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The Grasshoppers ended their season with a victory today and another banner year in attendance, drawing more than 10,000 fans to New Bridge Bank Park.

The Hoppers fell short of the last year's record attendance but led the South Atlantic League in total attendance anyway.

Some complain that the downtown ballpark may be good for the team but lousy for downtown.

To a small extent, they may be right. I've seen little evidence that the park has done much for restaurants in the area.

After all, they do sell lots of food and drink at the stadium. Who's still hungry after a big fat ol' ballpark sausage dog, plus ketchup-drenched fries?

But the games do draw people downtown that normally may not come and offers them at least a glimpse of the many changes going on there.

And the stadium has inspired some downtown developers to build residences in the area, which absolutely will have a direct long-term impact on downtown's vitality.

I honestly don’t think the issue of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy ought to be a big deal in Sarah Palin’s quest for the vice presidency.

But her and her husband’s prepared statement about the matter does raise a concern.

First, that statement in its entirety:

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”

I appreciate and respect the love and support in that message, but nowhere is there any mention of this being a mistake that young people, rich, poor and in-between, should avoid.

I don’t mean in a judgmental, fire-and-brimstone vein -- just some acknowledgment that teen pregnancy isn’t OK.

To be clear, I don’t think teens ought to be marred with scarlet letters for getting pregnant, and I definitely don’t think the progeny of such mistakes should be called “illegitimate,” as some people still insist on doing.

The baby didn’t choose to be born and he or she certainly doesn’t deserve such a mean and contemptuous label.

But teen pregnancy almost always is a poor choice for the mother, the father and certainly the baby.

The Palins don’t address that. They barely even hint it.

Whatever there still is to learn about Sarah Palin, one thing is clear.

She makes a helluva speech.

I don't think Joe Biden will have to worry about beating up on her.

It is as hard now as it was for me a year ago to understand why Greensboro College and the Warnersville community can't come to some kind of understanding about GC's planned sports complex on the Price School campus.

There still to me seems to be an opportunity for a win-win outcome.

But some Warnersville folks in particular seem determined to shoot down any effort the college makes to reach out.

Am I missing something here?

The folks over at Decision 2008 offer a cache of very interesting background information on Sarah Palin.

You can connect to it here.

I was happy to hear that my alma mater, Dudley High School, soundly defeated Grimsley Thursday night.

I was not happy to read on our Web site that a huge fight followed and that two students were arrested.

I'm sure more details will follow in the morning. And I hope this incident wasn't gang-related.

Whatever the cause, it is a shame and it is inexcusable.

This just in from the McClatchy Tribune wire:

"Dell Inc. might sell some or all of its manufacturing plants, including the one it opened in October 2005 in Forsyth County, as part of its intensified effort to cut expenses, the Wall Street Journal reported today." Read more about it here.

Uh oh.

This week's column.

I honestly don’t think the issue of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy ought to be a big deal in Sarah Palin’s quest for the vice presidency.

Given the inexact science of raising teenagers, stuff can and does happen, no matter how good a parent you are.

But Palin’s and her husband Todd’s prepared statement about the matter does raise more than a small concern.

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” that statement says.

“Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with the news as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.

“As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows that she has our unconditional love and support.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family.”

Well said. There is love, respect and support in those words. But nowhere is there any mention of this being a mistake that young people — rich and poor, black and white, Republican and Democrat — should avoid.

I don’t mean that in any judgmental, holier-than-thou, fire-and-brimstone vein — just some acknowledgment that teen pregnancy, plainly and simply, isn’t OK.

And that having unprotected sex is not only unwise but dangerous and possibly even fatal.
To simply say, as some have, that teenagers will be teenagers — and that this story connects everyday people to the Palins and makes them all the more appealing to undecided voters — is hardly enough.

The Johnston County sheriff has apologized for critical comments he made about Hispanic immigrants in a News & Observer series.

Some say that's not enough and want Steve Bizzell's badge.

