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Tuesday's lead editorial.

The state leader of a well-known gang stepped forward Monday morning and said he wanted to give peace a chance.

Flanked by fellow gang members and his two young daughters, ages 10 and 5, Jorge Cornell, 31, “Inca” of the Latin Kings in North Carolina, said he was reaching out to rival gangs such as the Bloods and the Crips, and that he was heartened by the response.

“The peace is already starting,” he said, wearing a yellow Latin Kings T-shirt and a pair of tattooed tear drops under his left eye.

It was a powerful moment. And it was a hopeful, utterly surprising development. Should we believe him?

We should certainly want to believe him. While still far from levels elsewhere in the country, gang activity is growing in North Carolina. If communities don’t take urgent steps now, it could become much worse.

The proof will come in the actions that follow Cornell’s words, spoken during a news conference at Faith Community Church. Cornell said he wanted to sit down with other gang members. And he reached out to church leaders in the black community. That in itself is a promising start.
He also called on the media to “get the word out so we can preach peace.”

Less clear was Cornell’s explanation as to why he was calling for peace now. He cited what he alleged was a warrantless arrest by Greensboro police and what he suggested is persecution of the entire Latino community for the misdeeds of a few. And, while he may have called for the truce among gangs, it would have been even more encouraging if he also had called for an end to all gang crime and violence in the community.

Ironically, on the very same morning as the news conference, “a validated member of the Latin Kings” was featured in the News & Record’s weekly feature, “Guilford’s County’s Most Wanted.” He has been charged with attempted murder.

Still, this small step toward progress could be a very important one. And even if that peace begins with rival gangs not battling one another, it’s not insignificant. Some of the highest-profile gang violence has involved innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. In 2007, a 13-year-old girl was fatally shot during a birthday party in Salisbury. Only months ago, a spate of drive-by shootings into Greensboro houses were traced to rival gangs.

Some of us, meanwhile, may question the involvement of the Rev. Nelson Johnson in Monday’s announcement. After all, Johnson is no stranger to controversy, especially as it pertains to the Nov. 3, 1979, Klan-Nazi shootings in Morningside Homes and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission formed four years ago to revisit that event.

But that was then and this is now. We have called for the local faith community to be an active part of the gang solution. That’s what Johnson and a fellow clergyman, the Rev. Gregory Headen, appear to be doing.

If they can make a helpful difference, more power to them.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

There was no day of rest from politics in the state capital Sunday.

Legislative budget negotiators met from morning till night, and even the governor got worked up. That doesn’t happen often, but Mike Easley decided he wouldn’t be ignored this time.
“I want to be clear,” the governor said in a statement. “The budget must be balanced and have the right priorities for me to sign it.”

Deliberations continued Monday in hopes of passing a budget before today’s start of the new fiscal year. Chances of success were slim.

Easley hammered at two problems: Legislators were counting on more tax revenue than the state is likely to collect over the next 12 months; and they weren’t allocating enough money for teachers’ pay raises or preschool programs.

The governor was right to insist legislators deal with pessimistic revenue forecasts. If anything, budget writers should count on even less in case the state’s economy performs worse than expected. Easley correctly noted that the N.C. Constitution requires a balanced budget, and he must not accept a deficit. But that makes it harder for him to demand more spending, even for his favorite causes. The governor opposes proposed tax cuts, but those are modest, and the tax increases he sought were rejected by the legislature and won’t come back.

The best option is for legislative bargainers to drop their tax cuts and bump up preschool funding and teacher pay raises a little but nowhere near as much as Easley wants. Everyone has to give up something these days.

The governor weighed in at a critical time in the debate. He also helped bring the discussion out of the closed meeting rooms where legislators prefer to operate. But now, with a new fiscal year begun, it’s time for a compromise. Then everyone can rest.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

Here’s one prescription for what ails the local economy: a Triad pharmacy school.
Both UNCG and High Point University are exploring that possibility and both can make potent cases for their causes.

School officials at HPU already have seen an initial feasibility study. The school also is exploring a nursing program, among other health-related options for professional schools.
For its part, UNCG has submitted a formal proposal to the UNC system and has received letters of support from Moses Cone Health System and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, which also would provide vital clinical internships.

Now, before anyone presumes that these two schools’ pursuit of the same goal means another heated tiff between High Point and Greensboro, plainly and simply, it does not. This news should be viewed not as a competition but as an opportunity to double the chances for success. If either bid is realized, Guilford County would become home to only the fourth pharmacy school in the state. The oldest and most prestigious, at UNC-Chapel Hill, was begun in 1897 and is ranked as high as second in the nation. Campbell and Wingate universities also have established pharmacy schools.

As for the Triad school, wherever it went, it would be a good thing. Pharmacists can earn as much as $125,000 — plus healthy bonuses — fresh out of school and there’s a staggering demand for their services. A pharmacy school also would enhance the academic profile of any institution fortunate enough and able to establish one.

The research potential is enormous. UNC-Chapel Hill in 2007 started a Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery to search for chemical compounds that can treat defective genes. The pharmacy school there is partnering in that effort with UNC’s chemistry department, medical school and Lineberger Cancer Center. There’s no reason similar initiatives couldn’t take root here.

But what’s in it for the rest of us, who are neither connected to the schools nor in the market for a pharmacy degree?

Schools of pharmacy can attract businesses, especially health-related industries. In addition, the Triad’s image would benefit significantly from another professional school that trains skilled, highly paid workers, especially in a health-related field.

Meanwhile, UNCG and High Point University each is uniquely poised for this kind of quantum leap. Under the charismatic leadership of its president, Nido Qubein, HPU has undergone a spiritual and physical transformation and has raised record amounts of money. With an impressive new chancellor, Linda Brady, set to succeed Patricia Sullivan in August, UNCG already is establishing research campuses with N.C. A&T, including a Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

In other words, if either institution should win this opportunity, we’ll all win. Best wishes to them both.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

If first lady Mary Easley’s two trips abroad at taxpayers’ expense were anything but junkets, they should have been publicly announced.

Neither her 2007 travels to France nor a spring visit to Russia and Estonia were disclosed at the time. Only after The News & Observer of Raleigh filed a public records request were they acknowledged.

Considered “cultural exchanges,” the goal of the trips supposedly was to build links with other countries. The rationale is that official visits help to attract major showings like the highly successful 2006-07 Monet exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Art.

But a convincing case has yet to be made that such iffy deals always should be consummated on foreign turf. And, so far, the first lady’s travels haven’t produced a single tangible result.
The revelation comes days after learning the costs of an April trip the Easleys and about a dozen officials took to Italy promoting the state as a tourist destination and business location.
All three trips share one thing in common: going first-class when less extravagant would have sufficed nicely. The bottom line for Mrs. Easley’s trips is $109,000. The final tally on the governor’s spring Italian tour comes to more than $170,000.

Unfortunately, whatever influence Mary Easley may have banked toward procuring traveling art exhibits for the state will have vanished by the time the next governor is sworn in.
Easley’s status as a lame duck not seeking office and the ill-chosen timing make the family trips appear to be last-minute plays for free vacations.

The late-term jaunts must be particularly galling to hard-working Tar Heels who canceled beach getaways because they can’t afford to buy gasoline.

To them, the pricey family travels must look like bold parting shots before the moving vans roll up in January.

Thursday's lead editorial.

The new partnership between N.C. A&T and GTCC isn’t only logical, it’s necessary.
Not to mention a great example of approaching problems from a One Guilford perspective.
Stanley Battle, chancellor at A&T for a year now, began his tenure by emphasizing academic quality. For years, A&T had been increasing enrollment by accepting a high proportion of applicants. But retention and graduation rates were low. It didn’t make sense to enroll more students who were likely to drop out. Battle said it was time to value quality over quantity.
Subsequently, the university raised admission standards, effective this fall, and developed an aggressive scholarship program designed to attract stronger applicants. One consequence: Students who in the past might be welcomed at A&T now would be left out.

But not without another chance. Last September, Battle told A&T’s student newspaper those students could attend a community college, complete a two-year program and come back to A&T.

Now that vision has been incorporated into an agreement with GTCC. The community college will accept students who just miss the cut at A&T and put them through a two-year associate’s degree course. If they make it, they’ll be guaranteed a place at A&T and an opportunity to begin halfway to a four-year degree.

More importantly, they’ll be much better prepared to succeed than they would have been straight out of high school.

The deeper issue has to do with a K-12 system of education that loses too many students before high school graduation and hands diplomas to others who are unready to meet the demands of work or higher education. A&T and GTCC are moving to address some of the problems, joining with Guilford County Schools in a Cosby Kids initiative aimed at improving the reading, math and science skills of black and Hispanic children in grades four, six and eight. Eventually, that effort should yield more students who are properly equipped to step directly from high school to university campuses.

One institution can’t tackle these challenges alone. Problems have to be addressed at many levels but with a common purpose.

That objective is to give young people the skills to thrive in a changing economic environment. A more capable work force, in turn, will attract companies that create good jobs. All of Guilford County’s educational institutions can contribute, and among them they have plenty of assets. They just have to make best use of them.

The new agreement between A&T and GTCC recognizes that more high school graduates must have access to higher education but also must meet higher standards. Those who can’t get through the door at A&T immediately might just need additional time and another means of entry. GTCC can give it to them. The collaboration will be good for students, good for A&T and GTCC, and good for Guilford County.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

All some homeowners need is just a little more time to forestall credit-ruining foreclosures. A reprieve benefits both them and the banks because refinancing is better than repossession.
Legislation being debated in the General Assembly and backed by Gov. Mike Easley could help stabilize a shaky housing market by buying time.

Eligible borrowers would get 45 days’ notice before mortgage holders initiate foreclosure proceedings. And the state banking commissioner could issue another delay of up to 30 days.
That may not seem like much, but it can keep the wolves at bay while home­owners use welcome breathing room to renegotiate their ballooning, and often confusing, subprime loans.

Despite faring better than hard-hit states like Florida and California, North Carolina still has experienced hundreds of foreclosures. In 2007, almost 50,000 were reported in the state, up 9 percent from the previous year.

Particularly at risk are home buyers chafing under adjustable subprime mortgage rates offered between 2005 and 2007. Tough lending rules approved last session were too late to protect many of those borrowers from possibly losing homes.

Equally important, $1 million is earmarked statewide to counsel home­owners facing eviction. In the past, such timely financial-planning advice might have helped evicted families stay in their homes.

There’s a limit, however, to what the states can do. Members of Congress and the Bush administration must end the partisan bickering and come up with a fair, workable plan that addresses mortgage inequities. Inadequate and outdated oversight of financial institutions by federal watchdog agencies bears much of the blame for the nation’s housing woes.

For now, the state is right on target by extending a helping hand.

Friday's lead editorial.

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor” — the Declaration of Independence.

The hallmark of patriotism in 1776, and for many years after, was the willingness to offer any sacrifice, risk any danger and endure any hardship for one’s country.

Those who signed the great statement of separation were true to their words. Every one made himself a target for British retribution, and many of them paid a high price for their nation’s independence. They didn’t just send young men off to fight in a distant war; they lived and worked on the front lines: In 1777, the enemy captured Philadelphia. Later, Thomas Jefferson himself narrowly escaped British dragoons in Virginia. They might have hanged him. Ordinary Americans, too, whether engaged in the fighting or not, found themselves caught in the death, destruction and deprivations of war.

U.S. military men and women serving their country today in difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the equal of any patriots of the past. They and their families make immense sacrifices to answer the call of duty. Not all Americans, however, have experienced much hardship. Civilians haven’t been asked to support the war effort with even minor lifestyle changes, and the cost just adds to the national debt for future generations to pay.

Other challenges, though, might force adjustments in how we live. Rising energy costs will restrict how and where Americans get around and maybe what goods they can buy. North Carolinians already know they might have to use less water in the future — even the immediate future. Businesses are trying to do more with less, and it’s time for governments to implement greater efficiencies, too. In fact, just as Americans shouldn’t continually ask for additional tax cuts at a time when war costs mount, neither should they always expect more unearned benefits from their government.

The nation launched 232 years ago is still the greatest in history, but the heirs of liberty too easily take for granted the gifts they’ve inherited. Every few generations, Americans have been required to sacrifice for a cause larger than themselves.

The time has come again. Will this generation leave its successors a country that is more secure, energy independent, environmentally healthy, prosperous and free? If so, much needs to be done soon, and it won’t be easy. It could be called a matter of life, fortune and sacred honor.

Those words counted for everything in 1776. They still should matter on this and every Independenc

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

July Fourth without fireworks would be like New Year’s Eve without the ball dropping in Times Square. An essential part of the celebration wouldn’t be there.

But what wouldn’t be missed are fireworks injuries. If this year is like last, some 9,000-plus Americans will be injured by fireworks, most this holiday weekend.

A good portion of these injuries could be prevented if parents better supervised their kids. Children between the ages of 10 and 14 are the ones most often injured by fireworks, with those under 20 sustaining about half of all such injuries.

North Carolina parents have it easier than their South Carolina counterparts, where more dangerous fireworks are sold. Our state bans the use and possession of devices that explode or travel. Still, it’s a given that devices from south of the border will be around town, and parents should watch for children being exposed to them.

Sparklers are the fallback choice of many parents, as they are looked at as a way to give children a safe thrill. But sparklers come with their own hazards. They burn at temperatures up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and can do damage to fingers and exposed toes. They also can ignite clothing. They cause the largest percentage of fireworks injuries in children 14 and younger.

Safety groups recommend that children 5 and younger not use sparklers. Children who do use them need to be taught some common-sense rules: Don’t hold more than one sparkler at a time; don’t wave them or run with them; hold them away from the body and stand while using them.

