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In case you missed it, Richard Prince offered this interesting analysis of Tim Russerts' Farrakhan question at Tuesday's Democratic debate.

Prince writes about journalism issues for the Maynard Institute.

I'm heading off for a tour of the Randleman reservoir.

I'll have much more to write about this later.

This week's column (expanded from an earlier post).

Some readers have had it up to here with letters from "those social work students at UNCG."

"I'm amazed by the daily barrage of 'entitlement' letters, recently published, particularly from UNCG students,"Tom Imbus of Browns Summit writes in a letter published today.

Imbus is particularly distressed that one of the students, Emily Lawing, suggested in her letter that birth control is too costly.

"Since when does government have the 'right' to use our tax money to subsidize the sexual activities of Lawing and others?" he writes. "If this mentality is indicative of the next generation that will run our country, we may as well adopt European-style socialism now."

Take heart, Mr. Imbus. We get these student letters every year. And most of them aren't about what their country can do for them.

Most are about what students have seen as interns working with foster families and in nursing homes and adoption agencies. Many of them now know firsthand how cold and unforgiving poverty can be.

These experiences inform what they write and help the rest of us better understand what's going on out there.

That doesn't mean these letters can't be a pain, in sheer volume and in the inevitable phone calls from students frantically inquiring about the status of their letters. And, presumably, their grades.

And, yes I'll admit, sometimes we do just want to call over there and tell them to stop.

But the man behind the student letters, Bob Wineburg, Jefferson Pilot Excellence Professor in the UNCG Department of Social Work, makes a good case for their value. "This assignment is intended to get students, for the first time, to interact in their community in their own voices," he says.

It's mourning in America today ... at least for me.

The Green Bay Packers' Bret Favre is retiring. The star quarterback with the bionic arm and the little kid's grin shocked Packer Nation (of which I am a citizen) by calling it quits Tuesday, even though his body and his arm are still in magnificent shape.

It's his spirit that apparently convinced him it's over. Favre said he's tired. His heart is not in it anymore.

As much as I wish it weren't so, there's grace, honesty and courage in knowing when to walk away.

So many athletes hang on past their prime, when their spirits are willing but their bodies no longer are able.

Another Packer, Reggie White, comes to mind.

White retired, then unretired to play for the Carolina Panthers. He was only a shell of his former self. It was sad to watch.

Joe Montana quarterbacked in the twilight of his career ... in Kansas City. A broken, battered Broadway Joe Namath finished way, way off Broadway as a Los Angeles Ram.

Among the saddest of all, boxing great Joe Louis and even wrestled well past his prime, not so much because he wanted to but because he had to.

Hounded relentlessly by the IRS, Louis was forced to disgrace himself (he even danced onstage in an entertainment act) to pay onerous back tax bills.

Favre could change his mind (and, of course, I'd be overjoyed) but there''s something to be said for going out after the banner season he had in 2007, leading a young team just one game short of the Super Bowl.

But, man, he'll be missed. He made football fun.

Is it just me, or has Hillary Clinton built the foundation of her campaign on a dubious and contradictory premise: that she is the "experienced" candidate?

Here's the problem with that logic: Much of that "experience," as she defines it, is experience by association -- or more specifically, by marriage.

So, on the one hand, Clinton is a living symbol of the potenital of a smart, tough female candidate to apsire to -- and win -- the highest office in the country. That's a good thing.

On the other, she clutches firmly, at times desperately, to her husband's coattails. Even when she tamped down Bill's profile, she contnued to hitch a convenient ride on his resume, as if she were president during those two terms, not Bill. That's not a good thing.

Does she get instant presidential street cred simply because she lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for two terms? So did the Bush twins.

By that logic, a woman (or man, for that matter) who marries a rocket scientist gains, by osmosis, I guess, the credentials of a rocket scientist.

Bret Favre's wife, Deanna, is experienced in the nuances of quarterbacking an NFL team.

