News-Record.com

Quite an irony: The TB fugitive turns out to be a personal injury lawyer. If he infected anyone else during his recent international tour, Andrew Speaker is going to be an easy target for some of his colleagues.

I've been to Loch Ness three times but didn't see the monster. Guess my timing was bad because it was spotted again Saturday. Next time I go, I'll indulge in more of the local liquid, which may enhance my vision ... or imagination.

Quite an event in Charlotte yesterday. The Billy Graham Library, which opens to the public Tuesday, was dedicated. Three former presidents paid tribute to the great evangelist, a prophet honored in his hometown.

As Mark Binker reported at his place, he and I chatted with Richard Moore yesterday. The state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate dropped by the N&R for a brief visit.

Moore has a lot going for him as he contends with his strongest likely opponent for his party's nomination, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue. Check the resume. He's got strong academic training and lots of public service experience in several different capacities.

Personally, he makes a good impression. He has sort of John Edwards-type youthful good looks, and he reminds me a little of Edwards in his speech. But he also strikes me as more easygoing and genuine.

Moore attracted media attention in the last six months or so for pushing for a higher minimum wage and for accepting lots of campaign contributions from money managers entrusted with investing the state's pension funds. In talking about the latter issue, he says he's obeyed all the rules and met all reporting requirements. That's true, but I still think it poses a problem for him given the attention on North Carolina's pay-to-play political culture. The next governor needs to be a lot more aggressive than the current governor in trying to fix the damage caused by the Jim Black and other scandals.

Anyway, Moore presents himself as an innovative thinker. For example, he said he'd take a very different approach to economic development. He cited the Google deal as an example of the current approach -- not to criticize anyone, he quickly added, but what Google really needed was the cheap electricity Duke Energy provides in western North Carolina. The state should have identified other companies that similarly rely on cheap power and brought some of them to the table with Google, bargaining from strength, "not begging for anything."

Certainly that's a smart strategy, to leverage your assets. With Google, the state bargained from a position of weakness -- the high unemployment rate and sluggish economy in Caldwell County -- and figured it had to offer huge incentives. Taking advantage of a strength -- cheap power -- might have led to a better outcome.

Ironically, our two largest power providers, Duke and Progress Energy, are going to be raising their rates as they're pressured to scale back plans for new generating facilities and limit production. Let's hope we don't undercut our ability to attract new industries.

Anyway, Moore seems to have plenty of ideas and should contribute to a healthy discussion of North Carolina's issues during the 2008 gubernatorial campaign. I look forward to hearing more from Moore.

The case that JR addresses here, and which Leonard Pitts also writes about, points to why "hate crime" laws are misguided.

The Christian-Newsom murders, which occurred in Knoxville in January, were horrific. A young couple were carjacked, kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered. One victim's body was burned, the other's dismembered.

The victims were white; the accused are black.

Lately a debate has been triggered by Michelle Malkin and other conservative commentators. Why did these sensational murders receive almost no national news coverage until recently? Why aren't there allegations that it was a hate crime?

Law-enforcement officials say there is no evidence that the crimes were racially motivated.

Presumably, if one of the killers has used a racial slur while torturing the victims, he would have been committing a hate crime. Otherwise, no.

Not that the victims are available to testify.

Get the absurdity?

It wouldn't matter if these crimes were racially motivated. That wouldn't make them more vile, more sadistic, more hateful. That wouldn't make them deserving of additional charges. If the accused are convicted of rape, kidnapping and murder, they'll be sentenced to severe punishment even without an extra penalty for committing a "hate crime." Just as the killers in the infamous James Byrd case in Texas did. That crime absolutely was racially motivated. Two of the killers were sentenced to death, the third to life in prison. Without a hate crime statute, was that too lenient?

Hate crime laws add a level of complexity to the judicial process because they require a jury to look into the heart, mind and soul of the accused. It's relatively easy to determine whether someone murdered someone else. It's much harder to say with certainty why.

More troubling, these laws assign different values to victims according to the circumstances of the crime. If Christian and Newsom had been picked out because they were white, should their deaths as a matter of principle require a higher price than they would otherwise? It wouldn't matter in practical terms if the killers are convicted and receive the maximum punishment. But the law should operate on the principle that everyone's life has equal value.

Aside from issues of premeditation and intent, criminals should be judged according to what they did, not according to what they were thinking when they did it. Is it really so much worse if a man rapes, tortures and murders a woman because of her race than if he does exactly the same thing because he's a sadistic brute who thinks he can get away with it? Calling one heinous murder a hate crime but not another makes no sense to me. It's better to treat crime as crime, victims as victims and killers as killers.

I have real trouble understanding this concept of faster-is-safer on the highway.

I'll admit I usually drive a little over the speed limit on the interstate, but I don't feel safer doing it. The higher the speed, the faster I can get in trouble and the more damage that will be done in a crash.

This site is just one that makes the same point.

Am I just driving in the wrong universe?