State law wisely bans children under 16 from purchasing fireworks. Adults should supervise the use of fireworks by all who can’t legally buy them. Boys especially should be watched, as males suffer more than 75 percent of fireworks injuries.

A trip tonight to Grimsley High School to see the professional fireworks might be the best way to keep kids safe — and to divert attention from amateur pyrotechnics.

Saturday's No. 1 editorial.

One of the most memorable and iconic figures in North Carolina history — for better and for worse — is gone.

Following years of declining health, former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a pillar of the Republicans’ rise in the South and a force in Washington for decades, died Friday morning, on Independence Day, at age 86.

He was a potent voice for conservatism who became unbeatable over the years, staving off serious challenges for his seat from former Gov. Jim Hunt and former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt en route to 30 consecutive years in the Senate.

He also was a consummate battler, a scorched-earth campaigner whose words and views could be caustic and divisive.

From his early days as a broadcast editorialist on WRAL (Channel 5) in Raleigh, he was a champion of segregation, a view for which he never expressed remorse.

During two campaigns against Gantt, an African American, in 1990 and 1996, he was far from subtle in his use of racial fears as a tactic. During the 1990 race, a famous Helms commercial showed a white fist crumpling a job application. “You needed that job,” the words flashed on the screen, “ ... but they had to give it to a minority.”

When Helms said no, he meant it. He disdained liberalism and arms-control treaties and viewed foreign policy with a hard edge and an unwavering contempt for communism.

At the same time, he was a Southern gentleman who was known for his personal grace and charm. His office had a reputation for being responsive to constituents and he kept close tabs on the home front. When this newspaper ran letters to the editor with which he took issue, it wasn’t unusual for Helms’ office to call.

Yet Helms was willing to rethink some of his views, especially as he grew older. He was a relentless critic of the United Nations, which he viewed as useless and irrelevant. But he later agreed to measures to repay delinquent debt to the U.N. Helms also changed his views toward AIDS, teaming with, of all people, rock star Bono to support greater U.S. funding to battle the epidemic in Africa.

When Helms chose to not to seek re-election in 2002, the outpouring of warm sentiment bothered some critics, who believed those tributes glossed over Helms’ less-admirable qualities, especially his unenlightened views on race. “The reporting on his retirement was circumspect to the point of pussyfooting,” fumed Washington Post columnist David Broder.
That said, Helms battled with Democrats and some Republicans alike, and even some of his staunchest critics grudgingly admired his blistering candor.

There was a brand of honesty in Helms’ politics that’s especially hard to find today. But shooting straight doesn’t count for a lot if you’re aiming at the wrong target. So, even though we always knew where Jesse stood, too often it was in the wrong places.

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

Street drag racing is fine if the speeding cars stay on the movie screen. But it’s a different story if they’re rocketing toward the family minivan at 120 mph on a dimly lit two-lane road.

The sentencing last week of three Triad men for prearranged drag racing on U.S. 311 in Forsyth County conjures up visions of rowdy speed epics that for years have filled theater seats.

But it also comes just months after an illegal drag race in Maryland turned deadly when another car plowed into and killed eight spectators gathered at night on a darkened highway.

For generations, street drag racing — spontaneous or prearranged — has been a part of the nation’s car-crazy culture. And Hollywood has done its dubious part by glamorizing it with sagas like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “The Fast and the Furious.” Along with movies and a host of video games, the Internet now is loaded with clips of illegal and impromptu races.

The March incident in Forsyth County easily could have ended in tragedy. A deputy sheriff said the onrushing racers narrowly missed a car with two elderly occupants that had slipped through a racers’ dragnet to shut down the road.

As part of a plea-bargain, three participants received license suspensions and steep fines. Two had their tricked-out cars confiscated. Had they tried to flee, jail time would have been likely.
One of the vehicles will be used as a mobile warning to other would-be racers. A good idea, but timely tips from the public would be even more helpful. Races don’t happen in a vacuum. Often, hundreds of noisy spectators plan to show up in the wee hours.

An even better idea is moving the racers and their cars from street to track. Race-sanctioning groups regularly hold events for modified vehicles.

Going fast isn’t the issue. Finding a safe place to do it is.

What is your reaction to a local gang leader’s call for peace last week? Do you believe him? Will it make a difference?

Sunday's editorial.

If reporter Morgan Josey Glover’s “Peak Prospects” series wasn’t enough of a wake-up call concerning America’s shaky future with oil, take a look at what happened when Hurricane Katrina affected energy supplies in North Carolina.

Similar disruptions could occur during “peak oil,” the time when global demand for petroleum products exceeds supply, creating higher prices, shortages and other instability. Many energy experts think we are already, or will soon be, at peak oil.

Katrina and North Carolina
Much of the Southeast may have been days away from paralysis because of Katrina’s effect on energy infrastructure. The 2005 hurricane shut down the power to the two pipelines from the Gulf Coast that supply most of the motor fuel to the region.

Here is a little of what happened in North Carolina from just a few days’ disruption:

-- Gas stations in western North Carolina had trouble getting supplies. More than 60 percent of Buncombe County’s stations ran out of fuel.

-- School athletic events were canceled, with many districts considering a four-day school week.

-- Some local government vehicles began filling up at private service stations in order to preserve their supply.

-- The state ferry system cut back on trips and the state DOT went to a shortened work week.
Lessons learned

The disruptions prompted the state’s energy office to take a look at developing better emergency response plans. The state realized from the disruption, for example, that fuel storage capacity for the DOT was insufficient. It also realized it needed a way to move fuel around the state in emergencies, and so purchased a fuel tanker truck.

The crisis especially showed the vulnerabilities of local governments. Most local governments in North Carolina rely on “just-in-time fuel delivery,” a big problem in such a crisis. Some turned to the state for emergency fuel but found they had a lower priority than the state agencies. A study also found that public transit systems generally were not prepared: More people were riding public transit, yet fuel for those vehicles was running low.

Energy crisis preparation lacking
These details are provided in the report “Fuel Price, Availability and Mobility: What We Can Learn from North Carolina in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and Oil Shocks of the 1970s and early 1980s” by Kathy Leotta of the Seattle office of Parsons Brinckerhoff. It should be mandatory reading for local government officials in our state. So should the report “Post Carbon Cities: Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty” by Daniel Lerch of the Post Carbon Institute. Both studies would help local governments start preparing for the volatilities associated with a declining resource.

Most public agencies haven’t made any peak oil plans. Few U.S. cities have planned how to handle disruptions that may come about because of fuel shortages. Few have looked at how to stay economically healthy when the price of petroleum products remains high.

Some think it’s alarmist to make such plans. Others argue that more drilling or alternative technology will fix the problem. But these stands are naive.

Oil resources are finite, and, even if drilling does occur, new fields will take years to get online. Even the International Energy Agency warns that, long term, the global demand for oil looks to be outpacing supply.

Production of an affordable, mass-produced alternatively powered vehicle isn’t a given and can’t be accomplished quickly. We will still face years of energy volatility even if more areas are opened for drilling and an alternatively powered car becomes viable.

Local, regional action needed
Greensboro is taking a step in the right direction by allowing a briefing on peak oil to the City Council. The city’s environmental committee then needs to put peak oil preparation front and center. A good place to start would be to contact Portland’s peak oil task force. It produced an extensive report for the way its city can best weather the problems peak oil will cause, examining issues such as planning, transportation and agriculture.

It also would be good for the Triad as a whole to examine the long-term impacts of this oncoming change. Prohibitive fuel costs endanger global supply chains. Many think that energy disruptions will out of necessity lead to more self-sufficient, localized economies (see H3 op-ed, “Gas prices bring relocalization”).

Some areas already have started planning how to adapt to such a future. A 2006 study by the Philadelphia-area Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, “A Post-Global Economic Development Strategy,” shows that region looking at ways to benefit from a more localized world. It argues for developing “eco-industry clusters” and for “eco-branding” the region as a model for sustainability.

Peak oil is not an issue of the left or of the right. We must put old divisions behind us and unite to find new ways to address the energy challenges we face. We must all be open to looking at new ideas. Environmentalists might have to rethink their stands against drilling and nuclear energy. Conservatives may have to realize that government functions such as public transit are necessities. One thing is clear: Fifty years from now, the healthiest communities won’t be the ones that argued. They will be the ones that planned.

More money but less travel?
The hubbub over Mary Easley’s expensive European travels hadn’t begun to subside last week when news arrived of her 88 percent pay raise at N.C. State. North Carolina’s first lady, an “executive in residence and senior lecturer” in the provost’s office, was given more responsibilities and bumped up from $90,000 to $170,000 a year on July 1.

Her “commitment to public service” was mentioned by State’s chief academic officer as one asset she brings to the position. That sounds like another way of saying “governor’s wife.”
On the bright side: The bigger job in Raleigh might keep Mrs. Easley from traveling so much.
Governor also gets some love

Although the Easleys were taking their lumps in the North Carolina media last week, the governor did get a lift from the National Education Association. The teachers’ organization gave him its “America’s Greatest Education Governor Award” at its annual meeting in Washington for his “achievements in transforming public education in North Carolina.” It cited Easley’s promotion of programs like More at Four and Learn and Earn.

The “transformation” isn’t so obvious here, but Easley has worked hard to secure more funding — primarily through the creation of a state lottery — for preschool programs, college opportunities and school construction. And, as the NEA surely has noticed, he’s pushed for higher teacher salaries.

The governor had a rough week, so it was nice for him that he could close it with a few cheers. And favorable publicity about public education in North Carolina, whether entirely deserved or not, is never a bad thing.

Satan, sex and assault?
In a bizarre case in Durham, a husband and wife have been arrested following allegations of satanic rituals, kidnapping and sexual assault.

The plot thickens. The wife, Joy Suzanne Johnson, 30, just happens to be a former third vice chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats there.

Among the couple’s alleged actions: imprisoning a man in a dog cage for hours and depriving him of food and water.

Despite some predictable sneers on the blogosphere, however, the Durham community at large seems to be withholding judgment.

This looks bad, but Durham learned the hard way not to leap to conclusions.

Leave the driving to us
Crank up the PART buses and they will come. Well, maybe in time.
The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation’s new commuter routes linking Randolph and Davidson counties with Greensboro and Winston-Salem got off to a slow start last week.
PART officials, however, are confident that once word spreads and park-and-ride lots are finished, the routes will be as popular as the Surry Express run between Mount Airy and Winston-Salem. Scheduled stops at shopping centers, hospitals, schools and downtown should attract a wide audience. There may not be a savings in time, but PART’s reasonable fares beat filling the family SUV at $4 a gallon.

No-parking zones
Telling people what to do on private property is a touchy issue. Remember that infamous purple house in Westerwood?

Now, in Winston-Salem, they’re fighting over whether residents should be allowed to park cars in their yards. Community standards versus individual rights, Round 3,485. The Winston-Salem City Council will discuss an ordinance tonight.

Some neighborhoods can be downright persnickety about rules. Still, lawns do seem to be better suit

Tuesday's lead editorial.

As the summer sun cooks the red Carolina clay and the air grows thick and unbearable, here are some cold facts to consider: North Carolina ranks No. 1 in the nation in heat-related crop worker deaths — deadlier even than Florida and California — according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released June 19.

The report mentions, as a case study, the death of a 56-year-old worker who fell ill in 2005 while harvesting tobacco in North Carolina. His core body temperature had reached 108 degrees before he died.

Crop workers, as a group, are particularly vulnerable to heat stroke. Nationally, the vast majority of heat-related deaths involves construction workers, the CDC reports. Even so, crop workers, per capita, are 20 times more likely to die from heat stress than others. Many are migrant workers who are unaccustomed to the heat and humidity and who typically spend more time in the fields during the hottest months of the year.

The most susceptible workers tend to be older. Language barriers also may play a role. From 2003 to 2006, the CDC found, 71 percent of the crop workers who died nationwide were Latino. The worker who died here in 2005 spoke only Spanish.

Finally, the demands of harvesting tobacco hardly help. Even in oppressive heat, workers routinely wear long-sleeved clothing as protection from pesticides and tobacco-borne sicknesses.

The issue ought to be addressed as Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry, a Republican, and her Democratic challenger, Mary Fant Donnan, make their cases to voters in an election year. For now, the state is pushing efforts to raise awareness with a newsletter and a bilingual DVD.
That’s a start. The North Carolina worker who died in 2005 had received training in handling pesticides, but none in coping with the heat.

The state Labor Department followed up last week with a well-timed public service announcement. July is the deadliest month for heat illnesses.

Federal labor regulations, meanwhile, make no provisions for heat safety and only two states — California and Washington — have adopted heat-related workplace safety rules. Berry’s office favors awareness over new rules in North Carolina. “Commissioner Berry definitely is not interested in new regulations,” a spokeswoman said last week. She will need to rethink that position if the problem persists.

Still, there’s reason to hope the CDC report has special resonance here, not only because of what it has to say, but because of who says it. One of its co-authors is Regina Luginbuhl, head of the Agricultural Safety and Health Bureau. In North Carolina.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

Cross-burning and displaying nooses to intimidate minorities aren’t just vile acts relegated to history books. They can and do happen.

A bill approved by the state Senate would raise to felony status the existing penalty for carrying out such threats. The proposed longer prison stays ought to convince potential violators that these aren’t childish pranks.

But, while intimidators must be punished, free speech can’t be stifled. And that inevitably comes down to intent.

If robed Klansmen burn crosses and spew hate-filled rhetoric, there’s little doubt as to their motives.

