On Aug. 8, the Guilford County Planning Board approved a rezoning
request by Bluegreen Corp., based in Boca Raton, Fla., to develop
approximately 691 acres along the banks of the Haw River. The proposed
development will comprise 775 housing units in a gated golf course
community.

The primary issue here is...the preservation of the integrity of the Haw River State Park.
The parcel in question, which is primarily in Guilford County but also
crosses into Rockingham County, is essential for the expansion of the
fledgling Haw River State Park; it is also an integral link for the
proposed Mountains to Sea Trail...[T]he N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation has sufficient funds set
aside to make a comparable offer to the landowners. (emphasis added)

Lewis Ledford, director of the state Parks and Recreation division, has endorsed the appeal of the zoning decision.

The volunteer group has an action plan for grassroots supporters. I spoke with David Craft about beefing up the web component of that effort, and I hope we'll see some results in the very near future.

"Broadband service here is eight to 30 times as fast as in the United States -- and considerably cheaper...
Accelerating broadband speed in this country -- as well as in South Korea and much of Europe
-- is pushing open doors to Internet innovation that are likely to
remain closed for years to come in much of the United States."

The argument in favor of government regulation will cause some heads to explode.

Aug 30, 2007

Chris Knight: "Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on their copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright!"

Viacom can probably claim fair use -- a principle much beloved by bloggers -- as could Chris.

But Viacom is fighting a much bigger battle, which probably explains its asinine hardline stance.

UPDATE: The VH1 clip in question. Seems like fair use to me (see additional discussion in comments below).

If I was involved in the Milton Kern campaign, I would have already shot a handful of videos showing my guy moving through his downtown environment, talking about the changes he has helped bring to the area, highlighting his easy style and common-sense message.

The videos would be on YouTube and the campaign site (which wouldn't be limited to a half-assed MySpace entry and would include pictures of some of MK's projects and daily written updates) and probably posted on half the blogs in town, and thus available to be emailed from office to office and home to home.

The quality of the videos would be sufficient to mix into TV spots that would run on cable stations next week, when the city wakes up to the fact that it might have its first interesting mayoral race in years -- should Kern decide to make it so -- and again closer to election day.

The cost would be for video production (not much) and TV time. The value would be considerable.

And that's what I would do if I was involved in the Milton Kern campaign.

The Fed historically has had two major economic
duties. Maintaining financial stability is one. Controlling inflation
while preventing recession is the other.

To Mr. Greenspan, market confidence and the economy's
growth prospects were so intertwined as to make the Fed's two duties
almost inseparable. He cut rates...to
prevent investor reluctance to take risks from undermining the nation's
economic growth.

By contrast, Mr. Bernanke distinguishes between the central bank's two
functions. So, on Aug. 17, the Fed cut the interest rate and lengthened
the term on loans to banks from its little-used discount window in
hopes banks would use the window -- or at least the knowledge it was
available -- to lend to solid borrowers having trouble getting credit
amidst the market turmoil. The action was aimed at restoring the normal
functioning of disrupted credit markets, not primarily at boosting
growth.

"Click to read our Action Alert, then tell YOUR County Commissioners that
the lands near our Haw River State Park are more important than a golf
course to the Citizens of Guilford and Rockingham Counties!"

If anyone's got a digital copy of the related op-ed in this morning's N&R, send it along. UPDATE: Ask and ye shall receive: here's the article by John Young.

The old springhouse mentioned in this column is quite near the proposed development. As I wrote then about another big project perpetrated in my youth, "It was the first time I
would see Greensboro devour its landscape on a grand scale, and despite
prolonged and repeated
exposure to the phenomenon since then I've not quite gotten used to it."

Guilford County’s
aggressive recruitment of math teachers willing to work in failing
schools has led to staffing trouble for the Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County school system.

Local school
officials are using lateral-entry or unlicensed interim teachers to
teach several math classes this year because of a shortage of math
teachers, Dave Fairall, the director of human resources for the school
system, told the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board last night.

The N&R campaign blog lists local candidate websites. I learned quite a bit in just a few minutes of clicking around.

It's hard for me to take seriously a candidate who is not on the web in some fashion -- the messages sent about communication skills, accessibility, and general awareness of the year on the calendar are just too depressing to contemplate.

An order to pull out some portion of 160,000 American troops, plus
the 9 million tons of equipment and supplies the U.S. has shipped to
Iraq—everything from bandages to bullets to Bradley fighting
vehicles—is not only a huge logistics challenge, it's also a monumental
information management task. The military will need to determine when
troops and equipment move, which routes they will take, and what
supplies should stay or go.

And should a pullout be ordered, how well the military's information
management systems work will be a significant factor in determining how
quickly that mission is accomplished.

A quick pell-mell pullout with no setbacks could take six months,
according to retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, who is now a senior
fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank.

On the other hand, a withdrawal of this magnitude — which, in addition
to the logistical challenge, could risk attacks by Al Qaeda or Iraqi
sectarian forces trying to make a withdrawal look like a rout — could
take two years, says Maj. Gen. Michael Diamond, deputy director of the
logistics directorate at U.S. Central Command, the unified combat
command in charge of Iraq.

"Woman Sees Face Of Jesus On Fence," says a headline on WFMY's new website.

The site is called DigTriad. It's billed as "the triad's home page," all lower-case.

The Jesus on a fence story is from California. The article does not say
how the woman knows the face on the fence is Jesus. The site does not say why
this story is a lead item on "the triad's home page." The grammar ("The
family, who is Catholic, plans to invite the parish priest to see the
image, too") ain't so good, neither.

