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Is Get Healthy Guilford a good idea?

Are you participating in the countywide attempt to get residents to "eat smart" and "move more"? If so, we'd like to hear why. Or do you think this is just another example of people with too much time on their hands thinking of things for the rest of us to do?

Please share your comments.

We were not in favor of the school board forcing Terry Grier out sooner rather than later, but now that it's happened we're prepared to focus on a couple of positives from the latest developments:

1. The designation of Eric Becoats and Sharon Ozment as co-interim superintendents -- if there's a sensible division of responsibilities -- should provide continuity of leadership. It also shows confidence in the senior staff currently in place.

2. It helps the school board speed up the transition from Grier to the next superintendent. If all goes well, perhaps a new chief can be in place this summer.

What do you think?

Should MRSA-infected students actively participate in school sports?

What do you think about the City Council's action concerning City Manager Mitchell Johnson?

Is the "to-do" list appropriate? What about giving him 30 days?

Or do you support the two who wanted to fire him?

Today's lead editorial:
Talk about troubled waters. A helpful offer from High Point and Greensboro was rebuffed by the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority last week with suggestions that the cities are all wet.

Mitchell Johnson and Strib Boynton, city managers for Greensboro and High Point, respectively, proposed taking responsibility for designing, financing and building a pump station on N.C. 62. The facility will push Randleman Lake water to Greensboro, High Point and Jamestown.

The project is assigned to the authority, and last week the authority decided to keep it -- rejecting Boynton's contention that letting Greensboro and High Point do it "can save potentially two to three years in how much time it takes to deliver water to our cities."

"The reality is, it's a roadblock that's going to slow us down,"John Kime, the authority's executive director, said. The authority already has plans in place and a process for securing funding, he added.

Tom Phillips, an authority board member from Greensboro, was more blunt Wednesday, calling Boynton's assertion "nuts. It wasn't going to save any time."

The authority's first priority is building a water-treatment plant large enough to produce 12 million gallons of clean water a day and capable of later expansion. The authority hopes to begin construction before July, with completion by late 2010 or early 2011.

The pump station will take less time. It can be started during work on the treatment plant but finished at the same time, the authority says.

Boynton doubts the authority's ability to take on two tasks at once, but Phillips says it's "not a problem at all."

It better not be, because it won't be acceptable if the authority doesn't fulfill its promise. Greensboro's urgent need for a new water source makes speed imperative. The cities build pump stations routinely, so the statement that they somehow might delay progress by constructing this one seems odd. Because the station will have to connect with the Greensboro and High Point hydraulic systems, the greater the involvement of Greensboro and High Point the better.

Greensboro City Councilwoman Trudy Wade, who supported the High Point-Greensboro offer, wants to examine the issue further at a council briefing Tuesday morning. Good. Authority representatives and city officials for Greensboro and High Point should talk about achieving greater cooperation with a common goal in mind: the delivery of drinking water as soon as possible. Trading disparaging remarks isn't making progress.

It's time to build a bridge over troubled but slow-moving waters.

We are working on an editorial about a proposed law in Washington state that would require convicted drunk-driving offenders to place a special, bright yellow tag on their cars.

The bill's sponsor touts it as a way of "visibly telling the sheeps from the goats on the road."

Why shouldn't other motorists have the chance to know who mighrt pose a particular danger on the highways? he argues.

But we cited some problems in our discussion this morning:

What if a spouse needs to share the same vehicle?

What if such cars become targets of vandals or vigilantes?

What if the offender lives in a multi-car household and decides to use a car without the tag?

Further, there's no data to suggest that the tags are an effective deterrent.

Maybe there's more bright yellow flash to this idea than substance.

Below is our secondary editorial for Thursday, Feb. 21. What actions do you think should be taken to improve food safety? What, if anything, should school systems do? Have concerns about contaminated food caused you to change your purchasing habits?

It shouldn't have to take the Humane Society of the United States to blow the whistle on dangerous slaughterhouse practices. Yet it was the group's undercover camera work that led to the nation's largest meat recall, not the work of federal inspectors.

