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Saturday's lead editorial.

Greensboro's Downtown Greenway is bold, ambitious and taking its first steps. The easy ones.
Not that it didn't require extraordinary energy and enthusiasm to get this far.

"A couple of years ago it was only a vision," Marsh Prause said after the City Council voted to support the project Tuesday. Prause is a member of the Bicentennial Commission, which has promoted the 4.8-mile path around the center city as its signature project. Ground-breaking for the initial section is expected in the spring — the perfect time to launch such a hopeful venture.
Yet, many journeys that commence with exhilaration present discouraging challenges down the road.

The greatest for this is cost: an estimated $17 million for the basic trail and transportation improvements, such as road crossings; $3 million for parks along the path; and $1 million for operations. Another $5 million would be sought later for additional parks.

Private sources will supply some of the funds. Already, $600,000 has been pledged, Prause told the council, most of that from the Moses Cone-Wesley Long Community Health Foundation.

Taxpayers will be counted on for a big share, however. Among other avenues, the project could draw state transportation funds, and proponents will ask for $10 million from a city transportation bond.

While those possibilities sound promising, transportation dollars are tight. At a time when bridge and highway maintenance lags, diverting millions to a greenway is a tough sell. The council's vote of support Tuesday conveyed no commitment of dollars, yet.

Even if construction funds are secured, expenses for maintenance and security will be ongoing. The city handles those costs for other parks and recreation facilities, but council members already have mentioned that as an area for future budget cuts.

Still, benefits should be considered. Boosters say the greenway will promote health and fitness, offer travel alternatives, link neighborhoods, draw people downtown and encourage economic development. Councilman Mike Barber, a budget hawk, said the project could take Greensboro to "the next level." Councilman Robbie Perkins called it "the No. 1 thing we can do" in terms of a long-term strategy for Greensboro's development.

Commission members have been wise in meeting with community groups to build support. They have more work to do as specific public funding decisions approach. Dollars are limited, even if a vision is not.

"A hundred years from now, this project will continue to pay dividends," Prause said hopefully.
It has to be paid for first, and that could be a journey of many steps.

Sunday's lead editorial.

When Keith Brown's High Point neighborhood was threatened with an unwanted development next door, he turned to a state law for help.

"It's a great law," Brown said last week. "It's there to protect the people who own adjoining property."

The law allows neighbors to file protest petitions against proposed rezonings. A successful petition requires a three-fourths vote by the City Council, rather than a simple majority, to approve the change. But it doesn't apply in Greensboro, denying residents a tool they ought to have to make sure land-use decisions are fair for everyone.

The protest provision goes back to 1923 in North Carolina, when municipal zoning statutes were first enacted, David W. Owens, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, said last week. Zoning was meant to establish a sense of certainty in land-use policy. Legislators also recognized that nearby property owners had a stake and gave them the opportunity to influence decisions in a powerful way.

Then, in 1971, following a contentious rezoning case, Greensboro won a legislative exemption from the protest petition law. For decades, little attention was paid to the issue. Until now.
Brown, a Greensboro native, has been pushing for reinstatement of the protest petition option for his hometown. He's winning supporters.

"I feel strongly that we need to restore that power to the citizens of Greensboro," state Rep. Pricey Harrison said last week. She'll try to get that done during the short legislative term that begins in May, although for procedural reasons action might have to wait until the next long session in 2009.

But a Greensboro attorney who handles land-use cases throughout much of the state, Thomas E. Terrell Jr., warned that the law allows too much power, sometimes to a single individual who owns enough adjoining property to invoke a petition by himself.

"One person has the power to deny an elected body the right to decide an issue by majority vote," Terrell said. It's the "biggest stick any citizen can ever have" to control how another person uses his own land.

Protest petitions don't always settle conflicts with a big stick, Owens at the Institute of Government said.

"They have the effect of encouraging the landowners and neighbors getting together and reconciling their competing interests prior to the issue getting to a vote of the City Council," he said.

That was the case when people in Brown's neighborhood filed a protest petition: The developer eventually offered acceptable accommodations.

"I think it's going to make developers sit at the table," he said.

Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny, however, worries about discouraging new developments. Although protest petitions haven't impeded growth in Charlotte or Raleigh, where they're used commonly, "Greensboro is not Charlotte and Raleigh. Greensboro is a different town," Matheny said.

Yet, if developers make a compelling case, they still can win City Council approval with a three-fourths vote. And the council should give more weight to the objections of many residents than to one or only a few.

Greensboro property owners are due the same right to petition state law allows residents of other cities.

Sunday's No. 2 editorial.

From the national to the local level, 2008 looks like it will be the year of the young voter. Whether it's the Iraq war or the Obama factor, people younger than 30 are registering to vote in record numbers.

In North Carolina, the youngest age group, those 18 to 24, has especially seen an increase in registration -- with "unaffiliated"gaining a 200 percent increase from 2004 in that category. The two parties aren't performing shabbily either, with registration for Democrats up 176 percent in that age group and for Republicans up 126 percent.

