July 7, 2016

Vol. IV No. 27

Greensboro, North Carolina

Thursday, July 7, 2016

www.rhinotimes.com

With City Bonds, You Might Not Get What You Vote For

Scott D. Yost

County Line Not Going Anywhere Soon plus Under The Hammer, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything AND MORE

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RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

This was the first Fun Fourth run

by Downtown Greensboro Inc. and, particularly considering the limited time DGI had to plan for the event, it was a big success. Estimates are that somewhere around 75,000 people made their way downtown Monday afternoon for the event, which included bands, food trucks, crafts and lots of activities for kids.

Over 4,000 attended the kickoff party on Sunday evening and nobody knows how many people watched the fireworks from various places around town, but the downtown viewing areas were packed.

HINOSHORTS

Photos by Mick Haywood Winners of the Rhino Times Justin Bieber ticket drawing at the final Beach Music Blast of the season on June 30: Wylie Parola (photo left) and (photo right) Brenda Lewis holding the winning envelope with Rhino General Manager Joann Zollo, and a photobombing appearance by Rhino Times Advertising Consultant Tye Singleton. For Beach Music photos, see page 44, visit rhinotimes.com or find us on Facebook.

Although tens of thousands came downtown for Fun Fourth and the fireworks, had a good time and left without incident, hundreds did not.

According to an email from Police Chief Wayne Scott to City Manager Jim Westmoreland and sent to city councilmembers, about 400 to 500 people from their early teens to mid 20s remained in Center City Park after the fireworks and became disruptive.

Scott in the email states, “These individuals began to break into smaller groups of 20-30 and became disruptive. We had multiple physical altercations and several large groups began to run and block sidewalks and streets, pushing people out of their way.”

According to Scott, increased police presence ended most of the problems but several fights had to be broken up by officers physically, and pepper spray was used in a few instances to break up large fights. Ten to 12 arrests were made, at least two of those were juveniles.

Scott said he understood the incident lasted less than an hour.

And here is my question to the City Council. When one person gets robbed with at knifepoint in east Greensboro the news media receives a police report, in Center City Park there were fights so large that police used pepper spray to break them up, 10 to 12 people were arrested,

evidently a number of bystanders were assaulted and the media receives not one word about it.

Does the current contract with Center City Park include a clause that says arrests in the park will not be reported to the media? This is not the first or second time this has happened, it cannot be written off as a coincidence.

The only way I know to find out about an incident in Center City Park involving hundreds of people and pepper spray is to talk to someone who saw it. That’s not the way crime is supposed to be reported and not the way it is reported in the rest of the city.

Sunday, the News & Record ran a question and answer with its new publisher and editor, Daniel Finnegan, and it wouldn’t be the Rhino if we didn’t comment.

First, the good news: Finnegan didn’t mention grits once in any of his comments. The former P&E Jeff “Grits” Gauger mentioned grits nearly every time he wrote about Greensboro, which is how he won his nickname.

Being from Richmond, Virginia, Finnegan evidently doesn’t find Southern food exotic or consider eating the food served in Greensboro restaurants to be a daring culinary experiment.

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

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With City Bonds, You Don’t Always Get What You Vote For

by John Hammer Between now and Nov. 8 you will see a lot of information about the proposed Greensboro bond referendum, which now stands at $178.7 million.

It can’t go up, but it could come down a little or stay right where it is.

There are currently six categories of bonds and each category needs five votes on the City Council to get on the ballot.

Councilmembers have their pet projects, and if they don’t vote for their fellow councilmembers pet projects then theirs may not get the votes it needs to pass. So the total may not drop much, unless a bond doesn’t have a single councilmember championing it.

Here’s one fact about the bonds. If

they pass, your taxes will increase.

Greensboro for at least 10 years has had the highest tax rate of any comparable city in the state. If the bonds pass, the City Council will raise taxes even higher, with the excuse that the City Council didn’t want to raise taxes but the people approved the bonds, indicating that they wanted their taxes raised. The City Council will say it has to acquiesce to the wishes of the people.

Most of the hype you are going to see about how the bond money will be spent is pure speculation. Even the City Council doesn’t know how the money will be spent.

For example, the city still has $60 million in unspent bond money from 2006, 2008 and 2009 bond referendums. In 2006, Keith Holliday

was mayor and the council included Sandra Anderson Groat, Florence Gatten, Tom Phillips, Dianne BellamySmall, Mike Barber, Yvonne Johnson, Sandy Carmany and Goldie Wells.

Now the 2006 money is finally going to be spent by the current City Council and Barber and Johnson are the only members of the 2006 City Council that are on the present City Council; neither has served continuously since 2006.

So what the City Council said about how the bond money would be spent in 2006 doesn’t matter. The current council will decide and the only requirement that they have is that they follow the extremely general wordage that was on the ballot in 2006.

Any promises Holliday or other members of the City Council made in 2006 to get the bonds passed don’t

matter because they aren’t around to demand that the money be spent the way they told the public it would be.

One thing the City Council promised in 2006 was a skateboard park. If you had kids that were into skateboarding in 2006 and voted for that bond so they would have somewhere to go where they wouldn’t be yelled at and told to move on, those kids are most likely not still under your roof and may have kids of their own, but the skate park has yet to be built. However, it is worth noting that the money hasn’t been spent on anything else and the skate park is supposed to be built in Latham Park, a location chosen by the current City Council, not the ones in office in 2006.

Then we have the Greensboro

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RHINOSHORTS (continued from page 2)

But Finnegan wasn’t asked the one question everyone was hoping he would be, which is will the total and complete coverage of every little thing that happens in Rockingham County continue under his leadership.

Gauger appeared to be absolutely fascinated with the people and history of Rockingham County. A double homicide in Rockingham County four years ago graced the front pages of the N&R for a week. There was little that could be considered news in the story, it was simply a history of a couple who were murdered in their home, but who wouldn’t be interested in the history of Rockingham County?

Everybody in Greensboro knows that a Rockingham County commissioner had a drinking problem. It seems news from Rockingham County was regularly on the front page under the reign of Gauger.

We will just have to wait and see if 4-year-old murders in Rockingham County continue to push events in

Greensboro off the front page of Greensboro’s only daily newspaper.

Who knows, Finnegan may find Alamance County, Randolph County or even Guilford County more to his liking and we’ll have to go elsewhere for everything, all the time about Rockingham County.

And by the way, Daniel, welcome to Greensboro.

In the center of this paper you will find 16 pages of the July edition of the Carolina Journal, with articles on state government, investigative reporting and political analysis you won’t find anywhere else. If you like what you see, you can subscribe to the Carolina Journal and have the full 24-page edition mailed to you each month at no charge. Information on how to subscribe is on the front page of the Carolina Journal.

Scott Fancett at Jaco Beach, Costa Rica. Send your Rhinos Around the World to letters@rhinotimes.com or to PO Box 9023, Greensboro 27429.

Laws that are reactions to particular events often have unintended consequences.

When an emergency vehicle is pulled off on the shoulder it is the law that you have to pull over to left lane if it can be done safely. Several times lately I have been in heavy traffic when there was an emergency vehicle on the shoulder and all the drivers somehow managed to squeeze their cars over to the left lane. There was nothing safe about it, but nobody wanted to take a chance on getting a ticket.

And then there is the question of what is safe. Since all of these highspeed maneuvers were done with no accidents, does that make them safe?

Is it safe to be traveling at 70 mph with a car 10 feet in front and five feet behind? I didn’t feel safe.

This is a case where it makes much more sense to leave the decision to the discretion of the driver. Certainly drivers should be encouraged to get in the left lane, but they should not be required to get in the left lane.

Every Olympic year about this time there are reports that the host city won’t be ready. The stadiums aren’t finished, the pools don’t have any water in them, the tracks aren’t paved and the apartments for the athletes have no plumbing, and every year the host city pulls it out. When the athletes arrive everything is ship shape and looks great, the paint may not be dry

and the whole facade may fall off the week after everyone leaves, but for the Olympics it looks fabulous.

I wonder if this year will be the year the host city doesn’t pull it off. Rio de Janeiro has huge problems that don’t have anything to do with paint drying on time. Water, both the kind that events take place in and water for plumbing, is a problem. Crime is always a problem, but if the government doesn’t crack down it could turn really ugly. And then there is the Zika virus.

This year could be like every other year – the country will write a check for whatever it takes and people will work around the clock to get everything done moments before the torch is lit.

The authorities will take control of the streets during the games and after the Olympics all anybody will say about Rio is what an incredibly beautiful city it is, how hospitable all the people were and what a great event it was.

But then again this is a strange year, so maybe not.

Liberals in North Carolina are really pushing wind and solar electrical production and are opposed to coal, nuclear and natural gas. I will support them 100 percent, as long as they stick to their guns and when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing they agree to restrict their electricity usage to flashlights and other battery powered devices.

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

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Guilford-Alamance County Line Not Going Anywhere Soon

by Scott D. Yost After over a decade of disagreement, back and forth, and multiple attempts to work out the county line dispute between Guilford County and Alamance County, officials in both counties may have finally come to an agreement: They may just agree to disagree until the end of time and let the line between Guilford County and Alamance County continue to be in the mind of the beholder.

North Carolina and South Carolina just settled a dispute over the state line, a disagreement that in that case went back to the 1700s.

Guilford County Commissioner Hank Henning said this week that he’s simply tired of dealing with the issue.

He said it has been an intractable

problem since before he became a commissioner in 2012 and, at this point, Henning said, he doesn’t see any resolution; and frankly, he added, he questions if it’s even worth the effort to continue to discuss it.

“If staff asked us to meet to reconsider the issue, I would say that I’m not even going to the meeting,” Henning said. “We tried in good faith to address it.”

An exasperated Commissioner Ray Trapp said he’s also fed up with the issue and that no one even mentions it anymore. He said that since he joined the board as a commissioner nearly four years ago, two things that have been constantly discussed but never worked out are a new Emergency Services maintenance facility – something else also in the works for

over a decade – and the county line dispute.

Throughout much of 2013, the commissioners debated whether to enforce the real county line or adopt a modified version that gave property owners who lived near the line the right to choose their county.

“I don’t care anymore,” Trapp said of the outcome. “Let’s figure it out and move on.”

The problem arose largely over the last century as boundary markers were moved or destroyed, property changed hands along the line, and, in some cases, property owners and others became confused about where the true county line lay – or perhaps they feigned ignorance. So some residents who were in Guilford County (continued on page 16)

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RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

RHINOSHORTS (continued from page 4)

I’ll even agree to let them use the internet as long as they don’t plug their computers in to an electrical outlet, which is cheating since without electricity there wouldn’t be any internet, but that’s as far as I’ll go.

The transgender movement is going much faster than a lot of people anticipated. A transgender high school girl who was born a male qualified for and competed in the state championships in track.

You can bet that a lot of young men are going to decide they feel like young women. Imagine a young person born as a male who isn’t quite good enough for the boys basketball team, but would be a star on the girls team, so he makes the decision to “identify as a woman.” The downside is that he would have to take showers every day with a bunch of naked women.

For those who have been living

under a rock someplace, men have been paying good money to see naked women for a long time, probably as long as there has been money. Fortunes have been made by those who provided naked women for other men to look at. There are bars and clubs all over the world that are set up expressly for that purpose.

So some high school boy just has to say that he “identifies” as a woman and for free he gets to spend his afternoons surrounded by naked women. I don’t know if there will be a boy who won’t try out for some women’s sport, in fact they may have to discontinue the boys’ sports teams for lack of interest.

12th District Congresswoman Alma Adams is part of an effort to expand the area’s US Postal Service. Once they get the Postal Service expanded, the word is the next effort will be to

table of

CONTENTS

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CITY BONDS, YOU DON’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR

BY JOHN HAMMER

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GUILFORD-ALAMANCE COUNTY LINE NOT GOING ANYWHERE SOON

BY SCOTT D. YOST

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EAST GREENSBORO PET PEEVE MIGHT CAUSE ANIMAL SHELTER TO STAY

BY SCOTT D. YOST

11 PTIA: BIG PLANS, SMALL BUDGET

BY SCOTT D. YOST

(continued on page 13)

14 UNCLE ORSON

BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

46 GUEST EDITORIAL

BY BILL KNIGHT

51 UNDER THE HAMMER

BY JOHN HAMMER

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RHINO SHORTS

4, 6

RHINOS AROUND WORLD

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CHILDREN’S SCHEDULE

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REAL ESTATE

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NYT CROSSWORD

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SUDOKU

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PUZZLE ANSWERS

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THE SOUND OF THE BEEP

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

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EDITORIAL CARTOON

19 41 YOST COLUMN

BY SCOTT D. YOST

43 A HAIR TO THE LEFT

BY DOUG COPELAND

45 ASK CAROLYN ...

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BY CAROLYN WOODRUFF

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Cover: Fun Fourth on Monday drew a crowd of over 75,000 downtown.

Photo by Sandy Groover. More photos page 8 and at rhinotimes.com

PUBLISHER Roy Carroll EDITOR-IN-CHIEF GENERAL MANAGER John Hammer Joann Zollo

Fred Gregory and the Rock of Gibraltar. Send your Rhinos Around the World to letters@rhinotimes.com or to PO Box 9023, Greensboro 27429.

managing editor ELAINE HAMMER

creative director ANTHONY COUNCIL

county editor SCOTT D. YOST

advertising consultants MICK HAYWOOD TYE SINGLETON

contributing editor ORSON SCOTT CARD

cartoonist GEOF BROOKS

216 West Market Street, Greensboro NC 27401 P.O. Box 9023, Greensboro NC 27429 | (336) 763-4170 (336) 763-2585 fax | sales@rhinotimes.com | www.rhinotimes.com (continued on page 11) (continued on page 12)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

East GSO Pet Peeve Might Cause Animal Shelter to Stay

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by Scott D. Yost In 1959, Hollywood released Plan 9 from Outer Space, and, in 2016, Guilford County government may be forced to release “Plan B for the New Animal Shelter.”

Plan A for the new shelter was what the majority of the Board of Commissioners were hoping to watch unfold this year. However, a Tuesday, June 21 Greensboro City Council meeting offered some strong indications that Guilford County’s Plan A for the shelter wasn’t exactly a big hit in the eyes of the City Council, and that plan may therefore never see the light of day – forget widespread theatrical release.

Specifically, the Guilford County commissioners’ plan for the new Guilford County animal shelter calls

for the county to construct a new shelter at 3307 Burlington Road in east Greensboro on county-owned land next to the Guilford County Agricultural Center. The Board of Commissioners voted 6 to 3 at a May 5 work session to request a special-use permit from the City of Greensboro to allow the proposed new shelter to be built in that part of east Greensboro. That vote by the commissioners split straight down along racial lines, with all three black commissioners voting against the request.

Yet more evidence that the issue was a racial one could be seen from the fact that two black Greensboro city councilmembers – Jamal Fox and Sharon Hightower, were the most highly vocal opponents of putting the shelter at that site

Ever since the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to make the request, Fox, who represents that area of the city, has spoken out in forceful terms about his adamant opposition to the move, and it has become even more clear in recent weeks that the Greensboro City Council has a lot of questions about the wisdom of Guilford County building its new shelter at the Burlington Road site.

Fox said this week that the City Council certainly was not in favor of putting an animal shelter at the Ag Center site, where, he said, it would be a detriment to the community because of the smell, noise, traffic and other considerations. He said he was sure the council would reject Guilford County’s request.

When Fox was asked how he could

be so certain the county’s request would be denied, he responded, “Because I can count.”

Specifically, Fox meant that he can count to five, which is the number of City Council votes needed to approve a special-use permit request – or needed to approve just about anything else the City Council does for that matter.

Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips has been working behind the scenes to convince council members to warm up to the idea of a shelter on Burlington Road, and, though he didn’t wish to comment on those discussions while they were underway, Phillips did say in May that he hoped reason would ultimately sway the city officials.

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Fun Fourth Festival Downtown Greensboro

Photos by Sandy Groover More photos rhinotimes.com

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

bonds

(continued from page 3)

Aquatic Center (GAC). The bonds that were used to pay much of the cost of that facility were listed under the broad parks and recreation bond heading and were, according to the advertising, going to be used for a community pool.

The GAC is run by the Greensboro Coliseum and has had a great deal of success attracting regional and national swimming meets, but it is not a community pool run by the Parks and Recreation Department, which is what people were told they were voting for.

The reason the bonds were listed under parks and recreation is because the voters of Greensboro almost always pass parks and recreation bonds and rarely pass Coliseum bonds.

There was never any intent to build a community pool. That bond money was always intended for an aquatic center, which the voters of Greensboro had already rejected. Rather than risk rejection again, the City Council decided to try deception, and it worked.

Another recent example of bond money legerdemain, although not by the City Council, was the school bonds passed in 2008. The voters in northern Guilford County may have voted for the school bonds because they were told that $80 million would be used to build the airport area high school, in order to relieve the overcrowding at the northern Guilford County high schools. After the bonds passed the school board decided not to build the $80 million high school it had promised and is spending that money on other school projects while the high schools in the northern portion of Guilford County remain overcrowded.

Since the bond money only has to be spent on school projects, not on any particular project, it is all perfectly

legal. It’s not very honest, but politics rarely involves honesty.

The language on the ballot is all the government body is required to follow, which is why the city could use money that it said was for a community pool for a competitive swimming facility and why, when the school board decided not to build the airport area high school, it could spend the money elsewhere.

If the bonds are passed, the money will be spent in the broad categories that are defined on the ballot, but beyond the actual language on the ballot there is no other requirement on how the money is spent.

In January, the City Council discussed having one bond, with the thought process being that anyone who was in favor of any of the projects the City Council said it would build would vote for the entire package, but the City Council found out that wasn’t legal.

There is a good reason that the bonds are usually put on the ballot in presidential election years. Voter turnout is high. Voters who don’t follow local politics come out to vote in the national election and, if they see something that looks enticing, like parks and recreation bonds, housing bonds or street improvement bonds, they are likely to vote for them because who doesn’t want better parks, housing and streets.

But in Greensboro there is another reason.

Greensboro has a large population of college students. Since most of them don’t own property in Greensboro, they are not concerned about property taxes, and students historically vote for bonds.

If the City Council only wanted people who were concerned about and kept up with local politics to

vote, they would always hold bond referendums during city elections when voter turnout is much lower.

Very few college students vote in City Council elections.

So the reason bond referendums are held in presidential election years is mainly because they have a better likelihood of passing.

The discussion of a bond referendum began at the budget meeting in January, where a bond that could be paid for without a tax increase was considered; the total amount was about $40 million.

Then the City Council went behind closed doors and met in secret for several months to discuss the bonds.

The result of those meetings was about a $200 million bond referendum.

When that was reported in the Rhino Times, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that the figure was wrong and the bond referendum being considered had been as high as $200 million but had since, also in a secret meeting, been reduced to about $100 million.

Two councilmembers said that in their meetings the amount discussed was $200 million. Since the meetings were held in secret, no more than four members of the council could participate in any one meeting and councilmembers didn’t necessarily know what was discussed in other meetings.

When the bonds were first discussed in public again, the total listed was $195.2 million, but the total recommended was $101.7 At a public discussion of the bonds held in June, the goal was to discuss the different options and come up with a bond proposal to put before the voters that was less than $100 million. The City Council started out with $101.7 million in proposed bonds. However, you never know what a legislative body is going to do when they all get together, and the result of that meeting

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was City Council support for bonds totally $178.7 million, and that is where the discussion now stands.

A public hearing will be held on Monday, August 1, concerning which bonds to place on the ballot. No doubt at that meeting, just as at the City Council meeting, there will be a lot of discussion about specific projects; however, the promises for individual projects is meaningless.

The bonds will be placed on the ballot in the broad categories being considered. The categories currently are Housing, Redevelopment, Parks and Recreation, Street Improvements, Downtown Street Improvements and Public Transportation. The only legal requirement will be that if a bond passes, the city spends the money in keeping with the language on the ballot.

So the City Council could tell the voters that the $25 million in downtown street improvement bonds will be spent on sidewalks and streetlights.

Then, if the bond passes, they couldn’t spend the money on building a parking deck for the Kotis project on Battleground Avenue because it’s not downtown. But they could decide to pave the street in front of city hall with gold, since it is downtown and it would qualify as a downtown street project.

Look at the GAC. It was deemed a recreation project, which fit under the broad category of the bond language on the ballot, even though it was not a Parks and Recreation Department project. The trick was that the language on the bond referendum didn’t say it had to be a parks and recreation department project, only a parks and recreation project.

Considering how this City Council likes to spend money, giving it $178 million or $100 million to spend with few strings seems a recipe for largescale disappointment for the voters.

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pet peeve (continued from page 7)

Some city councilmembers have been critical of that fact that Phillips or other representatives from the county didn’t contact them about the move before the commissioners voted to make the request. Phillips and other commissioners say that, until there was an official agreement and supporting vote by a majority of the commissioners, there was no county action to talk about. In other words, the vote and the special-use permit request were the way to start the conversation.