Without the Humane Society, it's likely that the remainder of the 143 million pounds of beef products recalled would still be making its way to American homes, restaurants ... and school cafeterias.

Indeed, about 55 million pounds of the recalled products were for U.S. Department of Agriculture programs, including the National School Lunch Program. Guilford County Schools, as well as public schools in Davie, Randolph and Surry counties and in Asheboro, were affected and are destroying the recalled products.

While massive, the recall is not unusual. Twenty-one beef recalls took place in 2007 alone connected to possible E. coli contamination.

In the latest case, the issue was the slaughtering of incapacitated cows by a California plant without it notifying USDA inspectors about the animals. The concern is that the cows could have been disease carriers, though no illness has yet been traced from them.

If you feel as if you're playing Russian roulette when you eat, you're not alone.

The latest mess-up prompted this from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin: "How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal safety regulations?"

The recall also has prompted some in Congress to ask the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate the safety of the school lunch program and to question whether the USDA, which promotes agriculture, can still be trusted with monitoring it.

Protecting the national food supply has to become more of a priority than it is now. The federal government needs to give its laws more bite by providing the resources to enforce them.

Otherwise, Americans will feel vulnerable every time they bite into a hamburger.

Today's lead editorial.
The fact that questions are being asked about subordinates working off-duty -- paid or unpaid -- for Greensboro Fire Chief Johnny Teeters is reason enough to end the practice.

No matter how well-intended, it contributes to rank-and-file complaints of favoritism and low morale.

Last month, the 66-year-old Teeters, who joined the department in 1964 and became chief nine years ago, announced his retirement effective in December.

Discontent with his management style has been simmering just below the surface for a while now. Earlier this month, the president of the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro voiced the organization's concerns about nepotism at a City Council meeting.

But city officials apparently had heard rumblings of discontent long before that happened. As a result, Assistant City Manager Bob Morgan is conducting a "high priority" investigation. Already, he's spoken with department command staff members.

One lesson learned from ongoing turmoil at the Greensboro Police Department is that deeply rooted problems won't go away on their own. So, time is of the essence in confronting them.
The first step is defining issues. If that can't be satisfactorily addressed within the department, an outside management team must do the job. In turn, the City Council will have to decide what's best and move quickly.

But they don't need experts to conclude that allowing subordinates to work, or volunteer, off-the-clock for their own supervisors is bad policy. It opens the door to inevitable conflict of interest and favoritism complaints. Perception often becomes reality.

As the city expands and fire stations go on line, the department must look ahead. Good-old-boy policies that used to work should no longer apply.

However, change usually doesn't come easily. Teeters attributes some of the current unrest to unhappiness with a massive departmental overhaul. That may well be the case, but once the decisions are made, the challenge is building trust and moving forward.

The Greensboro Fire Department has the highest possible rating from the Insurance Services Office. Only a handful of departments nationwide can make that claim. And that's vitally important because it helps keep a lid on residential and commercial property insurance costs.
Tough decisions lie ahead. What's best for the department will depend heavily on what the city's fact-finding effort reveals. While it's premature to speculate on possibilities, the priority should be setting forth a plan that takes the department well into the 21st century. It's time to look ahead,

Today's No. 2 editorial.

If you happen to see someone approaching you in a chicken costume this weekend, don't cry foul. It's likely Amy Williams, an Elon law school student. She and Brian Talbert have been raising chickens in the yard of their home near Lindley Park.

Williams is donning the costume to draw attention to her quest to get the city ordinance changed to allow more residents to house chickens. Or chicken coops, to be more exact.
The couple received a notice from the city telling them they were violating an ordinance that requires chicken coops to be at least 50 feet from all property lines. That prohibits most people in Greensboro from keeping chickens. Yet, increasingly, Greensboro residents are keeping chickens in their yards.

Tired of factory-farmed eggs and poultry, wanting their kids -- and themselves -- to be closer to nature, people want “grow your own” to include chickens as well as veggies. Some cities make it easy: Raleigh, for example, has never prohibited raising chickens. In other cities, such as Durham, poultry lovers are doing what Williams is going to do this weekend: circulate a petition to gain support for revising the rules.