A man who marries a college president is experienced in the art of running an academic institution.

A cop's wife is a better candidate for the police force.

What it the message here? That marrying a U.S. president naturally qualifies you to be a U.S. president?

The fact is, Hillary's experience argument is tenuous at best.

She has held one elective office in her entire life -- one handpicked in a community in which she had no roots. For the record, Barack Obama, whom she paints as soaking wet behind the ears, has more total elective experience than her.

What it the message here? That marrying a president naturally qualifies you to run for president?

This is not to say Hillary isn't qualified. This is to say that the experience argument that she emphasizes the most is specious and way overblown. And that it's questionable how much truth there is in that advertising.

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Just got back to the office following One Guilford, the Threequel, at UNCG's Elliott University Center.

Aside from losing Page 2 from my script (in the middle of introductions, no less) while co-moderated with UNCG economics professor Andrew Brod, I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion.
I was particularly impressed by the 11 panelists, who addressed the issue of preparing students for college and the workplace. Or not.

The bottom line: Guilford County Schools and the Guilford County community have got to do much better with this.

College administrators and professors cited ill-prepared students who need remediation when they come to college.

They noted especially acute problems with math, reading and writing (what does that leave?)

They discussed challenges with critical thinking.

They cited inequities among schools.

They challenged the community to invest more of its time, attention and money in the schools.

They complained that, while accountability is important, the heavy emphasis on testing is flawed. all-consuming and ineffective.

One bonus for this latest session was the presence of more young voices on the panel and in the audience -- including 2006 Smith High School graduate Jasmine Renee Mitchell, a UNC-Chapel Hill Morehead Scholar; Grimsley (2001) and UNCG (2005) graduate Megan Metzger, who now runs her own business; and GTCC student Ralph Yarnall-Rodland.

They were bright and thoughtful and forthright.

A group of Dudley High ninth-graders also attended, as did other students.

The other panelists, who also were very good, included:

-- Dr. Kathryn Baker Smith, vice president for educational support services at GTCC.

-- Jerry Camp, owner of C&D Industrial Tools & Supplies Inc. and 2008 chairman of the High Point Chamber of Commerce.

-- Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr., dean of University Studies and professor of biological sciences at N.C. A&T State University.

-- Dr. Rosemary C. Wander, associate provost for research and public/private sector partnerships at UNCG.

-- Dr. Margaret Arbuckle, executive director of the Guilford Education Alliance.

-- Alan Duncan, chairman of the Guilford County Board of Education.

-- Dr. Noah V. Rogers, principal of Smith High School.

-- Malishai Woodbury, who teaches at Dudley High School.

It was disappointing to see so few elected officials there, especially school board, City Council and county Board of Commissioners members. It would have been nice to see more High Pointers as well.

In fact, the turnout in general was less than we'd hoped.

I know these meetings are not an end unto themselves. But we desperately need to involve more voices in these conversations.

We've also got to figure out tangible ways to transform ideas ino tangible actions.

We'll be writing more about that in coming days.

We'll also post a Web video we put together as part of the program.

Please stay tuned.

A couple of trickles following a flood of water news this week in North Carolina and the Triad:

-- Among the most interesting ideas I heard during an editorial writers roundtable in Chapel Hill Sunday was this priceless morsel of common sense: Why not install residential water meters inside the house where people can see them round the clock?

And why not have those meters use measures that average people can read and understand?

I bet consumption would take a significant drop.

It always has puzzled me that cities want customers to conserve but use such hieroglyphic measuring terms and techniques.

-- It's OK now to use gray water to irrigate plants in North Carolina. State officials lifted a kibosh on the practice this week. They've determined that fears of "pathogens" washed off our bodies from used bath water posing a public health risk were greatly exaggerated.

Other states have allowed the practice for years.

"If the water is clean enough to bathe your child or wash your dishes in, it should be clean enough to put on your flowers," Bill Ross, secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resoutces, told the News & Observer of Raleigh.

