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John Edwards, living the dream
American Dream, indeed.

A charismatic politician with a carefully crafted image as a devoted husband and father is caught in marital infidelity by a tabloid and forced to confess on national television. What’s next for this disgraced former candidate?

The speakers’ circuit, of course! For $65,000 a talk — an increase over his former fee.
John Edwards will address University of Illinois students next month on the subject of the “American Dream.”

If America is a country where scandal raises someone’s star power, Edwards is cashing in on the dream.

Not cool. Not cool at all
Obviously not content with all the stuff there already is to steal, thieves are targeting air conditioning units for the copper and aluminum they contain.

Construction areas and vacant houses are the main targets, but some crooks haven’t ruled out occupied homes in established neighborhoods.

Sometimes they strip the metal from inside the unit. Sometimes they simply take the whole thing.

Last month, the Mount Zion Baptist Church had nine air conditioning units stolen, and Blandwood Mansion and the Salvation Army Boys’ and Girls’ Club have been targets as well.
Manhole covers were bad enough. Now they’re hitting us where we worship and live.
What’s next? Telephone poles for the wood?

Storytelling time in Greensboro
The Monti — a Chapel Hill-based storytelling program — held its first event in Greensboro last Wednesday night, and by all accounts it was a success. Even though it was Fay day, the event drew a full house at The Underground.

“I would estimate that about 90 were there, and we were tightly packed,” said Monti founder Jeff Polish. (See themonti.org for Polish’s interesting story on why he named the event “The Monti.”)
Appropriately, for a debut event, the night’s storytellers talked on the theme of “Firsts.” Local authors Justin Catanoso (“My Cousin the Saint”) and Quinn Dalton (“Stories from the Afterlife”) told stories, as did singer/songwriter Molly McGinn, musician Catie Braly-Sellars (The Popovers) and Polish.

Polish modeled The Monti on New York City’s The Moth, which has had sell-out crowds for 10 years.

Fortunately, says Polish, The Monti’s Aug. 27 event in Greensboro won’t be its last. “I hope to do a Greensboro event every few months,” Polish said.

We think an evening featuring political types of varying persuasions might prove a draw here, especially coming up to the election. We bet — no, we know — politicians could tell tales.

State of Community? A bit long
The State of Our Community luncheon has been a welcome addition to the Greensboro agenda since it debuted under the leadership of former Chamber of Commerce head David Jameson eight years ago.

The luncheon provides a good opportunity to take stock of opportunities and challenges in the community in a group setting. And it’s always interesting to see the patterns — or lack thereof — in the various reports from the county, the city, the school board and the Chamber.

This year it was crystal clear that completing the International Civil Rights Center and Museum was a priority. Mayor Yvonne Johnson, Guilford commissioners Chairman Kirk Perkins and Chamber Operating Group President Tim Rice all mentioned it prominently in their speeches.
One gentle suggestion: Could the speakers be a tad briefer next time?

Rice clocked in at a manageable 10 minutes or so. The others, well, did not, and the audience began to grow thin as the hour grew later.

One way to streamline the session is to dispense with introductions of elected officials, some of whom were recognized more than once. They’re good people and we appreciate their service. But we know who they are.

Tuesday's No. 1 editorial.

Last week’s raid of a manufacturing plant in Mississippi put the spotlight back on illegal immigration. Netting almost 600, it’s the biggest immigration raid ever made on a U.S. plant.
The raid also put the spotlight on problems associated with E-Verify, a federal program that provides employers a link to government databases to determine workers’ legal status.
The company, Howard Industries Inc., was using E-Verify and other methods to check immigration status, yet it still employed hundreds illegally.

Much of the anomaly could stem from employees hired before the company began using E-Verify. It was reported that enforcers began investigating two years before Howard began checking workers’ status that way.

With such a large number detained, you have to wonder if someone at Howard didn’t mind hiring undocumented workers. Still, Howard’s employment problems likely also resulted from a glaring weakness of E-Verify: It has a hard time detecting identity theft.

If an illegal immigrant has stolen someone’s identity and is using both that person’s name and Social Security number, E-Verify often can’t determine that.

E-Verify is set to expire on Nov. 1, unless Congress reauthorizes it. Democratic Rep. Health Shuler, of western North Carolina, has proposed legislation that not only would continue E-Verify but expand it. Called the SAVE Act, it would phase in mandatory use of E-Verify by all employers.

Shuler’s legislation might be good if there were no glitches in the system. But there are, and it’s not just the matter of E-Verify missing identity theft.

Studies of E-Verify have found that it can provide initial “false negatives.” One study found that it mistakenly flagged .1 percent of U.S.-born employees as problematic and 3 percent of employees who are foreign-born.

Other studies have found that the databases E-Verify taps into are riddled with errors. For example, the Social Security Administration’s own inspector general estimated that 17.8 million records in its agency’s database, which is used to check employment eligibility, contain inaccuracies.

Americans already have plenty of experience dealing with faulty information. Look at the indignities many have suffered because their names somehow were erroneously added to the No Fly List. The last thing we need is to have employers — and workers — ensnarled in similar problems.

E-Verify shouldn’t be scrapped. Employers need an electronic way to check immigration status. But the kinks need to be worked out of the program before it’s made mandatory.

A group representing business, educational and nonprofit interests sent a letter in recent weeks to Congress containing sound suggestions. They want funding to clean up problems in the Social Security database that’s a part of E-Verify, and they also suggested a trial program to target identity theft.

Those ideas should be incorporated into E-Verify reauthorization.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

When it comes to energy savings, cities ought to practice what they preach. If officials prod residents into conserving diminishing resources then they should also demand the same long-term commitment from city hall.

Greensboro has been moving in that direction. From using energy-efficient LED stoplights to driving fewer gas-guzzling vehicles, conservation is a priority for city workers. For example, the coliseum complex’s energy savings contract already has produced positive results.

Now, a more far-reaching initiative is in the works. This fall, the city will begin a $6 million energy performance deal with Arlington, Va.,-based Pepco Energy Services to upgrade or re-equip 63 buildings. Based on the success of similar arrangements elsewhere, the plan should pay substantial dividends.

Pepco claims to have saved federal agencies $46 million in electricity costs at Washington-area buildings over 18 months. And its 12-year contract with the state, signed in 2005, guarantees $12 million in energy cost reductions.

The firm’s audit of Greensboro’s municipal structures will be completed by October. The City Council, no doubt, will hear recommendations for updating heating, air conditioning and lighting and a pitch for using solar energy.

Coincidentally, the county has launched “Guilford Green.” The wider-ranging effort includes both government and community programs.

While the city’s proposal is more focused, both draw attention to wiser energy use as a way to save tax dollars.

For the city, contracting out the job makes more sense than doing it piecemeal in-house. Granted, the contract comes at a hefty price, but at the same time it eliminates funding and construction uncertainties.

It’s a case of having to spend money now to realize future savings. And in the process, energy is conserved.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

Seven Guilford County commissioners made an important promise to taxpayers last week. The other four all but promised to undermine it.

Commissioners have had their differences before, but last Thursday’s vote on a resolution expressing the board’s intent to spend sales-tax revenue to pay school construction debt revealed a particularly ugly split.

One faction was warning the public not to trust the other. So much for building faith in government.

This vote didn’t have to take place. It had been decided earlier that voters will be asked in November whether to approve an additional quarter-cent local sales tax. But proponents wanted to put themselves on record with a pledge: If voters approve the tax, commissioners will apply the money — about $15 million a year — toward paying off school bonds.

Four commissioners objected, on two grounds: first, that voters already rejected a sales-tax hike in May, by a 3-to-1 margin; and second, that commissioners can’t hold a future board to their resolutions.

Both points are correct, but so what? There’s no harm in giving voters another chance to say yes or no in November, and it’s understood the commissioners weren’t signing a legally binding contract. They were making a promise to their constituents. They wanted voters to know it’s their plan to use sales-tax income to offset some of the property-tax revenue that otherwise must be used to cover school construction debt.

The four commissioners who opposed the promise continued to fight a battle they’d already lost over the second sales-tax referendum. Worse, they questioned the honesty of their colleagues. Beyond that, they raised doubts about their own intentions. Whether they want it or not, after all, they just might get this sales-tax revenue if voters approve. Will they not apply it to school construction debt? What better use do they have in mind?

Three commissioners who voted for the resolution — Kirk Perkins, Paul Gibson and John Parks — are up for re-election in November. If they’re defeated, that will leave only four commissioners who made the pledge, a minority of the board. No one else would be bound to honor the promise.

But it makes sense to do so. County voters in May said yes to massive borrowing for school construction. This will place a heavy tax burden on many property owners. Additional sales-tax revenue dedicated to paying school bond debt can broaden the tax base and ease the load on some taxpayers.

Seven commissioners are making an honest effort to pay off the county’s obligations in a fair and prudent way. They didn’t deserve to have their integrity attacked.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

One down and at least three to go. But around here we need to keep a wary eye on No. 2.

Now that Hurricane Gustav is blowing itself out after dealing New Orleans a glancing blow, the Southeast is girding for Hanna, which likely will make landfall Friday anywhere from Jacksonville, Fla., to Cape Hatteras.

A key lesson learned from the Gulf Coast’s response to Gustav: It’s never too early for storm preparations. In contrast to the Katrina fiasco three years ago, local, state and federal officials started gearing up for the worst when the storm was days out at sea.

In North Carolina, Gov. Mike Easley assures contingency planning is well under way. Local and state officials, relief agencies and the National Guard already are busily mapping responses, should Hanna come calling.

Even if the state is spared a direct coastal hit, a storm making landfall to our south could have a major impact by dumping six inches of rain on the Piedmont. Coming on the heels of last week’s deluge, such copious amounts could cause flooding of low-lying areas and push rivers over their banks.

So it’s worth heeding the governor’s advice to prepare for any eventuality. He suggests an emergency kit containing bottled water, nonperishable food, a flashlight, a battery-operated radio and a three-day supply of medications.

Although not unscathed, New Orleans dodged a bullet. Yet praise will be short-lived unless there’s a safe and orderly return to the still-recovering city. If not, the thousands of residents who willingly left this time may balk when the next hurricane zeros in.

And there will be a next time. Ike and Josephine already lurk in the wings as a busier-than-average hurricane season unfolds.

The Katrina debacle made an indelible imprint that those responsible for the public’s safety must act decisively well in advance of a potential disaster. And, so far, that’s paying off.

Thursday's lead editorial.

Speed and alcohol contributed to a car crash that killed four people and critically injured a fifth in Winston-Salem Tuesday night.

Two of the dead were teenagers. The suspected driver ran from the scene but was found by police Wednesday.

Beer cans were scattered across the wreck site outside Forsyth Memorial Gardens cemetery on Yadkinville Road.

North Carolina cemeteries are collecting too many victims of drinking and driving, despite changes in state law that were supposed to increase penalties for violators.

Until now, Winston-Salem’s most notorious recent drunken-driving fatality case involved former television news anchorman Tolly Carr. He was convicted last year of felony death by motor vehicle and sentenced to three years in prison. He’s confined at the Guilford Correctional Center in McLeansville.

Carr’s punishment was just, and it sent a message that, when drunken driving causes someone’s death, the killer will go to prison. That was the intent of a tougher state law that went into effect in 2006.

Unfortunately, the message apparently hasn’t been heard everywhere. Just last month, a young man from Graham pleaded guilty in Wake County to exactly the same charge as Carr but was given an active sentence of five weekends in jail for driving into a bicyclist and killing her while legally impaired. That’s how little a life is worth?

The cost is adding up. Drunken-driving fatalities increased in North Carolina last year more than in any other state, and in contrast to a national trend, the federal government reported in August. The total number of deaths was 487, 16 percent higher than in 2006. Nationally, the number fell by 4 percent. North Carolina was getting worse results despite having better laws.
A possible scandal in Johnston County could offer some explanation.

“The State Bureau of Investigation has seized dozens of files on dismissed impaired driving cases to examine for evidence of tampering,” The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday. A former assistant district attorney has been interviewed by the SBI and a deputy clerk of court has been suspended from her job as agents look at cases she might have handled.

An investigation doesn’t prove wrongdoing, but the possible implications are frightening. Leniency in sentencing is misguided, but tampering with DWI cases amounts to obstruction of justice. The people of North Carolina want drunken drivers kept off their streets and highways, and they expect the courts to make that happen when evidence of impaired driving allows.
This demands a high priority. Good for law-enforcement agencies that made 2,821 DWI arrests across the state in a special effort from Aug. 15 through Labor Day. How can so many drivers not know better?

Next, the courts should apply the law forcefully. Too many people are dying, sometimes by the car full.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

Two recent efforts in the Triad show a creative use of regionalism in building community.
First, there’s “Live United,” the regional 2008 campaign of seven Triad United Way agencies.

Instead of devising separate promotional campaigns, the United Ways of Greater Greensboro and Greater High Point joined with their counterparts in Alamance, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth and Rock­ingham counties in one campaign. It follows the lead of the national United Way in using its “Live United” focus and its three-pronged call to “Give. Advocate. Volunteer.” Besides being a better way to brand the United Way throughout the Triad, the effort also serves a practical function: It saves the agencies money on promotion.

