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Six days after Greensboro's Truth and Reconciliaton Commission released its report and recommendations comes another commission's report involving an even bloodier November incident in a North Carolina city.

The state should make reparations for the 1898 Wilmington race riot that killed an unknown number of black residents and disenfranchised the city's black community for generations, a state commission said Wednesday.

The 13-member commission studied the events of November 1898, and their aftermath, for six years. The group released its final report Wednesday, saying that the riot was a conspiracy plotted by white supremacist Democrats -- and supported by newspapers -- to wrest power from black residents.

This complaint came via email in reaction to the Mike Luckovich cartoon on today's op-ed page:

"You people are sick, you could at least wait until these men are buried before you use them. They have families grieving. Damn!"

I considered that before choosing the cartoon. But I thought it made a salient, timely point about the escalating danger in Iraq, where more media have been killed than in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

What do others think?

Vernon Robinson's campaign rhetoric is so over-the-top it could make a radio screech-jock blush.

The News & Observer's take on Robinson's latest barrage of attacks on the congressional incumbent whose seat he seeks, Democrat Brad Miller.

A participant chided the News & Record's editorial pages at a community forum last week on Truth and Reconciliation.

The newspaper has made it difficult to submit op-ed columns that dispute its viewpoint on the killings of five communist protesters by Ku Klux Klansmen and Nazis on Nov. 3, 1979, he said.

In other words, he suggested, views critical of the Truth and Reconciliation process were given preference over those that were supportive.

Please forgive me if I seem confused.

The News & Record endorsed the Truth and Reconciliation initiative in 2004.

Here's some of what we wrote two years ago:

"Why should we bring this up again? And why now? Didn't we just observe the 20th anniversary of the shootout in 1999? What else is there to rehash? Aren't there more pressing concerns today about jobs, education and the economy?

"Yet, why not now?

"After all, the events of Nov. 3 also were about jobs — about labor unrest in local textile plants and attempts to unionize mill workers. They also were about race and class, issues that still color community discussions. As painful as its memory may be, never has there been a true reckoning of what that day means to us."

We added: "Some say the event so shook the city's psyche and so rattled its conscience that it stood still for a while in a fog of self-doubt. That it became an also-ran during that time among the state's major cities. Today, a widely discussed consultant's study on the city's economic health cites race relations as a continuing roadblock.

"Why not now?"

We still stand by those words today.

As for the 24 months that followed that editorial, we've published dozens of staff and guest columns concerning Truth and Reconciliation. Some say too many.

"Why are you printing all that Truth and Reconciliation stuff?" a caller grumbled last week. "I don't care about it. And I don't read it, either."

It seems odd that the Greensboro City Council is still so skittish about addressing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report.

I got the impression last year that the council wanted to wait to sign off on the report until it has been released.

Well, the report has been released.

The council voted Tuesday night to hold a "voluntary" roundtable to discuss the report's findings at 4 p.m. on July 18.

Not all members of the council agree that there's a need.

"You don't need to discuss it," Councilman Mike Barber said Tuesday night.

"That was their right to do what they did. It's our right not to participate."

Barber cited only "a tiny percentage of people" in Greensboro caring about it.

I'm not sure how he knows that.

Tom Phillips at least suggested that the council consider bringing up recommendations from the report that it deems worthy of discussion.

Meanwhile, someone again brought up the fact that many residents weren't here in 1979 -- even as the city prepares to celebrate its bicentennial.

So far as I know, NOBODY who lives here now was around then.

It'll be interesting to see who shows at the June 18 meeting. And who does not.

The Lifetime cable channel is producing a Fantasia Barrino TV movie that will premiere on August 19.

The High Point native and 2004 "American Idol" winner will play
herself in "Life Is Not a Fairy Tale," adapted from her 2005 memoir.

Another actor, Jamia Simone Nash, will play the younger Fantasia.

Given the snall tempest stirred by Fantasia's book over her critical references to High Point and her functional illiteracy after dropping out of high school, her single motherhood and her controversial song "Baby Mama," it'll be interesting to see what kind of treatment the hometown gets on the small screen.

The new traffic circle at North Elm Street, Bass Chapel Road and Lake Jeanette Road is not the unmitigated disaster I feared.

Some motorists still seem befuddled, but most seem to be getting the hang of it.

