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When we become the story …

April 24th, 2008, 9:56 am by madisontaylor

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Wednesday Sam Roberts spent most of his day at Elon University doing what he does best — taking photos for the Times-News. As usual, Sam — with help from photo intern Scott Muthersbaugh — did a great job chronicling the visit to Elon by former President Clinton.
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All in a day’s work, Sam would tell you.
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Sam, like most of us, got into this business because he loves covering news. There’s an exciting quality to doing the work and performing it well. Some call it an adrenaline rush. I like to say it’s what gets a photographer through the logistical nightmare of wading through large crowds, fighting other photographers and videographers for space to shoot and wrangling with security or police at a scene. It’s not easy work. Most days it’s physically and emotionally demanding. And for every great event to cover like a presidential visit, there are a dozen tragedies or near-tragedies that also must be photographed or reported.
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Sam knows this all too well — and now from every angle.

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Less than a week ago Sam’s duplex apartment on Fifth Street burned due to a problem with the wiring. He lost nearly all his possessions.
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And he became the news. This is what he told me about that later.
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“The thought of becoming the news was always in the back of my mind since I began my illustrious career as a photojournalist along the lines of “That would be embarrassing if I got into a car wreck and a photographer from the paper showed up at the scene.”

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The newsroom heard about a fire on Fifth Street shortly after 4 p.m. on April 18 when general manager Mike Little alerted us during the middle of our afternoon budget meeting. Photo chief Pete Schumacher immediately left the office to check it out. It was only two blocks away. In minutes he called my office.
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“It’s Sam’s place,” he said.
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“Stay and shoot pictures,” I told him and sent our nighttime reporter Brie Handgraaf to get the story and video.

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By the time I got there about 10 minutes later it was clear that no injuries had occurred. Everyone got out safely — Sam wasn’t home at the time the fire broke out. He was called away from an assignment to attend to this serious piece of business. When I arrived Sam was on the scene. He was, as most would expect, beside himself. He occasionally placed his hands to either side of his head and paced. Every so often he would stop and growl to the sky. He dropped a few of those words George Carlin once joked couldn’t be said on TV. That was a long time ago.
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I talked to Sam while Pete and Brie did their jobs. Sam didn’t pay much attention. He was hoping to save the computer equipment on which his most recent photos were stored. He wasn’t too worried about anything else because he had renters’ insurance. Burlington firefighters tried their best to make it happen. They saved his laptop computer and eventually got his external hard drive out. Our tech people are still trying to figure out if the contents will still work between the water and heat damage.
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Meanwhile we filed Brie’s story online and in print. Pete submitted photos, but didn’t feel good about it. He knew it was his job, but he didn’t have to like it. Brie put a video online — as we do with many stories these days. It didn’t make her day, either. The mood back at the office — from the front desk to advertising — shifted from worry to concern to gloom.

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Sam was philosophical about it.
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“The thought of the newspaper turning the camera on me is little disheartening. One of my photojournalism teachers told us a story in class one day about how he photographed a small child that had drowned in a pool in Florida. The newspaper struggled about whether or not to run the photo of the lifeless child being pulled out of the pool. The newspaper decided to run the photo in the next day’s paper. They caught a lot of flack from the community about publishing the photo. Within a month the city passed a law regarding fences around pools to prevent drownings from happening. I guess my point is that no matter what cards life deals you, you have to turn them into something positive and learn from the tragedy.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I would hope that the photos and video of my apartment burning down might remind someone to check the batteries on their smoke detectors and consider getting renters insurance. People keep coming up and telling my how sorry they are for what happened to me and if there is anything they can do to help. I keep telling them that all I lost was stuff at least I was not injured or killed. You can replace stuff but not life. Thanks to all those who have provided kind words and support.”

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Wednesday Sam was out there again, doing the job he does best. Check out some of his photos as well as Scott’s. The Times-News is lucky to have quality people like Sam out there doing the job. And I’d be willing to bet that the next time he covers a fire he’ll remember what happened on Fifth Street on April 18. It’ll likely make him a better photographer, too.
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How could he not?
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Posted in: Inside the Times-News • Just thinking out loud • Welcome | 1 Comment »

The Monday e-mailbag a day late, several dollars short and in need of a loan to fill my tank with gas

April 22nd, 2008, 10:37 am by madisontaylor

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A guy named Ross Gosse of Locust — that’s Locust, N.C. — sends me his editorial cartoons every so often. He takes on state issues and will do local ‘toons on political subjects or issues if we buy his service. I’ll open this week with one and close with another. As always, feel free to tell me what you think.
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Otherwise, didn’t get a large batch of mail this weekend but had one great message from Rett Davis, the retired chief of the Alamance County Cooperative Extension office and a regular garden columnist for the Times-News.
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He had a good story idea for us to pursue. Here he goes.
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Madison
In all the rhetoric about the new Jordan Lake rules I have not read whether we are the first county in NC to be subjected to these new standards. I do know that other counties such as Wake are under more stringent watershed rules than Alamance with no obvious affect on development. However, are the proposed rules for Alamance different and more restrictive?
It may be worth the investigation to see how other communities in our state have dealt with these rules and the results from abiding by them. We could get a clearer picture on the real costs and consequences.
Thanks and keep up the good reporting,
Rett Davis

I do believe we’ll follow Rett’s suggestion. Thanks, as usual, for some good thinking.