The effort also is a call to do more in the Triad than just give. By supporting advocacy and volunteerism, the campaign encourages donors to engage themselves in their communities, whether it’s through voting or by helping at the local soup kitchen.

Encouraging community involvement is also key to a second regional effort now under way: the Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Arts. Salem College and the arts councils of Greater Greensboro, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County and High Point want to “improve life through art.” Initiative supporters have been holding meetings to provide and gather information on the concept. They also are creating an online registry of Triad arts endeavors that already are doing good. One group mentioned on their blog (pticommunity
arts.wordpress.com) is the Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute. It helps talented young people lacking support to develop writing and film skills and advance themselves.

In this city, it would seem the Greensboro Public Library’s “One City, One Book” events and UNCG’s public history projects, such as “Hear’s My Story: Senior Voices in Greensboro,” are registry contenders. And how about the artistic/ecological actions at the Elsewhere Collective?
The idea of using art for the public good isn’t new in Greensboro. Still, the Triad initiative is a welcome way to expand upon a worthy endeavor.

The College of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University announced Wednesday it plans to offer bone marrow transplants for dogs.

The procedures will cost about $15,000, AP reports.

This initiative conforms to the vision leading State's College of Veterinary Medcine to build the Randall B. Terry Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center, which will open next year. It's named for Randall Terry, the late High Point newspaper publisher/furniture showroom owner whose charitable foundation donated $20 million. Its total cost will be $72 million in state and private funds.

"The Terry Center will offer cutting-edge technologies for imaging, cardiac care, cancer treatments, internal medicine and surgery," the CVM says.

For pets.

Obviously, this allows significant advances in the care of creatures who are loved and loving members of many North Carolina families.

At the same time, it raises a nagging question: When so many people can't afford basic medical care, can spending so much for the advanced care of animals be justified?

To the extent people donate private funds for this cause, the issue is settled. When it comes to expenditures of public funds, a debate is appropriate.

Then there's the personal decision. Would you spend $15,000 for a medical procedure for your dog? When considering charitible giving, would you contribute to a fund that would help defray treatment costs for pet owners who couldn't afford bone marrow transplants for their dogs?

Friday''s lead editorial.

Military recruiters should be allowed the same access to students in North Carolina high schools as other employers, with some restrictions. A career in the armed forces is a valid option for young people, along with higher education, retail, manufacturing, public service or other possibilities.

A long-running dispute in Wilkes County, which could wind up in the state’s courts, stems from an antiwar activist’s efforts to claim equal time. She’s been denied access as a “counter recruiter,” someone who advises students to stay away from the military. The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union takes her side and might challenge her exclusion in court.

Sally Ferrell has been treated disrespectfully by school officials, reportedly being called unpatriotic. That’s unfair. The real issue is whether Ferrell deserves the same opportunity to communicate with students as military recruiters or representatives of other employers. “The students need to know there are alternatives to the military,” Ferrell has told the media.
She’s right. They need to hear from recruiters for colleges, businesses and other organizations.
Ferrell tells students about AmeriCorps and other ways they can serve their country without enlisting in the military. If she were an official representative of AmeriCorps, the schools should not refuse her access. But she’s not. Superintendent Stephen Laws said her mission isn’t to recruit students into an occupation but to push them away from the military. That doesn’t fit the purpose of a career fair.

There are more appropriate settings for political discussions. High schools ought to hold programs about U.S. foreign policy and the use of military force, including a wide variety of viewpoints. Such events would serve an important educational function.

When it comes to military recruiters, school officials should make sure accurate information is provided. Students shouldn’t be promised they won’t be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example. Furthermore, students should be free not to talk with recruiters. Schools also should allow parents to be present, if they choose, anytime their children speak to a military recruiter in school. Guilford County Schools properly requires parental permission before a student’s name or contact information can be given to military recruiters. Students never should be put at a disadvantage or pressured to enlist.

However, millions of Americans joined the armed forces after finishing high school and benefited from the experience. Their country certainly did. The military should be treated as one of many opportunities for high school students, not a threat to them.

Friday''s No. 2 editorial.

Smile, GTA bus riders, you’re on Candid Camera.

Come next spring, nearly all Greensboro Transit Authority buses will be equipped with surveillance cameras that continuously send sound and video for monitoring. That’s an improvement over the current in-bus units that record only if there’s an accident.

Some riders may complain about their privacy being invaded. However, keeping tabs on a city bus is no more invasive than the common practice of using security cameras to monitor customers in retail establishments, restaurants, banks and even the corner convenience store.
In some urban areas, police already check images from light-pole-mounted cameras that scan neighborhoods. And a recent consultant’s study of the Greensboro police suggests that the city upgrade surveillance efforts.
Although such technology has been helpful in fighting street crimes, persistent legal questions arise whenever private property becomes involved. For now, such intrusive big-city-style scrutiny probably can wait.

Yet protecting the safety of bus riders in a clearly defined space is another matter altogether. The fact that Greensboro police responded to 162 incidents on city buses last year justifies taking a closer look.

While most bus crimes aren’t serious, there can be notable exceptions. Two years ago, Durham experienced a spate of bus-related violence. One shooting suspect was arrested after police scanned on-bus videos.

If nothing else, monitoring should contribute to riders’ peace of mind. Additionally, having documentation protects the GTA from bogus claims of passenger injury should there be an accident. A snapshot of daily ridership volume might help with scheduling and routing as well.
Despite concerns, the heightened security that in-bus cameras offer should trump some riders’ unease.

Saturday's lead editorial.

There might have been a louder celebration at N.C. A&T when the Aggie football team broke a long losing streak last week, but the university’s biggest win came a few days later.

A&T was named an Engineering Research Center by the National Science Foundation Thursday. In football terms, it’s like going to a bowl game.

The center poses a triple-threat: education, research and industrial application. It promises to score big benefits for the university and Greensboro.

National Science Foundation funding — at least $18 million over the next five years — is just the beginning. It provides leverage to apply for other grants, N. Radhakrishnan, A&T’s vice chancellor for research, said Friday. Business investment could follow. A&T also will have to commit money of its own, but the payoff can be immense. The field of bioengineering is very lucrative, Radhakrishnan said: “That is where the action is.”

A&T will establish a department of bioengineering as part of the center, admitting its first undergraduate students next fall, master’s degree students the following year and doctoral and postdoctoral students in 2011. Radhakrishnan predicts it will become the largest department in A&T’s School of Engineering, with about 250 students.

Work will focus on the development of metallic biomaterials used in implants, cranial reconstruction and other revolutionary advances in medical technology. A&T’s primary partners in the project, the Universities of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, have schools of medicine and engineering and can provide expertise that A&T currently lacks. But A&T plans to catch up quickly. Its designation as a lead ERC will make it a “mecca for engineers,” Radhakrishnan said. A&T’s ability to lure top researchers and teachers also will be enhanced by its policy of splitting licensing fees from patented discoveries 50-50 with the faculty members responsible, a more generous arrangement than most universities offer. And, “absolutely there will be patents,” Radhakrishnan said.

Several companies already plan to work with the center on real-world applications for new technologies. With the federal funding comes an expectation that the program will become financially successful.

“They think we’ll have enough momentum to stand on our own. ... We are responsible to the NSF to deliver the goods,” Radhakrishnan said.

For A&T and Greensboro, the goods include an exciting program that draws bright students and creative faculty, the potential for highly skilled jobs and a national name for cutting-edge research.

That should inspire the football team to keep winning as well.

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

To most people, farmers’ markets mean “local.” People go to them to get produce that is grown in the surrounding area, not trucked in from hundreds of miles. They are places to find products made in the market’s region, not elsewhere.

In fact, the local aspect of farmers’ markets is their drawing card. People shop at these markets because they want to support local farmers and they want foods that are locally grown.
In a word, “local” is the farmers’ market brand.

Those running farmers’ markets, including the Greensboro Farmers’ Curb Market on Yanceyville Street, should be careful not to weaken the brand.

This notion should guide discussion on a policy the Greensboro market now is considering. If approved, it would allow a wider range of products to be sold there.

The policy would provide a way for existing vendors to sell food products not from the area. If such a product isn’t available in the area and they have a list of 50 people who would like to buy it, vendors would be able to petition the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which manages the market, to sell it.

This would allow vendors to sell things such as cheese made by the Amish in Ohio, which apparently some Greensboro farmers’ market customers want and can’t get.

The policy does set a high bar for selling such products. The products would have to meet state and local health codes and their source would have to be clearly marked. Still, it might be better not to adopt it.

The Greensboro market already allows a wider range of products to be sold than some other markets. It allows vendors from all of North Carolina and surrounding states, while some markets only allow vendors from their own county and the counties surrounding it. Why further compromise the Greensboro market’s “local” brand?

Sunday's editorial.

Slowly and silently, War Memorial Stadium is dying.

The lovable concrete-and-wood relic on Yanceyville Street is struggling to keep its feet as weather, neglect and age take their toll. Cracks and chips have spread on its walls and floors and some of its brightly painted folding seats have come unhinged.

We all knew the historic, city-owned facility was in bad shape. But not this bad.

The city’s original plans to keep the stadium intact and in use won’t be enough, engineers say. Even if the city invests an estimated $3 million to $4 million in the 82-year-old structure, that would buy it only another 10 to 15 years of life.

The stadium isn’t just a monument, by the way. It also hosts 200 baseball games a year as an invaluable Parks & Recreation Department venue. In addition, it is N.C. A&T’s home baseball field, as well as Greensboro College’s.

As importantly, it is viewed by residents of the Aycock Historic District as a centerpiece of their community and a key ingredient to revitalization there. If only warm feelings were dollar bills ... .

Hard choices
What now? For the hefty sum of as much as $4 million, the city could patch the cracks with makeshift fixes to buy time, but what would be the point?
Or the city could go to the voters again in a bond referendum, and ask them to invest in costly stadium upgrades. But they’ve said no twice before, and in a tight economy, the expenditure could be a hard sell.

What the city definitely should not do is demolish the storied ball field, which is one of the oldest in the country and which is dedicated to World War I veterans.

There is another option. What if we looked at the project as a ball park in the truest sense, not as a stadium? What if we kept and restored the historic facade but rebuilt the crumbling innards of War Memorial for a fraction of the cost restoration would entail?

And what if we redesigned the stadium’s interior not only as a place for college and recreational baseball games, with smaller, more intimate seating, but for outdoor concerts and community festivals?

City Councilman Robbie Perkins is pushing such a plan and sees it as the solution to several needs in the city. His idea: Use the $1.5 million already earmarked for stadium repairs toward those efforts. Pair the stadium upgrade with a bigger, better Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, which would move from across Yanceyville Street.

While he’s at it, Perkins should push to expand the boundaries of downtown to include the complex and the Aycock neighborhood as key attractions. This would officially bring one of the city’s most vibrant old neighborhoods into downtown. It also would help erase the invisible wall between downtown and east Greensboro.

'Grab things by the throat’Whatever expenses exceed the current money on hand, Perkins says, could be paid for with two-thirds bonds, which don’t require voter approval. Perkins believes the city needs to move fast on the plan and can’t afford to wait for another voter bond referendum. “This town will fail if we don’t start getting some things done,” Perkins said last week. “If you go down to Charlotte, they grab things by the throat and make ’em happen.”

Perkins has a point. But the buy-in approval at the polls could generate would be a healthier, if slower, approach. After all, what’s not to like?

Consider one unlikely pair of bedfellows who already say they like the concept.
“I’m tired of looking at the stadium as a single unit,” stadium proponent David Hoggard, who also is chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said last week. “The whole area needs to be looked at.”

“It would be used just as much if not more,” Joseph M. Bryan Foundation President Jim Melvin said of remaking War Memorial’s stands into a smaller configuration. Melvin spearheaded construction of the new downtown stadium, NewBridge Bank Park, which Hoggard opposed.
The total price tag would comprise a fraction of the cost of repairing the stadium as is. The signature facade and the tribute to veterans would remain. The Farmers Market, the Aycock neighborhood and downtown would benefit. The city could seize the chance to build community and a new park at the same time.

And suddenly, a worrisome old problem becomes a promising new opportunity.

What do you think of the vice presidential candidates?

Joe Biden. Sarah Palin. Your thoughts.

Another home run
The Grasshoppers closed with a victory last week and another banner year in attendance, drawing 10,103 fans to NewBridge Bank Park for their Labor Day finale.

The Hoppers just barely fell short (331 fans) of last year’s record attendance but led the South Atlantic League in total attendance anyway, attracting more than 440,787 fans.

The team has eclipsed the 440,000 mark in all four seasons it has played in its downtown park, defying conventional wisdom that attendance significantly dips after the novelty of a new stadium wears off.

There were other noteworthy successes:

-- hosting 8,367 fans for the South Atlantic All-Star Game in June;
-- capturing SAL General Manager of the Year honors for President and General Manager Don Moore for the fourth year in a row — and Community Relations Director of the Year honors for his daughter, Allison Moore.

Even though the team didn’t post a winning record on the field, center fielder Mike Stanton, 18, still was dazzling and became the youngest U.S.-based pro player to hit 35 or more homers in a season since at least 1962.