Some city dwellers complain that chickens are noisy and smelly. But surely, an ordinance can be written to address these problems: Outlawing roosters would likely take care of the noise problem while setting a limit on brood size would limit smells.

Heck, allowing chickens may even be good for economic development in the city. Tour the blogosphere and you'll see that a variety of stylish chicken coops (especially in places like Seattle) abound. Think of the carpentry jobs! Former write-in mayoral candidate Billy Jones already is blogging about being able to build mobile pens, or chicken tractors, for city folk interested in giving their birds a free-range experience.

Allowing residents to raise poultry is an easy way to make the city more livable. Let's hope the city doesn't chicken out.

Should Greensboro residents have the right to challenge City Council zoning decisions through protest petitions?

Today's lead editorial.

The business was called Angie's Hats, but the proprietor's name was Betty Thomas — Miss Betty, for those who knew her best.

In her unassuming shop in northeast Greensboro, Thomas sold colorful hats with bows and ribbons and flowers — the classy, Sunday go-to-meeting kind they call "crowns."
Her friends say she was a giving woman with a soothing smile and a gentle soul.
So, when she was killed at her shop during a robbery on Sept. 25, the act seemed especially cold and senseless.

Why this woman, of all people?

Nothing can replace the loss, but when police announced two arrests in the case on Feb. 5, friends, family and neighboring merchants in the Pyramids Village shopping center at least could feel hopeful that justice would be served.
That breakthrough came among several high-profile arrests by Greensboro police in recent weeks: a double homicide on High Point Road; an armed robbery on Pisgah Church Road; six arrests and 24 cases cleared in a string of East Market Street robberies in only a matter of weeks.

Police also arrested four suspects in connection with as many as nine bank robberies linked to the notorious "Bluetooth bandits."

Chief Tim Bellamy credits the progress to a lot more than good fortune. He credits dedicated new units that have targeted robberies and youth gangs. He also says an additional $500,000 in city money has funded overtime shifts for more patrols and more time for detectives to work cases. "We have those guys out there seven days a week," he says.

Assistant Chief Dwight Crotts cites collaboration with other agencies, including the High Point Police Department, the FBI and the Guilford County Sheriff's Office, as crucial factors.
Finally, Bellamy noted that increased staffing among SBI analysts has speeded the processing of key ballistics and DNA evidence. Of course, the $500,000 is only a temporary fix. Longer term, the City Council will need to find permanent funding for additional personnel. The department is 41 sworn officers short.

And ideally, there wouldn't be so many crimes to solve in the first place.

But Bellamy says the arrests have raised morale on the force. More importantly, he says, the community is stepping up to help. Crimestoppers calls and other information furnished by citizens were especially instrumental in the Angie's Hats case.

Problems remain with response times, which are linked in part to the thinning ranks of officers. Maybe a planned audit by an outside consultant will uncover greater efficiencies, even at current staffing levels.

Of course, the very best policing involves stopping crimes before they happen, which means vigilant friends and neighbors as well as a strong police presence. Aside from the obvious needs in manpower, the City Council is considering whether officers ought to be allowed to drive their patrol cars home as visible, round-the-clock deterrents.

Meanwhile, it's encouraging to see citizens and police join hands to begin to take back their streets and reclaim their neighborhoods.

From today's Short Stack:

UNC-Charlotte wants a football team.

Two former presidents of the UNC system, C.D. "Dick" Spangler and William Friday, say it's a bad idea that would threaten 'integrity" and academics at the school.

We have had our own experience with a new football program at Greensboro College. School officials added a team of nonscholarship players in 1997 as a means to increase enrollment and enhance campus life. UNCG, meanwhile, has never had a football team.

When asked about his school's addition of football, Greensboro College Athletics Director Kim Strable says, "Absolutely, it's been a good thing."

But Strable's counterpart at UNCG, Nelson Bobb, has resisted the notion of football there over the years. 'I don't think it fits at UNCG," Bobb said Friday.

Bobb said a football program would be so costly that it would drain resources from other programs, including women's sports.