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Here’s a note concerning our story published Monday “Into the woods: County wants to open Duke Forest Land to Pleasant Grove” from a regular e-mail writer.
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Mr Taylor:
Does County government do anything right these days? If you guys would check the property that these camera buffs are trying to seize or utilize butts up to a hunting club with 30-06s buzzing around your ears would you go out and take a stroll? Ask Bobby Kinbrell he owns the club. Oh, maybe we can put cameras out in the new park and catch a pilgrim getting his or her head blown off. You’d think the county would learn seeing as how they have on film the beating of the 15 year old boy down at the jail. Question, is the family of this young man going to sue Boss Terry and Boss David?

If they can’t control spending, maybe if this kids family sues for enough they can take over the county and run it with an eye to belt tightening in this period of recession.

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And my friend Jim Harris had this to add to my post about former President Clinton’s visit and his love of barbecue.

Madison
As you know, Arkansas is home state for the wife and I. I went to the U of A and knew many of Clinton’s running buddies. Matter of fact I proposed to my bride in the Law Library garden when Clinton was a young law prof. I also was in the Army ROTC program when he sent his letter saying “I am not going” that became an item of discussion in ethics. But that is another story.

The better story is that my dad and I were commissioned from the same ROTC program.
Wooo Pig Soooie
Jim

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Please, somebody yell Woo Pig Soooie on Wednesday when the former prez is introduced. It’ll make him feel right at home.
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By the way, this cartoon by Ross hits the point on gas prices.
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Posted in: The e-mailbag • Welcome • Why we do things | Post a Comment »

Bill Clinton: The man, the myth, the … barbecue

April 21st, 2008, 11:40 am by madisontaylor

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Say what you want about Bill Clinton — and when it comes to the former president most do — but the big guy knows barbecue.
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I saw the above photo a few weeks back when Clinton dropped in on New Bern as part of his campaign to return the family unit back to Washington. Just before he left for Jacksonville — about two hours behind schedule — he took the time to drop by the table where Moore’s Barbecue set up shop for the event and laid on a heavy helping of pork and chicken.

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Gotta say that Bill’s showing good taste here. Moore’s was my personal favorite during my time in Eastern North Carolina.
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Anyway, Bill’s coming to B-town on Wednesday, actually Elon to be more precise — and Hillsborough too. I was wondering when he’d get here. The man’s been literally everywhere else in the state as he stumps for wife Sen. Hillary Clinton.
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But folks planning to go should expect him to run a little late — because he always does. And it might not hurt to have a little food on hand, too.
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Wonder what he’d think of Hursey’s?

Posted in: Just thinking out loud • Politics too complicated for politicians • Welcome | 2 Comments »

Let’s go to the videotape!

April 19th, 2008, 4:56 pm by madisontaylor

Here’s a first look at my column for Sunday, April 20. This is the version prior to it being placed on the page so it may be a little more rough than the actual printed one.
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I put it up now so I could establish a link to go with it. This is an online package of stories and video about the Alamance County commissioners vote mentioned here. Just select ACTA request to see the part of the video I’m writing about. Remember, though, my issue isn’t with ACTA, just the way this vote came down.
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Enjoy …

Wow, that didn’t take long.
That’s the first thing I thought last week when I took a glance at the Internet video of the April 7 meeting of the Alamance County Commissioners. It was the board’s first televised session ever, not to mention the only one in the area streamed on the Web — and it was memorable.
Yep, not long at all.
Yes, give credit where it’s due. The board, with the help of Commissioner Ann Vaughan, is batting 1.000 in the relatively new art of producing almost YouTube-worthy online video.
I say almost because as far as I know the clip of Vaughan fervently not voting on a request for $50,000 by the Alamance County Transportation Authority but in essence voting anyway, hasn’t been posted for worldwide consumption on the Internet’s popular video-viewing site. But it sure seems to belong there alongside the talking cats, the kid who mimics Will Farrell as President Bush or the lonely guy and his one-man performance of “The Big Lebowski.”

Not that I watch YouTube or anything like that. I have enough questionable habits already. But if you add in the Burlington City Council meeting last week featuring the antics of state Rep. Cary Allred, this watching local politicians on TV and online could become addictive — especially at election time.