In May, Phillips wrote in an email, “I’m confident that, if the facts are thoughtfully considered, the majority of Greensboro’s City Council members will agree that we’ve made the best decision. If I’m wrong, we’ll go to plan B, which will, unfortunately, cost our citizens significantly more money and cause further delays in getting the animals in our care the kind of facility that Guilford County needs and deserves.”

Though the commissioners voted in May to make the request, it’s now July and Guilford County staff still seems nowhere close to presenting that request to the city, which may be an indication that county officials don’t believe they have the votes they need from the Greensboro City Council for approval.

Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne said the commissioners’ early May motion did instruct staff to move forward with the request but put no deadline on the move.

“There is no time requirement on the motion,” Payne said, adding that some “prep work” is generally necessary with this type of request.

In this case, the necessary prep work no doubt includes getting the

city officials on board before the City Council has a discussion and a vote on the matter.

With the new animal shelter seen as a high-priority project for Guilford County – the newly adopted 20162017 county budget makes that clear – the commissioners and county staff are now beginning to entertain Plan B. Guilford County Facilities, Parks and Property Management Director Robert McNiece said that, months ago when his department reviewed county property holdings to find those that could be used as a site for the new shelter, the Burlington Road location was the only one where the county owned enough land to build a new shelter in a location that was in any way central. The county does own, for instance, a large enough large tract of land where the now demolished Evergreens’ retirement home in High Point once stood.

However, that land in the southwest part of Guilford County is considered too far away from the center of the county to be of use for the shelter. East Greensboro isn’t really central to the county either, but advocates for the site say that that area is where most of the animals are picked up by Animal Control.

Guilford County has also been looking at land that could be purchased for the purpose – six or more acres with good road access in a place convenient for most county residents to reach – though several commissioners aren’t keen, to say the least, on spending new money to buy land for the project that could already run between $6 million and $8 million.

Commissioner Alan Branson, who favors the Ag Center site, said he wants to see the county get the “best bang for the buck.”

Any new land Guilford County buys in the City of Greensboro – which includes most of the area the county finds desirable for a new shelter – could see similar zoning challenges from the Greensboro City Council or from residents who don’t want a shelter in their community any more than those who live near the Ag Center.

Given that there are no other viable county-owned sites and there is a desire of many commissioners not to purchase new land and increase the project cost, one option that seems to be more attractive on a daily basis – a plan that’s been touted far and wide by Commissioners Carolyn Coleman and Ray Trapp – is to leave the shelter right where it is: at 4525 W. Wendover Ave. in a central part of the county right between Greensboro and High Point.

At commissioner work sessions this year, Coleman has stressed over and over again her desire to see the new shelter on the site of the existing shelter, and Trapp said this week that that’s clearly the correct call.

Trapp, who pointed out that he’s a big advocate for the shelter who currently has a puppy that came from there, said it’s just common sense that the best spot for the shelter is “where it is right now.”

He said that, unlike the site next to the Agricultural Center, the current animal shelter site provides good access to High Point – the county’s second largest population center.

High Point runs its own Animal Control services, but most of the animals collected in High Point are taken to the Guilford County shelter, and High Point residents use the Guilford County shelter when they want to adopt.

“That location is perfect for it,” Trapp said of the West Wendover address. “There’s a light there and it’s called Animal Shelter Drive, where else would be more perfect than on Animal Shelter Drive?”

He added that the Humane Society of the Piedmont was also on that site and that it’s much easier to get to from High Point than a new shelter on Burlington Road would be.

“Frankly, I’m surprised folks from the High Point area aren’t complaining more about the shelter moving 20 minutes further east,” Trapp said.

Trapp also said the City of Greensboro conducted long-term strategic planning for the Burlington Road area years ago and said nowhere do those plans call for an animal shelter.

“That area is a reinvestment corridor – the city has plans for that area,” Trapp said.

Building a new shelter on the site of the existing shelter, reportedly presents some logistical challenges – including answering the question of what to do with the animals that the county has in its care while the new shelter is being built. Advocates of the move say that problems could be solved by building the new shelter in stages – while the old shelter continues to operate – or by finding other solutions that may take a little thought and creativity, but not necessarily a lot of money.

Commissioner Alan Perdue said he has another concern about that property. Perdue, who was the director of Guilford County Emergency Services before becoming a commissioner, points out the tremendous traffic problem in that area of the existing shelter – near Bridford Parkway and surrounded by hundreds of popular big box stores, restaurants and other businesses – and says that’s a major drawback to using that location for a new shelter. One of the goals of the shelter is easy access and being stuck in traffic coming or going to the shelter could mean many lost hours and big headaches for citizens, shelter staff and Animal Control officers.

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PTIA: Big Plans, Small Budget

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

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SLIMMER SUMMER

SOLUTION

by Scott D. Yost Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) has just adopted its new 2016-2017 budget totaling $29.7 million and, unlike a lot of area local governments that recently adopted budgets, the airport’s budget for the coming fiscal year is smaller than the final budget for the fiscal year that just ended on June 30.

The $29.7 million in total revenues and expenditures in the 2016-2017 PTIA budget is a slight drop from the $30 million total the airport raised and spent in the past 12 months.

On the expense side of the ledger, the new budget, which was approved unanimously at the Tuesday, June 21 meeting of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority board and went into effect on July 1, includes $15 million in operating expenses, which is about $1 million more than the airport saw in 2015-2016.

In addition to the financials, PTIA’s new budget provides some insight into the airport’s plans over the next 12 months. Since PTIA is a central cog in the economic development plans for this area, many local elected officials and business leaders are watching the airport’s moves closely.

PTIA Executive Director Kevin Baker said this week that a number of key airport projects are finishing up, getting underway or moving forward in the next 12 months. One NC Department of Transportation (DOT) project that’s a huge part of the airport’s plans for fiscal 2016-2017 is the taxiway bridge that will allow planes to roll over I-73.

“The taxiway bridge is about a year from completion,” Baker said. “It’s a DOT project, but we’re very involved.”

That bridge is expected to promote economic growth around the airport by providing runway access to hundreds of acres of PTIA-owned property on the north side of I-73. That taxiway across the interstate opens up a large area to aviation companies that require runway access for their work.

Another major project at PTIA that’s also meant to increase economic development opportunities is the relocation of the giant antenna known as the airport surveillance radar (ASR).

“That’s the big antenna that sits in the middle of a big hill of about

12 acres,” Baker said. “I call it the ‘Hershey’s Kiss.’ The tower will be relocated to the side of the field by [West] Market Street.”

That move is going to free up prime airport real estate that can be used by aviation companies.

Private companies have been expanding operations at the airport and have projects of their own going on in fiscal 2016-2017. For instance, HAECO Americas has begun working on its aptly named “Hanger Number 5” project.

“That’s a $60 million state-of-the-art hanger,” Baker said, adding that he can see the work in progress from his office window.

PTIA is also conducting a major $20 million runway renovation effort.

The new budget reveals one big financial plus in the airport’s favor: PTIA is sitting on a giant pile of money – $42 million – held in its reserve fund. Many local governments keep between 8 to 15 percent of their annual budget in reserve to maintain liquidity and to stay prepared for an emergency.

While airports typically keep more than that on hand, PTIA’s reserves are impressive by any measure.

“With an operation like this you have to be prepared for a catastrophe ” Baker said, adding that PTIA is in “very good shape” in that regard.

He said that, given that the operating revenues in the new budget are just over $15 million, the airport could run for nearly three years with no revenue coming in. Baker said it’s his understanding that, on average, airports have reserve funds large enough to cover expenses for about 700 days.

In addition to its operating expenses, PTIA has $5.8 million in debt repayment scheduled in fiscal 2016-2017 and about $8.8 million in capital expenses planned.

According to Baker, the cost of supplies and equipment at a major airport like PTIA are huge.

“You’re basically running a small city,” he said.

Baker said, for instance, he’d just approved a big payment for toilet paper.

When asked if PTIA purchased the good toilet paper or the very cheap (continued on page 44)

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Peripheral Neuropathy

WARNING! Greensboro, NC – The most common method your doctor will recommend to treat your neuropathy is with prescription drugs that may temporarily reduce your symptoms. These drugs have names such as Gabapentin, Lyrica, Cymbalta, and Neurontin, and are primarily antidepressant or antiseizure drugs. These drugs may cause you to feel uncomfortable and have a variety of harmful side effects. Your doctor may also tell you to just live with the pain.

Peripheral neuropathy is a result of damage to the nerves often causing weakness, pain, numbness, tingling, and the most debilitating balance problems. This damage is commonly caused by a lack of blood flow to the nerves in the hands and feet which causes the nerves to begin to degenerate due to lack of nutrient flow.

Figure 1: When these very small blood vessels become diseased they begin to shrivel up and the nerves begin to degenerate.

As you can see in Figure 1, as the blood vessels that surround the nerves become diseased they shrivel up which causes the nerves to not get the nutrients to continue to survive. When these nerves begin to “die” they cause you to have balance problems, pain, numbness, tingling, burning, and many additional symptoms.

In order to effectively treat your neuropathy three factors must be determined.

1) What is the underlying cause?

2) How Much Nerve Damage Has Been Sustained.

NOTE: Once you have sustained 85% nerve loss, there is likely nothing that we can do for you.

3) How much treatment will your condition require?

The treatment that is provided at Advance Wellness has three main goals: 1) Increase blood flow 2) Stimulate small fiber nerves 3) Decrease brain-based pain The treatment will allow the blood vessels to grow back around the peripheral nerves and provide them with the proper nutrients to heal and repair. It’s like adding water to a plant and seeing the roots grow deeper and deeper.

NEUROPATHY WORKSHOP

Saturday, July 23, 11:30 a.m. • Call Now! Seating is Limited.

(336) 316-0827

515 College Road #11, Greensboro, NC 27410

Dr. Joe Draper, III, DC, Advance Wellness is located near Guilford College.

12 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

Kirkwood’s July 4th Parade

Photos by John and Elaine Hammer More photos rhinotimes.com

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

RHINOSHORTS (continued from page 6)

expand telegraph services.

It used to be you could send a telegraph anywhere in the world and a fellow would pedal a bicycle up to your door and hand you the telegraph.

You’d give him a nickel and he’d be on his way. But telegraph services have fallen by the wayside for some unknown reason. Certainly the federal government needs to put a few billion dollars into expanded telegraph services.

What if one day email was down. Facebook crashed. Text messages were jumbled. FaceTime didn’t work and, heaven forbid, cellular phone service went out. In that case then someone might actually need to send a telegraph. The big hold up is that it seems to be impossible at present to send a telegraph of kittens playing with puppies or young women smiling into their own phone, so why would anyone need to send a telegraph.

The world of communication has become complicated, but at least we know that Congresswoman Adams is

going to do her best to make sure that all those pieces of mail addressed to “Occupant” are delivered in a timely manner, and once she gets that straightened out, will no doubt move on to telegraph service for all.

We’ve received several calls and letters about the increasing number of drivers running red lights and now I know what they mean.

I cross West Wendover Avenue at Cridland Road at least once a day, usually on my way into town. I’ve learned to wait after the light turns green for cars trying to get through on the yellow light.

Tuesday morning, while I waited, one car came speeding through the intersection after my light was green, followed by another a few seconds later. I looked left and didn’t see anything coming and slowly entered the intersection. Halfway through, a car that must have been going more (continued on page 39)

GREENSBORO HISTORICAL MUSEUM 130 Summit Ave.

Fabulous ’50s Flashback

Saturday, July 9 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Greensboro Historical Museum will revisit the fabulous ’50s and you’re invited. Bring the whole family for a free, fun-filled day featuring 1950s cars, music, dancing, hula hoop contest, TV shows with free popcorn and good old fashion hamburgers. There will be fun activities for kids of all ages. For more information, call (336) 509-5913 or visit www. greensborohistory.org.

CAROLINA THEATRE 310 S. Greene St.

Carolina Kids’ Club

Wednesday mornings through July 27, enjoy a family-friendly Disney movie preceded by exciting, kid-focused, live stage entertainment from Mad Science and lobby fun from Bricks 4 Kidz leading up to the show.

July 13 – Toy Story; July 20 – Mulan; July 27 – Finding Nemo Doors open at 9 a.m.; stage games and live entertainment begin at 9:30; movies begin between 10:15 and 10:30, with events ending by noon. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Tickets are $5 and include a kids’ snack pack. Five-packs of tickets are $20.

For more information, call (336) 333-2605 or visit carolinatheatre. com. For group tickets, call (336) 333-2600, ext. 5.

CITY OF GREENSBORO

Guilford Courthouse Park • 2332 New Garden Road

Music for a Summer Evening

Sunday, July 10, enjoy a free concert at the Guilford Courthouse Military Park. The Zinc Kings will perform bluegrass selections at 6 p.m. and Carolina Coalmine will playing country and southern rock at 7:15 p.m. On Sunday, July 17, enjoy classical and pops performed by the Eastern Music Festival Young Artist Pops Band on the Founders Lawn at Guilford College, 5800 W. Friendly Ave. For a complete schedule, visit http://www.greensboro-nc.gov.

ARTQUEST AT GREENHILL 200 North Davie St.

Free Family Night

Every Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m., ArtQuest at Greenhill hosts a free Family Night. Stop in to play and explore ArtQuest’s studios, where families can create art and share ideas, create one-of-a-kind paintings and work with clay or new and unexpected materials at the hands-on exploration table. For more information, call (336) 3337460 or visit GreenhillNC.org.

CHECK US OUT ON THE OPEN HOUSE PAGE

This schedule brought to you by your friends & neighbors at

Coldwell Banker (336) 282-4414

13

14 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com UNCLE ORSON Reviews

Uncle Orson Reviews Everything

Independence Day, Hand Towels

by Orson Scott Card

To those critics who have panned Independence Day: Resurgence, I can only say, What did you expect?

Did any critic imagine that between 1996 and 2016, everyone involved in the film would have gone to Artsy Film School and come back ready to make a magnificent, deep, complicated story about angstridden characters tearing each other

apart with their conflicting goals?

Did any reviewer suppose that the writers involved in writing the sequel to a gung-ho action picture would stop the action periodically to develop deep, fascinating characters out of people who are mostly there because they were in the first movie?

The original Independence Day was, by many standards, an awful movie. Everything was so

compressed that entire relationships were summed up in a couple of lines of dialogue. Every character was Just One Thing – Judd Hirsch was the kvetching father, Jeff Goldblum the genius who couldn’t get over his lost love, Will Smith the warrior who aspired to marry his girlfriend and be father to her child, Bill Pullman the president, and so on.

There were attempts in that movie to make the science more or less plausible, but really – our computers and theirs could interface so perfectly, and we could create a virus that would penetrate operating systems we hadn’t even seen?

The technological idiocies, however, were completely forgiven because (a) most of the audience doesn’t know enough about technology or science to notice anything was wrong and (b) even those who noticed didn’t care all that much because this movie was about Fighting Off the Invaders.

Remember, America hasn’t actually been invaded since the War of 1812, unless you count the Civil War, in

which the two sides invaded each other.

When Independence Day was a hit in 1996, we hadn’t even gone through 9/11 yet – and 9/11, like Pearl Harbor, was not an invasion, it was a raid.

But in 1996 we did have a president who was systematically dismantling and misusing our military forces, and we needed a reminder of how America saved the world in the 1940s and, arguably, in the struggle against Communist expansion in Korea, Vietnam and many other places around the globe.

With Independence Day, America once again stood as the only surviving defender against an unprovoked onslaught from an implacable enemy. And, through blind stupid luck, raw courage and the inevitable “secret” self-destruct mechanism that has been built into every alien warship since the Death Star, we prevailed. America saves the world.

That’s our self-story. That’s what Independence Day is about, period. (continued on next page)

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uncle orson (continued from previous page)

And it’s not as if the critics’ darlings are any better at characterization and deep storytelling. The only thing that really marks an award-bait art film is meanness toward ordinary middleclass Americans. (American Beauty.

About Schmidt. Little Miss Sunshine.)

Those aren’t characters in those movies. Those are ideological straw men on a stick.

No, what critics really dislike about Independence Day – and Independence Day: Resurgence – is that they are about people in positions of authority acting with courage, resolve and wisdom, and about ordinary people stepping up and doing what it takes to get through really, really hard times.

Sebastian Junger’s excellent book Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging examines in some detail the oft-documented fact that we humans are at our best when we are facing the worst. It isn’t some farflung fantasy that the Independence Day franchise is selling: It’s the reality of the human species.

And that’s why most of us respond viscerally to the movie – that is, most of us who can let go of the I-onlylike-films-that-make-me-cool-forliking-them syndrome that eventually afflicts most critics. (Including me: Remember that I liked The Lobster.)

The first film was criticized, especially abroad, for the fact that despite a few nods toward internationalism, it was America that did the heavy lifting. Not that this isn’t exactly what is expected of us in the real world.

It pleases intellectuals in Europe to forget why they aren’t all speaking German. Or Russian.

While it pleases intellectuals and politicians everywhere else to simply hate America: it’s never a loser on the

evening news in Islamabad, Cairo, Harare, Mumbai, Shanghai, Caracas or Djakarta.

This time around, Independence Day: Resurgence actually involves leaders of other nations from the start. Most interesting is Deobia Oparei playing an African warlord, Dikembe Umbutu. Umbutu has a psychic connection with the invaders, which led him to be able to decipher much of the alien writing system.

(Note to the writers: When you are deciphering an unknown language in an unknown alphabet, decoding 70 percent of the characters doesn’t mean you can read 70 percent of the language. Generally, it means you can read none of the language.

Umbutu should have had all the characters, and then figured out a few of the statements.

(Take my reading of French. I’ve never studied the language, just picked up pronunciation and noticed a lot of cognates with other Romance languages. When I pick up a French newspaper, I can read 95 percent of the words. The only words I’m missing are the ones that give the entire meaning of what is being said.

So I don’t look at a French newspaper story and say, “It’s something about Topic A,” I look at it and say, “If I understood what the topic was, I might have some idea of what they’re saying.”

(But it’s too much to hope for writers who are fully aware of their own language, let alone how extremely difficult it is to decode an unknown language in an unknown script. Hello, Linear A.) Umbutu is part of the movie to the end; Oparei does a great job of reminding us that success depends on cooperation among nations.

Of course, what makes this

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

plausible is that in the 20 years since the first film, the human race has bonded together to create an international organization that has both the funding and the authority to create defense forces based on the captured alien technology.

Thus the “patriotism” of this second film is not just American patriotism (though it definitely is that, too), it is human patriotism – the idea that it’s good to fight for the survival of the human race, and good for us to stop fighting each other along the way. (Of course, the existence of a warlord in Africa suggests that there still isn’t universal peace and intergovernmental cooperation everywhere.)

And the fact that humans are using alien technology in all our own war machines makes it a tiny bit more plausible when American and Chinese pilots plunk themselves down in captured alien fighters and say, “Cool interface,” then maneuver their unfamiliar craft through a difficult escape from the alien mothership.

Let’s face it: The writers of this film are trying hard to make it way, way less dumb than the first movie.

And they largely succeed. As a sci-fi writer who tries to keep up, I didn’t wince even a tenth as often as I did when watching the first movie. So let’s give full credit to Nicolas Wright and James A. Woods for making this script markedly better than it had to be.

On top of that, Wright and Woods also wrote parts for themselves.

Woods’ part is modestly forgettable, though he does a good job with it.

Wright, however, provides comic relief through the whole movie, as an obsessive, context-oblivious accountant who finds himself thrust into a combat role entirely against his will.

Naturally, Wright and Woods will not get anything like the lionization

that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck got for writing Good Will Hunting, even though Good Will Hunting essentially stole its climax from Ordinary People (“It’s not your fault!”). No Oscars for you, Wright and Woods – but your film is making millions and you’re already writing director Roland Emmerich’s next movie, purportedly an “Arctic” story. I think we can trust Wright and Woods not to put penguins in it, though like all the other idiot-science sheep, they’ll probably bear testimony to global warming.

In the meantime, though, Resurgence did some really smart things. For instance, it gave us a second alien species, which is determined to help us even though our first response was to blast them out of the sky – using the same technology as the first, bad-guy group of aliens. Best of all, this second alien group gives us a chance to see Brent Spiner (Data from Next Generation) overacting his heart out as Dr. Brakish Okun, the guy whom the alien in the first movie turned into a meat puppet, and who has been in a coma for 20 years. Great fun.

Judd Hirsch’s character is even more annoying this time than the first time, but that’s his job, and Hirsch is very good at being irritating. Sela Ward plays the first woman president – the decisive, courageous, plain-spoken one we wish we could have, rather than the one we’re likely to get, since in this story Hillary would dither and make no decisions, while lying and pretending that all the devastating mistakes were caused by a vast conspiracy or, better yet, didn’t actually happen.

We’ve been working with antigravity vehicles for 20 years, but all the planes are aerodynamic and fly, even on the Moon, as if they had to deal with wind resistance.