Nationally, it's the Democrats that have mostly benefited from the increase in young voters, with some 2.3 million people under 30 already having taken part in their contests.

In the presidential race, young voters have drawn attention to some issues that often get less play, such as the rising costs of higher education. Barack Obama is supporting a tax credit to shave $4,000 off the cost of college for most people, and Hillary Clinton also has pledged to work to make college more affordable.

While the presidential election is the drawing card for younger voters, we hope their interest extends to races farther down the ballot. State and local races are just as important as those on the federal level. And, with fewer voters involved in local elections, an individual's vote is more likely to determine a race's outcome. But forget about running in them: The deadline for filing was Friday.

Should political phone calls be limited by the Do Not Call Registry?

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Thirteen is no unlucky number for Greensboro. Not when it's $13 million, the amount — and then some — raised by the United Way of Greater Greensboro during its recently completed 2007 campaign.

Pushing two months into 2008 shows two things about the fund drive: It was tough going because of concerns about the economy, and campaign chairman Dale Hall and everyone who helped were absolutely determined to reach the annual goal.

"We're exhilarated," Hall exclaimed.

They should be — not for the thrill of success but for making sure 31 agencies have the resources they need to meet critical community needs.

The generosity of donors and the willpower of United Way staff and volunteers will improve the quality of life for many in Greensboro this year.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Now boarding ... a lot more passengers at Piedmont Triad International Airport. And some are coming from as far away as South Carolina to take advantage of lower fares, Airport Authority Board Chairman Henry Isaacson said last week.

It wasn't only discount carriers Skybus and Allegiant accounting for a 20 percent boost in passengers during January. US Airways, which cut many of its fares, gained 3,000 boardings over its January 2007 level.

Airlines still face economic turbulence, but those that can get travelers to popular destinations at good prices with a minimum of difficulty have a good chance to succeed. It's good for the Triad that some of them are flying out of PTI.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Greensboro made Popular Science's list of America's greenest cities. But barely.
Greensboro ranked No. 50 out of 50 cities. It is the only North Carolina city to have made the list.

The magazine used Census data and statistics from the National Geographic Society's Green Guide to compile its list. The city scored the highest in the "recycling and green perspective"category, getting 3.9 out of 5 points. "This measures how comprehensive a city's recycling program is (if the city collects old electronics, for example) and how important its citizens consider environmental issues,"says PopSci's Web site.

All in all, it's better for Greensboro to appear on the bottom of a greenest cities list than at the top of the one Charlotte found itself on recently.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the Charlotte/ Douglas International Airport as seven on its "Airport Misery Index."It based its ranking on delayed flights (28.2 percent were delayed at Charlotte) and "load factor,"or percentage of seats filled. Charlotte received an 81.8 percent ranking in that category.

Not to be a Charlotte booster, but that survey stinks. The number of people on a plane shouldn't be a consideration in such an index. Full planes aren't indicative of a miserable airport but of an economically healthy one.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

It's hard to tell looking at the U.S. Drought Monitor map, but a tiny portion of North Carolina is no longer in a drought. The latest information, released Thursday, shows the area around Morehead City still dry but no longer suffering a drought. Unfortunately that's only about 1.2 percent of the state.

It's the first time in about seven months that a part of the state has not been in a drought.
Our area, though, remains in the worst category: exceptional drought. So let's hope that the prediction for thunderstorms later this week for Greensboro is correct.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

The N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation is holding a celebration for Haw River State Park Tuesday to honor the recent acquisition from Bluegreen Corp. of 692 additional acres for the park. It's at 5 p.m. at the Summit Environmental Education Center in Browns Summit.

And with the news that 140 additional acres are likely to soon be purchased for the park, there's even more reason for celebrating.

Today's lead editorial.

Bruce Davis, Olga Morgan Wright, Jim Rumley and George Ragsdale -- bless their hearts -- are giving voters more than they'll likely get in return.

They're giving voters a choice in four Guilford County legislative districts by running against an incumbent.

It's very difficult for challengers to unseat state representatives or senators who enjoy advantages in name recognition, fundraising and often in the arrangement of the district.
State Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, almost apologized for the advantages of incumbency Friday when he saw the noon deadline pass with no one filing to run against him. Not that he would welcome the need to raise money and organize a campaign, but he recognized an unfair system.

If getting elected is hard, so is serving in the General Assembly. The job isn't really part-time as advertised. Guilford County Commissioner Paul Gibson said he dropped thoughts of running for the state Senate when he calculated he couldn't afford to sacrifice the time away from work — several days a week for six months or longer some years.

Local offices are demanding, too. Everyone cares about the school board but few people want to serve on it. Two newcomers — Carlvena Foster in District 1 and Paul Daniels in District 5 — will be elected to their very first public office without opposition. They're credible people, but it's incredible that some school board seats are available for anyone who wants one. That's how gruelling and thankless the job can be.

Incumbents Kris Cooke and Amos Quick will be re-elected without opposition. Only Darlene Garrett faces a challenge, from Mike Stone.