Psssst. I know a lot of people who were doing it anyway.

-- The Triangle may be considering a regional authority to address its long-term water needs.
Isn't it nice to know that the Triad already has done that with Randleman Lake?

Despite some lingering turf tensions, the Randleman project is a success, as is the regional authority that oversees it.

I am an avid jogger who really appreciates Greensboro' fine network of walking and running paths and trails, but $26 million for a downtown greenway?

I admire the vision but I'm still struggling to grasp the practicality.

Imagine all the things this community could do with $26 million.

That said, Savannah, Ga., comes to mind. Its myriad parks -- with their majestic old statues (including one of Gen. Nathanael Greene) and leafy shade trees -- connect on a historic grid and rival Charleston, S.C., in sheer Southernness.

But $26 million?

Why not create a $26 million loan or grant fund to boost downtown development?

Why not finish the Civil Rights Museum (you'd have change left)?

Why not help fund Murrow Station, the mixed-use development that could expand downtown's footprint beyond the railroad tracks that traditionally have divided black from white?

Why not underwrite a comprehensive initiative to take youths off the streets and out of gangs into other, more constructive activities?

Now, I know most of the money will be private, but some also is expected to come from taxpayers.

We're meeting with the greenway folks soon. I'll hear their pitch with an open mind.

But $26 million?

I shouldn't let another day go by without saying something about the redoubtable Mouth of the South, Bill Currie.

The former Tar Heel radio play-by-play man and High Point native died on Feb. 11 at the age of 83.

I'm remiss in not posting something sooner but it is some ways it seems appropos to give the Mouth his props on the cusp of another NCAA Tournament.

Currie called Heels games in the 1960s and early '70s, before the term March Madness had been coined and when only the winner of the ACC tournament made the NCAAs.

How long ago was it? Fewer games were televised, so the radio broadcasts were more prominent.. Dunking had been outlawed because of some kid at UCLA named Alcindor.
Black players were still a rarity in the ACC during most of those years. Clemson and South Carolina (then still an ACC member) fielded all-white teams.

I don't know that there's been as colorful and entertaining a sports radio personality since.

Win or lose, Currie made listening to basketball fun with his cornpone witticisms and his predilection for irreverence.

Just ask one of his kids.

"He was eclectic," Margaret Currie Granger, the youngest of his three children, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "He made sports interesting for people who didn't follow sports. He was a nut. He was crazy. He was outrageous. He always was a character and was a character until the day he died."

She ought to know.

The Mouth once described the infamous 12-10 N.C. State slowdown victory over Duke in the ACC Tournament as exciting "as watching artificial insemination."

When the Heels would clear their bench during a lopsided win he'd call it "opening the floodgates of mercy."

I also remember Currie doing games for the ABA's Carolina Cougars, in a league that was rich with the strange and unusual, a treasure trove of material for the Mouth's immortal one-liners.

He'd quip about empty arenas, bikini-clad ballgirls and a South Florida arena he described as an "aircraft hangar."

If memory serves, for a little while he did Cougars and Tar Heel games before moving on to Pittsburgh.

Where Dick Vitale is merely loud and a little bit crazy, the Mouth was smart and funny. And it all flowed so naturally. You couldn't script that stuff.

Sorry, Woody, but Bill Currie remains my all-time favorite Carolina play-by-play man.

I didn't have the chance to see Barack Obama deliver his speech Tuesday on race.

But I have read the text. Those words are both powerful and courageous -- and go places and take on issues Obama didn't have to confront.

He could have played it safer, either with a more calculated, less honest speech or by avoiding the blow-up over his fiery-tongued pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, altogether by hoping time and the public's short attention span would blunt the edges of the controversy.

To his credit, he did not.

"I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy," Obama said.

"For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course.

"Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church?

"Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely -- just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed."

Honest discussions of race remain among the most difficult dialogues in this country, even in the year 2008.