But the message wasn’t as precise when a toy action figure with a string tied around its neck was found this spring in a classroom at Appalachian State University.

The arrests last year of six African American students in Jena, La., for assaulting a white student after nooses were found on a high school campus led to dozens of copycat incidents nationwide. When that happens, the motivation can be purely self-serving.

In the end, the courts must determine if the intent was to harm or the act was merely a misguided bid for attention. Clearly, there will be dicey exceptions to a worthwhile law. The stakes will be much higher for a felony.

Yet the crux of the matter remains intimidation. And, as communities change, so does the victim profile. Religion, nationality or country of origin can be as much of a factor as race.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Doug Berger, D-Franklin, targets those who would harm people just because they look or sound different. Together with state and federal hate-crime laws, Berger’s bill can make a difference.

Passed in the Senate by a 47-3 margin, it now goes to the House. But, before approving it, members should take time to address those lingering First Amendment concerns.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

North Carolina’s most spectacular and unspoiled natural habitat doesn’t get many visitors. It’s so remote that most people would never notice if harm came to it.

That’s exactly why it deserves strong protection before it’s too late.

The Lophelia banks lie in deep North Carolina coastal waters, part of a chain of coral formations stretching from New England to the Florida keys. Only scientists in specially designed submersibles have seen them, but their findings portray an immensely rich ecosystem teeming with life but also extremely vulnerable to human disturbance.

The South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council already recommends designating the Lophelia banks an area of concern, but there are calls for stronger steps. Last week, Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina asked President Bush to declare the area a marine national monument. Immediately, the subject turned into a political issue. Her opponent for the Senate seat, Kay Hagan of Greensboro, claimed Dole was undermining her own position after earlier proposing a measure that could lead to offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.

“Elizabeth Dole wants President Bush to protect the same coral reefs she wants to drill into for more oil — that is completely hypocritical,” a Hagan news release said.

It’s not that bad. Designation as a marine natural monument would safeguard the coral formations from drilling. An energy bill co-sponsored by Dole would allow states to petition the U.S. Department of the Interior for permission to lease offshore fields for oil and gas exploitation. Proximity to fragile coral systems should give the government ample reason to say no.

There’s a more pressing danger, according to a recent report to Congress by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): “Disturbances to deep-sea coral communities from bottom-tending fishing gear, especially bottom trawl gear, are the best documented and pose the most widespread threat.” Energy exploration and development and laying of cables and pipelines are listed as other harmful activities.

One of the strongest arguments against offshore oil drilling rises from concern for the state’s fishing industry. But some fishing practices aren’t compatible with preservation of undersea resources. If it’s imperative to protect deep-sea corals from one threat, it’s imperative to protect them from all.

NOAA notes that “significant gaps in knowledge about deep-sea corals remain, including the location of many deep-sea coral assemblages and most aspects of their biology and ecology.” It proposes more funding for research and further steps toward preservation. These are sensible precautions.

Out of sight doesn’t justify out of mind for barely discovered natural treasures that play a still poorly understood role in the health of our oceans. Mistakes made out of ignorance might have costly consequences.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

As state Attorney General Roy Cooper sees it, “People with severe mental illnesses should not be able to purchase a gun. It’s as simple as that.”

Now, state law doesn’t prevent individuals committed involuntarily for mental health treatment or evaluation from buying them.

Legislation in the General Assembly would close that loophole by entering into a national databank the names of people ordered by state courts to get such care. As a result, they no longer could legally buy handguns in North Carolina and several other states.

The push to tighten gun ownership rules comes in the aftermath of the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, which claimed the lives of 32 students and faculty members.

The shooter, student Seung-Hui Cho, had been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility but his name never was entered in the national “don’t buy” registry. He later purchased the two weapons used in the bloodbath.

That glaring omission has led to change. In Virginia, Gov. Tim Kaine signed an executive order closing the information gap, and Congress has expanded the federal database.

Cooper and bill sponsor Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, are on target addressing the problem. It’s imperative to spot potentially dangerous people and keep guns out of their hands before the violence begins.

Critics argue that the bill is too broad and could unfairly deny gun ownership to someone ordered to undergo outpatient treatment for drug or alcohol abuse. People needing help, they warn, may not seek it.

However, the law allows for appeals by petitioning state courts to remove names. If it proves too cumbersome, the process always can be revised.

But as Cooper contends, no one has yet to make a convincing argument that someone involuntarily committed for mental troubles is entitled to purchase a handgun.

Future tragedies can be averted by reasonable preventive measures. Closing purchase loopholes is a start.

A special report on the racial achievement gap in Guilford County Schools reveals a major crisis among black male students. This is not acceptable.

A new “comprehensive study” of the Educational Conditions and Academic Performance of Male African American Students in Guilford County public schools spans 67 pages and contains nearly as many charts and graphs.

But it only takes two words to sum up Guilford’s progress in closing the racial achievement gap: Not much.

Small wonder why.

Black male students are more likely to be suspended or expelled for disciplinary reasons than any other demographic group. Even though school suspensions decreased overall, African American students accounted for the vast majority of suspensions of 10 days or fewer (71.5 percent), with black males comprising 49.4 percent.

There is more bad news:

Black males are more likely than their white counterparts to come from low-income homes.
They are more prone to suffer from learning or behavioral disabilities.

They tend to repeat elementary, middle school and high school grades at higher rates.

They are least likely to do assigned homework.

They are twice as likely to drop out of high school as white male students.

The sobering news came on June 23 at a special meeting of the Board of Education.

It is a sensitive, difficult subject to discuss, falling, as it does, at the troubling intersection of race, class and gender. But wishing won’t make it go away and, when the school revisits the issue and discusses possible remedies later this summer, it should do so with a sense of urgency.

Some thoughts the board should bear in mind:

l Think comprehensively. This is a complex challenge that won’t be solved by a single program or initiative.

l Seek partnerships. The entire community needs to own the solution to this problem because, like it or not, it owns the consequences, namely higher crime, crowded jails and prisons, low-skilled labor and greater social-service burdens, among others.

l Invite and empower parents to team with the schools to help keep their children more engaged in, and accountable for, their school work.

l Give teachers the training and support to better connect to these students.

l Recruit stronger and more experienced teachers at schools with high-poverty enrollments.

l Explore more alternative school settings such as middle high schools and even single-gender schools, as suggested by school board member Amos Quick.

l Redouble efforts to recruit more black male role models as tutors and volunteers.

And make certain the new superintendent sees this as the crisis it is, and as a major priority when he or she arrives.

Make clear to the new superintendent that we’ve talked plenty about achievement gap and that it’s time now for tangible actions. And measurable results.

An indoor competitive swim facility may or may not make it to a referendum ballot in November. People should tell City Council what to do.

People with opinions about city bond proposals should dive in at next week’s public hearing. They can make a big splash.

The City Council created waves Monday by voting to include an indoor competitive swim facility in a $20 million parks and recreation bond. The decision, by a 5-4 margin, followed a sometimes-acrimonious debate that highlighted a faulty process of bringing projects to a referendum. It became apparent that some proposals had been thrown together too quickly with little guidance from the city’s elected leaders. Led by Mike Barber, five council members ordered a significant change Monday — but another shift is possible next week, depending on what’s said at the public hearing.

The swim facility appeared on the ballot in November 2006 but was rejected by 59 percent of city voters. The stated cost then was $9 million. Now it would be millions more, maybe twice as much — enough to crowd out almost all other projects initially included on this year’s proposed $20 million parks and recreation bond slate.

Barber pushed Monday for giving the pool another chance, along with the bid for extensive renovations at War Memorial Auditorium. Voters shot down $36 million in auditorium bonds in 2006; now the request is for $50 million. Barber contends Greensboro can gain major state and regional swim meets with a first-rate facility where competitions can’t be canceled by thunderstorms. Such a venue would be a plum for the city and allow other recreation and water-safety activities for children and adults. Proponents offered similar arguments in 2006.

The same objections will be voiced, too, only more vociferously. In a difficult economy, the case for funding items not deemed necessities becomes difficult. Guilford County voters rejected $20 million in parks and recreation bonds May 6 while approving bonds for schools, GTCC and a jail.

“These things are not in the purview of what our main objectives are,” Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small said Monday, comparing parks to police, fire and streets. She voted against adding the pool to the bond package.

So did Councilman Robbie Perkins, who said he supports the pool but not on this fall’s referendum.

With the council narrowly divided, and with little known about the details of the proposed pool — it’s not listed on the city’s six-year Capital Improvements Program — there’s opportunity for public input to turn the tide.

Pool advocates should attend the hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday to state their case. Proponents of other parks and recreation projects should do the same. Those with other views should express them, too. Then the council should act as the people advise.

Too little consideration has been given to the pool proposal to simply pass it to a ballot without testing the waters of public opinion first. Wednesday’s hearing provides the chance for everyone interested to plunge in to the debate.

The 2008-’09 state budget has many items benefiting the Guilford area. Legislators may need to limit such spending next year if hard times continue.

The Guilford County area has a lot to like about the $21.4 billion state budget for the next fiscal year. There are many goodies tucked into the state’s annual picnic basket of appropriations.

Higher education — and university contractors — benefit the most.

• $42.7 million will be borrowed to construct a classroom building at UNCG.

• N.C. A&T gets $2 million to boost its College of Engineering and $7 million to go toward construction of a $20.49 million classroom building.

• N.C. A&T and UNCG both will benefit from $3 million for their joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering and from $1.8 million for planning for a joint data center.

Other sectors benefit as well.

The High Point furniture market, forced to compete with its counterpart in Las Vegas for buyers’ attention, will receive $1.46 million for marketing and promotion.

Probably the most needed extra our area received was the addition of new assistant district attorney positions for Guilford and Rockingham counties. That should help lighten the heavy loads these public lawyers carry.

The state also is directing more than $3 million to the N.C. Zoo to improve its polar bear exhibit and $600,000 for planning for its African exhibit. A half-million grant goes to Sit In Movement Inc., for the civil rights museum in Greensboro’s Woolworth’s. The Charlotte Hawkins Brown historical site in Sedalia receives $1 million. And $75,000 in funds goes to a John Coltrane Music Hall if the High Point Area Arts Council raises matching funds.

Even the controversial horse park in Rockingham County wasn’t left out. But it had to morph a bit to secure $2.4 million in borrowing for it. It has been combined with N.C. A&T’s request for a horse research facility.

While the state budget will benefit many in the Triad, the largesse leaves us feeling wary. With tight economic times upon us, money should be directed toward essentials, not frills.
To be fair, legislators did curb spending. The state budget grew a little more than 3 percent, a much smaller rate than in many previous years.

But state revenue this year is down $70 million from projections, and the economy doesn’t seem like it will turn around by next year.

The more prudent approach would have been to curtail spending more in order to prevent an even larger revenue gap next year. Legislators also should have shied away from nonessential borrowing, instead putting most of those projects on the ballot.

The Triad and the rest of the state’s regions better enjoy their goodies. It’s likely conditions will force legislators to be more frugal next year.

The unexplained deaths of two gibbons Wednesday was “gut-wrenching,” Natural Science Center Executive Director Glenn Dobrogosz said the next day. But the sad event won’t, and shouldn’t, end the Greensboro zoo’s plan to participate in breeding programs for the endangered Southeast Asian apes.

Dobrogosz, who personally escorted Beau and Jambi from a zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., last year, seemed devastated but determined to obtain another pair pending Species Survival Plan approval. The captive-breeding management program is operated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), which this year granted accreditation for the Natural Science Center.

First, as much as possible about the deaths has to be learned. The animals did not regain consciousness after routine physical exams under anesthesia.

“We simply can’t find anything that went wrong,” Dobrogosz said.

“This kind of unfortunate occurrence is not unheard of,” said Steven Feldman, the AZA’s senior vice president for communications.

Two chimpanzees died under similar circumstances at the N.C. Zoo in 2005. In one instance, a 29-year-old male was found to have died of heart failure. Unfortunately, there are still significant knowledge gaps regarding the physiology of gibbons.

Beau, the male, was nearly 42, an old age. But Jambi, the female, was only 12, not quite breeding age. Her death was especially troubling and a terrible loss to the captive breeding stock.

The gibbons were popular attractions here, but breeding is a key reason for keeping these very active animals in captivity. Natural habitats — dense rain forests in Southeast Asia — are rapidly disappearing, threatening gibbons’ survival.

The Natural Science Center built a spacious habitat for gibbons and earned approval for Species Survival Plan participation. The two deaths are a bitter blow, but they should not end hopes that eventually gibbons will breed successfully in Greensboro.

A consultant’s report praises Greensboro’s department but recommends scores of possible improvements. The study should be taken seriously.

Greensboro has a very good Police Department that can do better.

So says a detailed, comprehensive and potentially very valuable study by a public-safety consulting firm presented to the City Council last week.

The headline was the recommendation by Carroll Buracker & Associates Inc. of Harrisonburg, Va., to add 79 positions to the force. But that wasn’t unexpected. Manpower has been a concern for a long time, with budget constraints preventing dramatic increases in personnel. More importantly, the consultants say better organization can make a big difference. More effective utilization of existing resources can begin right away, assuming city leaders agree to implement changes.

Lingering effects of old turmoil

The study team did a thorough job, researching records and statistics, conducting interviews, riding with officers on patrol, analyzing policies and structures, then offering scores of suggestions ranging from hiring some secretaries to changing the patrol shifts that were just put into place last year.