FOR THOSE who haven’t seen the commissioner video — and anybody can do so by finding the story on TheTimesNews.com or by checking my blog — Vaughan steadfastly refuses to vote on whether to appropriate the money for ACTA. Her overall concern was valid. With the county in budget free-fall, a late request for $50,000 seemed worthy of serious question.
“I’m in a confused state,” Vaughan says on the video as board Chairman Larry Sharpe prods her to make a decision. “it’s a hard vote,’ she adds.

Sharpe and other board members probably wouldn’t have been so incredulous had the commissioners not been deadlocked 2-2 on the issue. Vaughan essentially had three options: She could vote yes. She could vote no or she could ask to abstain. According to the rules of the board a non-vote counts as a yes. They reminded her of this.
She then took Phantom Option No. 4 and $50,000 went to ACTA as requested.
“Who said this job is easy,” notes Vaughan, who later explained to Times-News reporter Robert Boyer that she was trying to make a stand against 11th hour money requests from county departments.
I’ve watched the video three times in a vain search for this stand.

FAST FORWARD to Tuesday’s City Council meeting concerning the Jordan Lake Rules — which isn’t online yet but remains must-see TV via that this suddenly antiquated technology called cablevision.

In what became a one-sided version of Whack-A-Mole, Allred kept popping up in different parts of the room to make comments during the council’s hearing on the controversial rules. In his role as a state lawmaker this was absolutely appropriate. Allred, R-Alamance, was there to question the costly set of regulations and help the council in his role as a state House member. I applaud him for being there.
But Allred also took a couple of minutes at the beginning of the meeting to talk before an audience and on TV about something that didn’t pertain to the Jordan Lake Rules at all — or even any issue remotely tied to council business. Namely he wanted to expound on an article written about him last month in a local monthly magazine. He’s done so in public many times over the past few weeks.
When I talked to Allred last week about the time he spent before a government body carrying on about an issue that involved only himself he saw nothing wrong with it.
“I wanted it to be on TV,” he said. “I thought it would get a wide audience.”
The council didn’t gavel him down for it — or even charge an advertising fee, which might be a way to cover the costs for future video productions online by the city.

In fact, council could take this idea another step and simply hand over a small part of the meeting for people to simply talk about absolutely anything they want to, from flying saucers to the alleged TransAmerica Highway — for a small fee of course.
Just a thought.

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See you Tuesday.

Posted in: Just thinking out loud • Politics too complicated for politicians • Welcome | 2 Comments »

The e-mail bag, special edition DAY 3 … an old friend weighs in

April 16th, 2008, 8:57 am by madisontaylor

A longtime acquaintance called on Tuesday with some issues about our Palm Beach Diet, skinnier Times-News, which we rolled out for readers on Monday.

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And this one knows the newspaper inside and out.
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“You said you haven’t received any complaints, well I have one,” said Sally Bell of Burlington, who knew me here back when I was a sports writer with more energy than common sense. Sally was among our staff of page builders in the 1980s — when there was such a thing. Years ago newsroom copy desk staffers would send crudely drawn page designs upstairs to the Times-News composing room where talented and patient folks such as Sally would assemble our text, headlines and photos into the pages delivered to readers each afternoon.
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They worked with Exacto knives and line gauges, constructing works of art from drawings even our copy editors couldn’t read if asked five minutes after they finished it. I worked with Sally and lots of other people in composing: Clyde Sipe, Tom Day, Sylvia McCormick, Kaye Howell, Frank Scheretz, Frank Handy … the list goes on and on.

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Today those jobs are done on computers by the copy editors. I’ll always miss going to composing, though. I’m old school. Can’t help it.
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Anyway, Sally called on Tuesday and reminded me that we worked together. I knew she was still in the area because I speak to her husband Jack frequently about things in the newspaper. She made sure to tell me that she was glad I had reached this position at the Times-News and enjoyed knowing me years ago.
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But she had a complaint.
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“It’s just so odd-shaped and hard to read it,” she said of our new 46-inch paper, with an inch missing from each side.

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She also felt that our space is more limited these days.
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“There are too many ads and no news,” she said. “There should be more national news in the A section and not in the Region section.”

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On the subject of space in the A section, she has a point and a good one. We’re working to improve this but so much has to do with advertising sales. More ad sales usually equal more pages. When the economy improves, hopefully our space may as well. But I’ll definitely keep my eye on it.
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“It’s hard to get used to something that’s so radically changed,” Sally said finally.

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In many ways, I know how she feels.
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Got a call from a reader on Wednesday who said the classified section was almost impossible to read now. And I’m not even an older person.”
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“I’d almost rather pay more for the paper than to make it this small,” she said.

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I heard from more readers on Tuesday afternoon with positive comments, including a call from a man who did not give his name that closed with this quote.
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“Thank you very much for having a good newspaper.”

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I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say that this is perhaps my favorite thing to hear from any of our customers. In fact, it likely falls in the top five on a list of things I like to hear — somewhere after “Hey, you just won the Powerball Lottery!” and “Free beer.”