Another plus: traffic rarely comes to a stop, it merely slows; I much prefer that to the robotic delays of a traditional stoplight.

And still another: the circle is more attractive than I pictured, with its brick sidewalks and landscaped (at least I think that's what's gonna happen) center and medians.

But I still can't picture an 18-wheeler squeezing through the darned thing.

I'll believe it when I see it.

The Rev. Fred Phelps, whose church members picket soldiers' funerals on the premise that God is punishing America for not being tough enough on gays, is coming to town next week to picket the Southern Baptist Convention at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Phelps' beef this time: The dastardly unveiling of a statue of the Rev. Billy Graham, because Graham, too, has become too soft on homosexuals.

If you ask me, God seems to be punishing Greensboro with Phelps' visit.

Maybe we should give him what he deserves and simply ignore him.

My colleague Doug Clark breathes a sigh of relief that the News & Record editorial board chose not to add Ann Coulter's column.

So do I.

We worried then that she was too mean-spirited.

She only confirmed those misgivings with her totally gratuitous comments about 9/11 widows.

Offering diversity of views is no excuse for compromise decency and good taste.

Greensboro Developer John Kavanagh pursues deals to buy the old Pet Dairy building on Summit Avenue and the former site of the Galloway Buick/Flow Isuzu dealership on Murrow Boulevard for a possible residential and commercial project.

If those plans materialize, the long-neglected northeast corner of downtown may at last join the rest of the center city’s renaissance.

There are lots of reasons to like Kavanagh's vision:

1. His track record as a builder and developer.

2. His willingness to place a mixed-use project on "the other side of the tracks," which traditionally has divided the black community from the white community. The success of Southside on the southeast doorstep of downtown probably helped.

3. The prospect of even more residences in the center city.

4. The close proximity of the project to the Aycock Historic District.

I guess it's premature to start celebrating; Kavanagh hasn't even bought any property yet, much less broken ground.

But I'm definitely pulling for him.

So is Aycock resident David Hoggard.

I've been legally single again for nearly nine years now. But I still wince at TV's "Divorce Court," which plays couples' splits for cheap entertainment.

Take it from me: It ain't all that funny.

Probably the only thing worse than a bad marriage is ending a bad marriage.

No matter who you are, no matter whether you initiate the split or have it forced on you, divorce is a painful, tedious, heart-rending process.

It takes its toll not only on the soon-to-be-torn-asunder couple, but on friends who are forced to choose sides, on relatives and, worst of all, on children.

Then there's the inevitable battle over whose stuff is whose and who gets to keep what.

I still remember getting all worked up about a fake ficus tree that I eventually parked in a closet.

I'm hardly an expert at matrimony. (Through the sheer force of repetition, I know a whole lot more about alimony.)

But some lessons from the experience are clear even to a nuptially challenged guy like me.

Horrormeister Stephen King in an Entertainment Weekly column:

"When I hear critics warning audiences that "United 93" might upset them -- in the same year that the bloody "Hostel" topped the box office -- I can only shake my head in amazement."

King adds: "We're hypocritical from belly to spine when it comes to film violence, you know?"

Excerpts from our interview with Greensboro Coliseum Managing Director Matt Brown will appear in Sunday's Ideas section.

Meanwhile, we're meeting today with proponents of more than $36 million in upgrades to War Memorial Auditorium today at 11:30.

The upgrades are proposed for inclusion on the ballot in November's city bond referendum.

Any questions you'd like us to ask on your behalf?

WUNC (91.5 FM) ran an impressive series recently on "The Future of High School."

A major component of the exhaustive series were several reports from Greensboro's Western Guilford High School, where WUNC reporters spent several weeks.

A topic glaringly absent from the project: the resegregation of the state's public schools.

This from a former black Duke lacrosse player, in the current edition of the student paper, The Chronicle:

"As an African American, an alumnus and a member of the 2005 Duke men's lacrosse program, I am revolted by my alma mater's handling of the rape allegations directed toward members of the lacrosse team.

"Richard Brodhead, Larry Moneta, other administrators and certain faculty members have flagrantly and wrongfully hung members of the Duke men's lacrosse team out to dry.