The consultants were keenly aware of past troubles. They noted the department has had five chiefs in the last 10 years and that, “At the time this study was initiated, neither the chief (Tim Bellamy) nor any of the four assistant chiefs had been in their position for one year. ... With such a high turnover in leadership positions, it would be difficult for any police department to sustain consistency and uniformity — two very important factors in a well-managed police agency.” They also reported hearing from officers about racial tensions and divisions, too much involvement by city management, “knee-jerk reactions” by the City Council and the need to restore public respect for the department.

Greensboro’s officers deserve respect, the consultants said, praising the high educational level of the force and the “commitment, honesty and attitudes” of its men and women. “At least 99 percent ... including the current police chief and executive staff, had nothing to do with the prior activities by a few employees that resulted in recent negative publicity.”

Crime on a slight downward path

The study asserted that Greensboro residents are safer from crime than they were in 1995, and that crime rates for 2005, 2006 and 2007 “reflect a slightly downward trend.” The consultants credited the department for a clearance rate higher than the national average but noted a decline in arrests in 2006 and 2007 except for a sharp increase in juvenile arrests last year — for reasons unclear.

Despite the positive findings, Carroll Buracker found plenty of room for improvements. It pronounced the five-days-on, four-off fixed-shift schedule for patrol squads a failure and recommended abolishing it. The system, which was supposed to allocate more manpower at times of greatest need, sometimes does the opposite. Consultants reviewed 2007 workloads and recommended three possible models for staffing patrol services with the goal of meeting demands more efficiently. It said some detectives and higher-ranking officers should be assigned to work at night and on weekends. Reaching high objectives also would require a larger force, especially in light of the city’s growth, they said.

Plenty of ideas for police to ponder

Some observations and recommendations may shake public assumptions: Average response times are slow but are skewed unfavorably by counting calls that shouldn’t be classified as high priorities; there’s no coherent programming for community-oriented policing; the gang unit should be cut in half and the new robbery suppression team should be disbanded, replaced by a tactical squad created to respond to all types of crime problems; the rank of corporal should be eliminated; members of the Police Reserve Corps should be paid and more fully utilized; and some sworn officer positions should be “civilianized.”

Also, officers who take patrol cars home shouldn’t have to pay for the privilege and ought to be allowed limited personal use; and the city should consider putting in place a network of cameras to watch major business and high-crime areas. These measures can stretch manpower and deter crime, the study contended. Some officers spend too much valuable time attending meetings and writing reports without clerical help, the consultants said. Some may be doing the wrong jobs.

The information in this report warrants careful evaluation and, in many instances, appropriate action. Bellamy quickly heeded the recommendation to revamp promotion policies, a wise move.

It’s encouraging that outside experts saw so many positives in Greensboro’s Police Department, but the many proposals for achieving better law enforcement are equally welcome.

Should there be a national speed limit of 55 mph to reduce fuel use?

Last time the interstate speed limit was 55 mph, it's estimated that it reduced daily U.S. vehicle gas consumption by 167,000 gallons. Would that type of reduction help make our country more energy independent?

Nowhere to pull off

What’s an easy way to add lanes to congested highways? Let vehicles use the shoulders. Whether that’s a smart way is open to question.

State transportation planners are considering the idea for parts of I-77 and I-485 in Charlotte. Federal highway officials have been encouraging. It could happen by late next year.

The proposal promises some relief for backed-up motorists. But what about the consequences of giving up the shoulder? You can’t change a flat tire in the middle of traffic.

Meanwhile, some commuters already are using the shoulders as travel lanes — possibly at considerable risk. A man piloting a scooter on the shoulder of I-40 in eastern Guilford County Friday morning seemed safely out of the path of cars and trucks, except at exit and entrance ramps where he’d have to watch over both shoulders and pray motorists could see him.

Jesse Helms lives on

Jesse Helms’ death July 4 shortened — and maybe even eliminated — many state pundits’ holidays, as they had to skip the parades and other festivities to produce commentary on the man. One can’t help but think the late senator, fond of baiting the media, would have liked this state of affairs just fine.

Whether Helms would have liked the resulting analysis is another matter. One of the more interesting commentaries to appear isprogressive Michael Lind’s, found at the online journal Salon. In “Jesse Helms Is Not Dead,” he concedes that Helms’ influence is writ large over the country’s political and economic landscapes. He sees the political fund-raising organization Moveon.org as a liberal response to Helms’ Congressional Club, and he cites MSNBC’s left-leaning commentator Keith Olbermann as owing his “hectoring” strategy to Helms.

He also thinks the United States in 2008, with its weak unions and political parties and its increasing economic inequality, resembles the South Helms fought to uphold.

The rest of the story

Not found in the news stories on the recent U.S. Census report on America’s fastest-growing cities was where Greensboro stands. The city ranks 38 in growth rate for cities of more than 100,000, right between Austin and Phoenix. It grew 2.4 percent and added 5,811 residents between 2006 and 2007, for a total population of 247,183. (Census didn’t reveal the percentage of new residents added under duress.)

Maybe even more noteworthy is the news on High Point. It made this particular Census list for the first time, as its population grew to 100,432 from 98,627 between 2006 and 2007. That gave it a 1.8 percent growth rate for the year and made it No. 54 on the list of 262 cities.

High Point’s growth rate between 2000 and 2007 was even more dramatic. During that time it grew 16.5 percent, giving it a rank of 46, while Greensboro grew 8.2 percent for a rank of 91.

A Libertarian at heart?

State Rep. Earl Jones of Greensboro is a Democrat, but sometimes he sounds more like a Libertarian.

Like last week, when he was the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against banning video slot machines.

“I think people really just want to be left alone,” he explained. “If a person wants to play cards or play the lottery or participate in this activity ... it just seems to be overreaching relative to government telling people what to do.”

Democrats and Republicans approve laws all the time that tell people what to do. Maybe Jones should belong to a third party.

Tuesday's lead editorial.

It was all bold headlines in May: “Gov. Easley announces 1,000 jobs at Global TransPark.”

Two months later, the fine print says Spirit AeroSystems could employ far fewer workers and still earn millions in state incentives.

The deal for the Kansas-based aircraft manufacturer to build an assembly plant near Kinston is still welcome. It’s just more complicated and contains more loopholes than the public was led to believe when it was announced.

All the more reason to introduce greater openness to the business-recruitment process. Although it might be necessary to hold negotiations behind closed doors, details about promised public funds should be revealed before agreements are signed, and the public should have a chance to comment.

State officials understandably were eager to land a big company at the GTP, created and maintained for years at state expense without generating much activity. Eastern North Carolina’s economy has lagged behind other parts of the state, thanks in large part to the decline of tobacco and other traditional industries.

Then, early last year, the state saw a chance to change the park’s fortunes, although at a substantial price.

“The state package would have to be enormous,” an economic development consultant informed Commerce Secretary Jim Fain. “But here is that one huge possible opportunity that NC has been awaiting.”

As it turned out, the enormous package could reach $180 million, including a major contribution from the Golden Leaf Foundation’s fund of tobacco-settlement money. Considering the touted gain by 2014 of 1,031 jobs paying an average annual wage of $48,000 and an investment by Spirit of $570 million, the agreement wasn’t out of line with deals made with Dell in Forsyth County and Google in Caldwell County.

But only if it delivers as advertised. Records released recently in response to media requests showed that Spirit can receive most of the tax breaks and other benefits offered by the state even if it creates only 500 jobs by 2014. The concession is disappointing and might have been hard to sell to the public if it had been disclosed in advance.

Maybe there’s nothing to worry about. David Kyger, a lawyer who helped negotiate the agreement on behalf of the Golden Leaf Foundation, expressed optimism about the potential for the project. Spirit, which will assemble large fuselage components for Airbus, might “wildly exceed the targets in place here,” Kyger told The News & Observer of Raleigh.

If hope turns to reality, more bold headlines will be warranted. But it’s not fair to put the disclaimers in fine print.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

Tony Snow lived and died with as much grace and courage as he wrote columns and editorials.
Never afraid to express strong opinions, even as a young journalist with the Greensboro Record from 1979 to 1981, he wasn’t shy about sharing his struggles with cancer during his tenure as press secretary for President George W. Bush, a post he resigned last September.
He died Saturday at 53.

Snow was best known as a Fox News anchor and commentator until he accepted the call from Bush in April 2006. The position required him to proclaim and explain the president’s views, not his own, a challenging restriction for a professional pundit. Snow previously had criticized Bush on occasion, labeling him “somewhat of an embarrassment” to conservatives and faulting his “lackluster” domestic policies. He had to contend daily with the White House press corps while Bush’s approval ratings were dropping and his party was taking a beating in the 2006 elections. Yet, Snow still managed to perform his duties with wit, humor and probably as much candor as anyone could muster under the circumstances.

The news became worse for Snow personally in 2007. First diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005, he’d undergone surgery and chemotherapy and appeared to have recovered. But the disease recurred last year and spread to other parts of his body. Snow had surgery again and returned to work in five weeks, declaring: “I’m unbelievably lucky and unbelievably blessed and happy to be back.”

Unfortunately, Snow did not defeat cancer. A brilliant career, launched in Greensboro, ended too soon.

Not everyone saw eye-to-eye with Snow about politics, but he earned respect among colleagues and adversaries for his brave approach to the struggles of life and death.

Are single-gender schools the answer to Guilford County's racial achievement gap?

School board Vice Chairman Amos Quick at least sees them as a solution and one Georgia system plans to go exclusively to that approach. Read about it here.

For reasons that are not altogether clear, single-sex schools have, in some cases, produced dramatic results, for boys and girls..

We're working on an editorial that explores the growing trend nationwide and speculates whether it might make a difference here.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

It’s time to cut fuel costs even if you’re not paying for the fill-up. That’s even more in order when tapped-out taxpayers are being asked to foot the escalating bill.

But if emergency response vehicles are involved, care must be taken not to compromise service delivery. The soaring cost of diesel or gasoline can’t interfere with fire trucks, ambulances and patrol cars answering hundreds of calls for help.

First-line responders, however, are making significant cost-saving changes that they say will have little or no impact on quality of service.

The Greensboro Fire Department, for example, has cut back on nonessential trips as a way to conserve fuel. With diesel above $4 a gallon, a few gallons saved here and there quickly add up to major savings.

It’s much the same for local law enforcers. Both the Greensboro Police Department and Guilford County Sheriff’s Office are downsizing by phasing out 8-cylinder patrol cars and replacing them with more fuel-efficient sixes. A few of the smaller cars already are on the road and performing well.

While a case can be made for gas-guzzling engines in Highway Patrol cruisers assigned to interstates, local agencies seldom need that kind of power. Congested roads and public-safety concerns all but rule out the need for high-speed driving in town.

And long overdue is replacing antiquated computers in dozens of Greensboro police cars that now work only when motors are running. New ones will stretch a tank of gas by 80 to 100 miles.

To its credit, the city already has taken other worthwhile, albeit small, steps to ease the energy crunch. Biodiesel fuel has been available at city pumps since 2002. A year later, the first two hybrid vehicles for use by city staff were purchased.

Earlier this summer, Greensboro Transit Authority received a $600,000 federal grant for the city’s first hybrid bus designed to boost fuel economy and reduce pollution. Yet at a cost of more than $700,000 for one bus, it will take years to realize any appreciable savings.
With $3 per gallon gasoline just a fond memory, more draconian measures loom. Reducing entrenched but nonessential municipal services appears inevitable.

Possibilities include more city worker carpooling and a switch for some to a four-day, 10-hour work week. For others, working from a home base may be an option.

No matter the price or availability of fuel, local governments must provide constituents with the basics. Contingency planning, belt-tightening and apprising taxpayers of unpleasant possibilities become top priorities.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

N.C. State missed the memo: Unusually fat pay raises must be approved by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.

The fattest and most unusual surely was the $80,000 pay boost recently awarded to Mary Easley, North Carolina’s first lady, an executive-in-residence in Provost Larry Nielsen’s office. Her approximately $90,000 salary jumped to $170,000 — more than the 15 percent bump allowed before a higher authority’s endorsement is required.

Nielsen belatedly pledged to abide by the rule, which should delay Easley’s raise until the next Board of Governors meeting in September, yet he contends she really didn’t get a pay hike but a promotion to a new job — even though her title didn’t change. The “new job” was not advertised, either, and no other candidates were considered. The same was true when she was hired for her old job in 2005. It was created just for her because of her special qualifications. In addition to her professional credentials as a lawyer, Easley’s status as first lady obviously makes her a unique and attractive employee.

It’s just those circumstances, however, that explain why Board of Governors review is appropriate. Scrutiny by an outside authority makes it more difficult for campus leaders to give sweet deals to people with political or family connections. At a public university, hiring and pay practices should be guided by merit, and the reasons for granting extraordinary increases in salary or benefits should be explained openly.

It apparently wasn’t N.C. State’s plan to seek Board of Governors permission to place the first lady in a “new,” higher-paying position or to announce the move publicly. It only did so in response to media inquiries. The university would be more forthcoming if it promoted a football coach; why so reticent about the first lady?

The Board of Governors, to avoid humiliation for everyone, probably has no choice but to approve the pay raise retroactively. But it should make sure N.C. State officials understand that the rules apply to everyone, even the governor’s wife.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

Sidney Lowe II is an extraordinarily fortunate young man.

Someone else almost certainly would have drawn hard prison time for the serious crimes committed in Greensboro last year. But Lowe’s father is N.C. State basketball coach Sidney Lowe, a beloved figure for his role in the Wolfpack’s magical 1983 national championship and a man who could hire top defense attorneys.

The elder Lowe was in Guilford County Superior Court Tuesday as his son appealed to Judge Henry Frye Jr. for leniency. Lowe II said he’s overcome the drug habit that prompted his participation in armed robberies. He said he’d never been in trouble before — not true — and promised to make the most of another chance.