Bobb, by the way, is a former football player and coach.

As for UNC-Charlotte, Friday and Spangler raise legitimate concerns. But ultimately, this is UNC-Charlotte's call to make. If other UNC schools have the right to field football teams, so should it.

From today's Short Stack.

As the News & Record reported last week, three possible hotel projects are being explored for downtown Greensboro, one in the very heart of the city at South Elm Street and February One Place.

It's, of course, always encouraging when such ideas begin to percolate, especially in the center city. But we have passed this way before. A planned Hampton Inn downtown disappeared after the company decided "the numbers" didn't compute in 2006.

That's why the three new hotel possibilities remain very speculative. And why our optimism remains guarded.

From today's Short Stack.

The student gospel choir from Greensboro's Smith High School did its hometown proud in a New York competition last week.

The choir placed first in the 2008 International Gospel Choir Olympics on Feb. 15. It won top honors as well in the youth division of another contest, the National Pathmark Gospel Choir Competition, also in New York.

The choir members raised the money for the trip through fish fries and community donations.
Amid all the Sturm und Drang about how bad things are, it's nice to be reminded of all the good things our young people are doing.

This is only one example.

From tdoay's Short Stack.

Mark your calendars for Saturday. That's when the North Carolina Sport Stacking Tournament takes place at Parkwood High School in Monroe. Don't know what sport stacking is? Type in the term at YouTube and you'll find video of the sport, which pits individuals, pairs and teams stacking cups in various sequences.

Sport stacking admittedly doesn't do much for exercising the lower body, but it does help children develop dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Indeed, one Tar Heel child who learned the sport from his PE teacher holds a world record for his age group.

One North Carolina PE teacher who is a stacking enthusiast is Karen Umberger of the Shady Grove Elementary School in Advance. She hosts a stacking club there twice a week before the school day begins. She also runs jump rope and unicycle clubs at the school.

We hope there are PE teachers in our area who, like Umberger, find exciting, unusual ways to get kids moving. Drop us a line (opinion@news-record.com) if you know of some and would like to get the word out on them.

The Sunday stories by Taft Wireback and Sonja Elmquist raised some pertinent questions about openness in the Greensboro Police Department.

The bottom line for us: It's important for the department to be mindful of officers' legal rights and right to privacy and due process in internal investigations.

But too many of these inquiries take far too long and erode public faith in the process.

To this date, the department has not provided any update to the public about the involvement of Lt. James Hinson and another officer in establishing a home for teenage girls without consulting their superiors first (per department rules). As we have written before, how hard can that be to determine? Either the officers did or did not follow the rules.

An investigation of a shooting drags on while an man accused of attacking the officer who shot him waits in jail.

Further, it took the department two months to interview officers involved in a sexual assault alleged by a fellow, off-duty officer.

It is understandable that the department does not want to compromise investigations, so it proceeds carefully. The department also has to deal with officers' attorneys in these cases, which can stall investigations. But these delays raise questions among the public about the department's ability to police itself.

Some possible fixes:

1. If the department is short of internal investigators, it should make the case for more.
2. Training regimens should be fluid and address trends in problems such as communication with non-English speakers. Thus, complaints could be prevented before they happen.
3. The police Citizens Complaint Review Committee, operated by the Human Relations Commission, appears underpromoted and underused. "They don't have a clue about us," veteran board member James Wells says of the public's perception of the committee, in one of Sunday's stories.

Today's No, 2 editorial.

A Democratic state legislator slapped with a critical report by the Republican state auditor last week quickly cried political foul.

"The unjustified conduct of OSA (Office of State Auditor) gives credence to the argument that the state auditor should be appointed and not elected to avoid political influence in connection with state audits such as what occurred in this instance," Rep. Mary McAllister, D-Cumberland, complained in a statement.

McAllister is wrong about the need to appoint the state auditor, and her counterattack against Auditor Leslie Merritt looks like an attempt to deflect attention from her own mistakes.