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He also said this:
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“I don’t notice the inch or so. That’s great. It’s good to know you’re conserving resources to keep the cost of the paper down. It’s an example for the entire community to save, especially with high energy costs these days.”
“I also appreciate your online service. It’s good to be able to check obituaries throughout the day to see if anybody you know has passed on.”

“Thanks for the paper. It’s a tremendous improvement over the past year, especially the past few months.”

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As the Cowardly Lion said in “The Wizard of Oz,” “Shucks folks, I’m speechless.”
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A reader in Caswell County who has taken the paper since the time when her daddy had to sell the crops in order to pay the subscription rate for the year, called to say how much she likes the Times-News.

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“I’ve been reading it all my life and I’m 71,” she said. “The day wouldn’t be complete without the paper.”

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I’d like to clone a fleet of readers like this.

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Posted in: Inside the Times-News • The e-mailbag • Welcome • Why we do things | Post a Comment »

Already itching for the Flea …

April 8th, 2008, 11:56 am by madisontaylor

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Faye Boswell likely didn’t need another thing to worry about. Then on Monday the longtime head of the Alamance Caswell Hospice Flea Market got exactly that.
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“Yesterday we couldn’t use this room,” she said on Tuesday as she glanced around an upstairs area in the large expanse of the NIKE II building at the old Western Electric plant on Graham Hopedale Road. “The floor was covered with water this high,” she added and spread her hands an inch or two apart.

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Not exactly what organizers and volunteers want to see at the new home of the popular Flea Market — the largest fund-raiser of its kind in this area and a Herculean undertaking anywhere and anytime.
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“A water pipe broke, or I guess a water main,” Boswell said.
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Luckily nothing was damaged by the water — at least not much a mop and some hard work couldn’t fix right up. The folks at Hospice are plenty used to the latter.

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That much was evident on Tuesday when a group of media folks and business people gathered to talk about how to publicize the Flea Market. Seemingly dozens of volunteers were there at the same time moving furniture, artwork, books, computers and appliances that will go up for sale starting on June 13.
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There was no outward sign of any water trouble at all by mid-morning Tuesday. The new home for the Flea Market still needs some touching up. After all, it’s been 20 years or so since the structure was used for much of anything. Since it was decided late last year that the Flea Market would occupy this site, workers have been in overdrive getting the 100,000 square feet of shopping area ready and coordinating parking and interior safety issues with Burlington police.
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Now they want to get word out to the public about where the Flea Market will be this year.
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That’s where the media types came in on Tuesday. The Times-News has been a large supporter of the fund-raiser over the years and that will continue. In the past we’ve covered any news regarding the Flea Market, profiled organizers and featured prominent volunteers (anybody remember the little girl who sold lemonade there last year? Well, she will be there again this year). We’ve covered the setting up, the opening and the closing and in-between we’ve sent in two reporters with $50 so they could write stories about what they bought.

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We’ll still do all that stuff this year, too.
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But we do plan to add a major online component. An ongoing site here at TheTimesNews.com about the Flea Market will provide information, schedules, maps, lists of items up for sale and even pictures provided by retired Times-News photographer Jack Sink.
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The print stuff will start on Sunday with a story about the new site by Mike Wilder — who has covered the Flea Market extensively over the years. The building and location will offer some interesting changes for the event — including a possible tie-in with neighboring Western Steakhouse, which is looking into sponsoring an outdoor cafe with some of the proceeds going to Hospice.

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“But not hot dogs,” Boswell said in reference to the cafe’s menu. “We make 100 percent on (our) hot dogs.”

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Posted in: Coming soon online • Just thinking out loud • Welcome | Post a Comment »

Five years already feels like forever, day 2

March 27th, 2008, 1:57 pm by madisontaylor

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E-mail’s a wonderful thing, except on those days when the box if full of advertising for male erectile dysfunction products, vague itineraries for presidential candidates or rude or borderline obnoxious demands from congressional candidates seeking a correction to a story.
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More on that last one in a future post, promise.
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The e-mail I wrote a column about in July 2003 during the first stages of the war in Iraq, is actually about an aspect of the larger global war on terror. A Marine from Camp Lejeune sent the picture and note to me when I worked as managing editor of the Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C.
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The July 18 column follows and the photo is here, too. It’s part of a series of reprinted columns I’m posting this week as part of the five-year anniversary of the war in Iraq.
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Peace, two fingers.
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“Proud to be a small part of a special bond”
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“Gents, Just wanted to send you this photo. We found this laminated front page of the JD News in the Ground Zero family viewing area when we returned the PAPD flags during Memorial Day/Fleet Week after our deployment.
Best,
Dan
That message arrived in my e-mail the first part of June. Dan, is Capt. Dan McSweeney who holds down the job as public affairs officer for the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. The photo came in the form of an attachment. I don’t have the technical know-how to successfully describe an “attachment” or how it works. I just know it does.