“I just hope you can put your trust in me, that I won’t disappoint you. I can be somebody great. I will be somebody great,” he vowed.

Frye responded by sentencing Lowe to 15 months at the minimum-security Guilford County prison farm, an astonishing break that can only be attributed to Lowe’s family connections.
But perhaps the judge saw more in those family connections than a famous father. He saw a father who was standing behind his son, and other family members who were there to support a young man who needed them.

Not every defendant can count on those advantages. With his family in his corner, Lowe II may have a better chance than most to overcome his mistakes and forge a better life. If he does, the next 10 or 20 years can be better spent outside prison.

Frye’s decision is still open to question. Lowe II was 21, not a teenager, when he committed dangerous crimes. He’d been through a drug-education program after he was charged in 2004 with possession of marijuana. And relatives blamed the environment at N.C. A&T, where Lowe II was a student, for his troubled behavior — scapegoating that Frye should have rejected.
After his 15 months of easy time, Lowe II will have another chance to prove himself. If he fails, his luck will run out, family or not.

Thursday's lead editorial.

Today, strict water-quality rules that affect the Piedmont go before the state’s Rules Review Commission. We hope the commissioners, seeing the strong opposition to the Jordan Lake Rules by affected local governments, recognize their many problems.

Developed by the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources in conjunction with the state’s Clean Water Responsibility Act of 1997, the proposed rules are designed to improve water quality in the Jordan Lake watershed, which includes Greensboro.

Triad governments are concerned about maintaining water quality. But they don’t think the proposed rules are the way to do that. According to the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, here are some problems local governments see in the rules:

They are expensive. Both Burlington and Greensboro would have to spend millions upgrading water treatment plants. Municipalities also would have to reduce pollution in runoff from agriculture and development. The Times-News of Burlington reports that the state estimates the rules would cost local governments about $905 million, but some think the cost would be much greater. Water and sewer bills in Greensboro could increase by as much as 50 percent because of these rules.

Whatever the ultimate cost, the Jordan Lake Rules would largely be an expensive, unfunded mandate.

They may be overreaching. Durham County, which also falls under the proposed rules, argues that the state Environmental Management Commission, which approved the rules in May, lacks the legal authority to do so.

It says the legislature, not the EMC, is supposed to make such broad policy changes. It argues that state law establishes a voluntary storm-water program but that the Jordan Lake Rules mandate one and that the EMC can’t legally order local governments to conduct feasibility studies and other measures the rules would require.

They are unrealistic. Probably the most contentious part of the rules is that they cover existing development. Critics say the commission doesn’t have the authority to extend rules to such development and that mitigation measures in such areas would be too expensive.
• They are unproven. According to critics, it’s not a given that the rules would help communities reach pollution-reduction targets.

Even if the state persuasively argues against all of the above, it must concede that it has a big PR problem since most affected local governments aren’t buying into the rules.

The best course of action would be for the Rules Review Commission to send the rules back to DENR. Its staff needs to work more closely with local governments in the Jordan Lake watershed to craft a policy that they can support.

A Charlotte police officer was suspended for five days without pay connected to the Taser death of a teen in a grocery store.

He activated the trigger for 37 SECONDS until the 17-year-old fell down. The Charlotte Mecklenburg police force teaches officers to use shocks of about five seconds.

Do you think the punishment was appropriate? The officer also will receive additional training.

Do you feel comfortable with Taser use in Guilford County?

We are going to write an editorial on the Taser death -- and on Guilford law enforcement policy connected with Tasers -- and we want your input.

Friday's lead editorial.

Guilford County voters had more to decide on May 6 than their preferred candidates for political offices. They were asked to say yes or no to proposed borrowing for schools, parks, GTCC and a jail. The bond referenda followed a healthy debate about the county’s spending priorities.
Greensboro voters will have an opportunity to consider bonds for proposed city projects in November.

State legislators also plan to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars for similar projects from Cullowhee to Elizabeth City. But they’re not asking for voters’ approval. Nor did they invite much of a discussion. Instead, contrary to the intent of the N.C. Constitution, they padded the 2008-2009 budget with debt, piling future liabilities on taxpayers without their consent.

Dentistry schools at East Carolina and UNC-Chapel Hill, $138 million; a pharmacy facility at Elizabeth City State, $28 million; a general classroom building at N.C. A&T, $20 million; a library at N.C. State, $109 million; a classroom and office building at UNCG, $43 million; a health-education center at Western Carolina, $10 million; and additional outlays at other UNC campuses, for prisons, judicial facilities, ports, parks, historic sites, the zoo and more. It all adds up to $857 million.

“When you look at the actual projects, it’s hard to argue they’re not worthwhile,” Rep. Hugh Holliman, D-Davidson, told the News & Record’s Mark Binker last week.
Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, looked at it another way: “It’s like we’ve got a credit card, and we just continue to max it out.”

In fact, the borrowing is accelerating. The new budget nearly doubles in one year the total state debt accumulated without voter approval.

That’s not meant to happen, according to the constitution, which gives the General Assembly “no power,” with limited exceptions, to contract debts unless authorized by voters.
The exceptions, however, have been stretched by legislation enacted within the last few years. Consequently, a state bond referendum hasn’t been put on the ballot since 2001. Lawmakers find it more expedient to proceed on their own authority without asking the people they represent for permission.

Unfortunately, that approach denies citizens the chance to decide for themselves whether projects are worthy. It reduces opportunities for public discussion. Who in Raleigh, after all, took time to explain to anyone why the state should borrow $45 million for a health care and mental-health facility at the Correctional Institute for Women or asked for anyone’s opinion? Who made a case for $11 million for a storage facility at the N.C. School of the Arts?

Voters’ voices counted in Guilford County, and they made wise decisions in regard to local bond proposals. It’s a shame legislators don’t think North Carolina voters deserve to be heard. They must see their constituents as people who are supposed to pay but have no say. Maybe voters should remember that when they choose their representatives in November.

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

Saving 300 acres of Guilford County farmland from urban sprawl may not seem like a big deal, but it is a worthy beginning.

And it wouldn’t have happened had not the Piedmont Land Conservancy come forward and filled the void left when county government chose to stay on the sidelines.

Federal and state grants obtained by the nonprofit conservation group assure that Larry Gerringer’s family dairy farm in eastern Guilford will remain in agricultural use for generations to come.

Originally, it looked as if money from the county’s $10 million open space bond program might be tapped. However, county commissioners declined because the public wouldn’t have access to the private farmland.

That’s when the PLC stepped in and helped arrange for conservation easements that allow the Gerringers to stay put and further develop their specialty cheese business.

As food prices rise nationally, it’s important that local farming economies survive. Guilford, once home to dozens of dairies, has only a handful left. Yet there’s still room for them as well as produce farmers in an uncertain marketplace hurt by high transportation costs and health scares.

PLC officials hope that nearby landowners will consider following in the Gerringers’ footsteps. In Randolph County, such perpetuity easements have flourished in the Liberty-Randleman corridor.
To that end, the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund this year has allocated $7.6 million to 41 easement-related projects statewide.

As the state transitions to high-tech white-collar jobs, preserving farmland may seem just a backward glance. In fact, it is a forward look to an appealing, environmentally friendly future.

Saturday's lead editorial.

“One young life = one five-day vacation”

That’s how one blogger described the punishment meted out to Jerry Dawson, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer involved in the Taser-related death of a teenage grocery store worker on March 20.

Darryl Turner, 17, died after being Tasered twice by Dawson. One Taser discharge Dawson gave Turner lasted 37 seconds. A standard discharge lasts about five. An autopsy determined that Turner died from heart irregularities.

A police department review commission determined that using force to subdue the unruly clerk was appropriate, but the amount of force used wasn’t. The CMPD banned lengthy Taser discharges in 2005, after studies pointed out their problems.

Dawson was suspended for five days without pay and has been ordered to receive more Taser training — a punishment that is little more than a wrist slap. Letting police review boards determine disciplinary action for officers is problematic. At the least, it causes the public to question the fairness of such procedures.

The Dawson case also highlights the need for all law-enforcement agencies to ensure that their officers are well-trained in using Tasers before they begin carrying them.

Tasers are a good tool for law enforcement. They enable the police to subdue people without the use of deadly force and, when used correctly, they are a more humane alternative to such things as nightsticks or pepper spray.

A Taser’s effects usually end when the discharge ends. When used as intended, in a short, five-second discharge, few, if any, problems result. Complications arise, as a study by the National Institute of Justice says, through the devices’ “continuous or repeated discharge.”

Research has found that prolonged Taser use can cause heart and respiratory problems. In one study, researchers used Tasers on 11 pigs for 40 seconds each: Two of the pigs died and the survivors were left with heart irregularities.

With High Point officers beginning to use Tasers next month, most Guilford law-enforcement agencies will be using these devices. The agencies’ Taser training needs to include information on times when Taser use went bad.

Officers need to learn about the Florida man who died after being Tasered 12 times and the South Carolina man who died after being Tasered for two minutes and 49 seconds. They need to learn about 17-year-old Darryl Turner, killed at his grocery store job after being Tasered twice for 42 seconds. Arming officers with the facts should mean fewer such tragedies.

Saturday's First-Person column.

I admit, my dream for the past two years was to wake up on my birthday and find a plum-colored PT Cruiser with a big, red bow wrapped around it sitting in our driveway. To my dismay, I discovered on my last birthday that I would continue to borrow my mother’s tan, clunky (well, I think it is), decade-old, Buick Park Avenue.

Recently, as I concluded the N.C. graduated licensing program after two years, I couldn’t help but consider how I still didn’t have a car as a 17-year-old. When I’m a senior this fall, my parents will continue to take me to and from my private boarding high school, where there are no school buses due to the low number of commuting students. I will continue to be squeezed into their already-stressed schedules. Worse, I will witness my school parking lot continue to be filled with my classmates’ new cars.

But I’ve realized that not having my own PT Cruiser before graduating high school isn’t so dreadful after all.

Discovering the insurance my parents were already paying so I could drive their cars was startling, and these rates would almost double if I got into an accident. As well, it can cost almost $600 to have a car on a college campus. And, with the price of gas on the rise, affording a car and college tuition in a year would prove difficult for me and my family.

Is owning a car as a teen worth that feeling of independence that accompanies the car’s enormous price tag? It’s an investment parents should not need to make in a day and age when every teen expects a car upon receiving a license. It is true that some teens don’t depend on their parents to help fund their cars, but as young students, it’s difficult finding a job that pays thousands of dollars.

Maybe on my 18th birthday, when I blow out the candles on my cake, I’ll wish for an iPhone instead.

— Rebecca Kabatchnick, editorial intern

Should North Carolina allow drilling off its coast?

Gas prices are high -- and likely to go higher. Oil production may have peaked globally. Would it help to allow drilling off our coastal waters? Or would this be too little, too late? Or do you think it would wreak havoc environmentally and destroy coastal tourism?

Here is some background on a pair of failed single-sex plans in Guilford County.

From the News & Record (Dec. 12, 2005)

Parents cool to proposal for single-gender schools

By BRUCE BUCHANAN AND JENNIFER FERNANDEZ
Staff Writers

GREENSBORO — A proposal to turn Hampton and Washington elementary schools into single-gender schools isn’t proving popular with some of the people who would be affected by such a change.

“You can’t keep changing everything without fixing the root of the problem,” said Donna Wilson-Brown, president of Hampton’s PTA. She said staff turnover has been the school’s biggest problem.

Superintendent Terry Grier introduced several ideas for new magnet school programs to the Guilford County Board of Education last week. The board would have to approve any new programs, and district officials insist no decisions have been made. School board members will discuss the issue more Thursday.

The biggest proposed change would be to turn Hampton and Washington into all-boys and all-girls schools with students required to wear uniforms.

Wilson-Brown said she was disappointed that district officials haven’t solicited input from parents at the two schools. Grier said parents will be consulted if the district decides to pursue the plan.

“Fixing the system is not separating them,” said Paula Ritter-Lipscomb, youth development coordinator at Wiley Elementary School, which was mentioned as an opt-out school for students who don’t want to attend a single-gender school. Ritter-Lipscomb said her job puts her in contact with families from all three schools.

The district needs to make sure struggling schools have the right teachers and adequate materials, she said.

“Until the community wakes up and gets behind us, we’re going to be facing this for a while,” Ritter-Lipscomb said.

Both east Greensboro schools, which serve almost exclusively low-income African American students, have experienced their share of academic struggles and internal shakeups in recent years.

Washington is on a watch list for failing to meet federal Adequate Yearly Progress testing goals for three consecutive years. Last year, the school had three principals, and every third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teacher was new to the school at the start of the 2004-05 school year.

But Washington officials are taking steps to improve their school. The school recently hosted an alumni reunion, and school leaders have recruited community volunteers to serve as tutors. Washington hired an experienced principal, Grenita Lathan, in January.

Washington parent Tamara Davis said she might have supported a radical change two years ago. But she said she would oppose such a change now because the school is on the right track.

“Washington has come a long way,” Davis said. “They’re doing so much more and so much better.”

Hampton also has seen a slew of changes in recent years. In 2001, the school adopted an extended-year program with Saturday classes based on the KIPP Academy in Houston. President Bush has touted KIPP’s success in educating an almost exclusively poor, Hispanic student body.

But most of Hampton’s neighborhood students chose to leave the school after the extended-year program started. So district officials dumped the program last year and replaced it with a leadership magnet program, although they kept the year-round calendar.

Wilson-Brown said a better solution would be for Hampton to become a traditional neighborhood school and for the district to recruit high-quality teachers and principals who want to stay.