All in all, a grand old season for the grand old game in Greensboro.

The best-dressed kids
Guilford school administrators can’t explain it, but “sameness” seems to be “in” this year. Ho-hum Standard Mode of Dress rules are catching on.

Not only are most students complying with those rules, but administrators say they see a positive difference, so far, in student behavior.

Six of the system’s schools have added SMOD policies, bringing the total to 36.
Rules vary from school to school, but the typical outfit pairs shirts and pants and sets modest limits on skirt lengths.

Rather than a conformity comeback, the dress code may be helpful because it levels the sartorial playing field for students who, for whatever reasons, used to feel left out.

As one school staffer noted, “I don’t completely understand it, but if it works, who cares why?”

From balloons to goats
We had just finished watching the longest balloon drop in history at the GOP Convention Thursday night when we changed channels only to find Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow talking on The History Channel about the mysterious death of his goats.

Yow was featured in an episode of “MonsterQuest.” The spot, titled “Vampire Beast,” apparently first aired earlier this summer. It investigates the killing of animals by a creature that has been found in a swath running from southeastern North Carolina up to Guilford County. The beast attacks animals’ necks but otherwise doesn’t mangle the animals it kills, hence the “vampire” designation.

But the creature might not be so spooky after all. The show ends with the speculation that it’s some type of big cat, or cats, making these kills. It shows a cell phone photo supposedly taken at one Carolina site of a cat that looks like an eastern cougar.

So is that the vampire beast?

Or since the cougar has supposedly been killed off in this part of the country, could it be a close cousin? Some speculate that exotic pets, including big cats, escape or are released into the wild and roam rural areas.

Whatever it was on the show, it’s probably still out there. Someone from Liberty in Randolph County posted recently on the Internet that animals in that area also are mysteriously being killed.

Tuesday's lead editorial.

Gov. Mike Easley pushed hard during his tenure to raise North Carolina teachers' salaries to the national average, but didn't quite get there.

The next governor should take a fresh approach. Reaching a moving target like the national average isn't an end in itself. More important is figuring out how to relate teachers' pay to students' success.

Some local school systems, like Guilford County's, already have taken steps in that direction by providing bonuses for outstanding teachers willing to teach certain subjects and in certain schools. The policy recognizes a connection between compensation and desired educational outcomes.

Now a Duke University economist suggests further steps. North Carolina isn't getting the best results from the way it rewards teachers, Jacob Vigdor, associate professor of public policy studies and economics, writes in Education Next published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The state pays beginning teachers too little and some others too much, Vigdor contends. He's not impressed with practices that grant higher salaries for advanced degrees and national certification, or even the schedule that keeps teachers from reaching the top salary level until they're ready to retire.

"The available evidence suggests that the connection between credentials and teaching effectiveness is very weak at best and the connection between additional years of experience and teaching effectiveness, while substantial in the first few years in the classroom, attenuates over time," he writes.

His proposal: Save money paid for credentials and use it to substantially raise salaries for beginning teachers, and then give them steep increases for their next few years.

That would attract more young people to the profession and help them keep up with their peers in other occupations, who often approach peak earning levels by their mid-30s, Vigdor says. That links pay to proficiency, he adds, because teachers tend to improve their effectiveness most rapidly in their first few years. Then slow down pay raises later when teachers' impact on student achievement shows more modest gains.

That's one researcher's opinion. It's not without flaws. For one, Vigdor's model wouldn't apply to every teacher. But it warrants debate anyway, along with other proposals, like higher pay for tough assignments. All ideas should be on the table, without regard to opposition from vested interests.

It's common in professions where compensation depends on merit for relatively young men and women to match their elders in salary -- professional sports, for example.

That approach probably is too radical for the public sector, but imagine the possibilities if, instead of paying average teachers the average salary, the state's goal was to pay the best teachers the best salaries, even if they were only in their 30s. Maybe that would pay off most for students.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

It’s as hard now as it was a year ago to understand why Greensboro College and the Warnersville community can’t come to terms over the college’s planned sports complex on the old Price School campus.

This ought to be a winning proposition all around: a new facility for the college, some kind of tangible, lasting tribute to historic Price School, and productive partnerships between the college and the community.

But, judging from the comments of protesters, who picketed the college last week, it won’t come easily. The roots of distrust run deep.

So does the proud history of Warnersville, which was settled by ex-slaves, and Price School, which was founded in 1922.
Some residents not only question the plans of Greensboro College, which bought the Price campus in 2005, they seem to want no part of them. “I still feel that everything that Greensboro College is doing is wrong,” Otis Hairston Jr. told the News & Record’s J. Brian Ewing.

But which is the better future for the site: sports practices and games? Or the silence and darkness of an abandoned lot, which could breed crime?

Meanwhile, not everyone in Warnersville speaks with the same voice. “I think it has a lot of good possibilities, for helping the youth, for helping to preserve the history,” James Griffin, president of the Warnersville Historical and Beautification Society, said of the college’s plans. Unfortunately, a two-hour meeting last week between the protesters and Greensboro College President Craven Williams failed to break the impasse.

Williams’ efforts appear sincere. But more concrete ideas on how Price School might be honored as part of the sports complex’s design would help his cause.

For their part, the protesters shouldn’t accuse the college of racism while sneering that “a white school” shouldn’t be part of their neighborhood.

Finally, even as they continue to disagree, at least the parties keep talking. And that’s reason still to be hopeful.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just said that it supports raising the driving age to 17 or 18. Data show that 16- and 17-year-olds have a disporportionate share of auto accidents. Sixteen-year-olds' accident rate is about TEN times as high as that for the 30-59 age group.

Is it youth or just inexperience?

We're writing an editorial right now on the topic. Tell us your comments before 4 p.m. and they might be included in tomorrow's editorial.

Wednesday's No. 1 editorial.

The debate on graduated drivers’ licenses is long over. People have seen that phasing in driving privileges for younger drivers is a good idea that has reduced crash rates for the youngest drivers.

But widespread support in this country for graduated licenses didn’t happen overnight. It took longer than a decade from when an influential safety group first supported the concept until the first state — Florida — passed legislation for graduated licenses. It then took several more years for most other states, including North Carolina, to follow suit.

Now that same group — the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — has stepped up in support of another measure that would reduce crash rates and traffic-related deaths. It recommended Tuesday at a meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Association in Scottsdale, Ariz., that states raise the minimum driving age to 17 or 18.

The idea is sound. But how long will it take this time for the public — and state legislators — to act?

The organization didn’t come by its recommendation lightly. It made it only after an extensive review of research. A key aspect of its study centered on examining this question: Do the high crash rates of young drivers result from age or from inexperience?

A review of 11 studies concerning traffic rates and ages of new drivers determined that age was the deciding factor: Teens who are older when they begin driving have lower crash rates than 16-year-olds who get behind the wheel.

Much of the research centered on New Jersey because it is the state with the highest driving age: 17.

But look outside the nation, and there also are studies warning against letting younger teens drive.

For example, the Australian state of Victoria decided to keep its driving age of 18 after researchers estimated that lowering the driving age to 17 or 16 would result in hundreds of additional crashes, even if a graduated license program were adopted.

Indeed, many other countries are not as lenient as the United States when it comes to driving.
The United Kingdom requires drivers to be 17. Brazil, China, Russia and most European Union nations make 18 the age for first drivers.

The higher age limits seem prudent. Research has shown that 16-year-olds are involved in crashes at a rate almost 10 times as high as those between the ages of 30 and 59.
Sure, it’s convenient for parents to hand the car keys over when a child turns 16. But it’s a convenience that is far too costly.

Car crashes are the No. 1 cause of teen death. Let’s protect our youth by making them wait until 17 to drive.

Thursday's lead editorial.

Seven years after the worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, Americans will remember the more than 2,700 killed and the thousands wounded on Sept. 11, 2001, their families and the many who worked heroically that day and for months following the attacks.

Once again, the names of the victims will be read. Once again, the horrifying images of that day — the crowds running from billowing smoke clouds, the twin towers collapsing, the gaping hole in the Pentagon, the stark field in Pennsylvania — will be seen.

Each of us will have our own way of remembering. Some will say a prayer. Others may tell the 9/11 story to those who were too young to remember much from that day. Some memories may be through donations, whether of money, blood or of services.

Campaigning will come to a halt today as both presidential candidates attend ceremonies at ground zero in New York City. “All of us came together on 9/11 — not as Democrats or as Republicans but as Americans,” Barack Obama and John McCain said in a joint statement. “On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity.”

Our next president will need such unity, as he faces the problems facing our nation seven years after 9/11.

The United States is no closer to capturing al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden than it was the day his followers flew their planes into the Pentagon and twin towers. Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, gave a blunt assessment on the likelihood of capturing the elusive terrorist, who may — or may not be — hiding in mountainous Pakistan: “Our options are terrible,” he told The Washington Post. “The new president will inherit a fish that is really starting to smell.”

Whoever wins in November, our next president will have to focus on Afghanistan — from finding bin Laden to dealing with the growing violence orchestrated by those aligned with a re-emerging Taliban. President Bush recently announced a 15 percent increase in U.S. troops for that country while also announcing an 8,000-troop withdrawal from Iraq by early 2009. Our next president is likely to make similar troop moves, shifting attention from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Another likely act is to appoint a person to coordinate efforts against weapons of mass destruction. That is what the bipartisan Partnership for a Secure America has recommended. Led by former members of the 9/11 Commission, the partnership warns that “a nuclear, chemical or biological weapon in the hands of terrorists remains the single greatest threat to our nation.” A Cabinet-level coordinator would be able to mesh the counterproliferation actions of some dozen agencies, helping to set priorities and create an overall strategy.

Ultimately, any winning strategy must be based on turning U.S. enemies into friends. Our next president must take actions that lead to fewer, not more, Islamic militants and sympathizers. That is the best defense against another 9/11.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial..

As 9/11 proved, heroes are made in a heartbeat.

If only we could thank them half as fast.

U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge had that in mind when he sponsored legislation in 2003 to benefit survivors of first responders who die from job-related stress. The bill passed overwhelmingly and was signed into law by President Bush.

But getting the Hometown Heroes Survivor Benefit Act to actually work has been another story altogether.

The law is designed to require survival benefits to families of law enforcement personnel and firefighters who die from strokes or heart attacks connected with their work. But thanks to foot-dragging within the Justice Department and added layers of paperwork, the benefits process has been slow and tedious.

The Justice Department admitted as much in its own report that found the department took close to three years to create rules for the new law. That forced families to wait for benefits to which they were legally entitled.

Once those rules finally had been established, the report found even more problems, among them

-- claims filed without the necessary documentation;

--requests for additional documentation when it wasn’t needed;

-- and a lack of any standards for the timeliness of internal reviews.

Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat, was irritated even further this week by revised rules for the program, which add paperwork and could reduce the number of workers who are eligible for benefits. One of the rule changes would provide benefits for officers who die during mandatory training exercises — but not during voluntary training.

What kind of reward is that for motivation and initiative?

“It was not the intent of Congress to have bereaved families jump through hoops to get a benefit they deserve,” Etheridge wrote in exasperation to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Indeed. For all the appreciation we say we feel for these vital workers and their families, how about showing them?

Friday's lead editorial.

It’s often hard for victims of domestic violence to come to terms with their situation. Adding to victims’ problems is the bureaucracy that confronts them when trying.

But the way will become easier for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Alamance County. It is creating a family justice center.

Family justice centers consolidate services for domestic abuse victims. Representatives of public departments and private and nonprofit agencies work in collaboration under one roof.
San Diego, Calif., houses the nation’s first family justice center. In 2003, George W. Bush began the President’s Family Justice Center Initiative, a pilot program based on the California center that has provided $20-plus million to U.S. communities. That, along with additional federal funding, has led to centers in more than 30 communities, with 30 more under development.

The Safe on Seven Domestic Violence Center in Winston-Salem, which opened in 2005, provides “one-stop” support for domestic abuse victims in Forsyth County.

The Alamance center will house more than 30 workers. They will come from the county’s health, sheriff’s and social service departments, the Burlington Police Department, the county’s district attorney’s and magistrate’s offices and from agencies that handle family abuse, sexual abuse and legal aid. Center clients will be able to be examined, talk to law enforcement, apply for a restraining order and benefits and receive psychological and legal counseling — and have their children cared for while doing these things.

The county will provide a building for the center, and the Governor’s Crime Commission is funneling $100,000 of federal money into it. Public and private nonprofits and a foundation also are providing money.

Obviously, family justice centers reduce stress for abuse victims. But they have other benefits. They are correlated with a reduction in homicide rates. (San Diego’s domestic violence homicide rate has declined and is now one of the lowest for a major city.) Centers also reduce “recantation” rates: Abuse victims served by family justice centers aren’t as likely to take back testimony.

Would a family justice center be good for Guilford? “Absolutely,” says Julie Avery, victim advocacy program coordinator at Family Service of the Piedmont. “Guilford County could benefit from a program like this, without a doubt.”

A first step, says Avery, would be to create a community domestic violence task force to bring together county representatives from the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Interested in participating? Contact Avery at Family Service (387-6161).

