Re: Lance Armstrong and climate change

What do the two have in common? Antiplanner explains.

HP convention center?

High Point is considering a convention center to boost tourism, so they’re commissioning a feasibility study from an as-yet-unselected ‘strategic convention facility planning firm.’

You know how I feel about consultants’ reports— they don’t get hired to provide the wrong answer. Yet I’ll take HPCVB president Tim Mabe at his word:

“That’s why it’s real important we pick the right group that’s doing this,” said Tim Mabe, partners board member and High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau president and CEO. “First of all, we want an honest answer that’s not going to just be a puppet or rubber stamp from the CVB or city or somebody that’s going to want to dominate that discussion. I think we really want to get to the truth and heart of, ‘Do we need one or not?’ And if we do, what kind do we need and if we don’t, then I think we just move on and find out what it is. I don’t think we stop, ever.”

Just so happens the John Locke Foundation recently weighed in on convention centers.

Resurrecting John Edwards?

Of all people to bring up in the midst of the DNC, none other than John Edwards. Appearing in yesterday’s N&R, Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey wonders why that Edwards –and his pet issue —weren’t invited to Charlotte:

The loss of another narcissistic, self-destructive politician might not amount to much in some ways. But along with Edwards went a moment in Democratic Party politics when national figures talked about an issue that has all but disappeared from the agenda — poverty.

Probably because the Democrats were so focused on talking about how better off we are now than four years ago…..

Guv candidates pass through G’boro…

..To speak to the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which had its annual convention at the Koury Center.

Interesting that the focus of the write-up on McCrory is the former Charlotte’s mayor’s “off the cuff” comments to reporters suggesting borrowing money to pay off state’s unemployment insurance debt to the federal government. Must of been a pretty boring speech:

McCrory’s speech Friday hit a number of points he has been focusing on: The need to pay off the $2.8 billion debt, a desire to help the private sector create jobs through lower taxes and relaxed regulations, and his complaints about Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration and those of previous Democratic governors.

McCrory also promised to treat state employees fairly across the board and said the economy needs to improve — and the state needs to cut spending — in order to raise salaries.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton spoke to SEANC on Saturday, showing some empathy:

Dalton said he voluntarily took a pay cut to show solidarity with them three times when he was a state senator and in his current position as lieutenant governor.

“I told the state employees that I’ve always tried to lead by example,” Dalton, the Democratic candidate for governor, said in a brief phone interview after his speech to the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which ended its annual convention Saturday at the Koury Convention Center.

Not sure how far Dalton’s comparison of McCrory to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will get him with the general public, considering the fact that Walker –as the N&R points out — won his recall election.