The story of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg elementary school art teacher caught with heroin in his classroom is bizarre and disturbing.

And complicated.

More details from The Charlotte Observer.

George Terry McDonald Jr. began working with CMS in 2004. Like all new employees, he passed a criminal background check.

In January 2005, he was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and a Schedule II substance in Buncombe County. He entered and completed a deferred prosecution program, at which point the charges were dismissed.

CMS policies required him to report the arrest, but he did not. CMS officials did not learn about it until Monday.

Should the system have known? Superintendent Peter Gorman addressed the issue at a news conference Monday evening, the Observer reported, and said it's not practical for the system to run regular records checks on 17,000 employees.

He's absolutely right. The system does have the authority to conduct criminal records checks "on a selective, random or rotating basis." But, if that's done at all, it's not likely to be very productive.

Of course, McDonald violated system policy for failing to report his 2005 arrest. But he would have been fired if he had reported it, so what's the incentive to comply with that policy?

This is an unfortunate situation, but I don't know what the school system could have done to head it off.

If you're riding in a funeral procession escorted by police, and someone runs in to you, can you sue the city for negligence?

No, the N.C. Court of Appeals rules today in William R. Sisk v. City of Greensboro.

The procession was crossing an intersection through a red light when a vehicle entered from the side street and struck the car in which Sisk was a passenger. Sisks sustained a spinal cord contusion and disc herniation.

He sued the city, claiming the city should have altered the operation of the traffic light or stationed officers or vehicles at the intersection to stop traffic coming from other directions.

Maybe it should have done those things, but the three-judge panel ruled unanimously that it can't be held liable for failing to secure the intersection.

Cities are granted governmental immunity for carrying out normal functions performed for the public good, such as operation of streets. Superior Court Judge Ronald Spivey cited that immunity in dismissing Sisk's case last year. The Court of Appeals upheld Spivey's decision.

Sisk had argued against immunity, referring to a city's statutory duty "to keep the public streets, sidewalks, alleys and bridges open for travel and free from unnecessary obstructions." In a 1982 case, the town of Southern Pines was held liable because it allowed shrubbery to grow into an obstruction at a railroad crossing. The court rejected the comparison, stating that a moving car is not a shrub and therefore not an obstruction.

(You really don't have to go to law school to arrive at some legal conclusions.)

Anyway, the court said, Sisk's contention would mean that any vehicle could be an obstruction and a municipality could be held liable for every accident -- an "absurd result."

The court didn't address the question of whether the city should have altered the traffic light or blocked the intersection. It simply ruled that those issues are "discretionary governmental functions" that fall under immunity.

As a matter of principle, if a city believes it's important from a safety standpoint to have a police car lead a funeral procession, you'd think the city would try to make sure that the entire procession, from front to back, is allowed to travel safely. As a practical matter, that's very difficult. Police can't block intersections all along a funeral route that might be several miles long. The procession itself can string out over a considerable distance. There may be countless opportunities for mishaps. Drivers have to be responsible for their own safety.

You can argue in theory that the city could have and should have done a better job of securing the funeral procession in this case, but it would be unreasonable to expect the city to prevent every possible opportunity for an accident.

My column today:

Last year, state Rep. Mary McAllister, a Democrat from Fayetteville, sponsored a bill to appropriate $500,000 to Operation Sickle Cell Inc.

McAllister is executive director of Operation Sickle Cell, earning an annual salary of $115,000. As a state legislator, she was trying to funnel taxpayers' money to her own organization -- a substantial amount of it, in effect, into her own pocket. ...

(Addendum: I was remiss in not giving credit to John Fuquay of the Fayetteville Observer for his reporting about Rep. McAllister. Here's an example.)

U.S. District Judge James Dever recuses himself from the Jim Black case -- not because of prejudicial bias but to make sure Black doesn't shift the focus from his own corrupt actions to questions about the court's integrity, Dever writes in a 64-page order.

Dever makes it clear what he thinks about the former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives:

A statement from Thomas Sowell's column today that resounds in Guilford County:

"The left is upset that we have so many people behind bars and lament how much it is costing to keep them there. They do not even bother to estimate how much it would cost to turn them lose."

My sister's been visiting this week from her home in Michigan, and she's been the kind of visitor the Triad needs.

She flew from Detroit to PTIA -- via Charlotte. But here's the thing. Her fare was less than it would have been if she'd stayed in Charlotte. In effect, USAir told her, "We'll knock $30 off if you take our commuter flight from Charlotte to Greensboro." Hey, OK.

She rented a car, not only giving some business to the rental company but also paying that extra tax that supports PART's mass-transit operations.

She came to buy furniture. After shopping the major High Point outlets for a day-and-a-half, she settled on just what she wanted but couldn't find at home.

Best of all, she took us out to eat last night.

The one sour note: Her flight out of PTIA this morning was canceled. She has to wait for another one this afternoon.

But, all in all, a productive visit -- for her and, in a modest way, for our economy.