She is executive director of a state-funded agency in Fayetteville, Operation Sickle Cell. The audit found computer files indicating that staff time and resources were used for political work on McAllister's behalf. The real issue isn't that Merritt is playing politics but that he caught McAllister doing so with resources meant to serve her agency's clients.

McAllister nevertheless makes the point that it's easy to accuse the auditor of partisanship. When a Republican auditor gives a bad report to an agency run by Democrats, some can say he's motivated to be overly harsh. A Democratic auditor could be suspected of being too soft on fellow Democrats.

There's no good reason the auditor should carry a partisan affiliation. Judges are chosen in nonpartisan elections, and that would be a sensible policy for the auditor, too.
Appointment by the governor would be a change for the worse. A governor might prefer a weak auditor rather than one who would scrutinize his administration too closely.

The taxpayers deserve an honest accounting of state spending. They need a fair, independent, nonpartisan auditor who answers to the voters.

Today's lead editorial.

The story line is tragically familiar:

A drunken driver takes the wheel and then proceeds to take someone else's life.
Tag drunken drivers?

All too often, he or she turns out to have been there and done that, with previous convictions for drinking and driving.
What more can we do to stop them?

A state lawmaker in Washington suggests color-coding -- in fluorescent yellow.

"I've talked to the law-enforcement agencies and they think it would be an awfully good idea to have a way of visibly telling sheep from goats out on the road,"state Sen. Mike Carrell, a Republican, told The Seattle Times.
His bill would assign bright yellow license plates in that state to DWI offenders for one year as a punishment and as an alert to other drivers.
It's not a new idea. Lawmakers in other states have proposed similar laws, though different color schemes.
A failed California bill mandated red plates at $250 apiece.

A twice-proposed Virginia bill opts for yellow tags with crimson letters and numbers, following the lead (and palette) of a law already passed in Ohio.
An Arkansas bill prefers Gerald Hege-esque, hot-pink license tags with the letters "DWI"preceding the numbers.

Convicted drunken drivers in Iowa, Minnesota and Oregon already get special tags, or at least specially marked tags. Minnesota assigns specially numbered plates to offenders and Oregon requires a sticker.
North Carolina has not seen such legislation, nor should it.

Laws like this one tend to sound good and feel good, but they could be more harmful than helpful.

What if a spouse needs to share the same vehicle?

What if such cars become targets of vandals or vigilantes?

What if the offender lives in a multi-car household and decides to use a car without the tag?

Further, not one scintilla of data suggests that the tags are an effective deterrent.

That's why opposition to the legislation in Washington includes Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the Pacific Northwest. And why the founder of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Guilford County is similarly underwhelmed.
"It sounds good,"says Michael Jackson, who also is a certified victims' advocate. "But is it practical?”

Repeat drunken drivers obviously have no respect for the law in the first place, Jackson said. Why, then, would they follow the tag requirement? "All they're going to do is steal somebody else's tag and put it on their car,"he said.
Jackson prefers tougher drunken-driving laws.

The DWI tag idea may be rooted in good intentions. But, as Jackson says, "It will never be worth the paper it's printed on.”
No matter what color they choose for the tags.

Today's No. 2 editorial.

Getting North Carolina's wasteful, inefficient mental health program on course will be like turning around an ocean liner at sea.

But for the General Assembly and next governor, improving shoddy care for the mentally ill and reining in wildly out-of-control costs to taxpayers must be priorities.

In an ongoing investigation, The News & Observer of Raleigh describes how the ill-conceived 2001 overhaul assigning services previously overseen by county and state government to the private sector has failed miserably.

The bottom line is threefold.

First, the Department of Health and Human Services is spending way too much on questionable services offered by marginally qualified private providers. Costs are estimated to be 10 times what they should have been.

Second, thousands of needy people are being lost in the shuffle. Those with serious mental problems are the most likely to be ignored in the headlong rush to uneven community-oriented treatment initiatives.

And, the four surviving mental hospitals remain under siege. All have been threatened with loss of federal insurance money because of patient-abuse charges. Instead of a hoped-for admissions drop, overcrowding prevails.

