Monday, November 24, 2008
environment / North Carolina NBAF final enviro report due next week
Posted by Lisa Sorg on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 at 8:15 AM
Be thankful if the federal disease lab doesn't come to Butner: The Final Environmental Impact Statement for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility is due shortly after Thanksgiving.
The Manhattan (Kans.) Mercury quoted DHS spokesman John Verrico as saying the document would be released in the first week of December.
The draft version was released last June, totaling more than 1,000 pages. It evaluated the suitability of the five proposed sites—Butner, N.C.; San Antonio, Texas; Manhattan, Kans.; Flora, Miss.; and Athens, Ga.—plus the existing Plum Island Animal Research Center off the NY coast.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Food / business / Raleigh Capital City Grocery closes in Raleigh
Posted by David Fellerath on Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 9:45 AM
The latest attempt to establish a locally-owned, downtown grocery has failed.
New Raleigh has the story, and a passionate discussion thread.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Uncategorized Last minute show: Howe Gelb @ Carrboro's The Station
Posted by Grayson Currin on Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 7:54 PM
Giant Sand mastermind Howe Gelb flies into RDU around 10 p.m. tonight. He'll go onstage in trio-form to at 11:30 at Southern Rail. The secret show was set up by his new label folks at Yep Roc.
Friday, November 21, 2008
media / Durham The Slammer arrives in Durham
Posted by David Fellerath on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 7:50 PM
Durhamites dying to look at the pathetic mug shots of fellow citizens will want to dash out to a nearby gas station to grab a $1 issue of The Slammer.
The Slammer is a cheaply produced tabloid that is almost entirely composed of the downcast scowls of citizens recently charged with criminal offenses. It's been in business in Charlotte for more than a year, and came to Raleigh last spring.
We bought the inaugural Durham issue in a gas station on Avondale and looked in vain for someone we knew. We also looked very hard for ads: Mostly they were for bail bondsmen, although one nightclub party promoter and a retailer of custom wheels also saw fit to advertise, as did a Greensboro lawyer.
In July, The News and Observer published a piece on this paper and its publisher, Isaac W. Cornetti--who does business under the nom de plume Dash Dangerfield. At the time of the story's publication, The Slammer's circulation was 11,000, and one Raleigh bail bondsman reported paying $700 a month to advertise in it. Reporter Sarah Ovaska also noted Cornetti's own checkered past, which includes prison time. "Anyone can change," Cornetti told Ovaska.
Asked what makes for a good mug shot, Cornetti said, "A good, kooky, shocked, outraged, happy look: some extreme show of emotion. A good hairdo helps."
The one bit of editorial content in The Slammer is a column about the status of the death penalty in North Carolina, which seems to come out against the "barbaric practice of killing people in the name of the government."
Raleigh Marguerite Lightner dies; she was Raleigh's first lady
Posted by Bob Geary on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 4:36 PM
Mrs. Lightner, 84, was the wife of the late Mayor Clarence Lightner, Raleigh's only African-American mayor. Services are Tuesday at Davie Street Presbyterian. More here.
education / Raleigh / News NCSU racist graffiti tagger's year of a thousand mea culpas begins
Posted by Vernal Coleman on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 3:07 PM
One of the four as of yet unnamed NCSU students who took to the campus Free Expression Tunnel to unload some post-election racist bile frustration issued a written apology this week.
"The statements written in the Tunnel were written with political intentions in mind," he said in a released statement.
I'm having a bit of trouble buying his implication that what began as an attempt to express some benign apprehension about the election of Obama the candidate suddenly devolved, whereupon Obama the man was referred to as a nigger, and his getting Lincolned was glibly advocated for. But, let's let the young man finish:
I am aware that racial differences were brought into play by my words, but I want to ensure the university that no physical harm was intended. My intentions were simply to express my views on the outcome of the election, but went too far.
I am very sorry for my actions and for the anger and fear brought to NC State. I am also ashamed of the bad light spread on this prestigious university. In addition to my apology, I want to assure the campus that there is no threat to anyone's safety.
So, godspeed to you unnamed NCSU coed. Most of your takeaway seems to address the fallout of your actions rather than the actions themselves. You and the other three students involved are getting no pity from the student body. And the NAACP is still calling for your expulsion. But, hopefully, you will walk away from this a bit wiser, if not less of an asshole.
Read the full statement here.
North Carolina Bad economic news snapshot
Posted by Fiona Morgan on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:08 PM
Unemployment is 7 percent in North Carolina, half a percent above the national average, according to October figures released today.
The state could face a budget shortfall of more than $3 billion next year (PDF).
State schools are being asked to cut their budgets by $58 million.
UNC's endowment has lost 13 percent of its value, meaning less money available for financial aid.
More kids are going to bed hungry, with less money available for food stamps.
What do we do now?
politics / Raleigh / national / North Carolina / Durham Kromm: The South is rising again!
Posted by Bob Geary on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 12:39 PM
The Institute for Southern Studies launches its new online magazine, Facing South, with a Chris Kromm piece celebrating the re-emergence of the South as a useful political force in America -- in short, we're not just whistling Dixie with Jesse Helms any more.
In fact, the 2008 elections provided two important lessons about the South, clear to any willing to see them: First, the South is rapidly changing in a way that makes it a more -- not less -- politically competitive region.And second, despite the fevered hopes of certain wings of the Northern intelligentsia, the South's political clout is rapidly growing -- making the South a centerpiece of any strategy for national political power.
And who's lifting the South to such Olympia heights? Well, with all due modesty, it's our very own Triangle metros:
The Urban South: The South's voters are increasingly based in rapidly growing urban areas. Seven of the country's 10 fastest growing cities are in the South. Metro areas like Atlanta, Northern Virginia, and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. are becoming centers of political power -- which, as 2008 showed, increasingly favor Democrats.
Durham City Manager Bonfield has a new plan for Durham
Posted by Fiona Morgan on Fri, Nov 21, 2008 at 11:59 AM
Durham's always been at the mercy of its city manager, for better or worse or worse still. Lately, signs are pointing to a change for the better under the leadership of Tom Bonfield.
Today's N&O story, headlined "No bull for the Bull City," gives props to Bonfield for an emphasis on -- yes, Virginia -- "fiscal discipline, cooperation, strategic planning, set priorities, [and] saying 'No'" and lays out Bonfield's plan to reorganize the city's 23 departments into three teams, to be headed by deputy city managers.
Kevin Davis at Bull City Rising says this is a win for neighborhoods, and notes expanded responsibilities for another respected member of the city team, Ted Voorhees.
We're curious whom Bonfield will tap to head up the "Community Building," team, which will include city/county planning, neighborhood improvement and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the last of which oversees the Durham Performing Arts Center. See Matt Saldaña's story in this week's Indy for more.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Cary Cary developer in Chapter 11
Posted by Fiona Morgan on Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 2:59 PM
We all know the real estate market is in bad shape, but this is a pretty serious indicator of how bad: MacGregor Development, which built the quintessential Cary golf-course communities of MacGregor Downs and Lochmere, is in bankruptcy, Triangle Business Journal reports. The company was founded in the 1960s and has survived one bankruptcy in the early 1990s.
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