"This mistake has not gone unnoticed and will no longer be tolerated by the alumni community. I call on all of Duke University's alumni and donors to end contributions to the University pending a formal apology issued by President Brodhead on behalf of the faculty and administration for failing to appropriately support members of the Duke community."

WUNC radio aired an interesting report this week on state legislators attending Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup finals games (in luxury suites, no less) at the invitation of special interests.

Don't new ethics rules on gifts prohibit that kind of stuff? one lawmaker was asked.

Not really, he said. They're meant for coffee mugs and other trinkets.

In other words, not really good gifts, like hockey tickets.

Eyes dancing, hair slicked to the rear, not quite Pat Riley-style, Matt Brown is a study in perpetual motion. Even when sitting (theoretically) still, he'll lean back, thrust forward and punctuate his words with hands and fingers.

From Springsteen to Southern Baptists, ACC basketball to tractor pulls, Brown's mission as managing director of the Greensboro Coliseum is to keep the big barn humming with events and concession sales.

Book 'em, Matt.

It's not easy. He's had to tangle with one rival after another: the Dean Dome, the RBC Center, outdoor concert "sheds" in Charlotte and Raleigh, and even his own City Council.

In 2000, Brown — the highest-paid city employee at $174,766 — apologized to the council for calling it "shortsighted." Brown had taken the council to task for vetoing his idea to sell naming rights to War Memorial Auditorium.

Brown's boss at the time, former City Manager Ed Kitchen, was not amused. "I did call him on that," Kitchen said last week. "That's just not something that city staff should do."

But Kitchen never regretted hiring Brown, a decision he helped make in 1994.

"Matt was very aggressive," said Kitchen, who was deputy city manager in '94. "He knew the ins and outs of the business. He had a vision about the building and where its uniqueness could take it."

The results have been impressive, especially recently: long-term deals with the ACC men's and women's basketball tournaments, an ambitious bid for the 2013 NCAA Women's Final Four, plus impassioned pushes to renovate War Memorial Auditorium, build a swim center and create an ACC Hall of Champions, an idea Brown originated.

Kitchen says you need someone tough in Brown's job — that the arena management business is no place for the meek. But Brown's brusque, in-your-face style hasn't worn well on many.

A study confirms it. Nearly half of North Carolinians neglect to clean up after their dogs.

According to an East Carolina survey, reports the News & Observer: "About 1.8 million dogs live in North Carolina and deposit 681 tons of the stuff a day."

By the numbers: 47 percent of urban dog-walkers, 49 percent in the suburbs and 59 percent in rural areas rarely or never pick up after their dogs in North Carolina.

The 2005 survey also says people ages 35 to 54 are least likely to clean up their pets', uh, business.

Women were more likely than men to police their dog's poop (we guys are such slobs).

And it's more than unsavory. It threatens the water supply: Dog poop and other animal and bird excrement is a leading polluter of lakes, rivers and other waterways, says a UNC-Chapel Hill researcher.

It also breeds parasites, such as roundworm and hookworm.

Heel, dog owner, heel!

Good to see doggie poop stations at Guilford Battleground National Park. Now if someone would train humans to better use them.

We published our first photo to the editor today and we've had a number of inquiries about the new feature.

Some guidelines we didn't make clear in our initial invitation for visual commentary from our readers:

1. Photos that "read" well small and that are tightly composed work best, since the amount of space for photo letters is limited.

2. Please do not Photoshop or otherwise technically alter photos. We prefer photos of real subjects unaided by digital manipulation.

3. Explain clearly what and who the photos depict. If the photo depicts more than one person, identify them all and include full names.

4. Candid photos are more interesting than posed photos.

5. Photos of large groups of people are discouraged.

Please keep 'en coming and let us know if you have additional questions or ideas.

Topics to watch for in coming letters to the editor:

1. More notes about the recent newspaper ads calling for greater tolerance of gays among people of faith.
2. Letters critical of a woman whose op-ed recounted her frustration in not being able to obtain a "Morning After" pill.
3. Readers disencchanted with a Life story local group of young men whose lifestyle emulates the characters in the HBO series "Entourage."

Richard Prince reports that UNC-Chapel Hill's venerable African American journalism professor, Chuck Stone, stands firmly with his old buddy from Philly, Bill Cosby. Cosby performed recently at a J-School fund-raiser.

