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This despite the recent death of her husband, and by Cal Cunningham’s entry into the race (and the fact that he was recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee).
An excerpt:
Based on the new evidence, Dr. Megan Davies, state epidemiologist, said the state is now working to get the word to doctors, who for years were reluctant to even test patients for Lyme because it wasn’t considered much of a possibility.
“What we’re trying to communicate to physicians is that it’s possible to acquire Lyme in North Carolina, so don’t hold to an old belief,” Davies said, noting that she and others are meeting with infectious disease doctors at the state’s medical schools to get the word out.
Read the story here from the Observer.
Dalton Alligood Jr., a former district engineer for the DOT, received 10% in cash from contracts funneled to the company between 2004 and 2006.
Governor Beverly Perdue has stated her intention to be tougher on corruption at the DOT at all levels.
More on Alligood here from AP via the Charlotte Observer.
A clip:
The snow gave up its ghosts around dusk when it thinned, bucked, coughed and stopped. An hour later the clouds parted and a cold luminescence lit up the landscape, giving these old hills an eerie specter until the wind began to pick up, blowing snow devils around like little white upside-down tornadoes. We threw more locust on the fire and poured a wee dram, and wondered briefly and idly if we might be able to salvage a snowed-in call to the office out of this lovely gift of late fall in the Blue Ridge.
Read the post at his blog here.
An excerpt:
In its one decade of existence, Golden LEAF has sometimes inspired its supporters with potentially transformative initiatives such as $100 million for a manufacturing facility at the Global TransPark in Kinston for aerospace component fabrication.
And it has infuriated its detractors by doling out money in ways that remind them of nothing so much as political slush funds financed with public money. A recent critical report from State Auditor Beth Wood flayed the organization for its inability to produce minutes of meetings, criticized its ethics practices, faulted it for making a spending decision in closed session and blasted its refusal to fully cooperate with auditors. At one point an auditor was escorted out of a Golden LEAF file room that auditors had been given access to, prompting suspicions the foundation was trying to hide something.
Here’s an excerpt:
Perdue’s approach was to change the Board of Transportation from a decision-making board with the power to approve highway and other transportation projects to a planning board where members could not use their influence to channel roads, bridges or intersections to benefit themselves or their associates. That’s a significant improvement over the old system, which all but invited the board to reward its members, though it still means members make decisions about planning.
But Perdue’s plan did not alter one time-honored, if that’s the right adjective, tradition. She still appoints campaign contributors to the Board of Transportation. Last week she named five members to the board: Sam Halsey of Jefferson, David Burns of Laurinburg, Gary Ciccone of Fayetteville, Ronnie Wall of Burlington and Stan White of Nags Head. All are accomplished business and civic leaders. And election records show all have been contributors to Perdue’s campaigns, though not all in large amounts.
Bobby Allen Gibson, 24, and Steven Louis Broom, 31, were charged in July of last year.
Both will spend ten months in prison, a year on federal parole and perform 100 hours of community service. Their punishment also includes banishment from federal lands, revocation of hunting and fishing privileges, and, in Broom’s case the revocation of the right to own a dog of any kind.
Asheville Citizen-Times story here.
Here’s the lead:
It is well-established that young people vote at lower levels than others in the electorate. For example, approximately 40 percent of 20-year-olds voted in the 2004 presidential election, compared to a turnout rate of more than 70 percent for those in their 70s.
Fortunately, there are some indications that the times may be changing. Youth turnout during the 2008 primaries was significantly higher than it has been in the past. Young people also are getting involved with campaigns at higher rates than ever before, and early voting data provides some indication that youth turnout in 2008 will be at its highest level in recent memory.
Charlotte’s allure has gone far away, but I still love that sign.
Well, it’s coming down tomorrow, says the Charlotte Observer, and to add injury to insult, it’ll be replaced by a sports injury doctor’s knockoff reading “ACL”.
Here’s the sign:
The best part of south Charlotte, too
Here’s the brief piece from the Observer.