I like the design more than Jeff Sykes does, which isn't saying much, but the flashing rotation of top stories is pretty awful and could trigger seizures in small children.
There is a blog, written by someone billed as "WFMY News 2's Web Reporter."

Have I mentioned recently that the N&R has a huge opportunity to become the dominant news brand in this region, using the net to recapture audiences lost generations ago to television?

Remnick says Mearsheimer and Walt are "not anti-Semites or racists. They are serious scholars." But he details the ways they gloss over the complexities of the Middle East, and says that in their explanation of US policy, "Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Exxon-Mobil barely exist."

The many failings of Bush's Iraq adventure, he says, have "left Americans furious and demanding
explanations. Mearsheimer and Walt provide one: the Israel lobby."

Yeah, we passed the laptop around the dinner table and laughed at the addled beauty queen from South Carolina, but you've got to give her credit for climbing back in the saddle in the midst of her YouTube moment.

The hypocrisy angle--conservative U.S. senator with a voting record
antagonistic to gay rights--is the one just about everyone can hang
their hats on here. Paying a political price for that hypocrisy seems
reasonable. But clearly the hypocrisy is not just political; it's
deeply personal. The fractures and fault lines in Craig's psyche must
be something to behold. It's hard not to feel some sympathy for the
guy. But hypocrisy, thank god for all of us, is not a crime. Being gay
shouldn't be either.

More from the article by Matt Dees and Joseph Neff: "The conflict between full disclosure and financial discipline is a
Catch-22 for council members, some of whom pushed hard for an
unfettered accounting of mistakes. Several council members said Monday
they have to recognize their obligation to preserve the public purse:
Actions that almost certainly would lead to severe financial penalties
would be irresponsible."

Money quote: "I think after a while the city may end up feeling like General Custer
at Little Bighorn," councilman Eugene Brown said. "He looks around and,
to paraphrase, says, 'Where ... are all these lawyers coming from?'"

This post from the WSJ econ blog begins on a positive note but ends in confusion.

Referring to a survey by the National Association for Business Economics, writer Sudeep Reddy says, "Few economists expect a housing recovery before next year, but they don’t appear to be scared by the softening housing market."

Then he says many of the economists confess they don't know what they're talking about.

About
half "admitted to having little or no familiarity with the structure,
activities and risks" associated with asset-backed securitization and
collateralized debt obligations, two tools used in recent years to
spread risks from mortgage debt. More than two-thirds said they had
little or no knowledge of credit-default swaps, a form of credit
insurance. About 45% said they had little understanding of hedge funds,
and 40% admitted ignorance about private equity funds.

So they're optimistic, but without understanding the financial underpinnings of the market about which they are expressing optimism.

Killian adds to his gangland article with a fascinating blog post at the N&R site.

Too much good stuff in there -- about gangs, cops, newspapers, and reporting -- for me to excerpt it. Go read the whole thing.

They should print this thing in the Sunday paper -- maybe give it a big chunk of the op-ed section if that's where it fits best. If anyone around the country is looking for an example of how traditional newspapering and new media can come together, here it is.

Zalmay Khalilzad...expected Bush to announce his return to Iraq to convene a grand
assembly — something like an Afghan loya jirga — that would
fast-forward a provisional Iraqi government.

Instead, the
appointment of L. Paul Bremer III to head a Coalition Provisional
Authority was announced. Khalilzad, incredulous, went elsewhere. In the
place of an Afghan-American Muslim on a mission to empower Iraqis, we
got the former ambassador to the Netherlands for a one-year proconsul
gig.

"Powell and Condi were incredulous. Powell called me and
asked: 'What happened?' And I said, 'You’re secretary of state and
you’re asking me what happened!'"

Powell
confirmed his astonishment..."[W]ith no discussion, no
debate, things changed. I was stunned."

New York Times: Here in Guilford County, N.C., turnover had become so severe in
some high-poverty schools that principals were hiring new teachers for
nearly every class, every term. To staff its neediest schools before
classes start on Aug. 28, recruiters have been advertising nationwide,
organizing teacher fairs and offering one of the nation’s largest
recruitment bonuses, $10,000 to instructors who sign up to teach
Algebra I.

"We had schools where we didn’t have a single
certified math teacher," said Terry Grier, the schools superintendent. "We needed an incentive, because we couldn’t convince teachers to go to
these schools without one."

"Iran's Revolutionary Guard has quietly become one of the most
significant political and economic powers in the Islamic Republic, with
ties to more than 100 companies, which by some estimates control more
than $12 billion in business and construction, economists and Iranian
political analysts say...Under the leadership of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former
Revolutionary Guard commander, the force also has extended its reach in
the Cabinet: 14 of 21 members are former Guard commanders. Former
officers also hold 80 of the 290 seats in the parliament and a host of
local mayorships and local council seats. Iran's chief nuclear
negotiator, Ali Larijani, is a former Guardsman."

Two full years after the hurricane, the Big Easy is barely limping
along, unable to make truly meaningful reconstruction progress. The
most important issues concerning the city's long-term survival are
still up in the air. Why is no Herculean clean-up effort underway? Why
hasn't President Bush named a high-profile czar such as Colin Powell or James Baker to oversee the ongoing disaster? Where is the U.S. government's participation in the rebuilding?

And
why are volunteers practically the only ones working to reconstruct
homes in communities that may never again have sewage service, garbage
collection or electricity?

Eventually, the volunteers' altruism
turns to bewilderment and finally to outrage. They've been hoodwinked.
The stalled recovery can't be blamed on bureaucratic inertia or red
tape alone. Many volunteers come to understand what I've concluded is
the heartless reality: The Bush administration actually wants these
neighborhoods below sea level to die on the vine.