In this case, it’s enough.

Now, Dan McSweeney is one of those significant people we deal with in the newspaper business. He’s the guy who sends out news of the MEU – good or bad. He’s the guy who makes a beef when we get something wrong or says thanks when we get it right. And he’s the guy who calls me by surprise from Iraq with MEU commander Col. Richard Mills in tow asking if we have a reporter on hand who can interview him, RIGHT NOW.

What Dan may or may not know is that generally speaking, RIGHT NOW usually means that I’m the only one available – which sets up a frantic rush to develop intelligent questions for a colonel fresh from combat besides, “So, is it dry over there or what?”

Let’s just say that Col. Mills was a very good sport when it comes to dealing with addled newspaper editors.

Anyway, the front page was dated August 26, 2002, and described the departure of the 24th MEU the previous day. It was indeed, the Jacksonville Daily News – not the tabloid published in Brooklyn. Oddly enough, the two are often confused by New York callers given the wrong number by operators. Believe me, I’ve had a fair share of them who have then managed to keep me on the phone for five or 10 minutes before I realize that the scandal to which they are referring is in Queens, not North Topsail Beach.

I was stunned by the photo, which clearly shows the keepsake paper with the New York skyline in the background and the pit where reconstruction at the site of the terrorist attack continues. It’s a long way to travel for such a little newspaper. Couldn’t fathom how it got there or why.

McSweeney had the answers.

The 24th MEU, en route home from combat in Iraq after a nine-month deployment, detoured to New York for Fleet Week so its members could return the World Trade Center memorial flag to the Port Authority Police Department. The MEU represented the PAPD and the 37 officers it lost on Sept. 11, 2001 – the day Muslim extremists drove jetliners into the Twin Towers, killing thousands of Americans.

From that day forward, it was a foregone conclusion that the Marines and other branches of the military service would be called to fight terrorism.

Then the Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune and the Port Authority Police Department kind of, well, adopted each other. The laminated newspaper was a way of showing solidarity.

“I believe the PAPD were the ones who put the front page there,” McSweeney said. “It was a big deal for the 24th MEU to represent the 37 PAPD officers who were killed on 9/11. During all the post-attack events, there was a bit of confusion about the fact that the Port Authority, which owned the WTC, had their own police department, and they didn’t get the same level of coverage as the NYPD or FDNY. This was a shame, as that department suffered more casualties than any other police department in U.S. history (I don’t know if that’s proportionally speaking or not.)”

McSweeney had Gunnery Sgt. Mike Dougherty take the photo. Mills was with them along with Gunnery Sgt. Nelson Valentin, Sgt. Dennis Macaulay and Sgt. Charles Rodriguez. McSweeney said Rodriguez lost a sister at the World Trade Center, while Macaulay’s former neighbor was a PAPD officer killed at the site.

“When we saw the mounted JD News in the viewing area, we were pleasantly surprised,” McSweeney said.

“It was good to see that folks visiting Ground Zero would be able to see the partnership that had developed between the PAPD and the 24th MEU – between two important front-line organizations, one military and one civilian.”

I’m glad we could play a small role, too.

And Dan, thanks for the photo.

Like I said, some things take you by surprise. The Marines finding one of our newspapers at the World Trade Center blast site took my breath away.
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It still does.

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Posted in: Past imperfect • Welcome | Post a Comment »

Tales of two Barrys

March 13th, 2008, 6:11 am by madisontaylor

Our own Raleigh Bureau columnist Barry Smith tackled this subject today. I know why. The talk on the Internet since the horrific slaying of UNC Student Body President Eve Carson has been more than troubling. The racial overtones are almost suffocating for any rational thinker.

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But no offense to our Barry, the Raleigh News and Observer’s Barry Saunders says it better — and from a different perspective. Here’s what he wrote this morning, the day after two black men were charged in Carson’s killing.

By Barry Saunders
The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Hey, wait a minute, pal. I didn’t kill anybody. Honest.
Ever since the black dude showed up on television in the hooded sweat shirt and tilted baseball cap profiling for the ATM camera — no, even before he showed up on television — trying to withdraw cash from Eve Carson’s account, I’ve been getting telephone calls and e-mail from people guaranteeing that her killer was black.

Now that two suspects have been charged in her killing, don’t expect the quality of Internet discourse to improve.
The people from whom I heard were equally confident that I was — as was every other black person in the Triangle — somehow responsible for her death and would ultimately pay the price for it.
One of the more thoughtful, responses I received to Carson’s death — we’re grading on a curve here, folks — referred to the baseball cap insignia: “Your bro Cool Papa Astro has set race relations, at least in the Triangle area, back 100 years.”
I knew that was coming.
That’s why most black people I know thought — no, prayed — that the person responsible wasn’t black. A lot of us won’t admit, even to ourselves, that we feel that way, but trust me. We do.
The violent death of anyone is tragic and diminishes us all, although the impact is usually most profoundly felt among friends and family members.