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

The most expensive project listed on the Guilford County school bond referendum in May was a new airport-area high school: $72 million, plus $8.5 million for an autism wing, according to a county fact sheet.

Not everyone thinks it should cost that much: “For $80 million, you ought to be able to build two high schools, nice ones,” Commissioner Steve Arnold said Wednesday.

The amount is roughly twice as much as what it cost to build Northern High, which opened this year.

Maybe the price is coming down. Guilford County Schools’ Web site puts the expected cost at $56.8 million, plus $6.9 million for the autism wing, a total of roughly $64 million. That doesn’t include the cost of land, but land costs for all projects, including the new high school, are estimated at $6.7 million.

Holding the price under $70 million sounds better than $80 million, which could be a new record for a high school in North Carolina.

The cost has been discussed by the school system’s Construction Advisory Committee chaired by school board member Darlene Garrett. She’s said bond figures were inflated, and “we know schools can be built for less.”

The view is endorsed by Amos Quick, another school board member of the CAC: “We can find examples, lots of them, of schools being built for less than this, considerably less,” he said Wednesday.

Garrett and Quick should keep up the pressure. Paying back $457 million in school bonds will cost taxpayers dearly. Savings will spare them some pain, or allow the schools to complete more projects for the money.

The worst that can happen, Arnold said, is for the school board to take the attitude that voters “gave them the authority to spend $80 million to build an airport-area high school and that’s what they’re going to do.”

Construction costs are rising, but not so much that an $80 million price for one school is acceptable. The facility should be designed on a more modest scale to hold the cost to a reasonable amount. And leaders determined to keep a cap on costs should not let down their guard.

ABC stores are establishments of the state of North Carolina.

So why is the Guilford County Board of Education opposed to one next to a school?

Is it because kids will buy liquor between classes? Or just hang out with the drunks in the parking lot?

Not likely. ABC stores are better run than that. They check IDs at the door and don't let individuals younger than 21 even enter, according to Katie Alley, the director of Greensboro's ABC system.

Can that be said about the nearby gas station/convenience stores that sell beer, wine and cigarettes?

We think the school board is overreacting. What's your view?

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

The Board of Education objects to an ABC store moving next to a school. Why? Because students will buy liquor and hang out with drunks? Those things don’t happen at ABC stores, which are well-run state establishments.

Greensboro ABC supervisor Katie Alley said Friday she was “taken aback” by the school board’s 10-0 vote Thursday to oppose relocation of a store on Pisgah Church Road to a site next to the SCALE alternative school. “We thought we had it worked out.”

Alley said she met with school officials to explain safeguards. Those include well-trained staff members with clean records, strict procedures to avoid selling to underage or intoxicated customers, employment of off-duty police officers and private security guards on premises and cameras that watch “every corner of the store and every part of the property.”

Store personnel check identification at the door when appropriate and keep out individuals who aren’t 21, Alley added. The ABC system also provides educational programs in the schools and offered to tailor a specific program for SCALE students.

Private purveyors of alcoholic beverages typically don’t go that far to be good neighbors. And an ABC store would not be the only neighbor. Two gas station/convenience stores a short walk from the SCALE facility sell beer, wine and cigarettes, Alley said.

“I have concerns about the behaviors that will be around an ABC store,” Superintendent Mo Green said at Thursday’s school board meeting.

These are the behaviors: Adults drive into the parking lot, enter the store, make purchases if they choose and there’s no reason to deny them, return to their cars and drive away.

The purpose of a state-run ABC system is to avoid the “behaviors” associated with liquor stores in other states. It works. There’s no reason why the N.C. ABC Commission should bow to the school board’s objection.

Saturday's lead editorial.

Greensboro isn’t the only city in the state that sees shady paths in its future.
Several Triangle governments also are considering a greenway that spans nearly six times the distance of the one planned for downtown Greensboro.

The Triangle greenway would cover 28 miles along the Neuse River at a total cost of $29 million. Greensboro’s would cover 4.8 miles for $26 million.

That translates to more than $5.4 million per mile in Greensboro versus slightly more than $1 million per mile in Wake County.

What’s up with that?

For one thing, most of the land involved in the Wake County trail is located in suburban areas. In Greensboro, it’s in and near the center city. “When you go into the woods to build a project, you don’t deal with underground utilities,” says Chuck Flink, a Durham-based greenway expert. By contrast, Flink says, the Neuse River trail is a “riparian,” or stream-based, trail that does not contain those kinds of challenges and obstacles.

Greensboro’s greenway will involve remaking railroad right-of-way and a major reworking of the width and traffic flow of Murrow Boulevard, Flink says. Trip Brown, a member of the Downtown Greenway steering committee, says 40 to 50 percent of the total $26 million price tag entails work on 25 intersections, plus art, lighting, benches, bike racks, landscaping and a series of public parks, including a “linear park” on Murrow Boulevard.

Brown says paving the actual trail itself is among the least of the expenses, an estimated $2.8 million, or less than 10 percent. Street improvements comprise 42 percent.

Flink, meanwhile, points out that a fairer comparison would be the 15-mile Little Sugar Creek Greenway in uptown Charlotte. The urban leg of that project alone will cost $43 million for 2.2 miles. That comes to $19.5 million per mile.

“It’s more than a typical greenway,” says Gwen Cook, the Charlotte greenway’s lead planner. Cook noted the costs of moving buildings and parking lots.

Are greenways worth that kind of money? Greensboro voters will decide on Nov. 4 when they say yes or no to a $134 million transportation bond that includes $7 million for the greenway.
Triangle and Charlotte leaders certainly seem sold on their paths. Triangle Transit Authority Chairman Sig Hutchinson refers to the greenway project there as an “emerald necklace” and the Wake County commissioners are expected to approve their share of the funding enthusiastically. Charlotte’s greenway isn’t even finished yet and already has spurred a $300 million development that contains condominiums and shops.

“Already, we’re seeing a three-to-one return on dollars spent,” Cook says.

The Charlotte and Wake projects also have been able to attract state and federal money. The Wake project includes $500,000 in federal funds.

Greensboro boosters cite similar benefits for the planned greenway here, and cite credible studies as proof.

Good. The more we know the better. To make the most informed decision on Nov. 4, voters need a clear idea of the costs, context and potential payoffs.
Then they can choose the best path to take on Election Day.

Has the Internet changed your life? If so, how?

Sunday's editorial.

The leading candidates for North Carolina’s top political offices surprisingly agree on one of the hottest topics of the campaign season.

And they all could be wrong.

Democrat Beverly Perdue and Republican Pat McCrory, running for governor; and Republican Elizabeth Dole and Democrat Kay Hagan, vying for the U.S. Senate, all support steps that could lead to oil and natural gas drilling off the state’s coast.

Perdue, Dole and Hagan have changed their views in recent months. All voiced strong opposition to the prospect but turned around — in response to high energy costs or to conform to public opinion, take your pick.

Congress is moving the same way. After a long moratorium, lawmakers this week are likely to expand opportunities for offshore drilling, putting North Carolina in play. The most popular proposal would let states make the decision regarding drilling in waters 50 to 100 miles off their beaches.

Dole and Hagan endorse that plan. Not content to be agreeable, though, they’ve attacked each other on charges of financial entanglements with the oil industry — not a helpful discourse for voters who can’t relate to the investment strategies of wealthy politicians.

McCrory pushes the most aggressive pro-drilling position, predicting economic benefits for the state, and endlessly scolds Perdue for her lack of similar clarity. She says, as governor, she’d listen to advice from scientists before deciding whether it’s safe to allow drilling in waters off North Carolina’s coast, which she invariably refers to as “the Graveyard of the Atlantic.” If he’s governor, McCrory should heed expert counsel, as well, to ensure he makes an informed decision.

Another voice
The only candidate for governor not mindful of public opinion is Libertarian Mike Munger, a Duke University economics professor. He calls the offshore drilling issue a “gimmick” that won’t impact oil prices and says resources should be applied to the development of alternative energy.
Munger, with nothing to lose politically, is the candidate delivering straight talk about drilling.
It’s not a gimmick, however, that tens of billions of barrels of oil lie untapped beneath U.S. coastal waters. Vast amounts of natural gas remain to be exploited. Extraction becomes more economically feasible as world prices climb. This year’s debate was fueled when gasoline topped $4 a gallon at the pump.

Costs and benefits
McCrory argues that oil and natural gas exploration would spawn a lucrative new industry in coastal counties from Day 1. Revenue from leases would flow straight to state government, funding road projects and other needs. And thousands of private-sector jobs would be gained.
Adding to the nation’s energy supplies also would hold down prices, reduce dependence on foreign sources and give the country more time to develop affordable new energy technologies, proponents say. How much is debatable.

Costs can’t be discounted. The apparatus of the oil industry, including refineries and pipelines, isn’t compatible with the North Carolina coast. Possible environmental damage must be carefully assessed. So should the potential impact on fishing and tourism, two traditional economic mainstays. What’s the gain if $1 in oil or gas revenue replaces $2 in income from other sources? And there are still unknowns, including the extent of protected deep-sea coral formations off our coast that could limit areas open to drilling.

Priority on alternatives
Candidates and policymakers should level with the public about all the contingencies surrounding a complex subject. Anyone who answers the drilling question yes or no hasn’t thought about it enough. Better responses should begin with “Yes, if ...” or “No, unless ... .”
Then, subsequent conversation should include a listing of other ideas for meeting North Carolina’s and the nation’s energy needs. Conservation, efficiency, solar, wind, biofuels, nuclear, clean coal and other sources all should be part of the mix for the short or long term.
None of the candidates is staking everything on offshore drilling, fortunately, although they sometimes give that impression by venting so much steam about it.

Now it’s time for them to shift their focus to the energy issues that are more likely to power North Carolina’s future. Sell the voters on new ideas. That’s the test of leadership.

Fair outcome to pay-raise caper
The University of North Carolina Board of Governors found a sensible solution Friday to the problem of Mary Easley’s pay raise.

N.C. State created a special position for the wife of Gov. Mike Easley a few years ago, and this summer gave her new responsibilities and a much larger salary: $170,000, up from $90,000.
It looked like favoritism, and also violated UNC system rules, which require Board of Governors authorization for such unusual increases.

The board could have said no, but that would have embarrassed N.C. State leaders and the Easleys.

More wisely, the board agreed to the raise with modifications: $55,250 of her salary will come from nonstate funds, and she will work 12 months rather than nine. The taxpayers will get more for their money. Under the circumstances, it’s a fair outcome.

Can you hear me now?
To those who consider snapping cell phone videos, anytime, anywhere, an inalienable right, here’s fair warning: You might wind up searching for a clear signal on that phone behind bars.
Cumberland County District Court Judge Robert Stiehl last week sentenced a man to 18 months probation for taking a video during a domestic violence hearing. A witness said something entertaining, said the man, Jaime Cornelius Brown, so he started recording.

Stiehl was not amused.

Photos or recordings in court aren’t allowed without a judge’s permission, so he imposed $421 in fines and court costs and had the phone seized. Brown plans to appeal and complained he wasn’t aware he shouldn’t have been shooting the video.

But in some cases, people just ought to know better. Shooting video for entertainment value during a domestic violence trial is not only inappropriate, it’s dumb.

Candidates take the low road
Bev Perdue laughs off a negative TV ad, saying she wishes the actress portraying her had better hair.

Hooray for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s sense of humor, but the tone of campaigns in North Carolina is becoming seriously sickening. Victims include not only Perdue but her Republican opponent, Pat McCrory, and U.S. Senate contenders Elizabeth Dole and Kay Hagan.

Attack ads are characterized by unflattering photos of the target and misleading or false charges. But the public, denied helpful discourse, is also victimized.

Some of the attacks come from outside, third-party organizations with vested interests. The candidates say they have no control. That’s hard to believe. At the very least, they could publicly scold these surrogates and ask them to stop. Otherwise, before long it will hurt too much to laugh.

Children’s Museum grows up?
It’s great hearing about the Greensboro Children’s Museum expansion plans — and even better to hear that an edible garden and four-story treehouse are part of them. These additions should help attract the attention of ’tweens, an often-overlooked age group by creators of children’s activities.

The treehouse was mentioned back in 2001 as a good exhibit for a possible “tween museum.”
Parents of children 10 and up know their kids still like to climb on playground structures but that the equipment in lots of parks isn’t challenging enough. Let’s hope the treehouse better meets their needs.

The edible garden should present another type of challenge: Children would have the opportunity to develop gardening, ecological and cooking skills. That would make the museum experience not just fun, but an introduction to practical knowledge for a lifetime.

Tuesday's lead editorial.

A teenage sex offender was removed from a custodial treatment facility because he's an illegal immigrant and no one would pay.

The question of who gets to enroll in community college has sparked more debate, but this case touches on bigger concerns. Public safety is at stake.

The juvenile, identified as "D.G." in court proceedings, admitted to a first-degree sex offense in Burke County three years ago. He was 15. The victim was a 5-year-old boy.

A District Court judge ordered D.G. placed in a residential sex-offender treatment program run by the Burke County Department of Social Services. County officials worried about the $128,000-a-year cost, but a counselor for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice assured the court that state funds were available despite D.G.'s status as an illegal alien.

