news and observer

The N&O doesn't often take unambiguous stands on its editorial page, but today is a welcome exception. Steve Ford and company deserve a pat on the back for this excellent commentary on the politics of education:

It should be clear that allowing motivated, capable young people to continue their education benefits both them and the public at large. Those young people already are entitled, reasonably, to attend public elementary and secondary schools. What's the point of denying them a chance to continue along the academic path? After all, most of them are here in the first place because they were brought by parents. Punishing them for a situation not of their making seems both unfair and counterproductive to society.

Of all the missteps the News and Observer has made in recent years, the inclusion of Rick Martinez on their op-ed page is among the saddest. Week after week, N&O executives allow the right-wing zealot to spew Puppetshow talking points across their pages without regard for the damage he inflicts. This week, Martinez heralds the discovery of a supply of oil in North Dakota, which he believes should be cause for "dancing in the streets."

I'm a full-time mom of two little boys under the age of four and I'm voting for Barack Obama. It's time we got past the divisions that have been laid out for us as a nation.

My friends are sick of me talking and writing about the lottery. And when one of my fellow front-pagers recently won a thousand bucks on a $20 ticket, I confess to thinking, "awwww, maybe it's not so terrible." But the truth is, the lottery IS so terrible, as Steve Ford, the editorial page editor at the N&O. wrote today.

To pirate a line from "All the King's Men," North Carolina's state lottery was conceived in sin and born of corruption. We may never learn all the gory details surrounding its passage, but to say that its supporters in the General Assembly finagled it through by hook and by crook pretty much conveys the spirit of the thing.

My friend Art Benevie had a column published in the News and Observer yesterday. I've spoken often with Art about the subject - the War on Drugs - and I always find his arguments compelling and powerful.

CHAPEL HILL - Last month San Francisco health officials met with groups that supported the idea of opening a "safe injection" center -- the first in the United States. It would be funded by the city and be limited to intravenous users of heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Addicts would bring their own drugs, receive clean needles and inject themselves under medical supervision instead of shooting up in the streets.

The N&O editorial page is not known for its elegance. But today's lead editorial about the disastrous consequences of Bush's War in Iraq and Republican "leadership" on veteran's affairs over the past six years is a moving call for action.

Some veterans of the Vietnam War still express surprise at the unfriendly receptions they received when they returned to the United States from that combat zone. But they could have predicted that many of them would end up on the streets within a few years of arriving back home. Chronic homelessness has been a cruel reality for veterans since at least the Civil War, when former fighters who hit hard times took the nickname "tramps," after the sound they made when they had marched into battle years earlier.

Lovely day again here in Carolina—at least it was until I read this headline on the front page of the N&O:

Report details civilians' deaths in Marine raids.

The story, from the Washington Post's Saturday edition, opens with this:

WASHINGTON - U.S. Marines gunned down five unarmed Iraqis who stumbled onto the scene of a 2005 roadside bombing in Haditha, Iraq, according to eyewitness accounts that are part of a lengthy investigative report obtained by The Washington Post.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad's leader, shot the men one by one after Marines ordered them out of a white taxi in the moments after the explosion, which killed one Marine and injured two others, witnesses told investigators. Another Marine fired rounds into their bodies as they lay on the ground.

I dunno, maybe a big story fell through and they had to think of something quick, but the front of today's Life section of the N&O--The Seven Wonders of the Triangle--was l-a-m-é. Their picks: RTP, Cameron Indoor Stadium, that damn Acorn in Raleigh, Cameron Village (note obsession with things named Cameron) and a few others. (I kinda agree with Crook's Corner Shrimp & Grits, but I'm not sure if it's a classic wonder.)

Here's some of the short descriptions of the wonders (wherein the paper of record does snark, I think):

The Acorn
Big and fun and metal and hoisted by a crane on New Year's Eve. . .

RTP
. . .RTP is populated by all sorts of wonderfully smart people who tinker with test tubes and microbes and whatnot. . .

Via the ex files:

Interesting look at the revenue implications—seriously fudged as they are—of the decline of the minibottle in South Carolina. The switch to free pour 1.5 ounce shots rather than the 1.7 ounce bottle may—may—be leading to a drop in revenue. It's also making bar owners happy and causing patrons to speculate about the strength of their drinks. Dude, if you can taste the difference between 1.5 ounces of Jack in your Jack and Coke and 1.7 ounces, then you are some pro barfly.
I once wrote an essay about the implications of the 10-ounce beer, which was test marketed in New Orleans when I was living there in the mid-80s. The can was slightly smaller—kinda like playing a 3/4 scale guitar. It really did feel unnatural when you went to pick it up. The main point of my irritation, though, was that the reduction in beer turned a six-pack into a five-pack, which I declared un-American. We won that battle, by golly.
(clears throat)

In other news:

This morning our own Southern Dem dissected the Party of Greed meltdown over who will replace the inept Ferrell Blount. The source of her information was this story in the Charlotte Observer which was written by Mark Johnson.

The Raleigh News and Observer's Under the Dome section this morning also covers the story, this one written by Rob Christensen and Andrew Curliss.

I must admit that I fully expected the two stories to be identical. The coziness of the papers, which are now owned by the same corporate parent, is unnerving. And it would have been easy for management to settle for running the same story in both papers. But they didn't. There's good and different information in both.