Eve Carson’s death was a loss that will reverberate throughout society because of the good she won’t be able to accomplish. A person that young who had already had such a positive impact on her world, as evidenced by the thousands of students who gathered at the campus vigil in her honor, could over time have had an immeasurable impact on the larger world.
The people suspected in her death are black, but they represent all black people about as much as Timothy McVeigh or those Columbine killers represent all white people — which is to say not at all.
Evil is not race-specific.
If they represent anything, they represent our failure as a society, but mostly as a black society, to adequately address the problem of young black dudes who’ve seemingly bought into the predatory gangsta lifestyle romanticized in some rap music and videos.
Don’t look at me like that. It’s no secret that a disproportionately high percentage of crimes is committed by young black males. That’s something we all have an obligation to address because, guess what, they sometimes venture forth from their own blighted neighborhoods into idealized slices of heaven such as Chapel Hill.
You know what would be sad? And ironic? If my letter-writer was right and Carson’s death led to a widening of the racial chasm in the Triangle.

By all accounts, she was a person who treated everyone well, from the Tar Heel basketball star to the lowly freshman science nerd. Believe me, 5,000 people don’t show up at vigils for peers who led self-involved, cliquish lives.
A black woman interviewed on television as she entered the church for Eve’s funeral said Eve and she were best friends from high school. At her funeral, I saw blacks and whites grieving her loss, none as much as one brother whose whole body heaved with each heartbroken sob.
Eve Carson won’t get to fulfill the promise her past only hinted at, but her legacy would be tarnished if ultimate blame for her death were attributed to anyone but the misanthrope who actually pulled the trigger.

There’s really nothing I can add to that. Thanks Barry — both of you.

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Political droppings ….

March 5th, 2008, 9:08 am by madisontaylor

Got a call on Monday from a flak for state Treasurer Richard Moore, one of the two leading Democratic candidates for governor. Could Moore, who also once served as director of Crime Control and Public Safety, stop by the Times-News and talk about his campaign a little with us newspaper types, we were asked.

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I thought only briefly about bolting the front door and bulking up security. Then I answered the way we have for literally decades.
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Absolutely.
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It’s the polite thing to do. And besides, I usually learn something important when candidates drop by for a visit. Let’s put it this way, I don’t always find out something that gets my vote but often I discover something that’ll lose it.
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And sometimes, but not often, I discover an amazing person. That happened several years ago when current Secretary of State Elaine Marshall paid a visit.
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Anyway, for political candidates a stop by the newspaper office is so obligatory that it’s almost a cliche. I’m not sure where it started – in fact it seems weird these days that a political candidate would want to have anything to do with a newspaper editor or reporter. Still, so far this year we’ve hosted Republican gubernatorial hopeful Fred Smith, GOP lieutenant governor candidate state Sen. Robert Pittenger and now long-gone and all but forgotten GOP presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California.
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They all did OK. They didn’t lose my vote.
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Moore dropped in Tuesday to press his own state economic stimulus plan. He didn’t have much time. These folks never do.

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But he did offer a couple of great quotes that didn’t make it into our story online and in the Times-News. Here they are.
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About holding Democratic front-runner Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue accountable Moore said this:
“I hope your profession doesn’t let her hide for eight weeks. I think it’s a pretty important job we’re running for.”
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About problems with the state DOT commission and how campaign fund-raising has too much influence on the board:
“If you take the money out you still have a good system.”

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Moore didn’t lose my vote today but he’s still got a way to go in order to get it. Targeting corruption at the DOT is a good start, waylaying
incentives is another.
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But I found out he’s got one thing going for him – he graduated from Wake Forest.

Gotta love that. I don’t know if there’s ever been a Demon Deacon Gov. I need to look it up.
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Speaking of Moore, I saw in the Raleigh News and Observer’s Under the Dome column that he has endorsed Barack Obama. Moore’s wife Noel also gave the campaign $2,300.
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I was frankly stunned Tuesday night because I thought it was a lock that Obama would go a long way toward sewing up the Democratic nomination for president when results trickled in
from primaries in Texas and Ohio.
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Now it’ll be a fight to he finish on the Democratic side. Of course, nobody but nobody really saw this coming even three months ago, unless you count my wife. She called Obama’s emergence a while back. I climbed aboard the wagon of believers after the South Carolina primary. It wasn’t so much that he won it, which he did by a wide margin but how he handled himself after. He delivered a tremendous speech touching on the broad themes that galvanize American voters. Then he rolled up his sleeves and
took on Super Tuesday. Let’s put it this way, he hasn’t lost my vote yet either.
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It was the kind of energetic winning politics that carried Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992. Today, however, the Clintons simply look tired,
beat down and ready to go home. Hillary got a boost on Tuesday but it’s hard to know if it’ll be enough. Nearly every 20-something I talk to seethes about the Clintons. Reminds me of how

I used to rail about Nixon back in the day.
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Speaking of tired and worn out, Under the Dome also reported that North Carolina’s congressional delegation didn’t fare well in a power ranking.
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This is how Dome put it.