Probably the worst flaw in this (continued on page 37)

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16 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

county line (continued from page 5)

ended up paying property taxes to Alamance County and sending their kids to schools there as well as using other services provided by that county. In a fewer set of cases, others who were actually in Alamance County believed they lived in Guilford County and acted accordingly. About eight years ago the State of North Carolina conducted a survey and once again everyone knew where the line was, but residents didn’t want to “change” counties. That line established by state surveyors is now called the “geodetic” line.

Alamance County commissioners wanted to draw a new county line based on the wishes of property owners in the disputed area – what’s called the “zigzag” approach. Eventually, the Guilford County commissioners agreed to go along with that solution.

However, when it became evident that doing so would mean a wholesale exit of property owners with their property to Alamance County and its lower tax rate – 58 cents for each $100 of property compared to Guilford County’s rate of 75.5 cents – the Guilford County commissioners reversed their previous decision. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners later requested that state officials reestablish the county line delineated by surveyors. However, that move has gone nowhere.

State legislators have been concerned with passing a budget, revising House Bill 2, and other issues – but one thing they have no interest in right now is the county line dispute between Guilford County and Alamance County.

State Rep. Jon Hardister from Greensboro said the matter simply isn’t being discussed at the state level.

“I haven’t heard anything about that lately,” Hardister said. “I don’t think there will be any movement on that this year.”

Hardister made that comment before the session adjourned last Friday, and since the legislature is now adjourned for the year, he turned out to be right.

Alamance County officials like the current set-up just fine as it is because that county is still taxing and getting money from Guilford County citizens – while Guilford County is no longer taxing any Alamance County residents. Also, property owners on the line aren’t making noise about the current arrangement because those in the disputed areas have the option of paying taxes to whichever county they like (Read: Alamance County).

Guilford County hasn’t been forcing that issue because several years ago

the boards of commissioners in the two counties came to an agreement to work with the parties in the disputed areas until the matter is resolved.

And, as for the Guilford County commissioners and other county officials, well, they’re just tired of dealing with it after more than a decade of negotiations.

The Guilford County commissioners haven’t mentioned the problem once at any meeting or work session in 2016, and the Alamance County commissioners also don’t seem to want to do anything about the matter.

And state legislators want the two counties to reach an agreement to make any state action easy and noncontroversial rather than difficult and heated. The line is where it is and state officials know where the line is, but if the two counties worked the issue out among themselves then residents not happy with the solution would be upset with their commissioners rather than state legislators.

Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis said that his department has “released” all Alamance County residents from Guilford County’s tax roles and it no longer attempts to collect taxes from those who legitimately live in Alamance County.

“We know where the line is,” Chavis said.

He said the state survey, which used modern equipment and the most up-to-date surveying techniques, determined exactly where that line is.

Chavis said the current situation isn’t a good one even though some people seem happy with it.

“Anytime you leave something in limbo, it’s not good.” Chavis said.

He added that Guilford County has made an official request to the state to reestablish the line and added that’s where the county currently stands on the issue.

Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne said state legislatures have been hoping the two counties could work out something out.

“I think they want unanimous agreement between Guilford County and Alamance County, and it doesn’t appear as though that’s happening,” Payne said.

He said Guilford County sent a letter about a year-and-a-half ago to the state delegation on the matter.

That letter requested that the state reestablish the proper line.

Payne said that, in the meantime, county officials have been “doing the best we can” to work through any disputes regarding who should go to school where or which planning

department a resident should use.

“Nothing is any more solved than it was before,” the county attorney said.

For over a decade, county staff, residents and others have talked about how important it is to fix the problem – however, for the past two years, the new normal in the debate seems to be to let sleeping dogs lie. Alamance County still wants the zigzag line that would let owners choose what county they reside in, and a few years ago Alamance County worked out a similar county line dispute with Orange County, on Alamance’s eastern border, by adopting a county line full of as many twists and turns as Sleuth. That made many residents along that line happy but some Alamance County officials have said it’s a crazy solution that has created a logistical nightmare. Former Alamance County Commissioner Tim Sutton said repeatedly that the line Alamance County now has on its eastern border is one of the most absurd things he’s every seen in his life. He said it makes no sense as it weaves its way down cul-de-sacs and streets and said it will leave everyone confused for years and years to come.

However, Guilford County commissioners continue to be dead set against that these days.

“The zigzag line is silly season,” Henning said.

Alamance County Tax Administrator Jeremy Akins said his department sends out tax bills to those on the Alamance County side of the geodetic line as well as to those “who have historically been taxed by Alamance County.”

He said that practice would

continue until the dispute between the two counties is resolved.

He also said that, to the best of his knowledge, there’s no connection between where a resident pays taxes and where he or she receives services.

“The payment is separate for the time being,” he said.

According to Akins, if a property owner on the Guilford County side of the line requests a tax release to Guilford County, that request is granted.

Of course, virtually no one who has a choice wants to be in Guilford County with its higher tax rate.

He said the current dispute does have drawbacks for property owners.

For instance, he said, if they get a bill from one county but pay taxes in the other, it puts them in an “unpaid but not delinquent” category, and, while the property owners won’t be penalized by either county if they paid taxes in one, in some cases banks or other financial institutions might see it as a problem and withhold credit or charge a higher rate because they have a bill that hasn’t been paid.

Akins said in some cases property owners have gone ahead and paid both bills to make certain that type of problem doesn’t arise.

He also said that until a decision is made by the two counties or the state the current situation will remain.

“It is still disputed territory,” he said.

“There’s an impasse at this point and there has not been a conclusion.”

One thing to be thankful for is that at least new subdivisions being built along the line are being deeded on the correct side of the geodetic line.

pet peeve (continued from page 10)

Commissioner Justin Conrad said he wants taxpayers to avoid having to shell out more county money for land, on top of the steep price tag already on the project.

“Buying property in another location is not the fiscally responsible thing to do,” Conrad said.

He said that if the city doesn’t allow the county to use the Burlington Road land he would lean toward building a new shelter on the West Wendover site.

“I would probably say leave it where it is and we could figure out a way to make that work,” Conrad said.

One possibility that has not really been discussed at length is that the county could sell off the property next to the Ag Center site to help pay the cost of building the shelter at another site.

However, one downside to that is that the county has held on to the property for years with plans of eventually using it for various governmental purposes.

As the commissioners start to turn toward exploring other options, Phillips said he has been discussing the special-use permit request with city officials and he also doesn’t know when the request for the special-use permit will be submitted to the city.

One factor that is also at play right now is that, seemingly, in July or early August, every elected official in Greensboro and Guilford County is at the beach, so those discussions are unlikely to move forward much in the next month unless the city councilmembers happen to run into each other at a seafood restaurant in Atlantic Beach or in Calabash.

RHINO

REALESTATE www.rhinotimes.com

July 7, 2016

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18 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

The New York Times

crossword puzzle No. 0626 SPORTS-PAGE HEADLINES

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BY PRISCILLA CLARK AND JEFF CHEN / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 20

ACROSS

1 Foyer fixture 9 Paratroopers’ gear 15 Building material for an 80-Across (in two different ways?)

20 Unsympathetic response to a complainer 21 Warhol’s “Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box,” e.g.

22 Italian vessel?

23 Conflict at sea 26 Asia’s ____ Sea 27 Geological flat top 28 Staple at a luau 29 Orange Pixar character 30 Main character in Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” 32 River ____ (tributary of the Thames) 34 Balls or fire preceder 37 Way off 40 Decides, in a way 44 Dura ____ (brain membrane) 46 “That’s more than I want to know!”

47 Parenting problem at a zoo 52 Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, e.g.

53 Spill one’s secrets 54 “The Governator” 55 Focus of study for Niels Bohr Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

56 Lead-in to dealer or dialer 59 Winter Palace resident 61 Particulars, in slang 62 Logician’s word 63 Show weariness 65 Eight days after the nones 67 Choice word?

69 Cold War synopsis 74 Rimes with rhymes 75 Othello, for one 76 “Kewl!”

77 Catch 80 See 15-Across 83 It may be recounted 85 Be highly esteemed 87 Not mad 88 Roger Bannister, notably 89 Word repeated in James Brown’s “It’s a ____ ____ ____ World” 91 “Please show some compassion!”

94 Show of respect at the Vatican 99 Wood in Lucius Malfoy’s wand 100 Dear one?

101 Rapt 102 Twosome 104 Incapacitate, in a way 105 “Inside the N.B.A.” airer 106 Yemen, once 111 Subj. for a radio astronomer 113 One in a gray suit, for short 115 Most-applied-to sch. in the U.S.

119 Split pair 120 Overthrow of a monarchy 126 Smart ____ 127 Only guest host in the 21 years of Leno’s “The Tonight Show” 128 It requires a balancing act 129 City of Light, informally 130 Gives the old heaveho 131 Faulty connections?

15 Part of a plot 16 ____ queen 17 Pitched poorly 18 Queen ____ 19 SAT org.

24 Raft material 25 Pentium creator 31 Profess 33 Long stretch 35 Supercontinent of 200 million years ago 36 “____ be my pleasure” 38 Scope 39 Climbs 41 World of Warcraft DOWN beast 1 Food ____ (feelings after big meals) 42 Waver of a wand 2 John who wrote 43 Bathroom tile shade “Appointment in 45 Prepped Samarra” 47 Cowardly Lion 3 Hussein : Obama :: harasser ____ : Garfield 48 Bathroom bar 4 “Through many 49 The Pink Panther, in dangers, ____ “The Pink Panther” and snares I have 50 Takes the place of, in already come” batting (“Amazing Grace” 51 Seventh film in the lyric) “Rocky” series 5 Burgundy of 52 ____ characters “Anchorman” (basic means of 6 “Pardon …” writing Chinese) 7 Heart 57 “____ the season …”

8 Big name in 58 Leftover headphones 9 Number cruncher, for 60 Hardly original works short 63 Curled one’s lip 10 Short shorts 64 Police-blotter letters 11 Until 66 Fair-hiring inits.

12 The Seal of Solomon 68 Org. with the Eddie and others Eagle safety program 13 Before, poetically 70 Tree with catkins 14 Letters on many a racecar 71 Charms

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72 Long stretch 73 Delicacy usually eaten as an appetizer 78 Marching band?

79 Queen ____ (pop music nickname) 80 Stoked 81 Deli roll 82 Rubens or Raphael 84 Gets fitted for a suit?

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86 Drive-____ 87 Pool site 90 Leave runny on the inside, say 92 Compete 93 Leftovers 95 Once-common campus event 96 Welcome to the fold?

97 Downside 98 Go haywire

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119 125

103 Clear for takeoff?

107 OutKast charttopper 108 On the button 109 Southern beauty 110 Low mounts?

112 Take a hit 114 Sein : German :: ____ : French 116 Cotton or country follower

117 Siberian river 118 Dry 120 Time out?

121 ____ russe 122 A card?

123 Deli offering 124 Alternatives to Macs 125 What a constant hand-washer probably has, for short

OPEN HOUSES • SUNDAY, JULY 10, 2016 • 2-4PM

127 Winged Foot Court Winston Salem, NC 27107 4BR 3BA (776094) Lawana McNeill 336-880-1100 $372,500 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

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136 Baryclays Drive Winston Salem, NC 27107 4BR 3.5 BA (797271) Rhonda Hobbs 336-655-9220 $319,900 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

114 Barclays Drive Winston Salem, NC 27107 3BR 3.5 BA (797329) Rhonda Hobbs 336-655-9220 $331,400 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

318 Water Mill Road Kernersville, NC 27284 3BR 2.5BA (787434) Lisa Pfefferkorn 336-972-1234 $232,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

CAROLINA

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Couple pleads guilty in IRS tax refund fraud case/2

JOURNAL A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF NEWS, ANALYSIS, AND OPINION FROM THE JOHN LOCKE FOUNDATION

-XO\ 9RO 1R

Check us out online at carolinajournal.com and johnlocke.org

DEPARTMENTS North Carolina Local Government From Page 1 Education Opinion Parting Shot

2 7 8 10 12 16

TRIAD EDITION

CSX Continues Search For Rail Terminal Site NCDOT approved $100 million subsidy for project

BY DON CARRINGTON ([HFXWLYH (GLWRU

M

in any capacity. We are happy to provide information if and when a project is publicly announced.� :KLOH &RPPHUFH R΀FLDOV PD\ not want to discuss the project, on April 19 Commerce provided a stateRZQHG DLUFUDIW WR à \ D JURXS RI -RKQston County business leaders and HOHFWHG R΀FLDOV WR WRXU D &6; LQWHUmodal terminal near North Baltimore, Ohio.

RALEIGH

onths after the N.C. Department of Transportation approved a $100 million subsidy for CSX to build an intermodal rail terminal in Johnston County near Selma, the railroad, amid local opposition at every North Carolina location CSX has considered, says it continues looking for sites in North Carolina and other states.

CSX approached the Rail Division of the N.C. Department of Transportation in 2014 with a plan to build the rail hub outside Selma, contingent on getting a taxpayer subsidy of at least $100 million.

But opposition to the proposed project developed in Selma and at an alternative site near Four Oaks. Opponents of the project from Four Oaks say that when they contacted the goverQRU¡V R΀FH WR H[SUHVV WKHLU REMHFWLRQV

Want all 24 pages of Carolina Journal?

This version of Carolina Journal, inserted into your local weekly, consists of just 16 pages of the full 24-page CJ statewide edition.

If you would like to get WKRVH H[WUD HLJKW SDJHV RI Ă€UVW rate journalism and policy analysis, all you have to do is go to CarolinaJournal.com and click on “Subscribeâ€? in the top right FRUQHU RI WKH SDJH -XVW Ă€OO RXW the form you’ll be put on our monthly mailing list.

Or you can call 919-8283876 and ask one of our helpful representatives to put you on the mailing list.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Governor rejects Selma

Pictured outside his home near Four Oaks, Randy Johnson, left, opposes a CSX project that would take his home and his family’s farmland. Pharmacist Jack Austin, right, is concerned about air pollution from additional diesel engines. (CJ photo by Don Carrington)

they were told that the Department of Commerce, not NCDOT, was handling the project. Even so, NCDOT gave initial authorization to the subsidy in April.

Carolina Journal asked Commerce spokeswoman Kim Genardo about the status of the project, but she would

not acknowledge it existed. “NC Commerce is always looking for opportunities to recruit new companies to North Carolina and work with existing employers on expansion,� Genardo said in an email. “However, North Carolina Commerce does not discuss whether it is or isn’t working with any company

In a Jan. 14 press release, Gov. Pat McCrory announced plans for the 450-acre site near Selma, saying he was “enthusiastic that CSX, with support from local governments and planning organizations, has proposed this project for North Carolina.�

Twelve days later, however, after news reports revealed that CSX was prepared to use eminent domain to acquire property from unwilling landowners in order to assemble the property it needed for the project, McCrory reversed his position, saying the Selma plan “does not appear to be a viable option.�

CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla., has 1,800 miles of track and employs Continued as “CSX,� Page 8

‘Revenuers’ Concern for N.C. Distillery Owners

High taxes, limits on distribution restrict businesses

BY KARI TRAVIS $VVRFLDWH (GLWRU

T

BELMONT

hree years ago, Robbie and Caroline Delaney quit their jobs to become full-time rum distillers, and their Muddy River Distillery just west of Charlotte has done well.

But the couple pays 59 percent of their revenue in state and federal liquor taxes, and must comply with a long list of strict Acoholic Beverage Control rules — causing them to won-

der if their entrepreneurial move was worth the hassle.

Robbie, a former construction worker who now runs his business without the support of any outside investors, said he works constantly, and adds, “I’d like to not pay [nearly] twothirds of my revenue in taxes.�

He said his and his wife’s salary

´FRPHV RͿ WKH ODVW PRQWK¡V revenue for the whole year. We work for the government, and then we skim a little bit RͿ WKH WRS ¾ The Delaneys aren’t the only small-scale distillery owners in North Carolina to be concerned about running into burdensome regulations from the state’s ABC board.

But these small-scale distillers have found several advocates in the General Assembly who hope that removing unnecessary barriers to entrepreneurship can allow legal distilleries to join the state’s noted craft breweries and wineries as homegrown success stories.

The idea to open a distillery was Continued as “Revenuers,� Page 9

PAGE CJ2

NORTH CAROLINA

CAROLINA

JOURNAL Rick Henderson Managing Editor Don Carrington Executive Editor Mitch Kokai, Barry Smith Kari Travis, Dan Way Associate Editors Kristen Blair, Roy Cordato Becki Gray, Sam A. Hieb Lindalyn Kakadelis, Troy Kickler George Leef, Michael Lowrey Donna Martinez, Harry Painter Jenna Ashley Robinson 0DUF 5RWWHUPDQ -HVVH 6DͿURQ Jay Schalin,Terry Stoops Andy Taylor, Michael Walden Contributors Joseph Chesser, Zak Hasanin Catherine Koniecsny, Charles Logan $XVWLQ 3UXLWW 0DWW 6KDHͿHU Interns Published by The John Locke Foundation 200 W. Morgan St., # 200 Raleigh, N.C. 27601 (919) 828-3876 • Fax: 821-5117 www.JohnLocke.org Jon Ham Vice President & Publisher Kory Swanson President John Hood Chairman Charles S. Carter, Charles F. Fuller Bill Graham, John M. Hood Christine Mele, Baker A. Mitchell Jr. Paul Slobodian, David Stover J.M Bryan Taylor Board of Directors Carolina Journal is a monthly journal of news, analysis, and commentary on state and local government and public policy issues in North Carolina. Š2016 by The John Locke Foundation Inc. All opinions expressed in bylined articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily UHà HFW WKH YLHZV RI WKH HGLWRUV RI CJ or the VWDͿ DQG ERDUG RI WKH -RKQ /RFNH )RXQGDWLRQ Material published herein may be reprinted as long as appropriate credit is given. Submissions and letters are welcome and should be directed to the editor.

To subscribe, call 919-828-3876. Readers also can request Carolina Journal Weekly Report, delivered each weekend by e-mail, or visit CarolinaJournal.com for news, links, and exclusive content updated each weekday.

Those interested in education, economics, higher education, health care or local government also can ask to receive weekly e-letters covering these issues.

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

Couple Pleads Guilty in IRS Refund Fraud Case Immigrant couple required interpreter during court session

dren. She could receive a maximum sentence of 10 years.

They agreed to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $2,944,799 and also to assist the government in the recovery and forfeiture of any assets that were acquired through WKHLU LOOHJDO DFWLYLWLHV 7KH JRYHUQPHQW DOUHDG\ ÀOHG D IRUfeiture notice stating that the couple would have to give up

BY DON CARRINGTON four parcels of real estate in Wallace.

According to court documents, Luna and Ruano obWILMINGTON WDLQHG ,QGLYLGXDO 7D[SD\HU ,GHQWLÀFDWLRQ 1XPEHUV IRU DW allace, N.C., residents Walda Lorena Luna and her husband, Perfecto Ruano, pleaded guilty on June OHDVW QDPHV WKDW PD\ UHSUHVHQW UHDO RU ÀFWLWLRXV SHRSOH 20 in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, to charges The IRS issues ITINs instead of Social Security numbers to associated with a tax fraud scheme in which they illegally foreign individuals working in the United States, giving REWDLQHG PRUH WKDQ PLOOLRQ IURP ÀOLQJ WD[ UHWXUQV ZLWK WKHP D PHDQV RI ÀOLQJ LQFRPH WD[ UHWXUQV DQG SD\LQJ WD[HV on income earned. the Internal Revenue Service claiming fraudulent refunds.

Luna and Ruano allegedly fabricated W-2 wage and Carolina Journal ÀUVW UHSRUWHG WKH FRXSOH¡V DFWLYLWLHV LQ tax statements for each name using the names of real emJanuary. ployers, then prepared tax returns and submitted refund According to court documents, Luna is a native of Honduras who obtained temporary protective status in No- FODLPV WR WKH ,56 7KH UHIXQG FKHFNV ZHUH VHQW WR SRVW R΀FH vember 2006. She entered the United States illegally in 1993. boxes rented by Luna or Ruano. The average refund check Ruano is a native of Guatemala who obtained legal perma- was $4,385. The checks all were deposited in a First Bank nent resident status in 1988. Both required the services of business account that Luna had opened in 2006. Luna withdrew $11,888,300 in cash by writing 252 checks for cash. a Spanish interpreter to Since February 2010, participate in the court Luna operated a small proceeding. convenience store named The illegal activBeverly Tienda, located ity took place between on North Norwood Street January 2009 and May in Wallace. For the 2009 2012. During that time, through 2012 calendar 2,760 U.S. Treasury reyears, Luna reported anfund checks with a total nual incomes from the face value of $12,104,825 store of $16,000, $18,000, were deposited in a busi$17,481, and $24,915, reness bank account mainspectively. She reported tained by the couple. no other income.

