News-Record.com

You probably know now about the fire and smoke that engulfed Eastern Guilford High School today and thrust the school's future into limbo.

For a report in progress and photos, click here.

Where will the students go now?

What about records and transcripts?

How will continuity in classes be preserved?

What about extracurriculars?

How will students cope if they are dispersed among schools throughout the county?

How will they get there?

As if the Guilford County Schools didn't face enough challenges already. This is a miniature Katrina.

If you take him at his word, Sen. John Kerry did not say what he meant to say in remarks Monday that could be construed as disparaging U.S. troops.

I believe him. It would have been utterly stupid for him to have actually meant those commnents.

Still, he ought to say he's sorry. We are held accountable for the words we say -- not the words we intended to say.

Kerry understandably is still smarting from the unfair mugging he got in the 2004 election from the so-called Swift Boat Veterans. That was character assassination at its worst. I can see why he'd be defiant.

But it doesn't excuse the foot he shoved down his throat Monday.

Say you're sorry, John, and move on.

Most media (us included) typically try to say something nice about people when they die -- or at least not to say anything harsh.

But what about when the dearly departed was an oppressive, unrepentant racist?

Richard Prince says media generally were restrained and respectful when former South African President P.W. Botha, who died this week.

But not everyone was so kind.

In today's New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has little good to say about the Bush administration's recent squawking about John Kerry.

"Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry," Friedman seethes, "I hope you will say to yourself, 'They must think I'm stupid.' Because they surely do.

"They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team's real and deadly insults over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry's mangled gibe at the president.

"What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat without enough men -- to launch an invasion of a foreign county not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?"

I stand by my earlier assertion that Kerry should have apologized sooner for his gaffe and moved on. He did not say what he meant to say and should have acknowledged that more quickly and completely.

That said, Friedman is dead on about style versus substance.

The sheer nerve of the administration.

The Friedman column will appear Monday in the News & Record.

The Simkins PAC's endorsements arrived in the mail today.

Among the more notable picks: Susan Bray for Superior Court judge, Tom Jarrell for District Court judge, nine of the 11 city bonds (but not the swim center or city building repairs), and the straight Democratic ticket for all partisan races, presumably meaning Blanks over Barnes for sheriff.

The PAC's recommendations, which traditionally have wielded strong influence in predominantly black precincts:

Chief Justice, N.C. Supreme Court: Sarah Parker.
Associate Justice, N.C. Supreme Court: Robin Hudson, Partricia Timmons-Goodson and Mark Martin.
N.C. Court of Appeals: Robert Hunter, Linda Stephens.
Superior Court Judge, District 18C: Susan Bray.
District Court Judge, District 18: Tom Jarrell.
City bonds: Yes votes for: fire stations, libraries, War Memorial Auditorium, Neighborhood Redvelopment, Inernationsl Civil Rights Center and Museum, economic development, Greensboro Historical Museum, Parks & Recreation and War Memorial Stadium renovations.

The PAC apparently was not moved by swim center proponents' argument that one of thr facility's major pluses would be swimming instruction for "inner-city" youth.

Interestingly, in the very tight to call race between Bray and Albright, Albright has not fared well in local endorsements.

The Carolina Peacemaker, the Rhino and Yes! Weekly all have gone with Bray.

We can see the big blue crane in downtown Greensboro slowly turn in sweeping circles from the comfort of our office windows.

But to get a fuller appreciation of the thing, stroll down North Elm Street on a sunny day and look way up.

It is magnificent, fascinating and scary enough from ground level. Imagine being on the other end looking down.

But not to worry. Tower cranes aren't very likely to tip over because they're anchored in massive concrete pads that typically weigh 400,000 pounds.

Tower cranes can lift up to 18 metric tons, or 39,690 pounds. They are rolled to construction sites on tractor-trailers and delicately assembled, joint by joint, in a process that still seems impossibly tedious and brazenly defiant of the laws of physics.

And they are way cool.

Still, why the aw-shucks reaction to a fairly common, if hard-to-ignore, piece of construction equipment?

Partly because Greensboro hadn't seen a tower crane downtown for about 16 years. There have been no additions to the city skyline and, technically, there won't be this time either.

This latest crane "merely" is remaking the old Wachovia tower, not building a new skyscraper from scratch, as Raleigh plans to do and Charlotte seems to do every other day.

But in the context of all the other good things happening in the center city, who's complaining? Center Pointe, as the building will be called after its extreme makeover, not only will bring more people downtown but it should add new life to North Elm Street, which remains downright desolate when compared to the party zoo on South Elm.