But in a graceful but forthright address Obama made these points clearly:

1. That he is who is, the son a black man and a white mother whose unique upbringing has shaped his view of the world.

That racism and the legacy of racism still affect the nation's black citizens.

He noted: "The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning.

"That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

"But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races."

2. That many white citizens also feel forgotten and left behind and even disenfranchised. And justifiably so.

"In fact," Obama said in his speech, "a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience --as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch."

3. That he still believes in the power and the goodness of the nation to overcome those obstacles -- that "the profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society.

"It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country -- a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen -- is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."

4. That black people acknowledging the sins of the past and their lasting effects (and pressing whites to do the same) is no excuse to embrace victimhood -- no excuse not to seize their responsbilities as mothers and (especially) fathers who will work and fight for their families and their communities .

Whether that will be enough over the stretch run of a long and bitter campaign remains to be seen.

But it was refreshing to see Obama step forward and face the issue head-on.

And choose to lead rather than be led.

An interesting take on Obama's relationship with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. by a local pastor, from today's op-ed page:

By the Rev. David N. Mielke

I saw video clips from and read Barack Obama's Tuesday speech on race. I was particularly taken by his personal references to his pastor (now former pastor), the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
As a pastor who over the years has also said numerous things that have offended my congregants, I blanch at the reaction of the political pundits and television personalities to Wright and Obama's relationship with him. They just don't understand the role of pastor -- even controversial ones like Wright.

I don't expect members of my congregation to accept everything I say as gospel. I don't expect them to leave our church if they are offended by something I have said (though some in the past have.) Commentators have suggested Obama and his family should have openly challenged Pastor Wright or should have left Trinity United Church of Christ or even abandoned their longtime friendship with Wright.

It is not the nature of either personal Christian belief or the church itself to engender unanimous agreement on issues -- particularly social issues. Many of the things Wright has said from the pulpit are despicable, and Obama admitted to that in this speech. But media personalities seem to posit Obama as Wright's "bedfellow," evidenced in their eyes by his unwillingness to dissociate himself from the man.

That is illegitimate "guilt" by association.

Are you among those who wonder, as I do, whether the brief excerpts of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, played over and over and over like the Zapruder film, dramatically lacked context?,

Richard Prince of the Maynard Institute offers this insightful post.Follow his links to other writers, whose thoughtful reactions add a lot more substance to what has been a distressingly shallow discussion.

This week's column (an expanded version).

Who ya gonna call?

Odds are, if you're running for something, Bill Burckley
.
The former city councilman and political consultant has worked for nearly everybody who is somebody among local elected officials.

His list of clients over the years includes candidates of every size, gender, color and political stripe: Mary Rakestraw, Mike Barber, Billy Yow, Skip Alston, Earl Jones, Mike Winstead, Alma Adams, Trudy Wade, Mel Watt, Howard Coble.

Burckley, a Republican, has crunched numbers and handled mailings for the state Republican and Democratic parties.

He was a major force behind the strong but ultimately failed effort to block the downtown baseball stadium in Greensboro.

He has consulted with the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in downtown Greensboro and the Simkins PAC, a feared and powerful force in local politics.

And he engineered the campaign of former County Commissioner Wade, who won the seat of longtime District 5 City Council incumbent Sandy Carmany, in a smashmouth assault that included mailers, blazing color ads and caricatures of Carmany that poked fun at her record.
The only thing worse than having him on your team, say some local politicians, is not having him on your team.

He's tenacious, thorough, a bespectacled pit bull of a campaigner who relishes a good fight and is flattered by comparisons to Karl Rove.

Burckley, 63, a former paratrooper (small wonder) and a CPA by trade, provides detailed mailing and phone lists for some clients. For others, he orchestrates entire campaigns, from stem to stern.

Wade's campaign was "the total package," he says
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"We were dealing with an incumbent with 16 years under her belt -- and a 16-year track record," he says of Carmany, who defeated him for the same seat as a challenger in 1991. "I looked at those 16 years -- what she said versus what she accomplished."

