Ed Cone called Greensboro City Council candidate Ryan Shell’s proposal to filter porn at the public library ‘pretty thin gruel,’ yet he latches on to Shell’s idea to provide shelter for all city bus stops.

Everyone knows my views on public transportation, but I wouldn’t suggest that providing shelter for bus stops isn’t something the city should do anyway since they’re we’re already paying to run buses with three riders.

But as a campaign issue, it’s –borrowing the phrase —- pretty thin gruel. Surely Shell will come up with stronger issues as the election season heats up.

This morning’s N&R print edition reports Sen. Kay Hagan’s support for a public option health insurance plan, but I can’t find it online. I’m sure it will be up soon.

The spin appears to be that Hagan is supporting a compromise plan where “gatekeepers will ensure that that those with adequate private coverage will not enroll in public plans,” according to the N&R. But I couldn’t help but notice the punitive aspects of the proposed plan, including the provision that “businesses with more that 25 employees that don’t provide health insurance for their workers will pay a $750 fee per full-time employee toward the national program.”

Also, the proposed $1000 fine for not having health insurance isn’t mentioned in the N&R article, and the Associated Press account is buried on A-13.

With the July 4th holiday rapidly approaching, a jury acquits former state Sen. Hugh Webster of charges he embezzled $12,000 from his 83-year-old aunt.

The N&O reports that UNCG’s capital campaign brought in a “cool $115 million” that will fund two “key initiatives” – undergraduate and graduate student scholarships and faculty development.

Should ease the university’s money woes a bit, eh?

I’ll be fair — I’ve interviewed Housing Authority of Winston-Salem executive director Larry Woods and he seemed very sincere about fixing the criminal problems left behind by previous director Reid Lawrence and board chairman Ernie Pitt.

And it’s also not certain who’s responsible for this latest screw-up:

Woods said that HUD officials told him at the end of May that HAWS would be getting less money this year and that the cut was retroactive to January — meaning that for five months HAWS had been spending mo­ney it did not have.

HUD required HAWS to fill the gap with money it has in a reserve.

The reserve is from years in which HAWS has reached its cap of 4,100 vouchers but still has leftover money.

The problem, Woods said, is that HUD used a combination of databases to figure out how much money HAWS had in the reserve.

HUD calculated that HAWS had about $6 million, when the agency has $3.2 million in the reserve, Woods said.

Woods said that while HUD officials have admitted to him that they made a mistake, they have not fixed it.

What can I say —- this is government in the housing business.

Forsyth County GOP chair Nathan Tabor says two local Republicans are “95 percent of the way” toward challenging Allen Joines in the upcoming mayor’s race. It’s going to cost some money, though, as Joines’ campaign already has a nice stash. But everyone knows Republicans have all the money, right?

Note, however, that commenters honing in on City Council member and former lieutenant guv candidate Dan Besse.

I was a little surprised to the ultra-liberal Yes!Weekly quote Michael Sanera from the “conservative” John Locke Foundation in its big cover story on Winston-Salem’s taxpayer-funded downtown baseball stadium:

“At the very beginning, there are national and international studies that show these projects are grossly underestimated and then you get into this bind,” Sanera said. Projects like the downtown ballpark do not attract new money into the area and those who benefit represent a small group of property owners, he added.

“Our position is the people that benefit should be the people that pay,” Sanera said. “You’re taking money from the many and funneling it into the pockets of the few. You see all this activity around the ballpark, but what you don’t see is this is not new money.”

The article explores Mayor Allen Joines influence as president of the Winston-Salem Alliance in helping secure property for the stadium is as bothersome as —-oh, I don’t know —- Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson hopping a plane owned by a high powered developer and Community Foundation board member to Washington to secure federal funding for a mixed-use development on the corner of Lee and South Elm streets that would be anchored by a new Guilford County Schools headquarters.

And guess how the developer wants to finance the proposed $75 million hotel that would add to the development —-federal redevelopment bonds.

The blogosphere is understandbly concerned about Roy Carroll’s involvement in the junket up to Washington. Carroll insists he won’t be involved in the project as a developer, but I can imagine a scenario where the project —if it gets outs of the gates — stalls and Carroll steps in to rescue it.

Amazing how we here in Greensboro are watching the debacle in Winston-Salem and our leaders are doing eveything they can to dive in head-first themselves.

Bonus observation: Just got off the phone with a fellow blogger and he thinks some sort of land-swap deal will be involved with the news GCS headquarters. The old HQ has been targeted for development for some time now, but —- as we all know ——- the market’s not good right now. Fisher Parkers, however, won’t stand for a vacant building sitting there for years.

I thought it was interesting that the N&R published a little advice from Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones regarding communication and openness in local government:

More than half the members of my board use laptops during our board meetings. This allows them to be “green” by eschewing a paper agenda in favor of online access. It also enables them to send and receive e-mails during the meeting, if they wish. The other members have this same access through cell phones or other portable devices. This makes it possible for constituents, advocates and others to communicate with board members during the meetings.

Here’s some more advice Jones might want to pass along: Take the heat when “untold thousands of dollars” disappears from the Department of Social Services.

In fairness, John Hammer pointed out that the difference between the county manager’s job and the city manager’s job —- which former N&R editorial page editor John Alexander evidently didn’t understand —- is the county manager has no control over various county boards, DSS being one of them. I assume Mecklenburg operates in a similar fashion — help me out if I’m wrong.

Piedmont Triad International Airport settled up with Skybus, getting back 80 percent of its investment in the bankrupt airline.

However, PTI board chairman Henry Isaacson says an “aviation-related company” is showing interest in PTI, so look for more incentives to be offered up.

News is breaking quickly on the corner of Lee and S. Elm streets, which the City of Greensboro wants to develop so badly. Ed Cone reports that high-powered developer Roy Carroll is flying Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson, Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston and Community Foundation president Walker Sanders to Washington to talk to members of Congress about federal stimulus money, while the N&R follows up with possible interest from a Memphis consultant in building a $75 million hotel.

Of course the true anchor of any potential development is Guilford County Schools, which —if the trip goes well —– would get a new headquarters courtesy of the aforementioned stimulus money. Commenters over Cone’s are concerned about Carroll’s influence over elected officials looking at weighing downtown design guidelines— which Carroll has publicly spoken out against. By the same, token Carroll is going in his role as a board member of the Community Foundation, as is Walker Sanders — like he has no influence on elected officials —- so why shouldn’t he fly everyone free?

A couple of questions: How much would design guielines add to the cost of GCS’ new HQ, and why does anyone think a school adminstration building would attract development when the downtown baseball stadium hasn’t done so?