A few months later, D.G.'s case was back in court. The county had been advised that D.G. was not a "qualified alien" under federal law and could not receive government funds for residential treatment. The judge revised his order, this time committing D.G. to a state youth development center indefinitely, but not past his 19th birthday.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's ruling, although Judge Jim Wynn dissented. Case records did not include evidence that D.G. was ineligible for treatment, Wynn wrote.

The case can be appealed to the state Supreme Court, which might have grounds to overrule. A 2007 article by Jill Moore, associate professor of public law at the Institute of Government in Chapel Hill, noted that federal law prohibiting services for "nonqualified aliens" allows exceptions for mental-health treatment and programs "necessary for the protection of life or safety." Trying to defuse the impulses that led D.G. to sexually attack a 5-year-old child ought to qualify. Besides, how can public funds cover the cost of incarceration at a youth development center but not a treatment facility?

William Lassiter, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice, said treatment for young sex offenders has a good chance of success. While the department can offer limited treatment, he added, "A youth development center is not the best placement for a kid with mental-health disorders."

Yet, state law gives the department the option of asking the court to allow placement in an appropriate treatment facility. That apparently was not done in this case.

Another option, because D.G. has turned 18, might be to turn him over to federal authorities for possible deportation. Lassiter declined to say whether the Department of Juvenile Justice would do that. Nor is there any guarantee of deportation anyway.

The matter of D.G. is complicated and confusing, but cases like this should be handled with the public interest in mind. For a juvenile sex offender, the best course is to provide treatment in hopes his dangerous behavior can be corrected. Immigration status should not be considered. Denying treatment on the grounds that D.G. didn't have a legal right to live

in this country didn't make sense because D.G. was living here, and it would be foolish to assume that would change.

It's clear the courts didn't know what to do with D.G. Does anyone? The state should find some answers, with public safety in mind.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

The Sheetz gas station at 5421 Hornaday Road raised its price for regular Monday - to $3.79 a gallon from $3.65, where it had stood all weekend.

After a very busy day Friday, traffic settled down to normal, an attendant said. The station was resupplied and keeping up with demand.

So what's with prices spiking way beyond $4, or even $5 at some locations in the Triad and across North Carolina? That's what motorists, Gov. Mike Easley and N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper want to know.

Friday, the governor declared a state of "abnormal market disruption" because of the potential impact of Hurricane Ike on refineries in Texas. Fortunately, disruptions turned out to be slight. Anticipation alone caused trouble, and price-gouging complaints flooded into Cooper's office. He's investigating, but he might find the real enemy is us.

While Easley and Cooper urged motorists to avoid panic buying, many heard other messages. The idea that people needed to get out and fill up took hold Friday, prompting a run on gas stations that made the problems of supply and demand much worse. Strangely enough, North Carolina was one of the states most affected by this phenomenon of fright. The average price of regular gas was 24 cents per gallon higher here than the national average, AAA said Monday.

It's time to settle down and practice sensible conservation to counteract Ike's minor effect on supplies. Giving in to gas-gouging is foolish, especially when it's largely self-inflicted.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

State engineers have devised a clever solution to the noisy western leg of Greensboro’s new Urban Loop: Reroute the traffic.

In other words, change the signs so that I-40 traffic no longer flows onto the loop, which has become so loud that it has driven those living next to it to near rebellion. Those vehicles will be redirected the way they once went, before the loop was built, along the original path of I-40.
This wouldn’t be the first time someone found the right answers in a road less traveled.

As for the early reviews, state Board of Transportation Chairman Doug Galyon said he received a phone call Monday from a neighbor of the new western loop. “She just called to say thank you,” Galyon said.

In recent months, Galyon hadn’t heard much gratitude from that neck of the woods, where residents complained about the constant rumble of trucks and cars and sleepless nights. But that was then.

Now, by adjusting the appropriate signs, engineers will divert I-40 traffic from the loop to the old I-40, reducing the flow of cars and trucks there and the noise that comes with it. State DOT officials studied the impact of the change and discovered it would have no negative long-term impact on safety or traffic flow. “Our principal concern was safety through the valley,” Galyon said, referring to the notorious stretch of highway called “Death Valley” because of the rash of accidents there over the years.

But when the eastern segment of the Urban Loop is complete, Galyon said, it should divert enough of that traffic to keep the levels safe.

A fringe benefit of the shift is that it should ease confusion as well as noise. Befuddled drivers often take the wrong exit in search of the way through, or around, Greensboro.

The signs should be switched by winter. In addition, Galyon said, the state Department of Transportation intends to fulfill its commitment for more landscaping as an additional buffer between homes and traffic.

As for the pitched debate that preceded this latest move, there are some important lessons to be learned.

Foremost is that local and DOT officials should communicate the potential impact of new road construction more often, more loudly and more clearly. That goes for Realtors and city leaders, too.

Galyon agrees, noting the mistaken impressions many homeowners held that the new road was going to be a tree-lined parkway, not an interstate highway.
“We followed the letter of the law,” Galyon said. “We had a public hearing in which this was all spelled out in detail.”

But Galyon now acknowledges that the “letter of the law” wasn’t enough.

As other sections of the Urban Loop are completed, that’s a lesson well worth remembering.

The northern loop will cut a swath through even more densely populated areas.

We will pass this way again.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

The National School Lunch Program is widely accepted and used as a poverty marker. A school’s enrollment figures for free and reduced lunches determine whether it receives Title I funds. Enrollment figures also are used to assess whether a school’s low-income students have met the yearly goals of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Some districts use the figures to help determine school assignments. Business and community organizations use the numbers to decide how to direct charitable giving.

In short, the numbers’ importance goes far beyond the lunch program. So you would think it would be OK to ensure they are accurate. Yet an attempt to do just that was recently deep-sixed by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board. Its members feared that the district would lose federal lunch monies if it conducted a random audit of the lunch program to determine if users had cheated on their applications.

Some board members had a valid reason for wanting the audit. The district already had conducted a specialized audit of families with reported incomes close to the eligibility cutoffs, which is required annually by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It couldn’t verify the eligibility of 60 percent of those audited. Naturally, with such a large percentage unable to be verified, some board members wanted to expand the investigation.

But finally they put the kibosh on it because of fear it would jeopardize the district’s lunch funds. The superintendent’s staff had gathered contradictory information about whether the federal government would allow such an audit. The ax came down when a state official in charge of doling out the funds said the district wouldn’t get them if it went against what the feds wanted.

This red-tape mess resembles the one Alamance County became tangled up in earlier this summer when a fraud investigation there involving federal money turned up complex and contradictory federal regulations.

Congressional candidates, are you listening? The red tape has got to be unraveled. Local governments want to spend federal money responsibly. Can you take action to help them?

Thursday's lead editorial.

For the nearly 500 local United Guaranty Corp. workers and Greensboro, the last-minute government bailout of parent American International Group Inc. is a welcome reprieve. And, ultimately, both could benefit from it.

Had AIG filed for bankruptcy as expected earlier Tuesday, the picture would have been much bleaker. As it stands, there’s optimism that the $85 billion, two-year loan from the Federal Reserve Bank will allow the troubled financial giant to survive, albeit in a truncated form.
How that might affect United Guaranty is anybody’s guess. Financial analysts predict AIG will pay back the government loan by selling off assets and that could put United Guaranty squarely on the auction block anyway.

But as a highly marketable property, the firm likely would attract suitors interested in capitalizing on a well-trained work force and dominant brand identity. Analysts say it would not be a fire sale liquidation.

The scenario looks quite different from the demise of other corporate citizens here that disappeared, merged or survive as a shadow of what they once were. Although it’s way too early to predict an outcome, United Guaranty’s corporate leadership and employees — in some form — should remain an ongoing asset to the city.

Yet there’s no way to overlook the firm’s $971 million in losses during the first six months of this year. As a mortgage lender, it buckled under an unprecedented number of defaults on bad loans as the nation’s housing industry went into meltdown. To help stem those losses, the firm recently raised premiums to more accurately reflect risk factors.

Looking ahead can be difficult when confidence is shaken by a falling stock market and rising bankruptcies. But it also can be an opportune time for corporate expansion.

Charlotte-based Bank of America has done just that by acquiring Wall Street investment icon Merrill Lynch for $50 billion. Whether it paid too much remains to be seen.

However, the acquisition allows BOA to branch out from being a dominant player in the nation’s consumer banking industry to having a ready-made, forceful presence in the highly competitive stock investment sector.

But for most Americans spooked by Wall Street’s gyrations, the most relevant issue is seeing 401(k) and retirement plans shrink. Heeding advice to stay the course is a challenge.
They want and deserve to hear from presidential candidates McCain and Obama more than the usual, shop-worn panaceas for a faltering economy.

With Wall Street and Main Street closer than ever before, it’s time to clearly and honestly address the nation’s economic downturn.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

An influential state legislator buys more than 300 acres of land in a prime location — near a proposed exit off a planned new highway in his home county.

A highway that he is using the powers of his office to get built.

Somehow that’s not a conflict of interest, according to the attorney who advises state lawmakers on ethics issues.

If lawyer Walker Reagan is correct — and he’s the expert — the public can have very little confidence in the integrity of North Carolina’s ethics laws.

The legislator is state Sen. David Hoyle, a respected Gaston County Democrat, Finance Committee co-chairman and third-most-effective senator in a survey by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.

His real-estate investment could pay off handsomely with the creation of the Garden Parkway, a project of the N.C. Turnpike Authority. Hoyle has promoted the new road and voted to approve state funding for part of its cost.

If he could benefit financially from the outcome of legislation he supports, why isn’t that a conflict? Reagan said Hoyle would not receive a special benefit unavailable to other landowners, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Indeed, state law says a legislator is not using his public position for private gain if the advantage is no greater than what any other citizen would or could realize.
In Hoyle’s case, that apparently means anyone could purchase land that would increase in value if the state happened to build a highway next to it. Therefore, Hoyle won’t earn a profit someone else couldn’t.

But is that the logic state law should affirm? The statute seems to excuse benefits of a more general nature: cutting the income tax, for example. In this situation, Hoyle’s position isn’t like that of other landowners because only he is a member of the legislature with the power to influence whether the highway will be constructed.

If the law doesn’t see a conflict of interest there, it’s not a very good law. It says the state legislature still isn’t serious about ethics reform the public can trust.

Friday's lead editorial.

Sex offenders are required to register their addresses with the local sheriff so neighbors can be aware of them and police know where to find them.

But what if that address isn’t always where they’re actually staying? Sex offenders can push the limits of a registration law that, in key parts, is “not clear and unambiguous” in its language, according to the N.C. Court of Appeals.

A ruling issued Tuesday, written by Appeals Court Judge Rick Elmore of Greensboro, points to a need for legislative action to improve a law meant to protect the public.

The case came from Caldwell County where Patricia Dawn Abshire, convicted in 1995 of taking indecent liberties with a child, registered her address as required. For several weeks, however, she spent most nights at her parents’ home in another town, returning during the day to check her mail and do household chores.

Authorities found out and charged her with violating the registration requirements. She was convicted by the trial court and given a suspended sentence. But the appeals court overturned the conviction, ruling the state did not provide enough evidence to show she had moved her actual residence.

At issue is the definition of residence. The court record shows confusion about the law. The trial judge called it “a bad law or a poorly worded law,” and the appeals court agreed. While the trial judge convicted anyway, the appeals court said the law wasn’t clear enough to show the defendant had really changed her residence.

Judges argue semantics, but the public needs to know where sex offenders really live.

Sometimes it doesn’t know.

“Despite our best efforts, we can’t guarantee every person lives at the address registered,” Cpl. John Daniel with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office sex-offender registration unit said.
“The great majority of our cases are doing what they’re supposed to do,” he said, but occasionally some are found in violation.

Sheriff’s deputies make random checks to ensure compliance and work closely with probation and parole officers, Daniel said, but with approximately 600 registered offenders in Guilford County it’s impossible to know where every one is at all times.

The job might be tougher if the law allows leeway for offenders to maintain an address in one place but essentially live for an extended time somewhere else. That could be a dangerous loophole.

Legislators should shut it. The law should require offenders to register their address and any other location where they’re likely to reside when away from home. A sex offender is a potential threat where he is, not just where his mail is delivered.

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

The Alamance-Burlington School System reports that more than 1,000 of its sixth-graders face suspension because they haven’t gotten a required vaccination. As of Sept. 12, 1,021 of the system’s 1,788 sixth-graders, or 57 percent, hadn’t turned in paperwork saying they’d received the Tdap — tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis — booster.

Also out of compliance are 1,200 sixth-graders in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and about a third of the sixth-graders in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system.

The state passed a law earlier this year requiring the booster. An increase in whooping cough had caused the Centers for Disease Control to recommend it. Students are to have their immunizations at the start of the school year, but there is a 30-day grace period. After that, students face suspension. (Exemptions are granted for religious reasons.)

So how do things stand in Guilford County? Have most of the district’s 5,397 sixth-graders had the booster or do the majority face suspension? There’s no way of knowing. The system itself won’t know until Sept. 25, the end of Guilford’s grace period.