As for the biting caricatures of Carmany, Burckley says, "Most people found them to be hilarious. I'm sure Sandy Carmany didn't find them hilarious. People started to look forward to the next one."

And he doesn't apologize for the hardball tactics he used against Carmany on Wade's behalf. In fact, he says he was simply borrowing a page from Carmany's playbook in 1991.

He produces as evidence a T-shirt emblazoned with the headline "Buckley lays an egg." A cartoon under it depicts Burckley with the body of a chicken, being choked by a smiling Carmany.

"Bill gets choked up on his positions," type under the cartoon adds. "Carmany stands firm."

Burckley has a long memory and he obviously relished the payback victory over her. But don't be shocked if he winds up running a campaign for Carmany some day.

Burckley even has plied his trade for a local competitor, Florence Gatten, a political consultant who has schooled her share of candidates -- and a candidate against whom he has run oppositon campaigns.

When Gatten was struggling to survive in 2005, finishing a disappointing fourth for three available seats in the at-large City Council primary, it was Burckley who helped engineer her comeback. Gatten surged to a third-place finish, grabbing the final seat from a fellow incumbent, Don Vaughan.

"Oh yes, dear Bill," Gatten says when asked about Burckley. "I always use Bill for my voter lists. He's an empiricist. He believes that absolute perfect data exists and he uses that as his Holy Grail."

Gatten won't go so far as to credit her reversal of fortunes to Burckley. She believes the News & Record's endorsement mattered more. But she remains a long-time and satisfied customer.
"I always use him when I can," she says. "I send people to him."

Adds former City Council candidate and Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman David Hoggard: "He understands politics as well as anyone I've ever spoken to. If I was running, I'd want him working for me."

After the anti-ballpark campaign, Burckley had all but disappeared from the public eye. Now he's everywhere.

As the News & Record reported Sunday, Barack Obama comes to town Wednesday for a Greensboro Coliseum rally.

It's about time. We were wondering if the impending -- and suddenly very important -- battle for North Carolina between Obama and Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton was going to happen without the Gate City.

Odds are we'll see both Clintons before all is said and done. The Clinton camp says it expects to be in North Carolina every week until the May 6 primary.

Good. It's nice to see the state finally matter in a presidential primary.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party seems to be seriously teetering on the brink of political disaster.

Mathematically, Clinton's chances of overtaking Obama's lead in pledged delegates are remote.
That means she'll need to lobby and convince enough superdelegates to overtake Obama.
What a dumb system.

If Clinton succeeds, the candidate with fewer pledged delegates and less of the popular vote could wind up the nominee.

This would not sit well with Obama supporters, who are not likely to kiss and make up and enthusiastically support her against John McCain in the general election.

Clinton should know this. She also should know the damage her persistence could cause the party in the long run.

Would she bow out gracefully to allow frontrunner Obama the best shot at a strong campaign against McCain?

Fat chance.

All that seems to matter to Clinton is winning. At any costs.

To Clinton supporters out there, this may seem harsh and judgmental. I don't mean it to be. I'm just calling it as I see it. Please help me understand why I'm wrong.

The Randleman dam is an impressive piece of engineering, especially from the top looking down.

Tons of water cascade down its stairstep concrete spillway, giving it the appearance of a giant, manmade waterfall.

The water is overflowing because the lake is full. What a welcome sight.

I got the chance to see the dam and reservoir up close on Monday -- much closer than before -- in a tour with former Greensboro City Councilman Tom Phillips (the accompanying photos are his).

Phillips has been a member of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, which oversees the dam and reservoir, since 1992.

On a cold, blustery, overcast day in which the wind whipped through the trees and turned our cheeks red, it had snowed earlier. Spring indeed.