Another reason for the crane's "wow" factor is the lasting allure of these life-sized toys to grown kids like me who still get a kick out of watching cranes and tractors and big, yellow whatchamacallits move dirt and stir dust.

Tomorrow's News & Record editorial page will feature a recap of our endorsements in all contested local and statewide races, including judicial elections.

The roundup will contain a brief synposis of each race but you can read the complete text of any of the previous published editorials for each race by clicking here.

For the News & Record's Voter Guide, which contains news stories, candidate questionnaires and sample ballots, click here.

If all goes well Tuesday night,we'll write editorials for Wednesday's paper on the results. Election night's generally a fun time for us, almost like a holiday.

It's probably a little less fun for the candidates ... until it's over.

The word is in that some Eastern Guilford students will resume classes Wednesday.

According to the News & Record's Sue Schultz, 11th- and 12th-graders will begin classes Wednesday at the GTCC's Wendover campus. The ninth and 10th grades will begin classes Nov. 14 at the old Central N.C. School for the Deaf campus in Browns Summit.

That's very encouraging news; the sooner the students can re-establish some semblance of a nornal academic routine, the better.

This also probably is as good a time as any to commend the community for rallying around the school after a fire destroyed its physical building last week.

People and organizations from all over have stepped up and helped out.

If only we could sustain such universal concern for our public schools when there isn't a crisis. It probably isn't fair or realistic to expect it, but wouldn't it be nice if we could bottle some of that compassion and save it for later.

If anecdotal reports are any indication, the turnout at the polls today may be better than predicted, steady rain and all.

People seem energized by the bonds (for and against), a fierce sheriff's campaign and the very interesting District 18C Superior Court judge's race between Albirght and Bray.

My fearless prediction (based strictly on my gut, which is now filled with newsroom-supplied pizza):

The War Memorial Auditorium and Civil Rights Museum bonds will pass. The swim center won't. BJ Barnes will remain sheriff, beating Berkley Blanks, but it will be much closer than expected. Bray-Albright is too close to call.

I'll be back later to own up to these predictions, which, if past is prologue, will be dead wrong.

Interesting to see that Sandy Carmany has shifted to a registration policy for comments on her blog.

Here's what she said about that:

I'm tired of dealing with anonymous commenters who hide behind their anonymity to put forward sometimes ridiculous accusations against various people. Thus I have changed my comments settings, and future commenters will have to register in order to comment on this blog. Hopefully that will help foster a bit more responsibility when comments are submitted. (I have belatedly noted that many of you wiser, more experienced bloggers placed this requirement on your blogs long ago.)

I feel Sandy's pain and have addressed the anonymity issue on this blog before, wondering why people prefer clever handles to real names. That stirred considerable dissent (among, of course, anonymous commenters); I wish people would have the courage to come clean on who they are.

Note: This is a recast post, based on valid criticism below that the original language was imprecise and misleading:

In a not-so-shocking development, the City Council has announced that the confidential report, posted on local blogs originated with a document belonging to one of its own, Dianne Bellamy-Small.

The consultant's report summarized the investigation of former Greensboro police Chief David Wray.

Councilman Tom Phillips had assumed so, out loud, for months now.

The council also voted to release the full forensic report on the document's origin and passed a stern resolution about honesty and "core values" in a meeting not attended by Bellamy-Small.

What good all this does is unclear.

Maybe it can serve as a deterrent. Maybe not ... a council member still might defiantly reveal such a document in the future if he or she believes it is in the best interest of the public.

Maybe the council will censure Bellamy-Small. Or not speak to her or invite her to dinner parties.

It can't remove her from her office and it certainly wouldn't keep future documents from her, would it? That would shortchange her district.

I'm still not sure if anything's been gained here.

Meanwhile, Sandy Carmany says she's glad that's over ... time to move on. I doubt it.

Imagine the mood at the next council meeting Bellamy-Small attends.

I don't know about you, but I was angered and perplexed by the swat-a-fly-with-a-howitzer approach Homeland Security agents are using to deport a local woman who immigrated here from Peru.

As Tom Steadman's story noted, Sara Lenna, a medical assistant who is married to an American citizen, was hauled away from her job in handcuffs and imprisoned even though she has tried to seek legal status in this country above board and through the proper channels.

As for her being a threat to homeland security, that's ludicrous.

Area congressmen ought to take her case to Washington. This is not only hard-hearted but a waste of time and resources in the battle against terrorism and illegal immigration.

Freshly re-elected Rep. Howard Coble of Greensboro said Tuesday night that he had read the story. Lenna's arrest in handcuffs particularly bothered him, he added, as did any notion that her deportation would make America safer.