Pass the word to furniture shoppers in Columbus, Ohio, and the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas in Florida, locations now enjoying direct, low-fare air service to PTIA.

One of North Carolina's best and brightest young judges is leaving for a challenging and potentially dangerous assignment.

Eric Levinson, a member of the N.C. Court of Appeals, this summer will begin a one-year appointment as U.S. Justice Department attache in Iraq. He'll help Iraqis strengthen their own civilian court system.

Levinson, 40, was elected to the court in 2002. He served as a District Court judge in Mecklenburg County for six years before that.

His base in Iraq will be the U.S. Embassy in the Green Zone, but his work will take him throughout the country, where he'll evaluate court system needs, train judges and share ideas.

"I understand there's a physical risk," Levinson told me this afternoon during a conversation in my office. He had spoken to Davidson County District Court Judge April Wood's Lion's Club in Thomasville and was on his way back to Raleigh.

"Obviously I considered that. Many others have taken similar risks. This is a unique opportunity to translate some of my experiences as a judge to work with an emerging system of justice."

Brave?

"I would never use that word. I understand there's a risk but I fully expect to return after this assignment."

What Levinson's doing isn't unprecedented. Other people in public office, even judges, have left safe, comfortable jobs during wartime to answer the country's call.

But this assignment strikes me as extraordinarily difficult because of the chaos in Iraq. Can any institutions survive for long? Yet, if that violent country can have any hope for a decent future, it has to establish a society based on law, where everyone can be afforded equal justice. I give Levinson all the credit in the world for his willingness to try to make that happen.

Although he's not married and doesn't have children, members of his large family are concerned but understanding.

Levinson quoted his mother: "I know you have to follow your heart, but couldn't you follow your heart to Boise, Idaho, rather than Baghdad?"

Overall, the response has been encouraging, he said: "The blessings and prayers that people are extending are remarkable and make me more enthusiastic."

"I've made thousands of decisions on the bench," he added. "This is probably one of my best decisions."

I hope it works out that way.

An otherwise good editorial board interview with Julianne Malveaux yesterday had one rocky moment:

When the new president of Bennett College refused to discuss her comments about the wrongly charged former Duke lacrosse players, then accused us of "mean-spiritedness" for publishing critical letters of her during Bennett's commencement weekend.

A week after N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper cleared the three men accused of sexual assault and other charges, concluding that there was no evidence a crime occurred, Malveaux lashed out at them during an NPR discussion. insisting "something happened" and declaring them "bad apples."

I wasn't at all surprised Malveaux declined to speak about those comments yesterday. In my opinion, they're indefensible. I was definitely taken aback by her attitude about the letters to the editor. Malveaux, a long-time columnist, should know better than to expect a newspaper not to print critical letters from its readers.

Well, how many letters are we talking about? Malveaux said seven. But counting Bennett's commencement weekend as Friday, May 4, through Sunday, May 6, the actual number was one -- this one on Saturday, May 5. And its publication was not timed to coincide with commencement.

I'm sorry we had this unpleasant moment in our interview, and I hope the balance of our meeting was more indicative of the relationship we'll have with Malveaux, who promises to be an interesting and influential newcomer to Greensboro.

We'll have extensive reporting of the interview in print, as well as audio and video on the Web site.

Congratulations to all the area high school seniors accepting their diplomas today. You've reached an important milestone. Now, don't stop because you haven't done enough yet.

So much for my commencement speech.

For several years, graduation day for me meant volunteering at Gradfest, the all-night safe celebration for graduates of Southwest Guilford, High Point Central and Andrews high schools.

I enjoyed working a half-night shift more some years than others, depending on my job. But I'd certainly recommend the experience to other parents, at least once.

My favorite job was photographer. Digital cameras weren't even out at that time, so I used a Polaroid. A photo station was set up, and the kids could come by to pose for a picture. Most of them really hammed it up and had a lot of fun. So that was a great job.

Next best was blackjack dealer. A lot of kids were very serious about the casino games, even though no real money was used. They could win tickets that they later could redeem for prizes. Unlike in Vegas, Gradfest dealers were supposed to give an edge to the players. They liked that. I just hope it didn't encourage any of them to actually go to Las Vegas and play with real money. Oh, wait. My son Kenny has done that. So there's one downside of Gradfest.

Not such a good job was "security." At first, this seems fun because you just wander around and keep an eye on things. But I never saw any trouble, so there wasn't really much to do.

The worst job was manning the hot dog station, second shift. Believe me, hot dogs with chili are NOT appetizing at 3 in the morning, even if teenagers think they are. But even they lost their taste for them long before the night was over.

I get the impression that enthusiasm, and financial support, for Gradfest have slipped a bit in recent years. I hope that's not true. It does provide good, well-supervised activities for kids who otherwise might be tempted to celebrate in not-so-wise ways.

I wish safe celebrations for all the grads tonight.

This was one gathering in Greensboro yesterday.

Another one was here.