The N&O reports:

"The apology came in a one-paragraph statement e-mailed to the newspaper shortly before 5 p.m. after Sunday morning's newspaper included a front-page article in which Bizzell criticized illegal immigrants for 'breeding like rabbits' and declared, 'Mexicans are trashy.' "

Bizzell said his comments were made out of anger after a drunken driver who is an illegal immigrant killed a boy in Selma.

NBC has yanked Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as MSNBC election anchors.

Good move. Both are commentators, not newsmen. Olbermann in particular has a very distinct point of view and makes no pretense of impartiality.

I think he's smart and funny and brutally direct but he belongs on his talk show, not in an anchor's chair.

Olbermann and Matthews will still be part of the broadcasts, but as what they are: commentators.

The biggest nonstory in recent memory is the instant inference from Barack Obama's use of the words "putting lipstick on a pig" as a personal attack on the GOP vice presidential nominee.

Obama used the phrase in reference to the McCain campaign's new branding strategy of "change."

Someone construed it instead as an insult to Sarah Palin.

McCain has demanded an apology and his campaign nimbly launched a commercial attacking Obama based on this "issue."

Come again?

Let me see if I get the logic here. Sarah Palin wears lipstick and referred to lipstick in her acceptance speech last week. Ergo Obama was referring to her when using the common phrase, "lipstick on a pig."

It has been pointed out, of course, that McCain has used the phrase himself when referring to Hillary Clinton's policies. I doubt if he was describing her as a pig, either. But why confuse anyone with facts?

The bottom line: This is neither substantive nor a real issue.

With all the stuff that really matters out there, waiting to be addressed, can we please move on?

Al Sharpton is coming back to Greensboro.

He'll appear at a get-out-the-vote rally at 5 p.m. Monday on the steps of Memorial Student Union at N.C. A&T.

The school's junior class is sponsoring the event.

I am no fan of Sharpton, who has made a pretty good career out of being a self-declared leader.

But I found him entertaining during his campaign for president a few years ago and also found him to make the most sense sometimes of any of the candidates.

That's more than a little bit scary.

My significant other and I are heading (late) tonight to the second annual Black and White Ball at Grandover that supports the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

We had a blast last year and were encouraged by all the good folks who turned out.

Hope to see you there.

This week's column.

When I was a youngster growing up in northeast Greensboro, one of life’s simplest pleasures was waiting till the sun set on long, lazy summer days and tuning into Atlanta Braves games on the radio.

At night the signal from WSB in Atlanta would come in loudly, if not always that clearly, fading in and out as it bounced along the eddies of the ionosphere. But I still could make out most of the action.

I could hear the ball meet the bat amid the snap, crackle and pop of the AM static. And I would hang with anticipation as a long drive chased an outfielder back, back, way back ...
But the games were only part of my fascination.

I envied Ernie Johnson and Milo Hamilton for having the best jobs in the known universe. Imagine, watching baseball every day and getting paid for it. Lucky devils.

I also envied them being on radio, where baseball is more interesting and there’s still a place for the imagination to add mental pictures to the play-by-play man’s descriptions.

I’d cover imaginary games on my own “broadcasts,” which I’d tape on a portable cassette player for an always-loyal audience of one: me. To represent the crack of the bat I’d strike the edge of my oak dresser with a No. 2 pencil. The crowd noise I’d crib from recordings of Braves games.

Now, here I am decades later, headed back to the future.

The editorial staff at the News & Record this week will begin posting a monthly podcast on local and state issues.

For the uninitiated, a podcast technically is defined as “a series of digital media files” distributed on the Internet.

They can consist of sound with pictures or sound alone. In our case, they’ll just be sound. You can click on them and listen to them on our Web site, www.news-record.com. Or you can download them onto your iPod or MP3 player.

The bottom line: audio podcasting is pretty much Internet radio — without the transmission tower.

The candidacy of Sarah Palin has created a tsunami of passionate letters.