Anyway, we rode in an SUV onto a driveway on the top of the structure, which keeps enough H2O at bay to create Randleman Lake, a soon-to-be regional water source for Greensboro, High Point and three other communities.

Then we took a gravel road to the base of the dam and stepped through a padlocked fence and a steel door into its innards.

In a dank, dimly lit tunnel lined with pipes that spans the entire length of the spillway, water drips like steady rain in the corridor and limestone coats some of the walls. You get the impression you're in a cave. Or a dungeon in one of the those old black-and-white Boris Karloff horror flicks.

Drip ... Drip ... Drip.

Then it occurred to me: Water? Leaks?.

Tom didn't wait for me to say anything. He'd apparently read my panicked expression.

Not to worry, Tom said. It's supposed to do that.

We stepped over puddles into the heart of the dam. I wanted to be able to say I had walked the whole thing. I also prayed to myself that the vast majority of the water would stay where it belonged: outside.

There were circuit breakers and switches and gutters on either side of the walkway that funneled small streams ... to somewhere.

A chain link fence topped with barbed wire surrounds the reservoir and a number of hard-to-miss signs make it clear that unauthorized visitors are not welcome.

Still, people seem drawn to the lake and the terrain around. Phillips says some of the locals like to run their ATVs on the hilly trails. One tresspasser injured himself and had to airlifted by helicopter to a hospital, he says.

Phillips says a couple came to the dam to drink beer and wound up falling over the edge. They, too, had to be hospitalized.

Some obvisouly see it as an amusement attraction, but the dam is more significant because of the water it will provide, the growth it will allow.

Not that it hasn't been a long, long time coming.

The dam has taken nearly a lifetime to become reality. The political and regulatory barriers were formidable but it probably is the best, most hopeful example of regional cooperation in Triad history.

The truth be told, the participating governments still don't fully trust one another. But the project has gotten done anyway. All that's left to do is build a pump station and a treament plant and connect it all with pipelines.

In two or three years (maybe sooner), you and I will be sipping water from that lake.

For all the hydraulic and structural engineering it took to get it all done, the most amazing feat of engineering was the regional collaboration that made it all happen.

Wish I could bottle that and save it for a rainy day.

David Brooks in The New York Times on Hillary Clinton's hopes for the presidency:

"The door is closing. Night is coming. The end, however, is not near.

"Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she's probably down to a 5 percent chance.

"Five percent.

"Let’s take a look at what she's going to put her party through for the sake of that 5 percent chance: The Democratic Party is probably going to have to endure another three months of daily sniping. For another three months, we'll have the Carvilles likening the Obamaites to Judas and former generals accusing Clintonites of McCarthyism. For three months, we'll have the daily round of resume padding and sulfurous conference calls. We'll have campaign aides blurting 'blue dress' and only-because-he's-black references as they let slip their private contempt.

"For three more months (maybe more!) the campaign will proceed along in its Verdun-like pattern. There will be a steady rifle fire of character assassination from the underlings, interrupted by the occasional firestorm of artillery when the contest touches upon race, gender or patriotism. The policy debates between the two have been long exhausted, so the only way to get the public really engaged is by poking some raw national wound.

"For the sake of that 5 percent, this will be the sourest spring."

Brooks adds:

"The only question is whether Clinton herself can step outside the apparatus long enough to turn it off and withdraw voluntarily or whether she will force the rest of her party to intervene and jam the gears."

Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson on the Obama-Jeremiah Wright saga:

"Clinton has her own free pass (on the race issue). She repeatedly has had to dump surrogates for stereotyping Obama. She once led Obama among black voters, yet has lost almost all of them with her camp's tactics. Yet she faces no pressure to reveal her racial views. And she certainly is offering none in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, where surrogate and Governor Ed Rendell says, 'You've got conservative whites here and I think there are some whites who are probably not ready to vote for an African-American candidate.' "

"Once again, America's white leaders play footsie with white intolerance while Obama was pressured to bring the nation the head of Jeremiah Wright. Once again, a black person holds the nation's bag of racial burdens."

