North State Politics writes up the pseudo-controversy surrounding Gov. Pat McCrory’s game of catch:
Liberal types made some noise today about Gov. Pat McCrory having a game of catch outside his office yesterday instead of meeting a group of children who showed up at his office with a bunch of petitions protesting Republican policies.
Progress NC, an organizing arm for a number of progressive causes, has a news release you can read about that here, and they included a couple of pictures of the governor and his baseball glove.
North State links to WTVD’s piece:
“We kind of looked at each other and went, ‘That’s the governor. That’s the governor right there,’” said Rose Higgins.
Higgins says the governor was tossing the ball around for a few minutes before they snapped their pictures just feet from where the petitioners had been rallying 20 minutes earlier.
“I think their mentality is, in your face, ‘Na na na na na na. Have your little hippy protest and we’re going to carry on with our day,’” said Higgins.
Never mind the fact that politicizing kids is a joke anyway, no matter which side does it. Only problem is when the right politicizes kids, it’s indoctrination; when the left does it, it’s for the children.
No CommentsThey’re pondering it over at Alamance-Burlington Schools.
Looks like they rushed the vote back in April —- seemed like a good idea at the time, as do so many things — but now that the devil’s in the details…..
No CommentsHigh Point Enterprise reports the plan presented to the Guilford County Board Education to consolidate regions in order to save money in light of possible budget cuts (translation: not as much as they’re asking). The plan would eliminate the so-called Enrichment Region, with the schools in that region being absorbed into the system’s four other regions.
Note comments from board chairman Alan Duncan:
“This is not close to the first hard decision we’ll have to make nor is it the last hard decision we will have to make because of budget cuts,” he said. “We can’t continue to absorb cuts from the nation and from the state. I am glad for my personal taxes to be raised to support our children.”
Good for Duncan –I reckon he was paid handsomely to keep John Edwards out of jail. Problem is his thinking is not in line with Guilford County citizens, at least those who those who let Commissioner Kay Cashion know their feeling on the subject:
Cashion said she has received more than 1,200 e-mails on school funding in the past few weeks — most of them urging her to increase funding and support Green’s proposed budget.
“But not a one of them said raise taxes to support that budget,” Cashion said. “They didn’t suggest where we would get that money.”
Commissioner Carolyn Coleman suggested pulling 2 percent from the county’s fund balance to help out GCS. Will be interesting to see how far that idea goes.
No CommentsJon Ham over a sister blog Right Angles knows Durham, which in case you haven’t heard is where UNC (and Dudley High School) basketball player P.J. Hairston was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possesion of marijuana:
Anyone who has been a regular reader of the Durham police log in The Herald-Sun raised their eyebrows the other day when they finally learned where in Durham UNC basketball player P.J. Hairston was arrested for marijuana possession and driving without a license: 1499 Holloway Street.
You see, Holloway Street, Driver Street, and Liberty Street show up almost daily in the police log. If you’re in Durham to enjoy Durham’s downtown renaissance, you’re not going to find it there. This area is ground zero for prostitution, drug deals, and random shootings.
A 9mm gun and a magazine with nine rounds of ammunition were also found outside the rental car Hairston was driving, although it is not clear whether it belonged to Hairston or one of his two passengers.
As of yesterday UNC Coach Roy Williams was “currently looking into” the situation to “gather all the facts.” It will be interesting to see how this plays out, but I have to ask this question: WWDD (What Would Dean Do)?
4 CommentsThe N&R dramatically sets the stage for Sen. Trudy Wade’s landfill bill:
Grady McCallie, policy director for the N.C. Conservation Network, said the bill “radically weakens” current standards. He said he first saw the rewritten bill at 5 a.m. today. Senate staffers said the rewrite was completed about 8 or 9 p.m. Wednesday.
Copies were still warm from the photocopier this morning when passed out at committee shortly after it’s 9 a.m. start.
The committee moved the bill forward despite calls, from activists and some Democratic senators, to slow down.