Gov. Mike Easley, whose administrators oversaw the flawed reforms, has washed his hands of the debacle which, so far, has cost state taxpayers $400 million. And only recently have legislative leaders, who carelessly rushed through the imprecise revamp, talked seriously of taking another look.

Too much, too fast has overwhelmed a fragile care-delivery network. While deferring to the private sector may sound good, there must be strict performance and financial accountability. That was and still is sadly lacking.

According to The News & Observer, since so-called reform arrived, the state's cost of caring for the mentally ill has more than doubled while nearly 90 percent of treatment is deemed unnecessary. And that doesn't begin to measure the human toll.

True reform is long past due.

Today's lead editorial.

It began raining heavily during Greensboro City Council's extended meeting Tuesday morning. Thunder rumbled, lightning flashed. The timing couldn't have been better.

The stormy weather provided the perfect atmosphere for a discussion about speeding up the flow of water from Randleman Lake.

With encouragement from High Point officials in the audience, the City Council approved a four-point resolution related to the long-awaited water project. Notably, it reinforced an offer -- rejected two weeks ago by the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority -- for Greensboro and High Point to build a critical pump station, asking the authority to reconsider. And, it stated Greensboro intends to finance its own share -- $32 million -- of the $60 million cost of the Randleman water-treatment plant rather than participate in authority financing. High Point plans to do the same.

"The issue has to do with the cost of financing," City Manager Mitch Johnson said. Greensboro has the highest bond rating and can borrow money at less cost than the authority can. In fact, the city offered to finance the entire project on behalf of the authority, Johnson added, but was turned down.

As for the pump station, needed to push treated water from Randleman Lake to Greensboro and High Point, the cities "can expedite the project," High Point Mayor Becky Smothers said. The authority board's plan to proceed on its own timetable "doesn't make sense," she added.
Tom Phillips, a Greensboro representative on the authority board and former city councilman, didn't agree that High Point and Greensboro can save time but said he'd yield to direction from his council.

The entire board should grant the request, but the authority is an odd regional entity. Johnson pointedly noted that Greensboro has a majority interest in the Randleman project but is allotted only three out of 10 representatives on the authority board. And the authority itself has no direct water customers. Greensboro does. The city's current reservoirs have filled to nearly 80 percent of capacity, thanks largely to purchase agreements with neighboring cities and a tap on the Haw River, Water Resources Director Allan Williams told the council Tuesday. But if more dry weather lies ahead, "it's possible we could drop like a rock."

When he took the job in Greensboro in 1996, Williams recalled, water from Randleman was expected by 2000. Now the target date is late 2010. The sooner the better, and Greensboro should do everything it can to keep the project on pace.

Maybe it was just the welcome rain outside, but it felt as if a tap was turning Tuesday morning.

Today's lead editorial.

Why so many? Why so long?

Among eight internal investigations of possible misconduct by Greensboro police in the last two years, why has only one been completed and made its way through the courts?
Why do other cases appear perpetually stuck in limbo?

Stories in Sunday's News & Record by staff writers Taft Wireback and Sonja Elmquist raise pertinent questions about sluggish progress involving several pending internal investigations.
For instance, it took detectives two months to interview officers concerning a sexual assault alleged by a fellow, off-duty officer.

In fairness, part of the problem stemmed from an impasse with the officers' attorney over when and where to conduct interviews. But an investigation involving such serious charges, and based, at least in part, on the frailty of human memories, deserves more urgency than that.
Similarly, the department still has revealed little about the status of the case of Lt. James Hinson and another officer, who established a for-profit home for teenage girls without first consulting their superiors, per department rules.

The issue first arose in 2007 and the questions were as easy to address then as they are now: Either Hinson and the other officer, Sgt. Kevin Chandler, filed the required application for outside employment. Or they didn't.

Understandably the department does not want to compromise investigations, which can be sensitive and complex. And officers have a legal right to privacy and due process. But too many of these investigations take far too long and erode public faith in the department's openness and integrity.

Several possible solutions mentioned in Sunday's stories merit a closer look:

1. If the department is short of internal investigators, it should make the case for more.

2. The city should explore the possibility of hiring a "police auditor,"who would provide big-picture oversight of department-wide trends and issues.