From today’s Charlotte Observer:
“Tobacco use and poor nutrition and inactivity are the leading causes of preventable deaths in our state,” said Anne Rogers, director of integrated health management with the N.C. State Employees Health Plan. “We need a healthy workforce in this state. We’re trying to encourage individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles.”
The state will begin charging smokers more next summer. Overweight employees will begin paying more the following summer.
Another clip from the Observer:
The health plan covers more than 600,000 state employees, retirees and teachers at a total cost last year of $2.6 billion. Last spring, the legislature bailed out the plan with an infusion of $250 million to pay the bills after rising costs and inaccurate projections left little money for claims. Over the next two years, the state general fund will pump about $408 million into the health plan.
While officials have not yet estimated any potential savings from the obesity requirement, the higher costs for smokers could save $13 million in the 2010-2011 budget year, Rogers said, emphasizing that the plan’s priority is to improve health and save money in the process.
Read more about the plan, and what opponents think, here.
Writes Betts:
Democrats such as Perdue and Dalton generally hold in high regard the views of a former education governor such as Jim Hunt or a lion of American higher education such as Bill Friday. But on the issue of illegal immigrants in public colleges, their view is more in line with Republicans in the legislature who hope to push legislation next year to prohibit the admission of undocumented students.
Read his entire blog post here.
His lead:
Having just celebrated its 75th birthday, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park finds its future threatened by wavering public support for America’s green places.
The problem passes from one generation to the next: a chronic lack of financial support in the past, declining visits now and a future shaped by today’s children who are spending far less time in the outdoors.
Another excerpt:
Kids don’t play outdoors – splashing in creeks and chasing fireflies – as they once did, numerous studies and most parents will attest. Increasingly sedentary and overweight, they’re more likely to be mesmerized by a Wii than a salamander.
“Nature-deficit disorder,” author Richard Louv called it in an influential 2005 book. Research has linked lack of unstructured time outdoors to childhood depression, anxiety and behavioral problems.
“If they don’t have those experiences, then we’re worried that it won’t be a priority for future generations to keep natural areas and a clean, healthy environment,” said Lisa Tolley, who heads the N.C. Office of Environmental Education.
Jack Betts
STATEWIDE–The Charlotte Observer’s Jack Betts, a four-decade veteran of the North Carolina political scene, knows theater of the absurd when he sees it.
So, after South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst at President Obama Wednesday night, Betts quickly suggested that the NC senate loan its “Ox Meter” to to the nation’s capitol for a while. The Ox Meter, apparently, is a gizmo that the NC Senate passes around as a reward when a member says something particularly clueless.
Here’s an excerpt from Betts’ blog post:
Sen. A.B. Swindell, D-Nash, got the Ox Meter a few years ago for a long story he told about his mother’s potato biscuits and the way she used to sew him into his flannel shirts before school every day.
The Ox Meter used to repose from time to time on the desk of former state Sen. Fountain Odom, D-Mecklenburg, who had a string of stories to tell about, and sometimes on, his colleagues and other folks in the leadership. Other senators have enjoyed, if that is the right word, possession of the Ox Meter from time to time.
Rather than a judgment on the validity of the suit, however, Thornburg’s ruling seems to be a technicality. Thornburg noted that both state and federal courts are being asked to rule on the same issue, and so is basically removing himself from the picture so that the state courts can rule.
The next ruling on the issue will be handed down by a state administrative court.
The lawsuit was brought by five environmental organizations, including the Canary Coalition, which is headquartered in Sylva and Asheville.
The Canary Coalition recently brought suit against the Town of Sylva regarding a rezoning action that benefitted Sylva’s Jackson Paper Manufacturing Co. That suit has yet to be resolved.
From the Charlotte Observer:
Five environmental groups filed the federal suit last year, claiming Duke illegally began work on the plant before a full review of the stringency of its pollution controls. Cliffside is 60 miles west of Charlotte.
The groups maintained that, contrary to a ruling by state regulators, Cliffside will be a major source of toxic pollutants, such as mercury, and so is required to install the most effective controls available.