My son Kenny and I were a part of the latter, sharing a fine everning at the ballpark with more than 6,000 other people who, thankfully, weren't in the mood to ruminate over what a terrible city this is.

Asheville City Council considers enacting a ban on gated communities, the Citizen-Times reports today.

Is this anti-exclusiveness in excess? I think so.

I don't live in a gated community. Far from it. But if people feel more secure in an apartment complex or some other private development where access is limited, why should the local government tell them they're not entitled?

Here's the proposed ordinance.

Update, June 13: Asheville City Council approved the proposed ordinance yesterday by a 5-2 vote.

Mohammed Taheri-azar apologizes for running down nine people in the pit at UNC-Chapel Hill last year and for his outburst in a courtroom in March, The News & Observer reports today.

Very good.

In a letter to Orange County Superior Court, he also requests: "Please release me from state custody so that I may pursue my goal of living a productive life in California."

He wants to work for his father's general contracting company.

Well, first, there are some legal technicalities to deal with.

Like nine counts of attempted murder and assault.

It remains to be determined whether the suspect is fit to stand trial. Let's hope he is.

Either way, he probably shouldn't count on beginning that productive life in California anytime soon.

Update, June 14: A judge rules Taheri-azar is competent to stand trial.

My column today:

"Initially, UNC campuses will collectively offer over 90 fully online degree programs" -- University of North Carolina system news release, June 7, 2007.

Your son's high school years have been, well, a trial -- for you. His grades are fine, and he hasn't gotten into trouble, but his behavior just isn't normal for a teenager.

When he's not at school, he spends most of his time in his room -- on his computer. He meets up with his friends online. You never see them, don't even know them. He does his homework on the computer, plays games, listens to music, watches movies. It's the center of his social life.

How did you, a popular, active teen of 30 years ago, become the confused, frustrated parent of a reclusive computer geek? Your parents complained you were never home. This kid never goes out. Sure, he might end up as an Internet billionaire. But he'll still be a weirdo.

Unless college saves him. You and your spouse can't wait to send him away. ...

Of course I'm reading about the Mike Nifong ethics trial with great interest. I think he'll be lucky to come out of it with his law license and job as Durham DA.

I've been pondering a statement one of Nifong's attorneys, David Freedman, made Tuesday: "It is not unethical to pursue what someone may believe to be an unwinnable case."

I think that statement is true, but not in all circumstances.

A district attorney might realize he has a difficult case to prove, a case that other observers regard as unwinnable. But maybe he sees an opportunity to demonstrate a defendant's guilt that others miss.

Or maybe he believes that, despite poor odds of proving the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, there's still enough evidence to air it all out and let the jury decide. Wasn't it better for O.J. Simpson to have been tried, even though he walked, than not to have been tried at all? The prosecutors owed it to the victims to bring him to trial even if their case wasn't air tight.

But then there are other circumstances, like those at play in the Duke lacrosse case.

When Nifong should have listened to others telling him he didn't have a winning case.

He should have analyzed why they came to that conclusion.

Other than the inconsistent statements and identifications made by an exceedingly unreliable accuser, there was no evidence that the alleged crimes even occurred, much less evidence against any of the specific defendants. In fact, there was strong evidence showing one of the accused wasn't even at the scene of the alleged crime at the time it supposedly occurred.

It is unethical to pursue a case despite such compelling information refuting the basis for your prosecution.

It is even more unethical to try to turn the odds in your favor by making inflammatory, prejudicial and inaccurate public statements about the accused, creating a climate of animosity and potentially poisoning the objectivity of a jury pool.

And it is heinously unethical to deny evidence to the defense that would further render your case unwinnable.

Those are the issues before the N.C. State Bar in Nifong's ethics trial.

I think he's in trouble. If he had simply initiated a difficult prosecution in good faith based on the original accusations made by his witness, and also launched a thorough examination of the facts, he would have done what was reasonable and expected.

Instead, he made immediate assumptions, drew quick conclusions and began to try his case in the media before all the facts were known. Then, when enough information did emerge for any reasonable person to conclude that the case wasn't just unwinnable but wrong, he stubbornly continued his prosecution until he was forced to give up the case.

The attorney general, after his own investigation, later dismissed the charges, proclaimed the defendants innocent and declared that no crime had occurred.

Nifong had ample opportunity, and every reason, to do the same months earlier. He didn't. Was he guilty merely of poor judgment, or of unethical conduct? We'll see what the State Bar says, but my guess is the conclusion won't be pleasant for Nifong.

The glacier atop Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro is receding but not melting, a new study reports.

So don't blame global warming, Al Gore.

Which, of course, Gore does to very dramatic effect in his highly acclaimed documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."

My point is not to debunk the facts of global warming. They're well established.

But I do wish that people like Gore and his apostles would exercise a little more caution. I get tired of hearing that "the science is settled" about global warming when in reality scientists are learning new things about climatology all the time -- and still have much to discover.

In the case of Mount Kili, Africa's highest peak, the question of why its famous ice cap is disappearing is much more complex than warming -- because, in fact, air temperatures up there very rarely rise above freezing, according to researchers Philip Mote and Georg Kaser.