3. The Complaint Review Committee, which handles citizen grievances against officers, needs to be better promoted to the public.

4. The internal disciplinary process might include a city administrator, as Charlotte does, to add a fresh voice and a community perspective.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson is right to want to hold off on major changes until an outside consultant evaluates the department. Similarly, critics should hold off on pronouncements of widespread corruption. Proportionally speaking, Greensboro has had no more or fewer internal investigations than Charlotte. And Raleigh, Charlotte and Durham all have seen their share of police misconduct cases.

But perception can become reality. In the aftermath of the resignation, under fire, of former Police Chief David Wray, the department has struggled to right itself and move forward.

It will need the public's trust and confidence to accomplish that.

Today's No. 2 editorial.

City leaders appeared to give explosive allegations the brush-off last year, and their explanations now are puzzling at best.

Trust requires a much better effort.

Ministers Cardes Brown, Gregory Headen and Nelson Johnson made a startling assertion to then-Mayor Keith Holliday and City Manager Mitchell Johnson in October: They said a police officer told them approximately 50 boxes of files related to the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings were thrown out in 2004 or 2005 after records were requested by the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The files included "information on surveillance of members and/or persons thought to be members of the Communist Workers Party,"the ministers said. Nelson Johnson was a CWP member involved in the clash between his group and Klansmen and Nazis.

If the Greensboro Police Department purposely disposed of materials that might have aided the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work, the act was inexcusable. But did it?

The city isn't aware of such files, spokeswoman Pat Boswell said.

It would be amazing if there had been 50 boxes of previously unknown records related to that tumultuous episode after two state trials, a federal civil rights trial and other reviews.

But, because of the volatility of this subject in Greensboro, the suggestion should have been checked out. Instead, it was labeled an "unverified rumor,"according to Boswell's statement. Opening an investigation "could result in significant financial liability ... through potential litigation.”

Faced with that attitude, Brown, Headen and Nelson Johnson made their complaint public. The city now appears to be hiding suspicious behavior or letting an unfounded but damaging accusation go unanswered.

If someone called police with a tip about a dead body, they'd check it out rather than say they can't investigate unverified rumors. This is the same thing. The city's credibility depends on finding out whether this is a dead body or a dead end

Plans for Greensboro's Downtown Greenway are progressing. The proposed 4.8-mile loop around the center city "will distinguish Greensboro," proponents say. "This project is forward-thinking and unique."

It's expected to cost $26 million, with funds coming from private and public sources. Taxpayer contributions could include $10 million from a possible city transportation bond.

Honestly, although individual members of our Editorial Board enjoy walking and running on greenways, we've been lukewarm about this idea since its inception. We've had concerns about its cost, its rank on the priority list of projects the city needs to get done and whether it can deliver on its promises -- getting more people physically active, drawing communities together and promoting economic development. It will require ongoing maintenance costs and policing for public safety reasons.

All that said, the presentation to the City Council Tuesday by Marsh Prouse of the Greensboro Bicentennial Commission was very impressive. Councilman Robbie Perkins asserted that, in terms of a long-term strategy for city development, the greenway is "the No. 1 thing we can do." And I'll admit, as envisioned it would be very cool.

We're working on an editorial. Help us out. What's your view?

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper wants "robo calls" by political candidates to abide by the same rules as other advertisers.

In other words, citizens on telemarketing no-call registries shouldn't have to put up with them.

Cooper also wants current candidates to voluntarily refrain from making automated campaign calls to no-call households.

Cooper on Wednesday told a U.S. Senate committee that politicians should follow the same regulations on robo calls to residents' homes as companies do.

Cooper suggested that there ought to be political do-not-call registries.

Cooper said: "Many consumers are sick of them."

We're torn on this issue.

We are as annoyed as anyone by both human and robotic telemarketing.

But campaigns are a part of the democratic process. Do we want to squelch the ability of candidates to reach prospective voters?

Remember, local candidates use these calls, too.

Today's lead editorial.

Is this what we expect of Guilford County teachers?

That they will always be in school hours before the school day begins and hours after it ends?