The county health department sounds as if it’s done a lot to help people meet the new requirement. It has extended clinic hours and even held a mobile clinic. The school system also has taken steps. Still, you’d think part of what it would do would be to let the public know how close the district is to compliance, as the news might help stragglers get their shots.

We’re not worried about an imminent whooping cough outbreak in Guilford County, but the possibility of hundreds of 12-year-olds missing school does concern us.

Mo Green, the district’s new superintendent, wants the system to be transparent. He also thinks it’s important for all kids who are supposed to be in school to be there. Releasing information on Guilford’s booster status would help matters on both counts.

Do you have a child who needs the booster? Call your county health department (641-5563 in Greensboro) (845-7699 in High Point) now to arrange for a free shot.

Saturday's lead editorial.

The Department of Motor Vehicles’ new vehicle inspection program, now delayed until Nov. 1, has received surprisingly scant fanfare.

But with 7 million registered vehicles in the state, anything more than minor startup glitches will result in an outcry heard from Murphy to Manteo.

The program was slated to kick off Oct. 1, but officials announced a delay to allow more time to install computer equipment at 2,300 safety-only stations not linked to DMV.

When the program launches, nearly 7,000 safety and emissions stations will be hooked up to the state’s computer database. DMV already has trained more than 6,500 technicians who do the inspecting. A major undertaking, to say the least. DMV must make wise use of the six-week cushion by working out the kinks and educating drivers as to what they can expect.

Basically, inspections will be synchronized with registrations. Doing so is supposed to increase compliance, which, in turn, will lead to better air quality and improved highway safety.
Mechanics still will inspect, and as before, owners will pay and receive a receipt. But now, the information will be entered directly into the DMV vehicle-registration database.

Stickers will be affixed to license plates rather than windshields. In another change, the state will send annual renewal registration notices that include the inspection date. It’s DMV’s version of one-stop shopping.

The devil, however, could be in the details. Vehicle owners lost in computer never-land may be blocked from re-registering cars and could pay a $50 fine.

Not surprisingly, progress comes at a price. Safety inspections will jump by 50 percent to $13.60, but the cost of an emissions inspection will stay at $30.

To some, DMV rules already are confusing. For example, just 48 of 100 counties require emissions inspections. Vehicles 1995 or older are exempt from those tests. And as a concession to antique car buffs, vehicles 35 years or older are exempt from all testing.

To its credit, DMV’s Web site, ncdot.org/dmv, clearly addresses questions and concerns about the change. New inspection dates can be determined by using a simple formula.

But all the positive spadework could be for naught if the program gets off to a rocky start. The key is first getting out the word and then making sure the inevitable mistakes are promptly corrected.

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

Subpoenas are flying from N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper to gas station owners suspected of price-gouging. The storm of paper could turn into a hurricane of litigation if Cooper vigorously enforces a tough state law that allows wide latitude for prosecution.

The 2006 law prohibits excessive pricing during disasters, emergencies and “abnormal market disruptions.” Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of disruption Sept. 12 when Hurricane Ike was barreling toward the Texas coast with oil platforms and refineries standing in its path.

As it turned out, Ike caused little immediate disruption. Panic caused a lot. Like a storm surge, motorists flooded gas stations to fill their tanks. Prices shot up and supplies ran out. Cooper, fielding thousands of complaints, launched his investigation. He began with just a few stations, then a few more, and more still to come, spokeswoman Noelle Talley said Friday.

Cooper is armed with a law barring “unreasonably excessive” prices “under the circumstances.” In making that determination, the law says, the state should consider whether the price exceeded the station’s average from the preceding 60 days — a strict standard that could view even a modest boost as gouging. Thousands could be charged.

The law makes allowances for increases in the cost of supplies but not for a sudden spike in demand.

Consumers should resent gouging, but it’s not always as plain as the price on the pump. Some stations raised prices when their costs soared. Maybe others were greedy. The difficulty is deciding what was OK under the circumstances. In this case, what impact did a possibly unwarranted declaration of market disruption have? Even Cooper may not know where this is going.

“This is a new law and there’s no case law,” Talley, his spokeswoman, said. “That’s why we’re investigating to see where the facts lead us.”

At best, this exercise will make an example of obvious violators and warn against future gouging. At worst, it will punish honest businessmen and women who found themselves caught in a storm of uncertainty with everyone else.

Sunday's editorial.

Maurice “Mo” Green seems to cover a lot of ground without hurrying.

In two weeks as superintendent of Guilford County Schools, Green has gotten around. He’s visited schools across the county and met principals, teachers, students, parents and community leaders. He’s spoken to civic groups and a church congregation. He’s initiated a weekly news briefing and given media interviews. He’s started a blog.

Green takes a calm and methodical approach to his ambitious schedule. If he’s ever in a rush, he doesn’t show it. Maybe he has more hours in his day than other people.
When he speaks, he chooses his words carefully, repeating key phrases for emphasis. He forms precise sentences in a deliberate cadence. Yet he makes clear his first job is to listen and learn. He’s new to Guilford County, and he plans to assess the school system’s strengths and weaknesses and evaluate needs and expectations, seeking input from many sources before proposing changes.

In that way, Green will prove to be a different sort of superintendent from his predecessor. Terry Grier, now head of schools in San Diego, Calif., sometimes threw out ideas first, then tried to win support for them. He often gave the impression that decisions were made before anyone knew what was coming. Green aims more to forge ideas and strategies collaboratively.

Lead by example
Green’s listening and learning tour isn’t just for his own benefit, he told News & Record editorial writers Thursday: “Part of what I’m trying to do is lead by example. ... I’m starting to show folks the path we will follow. We will listen.”

His track record backs him up. The Charlotte Observer praised Green, as deputy superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, for improving relations with parents and restoring trust in the system. He’s begun the same process here, patiently listening to parents’ complaints about lack of response from Guilford school officials.

While distressed by the parents’ problems, Green said, hearing them “warmed my heart no end. They were willing to come out and say, 'I’ve got concerns and I’m willing to express them.’ I can work with that. Now we can go down the same path together.”

The path leads through open doors, Green promises: “This is a public school system. Public, public, public. Let’s be sure we’re transparent.”

A lawyer by training, Green never taught. That makes it all the more critical for him to solicit views from the classroom before trying to rearrange the educational desks, chairs and computer tables.

Challenges and changes
At the same time, Green wasn’t hired and signed to a four-year contract for $250,000 a year to simply listen and learn. He’s expected to make tough decisions and get things done. The demands on schools have never been greater. State and federal accountability standards are just the beginning. Employers and colleges and universities want young people who are ready for work and higher education. Nothing less than a well-educated work force will permit the quality of economic development Guilford County desires.

Green says he accepts the challenge and welcomes the pressure. The key to academic improvement is putting strong principals in every school and outstanding teachers in every classroom, and especially in classrooms where students have struggled.

Also keeping them there.

Green acknowledged the problem of principal turnover, which sometimes occurs when the best principals seek promotions to central-office jobs or transfers to bigger schools. He’d address that by making sure “principals understand their best work is being done in the schools where they are and in the schools in general” — and by trying to reward them financially and with growth opportunities there.

One organizational change Green says he’s likely to put on the table for consideration echoes a Charlotte-Mecklenburg plan he implemented: the creation of several “learning communities” within the county, each almost a sub-school district with its own area superintendent and staff. All answer to a central authority, but they make schools more responsive to their own communities. “I think it is working very, very well,” Green said.

Guilford County isn’t the same as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, as Green is learning. A quick study, he should know the new terrain very well soon. Then comes the harder part. But if Green wins trust, relies on the knowledge and experience of others, taps into community resources, maintains transparency and focuses on the mission of educating children, he’ll help make good things happen for Guilford County Schools.

He doesn’t have to hurry, but he does have a lot of ground to cover quickly.

Should the federal government keep bailing out troubled financial companies?

Low-hanging fruit?
A citizen recently asked if the City Council might consider an ordinance against low-hanging pants.

The concern is understandable.

Some trousers hang so low as to be beyond indecent.

But the council was right to sympathize but not to act.

It would be even more indecent to make a mountain out of this mole hill.

And turn an already thinly stretched police department into fashion police.

Experience Greensboro
There’s still time to get an application in to the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce for its Experience Greensboro program.

It meets six Wednesdays and is designed to help participants get up to speed on pressing concerns facing the city and county in areas such as education, local government, economic development and health and human services.

It’s also a good way to meet new people. The program would be appropriate for a person just moving to the area or for someone who has lived here a long time but wants to get more involved in the community.

Interested? Contact April Garner-Sharpe (gsharpe@greensboro.org or 336-387-8325). Deadline: Oct. 1.

A long, long ballot awaits
It’s been said before and it’s worth saying again: North Carolina’s presidential ballot is as long as some people are tall.

Too long.

Some people excited about the races at the top of the ballot may have trouble with the middle and the bottom.

We vote for everything in the Old North State, from governor to appeals court judges to school board members.

In fact, only one other state in the Union, Michigan, votes for more statewide offices than we.

In one sense, that’s a good thing. People definitely have a voice at the polls here.

But should we really be voting for insurance commissioner and labor commissioner? Shouldn’t some of these jobs be filled by appointments based on professional qualifications?

The system as it is also can breed corruption because it encourages people with vested interests to influence some lower-profile races with campaign contributions.

Obviously, one key is to be as informed as possible, and this newspaper can help.

But the Guilford County ballot is no light reading, especially if you live in Greensboro, where there also are bond packages.

Or in High Point, where city leaders weren’t very smart to move City Council elections to this year from last year, in hopes of greater turnout.

There’ll be a big turnout, all right — probably a record one — but it’s questionable how many voters may tune in.

More park space — for cars?

Pave paradise and put up a parking lot?

That’s fine by at least 75 students at Raleigh’s Broughton High School, who staged a protest Friday morning.

The students parked their cars on the school’s front lawn in a demand for more parking.

They want the lawn paved over for that purpose.

Never mind that the school, built in 1929, is designated as a historic landmark.

As for grass? They don’t need no stinkin’ grass.

Surely there is somewhere else nearby to park?

The Canada Dry deal
Over the long run, the city’s decision to buy the Old Canada Dry building (owned by News & Record Editor John Robinson’s wife Susan and her brothers) and the Coliseum Inn property for a combined $5.3 million is a good idea. High Point Road has fallen into disrepair and ill repute over the years and desperately needs help jump-starting redevelopment.

Yes, it would have been preferable to see this happen solely with private funds. But sometimes you do what you have to do.

Tuesday's No. 1 editorial.

Despite the new national mantra to “drill, baby, drill,” more promising, and lasting, breakthroughs are quietly happening right here and now, under our noses.

For instance, Greensboro hotelier Dennis Quaintance now lays claim to the greenest hotel in the country.

The 10-month-old Proximity on Green Valley Road is the first U.S. hotel to attain “platinum status” for sustainability. The hotel features roof-mounted solar panels and is designed to be lit by natural light during the day, among other innovations.

Platinum status is the best possible rating a building can win. It is conferred through the Green Building Council’s LEED — or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — program.
Quaintance said Monday that the Proximity is tangible proof that such construction is practical and profitable.

The numbers bear him out: The 10-month-old Proximity is projected to save $140,000 in utilities this year. The hotel will have conserved 2 million gallons of water by its first anniversary. For an additional $7,000 investment in construction costs, the hotel will save $13,000 in annual water bills.

“As a capitalist, I’m delighted,” Quaintance said.

An hour or so away, enterprising businesses in Raleigh and Charlotte are paving a niche in upfitting hybrid cars to dramatically increase their already impressive gas mileage. By making minor modifications, they are stretching the fuel range of Toyota Priuses to as much as 100 miles per gallon.

The fledgling Raleigh firm, Advanced Vehicle Research Center, is doing brisk business by adding second battery packs to Priuses that allow motorists to plug the cars into wall sockets for recharging. And to go much, much farther on a tank of gas. One test vehicle topped 200 miles per gallon.

At $10,400 a pop, these conversions don’t come cheaply and won’t return that investment until 140,000 miles later. But if the results are this dramatic right now, imagine the prospects for future innovations. And revenues.

Quaintance sees similar payoffs in green construction. “I like what my friend Johnnetta Cole said,” he said of the former Bennett College president. “We can do well by doing good.”
But Quaintance worries that too few developers are buying in. “They’re skeptical.”

He wonders if a temporary state tax-credit program for buildings that meet at least LEED silver status, the third-highest level, might help. And he reminds anyone who’ll listen that he’s still in business to make money.

“It’s not sustainable to go broke,” he joked.

As for oil, let’s drill away where it’s safe and prudent. But in the grander scheme, there’s not much of a future in it. The bigger focus should be on developing new sources that expand our energy options and new technology that reduces our consumption.

Build, baby, build. But build smarter.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

The one hard and fast rule for student-assignment plans should be: no hard and fast rules.
A school system with 71,000 students can’t afford to be rigid when it comes to fitting them into 120 schools.