Luna and Ruano For 2009 through were arrested Jan. 11 2012 Ruano reported and have remained in business income from jail since that time. They several sources for a toare scheduled to be sental of $18,560, $26,204, tenced on Sept. 26 in fed$27,002, and $59,123, reSince 2010 Walda Lorena Luna had operated this convenience store, eral court in Raleigh.

The IRS calls this Beverly Tienda, on North Norwood Street in Wallace. (CJ photo by spectively. He reported Don Carrington) no other income. type of crime Stolen Duplin County Identity Refund Fraud, birth records show they are the parents of three children. or SIRF. More recently it has labeled the crime Identity Theft tax refund fraud, or IDT refund fraud. The IRS has been The oldest, a daughter, was in court to see her parents enter aware of this type of fraud at least since 2011 and recently guilty pleas.

CJ initially reported on SIRF in March 2013, identifyVWHSSHG XS HͿRUWV WR FDWFK LW ing fraud schemes over the course of But IRS computers did not deseveral months in Durham, Clinton, tect the couple’s activities. Instead, the Union County, and Long Island, N.Y. DJHQF\ ÀUVW OHDUQHG RI WKH WD[ IUDXG DV CJ also reported that the IRS had been WKH UHVXOW RI D 0D\ WUD΀F VWRS LQ aware of the issue for years, but rarely Arkansas. had discussed it publicly.

The Arkansas State Police stopped In July 2012, IRS Inspector General WKH FRXSOH IRU DQ XQVSHFLÀHG UHDVRQ 5XVVHOO *HRUJH¡V R΀FH LVVXHG D UHSRUW and found them carrying $1.8 million stating that for tax year 2011, the IRS LQ FDVK 7KH SROLFH QRWLÀHG WKH 'XSOLQ reported that it had detected 938,644 &RXQW\ 1 & 6KHULͿ¡V 'HSDUWPHQW tax returns involving identity theft and and within days law enforcement ofprevented the issuance of fraudulent ÀFLDOV VHL]HG WD[ IUDXG HYLGHQFH IURP tax refunds totaling $6.5 billion.

But the the couple’s North Carolina home and losses from undetected identity fraud business. are substantial.

The inspector general Ruano’s plea agreement involves R΀FH¡V DQDO\VLV RI GDWD IURP WKH one count of participating in a conWD[ \HDU LGHQWLĂ€HG PLOOLRQ UHWXUQV VSLUDF\ WR FRPPLW PDLO IUDXG RÍżHQVHV representing $5.2 billion, that likely against the United States. He could reZHUH Ă€OHG E\ LGHQWLW\ WKLHYHV FHLYH D PD[LPXP SULVRQ VHQWHQFH RI Ă€YH \HDUV To combat SIRF, the report stated, “Access to third/XQD¡V SOHD DJUHHPHQW LQYROYHG WKUHH FRXQWV 7KH Ă€UVW LV LGHQWLFDO WR 5XDQR¡V 7KH VHFRQG LV WKH Ă€OLQJ RI D IDOVH SHU- party income and withholding information at the time the sonal income tax return in which she claimed as dependents tax returns are processed is the single most important tool two children who were not her relatives in order to reduce that the IRS could have to identify and prevent tax refund her tax bill. The third count is aggravated identity theft in fraud. However, most of the third-party information is not which she used the Social Security numbers of those chil- DYDLODEOH XQWLO ZHOO DIWHU WD[ UHWXUQ Ă€OLQJ EHJLQV Âľ CJ

W

Carolina Journal has reported on similar tax-fraud schemes in Durham, Union County, and Long Island, NY

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

NORTH CAROLINA

PAGE CJ3

CON Mandate Ended For New Mental Health Facilities

BY DAN WAY

N

RALEIGH

orth Carolina’s 2016-17 state budget increased the amount of money to open new psychiatric beds around the state from $12 million to $18 million using proceeds from the sale of the Dorothea Dix campus in Raleigh, while eliminating a controversial regulation that makes the goal of adding new beds more difĂ€FXOW “I think that there are some health care providers that are interested in putting in some beds that will be for mental health,â€? said Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne, who co-chairs the Senate Health Care Committee. “They’ll have to submit proposals, and somebody will have to go through them to see who’s got the best deal.â€? “We agreed to $18 million for crisis beds, $2 million for pediatric beds,â€? said Rep. Chris Malone, R-Wake, chairman of the House Appropriations Health and Human Services subcommittee. “The important thing about this bill is it handles all three [geographic] areas — the west, the east, and the central part of the state.â€? The proposal allocates $6 million to each region.

In addition to the mental health and substance-abuse provisions, the compromise package includes “a small mandate� to reopen a “free-standing emergency room� and potentially some mental health beds at Franklin Regional Medical Center in Louisburg, Malone said. Novant Health closed the hospital last October. Residents seeking those services now must drive to hospitals in Wake County or New Bern. “These funds would be predomi-

adjourned. “I think that CON is something that would have to be done large, not small,� Malone said. Creating small exemptions here and there in a patchwork quilt is “the one thing I will always be against.�

Yet he conceded he was swayed from that thinking on the psychiatric facilities because of the dire situation facing the state with continually rising behavioral health cases.

Behavioral health has “personally impacted� his family, Malone said.

Last year, he sponsored House Bill 923 to create a pilot program converting unused acute-care beds in rural hospitals to inpatient mental health beds.

Malone’s bill made it into the budget as a study to be conducted by the state Department of Health and Human Services, requiring a report to be submitted to the General Assembly.

It then became part of Gov. Pat McCrory’s mental health task force assessment.

Malone’s wife works at WakeMed Sen. Louis Pate, R-Wayne, at left, joined Gov. Pat McCrory for an April 11 event at Hospital, where mental health patients ZKLFK WKH JRYHUQRU DQQRXQFHG KLV SODQV WR LQFRUSRUDWH ÂżQGLQJV RI KLV PHQWDO KHDOWK have overwhelmed the available space task force into his version of the state budget. (CJ photo by Dan Way) while they wait for a crisis bed to open nantely addressing the major com- The money could be used to build new somewhere in the state. plaints we get from hospitals about facilities or upgrade and convert exist“I saw the hallways where peoindividuals being stuck in [emergency ing beds at underutilized hospitals. ple were lined up 50 strong, and redepartments] and not having a bed to The proposal also aims to elimi- cently 100 strong, and they last in there transfer them to,â€? said Sen. Ralph Hise, QDWH WKH VWDWH¡V FHUWLĂ€FDWH RI QHHG for weeks, so we certainly need to do R-Mitchell, the other co-chairman of mandate for psychiatric facilities cre- something regarding mental health,â€? the Senate Heatlh Care Committee. ated with proceeds from the Dorothea Malone said. “This is generally dealing with indi- Dix sale. “I think that we put the cart beviduals that are not stableâ€? because of &HUWLĂ€FDWH RI QHHG UHTXLUHV DS- fore the horse, even if somebody had behavioral health issues. plicants to undergo a lengthy, costly, the right things in mind,â€? Malone said Expansion of mental health and and often litigious process to get ap- of closing and selling Dorothea Dix substance abuse facilities would be proval for new facilities or high-end before a plan was put in place to deal achieved with one-time money the equipment. Based on research from the with the state’s growing number of state received from the sale of the Dor- Mercatus Center at George Mason Uni- mental health patients. othea Dix hospital property to Raleigh. versity, North Carolina has the nation’s “We’ve got to get the people fourth-highest level of state regula- out of jails and out of the emergency tions under CON. rooms, [who] are there with mental “It is my intent that there’s no health problems,â€? Pate said. point doing any of it if you don’t get While Pate believes mental health rid of CON,â€? Hise said of creating the issues and funding have not been givnew psychiatric beds. “We’ve not had en “the amount of attention necessary a lot of disagreementâ€? between House for the last several years ‌ I think it’s and Senate health appropriations sub- probably going to gain some tractionâ€? committee chairmen over that issue. as the culture becomes more aware of “I think this is just another ex- the seriousness and scope of the probample we’re seeing that even projects lem. or investments that we want to make The state created regional agencan’t happen, or can’t go forward, be- cies, known as local management encause of the complexities we put on tities/managed care organizations, to ourselves with the CON process,â€? and address developmental disability, subthat’s why psychiatric facilities need to stance abuse, and mental health probbe exempted from CON, Hise said. lems, but legislatively they have been “I do think it’s important that “kicked around for a long time,â€? Pate we repeal all of CON. I’m not back- said.

LQJ GRZQ RÍż RI WKDW Âľ VDLG +LVH D “I think they’re doing good serstrong advocate of that action. While vice, good work,â€? he said, but he enviD SURSRVDO IXOO\ UHSHDOLQJ WKH FHUWLĂ€- sions some changes to the LME-MCO cate-of-need law was not on the Gen- system in the future. That might ineral Assembly’s calendar at press time, clude some mergers and integration backers of repeal suggested it could be with physical health services. “I think considered before this year’s session they are tied together.â€?

CJ

PAGE CJ4

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

NORTH CAROLINA

General Fund Budget Features Tax Cuts, Teacher Pay Hike Spending increases VHW EHORZ LQĂ DWLRQ population growth

BY BARRY SMITH

H

RALEIGH

ouse and Senate leaders announced a $22.3 billion General Fund budget agreement on June 27 that boosts teacher pay, increases the “zero tax bracket,â€? and keeps spending increases below the proportional increase in population DQG LQĂ DWLRQ “This is a great budget that we arrived at through compromise,â€? House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said at a press conference. “It was a good compromise that allowed us to cut taxes and fund the critical needs of the state.â€? “This budget achieves our shared goals with Gov. [Pat] McCrory of prioritizing teacher pay, cutting taxes on the middle class, controlling the growth of government spending, and bolstering our savings,â€? Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said.

7KH ÀQDO EXGJHW VSHQGV VOLJKWO\ more than the bottom-line spending ÀJXUH RI ELOOLRQ EXGJHW ZULWHUV originally negotiated. Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake, the senior House budget writer, said legislative leaders received word in the days before the budget announcement that the state would receive $62.4 million in additional reversions — spending on programs that had been allocated but not used — to put into the new budget.

The budget represents a 2.8 perFHQW LQFUHDVH RYHU WKH FXUUHQW Ă€VFDO year budget. That falls slightly below the Taxpayer Bill of Rights index of 2.9 percent. The TABOR index adds the percentage of population growth in the VWDWH WR WKH LQĂ DWLRQ UDWH “It provides major tax relief for the middle class and small businesses E\ PDNLQJ WKH Ă€UVW D IDPLO\ earns exempt from income tax over the next two years,â€? Berger said. “This means a family making the North Carolina median household income of $44,000 annually will see an additional tax cut of $110 next year alone.â€?

The tax cuts would be phased in over two years, with the standard deGXFWLRQ ULVLQJ WR WKH ÀUVW \HDU and $17,500 the second year. The cuts come to $145 million for the 2016 tax year and $205 million for 2017, accordLQJ WR %HUJHU¡V R΀FH Berger said the budget would set aside $475 million for the rainy day

House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, at microphone, and Senate leader Phil Berger, right, at a June 27 press conference announcing the $22.3 billion General Fund budget. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)

fund. That money “gets us up close to $1.6 billion� in the state’s emergency reserve fund, said Sen. Harry Brown, R-Onslow, the Senate’s senior budget writer.

The teacher pay plan would increase average teacher salaries to $50,186 for the next school year and to nearly $55,000 within three years, Berger said. Average teacher compensation would rise by 4.7 percent, Berger said, and average pay will have increased $10,000 since 2013, when Republicans took control of the executive and legislative branches of state government.

State employees would see an average 3 percent increase in their pay, Dollar said, adding that half of that would come from a 1.5 percent acrossthe-board pay raise. State employees would get a one-time bonus of 0.5 percent of their salary. An additional average 1 percent in merit pay increases would be awarded, he said. Retirees would get a 1.6 percent one-time increase.

Other budget provisions include: • Appropriating $34.8 million for a reserve fund to reduce the waiting list for the Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers of as much as $4,200 for children from lower-income families to attend private schools. In addition, the budget includes a provision to increase funding incrementally to pay for more vouchers over the next 10 years. • Spending $18 million from the sale of the Dorothea Dix property in Raleigh to expand in-patient mental health care targeting rural areas and $2 million for crisis facilities for chil-

dren. Those added facilities would EH H[HPSW IURP WKH VWDWH¡V FHUWLÀFDWH of-need law, said Rep. Ralph Hise, RMitchell. • Setting tuition at three public universities — Elizabeth City State University, UNC-Pembroke, and Western Carolina University — at $1,000 per year for in-state students and $5,000 per year for out-of-state students, beginning in 2018. • Guaranteeing no in-state tuition increases for a standard undergraduate college term (usually four years) at the other UNC campuses, beginning in the fall of 2017. The bud-

get also freezes student fees at current levels in the UNC system and limits future increases to 3 percent per year.

Donald Bryson, state director of the North Carolina chapter of Americans for Prosperity, praised the tax reOLHI DÍżRUGHG LQ WKH EXGJHW ´7KH SHRple of North Carolina are becoming accustomed to tax cuts from these state lawmakers — this is the third round of take-home pay relief for earners statewide since 2011,â€? Bryson said. “The billions in unburdening are long overdue for working families and individuals who deserve to keep every dollar not essential to state services and government functions. Our state’s economic improvements in [gross domestic product] growth and job creation speak for themselves. North Carolina is on the right path with tax reform and responsible spending.â€?

Darrell Allison, executive director of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, noted the expansion of funding for opportunity scholarships, which would grow from nearly 11,000 in the 2017-18 school year to 36,000 by 2027-28. “It’s hard to believe that this proJUDP ZDV Ă€JXUDWLYHO\ RQ OLIH VXSSRUW just three short years ago, plagued with multiple court challenges and legal stoppages and injunctions. Today, with more than 22,300 applications submitted for the Opportunity Scholarship Program since its inception in 2013, this proposed budget is an acknowledgement to the thousands of working-class families who never gave up on this program in hopes of it being a real game-changer for CJ their children,â€? Allison said.

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JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

NORTH CAROLINA

PAGE CJ5

Group Against I-77 Toll Not Giving Up Despite NCGA Inaction FRQWUDFW ZLOO JHW PRUH GL΀FXOW DV WKH project advances. “It doesn’t get any easier the RALEIGH anaged-lane opponents in further it goes,� Naas said. “But the Mecklenburg and Iredell drumbeat keeps getting louder.�

Naas acknowledged that Cintra, counties aren’t giving up after learning that the Senate will allow the Spanish company that has the conthe General Assembly to adjourn with- tract, already has initiated work on the out taking up House Bill 954, a mea- I-77 project, noting that some vegetasure canceling the Interstate 77 high- tion clearing is under way. “They’ve occupancy-or-toll-lanes project. done some grading,â€? Naas added. “We’ll probably reintroduce this He said he doesn’t understand DJDLQ PD\EH ZLWK D GLÍżHUHQW PDNHXS how the bill, which passed the House in the legislature and a change in the overwhelmingly, could not get taken executive branch,â€? said Kurt Naas, a up in the Senate. spokesman for Widen I-77, a group op“My reaction I think mirrors posing the project. thousands in the Lake Norman comNorth Carolina citizens will elect munity, which is why did the Senate a governor as well as all 170 members Republican leadership put the interest of the General Assembly this Novem- of a multibillion-dollar foreign compaber. Incumbent Republican Gov. Pat ny ahead of their fellow North CarolinMcCrory’s administration has backed ians?â€? the I-77 HOT-lane project.

Senate leader Phil Berger, RNaas noted that canceling the Rockingham, said during an April

BY BARRY SMITH

M

news conference that he had not seen any information leading him to believe that canceling the project was the right thing to do.

During a committee meeting in June, when the House was taking up the bill, Transportation Secretary Nick Tennyson said that the N.C. Department of Transportation could be liable for penalties if the project were canceled and a court sided with Cintra in a potential lawsuit. While no one could FLWH D GHÀQLWH SRWHQWLDO OLDELOLW\ ÀJXUH some lawmakers estimated it could be as high as $250 million.

Tennyson also said that he had no idea when I-77 would be widened to alleviate congestion if lawmakers canceled the contract with Cintra.

Opponents of the HOT-lane plan said they believed the contract could be canceled for cause at no penalty to the state because Cintra had failed WR GLVFORVH WR VWDWH R΀FLDOV VRPH FRQ-

struction-related litigation and other ÀQDQFLDO SUREOHPV DͿHFWLQJ WKH FRPSDQ\ &RPSDQ\ R΀FLDOV KDYH EUXVKHG RͿ VXFK FRQFHUQV VD\LQJ WKH\ ZLOO have no impact on the agreement with North Carolina.

Plans call for Cintra to construct HOT lanes on a 26-mile stretch of I-77 from the Brookshire Freeway in Charlotte to the N.C. 150 interchange in Iredell County. The construction would leave four lanes heading both north and south.

Two lanes in each direction would remain standard lanes and not require a toll. Motorists could ride on the other two lanes either by paying a toll or having at least three people in their vehicles.

Naas said that he expects other grass-roots organizations in the Lake Norman area to make the I-77 project an issue in the 2016 elections.

CJ

Legal Battle Between State Bar, Legal Zoom Could End Soon

BY BARRY SMITH

T

RALEIGH

he General Assembly has codiÀHG PDQ\ RI WKH SURYLVLRQV RI a 2015 consent judgment between LegalZoom and the N.C. State Bar, which allows the online self-help service to provide routine legal documents to consumers in the state. If Gov. Pat McCrory signs the legislation, it would end a battle that has lasted more than a dozen years.

Both the House and Senate approved a conference report on June 16 WKDW UHGHÀQHV WKH VWDWH¡V VWDWXWH JRYerning the unauthorized practice of law. House Bill 436 was awaiting McCrory’s signature at press time.

The bill ends a long-running squabble between LegalZoom and the State Bar dating to 2003, when the State Bar’s Authorized Practice Committee opened an inquiry into whether LeJDO=RRP¡V RQOLQH GRFXPHQW RͿHULQJV constituted unauthorized practice of law.

The new law is broader than the consent agreement between LegalZoom and the State Bar. It applies the provisions in the consent order to online legal services that are similar to LegalZoom. “It’s important to make sure we covered everybody,� said Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, who sponsored the bill. “LegalZoom is probably the most legitimate of all those that are out there,� Daughtry continued. “I think they’re a pretty good company. They want to do the right thing, and they don’t want to have any problems.�

Not all companies are as easy to work with as LegalZoom, he said. “For example, some of these providers say that if there is a dispute, you [have to] mediate it in California,� Daughtry said. “We don’t want that. That’s not good for anybody. We wanted to make sure that all the other providers were treated the same as LegalZoom.�

To address that concern, one provision of the bill prohibits online legal providers from requiring their customers to agree to resolve disputes in any state other than North Carolina.

Other provisions of the bill require: • consumers to be able to view a blank template or a completed document before purchasing the document; • an attorney licensed in North Carolina to review each blank template RͿHUHG WR 1RUWK &DUROLQD FRQVXPHUV • the provider to inform consumers that the forms are not a substitute for getting advice from an attorney;

ing it had dismissed the complaint, citLQJ LQVX΀FLHQW HYLGHQFH WR SXUVXH WKH matter.

In January 2007, the committee initiated a second inquiry geared toward the company’s documents for forming corporations. Again, the State Bar committee asserted that LegalZoom was engaging in an unauthorized practice of law. LegalZoom replied that its practice had not changed materially since the 2003 inquiry was closed.

The State Bar sent a cease-anddesist letter to LegalZoom in May 2008, reasserting the claim of an unauthorized practice of law. The State Bar also threatened to seek an injunction against LegalZoom. The company re• the provider to disclose to con- sponded by saying there were inaccusumers its legal name, physical loca- racies in the State Bar’s assertions. tion, and address; The State Bar never responded to • the provider not to limit con- the 2008 LegalZoom letter, other than sumers’ options to recover damages or acknowledging its receipt. But it didn’t other remedies; pursue an injunction either. • the provider to have a consumWhen LegalZoom tried to regiser satisfaction process. ter its prepaid legal plans for individuProviders also must register annually with the State Bar. The initial als and businesses in North Carolina in registration fee can be up to $100. An- July 2010, the State Bar refused to connual renewal fees of up to $50 can be sider the application, citing the 2008 cease-and-desist letter and requesting charged. “You’ve got to adjust to the Inter- more information.

After further attempts to resolve net,� Daughtry said. “It’s here to stay.

If you practice law on the Internet, WKH FRQà LFW SURYHG XQVXFFHVVIXO /HZH¡YH JRW WR ÀQG D ZD\ WR SURWHFW WKH JDO=RRP ÀOHG D ODZVXLW DJDLQVW WKH State Bar in September 2011. public.�

The case ended in October 2015 After the State Bar’s 2003 inquiry, LegalZoom responded by saying its when the N.C. Business Court entered legal document service was simply an a consent judgment in the litigation.