Like Washington, Hampton has seen its share of instability. The school has had four principals since 2001; the latest, Michelle Thigpen, came to the school in September.

Single-gender education has long been a staple of private schools, but all-boys and all-girls public schools are rare . Their popularity is growing, though. There are 193 single-gender public schools in the United States - up from four schools eight years ago.

Grier started the first single-gender public schools in the state two years ago by founding the all-girls Middle College at Bennett and the all-boys Middle College at N.C. A&T. However, these small schools cater to a specific type of student - those who have struggled at traditional high schools. There are no other single-gender public schools in the state.

“I’m so glad they’re doing this at the elementary school level,” said Leonard Sax, executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education and author of the book “Why Gender Matters.”

Sax said recent research shows that young boys and girls have basic biological differences that affect the way they learn. For example, he said boys often learn better if they are able to stand up and walk around. Girls also often develop reading and math skills at an earlier age than boys, which can make boys feel inferior.

But Sax said training teachers in gender differences is key to making single-sex schools work. He said he has been in touch with Guilford County Schools officials about possibly offering staff training.

“Just putting boys in one school and girls in another doesn’t accomplish much,” he said.

Food for thought, quick and over easy.

Smothers gets the go-ahead
When election filing began for High Point City Council offices July 7, Becky Smothers was waiting for advice from a key person in her life.

She got it later that week.

“Go ahead and run,” her doctor told her.

She is. Smothers filed last Monday to run for her third consecutive term as mayor, and sixth overall.

She’s battled, and apparently beaten, a rare form of breast cancer. Her latest tests came back clean, the 69-year-old Smothers said last week.

That’s good news for her and her family, and for High Point. Smothers has been a strong leader, performing her duties with vision, energy and remarkable candor. She also showed courage, grace and humor in facing her health crisis. Whether they decide to re-elect her or not, voters should be pleased her name will take its customary place on the ballot at least one more time.

On the street where you live
Google Maps Street View provides photographs of streets and properties bordering them in parts of 43 states. It debuted in May 2007 featuring five cities. Sometime this spring, Greensboro was added to the mix.

Photographed streets are marked in blue on Google Maps. Zoom in, and you can “walk” down the street. A panoramic feature provides a 360-degree view, allowing a relatively good look at houses or other buildings.

Many parts of Greensboro still haven’t been photographed. Sunset Hills and Westerwood are in Street View; Irving Park and much of southeast Greensboro aren’t. Much of downtown can’t be seen.

Vehicles with panoramic cameras mounted on their rooftops take the photos.
Internet sites (www.gstreetsightings.com, googlesightseeing.com, streetviewgallery.corank.com) have sprung up to document the more interesting street views — such things as homeless people, sunbathers, possible robberies in progress. We couldn’t find much of interest in our area, but we didn’t think the boss wanted us to spend too much time looking. Let us know if you find something.

The tool is great for Realtors. Larry Story of Coldwell Banker is one who makes his customers aware of it. Still, we have mixed feelings about the venture. Burglars, at least those who are Web-savvy, must love this. And does the whole world need to know what your house looks like? It feels too much like sitting naked in front of the window. Google has removed photos because of security concerns — no domestic violence shelters appear — and there is a way to petition Google to remove items.

Stars show that school matters
A couple of former University of North Carolina basketball stars are role models — in the classroom.

Sean May and Marvin Williams were teammates on the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 2005, then left school early to pursue professional careers. Both continue to work toward earning their degrees in summer classes, however.

They may be millionaire athletes, but they appreciate the value of an education. That’s a great example to set for young people, who may not excel in sports but can build a successful future if they keep at their studies.

Evident progress
A new state crime lab opened last week on West Meadowview Road in Greensboro.

Why that’s a big deal is because it accelerates the flow of evidence from the state to local law enforcement, and in turn should help investigations and court cases move faster. Crucial evidence in the past has stalled at the Raleigh crime lab because of the sheer volume.

The Greensboro lab will process evidence for about 6,000 cases a year. Among the types of evidence it will analyze are fingerprints, blood-alcohol levels and drug samples. DNA and firearms evidence still will go to the Raleigh lab.

Greensboro’s lab may not turn around the damning evidence in the span of an hour, counting commercials, as they do on TV’s “CSI.”

But it’s a critical, and very welcome, additional resource.

A couple of members of Congress want us to once again drive 55, or maybe 60, on the nation’s interstates in order to conserve fuel.

Veteran Virginia Sen. John Warner has said that he’ll introduce legislation to reduce the speed limit once the Energy Department determines the most efficient speed to drive. Freshman Rep. Jackie Speier from California already has put in a bill. It would lower the speed to 60 mph in urban areas and 65 mph in rural ones.

There’s no doubt that a lower speed limit would help America conserve fuel. Studies show most vehicles run less efficiently at speeds over 60.

It’s estimated that Americans saved some 167,000 gallons of gas a day when the interstate speed limit was 55. We’d save even more now, because more vehicles are on the road.

But do we need Congress to mandate this? Drivers already can drive 55. All it takes is for them to lighten up on the accelerator pedal.

What we do need Congress to do is to work with the president in shaping an energy policy that aggressively encourages development of alternate forms of energy and transportation, ones not dependent on oil. A protracted debate over a lower speed limit — and that’s what would happen if the drive 55 idea gains traction — would divert our nation’s leaders from this vital task.

There may come a time when slower interstate speeds need to be ordered. If, for example, terrorism or a Mideast crisis seriously disrupted oil supplies, conservation would become essential, as we likely would have to rely on the limited fuel in the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But that’s not the case now. Gas is expensive, but it’s flowing freely.

Ordering vehicles to slow down on interstates wouldn’t help America become more energy-independent. It wouldn’t change the fact that most U.S. vehicles are still being run on an imported and finite — and therefore vulnerable — energy source.

Driving 55 would reduce most people’s gas bills. But drivers don’t need an act of Congress to make that happen.

A new bill passed by the General Assembly balances the need to get tougher on gangs with the need to keep youth out of gangs in the first place.

Not everyone agrees about the extent of the gang problem in North Carolina.

But nearly everybody seems to agree that there is a problem, and that without purposeful measures now to stunt the growth of gangs, they’ll only get worse. So it’s encouraging that the General Assembly has passed legislation that should help attack street gangs at their roots.

The bill is tough and compassionate, harsh and forgiving. It balances the need to go hard and decisively against gang leaders with the equally important need to choke off the supply of gang members.

On the punitive side, the bill ramps up enforcement tools and penalties. It gives authorities the power to seize gang property. It makes it a felony to threaten a member who wants to leave a gang or someone who helps that member leave a gang. It also makes it a felony to threaten or retaliate against a former gang member and to recruit or force someone younger than 16 to join a gang.

Yet it exempts from felony charges gang members younger than 16. It also allows first-time offenders a chance to erase gang convictions from their records if they steer clear of trouble with the law for at least two years.

Some lawmakers believe that’s being too lenient. “Those provisions ought to allow us to capture some of the younger individuals who, quite frankly, are at the root of these problems,” Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican, told The News & Observer of Raleigh.

Other lawmakers worry that the bill could have unintended consequences. “I hope it will be enforced in a way in which people are not going to be penalized because they look different,” state Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, said last week.

But Adams added she believed in the need for the law. “I think we listened to the pulse of the community,” she said.

And the bill does seem sufficiently sensitive to the need to combat gangs from both the enforcement and prevention perspectives, including $10 million to fund intervention programs. More problematic is its potential impact on state prisons, which already are desperately overcrowded. The bill provides no funding to make extra space.

As for the bigger picture, it depends on whom you ask concerning the severity of the gang problem. The Governor’s Crime Commission cites more than 550 gangs in the state with nearly 15,000 members. But the Washington-based Justice Policy Research Institute said in a 2007 report that “data support no evidence for the notion that North Carolina is experiencing a gang crisis.”

And interestingly, a consultant’s report on the Greensboro Police Department questions the resources being devoted to the department’s new, 17-person gang unit, suggesting that it be cut to eight.

Still, the whole point is not to wait until the problem becomes unmanageable. This legislation should help see to that.

Congratulations to the Guilford County Board of Education for identifying two superintendent candidates and scheduling meetings Wednesday giving community groups and the public opportunities to meet them. The board should consider the feedback it gets when making its final decision. Although many public bodies name their top three or four candidates, this is still an improvement on those selection processes where the new chancellor/police chief/city manager is announced and no one knows who else was in the running.

There are some fairly obvious observations about Shirley Prince and Maurice Green.

First, both come from North Carolina systems, raising the question of whether a "national search" was necessary.

Second is race and gender. GCS won't have another white male superintendent. Going further back, did the predecessor school systems ever have a black or woman superintendent? (Lilly Jones was interim superintendent of GCS between Jerry Weast and Terry Grier, and many thought she should have been given the permanent job.)

Third is the contrasting backgrounds of the two finalists.

Prince has been a career educator, beginning as a classroom teacher. Although she moved up into administrative positions fairly quickly, she's been superintendent for the past nine years in the tiny Scotland County system. She's done well enough there to be named North Carolina's Superintendent of the Year for 2007, but the question is whether she could handle the immense demands of running a system with 10 times as many students (albeit with plenty of administrative assistance).

Green, meanwhile, is a Duke-trained lawyer who was pursuing what appeared to be a fast-track legal career until he veered into public education as general counsel for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, later rising to deputy superintendent. That gives him big-system experience, but many teachers and principals here might be disappointed if they have a superintendent who's never personally dealt with classroom issues. Furthermore, it's not clear that CMS has gotten a better handle on the educational problems besetting GCS. Currently, administrators have proposed cutting 331 jobs, including teaching and principal positions, in response to budget constraints.

Those are just some initial thoughts. We'll try to write something more coherent for Wednesday.

What's your opinion of the finalists?

The two finalists for Guilford County superintendent offer very different credentials. The school board should lean on public opinion when deciding.

Electing Maurice Green is “probably a no-brainer for Greensboro,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member Trent Merchant said Monday.

Maybe we just have to think harder here in Guilford County, but the choice between Green and Shirley Prince doesn’t look like an easy call at all. School board members should take their time, and listen to the public, before picking one or the other as the new superintendent of Guilford County Schools. While both offer outstanding credentials, Green and Prince couldn’t differ much more in their backgrounds and experience.

Green’s not an educator and never taught. A Duke-educated lawyer, he left a large Charlotte firm to become the school system’s general counsel. Now he’s deputy superintendent and chief operating officer.

Prince began her career as a high school teacher, then held administrative jobs in New Hanover and Gaston counties before Scotland County hired her as superintendent in 1999. She was named the state’s Superintendent of the Year in 2007, impressive recognition. But her system serves only 6,700 students, less than one-tenth as many as GCS. She would supervise more employees than that here.

Both Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Scotland County school systems, like Guilford’s, are struggling to raise academic achievement. Preliminary reports show that only 23 percent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools and 35 percent of Scotland schools made Adequate Yearly Progress goals in 2007-08 under the federal No Child Left Behind requirements. Forty percent of Guilford schools reached the standard.

Everyone who follows public education knows that schools contend with terribly difficult challenges that hinder classroom gains. Many children live in poverty, lack a stable home environment and speak English as a second language, if at all. School leaders must find new ways to reach them.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg has worked aggressively to encourage its best teachers to work with its lowest-performing students, offering substantial bonuses and salary supplements. Scotland County divides its one high school into four freshman academies and other “small learning communities,” each one with a particular academic focus.

In its statement introducing the candidates, the school board didn’t say what accomplishments raised Green and Prince above other applicants. The public can form its own ideas from 5-7 p.m. today at the central office on North Eugene Street. After that, the board should pause long enough to receive and digest feedback from constituents. It’s good to present the finalists to the public but ultimately pointless if public opinions aren’t considered when the board makes its choice. The decision is too important, and affects too many people, to make in haste.

On paper, the candidates present a striking contrast: a career educator from a small district or a lawyer/administrator from a large system.

It’s anything but a no-brainer.

The state Department of Transportation is supposed to clear up roadblocks, not act like one.

But N.C. DOT might end up standing in the way of progress at one southeast Greensboro intersection.

The staff of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church would like for the state to close the highway-style exit ramp from East Lee Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

As they see it, sealing it off would facilitate construction of the church’s $24 million sanctuary, housing development and retail district proposed for that location.

Granted, convenience is an issue. At a hearing Monday evening, a majority of speakers favored keeping the ramp open.

But with financing already in place, church leaders understandably want to move ahead. They argue that their ambitious project will complement other improvements in the nearby Ole Asheboro, Southside and Arlington Park neighborhoods.

City Transportation Department workers say eliminating the ramp, more aptly designed for suburbia, won’t hinder access between MLK Jr. Drive and Lee Street. In fact, plans in the works call for two new links connecting those busy thoroughfares.

Based on what was said at the meeting, city officials will get together with residents and church leaders, but ultimately it’s N.C. DOT’s call.

Closing a highway ramp is a rare occurrence, yet it does happen. For safety reasons, the state has done just that at several antiquated U.S. 29 entrance-exits between Bessemer Avenue and Florida Street.

Making a similar move for economic reasons can also be justified. And convenience notwithstanding, proponents make a convincing case that closure would be a catalyst in reviving an area that still could use a boost.

The fallout from the nation’s financial-sector woes has landed uncomfortably close to home.

Buffeted by a staggering second-quarter loss of $8.9 billion, Charlotte-based Wachovia Bank is slashing more than 10,000 jobs and shedding the mortgage unit blamed for the red-ink tidal wave.

With deep Triad roots, Wachovia continues to employ 3,000 workers at its high-performing wealth-management division in Winston-Salem. Before the 2001 merger with First Union, the bank was headquartered there.