Residential patterns aren’t set in stone, or even brick and mortar. Some neighborhoods grow quickly or experience an influx of young families with children. New developments spring up where few people once lived. Schools suddenly feel the strain. In other areas, most kids have grown and gone, leaving aging households and schools with empty seats.

Less than a month into the school year, Guilford County is struggling to deal with shifting enrollments. The good news: For the second year in a row, student population growth fell far short of projections — by about 1,000 this year. The bad news: The figures were up and down all over.

Northern Elementary counts a 10-day enrollment of 825 instead of the anticipated 751. At a half-dozen other schools, enrollment projections missed by even larger percentages, plus or minus. If only it were simple to reassign the students from the overcrowded schools to those with extra room.

Short-term, the school board must move temporary classrooms around — it plans to add some at Northern Elementary — and consider changing one of its own rules against redistricting more often than every four years. Frequently shifting attendance lines can be disruptive, but it’s necessary to ease intense crowding and make efficient use of available space.

For the long term, Guilford County is following an aggressive and expensive campaign of building and expanding schools. Choosing the right locations and designs is important to make sure schools match population changes but also can be easily expanded at reasonable cost, if necessary.

In fitting 71,000 students into 120 schools, flexibility beats rigidity.

Wednesday's lead editorial.

As Congress wrestles with the $700 billion bailout bill for troubled financial institutions crafted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, it needs to keep Main Street, not Wall Street, foremost in mind. What is best for the average taxpayer, the small-business owner, our counties and cities? That’s what our senators and representatives must keep asking themselves as they consider this legislation.

Paulson warns of financial doom if the legislation isn’t passed quickly. Yet he and some congressional leaders have been less than forthright on the apocalypse’s specifics. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Minority Leader John Boehner wouldn’t reveal on a weekend TV talk show what Bernanke told congressional leaders about the crisis recently. Dodd would only say the reaction was a “stunned silence” while Boehner said the specifics weren’t fit to discuss on a Sunday morning.

How can the American people back such massive legislation if the reasons for it aren’t clearly given? Spell out the specifics — the possible drying up of credit, the closing of businesses, the job losses. Then the American people and their representatives in Congress might be willing to support the bill’s premise: that the government’s buying of bad debt will provide capital that will allow lenders to make more loans.

But what must not be supported is the bankruptcy of our democratic system. That’s why Section 8 of this bill must be stricken: It gives the Treasury secretary carte blanche to make decisions connected with the bailout, saying they “may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Independent oversight must be included in this legislation. No Treasury secretary should have such sweeping authority. It runs counter to our system of checks and balances.

Also needed are limits on executive compensation. The legislation must not lead to taxpayers’ money paving the way for golden parachutes for heads of failing financial institutions.
Safeguards are in order as well. The bill would allow private firms to be hired to manage the purchased debt: There must be conflict-of-interest provisions in place to ensure those doing the managing are working in the nation’s best interests, not their businesses’.

Finally, American homeowners with shaky mortgages should receive some type of relief. It’s been suggested that homeowners facing bankruptcy whose loans are assumed by the government through this legislation could be helped by having their mortgages rewritten.
Paulson is urging passage of a quick, “clean” bill to avoid catastrophe. Fortunately, this hasn’t stopped members of Congress from both parties from taking the time to offer revisions to problem parts of the legislation.

Beyond the bailout, Congress must prevent more financial catastrophes. Lax regulation led to the lax lending that is the source of the problem. The $700 billion will just be mad money without regulatory reform.

Wednesday's No. 2 editorial.

The state Department of Transportation ethics policy is crystal clear: Employees and board members are prohibited from using their position for personal gain.

However, that admonition all too often is shrugged off in Raleigh with a wink and a nod. NCDOT’s latest ethics controversy involves board member Lewis W. Sewell Jr. of Jacksonville, a politically connected fundraiser for Gov. Mike Easley.

According to a News & Observer of Raleigh investigation, Sewell inappropriately directed $375,000 in public money for road improvements abutting property that he and his son owned on a busy Jacksonville highway.

Despite protestations that he simply was trying to help his friends and neighbors back in Onslow County, Sewell’s actions reek of self-interest.

Not surprisingly, upgrading an intersection near lots he and his business partners were developing for commercial use paid off handsomely. The land purchased in 1999 for $603,000 sold in 2004-05 for $1.7 million.

Belatedly, state Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett has forwarded information regarding Sewell’s actions to the State Ethics Commission for review. It merits full attention.
Legislation approved by the General Assembly in 1998 intended to rid the transportation board of blatant partisan politics has failed miserably. The next governor and incoming legislature need to go back to the drawing board.

In Sewell’s case, his claim to a coveted DOT seat apparently rests on helping raise $125,000 for Easley’s 2000 gubernatorial campaign. Shortly after the election, the governor appointed him to the board.

In hindsight, Sewell admits his dubious funding requests may come across as looking bad. They also smell bad. But the odor won’t go away until the entrenched practice of doling out DOT board seats as political favors to friends and high rollers ceases.

Thursday's lead editorial.

Guilford County's two-year-old Mission Possible program is producing good results for students and teachers, a report issued Tuesday says.

The assessment by the John Locke Foundation of Raleigh offers encouragement to continue the initiative under way in 22 Guilford County schools, or even expand it. New Superintendent Maurice Green said Wednesday he's reading the report as part of his information-gathering approach before making recommendations. Already, he sees the program as a "tremendous recruiting tool."

Mission Possible was launched in 2006 to draw top teachers to struggling schools with one-time recruitment bonuses, higher salaries and the chance to earn bonuses based on student achievement.

The Locke report, which draws on an evaluation by the SERVE Center at UNCG and its own analysis, calls Mission Possible an early success marked by academic progress, better attendance, fewer suspensions, lower teacher turnover and higher scores on the state's annual teacher-satisfaction survey. School climate and teacher satisfaction are key ingredients in better student achievement in the long run.

Those results so far don't apply across the board at all Mission Possible schools, but the trend is positive.

And it's not just a matter of money. Sandy Madison, a fifth-grade teacher in her third year at Wiley Elementary, likes the program -- "I see it as an excellent investment," she said Wednesday - but would teach there even without the bonus.

"I find it an honor to be here," she said, noting the rigorous selection criteria that puts her in the company of outstanding educators who are encouraged to participate in the school's decision-making process. "I plan on being at Wiley as long as I can."

Her principal, LaToy Kennedy, also downplayed the impact of higher pay. Her teachers often put in more than 12 hours a day at school and come in on Saturdays "because we do have to do a little extra for our students." The additional $2,500 a year Wiley teachers earn probably amounts to a dollar an hour after taxes and other deductions, Kennedy said.

As a Mission Possible principal, she's given priority in hiring teachers but knows "not everybody can work at a highly impacted school. The first thing I look for is passion. ... You can't buy it and you can't teach it."

There's no price for passion, but there is an argument for rewarding teachers who have special skills, who step up to the toughest challenges and whose students make clear progress according to objective standards. Building the best possible faculty is a key to success at every level of education, from college down to elementary school. But it's not cheap.

For a few thousand dollars a year more, Mission Possible teachers are a bargain if they make a difference for students. The experience so far justifies the school board's commitment to this program and might recommend more of the same.

Thursday's No. 2 editorial.

How we get from here to there ought to be a more regional proposition.

A consultant recently confirmed that notion, suggesting that combining transit systems in the Triad could increase both efficiency and ridership.

Neither point is exactly a revelation. As traditional boundaries continue to blur, better collaboration among transit systems not only is smart but inevitable.

The pieces already are connecting, as some passengers might ride a HiTran bus in High Point, transfer to a PART bus, then transfer to a Greensboro Transit Authority bus for the final leg of their commute.

But there's a long way to go, figuratively and literally.

During a recent stint as a bus patron, staff writer Taft Wireback found inter-city commutes especially excruciating, citing some High Point riders who would have to spend more than two hours on five buses to get from south Greensboro to southern High Point.

Better communication and coordination among the systems could only help. Not that it would be easy.

There are different priorities and financing among the various entities, and probably at least a few political and cultural hurdles. But, as they say, the longest journey does begin with the first step.

The PART consultant, Robert Piascik, suggests that first step be a shared call center -- one place to call with all public transit questions in the Triad.

That leverages resources, eliminates duplication and, most importantly, best serves the customer. Other incremental changes could follow: shared training expenses and maintenance costs; group vehicle and equipment purchases at a discount; and combined service for riders with disabilities and special needs.

Undertaken with care and urgency, this move toward "Seamless Mobility" makes sense for so many reasons. And, as Piascik says, the merger could create a blended network of one transit provider under one umbrella, who communicate smoothly and don't skip a beat from one city to the next.

Bigger isn't always better. But smarter certainly is.

Friday's lead editorial.

Jim Long made headlines and drew applause earlier this month when he turned a requested 13 percent increase in auto insurance rates into a 16 percent cut. But it’s always a good idea to read the fine print.

The N.C. insurance commissioner’s order might not survive an appeal to the courts. Even if it is implemented, not every driver will benefit equally. Some could see their premiums go up, according to Ray Evans, general manager of the N.C. Rate Bureau.

Nothing is simple about auto insurance rates in North Carolina.

The Rate Bureau, which represents insurance companies, requested a 12.9 percent rate hike, after asking for no increase last year. Long said no, declaring there were no business changes in the past year to justify such a jump. He ought to be right about that.

Then he apparently decided there were sufficient changes to require a 16.1 percent decrease. The 29 percentage-point difference represents more than $1 billion, the largest gap ever between a Rate Bureau request and a commissioner’s order, Department of Insurance spokeswoman Kristin Milam said Thursday.

It’s an amazing gulf, given that Long and the Rate Bureau should be looking at the same data with similar objectives: to make sure rates are fair for consumers and insurers. If they’re too low, companies might quit the North Carolina market rather than risk losing money. If they’re too high, motorists suffer and more might drop their insurance but continue to drive, raising costs for everyone.

The hidden story is that not everyone pays the same for auto insurance, anyway, and not everyone would see rates decrease under Long’s order. His directive applies to the highest rates charged. Many drivers considered good risks are offered discounts by their insurance companies. Evans of the Rate Bureau contends these discounts could be reduced or eliminated by companies trying to recover what they’d lose under Long’s rate cut.

Then there’s the state’s Reinsurance Facility, which covers a whopping 25 percent of North Carolina drivers in a high-risk pool subsidized by a tax on everyone’s premiums. That tax, currently 2.5 percent of liability coverage, could bump up, Evans said.

Wayne Goodwin, assistant insurance commissioner who’s running to succeed the retiring Long, proposes a reorganization to reduce the number of drivers covered in the Reinsurance Facility. He said his plan would result in the riskiest drivers paying the highest premiums and the safest drivers paying less, a commendable aspiration. So is the hope that the public might get a better idea of how rate decisions will affect their own insurance costs.

Next, the Court of Appeals will review Long’s order. Maybe the judges can settle the billion-dollar dispute.

Meanwhile, Milam of the Insurance Department offers good advice to drivers, especially those who might see their rates increase: shop around. And call the department’s consumer line with complaints: 1-800-546-5664.

Friday's No. 2 editorial.

The Greensboro Children’s Museum is a drawing card for the city. If you are a parent — or grandparent — of children 10 and under, it is one of the city’s best assets. Read blogs or talk to the museum’s visitors and you’ll find much praise for the facility. Some 130,000 visited it last year, almost three times more than visited the city’s Historical Museum.

Still, the privately run nonprofit finds itself operating at a deficit. Last year it ran $334,000 short. That has caused the museum’s board to ask the city to provide the museum a $500,000 annual appropriation for operating expenses.

John Cross, the museum’s board chairman, makes good points for the appropriation. He notes that the facility helps at-risk groups by doing things such as providing scholarships for summer camp. He also notes that many other children’s museums receive local funding. The children’s museum in Raleigh receives 34 percent of its funding from its city, he says, while the one in Fayetteville receives 22 percent.

Still, that doesn’t mean that city government here should follow suit. Such an action wouldn’t be done in a vacuum: If the city began funding the museum, a case could be made for adding the civil rights museum and nonprofits that don’t now receive funding to its annual appropriations list. In an economic downturn, why would the city want to do this?

And why should the museum want to become entangled with city government? The museum doesn’t have trouble raising money in capital campaigns. Indeed, it’s going to conduct one for an exciting expansion. Is it too much to think that the museum could direct some of its fund-raising efforts toward meeting operating expenses?

Maybe what the museum needs isn’t city money but more ambitious fund-raising goals. Parents with young children may not have the time or resources to contribute much to a campaign. But how about Greensboro grandparents? After all, it was a grandparent — Jerry Hyman — who founded the museum. Surely, many other grandparents know the value of the Greensboro Children’s Museum and would help to keep it going.

Saturday's lead editorial.

Despite state Department of Transportation plans to redirect traffic to Interstate 40, the new stretch of Greensboro’s Urban Loop will continue to be heavily traveled.

And that’s hardly what loop residents bothered by incessant road noise and living in vibration-damaged homes want to hear. For them, co-existing with what they view as an obtrusive nuisance looks like a fact of life.

To its credit, DOT listened to their complaints and, as a result, will install signs routing some traffic back to the original I-40 path.