Lobbyists for and against the bill were given one minute each to state their case. Then committee chairman Andrew Brock, R-Davie, pushed the committee to vote quickly, saying a House committee needed the meeting room.
No such meeting was scheduled, and the room sat vacant after Senators and lobbyists left.
Needless to say the article mentions Wade’s support for the reopening of the White Street landfill while she was a Greensboro City Council member, and of course it speculates if Wade’s bill was designed to somehow reopen the landfill.
The way I read it, if anything Wade’s bill will reduce the likelihood that White Street would be reopened by opening up the competition for Gboro’s garbage, and if you’ve read the Rhino’s coverage of garbage politics you’d know that’s a good thing.
2 CommentsThe N&R’s Allen Johnson calls the Greensboro City Council’s vote on the Bessemer Shopping Center a “rushed, confusing affair.”
Confusing? Definitely. But rushed? Only if you call an eight-hour debate, discussion and public hearing over two meetings “rushed.” What should be more worrisome are the issues they were forced to rush through because they spent so much time on a shopping center. Personally, I was hoping for a little more discussion and debate before the early morning vote to take over the Cascade Saloon.
No CommentsPretty gutsy of Mayor Robbie Perkins and council member Jim Kee to call out former council members who voted against spending $19 million to fund the Greensboro Aquatics Center, considering the fact that the GAC’s “popularity” is cited as the reason for a $315k hole in the coliseum complex’s budget.
5 CommentsLate Tuesday night Early Wednesday morning the Greensboro City Council voted 7-2 to authorize City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan to begin eminent domain proceedings on the downtown Cascade Saloon building. Council members Dianne Bellamy-Small and Tony Wilkins were the ‘no’ votes.
Remember council member Zack Matheny’s comment about the city being “terrible landlords.” So what does the council do? Vote to become landlords again. Before the vote Wilkins sarcastically said how he “couldn’t wait to get out of the shopping center business and into the saloon business.” And believe you me this has the potential to turn into another Bessemer Shopping Center fiasco, as any developer(s) insane enough willing to take on this project would no doubt run a forgivable loan up the flagpole, with the council only too happy to oblige.
You have to hand it to Skip Alston. The former Guilford County Commission chairman might be the only politician in Greensboro with who could stand up and tell the Greensboro City Council that his winning proposal to rehab the rundown Bessemer Shopping Center is the answer to East Greensboro’s prayers right after supporters for a proposed co-op grocery store repeatedly told the council what a raw deal it was.
The council voted 5-4 to start the process of selling the shopping center to a development group represented by Alston, which in turn means he will collect a $150k broker’s fee. The council didn’t buy a proposal led by former council member Goldie Wells that would establish the co-op in the shopping center with help in the form of $700k in grants and loans from the city, which would also retain ownership of the shopping center. The swing vote was council member and former Mayor Yvonne Johnson, who bought into Alston’s promise to give the co-op a chance in the rehabbed shopping center at sweetheart rate of $1.50 per square foot.
Council member Zack Matheny said the city is a “terrible landlord.” I couldn’t agree more, and I’m glad the council rid taxpayers of this burden. Still, the city is granting Alston’s development group a $2 million loan (help me out here –I heard “forgivable” in council member Jim Kee’s motion) and there are still many questions about the supposed nonprofit group that will be formed to reap in 40 percent of the shopping center’s profits. No one’s sure how that’s going to play out.
Amazing that the council spent another four hours on this issue after spending four hours on the issue during a previous meeting. A couple of weeks ago former Guilford County economic developer Rob Bencini penned an N&R op-ed stating that cities need to “stop getting mired up in every puny distraction and addressing them with knee-jerk reactions (i.e. food truck rules, tree limb trimming, downtown “good repair ordinance” and speakers from the floor).” Add this issue to the list.
10 CommentsDetails are sketchy due to the age—-all under 16 –of the of the two females and one male. But it looks like they got the Madame, the Prostitute and the John.
Or may be it was the Pimp, the Prostitute and the Jane. These days you never know.
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