So, what's the cause for the declining glacier, which has been shrinking at least since the 1800s? A process called sublimation: "the conversion of ice directly to water vapor, which can take place at temperatures well below the melting point but which requires about eight times as much energy as melting. Sublimation occurs when the moisture in the air is less than the moisture delivered from the ice surface."

The energy for this process comes from solar radiation.

At the same time, decreasing precipitation means that ice and snow are replenished at a slower rate than they're lost through sublimation.

Aha! This decline in precipitation must be caused by global warming. Well, no. The climate in East Africa has been drying out for a long time. Water levels in Lake Victoria have been dropping for about as long as the Mount Kili glacier has been shrinking.

Ironically, global warming could have an effect on the glacier but in a positive way, Mote, a University of Washington climate scientist, tells the Seattle Times. Some models predict a warmer climate will increase precipitation in East Africa, which would lead to increased ice formation on the mountain.

The Seattle Times article also presents one story behind this story: the reluctance of researchers to present these findings. They didn't want them misused by global warming skeptics. Fair enough.

In the end, Mote decided to go ahead because "science is a process of getting to the truth."

Indeed it is a process. It's almost never settled.

And, just as no one should use this research about "the snows of Kilimanjaro" to debunk legitimate concerns about global warming, no one should make simplistic and incorrect connections to advance their own arguments.

How did your ethics trial go, Mr. Nifong?

Oh. That bad.

Durham voters should have made this happen last November.

Update, 3:55 p.m. June 16: The verdict is in, and it's very, very bad for Nifong.

Punishment still to be decided.

Our editorial today.

Democrats Paul Gibson, John Parks, Kay Cashion and Kirk Perkins and Republicans Mike Winstead and Billy Yow are joining forces to pass a budget. It's not perfect, but it looks like the best deal available.

Nate DeGraff provided some details the other day.

It's good to see bipartisan cooperation on the board.

Polo Ralph Lauren will increase its already strong presence in High Point, and the company has withdrawn its request for $240,000 to support its latest expansion.

Good news all around.

PRL is an excellent corporate citizen in High Point, and this latest move bolsters its relationship with the city. It's very refreshing to see a company declining incentives because it doesn't need them. I assume most companies don't need incentives, but they usually take them if they're offered.

Loren Hill, president of High Point's Economic Development Corporation, is doubly pleased by this development. It's another success for his office, but now he also gets to take off for the College World Series in Omaha sooner than he expected.

High Point City Council had been slated to hold a hearing on the proposed PRL incentives Monday night. Hill would have made a presentation in support of the deal. Now that's been canceled. I suspect Hill's in Omaha by now.

Why? His roommate at Carolina back in the '70s was Mike Fox, who now coaches the Carolina baseball team. Hill is a big fan. The Heels won their opening game last night, 8-5 over Mississippi State. Here's hoping Hill gets to watch his buddy's team from Chapel Hill roll to the national championship.

Where's Allen?

In case you missed his blog post of June 6:

He's participating in today's session of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission Conference in Calgary, Alberta.

His topic is "The Truth Commission in Media: blogs, editorials, letters and news coverage."

Here's what the event is all about.

Addendum: I can't find any news coverage in today's Calgary Herald, but here's an opinion piece on a related topic: settling claims with native people over broken treaties of the past.

Mike Easley will go down in the history books as one of North Carolina's greatest governors ...

because his aides had a heavy hand in writing the chapter on their boss, The News & Observer reports today.

One of his accomplishments has been to "successfully lead" the state into the "new global economy."

Really? I wasn't aware we've been all that successful yet.

Maybe later editors of "The Governors of North Carolina," an official state publication, will take a more objective view.

The Bar absolutely hammered Mike Nifong this evening. He lied, he withheld evidence, he made prejudicial statements, he put his political ambitions ahead of justice. And he still clings to the fantasy that "something happened" that night in Durham. Disciplinary Commission Chairman Lane Williamson rebukes the disgraced prosecutor in stinging language.

It's painful to see anyone torn down like this. There's no pleasure in it. Yes, Nifong brought it on himself. It had to happen. But I can't help feeling sad at witnessing the crushing downfall of a man who made a career of enforcing the law and apparently did his job well until he lost his head and his integrity when the whole world was watching.

Update, Monday afternoon: Nifong says he'll leave office July 13. Incredible. A disbarred lawyer is going to continue to serve as district attorney for nearly four more weeks. That's just shameful. I guess I need to rescind my earlier comments expressing a little sympathy for him.

Our editorial today.

Meanwhile, Durham County Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, a High Point native, says he'll suspend Mike Nifong today rather than let him remain in office until July 13.

Seems like that should have been done some time ago.

Gov. Mike Easley says North Carolina can deal with a Category 3 hurricane but would need help if hit by a more powerful storm.

I don't think it's so easy to fit hurricanes into such precise packages.