RQOLQH YHUVLRQ RI RÍż WKH VKHOI VRIWZDUH The consent judgment could have rewidely available throughout the Unit- PDLQHG LQ HÍżHFW IRU DV ORQJ DV WZR ed States. Later in the year, the State years had the legislation not been adBar committee wrote Legal Zoom, say- opted.

CJ

PAGE CJ6

NORTH CAROLINA

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

Achievement School District Reforms Pass General Assembly cluded a Principal Turnaround Model, which would allow a local school RALEIGH ERDUG WR Ă€UH D VFKRRO¡V SULQFLSDO DQG PHDVXUH WR UHKDELOLWDWH Ă€YH RI instead hire a “turnaroundâ€? principal North Carolina’s failing public with a proven record of success.

The Senate amended the bill, schools passed the state House and Senate on consecutive days in keeping Innovation Zones but tossing late June after facing opposition from out the Principal Turnaround Model.

Democratic lawmakers who said the That provision bill would allow charter school compa- was not popular nies to exploit taxpayers while perpet- with the Senuating low performance among strug- ate’s Republican majority, said gling students.

Republican backers of House Bill Sen. Chad BareR-Wake, 1080, “Achievement School District,� foot, said their Democratic counterparts who presented were willing to trap students in failing the bill to the Senate. schools. “I hope H.B. 1080 was introduced earlier this year by Rep. Rob Bryan, R-Meck- you’ll agree with lenburg. The plan is modeled after Ten- me that we can Rep. Rob Bryan, RMecklenburg nessee and Louisiana programs that no longer stand removed failing public schools from by while students attend our institustate control, placing them instead un- tions with low-performing scores and unacceptable growth,� Barefoot said. der charter-like management.

Under the proposal, the State “These schools will be chosen out of %RDUG RI (GXFDWLRQ ZRXOG SODFH Ă€YH the bottom 5 percent of low-performlow-performing public schools (se- ing schools in North Carolina. A superlected from those statewide ranking in intendent will be chosen to oversee the the bottom 5 percent of performance schools, and will oversee the hiring of measures) into the ASD. There, a su- new management, and will also allow perintendent would recommend an for the creation of Innovation Zones independent entity, such as a charter for the school districts that qualify into school operator, to run each achieve- the Achievement School District.â€?

Senate members debated the bill ment school.

Bryan’s legislation included two for nearly an hour on June 27, with additional options for school rehabili- Democratic opponents questioning the tation. Innovation Zones would allow necessity of an ASD program, stating a school board that has entered one that existing “restart modelsâ€? — proof its schools into the ASD to create a YLVLRQV WKDW RÍżHU ORFDO VFKRRO ERDUGV PRGLĂ€HG VFKHGXOH ZLWK H[WUD Ă H[LELO- VRPH FKDUWHU OLNH Ă H[LELOLW\ WR LPSURYH ity for up to three additional low-per- failing schools — are a better answer to the problem. forming schools in its district. “I have heard from our school The version of H.B. 1080 that passed the House initially also in- systems that they disapprove of outBY KARI TRAVIS

A

3VJRL 1LăLYZVU HUK [OL 1\Z[PJLZ!

side entities — and I disapprove of outside entities, private entities — coming in and using state funds to work with our children, most of whom are lowincome and minority children,� said Sen. Gladys Robinson, D-Guilford. “One of the things that concerns me about this bill is the coercive nature of it,� said Sen. Angela Bryant, D-Nash. “This process as described is very disruptive to a community.�

Bryant, who joined several other Democrats in proposing amendments that would exempt Guilford County, Mecklenburg County, Wake County, and Rocky Mount schools from the ASD program — none of which were adopted — also stated that the legislation was built around a “mistaken philosophy.�

Bryant suggested that any private operators of achievement schools would be “lining their pockets� with taxpayer money.

Barefoot answered a series of challenges from Democrats, pointing to continued failure in some public schools as evidence that the state must do something to reboot the system. He also noted that any independent operator of an achievement school would receive no more taxpayer funding than K-12 public schools now receive.

And he addressed concerns about private operators for ASD schools, proposing an amendment to stipulate that the ASD superintendent must have a sound track record in improving failing schools, and that any private operator selected to run an ASD must SUHVHQW D FUHGLEOH DQG VSHFLÀF SODQ for improving the school’s operations.

That amendment was later adopted as part of the Senate’s version of the bill. “It’s not inevitable that it’s some

type of out-of-state private corporation,â€? Barefoot said of ASD operators. “In fact ‌ these operators have to have proven that they can do what it is that — up until this point — the public school system can’t.â€? “I will also say that roughly 90 percent of the Local Education AuthorLWLHV LQ WKLV VWDWH ZLOO QRW EH DÍżHFWHG by this legislation, because ‌ many do not have low-performing schools,â€? %DUHIRRW FRQWLQXHG ´7KLV ELOO VSHFLĂ€cally addresses the bottom 5 percent of low-performing schools in North Carolina.â€?

Other challenges to the legislation involved concerns that Tennessee’s ASD program has seen several failures, including a downturn in student performance. Supporters of H.B. 1080 defended the legislation against those complaints, calling it more practical than the legislation passed in Tennessee. “You can’t go too big like [Tennessee] did,� said Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph. “There were many factors at play there so that structurally it couldn’t succeed. We’re going on a very small scale with a model that can succeed. Other school systems can try to do this on their own. The problem is, you never close a public school. You never say, ‘You’ve failed long enough, and you’re not going to fail anymore.’ We don’t do that.�

The amended version of H.B. 1080 passed the Senate on June 28 by a 35-14 margin. The next day, despite similar objections from House Democrats, the House concurred with the Senate’s revisions, passing the bill, 6739.

At press time, the bill was awaiting Gov. Pat McCrory’s signature. CJ

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-V\UKH[PVUZ HUK -HPS\YLZ VM [OL < : .V]LYUTLU[

By George M. Stephens Preface by Newt Gingrich

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This book is about American politics and law; it is also about the roots of the Contract with $PHULFD $ ORJLFDO SODFH WR Ă&#x20AC;QG the intent of the Founders is in Locke, [and] Stephens makes a contribution to highlighting this.â&#x20AC;?

Newt Gingrich Former Speaker U.S. House of Representatives Algora Publishing, New York (www.algora.com)

channel on

http://youtube.com/johnlockefoundation1

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

Appeals Court: Anonymous 911 Callers Can Be Cross-Examined

BY MICHAEL LOWREY

A

RALEIGH

mong the basic guarantees of liberty provided by the Bill of Rights is the right to confront oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accusers during a criminal trial.

A recent ruling by the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s secondhighest court highlights how this right can extend even to those accused by callers to 911 emergency networks.

On the evening of April 12, 2014, :LOPLQJWRQ SROLFH RÎ&#x20AC;FHUV UHVSRQGed to an anonymous 911 call in the Long Leaf Park subdivision reporting a possible dispute involving a man with a gun. OfĂ&#x20AC;FHU 6FRWW %UDPley was among those responding to the call. When he arrived in the area, he noticed two men standing next to a black M e rc e d e s - B e n z parked beside a vacant lot. One of the men, in a red- and-white plaid VKLUW ZDONHG WRZDUG WKH RÎ&#x20AC;FHU %UDPley did not have a description of the suspect, but he decided to confront the man and ask if he had a gun. The man said no, submitted to a pat-down, and DIWHU %UDPOH\ GLG QRW Ă&#x20AC;QG D JXQ KH OHW the man go.

Bramley then contacted the New Hanover County 911 dispatcher for a description of the suspect. The dispatcher replied that the caller, who wished to remain anonymous, â&#x20AC;&#x153;said >WKH VXVSHFW@ ZDV LQ D Ă&#x20AC;HOG LQ D EODFN carâ&#x20AC;? and that â&#x20AC;&#x153;someone said he might have thrown the gun.â&#x20AC;? The man with the gun was described as wearing a light plaid shirt.

Police searched the area around the Mercedes and found a Sig Sauer P320 handgun. Bramley was convinced that the man he encountered was the suspect. Soon after that, the man â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Christopher Allen McKiver â&#x20AC;&#x201D; returned and asked what the police were doing to his car. Bramley then arrested McKiver.

The Mercedes was registered to McKiverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brother in Elizabethtown.

1R Ă&#x20AC;QJHUSULQW RU '1$ HYLGHQFH ZDV found on the gun, which had been reported as stolen from an address in Elizabethtown.

At trial, McKiver was convicted RI SRVVHVVLRQ RI D Ă&#x20AC;UHDUP E\ D IHORQ Superior Court Judge Benjamin Alford refused to suppress the information from the anonymous 911 caller. Alford sentenced McKiver to six months in

PAGE CJ7

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

prison and three years of supervised probation.

On appeal, McKiver renewed his argument that using the 911 callerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statements violated his rights under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which provides that â&#x20AC;&#x153;in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right â&#x20AC;Ś to be confronted with the witnesses against him.â&#x20AC;?

In the 2004 case of Crawford v.

Washington, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Confrontation Clause forbids â&#x20AC;&#x153;admission of testimonial statements of a witness who did not appear at trial unless he was unavailable to testify, and the defendant had had a prior opportunity for cross-examination.â&#x20AC;? Two years later, in Davis v. Washington, it provided additional guidance: Statements are nontestimonial when made in the course of police interrogation under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency. They are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that there is no such ongoing emergency, and that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals held that the 911 callerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statements were testimonial in nature and thus inadmissible since McKiver had no opportunity to cross-examine the caller.

In the courtâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s opinion, Judge Linda Stephens wrote the record suggested there was no emergency and that â&#x20AC;&#x153;the anonymous callerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s statements during her initial 911 call â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that she did not know whether the man with the gun was pointing his weapon at or even arguing with anyone; that she was inside and had moved away from the window to a position of relative safety; and that she did not feel the need to remain on the line with authorities until help could arrive â&#x20AC;&#x201D; make clear that she was not facing any bona Ă&#x20AC;GH SK\VLFDO WKUHDW Âľ Given that there was little to tie McKiver to the gun besides the anonymous call, the Appeals Court held that admitting it was not a harmless error and that McKiver was entitled to a new trial.

The case is State v. McKiver (15CJ 1070).

The North Carolina Courts

COMMENTARY

T

The Government As Travel Agent

VWRS Ă LJKWV FRXOG VHUYH RQO\ VRPH he arrival of summer means nearby states â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to a hard cap on vacation time for many, and the number of gates at Love Field. airports stay busy. While we The change has allowed Southwest think of domestic airline service WR RÍżHU RQH Ă LJKW D GD\ IURP /RYH as being deregulated, the reality to both Charlotte and Raleigh, but is that government decisions still also limits future growth severely.

SOD\ D UROH LQ ZKHUH DLUOLQHV Ă \ On the other side of the The most obvious case of spectrum are routes that are subsigovernment involvement comes dized by either the federal or local in awarding international routes. governments. When airlines were While the U.S. Department of Transportation has done a good job deregulated in the late 1970s, the feds established a subsidy program of pushing â&#x20AC;&#x153;Open Skiesâ&#x20AC;? agreefor places that lost air service as a PHQWV WKDW DOORZ DLUOLQHV WR Ă \ WR result of deregulation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; foreign destinations as the Essential Air Service often as they want, some program. It guarantees countries do not allow local airports could such deals. In those casmaintain access to cities es, the DOT allocates the they served in 1979, when OLPLWHG QXPEHU RI Ă LJKWV deregulation came into that are available. These HÍżHFW &XUUHQWO\ PRUH route award proceedings than 100 cities use the often are contested hotly; EAS program at a total an airline can make a lot of money by being one of MICHAEL cost of about $250 million a year. None of these the few allowed to serve LOWREY cities is in North Carolina, a popular destination. though Beckley, W.Va.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Flight rights to WZLFH GDLO\ ($6 Ă LJKWV Cuba, China, and Toare to Charlotte. kyoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Haneda Airport are among the routes that the DOT will hand The federal government also out this year. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a North Caro- has a grant program for smaller lina link here, as American AirFLWLHV WR DWWUDFW QHZ Ă LJKWV 8QOLQHV ZDQWV WR Ă \ IURP &KDUORWWH like EAS, the Small Community to Havana daily, but the current Air Service Development Program U.S. agreement with Cuba allows requires communities to put up RQO\ Ă LJKWV D GD\ DQG YDULRXV some of their own money to get airlines have requested more than a grant. Among the communities GDLO\ Ă LJKWV WR +DYDQD that applied for a SCASDP grant ,I \RX¡UH Ă \LQJ WR :DVKLQJare Greenville, which wants to ton or New York City, government OXUH 'HOWD $LU /LQHV ZLWK Ă LJKWV SROLF\ LQĂ XHQFHV \RXU WUDYHO RSto Atlanta, and Concord, which is tions. Four key airports â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Newark, seeking federal money to help marJohn F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and NHW LWV H[LVWLQJ Ă LJKWV WR )ORULGD RQ Reagan National â&#x20AC;&#x201D; are heavily Allegiant Air. congested. The DOT has respond/RFDO DLUSRUWV RIWHQ DOVR RÍżHU ed by imposing capacity limits, Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO LQFHQWLYHV IRU QHZ URXWHV DVVLJQLQJ DLUOLQHV D Ă&#x20AC;[HG QXPEHU sometimes in conjunction with RI WDNHRÍż DQG ODQGLQJ VORWV ,Q an SCASDP bid. Raleigh-Durham addition, LaGuardia and Reagan International Airport is paying National both allow only nonstop Ă LJKWV ZLWKLQ D OLPLWHG JHRJUDSKLF Delta up to $2.2 million, primarily with public money, to help cover radius to encourage usage at alterĂ&#x20AC;UVW \HDU ORVVHV RQ WKH DLUOLQH¡V native airports.

5'8 3DULV à LJKW Federal law also limits capacEnjoy your vacation this sumity at Dallas Love Field, the airPHU %XW DV \RX¡UH à \LQJ WR ZKHUport used by Southwest Airlines.

Local politicians wanted Dallasever youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going â&#x20AC;&#x201D; New York Fort Worth International Airport City, Dallas, Paris, or someplace to be the airport for the entire else â&#x20AC;&#x201D; keep in mind that governDallas-Fort Worth metroplex and PHQW SROLF\ VWLOO FDQ LQĂ XHQFH KRZ set limits on Love Fieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s usage you get there.

CJ before Southwest was formed. In 2014, the restrictions on Love Field Michael Lowrey is a contributor changed from geographic â&#x20AC;&#x201D; nonto Carolina Journal.

PAGE CJ8

FROM PAGE 1

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

CSX Continues Search for Site to Locate Rail Hub Continued from Page 1

1,120 workers in North Carolina. In June 2014 CSX quietly began working on the project with NCDOTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rail Division. The Rail Division paid WR D FRQVXOWLQJ Ă&#x20AC;UP WR evaluate CSXâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposal.

Named the Carolina Connector, or CCX, the potential project is still alive. â&#x20AC;&#x153;CSX continues to evaluate a number of sites inside and outside of North Carolina for the proposed CCX intermodal terminal,â&#x20AC;? spokeswoman Kristin Seay told CJ on June 16.

One alternative site near, but outside the corporate limits of, the town RI )RXU 2DNV KDV EHHQ RÍżHUHG E\ )RXU Oaks Mayor Linwood Parker. But it too has generated considerable opposition from landowners who would be DÍżHFWHG E\ WKH SURMHFW

$100 million subsidy CSX says the Selma project would cost $272 million, and the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s share would be $150 million. It is counting on taxpayers to make up WKH GLÍżHUHQFH RI PLOOLRQ The transfer station would allow CSX to provide additional shipping options for its customers. More containers would travel using a combination of rail and truck instead of just by truck only.

CSX claims on its website that the project â&#x20AC;&#x153;will bring tangible economic EHQHĂ&#x20AC;WV WR HDVWHUQ -RKQVWRQ &RXQW\ and the state of North Carolina by expanding market reach and reducing logistics costs for existing business and the Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ports.â&#x20AC;? %XW OLNH DQ\ IRU SURĂ&#x20AC;W FRPSDQ\ &6; KDV D JRDO RI LQFUHDVLQJ SURĂ&#x20AC;WV The company competes with Norfolk Southern Railway and trucking companies. In 2015, the company had net earnings of $2 billion from $11.8 billion in revenue.

On Jan. 21, CJ reported that CSXâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Ohio terminal did not receive a subsidy from that state and that CSX did not have to use eminent domain to acquire the Ohio property.

On April 6, NCDOT released a list of transportation projects it had evaluated through the Strategic Transportation Investments program. The list contained 69 proposed rail projects.

The CCX project, including the $100 million cost to NCDOT, scored the highest in all three categories â&#x20AC;&#x201D; statewide mobility, regional impact, and transportation division needs.

Selma still featured While CSX says it is looking at sites elsewhere, its website continues to feature the Jan. 14 press release announcing the project as planned for the Selma site. â&#x20AC;&#x153;CSX is planning to develop a new intermodal rail terminal in east-

Randy Johnsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home (seen in background) and land are adjacent to the existing CSX tracks and in the center of a site proposed by Four Oaks Mayor Linwood Parker for a rail hub. (CJ photo by Don Carrington)

ern Johnston County, North Carolina, called the Carolina Connector, or CCX. CSX is committed to investing $150 million â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the majority of funds needed to complete the project. The development of the terminal is contingent upon securing an additional $100 million through the state of North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Strategic Transportation Investments program,â&#x20AC;? the release stated.

The release added that CSX ofĂ&#x20AC;FLDOV DOUHDG\ KDG EHJXQ ´UHDFKLQJ out to landowners in Johnston County to secure options on property east of Selma and close to Interstate 95 where the proposed facility would be constructed.â&#x20AC;?

On Feb. 10, CJ reported that CSX had sent letters to some Johnston County landowners canceling purchase agreements that both parties had signed.

Four Oaks site In addition to the governor, the Johnston County Board of Commissioners dropped its support for the Selma site after hearing from a substantial number of citizens opposed to the project. Commissioners later announced they supported a CSX project and would help locate another site within the county.

After noting the initial opposition to the Selma location, on Jan. 22 Four Oaks Mayor Parker told reporters he was working with Johnston County to secure another site. Parker proposed a location a mile southwest of Four Oaks and 16 miles southwest of the Selma site.

When details of Parkerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selected site became public, a group of citizens organized to oppose the project. They

set up a Facebook page named â&#x20AC;&#x153;Four Oaks Does Not Want CSX Here.â&#x20AC;?

Randy Johnson owns a home and farm that sit in the middle of the area outlined by Parker as the Four Oaks site. Johnson and family members own approximately 200 acres that would be taken for the project. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I live outside the city limits,â&#x20AC;? he told CJ. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The most disturbing thing about this is that Mayor Parker has offered my land to CSX without getting P\ DSSURYDO +H KDV RÍżHUHG WKH ZKROH community to CSX, and they donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want it either.â&#x20AC;?

Another outspoken opponent is local pharmacist Jack Austin. His

home would not be taken for the project, but he told CJ that the increase in WUDLQ WUDÎ&#x20AC;F ZRXOG EH GLVUXSWLYH WR WKH town. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I understand that the 12 daily trains that pass through Four Oaks would increase to 40,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That is a big problem because we have three FURVVLQJV WKDW ZLOO EH EORFNHG RÍż D ORW more than they are now.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;But the main thing that bothers me is the pollution,â&#x20AC;? said Austin. ´, KDYH VHHQ VHYHUDO UHSRUWV RI VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;cant health risks to those that are living ZLWKLQ Ă&#x20AC;YH PLOHV RI VXFK D IDFLOLW\ 7KH particulate matter produced from the burning of diesel fuel is hazardous to anyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health.â&#x20AC;?

CJ

Visit the new Carolina Journal Online

http://carolinajournal.com

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

PAGE CJ9

FROM PAGE 1

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Revenuersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Concern North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Craft Distillers Continued from Page 1

Ă&#x20AC;UVW KDWFKHG LQ ZKHQ 5REELH who had been traveling extensively for work, read an article about how Charlotteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s microbreweries were growing, and about how craft distilleries were about to become popular in the area as well.

He latched onto the idea and decided to build a still of his own. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think he really thought of it as a business, but he just came home and started doing it illegally in the kitchen in 2011,â&#x20AC;? said Caroline, a former accountant who now handles 0XGG\ 5LYHU¡V EXVLQHVV DÍżDLUV ´, was like, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re crazy! Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t blow anything up. I have no idea how this works.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; And he wanted to scale up. He thought it was fun, â&#x20AC;Ś and he really fell in love with the process.â&#x20AC;?

Robbie experimented with recipes for a few months before the couple GHFLGHG WR Ă&#x20AC;QG D GLÍżHUHQW ORFDWLRQ IRU his still. They secured federal and state permits and began to distill rum legally on the weekends â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in a 500-squarefoot space inside an old mill theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d discovered on Craigslist.

It was during that time that they began to realize the severity of North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s alcohol regulations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every drop of liquor that comes into North Carolina goes into a warehouse in Raleigh, and then the ABC stores order by pallet from there,â&#x20AC;? Caroline said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So we have to ship them all of our [alcohol] and then go talk to the ABC stores as well and get them to order it.â&#x20AC;?