Thornburg said last December that the environmental groups “might be right”. He said Thursday that the groups can sue again in Federal court if the upcoming state ruling isn’t to their liking.
Duke Energy claimed that Thornburg’s decision shows that their side of the story — that Cliffside will be plenty clean — is valid. A representative of the Southern Environmental Law Center, a party to the suit, said that Thornburg’s ruling basically puts a decision off to a later day.
Manning argues that the state can’t make the game legal in one place (Cherokee) and not another (everyplace else).
Advocates of the ruling say the state is hypocritical in that it raises funds for itself through a lottery. These advocates say that by banning video poker, North Carolina is simply eliminating competition for the public’s gambling dollar.
Opponents of the ruling call video poker the “crack cocaine” of gambling, and a political corruption-magnet to boot.
The Charlotte Observer weighs in here.
CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina football coach Dennis Wagner and his staff brought an aggressive new recruiting style to Cullowhee, and this Wednesday, after their first full recruiting year, they’ll show off the results.
They’ve already shown extraordinary success in the mountains, impressing high school coaches who hadn’t been impressed by Western for a while, and landing three of the area’s top recruits.
Wagner’s style is to offer often and early, determining a player’s skill set and putting his cards on the table. This is opposed to the poker game some schools play with recruits, demanding early commitments, holding their offers contingent on other considerations, and so forth.
Below is a partial list of recruits, as pulled from newspaper reports and scouting reports. It might represent a third of the kids Wagner is pursuing, and since some of the info was provided by the kids to their local papers, the accuracy could be a little off here and there. Per NCAA rules, the school can’t talk until Wednesday.
These recruits were rated “Two-star” by Rivals.com
These recruits weren’t rated by Rivals.com
The Charlotte Observer calls out Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry.
A quote:
Rather than ensuring that her department is tough in enforcing workplace safety laws, Berry has bragged that she considers employers to be “partners.” She says her department does more to improve safety by cooperating with businesses than by levying stiff fines.
His column last Sunday gave the broad perspective on Wachovia’s travails, and banking history in the Piedmont.
I was raised up a Cullowhee mountainside, so when my family traveled to see grandparents in Charlotte I took in such sights as the Queen City skyline — then presided over by the old NCNB building — with awe.
As usual, Betts’ column was evocative, partially due to his skillful turn-of-phrase, but also because I clearly remember my grandparents reading him back in the day.
It was a well done story.
They’ll soon be gone, these evergreen anchors of our forests, victims of a combination of acid rain, drought, and a bug called the woolly adelgid. The emotions that surround their passing are probably similar to those earlier highlanders felt as huge american chestnut trees died by the thousands and, if they weren’t cut, eventually came crashing down — also victims of blight.
Partial view of the Plott Balsams, from Sylva
There are a couple of places I think of first when I think of the deaths of all these mountain firs: one is Caldwell Fork, high up the wall of Cataloochee Valley, not far from the spot Henderson visits in his piece. I used to spend some time up there, and the view from many spots along the trail gave me my perfect example of our high coves: steep, cool and damp, with clearly defined layers of evergreen and deciduous tree canopy and understories of rhododendron, laurel and all kinds of shrubs. Down low, where the stream tumbles along, is an absolute dance of life: ferns, wildflowers, mushrooms and mosses, salamanders and brook trout. Insects of all types.
The constant, cool evergreen ceiling makes all of this happen. Soon that canopy will go.
Another place — or sight, rather — is very different. Those of us who have spent our lives around Jackson County know the sight of the proud Plott Balsam mountain range like we know our own mantelpieces. They march away from Sylva toward Balsam Gap, and from many vantage points their silhouette is sharp and memorable. Sadly, though, the epaulettes of evergreens along the Plotts, signifying a truly formidable range, will soon be gone.
Here’s Henderson’s story, which is worth a read.
Many teachers tell us that it is an extraordinary concept and that it works wonders.
Bill Poteat, a teacher from the foothills and a columnist for the Charlotte Observer’s Gaston Edition tells us about his recent visit.