We already were on track to break records in the letters we've received this year. The tone, length, closeness of this year's presidential race -- as well as the cast of compelling figures -- virtually assure it.

The wave of Palin letters in particular has been a challenge, because of the debate over what is factual and what is not concerning her background.

Because so relatively little has been known about Gov. Palin until recently, some of these "facts" tend to be moving targets. As more reporting emerges, more is known and some impressions of her record could change.

In fact (no pun intended) a Los Angeles Times story reports on a rash of half-truths and out-and-out on both sides. We're seeing so many distortions, the story says, "because it works."

In such a fluid -- and testy environment -- we're trying to vet the letters as best we can. We are not staffed to check every fact in every single letter. But we do look into anything that appears suspicious.

We do so by checking credible, nonpartisan Web sites such as FactCheck.org. We do our own research. We consult our in-house library. And we call the letter writers to ask where they obtained certain information.

Most of the time that's enough. Sometimes it is not.

From this morning's e-mail:

"With 4 out of 5 letters today pro-Republican and one neutral, I’m fearful Freedom Communications has bought the N & R!

"I know you hear complaints that editorials are too liberal, but they’re almost always local and the syndicated columnists seem to list to the right.

"Please, more balance in the letters to the editor! And leaning to the left would clearly be fine with me also!"

Our new podcast, "Triad Talk," is up on our Web site now.

The panelists: Mark Binker, Doug Clark, Ed Cone, Charles Davenport and Elma Sabo.

We also have a special interview with UNCG economist Andrew Brod on the continuing rumblings of Wall Street, and their ripples on Elm Street.

You may listen to the whole thing, or choose a piece of it.

Click below for the premiere episode.

Ah Sarah, we still hardly know ye. But does familiarity breed less enthusiasm?

Some polls say so, reports Newsweek blogger Andrew Romano.

It pains me most of all that Carla Bagley died alone.

She was so open and giving. Being around other people seemed to bring her joy and give her energy.

She was one of two assistant features editors back in the days when I was features editor at the News & Record.

Lynn Burnette was the other.

We worked together for nearly five years in the days when they called the features pages Life & Leisure.

The feature writers used to rib us when Carla, Lynn and I would disappear into a conference room for weekly planning meetings.

"There they go," they'd say, "Darryl, his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl."

I wasn't personally close to Carla but I enjoyed working with her and admired her manner with reporters. She was stern but encouraging ... a coach and a cheerleader.

She sat at a desk right outside my office door and often would scoot back into the opening of my doorway on the wheels of her chair and rear back her head. "Hey," she'd say, "how about we do so and so for such and such?"

The ideas came fast and furiously and the joy was evident in how Carla approached her work.

I remember the devilish smile on Carla's face when the features reporters discovered I'd sneaked off and gotten married without telling anybody.

Boy did they show me. When I returned, hiring a belly dancer to ambush me in the middle of the features department. Then-Managing Editor Ned Cline had been in on it all.

(Turns out the memory outlasted the marriage.)

Carla was a passionate Tar Heel fan and a loving mother.

Carla had a funny, giggly laugh.

Carla was unfailingly a team player and a friend and a special colleague.

I regret having lost contact with her after she left the News & Record.

I would have written these words a week ago, but for some reason I could not.

I'll never regret having known her and worked with her. If anyone took joy in living it was her.

That's why it's so hard to understand why she's gone.

This week's column is an expanded version of a previious post.

The candidacy of Sarah Palin has created a tsunami of passionate letters.

In fact, this is shaping up as an extraordinary year for letters. The tone, length and closeness of this year’s presidential race — as well as the cast of compelling figures — virtually assure it.
As of Thursday, we had received 3,114 letters this year and had published 1,545. We’re having to find extra space to fit them all in.

The wave of Palin letters in particular has been a challenge, because of the debate over what is factual and what is not concerning her background.

Because so relatively little had been known about Gov. Palin until recently, some of these “facts” tend to be moving targets. As more reporting emerges, more is known and some impressions of her record have changed.