Five candidates filed for the at-large seat that Dot Kearns will vacate, so voters will have a lot to sort out there.

County commissioners races are more competitive. Of those up for re-election, only Mike Winstead will be unopposed.

Guilford voters will decide five contested District Court judge races, but seven incumbents were not challenged. Those include Michelle Fletcher, who was appointed by the governor only a few weeks ago. One judge will retire: veteran Lawrence McSwain, a former chief District Court judge. Highly regarded for his long service, he'll be missed on the local bench.

Looking over the entire field of Guilford County candidates, it seems possible that every current office holder running for re-election will succeed. While Davis, a county commissioner challenging state Sen. Katie Dorsett, might have an even chance, he's a rarity. Most challengers are clear underdogs. But they deserve credit for trying because voters always ought to have a choice.

Besides, no one can win without running.

State Attorney General Roy Cooper wants to pull the plug on automated campaign pitches over the telephone.

If Cooper had his way, candidate Beau Megawatt no longer could attempt to woo you in a recorded voice while you're trying to watch “Wheel of Fortune.”

The federal no-call registry, which prohibits telemarketers from calling those consumers who sign up, was supposed to fix this problem. But political organizations are exempt from no-call enforcement.

Cooper, who is himself a candidate running for re-election, wants that loophole closed for automated political calls. Last week he told a U.S. Senate committee that the same regulations that apply to private companies should apply to political “robocalls.” Cooper specifically suggested do-not-call registries for federal candidates.

Cooper has pushed this cause before, backing an unsuccessful bill in 2007 by state Sen. Tony Rand, a fellow Democrat, to outlaw campaign robocalls in North Carolina. Cooper cites sheer annoyance as the primary reason. “Many consumers are sick of them,” he said.

A Republican congresswoman, Virginia Foxx, has introduced similar legislation in Washington in 2004 and again last year.

Given the universal pain of a unwanted call from an unwanted source at an inconvenient hour, Cooper certainly has a point.

But hold the phone. While campaigns cynically could be considered as much in the business of a selling as someone hawking credit cards, mortgage refinancing or rug cleaning, there is an important distinction: Campaigns are a part of the democratic process. And encouraging citizens to vote using robocalls can't be altogether bad.

But there are other ways to accomplish that end without being so annoying and intrusive, including using real-life human beings. Maybe that's why even some politicians want to put automated calls out of commission.

Cooper's on to something. Let's give Mr. Roboto a rest.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

North Carolina's state university system stands out for many good reasons and one bad one: secrecy in selecting leaders.

A comprehensive survey by the Fayetteville Observer found that no other state so consistently denies the public information about candidates for top university positions.

As UNCG, UNC-Chapel Hill and Fayetteville State University seek to hire new chancellors, the lack of openness excludes opportunities for public input and gives too much authority to just one person, the president of the UNC system.

The question is whether search committees should identify their finalists. In North Carolina, they almost always agree not to disclose the names of applicants, reasoning that confidentiality is necessary to attract the best candidates.

It's a powerful argument. Why would someone with a good job somewhere else want to risk his or her position by publicly applying for a post here? Doing so could be taken to mean he or she is unhappy and wants to leave. Worse, it's embarrassing if he or she doesn't get the better job.
But it's a fallacious argument, one not substantiated by the experiences in other states, the Observer reported. University administrators aren't penalized if they apply for other positions elsewhere, and the prospect of publicity doesn't discourage them.

It can head off problems by providing additional opportunities to examine the backgrounds of leading candidates — a service that professional search firms sometimes fail to provide.
The Observer has learned the names of the three Fayetteville State finalists through "sources close to the FSU search." It discovered that one filed for personal bankruptcy and another presided over "violations in procedures and a lack of fiscal oversight" at another college — information the hired search firm did not tell the FSU search committee.

The process generally used in the UNC system is heavy on secrecy. A search committee identifies three finalists and, with the consent of the university trustees, forwards the names to UNC President Erskine Bowles. The finalists are not ranked in priority order. Bowles makes his selection and submits the choice to the UNC Board of Governors for ratification. Then the new chancellor is announced. Neither the public nor even the Board of Governors knows who else was considered.

In other states, however, it's common to introduce finalists to the public and the university community, giving everyone a chance to get to know each other. That kind of open process can be very helpful in making sure the candidate who fits best is selected.

Some applicants might be uncomfortable with that, but others are likely to shine. Because a chancellor is such an important figure, on campus and in his or her community, a public audition could be an appropriate test of his or her abilities.

Secrecy simply isn't the best policy for North Carolina or the accepted practice outside North Carolina.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

In the battle against foreign oil dependency, converting one tank at the Greensboro tank farm to biodiesel storage hardly creates a ripple, but it's still a move in the right direction.

Biodiesel, so far, has faced an uphill battle. For starters, not many people drive diesel-powered vehicles. Those who do say finding a station that sells biodiesel fuel can be tough.
In North Carolina, they're few and far between.