Though securing sales through LQGLYLGXDO $%& VWRUHV LV GLÎ&#x20AC;FXOW D UHcently passed law that enables distilleries to sell one bottle per person per year to onsite customers has made it

Caroline Delaney, a former accountant, helps a customer at Muddy River Distillery, which she and her husband run in Belmont. (CJ photo by Kari Travis)

easier for Muddy River to make money on premises, Caroline said.

Prior to the lawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passage, customers would come to the distillery expecting to taste some rum and buy a few bottles, Caroline said, and were VXUSULVHG WR Ă&#x20AC;QG WKH\ FRXOGQ¡W GR HLther. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were like, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;But I can buy wine at the winery!â&#x20AC;&#x2122; They came in assuming that they could buy, most of the time,â&#x20AC;? Caroline said. She said they usually gave two tours every other weekend and then would have to send their potential customers to an ABC store.

Since the lawâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s passage, the couple has sold roughly $30,000 worth of rum from their distilleryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bottle shop and has increased the number of facilLW\ WRXUV WKH\ RÍżHU DV ZHOO %XW ZKLOH that spike in sales is an improvement,

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state liquor taxes alone have seen $10,000 cut from that revenue stream, Caroline said.

And taxes arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the only things that continue to burden small distilleries like Muddy River. ABC rules also require that Caroline and Robbie give a full tour of the distillery to customers prior to all tastings or alcohol sales.

Before allowing customers to taste their rums, the Delaneys must give a full tour of their distillery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a legal requirement the couple says deters some customers from staying long enough to buy. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to be able to sell more bottles,â&#x20AC;? Caroline said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As the law is written, we have to legally give a tour before we can sell liquor. So when people come in, and they just want to try something new, they may not want to go through a whole tour. â&#x20AC;Ś If weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re here during the week, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d be glad to have them come in and buy a bottle.

But we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stop what weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing and give a tour for 30 minutes.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not like a brewery where you can hang out,â&#x20AC;? Robbie added. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an educational experience, and then you leave. So itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pretty lame.â&#x20AC;? He said customers canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hang out and enjoy a cocktail, so, for many, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not worth coming.

Additionally, Caroline and Robbie are not allowed to sell bottles of liquor on their website, a rule that keeps them from distributing their product more widely. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think one of the things we didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize was the impediment just to get product to market,â&#x20AC;? said Rep. Jason Saine, R-Lincoln, following a May 17 Muddy River Distillery tour hosted

for state legislators by Americans for Prosperityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s North Carolina chapter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got a homegrown industry here. Folks who are taking their own personal capital, their own sweat equity, and really just putting a lot back into it.â&#x20AC;? +H VDLG OHJLVODWRUV QHHG WR Ă&#x20AC;QG a way to streamline the process for distillers. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The regulations are in place. There is plenty of regulatory effort here,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our job is also to protect the general public, but I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the issue here. The real issue is antiquated regulations that are keeping good business people from getting their product to market. And I think thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something we could look at very quickly and try to facilitate that in a quick fashion.â&#x20AC;?

While the 2016 session of the General Assembly was unlikely to feature major ABC rule changes at press time, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an area lawmakers say they are open to revisiting during the 2017 session. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We thought the odds of getting the last bill through were really slim, EXW LW Ă HZ WKURXJK Âľ VDLG +RXVH 0DMRUity Leader Mike Hager, R-Rutherford, of last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bill that allowed distilleries to begin selling limited quantities of product on premises. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I think the odds [of further deregulation] are pretty good. The last bill we ran â&#x20AC;Ś ZDV WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW VDOHV of liquor outside an ABC store since Prohibition, so that kind of kicked the door open. But we want to open it up a little bit more, now.â&#x20AC;?

Hager also said the legislature likely would reevaluate state liquor taxes as part of any future ABC regulation rollback.

In the meantime, while Caroline and Robbie have joked about moving their distillery to South Carolina, they plan to continue making rum in North Carolina â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even if it means they keep earning only $9.79 on a bottle that sells for $23.49. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re loyal because weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Carolina rum and our customers are awesome,â&#x20AC;? Robbie said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no incentive to stay here,â&#x20AC;? he added. But he said they hope the law will change. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We should never be encouraging business to leave our state and go to the next state over. There is a duty to the public, particularly in this industry. We are talking about alcohol, and folks have serious concerns. We need to understand that and take that into account,â&#x20AC;? Saine said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But we need to understand that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to move toward a freer market and allow people CJ to do what they need to do.â&#x20AC;?

Rules say they must give a full tour of their distillery before giving samples

PAGE CJ10

EDUCATION

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

College Transparency Measure ReďŹ&#x201A;ects Efforts in Many States

BY KARI TRAVIS

A

RALEIGH

bill that would increase access to information about the costs, EHQHĂ&#x20AC;WV DQG FRQVHTXHQFHV RI college degrees available in North Carolina passed the General Assembly in late June and, at press time, was awaiting Gov. Pat McCroryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s signature.

Senate Bill 536, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Students Know Before You Go and Central Residency,â&#x20AC;? instructs the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority to build a website providing college applicants information about the potential costs DQG EHQHĂ&#x20AC;WV RI UHFHLYLQJ D GHJUHH IURP any community college, public university, or private institution in the state. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Next to buying a house, a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s college education is probably the second most expensive thing that they will purchase,â&#x20AC;? Sen. Chad Barefoot, RWake, the billâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary sponsor, said at a June 14 meeting of the House Education Committee. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have â&#x20AC;Ś great institutions, both public and private, in North Carolina, and we just want to make sure that our students and their parents â&#x20AC;&#x201D; while theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re applying for Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DLG Âł KDYH JRRG LQIRUPDWLRQ on the degree programs that they are seeking from those institutions.â&#x20AC;?

The data to be outlined for each institution will include graduation and transfer rates, percentage of stuGHQWV UHFHLYLQJ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DLG DYHUDJH and median amount of loan debt upon graduation, and percentage of graduates employed within six months of graduation.

The site also will include data about the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employment needs and salary ranges. All information will

be obtained from the U.S. Department Connecticut have passed transparency of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Sta- laws that â&#x20AC;&#x201D; like S.B. 536 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; apply to public and private institutions. tistics.

Similarly, Minnesotaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s state legIn addition to college transparency rules, the bill includes provisions islature in 2015 introduced legislation that would, starting in the coming aca- WKDW ZRXOG UHTXLUH SULYDWH IRU SURĂ&#x20AC;W demic year, streamline the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pro- institutions to provide potential stuFHVV IRU FRQĂ&#x20AC;UPLQJ D VWXGHQW¡V LQ VWDWH dents with graduation and job placeSXEOLF WXLWLRQ DQG VFKRODUVKLS TXDOLĂ&#x20AC;- ment rates, as well as information about cations. Under current law, individual credit transferability. That bill is in a state Senate University committee. of North While Carolina S.B. 536 institutions passed the are responHouse withsible for deout much termining if debate, Rep. an applicant William TXDOLĂ&#x20AC;HV DV Richardson, a state resiD-Cumberdent and land, raised is eligible objections for special based on Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DVwhat he said sistance. was a precT h e edent for transparency measure legislative interference would take in a process HÍżHFW LQ Sen. Chad Barefoot, R-Wake, speaking on behalf of April 2017. Senate Bill 536 at a June 14 meeting of the House that should be handled North Caro- Education Committee. (CJ photo by Kari Travis) by the the lina would join a handful of other states that over stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public and private university the last few years have passed legisla- systems. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I fear weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going down a sliption intended to provide college applicants more information about costs, pery slope here,â&#x20AC;? Richardson said. risks, and potential returns on invest- â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve formed the board of [N.C.] ment. community colleges. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve formed the Those states include California, [University of North Carolina] Board Connecticut, Maryland, and Michigan. of Governors. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve formed these inWhile Maryland and Michigan law- stitutions so that the legislature would makers focused their regulations on not act as a super university, or a super IRU SURĂ&#x20AC;W VFKRROV RQO\ &DOLIRUQLD DQG community college.â&#x20AC;?

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Richardson added that he thought the legislature should stay out of it and â&#x20AC;&#x153;let the people who know what theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing do it.â&#x20AC;?

5LFKDUGVRQ¡V VWDWHPHQW UHà HFWV D record of somewhat tense relations between the General Assembly and the UNC Board of Governors over the past year resulting from a complicated dynamic that placed both bodies at odds over various issues.

The controversy began in October 2015, when former BOG chairman John Fennebresque attempted to sidestep a law passed by the General Assembly requiring more transparency during UNCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presidential search process. Board members called for Fennebresqueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resignation, and he stepped down shortly thereafter.

0RUH FRQĂ LFW HQVXHG ODWHU LQ WKH year when the board â&#x20AC;&#x201D; under the leadership of current chairman Lou Bissette â&#x20AC;&#x201D; held a closed-session vote to give 12 campus chancellors pay hikes. Board members told lawmakers that the votes were sensitive personnel issues, but that claim was challenged by Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, RCleveland, who issued a legal request to review minutes, agendas, and audio recordings from the Oct. 30 meeting.

Berger and Moore also called Bissette before the Governmental Operations commission to provide further explanation of the boardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actions.

7KH ERDUG VLQFH KDV PDGH HÍżRUWV to increase transparency, and UNC President Margaret Spellings has stated publicly that improving relations with the legislature is one of her top priorities.

CJ

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

EDUCATION

PAGE CJ11

Meadows Bill Would Relieve Students of Obamacare Mandate

BY KARI TRAVIS

W

RALEIGH

estern Carolina University senior Tyann Stubbs juggles two on-campus jobs to help pay her own way through school. And she loves her work. But while the studio art majorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s jobs at WCUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career FHQWHU DQG DUW PXVHXP RÍżHU JUHDW H[perience, she is limited to working just 25 hours per week during the school year â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a rule the university put in SODFH WR DYRLG WULJJHULQJ WKH $ÍżRUGable Care Actâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employer mandate, says Chancellor David Belcher.

Under current ACA rules, all fulltime college students who work 30 or more hours a week for their school PXVW EH RÍżHUHG WKH RSSRUWXQLW\ WR VLJQ onto their employerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ACA-mandated insurance plan. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a regulation that can incur high costs to both universities and students, and deters schools like WCU from hiring student workers to work in full-time capacities, Belcher said.

Many students at WCU and other schools within the University of North Carolina System face similar challenges, says Belcher, who last year alongside U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th District, helped introduce legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-11th, and Western Carolina University Chancellor David Belcher want to exempt students like WCU senior Tyann Stubbs from Obamacare work-hour restrictions. (Photo by Mark Haskett)

would exempt student workers from the employer mandate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;WCU simply doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the funding to cover the cost of health insurance for students,â&#x20AC;? Belcher told Carolina Journal, noting that in 2014 the university calculated a starting cost of $302,515 to insure 75 approved fulltime workers of the schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total 1,500

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student employees. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some people have suggested that universities might need to raise the cost of attendance to cover the cost of insurance,â&#x20AC;? Belcher continued. â&#x20AC;&#x153;At WCU, this would be in direct opposition to our commitment to keeping the cost of attendance as low as possible.â&#x20AC;?

Belcher also pointed to proposals that suggest WCU and other universities reduce their number of stuGHQW HPSOR\HHV FDOOLQJ VXFK HÍżRUWV ´FRXQWHUSURGXFWLYH WR HÍżRUWV WR NHHS students on track to graduate in four years.â&#x20AC;?

WCUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 25-hour weekly limit is less than ideal for Stubbs, who averages 15-18 credit hours a semester and depends on her paychecks to cover living expenses and curb any costs not FRYHUHG E\ KHU VWXGHQW Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DLG package. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Like most students and most people, I have bills,â&#x20AC;? Stubbs said. ´,¡P WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW SHUVRQ LQ P\ IDPLO\ WR go to college, so I am putting myself through. So it was kind of crucial for me to get jobs on campus.â&#x20AC;?

While Stubbs says she feels lucky WR KDYH JRRG MREV DQG Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DLG WR help make ends meet, her limited earning potential is a very real problem. ´, XVH P\ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLDO DLG VR WKDW I can save up my money that I earn working so that when I get out of school I can have my bases covered,â&#x20AC;?

Stubbs said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But, you know, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tight.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not above eating ramen two or three nights a week.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We know that employment on campus, as opposed to employment elsewhere, increases the likelihood that students stay enrolled, make good grades, and graduate on time,â&#x20AC;? Belcher said.

Meadowsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; House Resolution 210, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Student Worker Exemption Act of 2015,â&#x20AC;? passed the Ways and Means Committee on June 16 and will next be FRQVLGHUHG RQ WKH +RXVH Ă RRU 7KH ELOO would amend the Internal Revenue

Code to ensure that full-time college students who are also employed by their schools to work 30 or more hours D ZHHN ZRXOG QRW EH FODVVLĂ&#x20AC;HG XQGHU the ACA as â&#x20AC;&#x153;full-time employees.â&#x20AC;?

Such a change is about common sense, Meadows said, calling the ACAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employer mandate a burden on both students and universities. â&#x20AC;&#x153;College students typically secure health coverage through their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan or through governmentUHJXODWHG VWXGHQW KHDOWK SODQV RÍżHUHG by institutions of higher education,â&#x20AC;? according to a statement Meadows made when the bill passed the committee. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nonetheless, under the Employer Mandate, colleges and universities must supply duplicative health insurance under their employee health plans to student workers.â&#x20AC;?

The UNC system is a model for this redundancy in coverage under the ACA, as students at any of the 16 universities already are required to have health insurance â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether they are covered through their parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; policies or decide to purchase coverage at a student rate through UNCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plan, Belcher said.

If a student worker reaches fulltime status under the employer mandate and decides to enroll in WCUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mandated employer insurance plan, the cost to the university would be $122.78 per student per month, Belcher said. The student would be responsible for covering $93.16 of that cost.

Neither students nor universities VKRXOG EH VDGGOHG ZLWK WKDW H[WUD Ă&#x20AC;nancial burden, he said, pointing to the ACAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unintended impact on student workers as the catalyst for his work to help Meadows develop H.R. 210.

Passing such legislation would help students who have the ability to reconcile work and academic schedules the opportunity to work more hours, Stubbs said, pointing to her experiences at WCUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career center as evidence that many undergraduates would work more hours â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if they could without incurring prohibitive insurance obligations. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We get calls all the time with students saying, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Well, I have a 4.0 GPA, I can juggle [more hours].â&#x20AC;&#x2122; But we have to say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Sorry, you can only work so many.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

Congressional support for the legislation has been promising, said Meadows spokesman Ben Williamson, and the bill is likely to go before the House soon, though no vote has been scheduled.

The billâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 33 sponsors include North Carolina U.S. Reps. Renee Ellmers, R-2nd District, Walter Jones, R-3rd District, and Robert Pittenger, R-9th District. No Senate sponsors have been enlisted, Williamson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s almost always some level of pushback on everything, but we feel very positive about the billâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prospects,â&#x20AC;? Williamson said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Passing the Ways and Means Committee is a great sign.â&#x20AC;?

CJ

PAGE CJ12

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

OPINION COMMENTARY

N

Focus on Growth, Not Development

ent premise than that taken by the orth Carolina should abandon economic develop- Commerce Department and proment policy and completely grams the state has supported over the years, like the One North Carolirefocus on economic growth. These na Fund, Golden LEAF Foundation, DUH GLVWLQFWO\ GLÍżHUHQW JRDOV WKDW and Job Development Investment PRUH RIWHQ WKDQ QRW FRQĂ LFW ZLWK Grants. All of these channel resourceach other. Most policies meant to es into government-determined promote economic development uses and away from market allocaFUHDWH HFRQRPLF LQHÎ&#x20AC;FLHQFLHV DQG tion based on free choice. therefore hinder economic growth.

The starting premise behind For decades North Caropolicies to promote economic lina has been pursuing â&#x20AC;&#x153;economic growth is that private entrepredevelopment policy.â&#x20AC;? Indeed, the neurs, using their own money or N.C. Department of Commerce is money from voluntary completely dedicated to investors, know best this concept. As is emhow resources should phasized on the departbe allocated. Policymakment website, â&#x20AC;&#x153;The N.C. ers should see to it that Department of Commerce property rights are secure, is the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading entrepreneurs can use economic-development their property rights in agency, working with loany way they believe will cal, regional, national, and be most productive, and international companies.â&#x20AC;? tax and regulatory poliThe department cies do not get in the way claims it accomplishes this ROY of this process. by â&#x20AC;&#x153;giving companies the CORDATO Economic developassistance and resources ment policies divert renecessary to meet their sources from this process, unique business needs.â&#x20AC;? thereby moving resources to less But government agencies, as nonHÎ&#x20AC;FLHQW XVHV KLQGHULQJ HFRQRPLF participants in the market process, growth. have no way of determining a comOver the past several years, panyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unique business needs.

The department has no market North Carolina lawmakers have begun to craft policies with an eye toLQFHQWLYH Âł SURĂ&#x20AC;W DQG ORVV Âł QRU ward enhancing economic growth. the necessary market knowledge to get these decisions right. In attempt- They have done this primarily by implementing pro-growth tax and ing to implement such policies, it is regulatory reform and cutting taxes invoking what Nobel Laureate F.A. overall. And economic growth rates Hayek referred to as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;pretense of in North Carolina relative to the rest knowledge.â&#x20AC;? of the country attest to the success Since the money used to imof this approach. plement these policies is not manna Unfortunately, policymakers from heaven, the department must have continued to pursue antiuse the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taxing authority to transfer resources from the majority growth and counterproductive of North Carolina taxpayers to busi- economic development policies.

During the 2015 legislative session, nesses that the agency determines every proposal to implement new are worthy of its largess. or to expand existing economic de,W QHFHVVDULO\ HQWDLOV DQ HÍżRUW velopment programs became law. by the state to pick marketplace This schizophrenic approach winners and losers by using tax to economic policy is like trying to breaks and direct subsidies to increase a boatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s speed by investpromote targeted businesses and ing in a bigger and more powerful industries. This, in fact, is what motor while simultaneously tossing â&#x20AC;&#x153;crony capitalismâ&#x20AC;? is all about. a heavy anchor over the side. Sure, On its website, the agency the boat may continue to move ERDVWV DERXW WDUJHWLQJ VSHFLĂ&#x20AC;F forward, and indeed it may increase industries for special consideration. its speed if the force of the new 7KH\ LQFOXGH WRXULVP Ă&#x20AC;OP VSRUWV engine is greater than the drag of development, telecommunications, the anchor.

ELRWHFKQRORJLHV KHDOWK FDUH DQG Ă&#x20AC;But clearly the new engine nancial services. In reality, economic would work even better if the andevelopment is a disguised form of CJ chor were lifted completely. state central planning of the economy, and it should be abandoned.

Roy Cordato is vice president Policy that focuses on economic growth rather than economic for research and resident scholar at the John Locke Foundation.

GHYHORSPHQW VWDUWV IURP D GLÍżHU-

EDITORIAL

North Carolina Gives Conservatives Hope

T

o the extent that American conservatives are increasingly pessimistic about the future of their decades-old political movement, they should look at North Carolina and feel better.

Raleigh is a place where conservative leaders have rolled up their sleeves, converted abstract ideas into practical policies, and outmaneuvered a host of special-interest groups to enact an ambitious agenda.

The General Assemblyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest FRQWULEXWLRQ WR WKDW HÍżRUW D 17 state budget plan, will continue to make North Carolina a national leader in conservative reform. It cuts taxes for virtually all households in the state, saves nearly a half-billion dollars more in the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rainy-day IXQG DQG RÍżVHWV QHZ VSHQGLQJ RQ high priorities such as teacher pay and law enforcement with cuts and economies elsewhere in the budget. It also advances core conservative ideas such as school choice, innovation, competition, and pay for performance.

Naturally, left-wing interest groups and editorial boards are highly critical of the new budget. They call it â&#x20AC;&#x153;extreme,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;radical,â&#x20AC;? even â&#x20AC;&#x153;crazy.â&#x20AC;?

Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s great news. Their sentiments are a reliable contrary indicator. If they liked the new state budget, that would be a sign North Carolina leaders were abandoning the sound poliFLHV WKDW KDYH ERRVWHG WKH VWDWH¡V Ă&#x20AC;VFDO soundness and economic recovery.

Conservatives donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t oppose all government. Particularly at the state and local levels, we recognize the value of core public services such as public safety, courts, infrastructure,

and education. But we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe they all must be provided by government monopolies. More importantly, we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think government is a device for planning peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives, attempting to solve all their problems, or providing them with personal meaning.

These are tasks best left to individuals, families, and other voluntary social institutions.

If you put North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new 2016-17 state budget into the context RI Ă&#x20AC;YH SUHYLRXV EXGJHW SODQV HQDFWHG by conservative legislators (three of them bearing the signature of Gov. Pat McCrory), you can see a conservative vision being implemented into law.