"A little flexibility," Coble said, "would go a long way."

Does anyone out there feel safer knowing she's in detention?

(Click here for Sunday's editorial on her case.)

And the leaki saga goes on and on ... to what end?

And I still wonder the value of this sideshow. The cirumstantial evidence points to Bellamy-Small. She still denies leaking the report.

The mayor says this can't go anywhere from here. Now Florence Gatten is calling for Bellamy-Small's resignation.

The only conclusion I can draw from all this is more theatrics on the council.

I'd recommend "Babel" highly for anyone looking for a well-crafted, thoughtful movie.

A tortured tale of crossed signals, clashing cultures and miscomunication, "Babel" stars Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and recalls Oscar winner "Crash."

But its storytelling isn't as linear or as sentimental as in "Crash." Nor does it rely as much on coincidences that tend to stretch credulity in "Crash." It instead shows how a hunting rifle given as a gift connects the lives of people on three continents and four countries.

Written by Guillermo Arriaga and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. it's long but riveting.

Horror of horrors. Some North Carolina vendors are selling lottery tickets to minors!

A two-month sting by state Alcohol Law Enforcement agents netted 91 misdemeanor citations for stores selling the get-rich-quick ducats to big dreamers under 18.

The sting, conducted in August and September, involved teenagers sent by ALE to more than 300 stores that sell lottery tickets. The undercover teens were coached to be anything but sneaky.

They didn't wear disguises or misrepresent themselves in any other way.

They carried their real identification. If someone asks you your age, they were advised, tell them the truth.

Even so, nearly a third of the locations sold the teenager tickets. In 10 cases, store owners or managers were the culprits.

That prompted the director of the N.C. Education Lottery, Tom Shaheen, to voice his frustration.

"We are very concerned about this issue," Shaheen told the Associated Press last week. "But we also believe the problem will decline over time."

For the record, selling lottery tickets to minors is a Class 1 misdemeanor in North Carolina.

ALE officials say the main problem may be many people not realizing that.

"It hasn't clicked yet that this is truly a statutorily age-restricted product," ALE chief Mike Robertson told reporters.

Shaheen and Robertson are both right. Selling lottery tickets to minors is against the law. And it ought to be.

But ask a dad to explain the logic of that law to his or her teenager and he'd probably stutter or stammer and, if all else fails, tell the smart-alecky kid to "go ask your mother." To wit:

So, Dad, I shouldn't buy lottery tickets because ...?

Because it'd be a silly waste of money.

But doesn't it benefit public education in the state? And would you prefer I spent that money on a DVD rental or a video game or sodas that you keep saying are bad for my teeth and could make me fat?

If the La-Z-Boy and High Point Regional-Moses Cone clashes are any indication, troubling new fissures are opening in the already fragile relationship between High Point and Greensboro.

It seems particularly inappropriate, and wasteful, for cities within the Triad to offer incentives for companies to relocate from to the other.

As for the hospital battle, the state will be the best arbiter as to whether a new emergency room would benefit north High Point. The bottom line ought to be what's best for patient care, period.

In any case, rivalriy instead of cooperation between Greensboro and High Point will be destructive in the long run.

The two cities stand to gain much more by working together than by pulling apart.

Remember the good ol' days, when regionalism was at least an ideal worth dreaming of?

Now it seems more like a mirage -- an unattainable pot of gold at the end of I-40.

Or worse, a punch line to mean jokes in High Point about Greensboro and mean jokes in Greensboro about High Point. Didja hear the one about the dueling neighbors?

For goodness sakes, even our hospitals can't get along.

This does not bode well for such crucial initiatives as the Heart of the Triad or the International Home Furnishings Market.

Other regional imperatives that could suffer include hopes for a regional transportation system and a Triad landfill.

Already, Winston-Salem had grown smug and aloof after landing Dell.

Now comes this hurtful La-Z-Boy thing, which High Point leaders say they told Greensboro was coming, but which still feels a like a sucker punch.

It gets worse.

There's even fragmentation within High Point, where north High Point seems more and more separate and apart culturally and politically from "Old High Point."

Many North High Pointers see themselves as neither fish nor fowl, neither part of High Point or Greensboro.

Area leaders had better step up and stop the bleeding or the damage could be irreparable.

I'll be on a panel Thursday at Guilford College with Philadelphia Daily News syndicated editorial cartoonist Signe Wilkinson and Rhino Times Editor John Hammer.

This is the second straight week in which I'm honored to be involved in a visit by a journalist whose work is regularly featured in the News & Record. New York Times syndicated columnist (not cartoonist, as I originally mistyped, though he was much funnier and much more entertaining than I expected) David Brooks lectured at Guilford last week.