That could, however, change as a result of an arrangement between Boston-based biodiesel supplier World Energy Alternatives and the local terminal company. Helping solidify the deal is a $150,000 grant from the N.C. Solar Center, which promotes alternative fuel use.

A dependable supply source nearby should boost availability throughout the Piedmont. Vendors now will be able to rely on timely deliveries rather than investing in on-site storage.

And, should biodiesel eventually catch on, Greensboro will have a leg up on potential competitors as an already up-and-running distribution center.

For more than a decade, state and municipal diesel vehicle fleets have run efficiently and cleanly on biodiesel. With a better distribution network, that notable success could spill into the private sector.

As gasoline prices soar into uncharted territory, alternative fuels finally are looking better to more motorists. The focus on biodiesel coincides with the state's plan to be a national alternative energy source leader. An example is research at N.C. State University on lightweight, plug-in auto hybrid batteries, which holds great potential.

While biodiesel may never attract as large a following as more popular ethanol-based fuels, making it a more viable, convenient option is worthwhile. The planned Greensboro tank conversion should help accomplish that goal.

Today's lead editorial.

Elder abuse is widespread, yet few resources are directed toward combatting it. One Senate committee, for example, found that less than 2 percent of federal money targeted for abuse prevention is spent to help elders.

But the Baby Boom generation, now heading into its senior years, is focusing attention on the issue, as Jennifer Fernandez's story in the News & Record on Sunday pointed out.

That story also showed that the problem isn't just substandard care in nursing homes. It's also financial abuse. Studies show that the elderly are the ones most often falling victim to these scams. Aware that many older people have substantial savings, and aware that aging may have left the elderly isolated or diminished their faculties, scammers see them as prime targets.
Fernandez's story focused on a Greensboro woman bilked of her $100,000 savings by a telemarketer. But it also told of a valuable program run by Senior Resources of Guilford that teaches elderly people how not to fall victim to such scams. In these programs, participants learn the need to shred documents containing personal information and other methods to deter scammers. More programs like this are essential. (AARP also provides many resources for seniors on this topic.)

North Carolina has a panel that fines adult-care facilities for inappropriate actions, but the fines are often wrist slaps. It took one North Carolina facility 10 days to report to law enforcement that one of its patients had gone missing. He was found stabbed to death. The fine? A measly $8,000. Increase the fines, and abuse and neglect will decrease.

Advocates also say the federal government needs to provide leadership in this area. A bill in Congress -- The Elder Justice Act -- would do that. It has several components, among them data collection. Research indicates that elder abuse is woefully underreported. Collecting more information on scams and abuse, both in private homes and in long-term care facilities, is essential for determining further action. The act also would provide a reliable source of federal revenue for states' adult protective services divisions and establish programs to help train those in law enforcement or public health who deal with elder abuse.

Some supporting the act also want it to contain additional protections for elders, such as a national nurses' aide registry and the requirement that criminal background checks be conducted on all who work with the elderly.

Clearly, the nation must target the abuse and exploitation of elders or else the elderly will keep getting targeted. The elderly must not be preyed upon by anyone -- from family members to Internet scammers.

Today's No. 2 editorial.

If it looks like a video gaming machine and works like a video gaming machine ... the state legislature meant to make it illegal.

Whether the law precisely accomplishes that has become a matter of dispute as a new crop of video gaming machines springs up to replace the video poker machines that were banned last year.
As staff writer Mark Binker reported Sunday, many of these machines are operating in Greensboro, apparently with no threat of prosecution. The Guilford County District Attorney's Office doesn't think they break the law.

Alan Fields, the Alcohol Law Enforcement supervisor for the Greensboro region, disagrees: "They appear to fall squarely under the prohibition of a slot machine in the North Carolina statute," he said.

He's absolutely right, because the statute draws a broad target. It defines video gaming machines as offering poker, bingo, craps, keno and others, as well as any video game "based on or involving the random or chance matching of different pictures, words, numbers, or symbols not dependent on the skill or dexterity of the player" -- just as the machines in question do.

Illegal machines require "deposit of any coin or token, or use of any credit card, debit card, or any other method that requires payment to activate play," the law adds.
Players activate the new machines with a purchased phone card, which certainly fits the definition of "any other method that requires payment."

Guilford County Assistant District Attorney Tom Carruthers told Binker the new machines make "the perfect problem for the legislature to solve." The legislature will be surprised it didn't solve the problem already. If one remains, it can be remedied by arrests, prosecutions and convictions.

Video gaming machines constitute a public nuisance and were properly banned. A transparent attempt to evade the law ought to come up lemons in court. What looks and works like a video gaming machine is meant to be illegal in North Carolina

Friday's lead editorial.

Mike Barber's snappy quip the other night that everyone but the "intergalactic legal network" has investigated the Greensboro Police Department may have brought a few chuckles.

But when he moved that the council officially embrace yet another outside probe, the city councilman was dead serious. "We need to open our doors, open our windows and open our arms for anybody who wants to investigate us," Barber said.

Barber's motion, approved 5-3 by the council, welcomes a federal investigation of allegations that police destroyed records related to the bloody Nov. 3, 1979, confrontation between Klansmen and Nazis and a group of anti-Klan demonstrators that left five people dead and another 10 injured.