Floyd, one of the most damaging hurricanes to hit North Carolina in recent decades, was a Category 2 when it made landfall on our coast.

"Floyd's large size was a greater problem than its winds, as the heavy rainfall covered a larger area and lasted longer than with a typical category 2 hurricane," NOAA said about the September 1999 storm. "Approximately 2.6 million people evacuated their homes in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas - - the largest peacetime evacuation in US history."

Hurricanes are all different, and they present endless possible scenarios. A powerful storm that just grazes our coast before heading back out to sea might do a lot of damage but in a relatively small area, while a weaker, sluggish storm that meanders well inland could dump tremendous amounts of rain causing severe flooding over a wide area -- like Floyd. While an Atlantic hurricane scoring a direct hit on our coast is likely to pound eastern counties hardest, a Gulf storm could follow the eastern slopes of the Southern Appalachians and produce dangerous flooding in the western part of our state, leaving areas to the east largely unaffected. Here in the Piedmont, we're probably most vulnerable to Atlantic storms that come ashore in South Carolina, then take a clockwise arc toward Charlotte and up I-85.

Until it happens, we don't know what to expect in North Carolina or whether we'll need outside help, no matter what number you give the hurricane.

The New River Zoo in Fleetwood, N.C., is allowed to reopen after a couple of biting incidents.

A woman tried to pet a leopard? Are you kidding me?

They're gorgeous animals, like this beauty I photographed in Tanzania last summer. But try to pet her? Why not just stick your hand under a lawnmower?

My column today:

William Sisk was riding in a funeral procession, and it almost ended up being his own.

"I wish I'd gone skydiving that day. I'd have been a hundred times safer," the Greensboro man said of March 25, 2004.

Sisk, 46, was badly injured in a collision at the intersection of Holden Road and Spring Garden Street. His life since then has been consumed by medical treatments, "constant pain" and an effort to assign blame for the accident.

It's not going well. ...

The Wilmington Star-News reports that Brenton Wuchae, the now-resigned 40-year-old teacher and coach at South Brunswick High School who just married a 16-year-old student-athlete, was hired from Guilford County in 2004.

Good thing for Guilford County girls.

The N.C. Wildlife Federation is OK with urban deer hunting.

How about bears?

"Boo-Boo the Bear" was bagged in Thomasville a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe the same fate waits the unidentified bruins roaming around Greensboro.

As if police don't have enough human troublemakers to contend with.

No, I'm not for shooting bears. But what do you do if one's breaking into your house -- send the dog out to chase it off?

A serious question in wake of the marriage of a 40-year-old (former) teacher-coach and 16-year-old student-athlete at South Brunswick High School:

Should men coach female athletes at the high school level?

Should women coach male athletes?

Brenton Wuchae was Windi Hager's cross-country coach. Could the coach-athlete relationship have made it easier for an improper relationship to develop?

Seriously, what's going on with the bears around here? Where are they coming from?

With the High Point PD's propensity for shooting dogs -- sometimes justified, sometimes not -- I'd say this bear hasn't got much of a chance if it gets within range.

On second thought, this is a pretty scary record of recent attacks by black bears.

Today's Associated Press story reports that former hedge fund consultant John Edwards and former Communist Workers Party member Nelson Johnson have teamed up in support of union efforts at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, N.C.

Both talk about "democracy." Curiously, to them that means prohibiting secret-ballot union elections.

We printed George Will's take on that on our Second Opinion page today. I think Will has it right.

"Nobody should have to work under these conditions," Edwards said in Chapel Hill yesterday after meeting with about a dozen Smithfield employees, AP reported.

I can't speak to those conditions because I haven't visited the plant. But, then, neither has Edwards. I'd say he's determined to win Labor's endorsement for his presidential campaign, so he'll take the union's part in any dispute.

But if the United Food and Commercial Workers union thought it could count on majority support at the plant, I assume it would agree to a secret-ballot election supervised by the Carter Center.

By the way, I've always thought the secret ballot was a cornerstone of democracy.

Update, June 27: Charlotte Observer cartoonist Kevin Siers' take.

John Edwards gets some critical press in The New York Times:

Nonprofit center benefited Edwards

Leslie Wayne, The New York Times

CHAPEL HILL - John Edwards ended 2004 with a problem: how to keep alive his public profile without the benefit of a presidential campaign that could finance his travels and pay for his political staff.

Edwards, who reported this year that he had assets of nearly $30 million, came up with a novel solution, creating a nonprofit organization with the stated mission of fighting poverty. The organization, the Center for Promise and Opportunity, raised $1.3 million in 2005, and -- unlike a sister charity created to raise scholarship money for poor students -- the main beneficiary of the center's fundraising was Edwards himself, federal tax filings show.

But a spokesman for Edwards on Thursday defended the center as a legitimate tool against poverty.

The organization became a big part of a shadow political apparatus for Edwards after his defeat as the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004 and before the start of his presidential bid this time around. Its officers were members of his political staff, and it helped pay for his nearly constant travel, including to early primary states.