“The fourth annual report by technology consulting firm Knowlegis on congressional power was based on leadership positions, indirect influence,
legislative activity and earmarks. Scores were also weighted with a “Sizzle/Fizzle” factor.

The average score of North Carolina’s delegation was 17.07, giving the state a rank of 44th.
Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr scored 18.94, ranking 69th in the Senate, while Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole scored 13.39, ranking 93rd.
(Burr’s rank within his own party, 27th, was highest of Tar Heel pols.)
As members of the majority party, Democrats tended to fare better than Republicans. In the House, Democratic Rep. Mel Watt of Charlotte scored 32.75, ranking 53rd; Democratic Rep. David Price of Chapel Hill scored 30.16, ranking 67th.
The least influential were Republican Rep. Robin Hayes of Concord, who scored 9.56 and ranked 360th; and Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of Banner
Elk, who scored 6.49 and ranked 399th.
No one in the North Carolina delegation received either “sizzle” or “fizzle” points.

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OK, lots of critics hate these kinds of rankings. Usually they’re compiled with sketchy information and with a political slant determined by one party or another. It always helps to look at who’s doing the actual ranking.
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So I don’t pay this much mind at all.
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But based on my observations I’d have to say whoever did this one is on the mark about Virginia Foxx, the worst House Rep. I’ve watched in more than 30 years. She makes the late Wilmer Vinegar Bend Mizell look like a genius. It was embarrassing to not only hear her during the recent
hearings regarding steroid abuse in baseball but to see her give Roger Clemens and his wife a big ol’ hug after it was all over.

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Wonder if she put The Rocket’s autograph on eBay yet?

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The unabridged election primer (Caution! Incidents of sarcasm ahead)

January 13th, 2008, 2:46 pm by madisontaylor

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Sometimes the newspaper just can’t fit everything we have to publish. Our election primer in Monday’s Times-News is like that. Here’s the complete version. Enjoy.

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Still puzzled by what actually happened at the Iowa caucuses? Does the presidential campaign so far leave you colder than frog’s butt (or voter’s snub) on a January day in New Hampshire? And speaking of New Hampshire, why in the heck does it get the first presidential primary anyway? Why not, for example, Wyoming?
Yes, for many the presidential primary season is harder to figure out than campaign finance regulations, last season’s final episode of “Lost” or the college football BCS. With media pundits declaring new Democratic and Republican nominees every other day and a dizzying array of primaries, caucuses, straw votes, debates and non-binding delegates it’s a wonder anybody gets elected at all.
But they do and it costs a boatload of money — roughly the gross national product of Costa Rica and then some — to get there

Here’s an easy Frequently Asked Questions feature to help befuddled voters navigate the bumpy campaign road ahead. Be careful of those potholes along the way. And please do not ask that we explain the actions of political candidates. Some things actually defy rational thought.

Q: What’s a primary?
A: Technically it’s an election held to nominate a candidate of a particular party prior to a forthcoming election for public office. Presidential primaries are held in most states every four years and are used as a means for candidates to collect delegates. The candidate reaching a certain percentage of delegates wins the nomination of either the Democratic or Republican parties. The final nominees then meet in November. Not all states have primaries. Some have caucuses, conventions or straw votes. Every announced candidate is not on every ballot in every state.
Estimated cost of this enterprise? A gajillion dollars.
On the local level primaries are much more straight forward. The winners for each party advance to the November general election. Estimated cost of this enterprise ranges from $2.75 to $10 million, depending upon how badly you want to get elected.

Q: I’m confused already.

A: We’re not surprised.

Q: When’s the North Carolina primary?
A: May 6

Q: Isn’t that way late?
A: If you compare it to virtually everybody else, yes it is.

Q: So will North Carolina have a say in who the presidential nominees are?

A: Not likely. The state hasn’t come into play on the primary stage since Ronald Reagan upset Gerald Ford in the 1976 North Carolina GOP primary. Reagan didn’t get the nomination that time but his win in this state made the race competitive to near the end and used it a springboard to his success in 1980. Today so many states have early primaries that it’ll likely make our presidential votes meaningless.

Q: So why does New Hampshire get to go first?
A: Because they’re New Hampshire dummy. Sheesh.

Q: No, really, why is it?
A: OK, New Hampshire actually passed a state law mandating that it be the first presidential primary forever and always — or at least until there are no more Bushes or Clintons available to run, whichever comes first. This is a status it’s enjoyed since 1920 and nearly 75 percent of New Hampshire’s economy depends on it. Three in five New Hampshireites derive their living primarily from the bar tabs of national media types.