That they will keenly desire to sacrifice parts of weekends and vacations for their students,
effectively putting their own families (including any children of their own) on the back burner?

That they will work extra jobs and go thousands of dollars into debt to help pay for educational trips for their students? (Or, finally realizing this is too much, theyll work to get nonprofit status for their classroom?)

It's hard not to see the above as a prescription for anything but teacher burnout. Yet such extreme sacrifice is the modus operandi of Rafe Esquith, an acclaimed Los Angeles public school teacher who spoke to Guilford teachers Monday at UNCG.

Granted, Esquith's talk focused not on his Herculean workload but on his teaching philosophy ("There are no shortcuts," "Replace fear with trust") and his innovative teaching methods. His latest book, "Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire," given to Guilford teachers who attended his talk, is full of wisdom and great advice. Indeed, many of the teachers at UNCG Monday were excited to meet Esquith.

And no wonder. Everyone from The Washington Post to Oprah praises Esquith -- and he is a gem. He sets classroom standards of behavior by teaching Lawrence Kohlbergs six theories of moral development. His fifth-grade students, almost all of whom are from immigrant, low-income families, perform a Shakespeare play each year. He exposes students to a wide range of subjects -- from economics to baseball. He takes students on cross-country trips. (Several students accompanied him to Greensboro.) And, yes, his students do well on standardized tests.

But where we started squirming was hearing at UNCG that Esquith shows that "anything's possible," and that "if Rafe Esquith can do it, every teacher in Guilford County can do it."
Yes, Guilford teachers probably could be like Esquith if they, too, became surrogate parents to their students and put their students' needs before anyone else's. But we shouldn't expect or want this.

Those of us with children in area schools know that many teachers are more than generous with their time. Our children participate in after-school clubs run by teachers. They march in bands and play sports because of teachers going the extra mile. They receive tutoring. We don't want teachers to feel pressured to give even more of themselves for our children. We want these people to be teachers, not ex-teachers, 10 years from now. (We also want them compensated for the extra time they do spend with our kids.)

Esquith tells teachers to remember they are role models. "You have to be the person you want the children to be," he says. Surely, a valuable lesson for children (and teachers) to learn — for both long-term mental and physical health — is the importance of leading a balanced life.

Today's No. 2 editorial.

We don't know how well-prepared Elizabeth City State University is to handle a real-life campus shooting. But we're pretty darned sure it's not very good at staging a make-believe one.

With a campus security officer posing as a gunman and brandishing a red plastic pistol, the school staged a mock shooting last week. Problem was, not everyone knew. The gunman barged into a foreign policy class and held the students and their professor at gunpoint.
Jingbin Wang, the professor, said the man first asked to talk to him. "Then he pointed the gun at me. I was prepared to die at that moment."

The gunman also threatened to kill the student with the lowest grade-point average. Not knowing what to make of the incident, several students say they considered leaping from a window.

Small wonder. The drill came only eight days after a gunman walked into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire, killing five people before killing himself.

At Elizabeth City State, campus police eventually stormed the classroom and captured the role-playing "gunman." Thankfully, no one was hurt or worse. Believing he was the real deal, a student or faculty member not only could have harmed themselves but the faux gunman as well.
In light of the Northern Illinois incident and last year's Virginia Tech tragedy, there's certainly value to practicing for the unthinkable. UNCG held a similar drill on Jan. 7 but notified the media well in advance and posted signs along Spring Garden, Market and Aycock streets on the day of the drill. The students and faculty involved in the exercise were briefed ahead of time.

The Elizabeth City State administration merely sent out e-mails and text messages a week earlier and again as the drill was beginning.

"Unfortunately, we learned lessons from frightened students that result when live scenarios are carried out," ECSU Chancellor Willie J. Gilchrist said in a prepared statement.
Ya think?

The deadline for filing for local and state offices passed at noon today.

You can find the candidate listings at the Web sites of the Guilford County Board of Elections and N.C. State Board of Elections.

Any big surprises for you?

Races you're looking forward to?

Predictions?

We'll put together an overview edit for publication next week.