Wilkinson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work in 1992 and was the first female cartoonist to be so honored. She has been president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

We'll discuss cartooning in general, as well as revisit (briefly, I hope) the Danish cartoon flap.

Here is a press release. And, below, a sample of Wilkinson's work:

We'll also talk about editorial cartooning in general: the process of conceiving cartoons; the process of choosing cartoons for publication; the dilemmas of what to run and what not to run.

Greensboro native Doug Marlette, another Pulitzer Prize winner, has expressed his misgivings about the state of editorial cartooning today. People don't have the tolerance or patience to listen to other points of view today, Marlette told me in 2004. And that newspapers don't have the courage to feature them.

"People feel that free speech is for them but not for other people," he said.

Cartoons increasingly are held to such suffocating standards of political correctness, he said, that it's hard to make a point and get published.

It'll be interesting to see if Wilkinson agrees.

Our panel discussion begins Thursday at 4 p.m. in the Guilford College Art Gallery.

Y'all come.

I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's panel with Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson, John Hammer and Geoff Brooks at Guilford College about what Wilkinson described as "those damned pictures."

Incredibly (well, not really) we agreed on more than we disagreed in a discussion that included the Danish cartoon controversy.

But I stood firm in my belief that for all the precious importance of freedom of speech, it carries with it a responsibility to use that right with discretion and sensitivity. And that a cartoon that might not be offensive to me may still offend someone else.

I added that try as I might, I still make occasional bad calls in choosing which cartoons to publish.

What a silly, overblown nonstory on a John Edwards staff member trying to finagle a PlayStation 3 before the official release from Wal-Mart.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that staffer for John Edwards tried to buy the game for the former U.S. senator's family at a Raleigh Wal-Mart.

The N&O adds: "Wal-Mart said in a release from its Arkansas corporate headquarters that an unnamed staff person for Edwards, a likely presidential candidate, contacted a Wal-Mart electronics manager in Raleigh on Wednesday. The staffer was trying to get the new Sony video game system for a member of Edwards' family, the release said."

Edwards says he wasn't aware of the attempt.

"My wife Elizabeth was looking for a PlayStation for my kids," Edwards told the N&O. "A young man who volunteers for us, apparently without our knowledge, was looking for a PlayStation 3 for himself and offered to look for one for us. He was not aware that Wal-Mart doesn't provide health insurance or decent pay for many of its employees or of my efforts to change the way Wal-Mart treats its employees."

"He made a mistake by using my name," Edwards said. "He was simply trying to help."

Yeah, right.

This sordid scandal settles it; the guy clearly isn't presidential material.

I attended the annual role model luncheon today sponsored by the Black Child Development Institute.

I'm always uplifted by the numbers of smart, motivated young people there. And I'm impressed by the terrific questions they ask about careers that interest them:

How much can you make at a newspaper?
Well, you won't get rich but you can do OK.

Is it hard?
Yes. It can be, but that's also what makes it challenging and fulfilling?

Do you write things that sometimes make people upset?

Oh yes. But sometimes we even write things that make people glad.
The key is to be as fair and as accurate and as complete as possible.

What skills do you need as a journalist and how do you get better?

You need to be able to write and to reason. You need to be curious, nosey, skeptical. You need to be quick. You need to be able to be your reader's eyes and ears sometimes. And you need to be a good listener.

What do you like least about your job?

Probably the same thing that I like the most: its unpredictability. I have absolutely no idea what each day will bring. No day is like the one before it.

The way the luncheon works is the kids choose tables where various careers are represented. They eat lunch and hold conversations with role models at thoese tables.

Each year I worry a little bit that no one will come to the newspaper table. But they do, and one bright little girl from Penn-Griffin Middle School has come for two years in a row.

"See you next year," she said, smiling.

Remember the good ol' days, when regionalism was at least an ideal worth dreaming of?

Now it seems more like a mirage — an unattainable pot of gold on some mystical exit ramp where I-40 touches the horizon.

For goodness sakes, even our hospitals can't get along.

This does not bode well for such crucial initiatives as the Heart of the Triad or the International Home Furnishings Market.

Already, Winston-Salem had grown smug and aloof after landing its precious Dell plant.

Now comes this hurtful La-Z-Boy thing, in which High Point has taken the unprecedented step of offering $600,000 in incentives to move the company's headquarters a few miles from Greensboro to High Point.

High Point leaders say they told their counterparts in Greensboro this was coming. They also say this is an exception, because it involves High Point's bread and butter, home furnishings. But it still feels like a sucker punch.