In just a few years, what many people still see as their hometown bank has grown into one of the nation’s largest banking conglomerates. So when an old friend encounters rough sledding, loyal customers take particular notice.

While acknowledging that troubled times require painful steps, new CEO Robert Steel on Tuesday assured that the average customer won’t be affected. And he reassured Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines of the bank’s strong commitment to a continued community presence.

Yet some financial analysts speculate that sinking stock-share values make Wachovia a future target for sale or takeover. If that were to happen, the state’s position as a thriving financial center would markedly diminish.

But for the present, Steel’s aggressive strategies for restoring Wachovia’s tarnished luster should pay dividends. Those cost-cutting measures, however, will come at a steep human price. In-state employees will be among the thousands who will lose jobs.

Unfortunately, some lessons must be learned the hard way. Wachovia wasn’t alone in taking advantage of lax government oversight to make risky home loans. In retrospect, they should never have been made.

Now, that poor judgment is taking its terrible toll on too many lives.

The additional local levy can help pay for bond projects and relieve pressure on the property tax, but supporters have to push that argument to voters.

Guilford County residents should reconsider a local sales-tax increase, but commissioners must give them good reasons to reach a different conclusion than they did May 6.

On that date, voters resoundingly slapped down a proposed quarter-cent sales-tax hike. Given the clear sentiment they expressed, it looks foolish for commissioners to put the same measure on the ballot only a few months later. But six of them decided last week to do exactly that.

Let’s call Billy Yow, Mike Winstead, John Parks, Kay Cashion, Paul Gibson and Linda Shaw bold rather than foolish. They believe the issue is important enough for another try, and they’re willing to risk the possible political consequences of asking the voters again.

For Parks and Gibson, the repercussions could be immediate. The two at-large commissioners face opposition in the November election.

Yow doesn’t, having defeated his only challenger in the Republican primary, but critics are wondering why one of the most conservative commissioners has pushed so hard for a higher sales tax.

That’s the wrong way to look at this measure. True, approval by voters would raise the sales tax enough to generate an estimated $16 million in additional annual revenue for Guilford County government. The money would come out of people’s pockets every time they made a purchase for most items (not food or medicine).

Yow contends, however, that the $16 million would be used as alternative revenue, not extra revenue. Commissioners could hold down property taxes by an equal amount. The net tax burden would not increase, but it would be shifted a bit from property owners to consumers. All property owners are consumers, but not all consumers are property owners. Nor do all consumers who make purchases in Guilford County live in the county. The sales tax captures revenue from nonresidents.

Voters on May 6 approved more than $600 million in bond projects but no means of paying for them except raising property taxes, which commissioners did in the new budget. Some would like another funding stream. The only way they’ll get it is to lead a campaign informing voters of the need for greater diversity of tax revenues to relieve the strain on property owners whose incomes don’t keep up with tax rates.

Commissioners aren’t allowed to make a legally binding guarantee that new sales-tax money will pay off school bonds or prompt a cut in the property tax rate, but they should tell voters that’s what they plan to do. If they lead an effective campaign, and stake their credibility on the outcome, voters should trust them with a small sales-tax increase.

Sidney Lowe II’s 15 months won’t be easy time after all.

Superior Court Judge Henry Frye Jr. sentenced Lowe July 15 to a term at the Guilford County prison farm — extraordinary leniency considering the young man’s participation in armed robberies last year.

Frye was criticized for appearing to favor a defendant with a famous father and prominent attorneys, but he might not have done Lowe such a good turn.

Sheriff BJ Barnes refused to place Lowe at the farm, a minimum-security facility meant for the least dangerous offenders.

“I don’t put violent offenders at the farm,” he said Wednesday. “I can’t afford to have people out there who could be a problem.”

That’s his call. Judges aren’t responsible for handling prisoners; sheriffs are. Barnes knows that neighbors of the Gibsonville-area outpost don’t want it occupied by felons who could pose a threat if they decided to simply walk away one night.

Maybe Lowe wouldn’t pose a problem, but if he could serve his time there so could others convicted of serious crimes, and the sheriff would have to raise the facility’s security level.

Instead of the farm, Lowe has been locked in the jail in downtown Greensboro, a much more secure facility. It’s also crowded, noisy and frightening. Lowe, “scared out of his mind,” his lawyers said, was caught with a make-shift knife he fashioned for self-defense. He’s in an isolation cell but can look forward to bunking with seven other men in a cell designed for four.

The jail isn’t meant to house long-term prisoners. Lowe probably would be better off in the state prison system. Even in a maximum-security facility, he might more room and access to exercise and recreation opportunities.

If Lowe spends 15 months in the jail, he’ll serve hard time.

Winning a public records suit can leave plaintiffs with high legal bills. That should change, and more should be done to resolve disputes out of court.

Even citizens who can beat city hall often can’t afford the cost.

If a local government breaks the state’s public records law, the only remedy may be for someone to file a lawsuit. Going to court is expensive, though, and even if the plaintiff wins the case he may be stuck with thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees.

That discourages most people from even trying to beat city hall.

A bill approved unanimously by the state Senate last week would have changed that. When it reached the House, however, it was sent by Speaker Joe Hackney to a committee with orders to kill it.

Hackney could have done that in response to objections from local governments and public hospitals that don’t want to give up their advantages. But he deserves the benefit of the doubt. Legislators were trying to wrap up their session and go home. There wasn’t much time to give the bill full consideration. Supporters should try again next year.

The measure’s key passage said the court shall order defendants to pay “reasonable attorneys’ fees” to plaintiffs successfully compelling the disclosure of public records. That’s a perfectly fair premise: The ones who violated the law should compensate those who forced compliance.

But that wasn’t the only helpful portion of the legislation, introduced by Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston.

It would create an “Open Government Unit” in the N.C. Department of Justice with the mission of educating the public and government agencies of their rights and responsibilities under the public records and open meetings laws; moderating or mediating disputes about public records and open meetings and issuing advisory opinions; and collecting relevant state laws, regulations and court rulings.

This service could resolve conflicts before citizens are forced to file lawsuits. Surely, a city, county or state agency would respond positively if advised by the Justice Department that requested records must by law be provided to the public or that meetings must be conducted with doors open.

Going to court would remain an option, but it should be an avenue of last resort. If they are forced to take that route, however, and they eventually prevail, citizens should expect to recover the money they spent fighting city hall.

The only regret in such a case would be that taxpayers likely would bear the cost of their government’s refusal to abide by the law. In instances like that, voters would have to exercise one more right: changing the people who run city hall.

It’s a shame there wasn’t time to pass this bill now. There won’t be any excuse next year.

Guilford County’s next superintendent of schools promises to listen and learn, set high expectations for himself and others, and serve.

Maurice “Mo” Green speaks with deliberation, choosing his words carefully and repeating key phrases for emphasis.

Maybe he could have been a teacher. Instead, the Duke-educated lawyer will become Guilford County Schools’ first superintendent without classroom experience — a sore point to some but not a liability that effective leadership can’t overcome.

Green will make a good start if he’s as good as his word in three key ways:
• He listens and learns. During his visit to Guilford County as a finalist for the job Wednesday, Green said he won’t bring a “Mo Green plan of action” from Charlotte, where he’s been deputy superintendent for the past two years.

He shouldn’t, because Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hasn’t solved the big problems of public education, either. And steps leaders there have taken might not work here.

Green promised to learn about Guilford County, its issues and its desires for the school system and then to work collaboratively to set goals and design plans to achieve them.

• He demands a lot of students, school employees and himself. One of his favorite phrases is “call the question.” It means getting to what matters. In school, what matters is giving students the skills they need to succeed in a rapidly changing economy — and that requires creative teachers, innovative principals, adequate resources and excellent facilities. We won’t settle for “incremental progress,” he said.

• His role is to serve: “I tell principals, I am your servant. The role I play is to serve you. You’re doing the work.” Exactly. Principals establish the educational environment in each school. But they need the superintendent’s support to make sure they have a strong faculty and staff, that they have authority to make necessary decisions without fear of recriminations, that central-office policies promote a better school climate rather than undermine it.

Green holds strong views on many subjects. He sounds conservative when talking about discipline, dress, conduct and attitudes toward learning. He was brought up in a family where great value was placed on education, by a widowed mother who became a teacher herself. So, when Green says he “reveres teachers,” it’s personal.

He speaks in a forthright, easy-to-understand manner. He’s not a fast talker. He appears to possess an analytical mind and a calm, quiet strength.

The school board has put its confidence in him, which Green will earn if he listens and learns well, demands excellence of himself and others and truly sees his role as serving the educators who work every day in Guilford County classrooms.

Business is booming for the 10-county Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation. With gas hovering around $4 a gallon, more commuters are turning to PART. Ridership on its buses has increased by more than 50 percent over this time last year. On some PART routes it’s standing-room only, and it’s easy to see why. A $2 one-way ticket for most routes beats the cost of driving alone in a car.

PART recently expanded its express bus service to Randolph and Davidson counties. But that service still isn’t provided in Alamance, though thousands of people commute each workday between it and Guilford County.

While PART serves Alamance residents going to Triangle hospitals, PART Executive Director Brent McKinney also envisions its express bus system in that county. A couple of PART park and ride lots off the I 85/40 corridor on Alamance’s east and west sides could be built, with buses running regularly between them and the Greensboro Depot. That would link Alamance riders to High Point, Winston-Salem and other places.

PART could do even more for Alamance. Burlington has no public bus service — the largest city in the state without it. PART could tap into federal transportation funding and operate a service for that city, which — because of PART’s authority as a regional transportation provider — could be extended throughout Alamance.

All of this is a PART pipe dream. For it to become reality, the Alamance commissioners would have to act. They would need to pass a resolution enabling PART to receive revenue from Alamance either from a small license plate fee or a rental vehicle tax. (Local funding is about 10 percent of PART’s revenue. It also depends on passenger fares and state and federal funds.)

Alamance residents have long sent money to Raleigh and Washington to pay for other places’ public transportation. Isn’t it time Alamance captured some of those funds? High gas prices are here to stay. A county with little or no public transportation is a county at a disadvantage.

How well did the Guilford County school board handle the superintendent search?

Sunday's editorial:

Being a tenant in Greensboro has become a better proposition in the last few years. As Amanda Lehmert’s front-page story today indicates, the city’s rental inspection program has helped improve the condition of rental housing. Since the City Council passed the Residential Unit Certificate of Occupancy ordinance in 2003, substandard housing cases and housing code violations have dropped dramatically.

Also, an aggressive property watchdog — the Greensboro Minimum Housing Commission — has put teeth into enforcement.

Still, that doesn’t mean that all rental properties in Greensboro are in pristine condition. As Lorraine Ahearn points out in her Sunday column, the ordinance hasn’t yet changed some chronic housing problems, such as those at the Heritage House Apartments at Summit and East Cone. Her visit there — the apartments hadn’t previously been inspected through RUCO — found broken stoves, doors and tiles and almost-collapsing eaves.

A model ordinance

The overall picture, though, is one that is good. As Beth McKee-Huger, executive director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, says of RUCO, “We think it’s a great step toward making housing safe and healthy for people.”

The numbers themselves tell the story: Substandard housing cases fell from 1,679 in 2004 to 418 in 2007.

McKee-Huger also notes that the ordinance has become a model: Towns and cities both inside and outside North Carolina are looking at it as they consider establishing their own ordinances.
RUCO requires most rental properties in the city to be inspected. Those passing inspection receive certificates that prospective tenants — if they know to ask about them — can see to know that the properties have passed the city’s muster.

But it’s not just the ordinance that has gotten results. A Minimum Housing Commission unafraid to order repairs or demolition has sent a strong message to property owners that poor conditions won’t be tolerated.

Credit also should go to former City Council candidate Joel Landau for alerting the city to a method some landlords were using to postpone making repairs. Transferring property — even to another family member — had been a way to erase regulatory action the city was taking on it, thus allowing landlords to delay repairs sometimes for years. After Landau sent a letter to the RUCO board about this tactic, the City Council closed the loophole.

Improving RUCO

RUCO requires all affected rental properties to be inspected by January. The majority — some 33,000 — have been, and it’s likely about 3,000 more need inspection.

Tracking down evasive landlords is going to be a problem. Using city water workers to help might be a good idea — if the Water Resources Department buys into it. It doesn’t seem like it would be too burdensome for water workers to ask to see an inspection certificate before turning on a tenant’s water.

What’s more problematic is how to ensure that the certificates reflect reality. The certificates are issued for five years, and the ordinance allows them to be renewed without another inspection if the city hasn’t received a complaint about the property or the property hasn’t been found in violation.

This approach seems a little lackadaisical. Restaurants, elevators and other facilities are routinely inspected, whether there have been zero complaints or a zillion. Shouldn’t rental units also be subjected to some form of ongoing inspection?

Of course, inspecting all affected properties every five years could be too much for city staff to handle. But a look at what other cities do or are considering doing provides some options. For landlords owning buildings with multiple units, some cities just require spot inspections of a few units. So, if apartments C, G and S passed inspection, then apartments A-Z in the complex would pass.

Landlords also make a good point when they argue that it makes sense to focus enforcement attention on property owners with serious violations. Landau has suggested a way to handle such violators: Target them for more frequent inspections. He has suggested annual inspections for properties that are often in violation.

Into the next decade

Greensboro has accomplished much with RUCO. The challenge is to make sure the program means as much in 2018 as it does in 2008. It shouldn’t take complaining tenants to trigger inspections of rental properties. Some type of ongoing inspection, one that is not burdensome to responsible landlords and that targets chronic violators, would be the best way to ensure that the rental inspection program continues to work.