For the vast majority of North &DUROLQLDQV VWDWH WD[HV ZLOO EH VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;cantly lower than they were in 2010.

While it has grown in dollar terms, JRYHUQPHQW VSHQGLQJ ZLOO EH VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;cantly lower as a share of the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy. More workers will have jobs. More entrepreneurs will have the freedom to start or expand their businesses without excessive regulations.

More parents can choose where their children attend school. More patients will have more choices about where to get their health care, thanks to a regulatory change in the budget bill as well as upcoming Medicaid reforms.

Conservatives have disagreed with McCrory and legislative leaders on occasion. But perspective is critical.

Such leadership currently is lacking in Washington. If conservaWLYHV ZRXOG Ă&#x20AC;QG LW WKH\ PXVW ORRN WR the states â&#x20AC;&#x201D; starting with the one just south of Virginia and just east of Tennessee.

CJ

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

Voluntary funding essential for liberty ing political debates on local, state, and national issues.

A recent study of state lawmakHUV FRQĂ&#x20AC;UPV WKDW PRVW OHJLVODWLYH outcomes are not related to the source of campaign contributions. In a paper published earlier this year by Legislative Studies Quarterly, political scienWLVWV -HÍżUH\ +DUGHQ RI WKH 8QLYHUsity of Colorado-Boulder and Justin Kirkland of the University of Houston looked at a â&#x20AC;&#x153;natural experimentâ&#x20AC;? in New Jersey, where some lawmakers were allowed access to government Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ IRU WKHLU FDPSDLJQV ZKLOH others were not, as well as cases in Maine and Arizona where larger-scale V\VWHPV RI JRYHUQPHQW Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ ZHUH implemented.

Harden and Kirkland found that ´SXEOLF Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ H[HUWV D QHJOLJLEOH HÍżHFW RQ OHJLVODWLYH YRWLQJ EHKDYLRU Âľ Legislators with publicly funded campaigns vote virtually the same way as legislators with privately funded ones.

7KHVH Ă&#x20AC;QGLQJV DSSHDU WR FRPSRUW with previous studies on the same topic.We should not disregard the risks of vote-buying or other forms of corruption. They do happen. But they are not the norm. Restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, petition, and association do tremendous damage to republican government and individuCJ al liberty.

Limiting Debt

I

PAGE CJ13

OPINION

EDITORIALS

COMMENTARY

Cash and Votes

F

or anyone who has watched politicians do their jobs up close and personal, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard not to conclude that most of them spend most of their political careers advancing what they perceive to be principled positions on public policy. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put their votes up for sale to the highest bid from potential donors.

0RQH\ Ă RZV IURP LQWHUHVWHG parties to politicians across the political spectrum. Labor unions and hardline environmentalists tend to contribute to liberals and Democrats.

Business owners and hardline abortion foes tend to contribute to conservatives and Republicans.

In the vast majority of cases, however, politicians donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change their views to get cash. Incumbents express their general political philosophies in the form of votes. Candidates express them in the form of speeches or pledges. Private individuals and associations then choose the politicians whose views are closest to their own and try to elect or re-elect them.

To say that private, voluntary funding of campaigns is inherently and systematically corrupt is a setup.

It is a ploy designed to pave the way for coercive limitations on political liberty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on the freedom of individuals to band together to say, print, or broadcast whatever they want, both during electoral campaigns and dur-

Even when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cheap, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s costly

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cheap to borrow right now. That to borrow instead of pay as you go doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean you ought to load up when rates are so low â&#x20AC;&#x201D; particularly with new debt, however, and this ZKHQ WKH SURMHFW EHLQJ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFHG ZLOO same wisdom applies to the public SURGXFH VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;FDQW HFRQRPLF UHWXUQV sector.

ZKHQ FRPSOHWHG 6WLOO VRPH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO North Carolina traditionally has conservatives argued that the Conmaintained comparatively low levels nect NC projects â&#x20AC;&#x201D; many of them of indebtedness. According to the on university or community college latest available statistics on total state campuses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet that test.

DQG ORFDO GHEW IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU Moreover, Gov. Pat McCrory has North Carolina ranks 44th in the coun- called for another $1 billion-plus bond try at $5,233 per person. package in 2017, this time for transThe rankings donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include local portation. bond issuances since 2013 or the cost We urge caution. The truth is RI Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ WKH ELOOLRQ &RQQHFW NC bond package approved by voters WKDW GXH WR VWULFW Ă&#x20AC;VFDO GLVFLSOLQH RYHU the past six years, North Carolina has earlier this year. But North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ranking probably wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change much. been paying down debts and building up savings. Even the passage of the Other jurisdictions have been approvLQJ VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;FDQW ERQG LVVXDQFHV DV ZHOO Connect NC bond package will only slow the decline in state indebtedness Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve cited the same reason North as a share of state spending and the &DUROLQD RÎ&#x20AC;FLDOV KDYH KLVWRULFDOO\ economy, rather than reversing it. low interest rates.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s even better than a low Assuming that the capital needs in question are real, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not irrational debt payment? No debt payment. CJ

A

We Never Were In Kansas

aftermath of the Great Recession, s the general election but then wisely eliminated it. campaign begins in North In Kansas, lawmakers allowed Carolina, you can expect to themselves to be bamboozled by hear a lot about Kansas. some out-of-state tax â&#x20AC;&#x153;expertsâ&#x20AC;?

Yes, I can read a map. Kansas claiming that cutting income taxes and North Carolina arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly would generate so much new inneighbors. But when it comes to vestment, entrepreneurship, and Ă&#x20AC;VFDO SROLF\ FULWLFV RI *RY 3DW 0Fpopulation growth that the revenue Crory and the General Assembly in ORVV WR WKH VWDWH ZRXOG EH RÍżVHW Raleigh prefer to talk about whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening out on the prairies of the substantially. This can be true, of course â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the very long run, 6XQĂ RZHU 6WDWH UDWKHU WKDQ ZKDW¡V counted over decades. In the short happening in the mountains, Piedrun of state budgeting, however, mont, and coastal plain of the Tar SROLF\PDNHUV DUH EHWWHU RÍż PDNLQJ Heel State. far more conservative asSeveral years ago, sumptions about revenue Kansas and North Carofeedbacks. lina began a series of tax North Carolina did reforms and reductions. precisely that. Our state Because both sets of polipolicymakers didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t cies were championed by just reduce and reform many conservatives and taxes. They also controlled savaged by many liberals, expenditures. Since the they came to be associenactment of the 2013 ated with each other. In tax changes, their authoreality, however, the two JOHN rized budgets never have states made markedly difHOOD pushed spending growth ferent choices â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and have above the combined rates ended up with markedly RI LQĂ DWLRQ DQG SRSXODGLÍżHUHQW UHVXOWV tion growth. Actual spending, in A couple of months ago, the .DQVDV OHJLVODWXUH KDG WR Ă&#x20AC;OO D ODUJH fact, often has come in below even these budgeted amounts. Look at hole in its state budget by delaying WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW PRQWKV RI WKLV \HDU 0RVW a scheduled contribution to its state of the operating surplus comes from pension fund as well as cutting lower-than-expected spending ($1 its school, university, and road billion), not higher-than-expected budgets across the board. Here in revenues ($224 million).

North Carolina, the latest estimates North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy has (through May 31) show our stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outperformed that of Kansas, to be General Fund budget running VXUH DOWKRXJK WKH UHDO GLÍżHUHQFH an operating surplus for the curhere was one of strategy. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better UHQW Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU RI ELOOLRQ 7KDW UHĂ HFWV WKH GLÍżHUHQFH EHWZHHQ to set conservative goals and then be pleasantly surprised, rather than billion in revenue and $18.9 billion in expenditures. let rosy scenarios lead to unpleasant 7KLV KHIW\ VXUSOXV IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW shocks.

PRQWKV RI WKH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU FRPLiberals in our state can (and bined with leftover money from last will) say that North Carolina should year and healthy revenue projechave kept taxes higher to fund more tions for next year, should explain government spending. Conservawhy state lawmakers were able tives obviously disagree. But what to enact a state budget that raises liberals canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say now â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even teacher pay substantially, funds though they predicted it in 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; other necessary services, saves more is that North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tax reforms money for a rainy day, and provides KDYH FUHDWHG D Ă&#x20AC;VFDO FULVLV 2XU RSNorth Carolinians another round of erating budget and savings reserve tax relief. are both in good shape.

How did Kansas and North â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve a feeling weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not in &DUROLQD HQG XS LQ VXFK GLÍżHUKansas anymore,â&#x20AC;? Dorothy told ent conditions? For one thing, 7RWR :KHQ LW FRPHV WR VWDWH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO Kansas punched a large hole in policy, North Carolina never was. CJ its income-tax base by excluding self-employment income. North John Hood is chairman of the &DUROLQD EULHĂ \ FUHDWHG D YHUVLRQ John Locke Foundation. of this exclusion in the immediate

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

OPINION

EDITORIALS

COMMENTARY

Cash and Votes

F

Voluntary funding essential for liberty

or anyone who has watched politicians do their jobs up close and personal, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard not to conclude that most of them spend most of their political careers advancing what they perceive to be principled positions on public policy. They donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put their votes up for sale to the highest bid from potential donors.

0RQH\ Ă RZV IURP LQWHUHVWHG parties to politicians across the political spectrum. Labor unions and hardline environmentalists tend to contribute to liberals and Democrats.

Business owners and hardline abortion foes tend to contribute to conservatives and Republicans.

In the vast majority of cases, however, politicians donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change their views to get cash. Incumbents express their general political philosophies in the form of votes. Candidates express them in the form of speeches or pledges. Private individuals and associations then choose the politicians whose views are closest to their own and try to elect or re-elect them.

To say that private, voluntary funding of campaigns is inherently and systematically corrupt is a setup.

It is a ploy designed to pave the way for coercive limitations on political liberty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; on the freedom of individuals to band together to say, print, or broadcast whatever they want, both during electoral campaigns and dur-

ing political debates on local, state, and national issues.

A recent study of state lawmakHUV FRQĂ&#x20AC;UPV WKDW PRVW OHJLVODWLYH outcomes are not related to the source of campaign contributions. In a paper published earlier this year by Legislative Studies Quarterly, political scienWLVWV -HÍżUH\ +DUGHQ RI WKH 8QLYHUsity of Colorado-Boulder and Justin Kirkland of the University of Houston looked at a â&#x20AC;&#x153;natural experimentâ&#x20AC;? in New Jersey, where some lawmakers were allowed access to government Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ IRU WKHLU FDPSDLJQV ZKLOH others were not, as well as cases in Maine and Arizona where larger-scale V\VWHPV RI JRYHUQPHQW Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ ZHUH implemented.

Harden and Kirkland found that ´SXEOLF Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ H[HUWV D QHJOLJLEOH HÍżHFW RQ OHJLVODWLYH YRWLQJ EHKDYLRU Âľ Legislators with publicly funded campaigns vote virtually the same way as legislators with privately funded ones.

7KHVH Ă&#x20AC;QGLQJV DSSHDU WR FRPSRUW with previous studies on the same topic.

We should not disregard the risks of vote-buying or other forms of corruption. They do happen. But they are not the norm. Restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, petition, and association do tremendous damage to republican government and individuCJ al liberty.

Limiting Debt

I

Even when itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cheap, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s costly

tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cheap to borrow right now. That doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean you ought to load up with new debt, however, and this same wisdom applies to the public sector.

North Carolina traditionally has maintained comparatively low levels of indebtedness. According to the latest available statistics on total state DQG ORFDO GHEW IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU North Carolina ranks 44th in the country at $5,233 per person.

The rankings donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t include local bond issuances since 2013 or the cost RI Ă&#x20AC;QDQFLQJ WKH ELOOLRQ &RQQHFW NC bond package approved by voters earlier this year. But North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ranking probably wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t change much.

Other jurisdictions have been approvLQJ VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;FDQW ERQG LVVXDQFHV DV ZHOO Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve cited the same reason North &DUROLQD RÎ&#x20AC;FLDOV KDYH KLVWRULFDOO\ low interest rates.

Assuming that the capital needs in question are real, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not irrational

PAGE CJ13

to borrow instead of pay as you go when rates are so low â&#x20AC;&#x201D; particularly ZKHQ WKH SURMHFW EHLQJ Ă&#x20AC;QDQFHG ZLOO SURGXFH VLJQLĂ&#x20AC;FDQW HFRQRPLF UHWXUQV ZKHQ FRPSOHWHG 6WLOO VRPH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO conservatives argued that the Connect NC projects â&#x20AC;&#x201D; many of them on university or community college campuses â&#x20AC;&#x201D; didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t meet that test.

Moreover, Gov. Pat McCrory has called for another $1 billion-plus bond package in 2017, this time for transportation.

We urge caution. The truth is WKDW GXH WR VWULFW Ă&#x20AC;VFDO GLVFLSOLQH RYHU the past six years, North Carolina has been paying down debts and building up savings. Even the passage of the Connect NC bond package will only slow the decline in state indebtedness as a share of state spending and the economy, rather than reversing it.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s even better than a low debt payment? No debt payment. CJ

A

We Never Were In Kansas

s the general election aftermath of the Great Recession, campaign begins in North but then wisely eliminated it.

Carolina, you can expect to In Kansas, lawmakers allowed hear a lot about Kansas. themselves to be bamboozled by Yes, I can read a map. Kansas some out-of-state tax â&#x20AC;&#x153;expertsâ&#x20AC;? and North Carolina arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t exactly claiming that cutting income taxes neighbors. But when it comes to would generate so much new inĂ&#x20AC;VFDO SROLF\ FULWLFV RI *RY 3DW 0Fvestment, entrepreneurship, and Crory and the General Assembly in population growth that the revenue Raleigh prefer to talk about whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ORVV WR WKH VWDWH ZRXOG EH RÍżVHW happening out on the prairies of the substantially. This can be true, of 6XQĂ RZHU 6WDWH UDWKHU WKDQ ZKDW¡V course â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in the very long run, happening in the mountains, Piedcounted over decades. In the short mont, and coastal plain of the Tar run of state budgeting, however, Heel State.

SROLF\PDNHUV DUH EHWWHU RÍż PDNLQJ Several years ago, far more conservative asKansas and North Carosumptions about revenue lina began a series of tax feedbacks. reforms and reductions.

North Carolina did Because both sets of poliprecisely that. Our state cies were championed by policymakers didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t many conservatives and just reduce and reform savaged by many liberals, taxes. They also controlled they came to be associexpenditures. Since the ated with each other. In enactment of the 2013 reality, however, the two tax changes, their authoJOHN states made markedly difrized budgets never have HOOD ferent choices â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and have pushed spending growth ended up with markedly above the combined rates GLÍżHUHQW UHVXOWV RI LQĂ DWLRQ DQG SRSXODA couple of months ago, the tion growth. Actual spending, in .DQVDV OHJLVODWXUH KDG WR Ă&#x20AC;OO D ODUJH fact, often has come in below even hole in its state budget by delaying these budgeted amounts. Look at a scheduled contribution to its state WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW PRQWKV RI WKLV \HDU 0RVW pension fund as well as cutting of the operating surplus comes from its school, university, and road lower-than-expected spending ($1 budgets across the board. Here in billion), not higher-than-expected North Carolina, the latest estimates revenues ($224 million). (through May 31) show our stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy has General Fund budget running outperformed that of Kansas, to be an operating surplus for the curVXUH DOWKRXJK WKH UHDO GLÍżHUHQFH UHQW Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU RI ELOOLRQ 7KDW here was one of strategy. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better UHĂ HFWV WKH GLÍżHUHQFH EHWZHHQ to set conservative goals and then billion in revenue and $18.9 billion be pleasantly surprised, rather than in expenditures. let rosy scenarios lead to unpleasant 7KLV KHIW\ VXUSOXV IRU WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW shocks.

PRQWKV RI WKH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO \HDU FRPLiberals in our state can (and bined with leftover money from last will) say that North Carolina should year and healthy revenue projechave kept taxes higher to fund more tions for next year, should explain government spending. Conservawhy state lawmakers were able tives obviously disagree. But what to enact a state budget that raises liberals canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say now â&#x20AC;&#x201D; even teacher pay substantially, funds though they predicted it in 2013 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; other necessary services, saves more is that North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tax reforms money for a rainy day, and provides KDYH FUHDWHG D Ă&#x20AC;VFDO FULVLV 2XU RSNorth Carolinians another round of erating budget and savings reserve tax relief. are both in good shape.

How did Kansas and North â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve a feeling weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not in &DUROLQD HQG XS LQ VXFK GLÍżHUKansas anymore,â&#x20AC;? Dorothy told ent conditions? For one thing, 7RWR :KHQ LW FRPHV WR VWDWH Ă&#x20AC;VFDO Kansas punched a large hole in policy, North Carolina never was. CJ its income-tax base by excluding self-employment income. North John Hood is chairman of the &DUROLQD EULHĂ \ FUHDWHG D YHUVLRQ John Locke Foundation. of this exclusion in the immediate

PAGE CJ14

OPINION

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

MEDIA MANGLE

I

Trace Elements Of Journalism

stumbled upon The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel recently. In the 2007 book, Kovach, a former New York Times reporter and former editor of The Atlanta Constitution, and Rosenstiel, head of the American Press Institute, seek to identify what they see as the essential principles and practices of journalism.

7KHLU Ă&#x20AC;UVW DQG SUHVXPably, most important element VWDWHV ´-RXUQDOLVP¡V Ă&#x20AC;UVW obligation is to the truth.â&#x20AC;?

Having just watched how the media handled the terrorist attack in Orlando, this is almost laughable.

An incident of obvious radical Islamic terrorism beJON came, at the hands of mainHAM stream journalism, merely an issue of homophobia and gun availability. Within a week, the worst modern mass shooting in this country had dropped out of the news almost completely.

This could not be accomplished had the media not enthusiastically followed cues and spin from the Obama administration. The administration refused to name â&#x20AC;&#x153;radical Islamâ&#x20AC;? as the motive for the Orlando massacre, and the media, sadly, followed suit, repeating the absurd claim by Attorney General Loretta Lynch that the motive of the shooter, Omar Mateen, was simply unfathomable.

Obama and his spokespeople declared immediately that the issue was guns and gun availability. The mainstream media took that cue, too, and ran with it. The result was some of the most embarrassing, ignorant, and inaccurate journalism seen in some time. Reporters nationwide, local and national, showed their ignorance of â&#x20AC;&#x153;automatic weapons,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;semiautomatic weapons,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;AR-15s,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;assault weapons,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;clips,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;magazines.â&#x20AC;?

The relish with which the media followed uncritically and enthusiastically the adminisWUDWLRQ¡V FXHV FRQĂ LFWV VWDUNO\ ZLWK WZR RWKHU important journalistic elements on Kovach and Rosenstielâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s list: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;It must serve as an independent monitor of power.â&#x20AC;?

The fawning media coverage of the antigun Democratic sit-in, in which Democrats tried to replicate a 1960s civil rights sit-in in support of taking away constitutional rights of citizens, ran directly counter to another Kovach-Rosenstiel HOHPHQW RI MRXUQDOLVP ´,WV Ă&#x20AC;UVW OR\DOW\ LV WR citizens.â&#x20AC;?

That media bias against â&#x20AC;&#x153;the peopleâ&#x20AC;? revealed itself a week later, in the coverage of Great Britainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s surprise vote to leave the European Union. Those on the winning side were widely characterized as uninformed, uneducated, xenophobic, racist, and worse.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clear that if there are any elements of journalism left, they are merely trace elements. CJ Jon Ham is a vice president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.

T

Lessons From 1970s Gas Crisis

mestic oil producers said prices were still too low to motivate more drilling and more oil production.

Ultimately the second policy response won crisis. out. Price controls on oil and other energy sources 7KH Ă&#x20AC;UVW HYHQW ZHQW ZHOO Âł P\ ZLIH DQG , were lifted and the regional allocations dismantled. have been married for 36 years. While the second Fortunately, this policy shift corresponded to the event â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the gas crisis â&#x20AC;&#x201D; wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fun at the time, it end of the oil embargoes from the Middle East, has provided some lessons for how public policyso supplies of oil also increased. Gas prices at the makers respond to shortages in key commodities, SXPS Âł DGMXVWHG IRU LQĂ DWLRQ Âł IHOO E\ SHUFHQW like gasoline. from 1980 to 2000.