While Edwards said the organization's purpose was "making the eradication of poverty the cause of this generation," its federal filings say it financed "retreats and seminars" with foreign policy experts on Iraq and national security issues. Unlike the scholarship charity, donations to it were not tax deductible, and, significantly, it did not have to disclose its donors -- as political action committees and other political fundraising vehicles do -- and there were no limits on the size of individual donations.

The article is reprinted in The N&O.

Just to be provocative:

This is a good deal for Mayodan -- jobs in a traditional industry returning from overseas.

But do we want to subsidize tobacco with incentives?

We're still talking about a legal industry. The 200 jobs created by General Tobacco for its planned manufacturing facility in the Rockingham County town will pay real money and make a positive economic impact in the community.

It's the product that's the issue. There are a lot of social costs associated with smoking, and the habit itself is banned in many public places and shoved to the fringes of others. You could say it's become public policy to discourage the use of tobacco, if not eliminate it.

There's no problem here, of course, if GT investment is 100 percent private money. But when public policy disfavors tobacco, how much sense does it make to lay out public money to help a tobacco company establish a manufacturing facility?

What's better than a warm, sunny day in the Great Smoky Mountains? A warm, sunny day that ends in a thunderstorm.

Late yesterday afternoon, Margaret and I sat on the deck outside our room at the Swag Country Inn watching banks of clouds quickly erase the stunning vistas before our eyes. Thunder echoed, lightning flashed between the closest peaks and rain increased its intensity. First Margaret, then I pulled on sweatshirts as the air turned damp and chilly.

Only minutes before we'd finished a strenuous 8.6-mile hike just as the first drops began to fall.

The Swag sits at 5,000 feet in Haywood County, on the boundary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We went to celebrate our 30th anniversary, the location significant because we began our married life in nearby Waynesville.

Unknown to us at that time, Dan and Deener Matthews already had purchased more than 200 acres on the Cataloochee Divide and built the Swag, which they used originally as a second home and church retreat. Later, they opened it as an inn, adding various buildings and attractions along the way. Today, it's surely one of the finest mountain hostelries in Eastern America.

Dan, a native of Canton in Haywood County -- and high school classmate of poet Fred Chappell -- is an Episcopal priest and rector emeritus of historic Trinity Church in New York. Deener runs the inn. Once a competitive figure skater, she's still energetic and graceful. They're both marvelous hosts, taking a keen interest in their guests and sharing stories that range from mountain lore to taking tea with Queen Elizabeth in the company of George Carey, former archbishop of Canterbury -- a friend who stays often at the Swag. We were fortunate enough to share a dinner table twice with Dan and Deener.

The inn is rustic, featuring a great room dominated by a deer antler chandelier and huge bearskin over the fireplace. But the service is first-rate, the accommodations comfortable, the grounds immaculate. They include trails, gardens and enough bird feeders to draw constant avian activity. And did I mention the park? It's no more than a dozen paces from the inn's front door.

Our hike Monday took us along the Cataloochee Divide for a mile, then sharply down on the McKee Branch Trail. We stopped for our lunch, packed by the Swag, along the Caldwell Fork Trail, which we followed to the Hemphill Bald Trail, then climbed for three hard miles back to the Cataloochee Divide. Total estimated elevation change: 2,300 feet. Good thing I married a mountain girl. She can bound up those hills like a panther.

Still, she was tired enough to sleep in this morning while I followed the divide in the other direction to the top of Hemphill Bald, elevation approximately 5,700 feet. This is actually on Cataloochee Ranch property, but hikers are welcome. I descended the other side, then returned along Lost Ridge Trail. There's an old chapel in the woods and stone tablets bearing Bible verses along the trail. Following that path gives you a sense that you're really walking in the way of the Lord. I always figured the Almighty worked his way up, too, first creating the lowlands and saving His greatest wonders for the mountaintops. In fact, I'm sure I heard His affirmation of that late Monday afternoon.

Staying at the Swag for a couple of days was an extravagance for us, but it was as refreshing as a cool rush of wind after an exhausting walk in the woods.

From today's Charlotte Observer:

"The parent company of Philip Morris USA -- Cabarrus County's biggest taxpayer, a top charitable supporter and one of the highest-paying manufacturers in the Charlotte region -- said Tuesday that it would close its Concord cigarette plant, where about 2,500 people work."

The question, related to my entry on Saturday, is: How are we supposed to feel about this? It's been public policy for years to marginalize the tobacco industry. The state of North Carolina has been a willing contributor, grabbing its share of the loot from the tobacco settlement bonanza.

We can't pretend that these are unintended consequences. Don't we want the tobacco industry to go away? We act like it.

Here's the Philip Morris news release.