Meanwhile, sooty campaigns on both sides of the aisle, and in national and state races, haven’t been helpful. In fact, even when some allegations have been proven as distortions, if not outright lies, they’ve continued to appear in sneering TV ads.

In one of the more ironic cases, a nonpartisan vetting Web site, FactCheck.org took a McCain ad to task for misrepresenting ... FactCheck.org.

In such a fluid — and testy — environment, we vet the letters as best we can. We don’t check every fact in every single letter. But we do look into anything that appears suspicious. We do so by checking credible Web sites such as FactCheck.org and snopes.com. We do our own research. We consult our in-house library. And we call the letter writers to ask where they obtained certain information.

Most of the time that’s enough. Sometimes it is not.

A sign of the times: The News & Observer of Raleigh reports: " If you're under the age of 18, the Triangle Town Center mall doesn't want you visiting after 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays unless you're with an adult relative or guardian.

"Mall officials announced the new policy Friday, one of several steps it has taken since a series of skirmishes among teens resulted in a near riot at the mall on a Saturday night in July. They say the policy, scheduled to go into effect Oct. 3, targets one of the main causes of trouble at the mall.

" 'Our statistics show that half of the mall arrests are the result of unsupervised youth," said Jack Love, the general manager.' "

It's a shame that it has come to this, and the rule penalizes the majority of teens who behave themselves. (And let's be honest, the last thing any teen wants when hanging out with friends in public is adult supervision.)

But who can blame mall officials?

The fact remains, the Raleigh mall has had its headaches with teen gang violence. What choice does it have?

I don't think the letter writer intended to send this one ... at least not this particular draft:

News & Record
200 E Market St
P.O. Box 20848NC 27401-7401

Diane James
706 Huffman Mill Rd #D-3
Burlington, NC 27215

Speaking of which, the recent letter referring to Teddy Roosevelt and sent by a local man, has received a host of rebuttals, pointing out that he didn't tell the whole story about Roosevelt's political and professional experience.

He didn't tell the whole story about the letter, either. He didn't write it. It was busted by blog commenters as lifted from a well-circulated original that has made the rounds on the Internet.

Sorry. We missed that one.

Maybe I'm naive, but it bothers me that someone would sign his name to a document that is printed 100,000 times over and read by at least as many people, and he didn't really write it.

What it is, is plagiarism.

But if I had a dime for every time someone tried that -- and we catch more of them than we print -- well, I'd have a boatload of dimes.

I've phoned those writers on a number of occasions, but few seem remorseful.

When apprised that misrespresenting what someone else wrote as their own, they essentially say, "Oh, OK."

Paul Newman died Saturday after finally losing his battle with cancer.

He was one of our best and most beloved actors, whose acting chops rivaled his good looks.

I have seen "Cool Hand Luke" at least 5,000 times. I probably will see it 5,000 more.

But among my all-time favorites is "The Verdict," a tale of despair and redemption whose bittersweet ending is pitch perfect. Newman's boozing, ambulance-chasing lawyer in that film isn't so much noble as he is desperate.

And real.

This week's column.

When a group of parents requested an expenses-paid trip to an out-of-town conference for 41 people, it was hard not to be skeptical.

The total bill would have run upwards of $74,000 and there are lot of meaningful things schools can do with 74 grand right here in River City.

School board member Garth Hebert called the proposed trip a “junket.” This editorial page agreed, huffing that the trip didn’t make much practical or fiscal sense.

I should know. I wrote it.

To be fair, however, these were Title 1 parents, meaning they send children to some of the poorest schools in the district.

And, to be fair, like most other districts, Guilford most consistently fails to educate its poorest students, who tend to do worse than their peers by nearly every measure.

But don’t the experts say that parental involvement is a key ingredient to student success? And weren’t these parents trying to do precisely that?

And doesn’t federal Title 1 law, in fact, mandate high levels of parental involvement?

Well, yeah, it does.

But this is about much more than a trip or a conference, those parents say.