Three local ministers say they were told by an officer, Julius Fulmore, that someone in the police department ordered that 50 boxes of information pertaining to the shootings be destroyed in either 2004 or 2005.

The state NAACP followed with a request for a federal investigation in letters sent to the offices of U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole and U.S. Reps. Howard Coble and Mel Watt, as well as Gov. Mike Easley and state Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Truth be told (and that is one of the goals here, isn't it?), the council should have approved Barber's motion unanimously. If the city wants to convey anything, amid lingering shadows over the police department, it should be that it has nothing to hide. Look where you will. Ask tough questions. Bring it on.

The motion does not endorse the ministers' allegations. It simply supports a clear and open accounting for what actually did or did not happen. And why.

So far, there is no evidence that any law was broken. District Attorney Doug Henderson has said as much. But questions remain about why the documents were discarded and who gave the order. If the files were destroyed as alleged, why do so as a local panel, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was researching the shootings? Don't the documents hold historic value if nothing else? What does the department typically do with old case files?

As for City Manager Mitchell Johnson's decision to meet with the ministers, then offer no response to their concerns, that's no way to treat citizens, whatever their point of view. "You can say what you will about them," Barber said of the Revs. Nelson Johnson, Cardes Brown and Gregory Headen. "They did it right. They came to us first."

As for the bigger picture, local government is struggling to rebuild the trust and confidence of citizens. The absolute worst way to do that is to be distant, close-mouthed and unresponsive. "I don't think we can ever appear to be defensive again," Barber said. "We can never appear to be covert again. We cannot absorb another body blow."

If the city has nothing to hide, it has no reason to worry. And it has much more to gain than to lose by shining light wherever it needs to shine.

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

A sad story out of Alamance County serves as a reminder that government-run animal shelters in North Carolina are more often killing factories than adoption centers.

The Times-News of Burlington ran a story this week about Elon University sophomore Lee Dickinson, who took his dog, Petey, to the Burlington animal shelter in February, thinking he had a good chance of being placed for adoption. The bulldog mix was neutered, current on its shots and had its papers.

Dickinson had a change of heart just hours after surrendering Petey and asked a friend to retrieve him. She went to the shelter only to discover Petey had been killed within an hour of his arrival.

Fortunately, this scenario can't play out here. The Guilford shelter holds a surrendered animal 24 hours before it's considered shelter property. Surely, it wouldn't break the bank for the Burlington shelter to adopt a similar policy, even if it required expansion.

Dickinson said he wasn't clearly told by shelter workers that Petey would be killed. While the shelter disputes his claim, the reality is that it's human nature to soft-pedal hard topics.
Perhaps shelters should be required to give those surrendering pets their kill rate stats. (The Alamance shelter killed about 70 percent of the animals it impounded in 2007.) A cold, hard number may mean fewer broken hearts.

The reality is that the odds of a happy outcome for an animal surrendered to most public shelters in North Carolina aren't good. And it's likely they'll be worse this year than last: Economic downturns see more surrendered pets.

The Times-News story quoted Tamee Penley, supervisor of Burlington animal services, who gave this good advice: "If an owner isn't sure or doesn't feel good about leaving it at the shelter, they are better off running an ad in the newspaper or putting a picture in a pet shop."

That's what one anonymous online commenter on the Times-News story did. Backing away from an animal shelter, the person took out a newspaper ad and screened applicants: The dog now lives on eight acres in the country.

Other good alternatives to shelters are local humane societies and rescue groups.
Dickinson learned about shelters' kill rates the hard way. By sharing his story, he hopes others can avoid learning through personal experience.

Saturday's lead editorial.

Mike Easley had a lousy week. But, if the governor could turn back the clock, he should retreat seven years rather than seven days.

In 2001, the state legislature embarked on an ill-conceived plan to reform the delivery of mental-health services throughout North Carolina. The result was an unmitigated disaster, wasteful of taxpayers' money and harmful to patients.

Many newspapers, including the News & Record, have reported about the problems. Last week, The News & Observer of Raleigh completed an exhaustive investigation, setting the cost of failure at $400 million and 82 avoidable deaths in state mental hospitals.

Easley responded with a news conference in which he contended his administration “vigorously opposed” the reforms from the beginning.

That was absolutely not true. His secretary of Health and Human Services at the time, Carmen Hooker Odom, boasted of developing the reform plan in collaboration with the legislature and formally presented it to the people of North Carolina “with pride and enthusiasm.”

If Easley harbored reservations, he didn't express them openly or exercise his power to block the legislation. Nor did he act to fix obvious deficiencies in the years since then.

Easley's office apparently did order the firing of Debbie Crane, a longtime public affairs officer with the Department of Health and Human Services, who provided information to News & Observer reporters — information that she insisted the public had a right to know. A spokesman for the governor accused her of hindering access to information and called her “dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate.”