Says the former chairman of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, Watts Carr, whose term ended last summer: "Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and Kernersville should have something stronger than a gentlemen's agreement — which doesn't seem to work — on how to best compete with each other on projects which will benefit all of them, and there is no rationale which should allow poaching of any company located nearby or even within North Carolina for that matter.

"Remember how some of us felt when the Charlotte mayor came to the Triad to recruit the ACC headquarters ?"

Management and news staff at WGHP (Channel 8) may want to take a shower after two consecutive nights of O.J. Simpson interviews run at the end of the month.

O.J. wants the attention; Fox wants the ratings. And as each has proven in the past, either will do whatever it takes to accomplish those ends.

O.J. is pushing a bizarre book, in which he suggests how he about how he could have murdered his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman.

The two-part television interview with Simpson will be broadcast on Nov. 27 and Nov. 29.

The publisher of the book told The New York Times last week that she believed Simpson’s statements in the interview constitute a confession.

Blogs veteran African American sports journalist Roy S. Johnson:

"All I’ll say is this: Don’t Watch. Don’t Buy. Don’t Read.

"And for all of our sakes: Don’t cheer anymore. He didn’t deserve it then, and he certainly does not deserve it now."

As for Channel 8, it would be nice if the station chose not to play along with this sleaze fest and aired alternative programming in the O.J. time slot.

Update: News Corp. has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special.

As Michelle Jarboe reports, More and more retailers are opening in the wee hours of Friday morning to attract more shoppers earlier.

Want to start your Christmas gift hunting at 1 a.m.? No problem. Can't wait that long? How about 9 p.m. Thanskgivng night?

Y'all knock yourselves out.

Is it something in the water?

Celebrtries, near-celebrities and has-been celebrities continue to behave cruelly and ignorantly this week.

First, it was O.J. and that tasteless book deal/Tv special debacle.

Now "Seinfeld's" Kramer, Michael Richards, uses racial slurs during a painful stand-up routine at a comedy club.

Richards, who was reacting to hecklers, apologized during a bizarre interview on David Letterman's show Monday night.

"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," Richards said during a satellite appearance on Letterman, as pre-scheduled studio guest Jerry Seinfeld listened. "I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this."

Maybe he and Mel Gibson should do lunch.

The future of Eastern Guilford High School, short-term and longer-term, will consume much of the school board's agenda tonight.

Sperintendent Terry Grier said Monday that he expects "a long meeting." Possibly an emotional one, too.

A fire destroyed Eastern's building on Nov. 1, forcing makeshift arrangements to keep classes going.

But at least 150 or so Eastern parents are unhappy with the temporary classes split between GTCC East for juniors and seniors and the UNCG-A&T joint research campus in Browns Summit for freshmen and sophomores.

They'd prefer to see the school reunited in one facility, possibly the old Lucent Technologies building in McLeansville. But that could be a very expensive option involving lease payments and retrofits.

And it begs the question: For all that Eastern community has gone through -- and it has gone through a lot -- how much is too much for spending on temporary quarters? And when does that expense start to siphon money that should go to the new, permanent school and to needs in other schools?

Add to the Solutions to Problems that Don't Exist File: A proposal to expand the terms of Greensboro City Council members from two years to four.

These are not typically the most competitive races in the world anyway. Mayor Keith Holliday ran unopposed in the last election. So did Tom Phillips in District 3.

Nor has getting re-elected typically been all that hard. Sandy Carmany, who says she may support the idea of four-year terms, has held her seat since 1991, and won her most recent re-election over a challenger who barely campaigned. Yvonne Johnson has held her at-large seat since 1993.

In District 1, Earl Jones had served for 18 years until he was defeated in 2001.

Nor are these campaigns routinely all that expensive.

True, Sandra Anderson Groat spent $19,000 in the 2005 campaign. But that amount was more the exception than the rule. Also, it was her first bid for public office.

And it is true (as the general longevity of council members attests) that voters rarely have kicked the collective council to the curb.

The council has plenty on its plate without adding this nonissue.

If two-year terms are OK for Congress and the state House, they surely ought to be OK for the Greensboro City Council.

In fact, if any terms need changing, maybe it should be the Guilford County commissioners, from four years to two.

Two recent inquiries from readers:

1. "Why are you not printing the letters to the ediitor about the police mess?"

2. "You are not printing enough letters that support the other side of the issue about the State Baptist Convention and gays."

In both cases the answer is the same. The letters we publish are a pretty accurate representation of what we receive.

If you want to see points of view that aren't represented in the letters as much as you think it ought to be, please write.