For the record, long ago the primary was actually held in March but over time it got earlier and earlier because bigger states like Florida, South Carolina and Michigan wanted to horn in on New Hampshire’s big-time election action. It’s believed that this trend will continue and that the New Hampshire primary for the 2112 presidential race will actually be held next year, perhaps timed to coincide with the inauguration of the next president.

Q: What is the difference between a closed and open primary?
A: A closed primary is one in which only voters registered in a certain party can vote. For example, a Democrat would be allowed to cast ballots only in the Democratic primary and those registered as Independent would be out of luck. In an open primary anyone can vote in any race — but can only do so once — unless, historically speaking, the states are Illinois or Florida. Some states have modified open primaries strictly to allow Independent voters to cast ballots.

Q: What’s a caucus?

A: Strictly speaking a caucus is a meeting of members of a political party to plan action or select delegates for a nominating convention.
The Iowa caucuses held on Jan. 3 fall in to the latter category. It has become important over the years as an early test of strength among presidential candidates. Delegates for candidates, however, ARE NOT determined on caucus night. The caucuses, held by each party in the state’s 1,781 precincts, elect delegates to county conventions, which are held in March. Ultimately the process determines the number of delegates for which candidate.

Q: What’s a straw poll?
A: An unofficial vote or poll regarding candidates in the race. Straw votes are non-binding and involve no selection of delegates. Some TV pundits refer to these as “beauty contests.”

Q: Is there a point to that?
A: Not really.

Q: So what’s a delegate?
A: Delegates are those selected persons who actually attend the conventions of the two major parties. In North Carolina there are 134 Democratic delegates (though one source we found said 135). There are 69 Republican delegates. Those delegates, depending on the rules by state, are usually committed to a presidential primary or caucus hopeful based on a winner take all format or by dividing delegates based on percentage of the popular vote in that particular state. Delegates are collected by candidates throughout the primary season. Delegates frequently are committed to a candidate through one round of voting at the party’s nominating convention then they can vote for whomever they wish. But stay alert, rules for this vary by state.
At the Democratic convention there are actually more delegates than delegate votes. Thus some delegates have a half vote. This is the 1.5 persons you’ve likely heard about in national statistical charts.

Q: How, then, does a candidate win this thing?
A: According to the New York Times, to become the Republican nominee, a candidate needs to capture a majority of the 2,345 delegate votes. To become the Democratic nominee, a candidate needs to capture a majority of the 4,040 delegate votes.

Q: If nobody gets a majority of delegates what happens?

A: Anarchy obviously. But seriously, that means the annual conventions could turn into more than the boring informercials they’ve become over the past couple of decades. If no candidate captures a clear majority of delegates things get interesting. Any number of scenarios could play out including the emergence of a new candidate. It’s been a long time since that happened, if you don’t count episodes of “West Wing.”

Q: OK what’s next?
A: This week there will be Republican and Democratic primaries in Michigan and Nevada and a Republican primary in South Carolina (the Dems go to the S.C. polls later this month). All roads, though, lead to Feb. 5 when the Super Tuesday primary is held.

Q: So what the heck is Super Tuesday anyway?
A: Glad you asked.

For the Republicans 21 states will hold primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5. For the Republicans 1,081 delegates will be up for grabs — nearly half the total needed to nominate. Presidential hopefuls such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are dangerously banking their futures on Super Tuesday when large northern states including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Illinois go to the polls.

For the Democrats, 23 states vote on Super Tuesday with 2,075 delegates at stake. A big night for either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton could end the race right there.

Q: One last thing, what’s this Red State, Blue State deal?
A: Ask again in October.

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Q: By the way, are there any local elections of note?
A: Absolutely. Three seats are up on the county Board of Commissioners, some on the Burlington/Alamance Board of Education and all the area representatives and senators in the state General Assembly. There’ll be judges up too. Statewide they already started running TV ads in the governor’s race and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole is looking for a second term.
Here are some election dates to remember.

Filing for local offices
Monday, Feb. 11 – candidate filing begins at noon
Friday, Feb. 29 — filing closes at noon

Primary registering and voting
March 17 — absentee voting by mail begins
April 11- registration closes for primary
April 17 — one-stop no-excuse voting begins
May 3 — one-stop no-excuse voting ends

May 6 — primary
June 24 — runoff primary if needed

The conventions
Democratic National Convention
Aug. 25-28, Boston
Republican National Convention

Sept. 1-4, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minn.

General election registering and voting
Sept. 15 — absentee voting by mail begins
Oct. 10 — registration Closes
Oct. 17 — once-stop no-excuse voting begins

Nov. 1 — one-stop no-excuse voting ends
Nov. 4 — Election day

Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. for all elections

Sources: Alamance County Board of Elections, New York Times, Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee, Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia.

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