Someone must have blocked Easley's access to information because he misstated several facts at his news conference. It looks as if the governor has been disengaged from and in denial about the state's mental-health system problems for a long time. He finally proposed some changes this week, asking for greater state authority over local mental-health agencies. Legislative leaders also promise to explore ways to repair the system.

The idea in 2001 was to put people with mental-health needs in the hands of private service providers. Because of poor oversight, too much state money was paid for unnecessary care while people with severe, more-expensive-to-treat problems were neglected. Drastic budget cuts left state mental hospitals understaffed and patients at risk.

These troubles caught up to the governor this week and were laid at his feet. He tripped trying to dance out of the way — not his best moment.

He can't turn back the clock, so he should use the rest of his time in office trying to fix what's broken.

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

Eve Carson's hometown newspaper, the Athens Banner-Herald, described her as brilliant, without arrogance; beautiful, without vanity; and generous, without self-importance.
Her murder Wednesday in Chapel Hill, where she attended the University of North Carolina as a Morehead Scholar, unleashed torrents of grief from Chancellor James Moeser to the thousands of fellow students who gathered to remember her Thursday.

The unexplained crime shocked the close-knit UNC and Chapel Hill communities where shootings are still relatively rare. Sadly, images of the safe, small-town atmosphere older alumni cherish now must be updated in the wake of this tragic event. Few places are insulated from the culture of violence that pervades our society today.

The irony is that Carson's studies took her to Egypt, Ghana, Cuba and Ecuador, places where safety concerns might deter other young travelers. Yet it was only a mile from her own campus where she met deadly danger.

The 22-year-old Carson seemed fearless, even joyful, in all her ventures. She spent a summer helping deliver babies in South America and pitching in with farm chores for her host family, and celebrated those experiences in a moving multimedia presentation called “The Gifts of Poverty.” She taught science to elementary schoolchildren in Chapel Hill, volunteered for countless worthy causes and hoped to go to medical school. Last year, she was elected student body president. “I really think one could say she was the most popular student on campus,” a friend told The Daily Tar Heel.

Although a native of Georgia, Carson enriched UNC and maybe would have made her home in North Carolina. Her death marks a grievous loss for her family, friends, university and all those she might have touched in a long lifetime. A vicious, irrational crime has caused a world of harm.

Sunday's editorial:

Nothing matters more to Guilford County's future than education. Nothing else depends so much on the concept of One Guilford.

The News & Record initiated the One Guilford series last year to create conversation about important issues that affect all of us from one end of the county to another. Too often, we observed, old boundaries and divisions impede progress and keep us from combining resources to solve common problems.

The first One Guilford program, hosted by High Point University in May, focused on leadership. The second, at Guilford College in October, examined four issues related to economic development and education.

The education portion of that program drew the most interest and audience participation, so we've chosen that for a closer look at Wednesday's One Guilford event hosted by UNCG.
The specific issue we'll examine is how well we're preparing our young people for success after high school. We want to identify good things that are happening but also deficiencies. Why do some employers and college/university administrators report that many of the high school graduates they see just aren't ready? Most importantly, we want to explore ways to do better.
Guilford County Schools is the agency directly responsible for K-12 education, but it can't address this task adequately on its own. It needs the support of local governments, community organizations, businesses and our institutions of higher learning.

Everyone has a stake in education. If our young people aren't equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to become productive members of the work force or handle the academic demands of college or university studies, Guilford County will lose ground economically and everyone's quality of life will suffer.

High Point businessman Jerry Camp sees too many high school students "not having a clue what they're going to do when they walk across that stage at graduation." Camp, board chairman for High Point's Chamber of Commerce, has worked extensively on the work-force preparedness issue. He'll talk about that at Wednesday's program.

We've assembled an outstanding panel. Participants include representatives of colleges and universities, the business community and school system. Significantly, four very bright young people will join them on stage to talk about their current or recent experiences as students.
We expect them to engage in a lively and informative discussion that may inspire new ideas for meeting the challenges before us. While many efforts already are under way or in the planning stages, other opportunities might have been overlooked.

One key to success is increasing the resources available to solve a problem. If there are people, organizations or institutions that remain uncommitted to the cause of improving education, Guilford County isn't doing everything it can to build a better future. And it can't afford to come up short.

Everyone can participate in this discussion. Audience members will have a chance to offer questions during the program and to engage the panelists in informal conversations immediately after. We'd like to see school personnel, students and their parents, community leaders, businessmen and everyone else with an interest in this critical One Guilford subject. Our future demands strong education.

Want to go?

