest homes. The judge also held that the $60 fee the Village charged when an individual demanded a search warrant was an unconstitutional condition on the exercise of Fourth Amendment rights, but left open some issues. Finally, in 1999 a settlement was reached that resulted in the Village amending its housing code to prohibit unathorized, warrantless inspections, as well as paying $58,000 in attorney's fees for the plaintiffs.

[More here that incorporates, without attribution, some of my observations from when the City was first undertaking a rental certificate program.]