Tomorrow (and possibly Friday) we will be shutting down BlueNC for a few hours, at some time during the middle of the day, because we're due for a tune-up. So if you try to check in and see a "Site Off-line" page, don't freak out, just come back a few hours later. Of course, if you haven't already seen this message ahead of time, you won't be able to see it then, because we'll be off-line, so my, "don't freak out" warning won't help. But just as a general rule, you should always try not to freak out over Internet stuff, because it's not healthy.
One of the mistaken assumptions of our age is that Republicans are "good for business" and Democrats have (historically) held business back. We've allowed this myth to perpetuate, partly due to the strong egalitarian underpinnings to our political philosophy.
But the reality is much more complex, and the symbiotic relationship between Liberalism and economic growth is stronger now than ever. Plainly put, when society thrives, business thrives, and efforts to restrain or suppress the former can't help but have a deleterious impact on the latter.
The News & Observer will eliminate 20 positions across its operations as the slowly recovering economy continues to hurt ad sales. Affected employees were told Tuesday; some will have the opportunity to accept a voluntary severance package. The cuts will include five or six positions in the newsroom.
Addendum to story: Due to ongoing staff reductions, we will no longer be able to write stories about ongoing staff reductions.
Republicans in the state House are hoping to eliminate the possibility of local tax increases on land sales. Currently, counties have the ability to seek voter approval for up to one-quarter percent of property values on real estate sales.
This is pretty simple, actually. If the hometicks don't have to spend millions in county-by-county propaganda battles to sway voters, that's more money they can feed into the coffers of legislators.
The style of an 84 IQ, 17 year-old 8th Grader, that is:
“If I could give you one piece of advice, please ignore the idiot bloggers,” Fetzer said. “I don't know those these people are and why they have time to do this stuff. But they need to get a life.” That brought cheers from the members of the state GOP Executive Committee.
"I spent $20,000 defending my name in a lawsuit.”
And we're the ones who are supposed to be idiots? You'd have been better off setting that $20,000 aside for future psychotherapy sessions for the wife & kid...
Protesters in Charlotte say county schools shouldn't have used Martin Luther King Day as a makeup day for last week's winter weather. About 100 people marched in the city Monday, criticizing the decision by Charlotte Mecklenburg schools to schedule classes on the holiday.
School officials say the makeup day was chosen to keep spring break intact.
Water is rising three times faster on the N.C. coast than it did a century ago as warming oceans expand and land ice melts, recent research has found. It's the beginning of what a N.C. science panel expects will be a 1-meter increase by 2100.
Storms, Young said, are "the hammer" of rising seas. As storm surges pound ashore on a higher base of water, their damage multiplies. The Outer Banks, some scientists predict, could disintegrate into a string of high spots - Avon, Buxton, Ocracoke - reachable only by boat.
And almost completely ignored by the media is the continued warming of the 21st Century:
Reducing Chapel Hill's $297.6 million annual appropriation could account for much of the UNC system's share of budget cuts. In return, Chapel Hill will gain the kind of autonomy likely to improve its standing in the world of academia.
Plus, it might make the school desperate enough for funding that it would finally acquiesce to the creation of a school of White Supremacy Western Civilization to combat all that cultural diversity stuff.
Gillespie said the thought of a new source of natural gas may be tantalizing at a time when the state is trying to move toward cleaner-burning, home-grown fuels. However, he cautioned, potential water-and air-contamination issues that come along with drilling should give everyone pause.
Yes, it should. And when industry "experts" submit their reports on how "clean and sustainable" their operations are, the source of that information should give you pause as well.
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