One Guilford
When: 4-6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Elliott Center Auditorium, UNCG
Cost: Free and open to the public. Free parking in the Walker Avenue Deck (follow Stirling Street off Spring Garden Street).
RSVP: E-mail us at edpage@news-record.com or call Becky Layton at 373-7010

Welcome by Dr. Patricia Sullivan, UNCG chancellor
Co-moderators: Dr. Andrew Brod, UNCG; Allen Johnson, News & Record
Panelists:
Dr. Joseph Graves, N.C. A&T
Dr. Rosemary Wander, UNCG
Jerry Camp, High Point Chamber of Commerce
Dr. Kathryn Baker Smith, GTCC
Alan Duncan, Guilford County Board of Education
Dr. Margaret Arbuckle, Guilford Education Alliance
Dr. Noah Rogers, Smith High School principal
Malishai Woodbury, Dudley High School
Jasmine Renee Mitchell, Smith High School ’06, UNC-CH Morehead Scholar
Megan M. Metzger, UNCG ’05
Samantha McCulley, Andrews High School ’07, GTCC student
Ralph Yarnall-Rodland, GTCC student

Should Greensboro have a downtown greenway?

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

One of Guilford County's most respected and popular District Court judges, Lawrence McSwain, plans to retire at the end of this year. He's served on the bench since 1986.
McSwain, 61, was diagnosed with prostate cancer more than a decade ago and, despite surgery and treatment, has never been in remission. He wants to pursue his interests in travel and Old West history while he's healthy enough to enjoy them, he said last week.

Not that he'll give up public service. He mentors 10 male students at a local high school and would like to do more of that. He takes them out to eat or to the movies, or they just "talk about things they need to know to make good, wise decisions.”

They couldn't have a better role model. Wise decisions have been McSwain's stock in trade.
Retiring sounds like another one. We hope he enjoys many healthy and productive years.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Can you name the critically acclaimed singing sensation from High Point currently starring in New York?

Fantasia Barrino isn't a bad guess. But the answer is Anthony Dean Griffey, leading the Metropolitan Opera's new production of "Peter Grimes.”

The New York Times' Anthony Tommasini recently delivered a rave review: "Mr. Griffey, even though his voice has heft and carrying power, is essentially a lyric tenor. And it is disarming to hear the role sung with such vocal grace, even sweetness in places.”

Griffey is "an elegant singer and courageous actor long overdue for a starring role at the Met,"the critic added.

Unlike Fantasia, Griffey still makes his home in High Point. The entire Triad can be proud of this native son whose terrific talent has taken him to the top of a demanding profession.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Appalachian State University didn't plan to hold a mock drill for an armed intruder last week, but it was forced to respond when a student called police to report seeing a gunman running toward campus.

That was a fabrication, deserving a misdemeanor charge of filing a false police report for 22-year-old senior Matthew W. Haney. He's due whatever punishment the courts and the university can give him. Campus shootings are only too real and too frightening. Haney's thoughtless deceit caused too much trouble and trauma.

It did give the university and local police a chance to test their emergency procedures, which apparently worked well. But, then, there was no real gunman. That was the only reason to give thanks.

One of Monday's Short Stack items.

Could Greensboro's water restrictions soon be eased? City Water Resources Director Allan Williams says that Greensboro is evaluating the effects of last week's abundant rainfalls to determine if that can happen.

One significant change is that Burlington's City Council has voted to lift its water restrictions. That means Burlington can increase its water sales to Greensboro, which would improve the water situation here. All of Burlington's reservoirs are full, with water even spilling over a couple of them.

Guilford and surrounding counties are still at the worst level of drought, but the recent rains have made the picture much better for much of North Carolina. The U.S. Drought Monitor's weekly report, which is released on Thursdays, shows a big improvement over two weeks ago. Thirty-nine of the state's counties still remain in exceptional drought, the worst of five drought categories. But two weeks ago, 64 counties fell into that category.

Tuesday's lead editorial.

In the highly competitive job-creation game, you win a few and you lose a few. But most of the time, the Triad and North Carolina are squarely in the winner's circle.

National rankings released last week by SiteSelection magazine show hard work is paying off in plant expansions, business recruitment and hundreds of new jobs.

According to the magazine's Web site, in 2007 North Carolina ranked fourth nationwide in new or expanded capital projects. In the "small metro" category (200,000 to 1 million population), Greensboro-High Point came out on top just as in 2006. For areas with fewer than 50,000 residents, nearby Thomasville-Lexington led the pack, edging out Mooresville-Statesville.

The only downer in an otherwise positive picture was Greensboro-based RF Micro Devices' decision to put on hold construction at a local plant and instead add 300 jobs at a British subsidiary.

Those high-paying jobs originally were earmarked for Greensboro. As part of a plant-expansion package, the company had negotiated tax breaks of $4.5 million from the state and $1.2 million from the city. Guilford County commissioners, on the other hand, declined, saying locally based RF Micro wasn't about to relocate.

If the upgrade does happen within five years, the company still could cash in. Local and state incentives wisely are linked to job creation.
A stumbling economy may force businesses everywhere to reassess and put well-intended plans on hold. If that occurs, local governments can redirect the money to corporate customers ready to make a move. Either way, area workers will get a boost.

In a global economy, luring new business is a two-way street. Thomasville recruiters told SiteSelection they often get overseas inquiries and several foreign-based firms already have located in Davidson County.

Yet it isn't always a fair trade-off. Jobs coming into this country may not be as good as those departing. Displaced textile and furniture workers can attest to that danger.
Nonetheless, the SiteSelection rankings will draw renewed focus on the Triad and state's favorable business climate. A friendly tax structure, worker retraining, university research and a good transportation network all bode well for the future.