But for many commuters and truckers, the new 7.7-mile western loop, between I-40 and Interstate 85 south of town, remains the most direct and convenient route.

In addition, the eight-lane highway will keep the Interstate 73 and U.S. 421 designations. And, as work is completed on I-73 in other states, legions of travelers from the upper Midwest will choose it as their route to South Carolina beaches.

DOT’s retrenching involves more than reacting to a neighborhood outcry. Complaints from motorists confused by I-40’s diversion onto the loop also played a role in the decision.

Hopefully, the revamp that dumps more vehicles onto I-40 won’t worsen congestion in the rush-hour-clogged “death valley” area near the I-85 merge. Highway engineers assure that the loop’s next phase, already on the drawing board, will lighten that load.

Whatever happens, DOT officials deserve praise for listening to voices in the community. Too often, bureaucrats dig in their heels and ignore angry citizens dealing with life-altering issues.
Besides changing the route designation, DOT has approved additional landscaping measures that could block out at least some of the loop’s relentless din. However, frazzled residents must accept that there are no guarantees any modifications will bring satisfactory relief.

The hard lesson learned: Vigilance begins before the bulldozers arrive. As the Urban Loop progresses, property owners affected by it should stay abreast of plans and possible impact. Relying on assumptions rather than facts, as did some western loop neighbors, could be a costly mistake.

Yet, if the Triad is to avoid the gridlock choking Charlotte and Raleigh, highways like the Urban Loop become a necessity. Unfortunately, the collateral damage always weighs more heavily on some than others.

Saturday's No. 2 editorial.

When Guilford County Schools got serious this week about publicizing the need for sixth-graders to get the mandatory Tdap booster shot, parents got moving.

On Tuesday, about 2,700 out of 5,400 sixth-graders did not have the shot that protects against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough.

But by 1:15 p.m. Friday the number was down to 390 who faced suspension because they lacked the required paperwork connected with the immunization.

It was good to see so much action in the final minutes of the 30-day grace period the state provides school districts for handing in students’ immunization records.

But it would have been even better to have seen such action in the days, weeks — or even months — before Guilford’s Thursday deadline.

The situation shouldn’t have required so much last-minute maneuvering. School districts have known since early 2008 that this year’s sixth-graders had to get a never-before-required immunization.

Some school districts, such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s, realized the need back then to be proactive. That system provided clinics at elementary schools last spring to immunize fifth-graders.

There was still time to be proactive this school year. A week before its deadline, the Alamance-Burlington School System widely publicized how many of its sixth-graders faced suspension because they lacked the booster. A week before its deadline, Guilford didn’t even know how many of its students hadn’t had the shot.

Also, Wake County ran clinics in its middle schools the day before its deadline, getting more than 1,200 immunized.

Guilford’s school system and health department need to assess their handling of this issue. Next year, a new crop of sixth-graders will need to have had these shots. Now — not September 2009 — is the time to plan to make sure they get them. In-school immunization clinics for current fifth-graders should be considered.

Let’s not have another Hail Mary pass next year.

Sunday's editorial.

As it turns out, the once-bustling High Point Road area isn’t as bad off these days for residents and merchants as we thought. It’s worse.

Aside from earlier concerns by businesses and city leaders that the corridor was declining economically are more recent fears that it’s becoming unsafe.

City Councilwoman Trudy Wade produced shell casings from a 30 mm handgun as evidence. A resident had given them to her as a souvenir of one of the neighborhood’s less-savory pastimes.
Adding to the bad publicity was the recent discovery of a body in a parking lot. The man was fatally shot, one of several recent shootings in the area.

In the past, conversations about High Point Road centered on reversing its steady decline as a hub for retail businesses and restaurants and repairing its tattered reputation.

Now Wade and others say a comeback won’t happen if potential businesses and customers perceive that part of town as dangerous.

Islands of success
Ironically, two of the city’s highest-profile attractions are located there: the Greensboro Coliseum Complex and the Sheraton Four Seasons/Koury Convention Center. That means visitors’ first, and possibly most lasting impression of the city during, say, an ACC tournament, is High Point Road. For better or for worse.

Among the better: the Koury complex, the coliseum, the new Doubletree Hotel, the city’s biggest movie theater in the Grande Four Seasons. And the worst: Pairs of sneakers strung around telephone lines (usually a sign of drug dealing), vacant lots and storefronts, panhandlers holding hand-scribbled signs on busy corners, break-ins, prostitutes. “My constituents tell me they see the same prostitutes every day,” Wade says.

Koury Corp. CEO Steve Showfety, whose company owns the Sheraton and the convention center, says business remains steady. For now. “But we’re starting to hear more about public safety from meeting planners.” And he admits he has been turned down twice by a major retailer who was considering his new shopping center, Four Seasons Station, because of the decline of High Point Road.

By the way, this isn’t just Showfety’s problem. The High Point Road/Lee Street corridor spans three City Council districts and provides a picture window to Greensboro for out-of-town visitors.
It is home to a number of sturdy, old neighborhoods, including Ardmore Park, Piedmont Heights, Glenwood and Lamrocton. And it ought to be an economic engine, even as it threatens to sputter into irrelevance.

Causes for hope
Despite all these challenges, the area can be and should be saved. Among some hopeful developments:

-- City Manager Mitchell Johnson has signed an agreement to purchase the old Canada Dry property next door to the coliseum as well as the Coliseum Inn. Both were blights on the area that should be sold for private redevelopment.

-- City staff are drafting a plan for the High Point Road/Lee Street corridor and, on Nov. 4, voters will consider $134 million in transportation bonds that include $7.5 million in streetscaping for the strip.

-- Fulton Place Apartments, a new complex on Lee Street that is targeted to students, is open and occupied.

-- The welcome encroachment of UNCG toward Lee Street includes a parking lot under construction off Lee Street. UNCG owns three Lee Street parcels and added even more potential sites along the corridor to its master plan in 2007.

Police can’t do it alone
As for other measures, longtime area resident Laura Jackson also suggests a city loan or grant fund to help businesses upgrade their facades.

Meanwhile, the city should install security cameras to provide eyes and ears where police might not be able to provide the bodies. High Point Road is as good a place as any to start.
At the same time, Jackson stresses the need for police, community and businesses to work together to address the crime problem. “Police have their hands tied when they’re not getting the information they need,” says Jackson, a Realtor who has lived in Ardmore Park since 1982. Such a partnership worked well on Randleman Road, she says.

Toward that end, Koury’s Showfety has offered before to provide free space for a police substation. He is offering again. “Good golly Moses,” he says, “we’re blue in the face talking about that.”

Someone should listen, and either give him a good reason why it shouldn’t be done or make it happen.

High Point Road is too important an asset to the whole city to let it fade into irrelevance.

What are your thoughts on the first presidential debate?

Glad it happened? Did anyone win? What were Barack Obama's and John McCain's strengths and weaknesses? Did the debates change your mind? Did they cover the topics you wanted addressed? Are debates necessary?

Bridgeway’s lapses
Guilford County’s substance abuse treatment center soon will be allowed to receive new patients again after being sanctioned by state inspectors for embarrassing lapses in the facility’s operations.

The violations ranged from lack of adequate background checks and proper training for employees to lax security for stored medications.

An official for the Missouri-based Bridgeway Behavioral Health, which runs the Wendover Avenue center, cited ignorance as one excuse. “The requirements in Missouri aren’t the same as they were in North Carolina,” Bridgeway’s human resources vice president, Jill Kwasniewski, said last week. Duh. You’d think they’d check.

But county mental health officials share accountability for not keeping a close eye on the center, which ultimately is their responsibility.

As for Bridgeway’s future, the county commissioners are willing to give the company one more chance. That’s all it should get. One more strike and it should be out.

Running on empty, again
Last week’s gas pinch was mild in the Triad compared to problems in Charlotte, Asheville and other parts of western North Carolina. Here, supplies didn’t tighten appreciably until late in the week.

Consumers’ behavior contributed to the problems. Too many motorists felt they had to fill up, causing some stations to run out.

One question for those motorists: Were you filling up because of necessary travel or for voluntary weekend activities? The easiest way to balance supply and demand in times of disruption is to use less. What will it take to get serious about conservation?

The hemlocks are dying
The assault on the American chestnut tree is one of our nation’s saddest botanical stories. An Asian fungus killed 3.5 billion of them in the first half of the last century.

An Asian import is again attacking, and now it’s the hemlocks that are dying. A bug, the hemlock woolly adelgid, is destroying them, including those in western North Carolina, some of which have been here since the 1600s.

Some think the U.S. Forest Service’s battle against the bug has been lacking. One critic is Will Blozan, who has sunk thousands of his own dollars into fighting the pest. Another critic, Charlotte filmmaker David Huff, is making a film of Blozan’s valiant actions.

“We’ve spent hundreds of billions of dollars on everything else — where are the priorities?” Huff asked in a Charlotte Observer story.

The federal government spends $4 million annually fighting the adelgid. Who knows what the costs will be of that parsimony? We’ll find out as millions of trees die, changing forests and making them prone to catastrophic wildfires.

Doing the right thing
With political pressure mounting, Lewis W. Sewell Jr. had no other choice than to resign from the state Department of Transportation board. Funneling $375,000 for improvements to a highway abutting property he and business partners owned in Jacksonville was a clear, self-serving conflict of interest, not the protocol oversight he claimed.

Caught up in the fallout is Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue, who early last week hadn’t decided whether to attend a fund-raiser Sewell had planned for her. It ended up being canceled.

Even so, Republican opponent Pat McCrory seized on the controversy to again paint Perdue as being part of the state’s entrenched political establishment.
The latest DOT flap should be reason enough to elicit pledges from both candidates to rid the board of partisan political shenanigans.

Tuesday's lead editorial.

Gov. Mike Easley will leave office in a few months, but he’s taking steps now to give his successor a hand.

Last week, he ordered state agency heads to cut spending by 2 percent. He excused education, Medicaid and financial aid for college students.

Action is prudent. Tax revenues would decline with a financial downturn, and the state simply can’t spend what it doesn’t have.

Well, actually it could. So the next thing the governor should do is delay some of the expensive capital projects stuffed into the current state budget and financed through borrowing.

Those projects would cost $857 million. Although debt is paid off over many years, the sooner funds are borrowed, the sooner principal and interest payments come due. If a slow economy persists, debt-service costs will tighten available resources for operations well into the future.
Arguably, few capital projects are as urgent as public safety, health, mental health, highway maintenance and other vital services provided daily by state agencies. New buildings on state university campuses and improvements to parks, prisons, judicial facilities, ports, historic sites and the zoo represent worthwhile investments, but the governor should examine each one to determine whether money can be saved by waiting until the state’s financial future looks a little brighter.

Not one of those projects ever won the public’s blessing, anyway. Although the state constitution requires voter approval before the state can borrow money, there are limited exceptions, and the legislature took full advantage of the loopholes. That’s been a trend. The last statewide bond referendum was held in 2001. Since then, lawmakers have found ways to increase the state’s debt without asking the voters.

That approach wouldn’t fly in Greensboro or Guilford County, where elected leaders regularly put bond issues before the voters. Some are approved, some rejected. In any case, the taxpayers decide what they’re willing to borrow for.

They weren’t given the same opportunity when it came to these state projects. They should have no objections, then, if Easley slows down the borrowing. Next year, his successor can survey the financial landscape and decide whether it’s feasible to go forward.

The governor can’t nullify an act of the legislature except by veto, and Easley signed the budget in July. But when circumstances shift and it looks like revenue targets won’t be met, he can take emergency action to assure solvency. Maybe a 2 percent cut over the rest of the year will prove to be enough. Let’s hope so. If it isn’t, the governor should look next at big-ticket borrowing projects — for the sake of taxpayers and his successor.

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

North Carolina has made a grand bargain for the grandest of its natural attractions.

The state will purchase Grandfather Mountain, a 2,600-acre mile-high park, the most distinctive prominence in the Blue Ridge chain and a favorite destination for visitors. The price is reportedly just $12 million, almost a donation by the civic-minded Morton family. The state bought 1,000-acre Chimney Rock Park for twice as much a year ago.

The late Hugh Morton operated Grandfather Mountain almost like a public trust until his death in 2006. His heirs have followed his example, but future owners might have been tempted to sell to private developers, earning a vast fortune but permanently altering the character of the breathtaking landmark. Their agreement with the state gives reason to hope that future generations will be able to enjoy the mountain as it is today.

Much of the park remains a wilderness, but a long, winding road provides auto access to the visitor’s center and Mile High Swinging Bridge. Motorists can stop at wildlife habitats and a museum on the way up. Morton created a park where everyone who can ride in an automobile can gain a mountaintop experience but the fittest can push themselves farther and higher along rugged trails fitted with ladders and cables to give hikers a needed hand.

Grandfather Mountain isn’t North Carolina’s highest point, but when the wind roars and the fog rolls in, its otherworldly atmosphere is unmatched east of the Rockies except on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. It’s a majestic acquisition, a testament to the Morton family’s generosity and the state’s foresight.

The state now will be challenged to properly maintain this treasure, which likely will require continuing an admission fee in the range of the $14 charged now. But for visitors, that also is a grand bargain.