It may be just me, but I still don't understand the enthusiasm for a city-owned aquatic center at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Six City Council members voted this week for placing the $9 million center on the ballot as part of a November bond package.

At the same time, they're still debating over whether or when to add 32 new police officers because the expense of it spooks some of them.

The center is projected to lose money every year on top of the other annual coliseum deficits.

Someone help me. What's to like here?

I'm pleased to report that, even as temperatures rise, my summer school students at N.C. A&T still come to class appropriately covered.
There are no "do" rags or sleeveless undershirts.

No dare-to-show-what-shouldn't-be-shown low-rise jeans.
And no colorful pajama bottoms blissfully worn as outer wear (which I have seen in the dead of winter).

More significantly, the guys in the class (all two of them) wear pants that fit — that is, trousers that don't sag so dramatically that the hems snag under the soles of their shoes.

The look isn't complete, of course, without exposed boxer shorts, preferably with tasteful checks or stripes for maximum effect. Thug chic.

I thought that the baggy-pant thing had long ago run its course, but apparently not.

Somehow the appeal of pants several sizes too big keeps hanging on, even if their saggy waistbands don't.

This is especially irritating, given the origin of the trend. Prison inmates typically are required to wear beltless, droopy jeans as a security precaution.

Apparently somebody thought it looked good.

Street gangs adopted the look; hip-hop artists followed suit; skateboarders in the suburbs latched on; The Gap saw a market and here we are.

You even can buy pants that are especially designed to be worn what seems like below the knee.

But there's hope. That venerable chronicler of what's hip, The Wall Street Journal, reported last week that the cops are having a field day catching fleeing young miscreants because more and more bad boys are tripping over their own baggy pants.

Baggy pants are taking a bite out of crime.

The Journal notes the case of 24-year-old Noah Donell Brown of Hendersonville, who tried to leap over a counter in an attempted armed robbery of a Subway restaurant.

He tripped and fell.

You'll be hearing a lot about the city bond referendum in the coming months.

My jury is still out on many of them, but these truths seem self-evident at this point:

1. The proposed city-owned swim center, at a cost of $9 million, has the most impressive and persistent group of lobbyists, followed closely by War Memorial Auditorium, the most expensive single item at $36 million.

2. War Memorial Auditorium has the most diverse supporters, including the physically challenged and a wide variety of arts and cultural groups.

3. The civil rights museum has been lowest-key, perhaps because it remains a polarizing subject among some, especially after its most recent construction delays.

4. Maybe Tom Phillips didn't bump his head on the City Council dais after all.

Phillips has opposed bonds for economic development, saying it's not government's business. Then he turned around and voted to place the swim center on the ballot. What gives?

Phillips explains that he voted to place the swim center on the ballot out of a kind of a protest that the civil rights museum probably will be on the ballot. Makes no sense, he says. It's not a city-owned facility. If it's on ballot, he reasons, everything ought to be.

But Phillips says he does not intend to vote for the swim center come November.

In fact, Phillips says he'll vote at the polls only for probably two of the bonds: one for fire stations and one for War Memorial Auditorium

He makes a compelling case for fire stations. But his no-nonsense, needs-vs.-wants rhetoric sputters when he defends his support for remodeling War Memorial Auditorium.

The county commissioners seem intent on dumping County Manager Willie Best for no apparent reason.

At least enough of the commissioners do.

In a bipartisan movement that is gathering steam, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans seems poised to fire Best Thursday night and replace him with Deputy Manager David McNeill.

There have been rumblings about getting rid of Best, the first black county manager, before, but this time it seems imminent.

In his most recent evaluation Best received a 3 percent raise.

It is, of course, the commissioners' right, to hire and fire county managers.

Unless the commissioners have got a very good reason -- beyond personality and politics -- this would be bad for Best, bad for the commissioners and very bad for Guiiford County.

In one of the ugliest Guilford commissioner meetings in recent memory -- and that's saying a lot -- County Manager Willie Best was finally fired.

Leading up to, and following the 7-4 vote, the commissioners called each other racists, idiots and liars.

They were mean, petty and childish, and they dug a hole that will be very hard to climb out of.

They destroyed whatever good will and trust they seemed to establish in recent months.

They embarrassed themselves.

They embarrassed every one else in the county.

A personnel issue? No way. This was purely personal.