Click here to read the whole thing.

Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer was all smiles and unbridled optimism when we met for a video interview only a few months ago.

Now.he's gone.

The author of "the Sumarai CEO has stepped down amid turbulent times for the fledgling discount air carrier.

High oil prices are wreaking havoc for all air carriers. But for especially for Skybus they couldn't have come at a worse time.

I still think the Skybus formula is sound: no frills, no extras, bare-bones expectations for bare-bones prices. Second-tier airports that may have been off the beaten path but were less crowded and chaotic than the usual suspects.

Diffenderffer essentially said to us: We promise very basic but important deliverables:
A very good price. Friendly people. And a clean, well-maintained aircraft that gets you where you're going on time. You want extras, you get to pay for them. But you have a choice.

Of course, when we threw worst-case scenarios his way, oil prices did come up.

But the airline seemed to be a solid gamble for PTI Airport to stake a good deal of its competitive future on.

Now we'll have to see.

More ominous news for PTI as I type this entry: Another discount carrier, Allegiant Air, announced today that it will end its scheduled service from Greensboro to Orlando and Tampa Bay. The flights will end after May 31.

Grand Coulee or Hoover it may not be, but the Randleman dam is an impressive piece of engineering all the same ... especially from the top looking down.

Tons of water cascade down its 80-foot tall concrete stairstep spillway, crashing with a roar into frothy pools of white foam at the bottom. Two fallen limbs cling to the top edge of the wall, defying the steady current to sweep them over.

From a distance, the dam looks like a giant water sculpture -- the Center City Park fountain on steroids.

The lake is full, for the first time in its young man-made life. In the midst of a still-ongoing statewide drought, what a sight for parched lips.

The reservoir spans 3,007 acres in Guilford and Randolph counties. I got the chance to see the project up close last week -- much closer than ever before -- in a tour with former Greensboro City Councilman Tom Phillips. Phillips has been a member of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, which oversees the dam and reservoir, since 1992.

On a raw, overcast, allegedly spring day, we rode in Phillips' SUV onto a driveway atop the structure (way cool), which keeps enough H2O at bay to create Randleman Lake, a soon-to-be regional water source for Greensboro, High Point, Archdale, Randleman, Jamestown and Randolph County. Then we took a gravel road down to the base of the dam and stepped through a padlocked fence and a steel door into its innards.

Drip ... drip ... drip.

In a dank, dimly lit tunnel lined with pipes that spans the entire length of the spillway, water dripped like steady rain in the corridor and limestone creeps down some of the walls. A spider web flickered in the breeze above our heads.

Drip ... drip ... drip.

Then it occurred to me: Water? Leaks? Phillips didn't wait for me to say anything. He'd apparently read my panicked expression. Not to worry, he said. It's supposed to do that.

We stepped over puddles into the heart of the dam, as I prayed to myself that the vast majority of the water would stay where it belonged: outside.

The News & Record's Dick Barron quotes an industry analyst as saying the Skybus strategy remains a sound one.

The discount airline, on which PTI has pinned a lot of hopes, "has made smart choices, given current conditions, and its low-fare formula that offers direct flights with no frills is an idea that has worked around the world, Barron reports he was told by the analyst, Anthony Tangorra.

But Tangorra also tells Barron that Skybus can't continue to lose money at the current clip. "When it comes to walk-up fares and other buckets in the Skybus system, they need to generate higher yields to survive. Their yields are simply too low," he says.

Read the complete story here.

Some cynics are saying local leaders have been had for the incentives they provided the airline.
That they jumped too eagerly at an unproven startup.

But they made a calculated gamble that still appears worth making, even in hindsight. Skybus isn't the only airline feeling the pinch of high fuel prices; they all are.

Further, PTI desperately needed a low-fare carrier and Skybus fit the bill. If it survives the current turmoil in the industry, it will be well worth it for the airport and for Skybus.