Competition, however, will be intense and the stakes high. According to SiteSelection, states like Michigan and Ohio, hard hit by losses in the auto industry, are more aggressively wooing new jobs.

Even so, North Carolina's enviable string of successes based on solid selling points should help keep the winning streak alive.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

The grieving in Salisbury has just begun. Friday morning, two firefighters in the city of 25,000, about 40 miles southwest of Greensboro, died in a raging woodworking company fire.
Fire crews from across the state, including High Point, are volunteering at stations there while Salisbury firefighters come to grips with the tragedy.

The pain is an all too familiar one. They felt it in Charleston, which lost nine firefighters on June 18. They felt it in New York, at the World Trade Center. A "Mayday" call is the same anywhere, anytime.

In fact, New York City and Salisbury share an eerie connection. Victor Isler, who died as he fought flames inside Salisbury Millwork, had been a New York City paramedic and was among the first responders to the 2001 terrorist attacks. But at 40, he was too old to join the New York Fire Department, so he moved south to realize a lifelong dream of being a fireman.

Nineteen-year-old Justin Moore shared that dream. He died alongside Isler, manning a hose. Moore joined a Rowan County volunteer unit’s youth program at age 14 and was studying fire technology at a local community college.

He wanted no other career.

In time, there will be answers concerning the fire’s origins, how it was fought and what might have been done differently. Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, the State Bureau of Investigation, the state Fire Marshal’s Office and local agencies are just beginning to sift through the ashes.

The flames seemingly had been contained, then suddenly flared out of control, trapping firefighters inside. The presence of highly combustible sawdust may have been a factor.

But for now, a town will pause to share grief, comfort families and honor memories.

The new I-40 bypass is four miles longer than the section of road it replaces. That means DOT's signage on distances from Point A to Point B are off by four miles. So what, you may ask. A Chapel Hill resident suggests the state update distances -- kind of a truth in advertising move. DOT says it isn't worth the trouble or expense. We tend to agree. What do you think?

Wednesday's lead editorial.

With the theft of some 70 manhole covers and grates, not to mention the destruction of countless air conditioner units around town for their copper, Greensboro can consider itself enmeshed in the global problem of metal theft.

Cities worldwide -- from Beijing (where some years hundreds of thousands of manhole covers are stolen) to towns in England (thieves target railways there) -- have been plagued by metal thieves. They seem to view every piece of metal -- downspouts, telephone cable, cemetery plaques -- as business opportunities.

Metals theft is nothing new. Google "metal theft" "North Carolina," for example, and one of the first stories you'll find is a New York Times piece from the late 1980s, when thieves around Charlotte were stealing highway signs.

Metal theft is cyclical. When the price of metals declines, thefts decline. Still, with that price likely to keep rising and, with a free-fall economy, metal theft appears to be a problem that is going to stick around this time.

Our community needs to get a jump on the issue. The fastest way may be to get in contact with The Macon-Middle Georgia Metal Theft Committee. Formed in November 2006 to combat metal thefts in the metropolitan Macon area, it enables interested parties -- from law enforcement (police through prosecutors) to scrap metal dealers, utilities to landlords' associations --to routinely share information that helps prevent and deter thefts.
"They meet regularly and share information. ... They talk to each other and try to learn what each can do realistically," says Jonathan Levy, director of state and local relations of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

"The only thing that is going to affect this is communication between all the stakeholder groups."

The Macon group has an alert system that updates members by e-mail about items stolen.
The group also shares preventive measures. Did you know people are protecting heating/cooling units with metal, padlocked cages? Did you know that there is copper wiring that now can be made with markings that will make it easy to be tracked?

This information sharing -- the group also gets together every couple of months --has caused thefts to dramatically decline, bucking the national trend. In December 2006, the city of Macon had 84 copper thefts, but in December 2007 it had only 17 ... and in November 2007 it had only eight.
"It's a positive relationship," says Chip Koplin of Macon Iron and Paper Stock Co., one of the creators of the group. Koplin adds that a state law that makes some forms of metal theft a felony also has deterred criminals.

The N.C. General Assembly passed a similar law last year that should deter thieves. But information sharing also is needed. Greensboro needs to get going, call Koplin in Macon and set up a Triad group. It takes a community -- and communication -- to counter this kind of crime.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.
The annual summer trek to the beach or mountains on I-40 just got four miles longer. But you'd never know it by looking at the state's mileage signs.

Blame Greensboro's recently opened Urban Loop, which also serves as the I-40 Bypass. Simply put, the old route, now I-40 Business, that links Winston-Salem to Burlington is four miles shorter.

Instead of updating hundreds of signs from Tennessee to South Carolina to reflect the unforeseen changes, DOT had a better idea. According to The News & Observer of Raleigh, Greensboro's old miles have been stretched to fit the new distances. Mile markers on the urban loop-I-40 Bypass really are 1.1 to 1.6 miles apart. </