It includes this statement warning of future business uncertainties (Altria Group Inc. is the PM parent company):

"Altria Group, Inc.'s tobacco subsidiaries continue to be subject to litigation, including risks associated with adverse jury and judicial determinations, and courts reaching conclusions at variance with the company's understanding of applicable law and bonding requirements in the limited number of jurisdictions that do not limit the dollar amount of appeal bonds; legislation, including actual and potential excise tax increases; discriminatory excise tax structures; increasing marketing and regulatory restrictions; the effects of price increases related to excise tax increases and concluded tobacco litigation settlements on consumption rates and consumer preferences within price segments; health concerns relating to the use of tobacco products and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke; governmental regulation; privately imposed smoking restrictions; and governmental and grand jury investigations."

This is very simple: If you're a city employee, you don't get involved in political activities at work.

Public employees are not barred from political activities on their own time. Some belong to organizations that support candidates and engage in lobbying. The N.C. Association of Educators, for example.

But when these folks are doing the taxpayers' work, they're supposed to devote their full attention to their jobs. Political interests and affiliations should never follow them into the workplace.

I liked Assistant City Manager Ben Brown's statement in Margaret's story today. If anyone on Greensboro's payroll -- presumably, even if he's at the top of the payroll -- is violating the simple rule above, "We'll sure as hell put a swift stop" to it.

Addendum: Please read Margaret's entry at The Inside Scoop.

Also, Allen's entry at Thinking Out Loud.

Please help me understand this:

A state legislator who is so totally confused about her personal and campaign finances chairs an appropriations subcommittee?

Somehow I just can't feel good about how my tax money is spent in Raleigh.

Sadly, I just can't be surprised by each new story about the self-serving ways of North Carolina legislators.

This one reports that the nonprofit foundation operated by the Legislative Black Caucus for the purpose of providing college scholarships has been benefiting relatives of caucus members.

The caucus solicits some of the funds from special-interest groups. It's just another way to buy influence. Of course you can't just come right out and ask a lobbyist to give you a few thousand dollars for your kid's college education. Better to run the money through a foundation so it looks legitimate.

I hope Chairwoman Alma Adams -- who appears to be trying to do the right thing since taking over the job this year -- will announce an end to this practice today.

Here's some info from Mark's blog.

Addendum, from Joe Sinsheimer: "Campaign finance and ethics activist Joe Sinsheimer today repeated his call for the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus Foundation (LBCF) to make public a list of all of its contributors and expenses from 2000 to the present. ...

"The hypocrisy of the House Democratic Caucus has no limit. For more than two decades, the Democratic Party has made college affordability a cornerstone of both its state and national campaign platforms. The recent actions of the Legislative Black Caucus in raising special interest dollars to pay for their own children and grandchildren’s college tuition betrays the Democratic Party’s most fundamental ideals and are an insult to every North Carolina family struggling to pay college tuition."

Mark has an update, based on the statement from Alma Adams. Now it's five legislators who benefited, but Adams doesn't name them.

Latest update from Mark: "Adams didn't really want to talk about this topic as she dashed from a break on the floor to an appropriations committee meeting. She did confirm, however, that her daughter, Linda, was one of those to receive a caucus foundation scholarship."

Update, July 10: The N&O takes Alma Adams to task.

Why should I have to pay a Guilford County pet license fee?

The proposal seems to have three purposes, two of which don't apply to me. The third applies to all taxpayers, not just pet owners.

* To encourage pet owners to have their animals spayed or neutered by giving a $5 break on the proposed $20 annual fee. All the dogs I've owned have been spayed at the first opportunity.

* To make sure pets receive their rabies vaccinations, required before a license would be issued. I've always kept my dogs up to date on all vaccinations.

* To raise money. So I suppose this proposed fee would amount to a privilege tax for owning a dog. I certainly don't receive any special services on behalf of my dog.

I would be offered the additional "benefit" of a $5 discount if my dog had a microchip implant. I'm really not interested in that.

I understand it's expensive to provide animal-control services and to operate the animal shelter, but my owning a dog doesn't make me any more responsible for those costs than any other taxpayer. So I'm not convinced there's a good case for charging me a special tax.

This will help ease Guilford County Schools' budget complaints.

I'm still disappointed, and I urge our legislative delegation to pursue whatever means might be necessary in a future General Assembly session to see that cities are allowed to use proceeds from traffic fines for transportation safety programs.

I was for the red-light cameras, too. Opinions differ about their effectiveness, but I'll offer this personal confession:

I am more likely to run a red light at those intersections now than I was when I knew I'd get a ticket, thanks to the camera.

If many other people are similarly inclined, we've got the makings of a higher accident rate.

There's a whole lot of red-light running out there, and not many of those reckless drivers seem to be getting tickets.

Which means, of course, that the goose that laid this golden egg for the schools isn't producing much anymore.

Islamic terrorists still desire to strike at the West, and it may be easiest for them to carry out small attacks like today's explosion at Glasgow Airport, or the planned car bombings in London yesterday.

News reports indicate the Brits are worried about more to come ... maybe soon.

One thing we can count on: They'll do what it takes to root out these terrorist cells.

Hitting Glasgow ought to really p--- off the new prime minister, a Scot.