Food for thought, quick and over easy

My Segway for a horse?

Mounting Greensboro police officers on Segways must be part of a plan to win approval for horses. A horseback patrol, although prohibitively expensive, would look so much more impressive.

Anyone want to donate some steeds?

Chicken wars

The feathers are flying in Sanford about an ordinance that bans keeping chickens in the city limits.

Raising chickens is a growing hobby in the state, as the popular “Tour D’Coop” in Raleigh attests.

But the Sanford City Council has taken no action to revise the ban.

Some say it’s more than a fear of chickens; it’s a fear of Latino newcomers, who they believe will bring all kinds of livestock to their homes if the ban is lifted.

A fuss over chickens also erupted in Greensboro some months ago. Brian Talbert was the target of zoning officers because of chickens he keeps at his home near Lindley Park. A city ordinance requires coops to be at least 50 feet from any property line, an impossibility where he lives. In April, Talbert was denied a variance so he could keep his chickens (and also his bees). Since then, an ordinance that would relax the rules so more people can raise chickens and bees has been proposed. The City Council will hold a hearing on it at its Aug. 19 meeting (see freerangegso.blogspot.com).

Fortunately, the feather-ruffling in Greensboro is about the birds and bees. Period. It would be sad and unfortunate if things progressed as they have in Sanford and it turned into anything else.

Jobless in North Carolina

Let’s hope this week is better than last for North Carolina. First, there was the news that Charlotte-based Wachovia will lay off more than 6,000 people nationwide and that it lost $8.9 billion in the second quarter of 2008.

Then, the U.S. Labor Department released its latest weekly unemployment figures. North Carolina had the third-highest increase — after New York and California — in first applications for unemployment benefits. They were up by 9,344 in this state. A host of industries besides textiles and furniture laid off workers here: They include the electronic and electrical equipment and rubber and plastics industries.

At least Thomasville Furniture is hiring: It said July 23 that it will add 100 positions to its Lenoir plant. Rising fuel, labor and shipping costs overseas have caused it to move work back to its last U.S. plant that makes wooden furniture. See? There is a good side to high oil prices.

Killer deserves to stay in prison

The family of the late Sandra Coles Coulthard received welcome news last week: Her killer, Robert F. Coulthard, was denied parole.

Sandy Coulthard’s death by arsenic poisoning in July 1988 was one of High Point’s most sensational murder cases — more so when her husband, Rob, was charged with murder. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. Sentencing guidelines at the time made him eligible for parole in only 20 years.

Sandy Coulthard was a 30-year-old mother of two small children. She was poisoned on several occasions over a period of eight months, investigators determined. Her parents, who live in Lexington, raised her son and daughter. They strongly objected to Rob Coulthard’s release — as did hundreds of others who expressed their views in letters to the state parole commission.
The commission deserves credit for listening and for deciding that Rob Coulthard should remain in prison for at least one more year. Twenty years is too short a time to pay for one of the cruelest crimes ever committed in High Point.

The cost of buying additional patrol cars is the stumbling block to a take-home policy, but increased visibility could discourage would-be criminals.

Even though the upfront costs are considerable, allowing Greensboro officers to take their police cars home makes sense.

Guilford County sheriff’s deputies and High Point police officers have enjoyed such a perk for years. A recent consultant’s report suggests Greensboro travel the same road.

The proposal isn’t new. Chief Tim Bellamy notes the department has considered allowing more officers to drive city cars home. Now, the privilege is limited to a handful of supervisors.

The facts remain much the same. The policy would call for purchasing and equipping additional cars, but the expense could be recouped later in lower maintenance bills and extended fleet life.

There are other generally accepted benefits. Having a marked cruiser parked in a residential neighborhood is bound to help discourage criminal activity. Should there be an emergency, an off-duty officer living nearby might respond sooner than the zone patrol car.

Pride of possession, no doubt, also plays a significant role in the program’s success. Being responsible for a vehicle rather than sharing it with someone else results in better care.

Sarasota, Fla., police, for example, report maintenance costs dropped nearly 50 percent following implementation of a vehicle take-home policy. A similar move in Hillsborough County, Fla., extended vehicle life, on average, from three to seven years.

But long-range payoffs must weigh carefully against the significant purchase costs. Shelling out thousands of dollars undoubtedly would be a hard sell at a time when the city is being forced to cut personnel and struggles to hold the line on property taxes.

A plan that incrementally phases in take-home privileges might be worth pursuing.

At present, a full-scale transition may be neither advisable nor necessary. Rather, designating a limited number of cars on a trial basis may produce a more cost-effective result.

One wild card may be the nation’s rising fuel costs, which have prompted some departments to amend their drive-home policies. Officers living outside jurisdictions where they work now are being asked to pay a commuting or mileage fee in some areas.

The Anne Arundel County, Md., sheriff’s department has recalled 13 of 38 cruisers earmarked as take-home vehicles. In Bradenton, Fla., only officers residing within the city limits drive home in their city-owned vehicles. Before, police cruisers could be driven long distances into neighboring communities.

A good case can be made for assigning cars to more officers, but Greensboro needn’t rush into doing it.

It’s too easy, and unfair, to blame an Alamance County sheriff’s deputy for leaving three children stranded on I-85 in the middle of the night. Although he could have made a better decision, the problem began with a parent’s irresponsible behavior.

At 2 a.m. on June 14, the deputy pulled over a car driven by a woman who identified herself as Maria Chavira Ventura. She didn’t have a driver’s license, and the car carried a false plate. He arrested her and took her to jail, leaving four passengers behind. Three were her children, ages 14, 10 and 6. The fourth, a man, was an acquaintance who was riding with them. He soon took off. The children called their father in Maryland, who arrived to pick them up eight hours later. In that time, along a busy highway, anything could have happened to them.

Several of the people involved in this incident are illegal immigrants. The mother, whose real name is Maria Mejia, according to federal officials, is being processed for deportation. The man in the car probably was afraid to stay in case he might be caught. The father dares not file any complaints about what happened to the children, he told The News & Observer of Raleigh, which reported the story.

Unfortunately, the children suffered through no fault of their own. The deputy should not have left them unless he was assured the adult present would take responsibility for them.

But the mother deserves no sympathy. She was operating a vehicle illegally and, in doing so, putting her children at risk. And, if she did not mean to entrust the care of her children to her unreliable adult passenger, she didn’t make that clear to the deputy. Reportedly, she spoke poor English.

This was a case of one bad decision leading to another. It was only a matter of luck that it didn’t have a tragic ending.

Talk about going out in style.

A year ahead of schedule, and two days before Chancellor Pat Sullivan officially retires, UNCG announced Tuesday that it already had reached the $100 million goal of its Students First Campaign.

Among other key initiatives, the campaign will create new endowments for graduate and undergraduate scholarships. This will, in turn, empower UNCG to attract top students and ensure that needy students who show promise will be able to afford to enroll at the growing campus just west of downtown Greensboro.

The campaign also will finance professorships, research, guest artists and lectures and faculty enrichment.

Although schools like UNCG and its sister institution, N.C. A&T, receive funding from the state, they supplement that money with giving from alumni, the corporate community, foundations and other private donors to stay competitive for the best students and faculty.

Thus far, the campaign has made possible 168 new undergraduate scholarships, 38 graduate fellowships, 14 professorships, and 145 program endowments and student award programs.

Why this is good news even for those of us who may never have set foot on the UNCG campus (and you really ought to; it’s an impressive sight) is the importance of healthy colleges and universities to the vitality of this region. They attract bright minds and enhance the community’s cultural fabric. They provide scholars and experts who can offer practical advice to private industry and government. They create jobs.

According to Andrew Brod, who, incidentally, directs the Office of Business and Economic Research at UNCG, the school’s annual impact on the Piedmont Triad economy is $1.22 billion, based on a study of the 2004-05 academic year.

The premature success of Students First bears testament to UNCG and delivers, just in time, the perfect parting gift for Chancellor Sullivan.

County government provides reams of information about itself — a good start that should help leaders and citizens make better policy decisions.

Some facts you can discover in the first Guilford County Service Efforts & Accomplishments Report:

• Guilford County’s spending trends are up for education, public safety and debt, and down for human services.
• The rate of child poverty is higher here than in North Carolina’s other large counties, except Forsyth.
• Local current-expense funding per student is higher than in Wake County, and so was the 2007 graduation rate. But Guilford County residents are less likely to have high school diplomas or college degrees.
• The rate of AIDS cases is lower in Guilford County than in Forsyth, Wake, New Hanover, Durham and Mecklenburg counties.

The 105-page report, produced by the office of Guilford County Internal Auditor Martha Rogers with a grant from the National Center for Civic Innovation, offers a treasure trove of data. As a one-stop collection of information, it’s second to none.

But it’s not yet as useful as it can and should become.

The project began several years ago when Carolyn Coleman, then the chairwoman of the Board of Commissioners, wanted an annual report detailing the work of county government. Then, when he was chairman last year, Paul Gibson pushed for a strategic planning process that would encourage the public to identify the most essential services and pinpoint ways to determine which programs are working best, which not so well.

Both initiatives are continuing in a complementary way, County Manager David McNeill said Monday.

The Service Efforts & Accomplishments Report allows Guilford County to compare itself to other counties but also to note trends over time: crime, educational achievement, public health, economic growth, and so on.

If Guilford County government is spending more but seemingly deriving worse outcomes than peer counties, the report should raise a hard-to-miss red flag. The first edition doesn’t do that, McNeill said.

But neither does it dig deep enough in its current form to assess the effectiveness of specific programs. That’s what Gibson wants to get to — and taxpayers should, too.

Public opinion also should be part of the process. Taxpayers can view the report at libraries or online and attend public forums next month in Greensboro, High Point and Oak Ridge and tell county officials what they expect from government. Residents now have the benefit of more easy-to-find information than ever before. They should make the most of it, and so should commissioners. Future policy decisions ought to be based on knowledge of what works and what doesn’t.

The American Cancer Society can’t be blamed for trying to get its “fair share” of employee payroll deductions. The organization wants Greensboro employers to give workers the chance to donate to it the same way they can donate to the United Way — straight from one’s salary.

The idea’s a good one — for the American Cancer Society. But it’s bad for local United Way agencies, as it could lead to a decline in donations for them. If implemented, it also could become a pain for employers.

There are more than 1,300 United Ways in this country; in 2005-2006 they raised some $3.6 billion. Children to senior citizens benefited from this money, as shown by the United Way of Greater Greensboro, which supports programs ranging from Thriving at Three to services for seniors.

But United Ways do more than dole out dollars: They help ensure that the agencies receiving money are doing what they say they do.

“We are much more than a pass-through” organization, said Keith Barsuhn, the new president of the United Way of Greater Greensboro.

United Ways examine programs to see if they are working. They also routinely check agencies’ balance sheets. In effect, they act as watchdogs on community nonprofits.

They also help communities by helping them set funding priorities.

The United Way also benefits employers. Without it, employers would spend much more time fielding funding inquiries from nonprofits. They also would have to do their own legwork to make sure individual nonprofits they assisted were acting responsibly.

Employers, of course, are free to do as they choose when it comes to helping charities.

Still, the United Way approach seems the most practical way to organize employee giving — and to ensure that employees’ donations benefit the community.

Maybe, instead of competing with the Greensboro United Way, the American Cancer Society should apply to become one of its agencies.

Duke Energy’s plan to charge more for selling less power deserves careful review, but there’s undeniable value in creating incentives for conservation.

Duke Energy delivered what appeared to be an audacious proposal to the N.C. Utilities Commission last year: Let us charge more for selling less power.

In an extensive series of hearings over several weeks this summer, the commission is examining the merits of that request. There’s a lot to consider, including objections from some consumer groups and the commission’s own public staff.

At heart, the issue is conservation: How can demand for electricity be driven down? And who should benefit when consumption declines?

Duke contends it should profit if it provides programs that save energy. It didn’t invent that idea. The N.C. General Assembly enacted legislation declaring it state policy “to require energy planning and fixing of rates in a manner to result in the least cost mix of generation and demand-reduction measures which is achievable, including consideration of appropriate rewards to utilities for efficiency and conservation which decrease utility bills.”

The concept makes sense. What incentive would Duke have to push conservation if it was going to lose money? On the other hand, could a fast-food restaurant charge customers more for selling fewer burgers and fries on the premise that they’re all better off?

Of course, cutting energy consumption is sound policy. Duke calls conservation practices a “fifth fuel,” after coal, nuclear, natural gas and renewables, because they can soften future demand and eliminate the need to build more power plants. To compensate for possible lost revenues and to ensure profits, Duke asked the commission for permission to raise rates.

The conflict stems from critics’ charge that the level of profit requested for the potential benefit is too high. “It costs way too much and it does way too little,” Shana Becker, a staff attorney for the North Carolina Public Interest Research Group, said Tuesday.

The same could be said of other programs. For example, all Duke customers will share in the cost of a planned solar power farm in Davidson County that will produce electricity for the equivalent of fewer than 3,000 homes. Sometimes progress carries a high price tag.

Duke’s conservation plan, which it calls Save-a-Watt, would have to produce documented results as determined by independent experts. It would have to cut usage by participating customers, whose savings would more than offset the rate hike. Only then would Duke reap its “rewards.”

The Utilities Commission has the critical task of deciding what are “appropriate rewards.” As in any rate case, it must protect the interests of consumers but also allow a fair return on the company’s investment.

The test of this proposal is whether everyone can benefit. A strong conservation program should help the environment and save money for customers who do their part. Then, if Duke is due a reward for getting results, it should not be denied.