The gas crisis of the 1970s was prompted by However, domestic oil production still two events: a war between Israel and surrounding dropped until the mid-2000s, mostly because the Arab countries and the Iranian RevoluRLO Ă&#x20AC;HOGV UHDFKHG E\ FRQYHQWLRQDO PHDQV tion. During the Arab-Israeli War, the were drying up. But with world oil prices Saudis tightened oil spigots to protest the rising again in the 2000s as consumption United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; supply of military equipby China and other developing countries ment to Israel. Likewise, American supsurged, U.S. drillers knew they could port for the overthrown shah of Iran led to PDNH JRRG SURĂ&#x20AC;WV LI WKH\ FRXOG Ă&#x20AC;QG PRUH retaliation by the new Iranian government oil. They hit the jackpot when new access in the form of reduced oil sales. techniques, like horizontal drilling and The 1970s was also a time when hydraulic fracturing, allowed them to U.S. oil production was declining. So the reach previously undiscovered pools of combination of reduced oil imports from oil. In 2015, U.S. oil production was just the Middle East and lower domestic oil MICHAEL a few barrels short of establishing an allproduction meant the available supplies WALDEN time output record. of oil â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and its derivative, gasoline â&#x20AC;&#x201D; fell So what are the lessons from this substantially in the country. story? I think there are three. First, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;lawsâ&#x20AC;? of At the highest levels in two presidential adeconomics canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be overcome. One of these laws ministrations (Ford and Carter) there was an intense says that when something becomes scarcer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; as debate about how to respond. One side wanted to when oil supplies drop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that product becomes limit the increase in gas prices and directly ration more valuable, meaning its price rises. limited gas supplies to customers. The opposing 7KH VHFRQG OHVVRQ Ă RZV IURP WKH Ă&#x20AC;UVW ,I side favored letting gas prices rise, arguing the public policy prevents the price of a scarcer product increase would naturally reduce gas buying but also from rising, a shortage will occur. In economics, this boost the incentive for more domestic production. means people want to purchase more units (like galThis was more than an academic debate as lons of gasoline) of the product than are available. Ă&#x20AC;JKWV VKRRWLQJV DQG RWKHU GLVUXSWLRQV EURNH RXW So public policy will have to couple a price cap with over access to gasoline. governmental rationing of the product, as happened 7KH Ă&#x20AC;UVW SROLF\ UHVSRQVH ZDV WKH DGRSWLRQ RI in the 1970s. price and supply controls. Federal regulators limThird, if public policy prevents the price of a ited the price increases of oil produced by domestic scarcer product from rising, it reduces the incendrillers and directly allocated gasoline supplies to tive for producers to make more of the product and GLÍżHUHQW UHJLRQV RI WKH FRXQWU\ $W WKH SXPS WKLV ultimately eliminate the shortage. resulted in the now infamous odd-even license I think these are good lessons to remember. CJ number gas buying system.

But this response didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t satisfy most people.

Michael Walden is a Reynolds Distinguished The inability to purchase gas when you wanted frustrated drivers. Truck drivers complained politics Professor at N.C. State University. He does not speak for the university.

ZDV LQĂ XHQFLQJ KRZ JDV ZDV EHLQJ DOORFDWHG 'Rwo important events happened in my life 40 years ago. I met my future wife. And I was an unwilling participant of the decadeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gas

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

S

ISIS May Not Be Our Biggest Threat

ince 2001 Americans have been focused on the danger of radical Islamic terrorism. Samuel +XQWLQJWRQ FDOOV WKH FXUUHQW FRQĂ LFW part of a broader â&#x20AC;&#x153;clash of civilizations,â&#x20AC;? one in which al-Qaida, ISIS, and others wish to destroy our culture DQG LGHDV %XW LW LV GLÎ&#x20AC;FXOW WR VHH WKLV threat as existential, even if it does give us a severe and constant security headache. It is sometimes hard to believe it, but there are potentially greater challenges to Western valANDY ues of liberty and democracy than TAYLOR an Islamic caliphate supported by a network of terrorists.

China seems the main candidate.

As a result of massive state investment in infrastructure and exports buoyed by currency devaluation, subsidies, and frequent dumping, its economy has grown spectacularly over the past 20 years. In 1997 Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gross domestic product was less than $1 trillion; today it is nearly $11 trillion. It certainly represents an economic threat. Even though the Cold

L

PAGE CJ15

OPINION War is over, China also might challenge the U.S. militarily. It has more than 2 million troops and currently is shifting its military focus away from manpower and toward technology.

Its defense budget is only about onefourth of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, but it has had nuclear weapons since 1964, is rapidly revamping its navy and air force, and recently has acquired sophisticated cyberwarfare capabilities. Recent actions LQ (DVW $VLD DQG WKH 3DFLĂ&#x20AC;F VXJJHVW LW is willing to â&#x20AC;&#x153;mix it upâ&#x20AC;? with rivals to H[WHQG LWV UHJLRQDO LQĂ XHQFH 1RUWK Korea and Taiwan always have the SRWHQWLDO WR SURYLGH Ă DVKSRLQWV LQ WKH Sino-American relationship.

We were led to believe that China would be a partner rather than a rival, particularly after the Soviet Union collapsed. The roughly 20-year rule of premiers Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao WKDW IROORZHG VHHPHG WR FRQĂ&#x20AC;UP WKH impression. But under Xi Jinping, Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship with China has worsened. Trade disputes continue, and Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dollar currency peg has not waylaid accusations of manipulaWLRQ ,Q WKH 8 6 WUDGH GHĂ&#x20AC;FLW ZLWK the country hit a new record of $366 billion. President Xi has centralized power greatly, if that sounded possible, by granting himself new civilian and military powers. The green shoots

of freedom of speech, association, and religion that emerged under his predecessors have been trampled, often in the name of the presidentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s admittedly DGPLUDEOH HÍżRUWV WR H[WLQJXLVK FRUruption. Potential opposition seems, like many of the Chinese people, to be mesmerized by Xiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;cult of personalityâ&#x20AC;? and his glamorous wife, Peng Liyuan.

We can overestimate the Chinese challenge, however. The possibility was revealed to me during a recent visit to Shanghai. The downtown of this sprawling city gleams with the rewards of capitalism. It has towerLQJ VN\VFUDSHUV DQG D Ă&#x20AC;UVW FODVV UDLO system. But the vast majority of its 20 million residents, especially those of its enormous and chaotic suburbs, seem unhappy. The city is frenetic â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it has a distinctive â&#x20AC;&#x153;Westernâ&#x20AC;? vibe â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but people seem stuck in place.

Their working lives are unrewarding.

They cannot own houses, so they live in shacks or Soviet-style high-rises, generally alone or with aging parents.

Most public services are decrepit, particularly health care and education. Success seems dependent upon connections rather than talent. The lives of Shanghai residents are devoid of the civic institutions that give ours meaning like family, church, book

clubs, the local tavern. Their communist society, ironically, is atomistic.

And, of course, they have little opportunity to speak out or organize politically to bring about change. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no Facebook or Google in China. The governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Great Firewallâ&#x20AC;? largely blocks access to them and many other Western websites.

The city has a growing globalized class largely made up of educated, tech-savvy millennials. They seem content at the moment, but at some stage surely they will insist on political reform and multiparty democracy, freedom of speech, and a more FRQFHUWHG HÍżRUW WR HQG FRUUXSWLRQ DQG bring about meritocracy. We know from 1989 and the events in Tiananmen Square that this will be resisted.

It is hard to know what will happen, but the process will set China back a great deal economically, and probably militarily.

Our presidential election this year is, according to Donald Trump, about making America great again. That might be true. But for now we are â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at least in a comparative sense â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if not CJ great, certainly top of the pile.

Andy Taylor is professor of political science at the School of International and 3XEOLF $ÍżDLUV DW 1 & 6WDWH 8QLYHUVLW\ He does not speak for the university.

New Markets Tax Credit a Wrong Turn

ike a recovering addict on the verge of a major binge, some North Carolina lawmakers are on the brink of falling back into the black hole of tax credits. Rather than serving as a national model for tax and regulatory reform, North Carolina risks becoming, again, a national leader in crony capitalism.

At press time, Senate Bill 826 would have created a new state-level credit BECKI mirroring the fedGRAY eral New Markets Tax Credit. The state version would have given insurDQFH FRPSDQLHV DQG DÎ&#x20AC;OLDWHV D FUHGLW WR Ă&#x20AC;OWHU PRQH\ WR SULYDWH HQWLWLHV PDNing investments in distressed communities. Even if S.B. 826 is not enacted into law this year, the NMTC concept wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t go away any time soon.

Established in 2000, NMTC was designed to provide capital, spurring the revitalization of low-income and impoverished communities. To date, 14 states have adopted NMTC pro-

grams. Texas and Georgia have joined North Carolina in introducing statelevel legislation.

Targeted incentives never live XS WR WKHLU SURPLVHV EHQHĂ&#x20AC;W D IHZ DW the expense of many, and are not a good investment of taxpayer money.

When credits, grants, and carve-outs are piled on, success for â&#x20AC;&#x153;investorsâ&#x20AC;? comes almost entirely at the expense of taxpayers.

The proposed North Carolina 1HZ 0DUNHWV 7D[ &UHGLW ZRXOG RÍżHU a 25 percent state tax credit for private investments over seven years, so long as 75 percent of the investment is made in the economically disadvantaged Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties.

This would be on top of a convoluted IHGHUDO SURJUDP WKDW DOUHDG\ RÍżHUV D 39 percent credit over seven years.

Before a project can qualify, supporters must provide government overseers a revenue impact assessment using â&#x20AC;&#x153;a nationally recognized third-party independent economic forecasting method that projects state and local tax revenue to be generated by the project.â&#x20AC;? You can bet the forecast will claim large increases in state revenues, economic outputs, and jobs, EHFDXVH WKH UHSRUWV RIWHQ XVH D Ă DZHG

economic analysis model called IMPLAN, which ignores opportunity FRVWV DQG IUHTXHQWO\ FRQĂ DWHV EXVLQHVV FRVWV ZLWK VRFLHWDO EHQHĂ&#x20AC;WV A July 2014 U.S. Government $FFRXQWDELOLW\ 2Î&#x20AC;FH UHSRUW RQ WKH federal NMTC called the program complex, nontransparent, and unnecessarily duplicative. The GAO also found â&#x20AC;&#x153;the data on equity remaining in businesses after the credit period were unreliable,â&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;data on NMTC project failure rates were unavailable.â&#x20AC;?

The NMTC isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t the only subsidy available to the politically connected. At the federal level, about 16 additional tax credits, breaks, and carve-outs also are used in conjunction with NMTC. Duplication of tax credits is likely in North Carolina as well. Historic restoration credits, solar and renewable energy credits, Job Development Investment Grants, OneNC Fund grants, and local incentives are just a few of the other programs an investor might qualify for in addition to NMTC. The only projects prohibited from the North Carolina credit are real-estate investments. Although the stated intent is to generate economic activity in Tier 1 and Tier 2 counties,

of the 95 federal NMTC projects currently underway in North Carolina, 60 are located in Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, Raleigh, and WinstonSalem. There are hundreds of projects LQ 1RUWK &DUROLQD DOUHDG\ LGHQWLĂ&#x20AC;HG as eligible for the NMTC. Most are clustered around the same areas.

Long-term evidence and academic research tell us that investment FUHGLWV GRQ¡W ZRUN 7KH\ EHQHĂ&#x20AC;W D IHZ at the risk and expense of all other taxpayers.

North Carolina lawmakers have fought hard to roll back special tax carve-outs and set the state on the right road to economic prosperity. To turn in the opposite direction, adopt a state New Markets Tax Credit, and set the state back is foolish, irresponsible, and ill-advised.

North Carolina has become a national model in tax reform, focusing on low rates and fair tax treatment rather than picking winners and losers through targeted incentives. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come too far to return to bad habits, poor choices, and destructive deciCJ sions.

Becki Gray is vice president for outreach at the John Locke Foundation.

PAGE CJ16

PARTING SHOT

JULY 2016 | CAROLINA JOURNAL

N.C. Democratic Convention Delegates Plan Soft Drink Offensive (a CJ parody)

BY R.C. COLA

A

RALEIGH

contentious issue is bubbling up between North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 121 delegates to the Democratic National Convention and national party leaders, and it has nothing to do with Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

No, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not politics at issue, but soft drinks.

North Carolinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s national convention-goers are notorious for imbibing soft drinks, while their Northern counterparts tend more toward harder beverages.

But a recently passed tax on sugary drinks and even diet beverages in Philadelphia, the site of the convention, would add $1.08 to any purchase of a six-pack of 12-ounce soft drinks.

The tax was scheduled to go into HÍżHFW RQ -DQ EXW WKH FLW\ IDWKHUV of the City of Brotherly Love decided WKDW DQ LQĂ X[ RI WKRXVDQGV RI LPELELQJ convention-goers to the Democratic gathering, July 25-28, was too good a revenue opportunity to pass up, so the HÍżHFWLYH GDWH RI WKH WD[ ZDV PRYHG WR July 1.

N.C. Democratic Party Chairwoman Patsy Keever told Carolina Journal that this extra expense for delegates has become a huge issue. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Look,â&#x20AC;? said Keever, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we North Carolinians come from a state that in-

Interns at the N.C. Democratic Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh were seen recently carrying dozens of cases of soft drinks into the building. (CJ spoof photo)

vented Pepsi-Cola and Cheerwine. We take our soft drinks seriously, and we drink a lot of them. If the cost goes up more than a buck a six-pack, that will put a serious dent in our per diems.â&#x20AC;?

Keever explained that Northern and Western delegates are known to shun soft drinks, preferring harder beverages. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And they mostly drink their liquor neat,â&#x20AC;? said Keever, while North Carolinians are fond of mixing with Coke, Pepsi, and other sweet drinks.

After hearing of the new soft-

drink tax, several Democratic delegates said theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d rather stay home than have to spend nearly a week in Philadelphia without a bubbly sweet drink. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I really wanted a Philly cheese steak from Genoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, but that wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough to make up for not having my Pepsi to mix with Captain Morgan,â&#x20AC;? said one delegate, who wished to remain anonymous, lest his pastor learn he imbibes.

To allay the fears of people like this delegate, however, a plan was hatched.

http://northcarolinaconservative.com/

After an emergency meeting in late June, Keever announced that several hundred cases of soft drinks of various brands will be trucked to Philadelphia for the convenience of the Tar Heel delegates.

Democratic Party interns could be seen delivering the cases of drinks to Democratic Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh recently.

Some delegates were concerned ZLWK EHLQJ VFRÎ DZV DQG VPXJJOHUV but one delegate eased their concerns by pointing out that Northerners had been doing this with North Carolina cigarettes for decades.

North Carolina delegate and U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, D-12th District, told CJ she was fully on board with smuggling soft drinks for delegates, saying it was â&#x20AC;&#x153;excitingâ&#x20AC;? to break the law for a just cause. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This tax on drinks is a burden for all delegates,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s MXVW DQG Ă&#x20AC;WWLQJ WKDW ZH VKRXOG XVH FLYLO GLVREHGLHQFH WR Ă&#x20AC;JKW LW Âľ Even so, many Democratic delegates, while upset that they might have had to pay the tax in Philadelphia, were impressed with the amount of revenue it is reported already to be raising in Philadelphia. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Even though we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to have to pay this tax at our convention,â&#x20AC;? said Adams, â&#x20AC;&#x153;we have to be big enough to bite the bullet and do something good for North Carolina, like passing a law like this for our state.â&#x20AC;?

CJ

News, views, and research from groups across the state

REAL ESTATE

BY SANDY GROOVER One of the most popular summer activities is swimming, and what better place to swim than in your own pool.

But all pools, whether above-ground or in-ground, need routine maintenance, and many people who would love to have their own pool are hesitant to install one because they think the upkeep will just be too time-consuming and difficult.

Caryl Cheeseman, owner of Caryl’s Pool and Spa in Greensboro, said swimming pool maintenance has never been easier. With the advances in chemicals and automated pool cleaners during the last several years, she said pools can practically take care of themselves. No longer do you have to be a chemist to keep your pool water clean and sparkling, nor do you have to spend hours skimming and vacuuming your pool. Rather, she said, taking care of a pool today is “child’s play.”

Cheeseman and her staff are available to advise customers on the chemicals they really need to maintain their pools and the water in them in

Speed Bump

in beautiful condition, and while it is easier than ever, she said she and her staff will still write out instructions for each of their customers. Too often, said Cheeseman, she sees people loaded down with unnecessary chemicals.

Among the newest pool cleaning tools available that Cheeseman said she’s excited about is the Maytronics Dolphin unit. It’s an automated pool cleaner that plugs into an outside electrical outlet. The power source steps down the voltage in the cleaner itself to a mere 12 volts, making it safe to have in the water even if you are in the pool at the same time it is cleaning it.

The computerized cleaner makes a schematic of the pool, analyzing the entire area so that it is aware of all angles and depths and cleans every part of the pool. The unit runs for several hours (depending upon the model) and shuts itself off when done. It can even be programmed to go on automatically while you are out of town, thus keeping your pool clean

by Dave Coverly

even when you’re away.

Cheeseman said she’s always researching the latest advances in swimming pools and accessories and trying new things. For instance, a recent innovation in filters now uses polished glass as a substitute for sand in sand filters. While sand needs to be replaced, polished glass never does, and Cheeseman said that debris cannot cling to glass, therefore clogging is eliminated.

Caryl’s doesn’t sell pools (they do sell spas), rather they are experts in pool maintenance and repair. Along with pool chemicals, the store carries everything from the newest heating units, filters, liners and covers.

35

They also offer accessories like pool toys, loungers and a handy apparatus called the “Frog Log,” which hangs down into the pool, enabling critters like frogs, mice, squirrels, lizards and chipmunks to get out of the pool should they fall in.

The floating loungers they sell will have you longing for a lazy afternoon relaxing in the pool. Plus, the toys available will keep kids, both large and small, happy for hours.

To learn more, call Caryl’s Pool and Spa at (336) 691-0111, go to www. caryls.com or visit the store at 2616 Lawndale Dr., Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hyper-Sudoku sudoku_535A

The New York Times

Advances in Pool Cleaning

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

8 4

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REAL ESTATE

36 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

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uncle orson (continued from page 15)

movie is one that afflicts every movie and television show that involves gunplay, and which we ignore the way we used to ignore how good guys in westerns always shot the gun out of the bad guy’s hand instead of killing anybody – an impossible feat.

The flaw I speak of is bad-guysconquer-the-world-without-everlearning-to-aim. The good guys duck their heads a little while running through a storm of alien fire, and that is apparently enough to protect them.

This syndrome reaches its apogee of hilarity when Judd Hirsch is driving a school bus full of children across a flat white expanse of desert, and the aliens are shooting at it and they never, never hit it.

Yes, that’s right. They’re such bad shots they can’t even hit a school bus.

I enjoyed Independence Day: Resurgence. I didn’t expect it to be better than the first film, because let’s face it, the first film was able to surprise us, and the second film really couldn’t do that. The writing was better this time around, the science was noticeably smarter and better founded, and even though some of the actors deserved Purple Hearts – the award that should be given to actors who must say unspeakable lines as if a real person might have said them – by and large the dialogue was better written than in the first movie.

It didn’t cross my mind to ask for more. Resurgence is worthy to be watched back-to-back with Independence Day, which is more than can be said for the appalling thought of watching a Star Wars marathon, not in the order they were released, but in the order the story supposedly took place.

In a world of sickeningly bad, cynical and/or pointless sequels, with only rare exceptions (Godfather

II, Toy Story III; are there any other sequels better than the original?), director Emmerich, writers Wright and Woods – and Dean Devlin, whom I have shamefully neglected in this review, but who has a co-writing credit on both films – have done as good a job as possible of staying true to, and up to or above the quality of, the first film.

Let others rant about why it’s worse or dumb or bad. Just go to the movie and enjoy yourself.

....

Paper towels were originally invented to replace cloth towels.

That’s why we call them “paper towels.” But I know few people who regularly use them that way. Certainly that’s not how they’re sold.

We never used cloth towels for the jobs that quicker-picker-uppers are touted for today: We used rags.

That’s right. When we needed to mop up a spill on the floor or the counter or the table, we’d grab rags from the rag cupboard or rag bucket and scrub away. Or we’d use an actual mop (on the floor) or a sponge (on the table or counter).

But once paper towels existed and we had them on the kitchen counter, we found that it was a lot easier to use them than to go for the rags we kept under the sink. Best of all, we just threw them away when we were done, instead of washing them and folding them and replacing them in the cupboard. The paper towel makers soon realized that they needed to sell them as replacements for rags rather than as replacements for towels.

Now, I don’t know many people who still keep rags for cleaning, dusting or mopping up spills.

Nor do many people keep them for patching holes and rips in clothing.

The Iron-On Patch first replaced

BASEMENT WATERPROOFING CRAWL SPACE REPAIR FOUNDATION REPAIR

using rags to patch holes in the knees of jeans – I remember how fun it used to be to sit there in school, peeling away the iron-on patch, bit by bit, pretending that I wasn’t going to peel it completely off, or that my mother wasn’t going to be annoyed to have to iron on yet another patch to cover the same hole. “These things aren’t free, you know!”

Rags and patches are how we used to make good use of old, worn-out clothing. The best pieces would be saved for patchwork quilts, at least by the more ambitious housewives. The next group would be kept for patching clothing – some delightfully flag-like patches made old jeans look like they were an array of signals from a sailing ship. And whatever was too small, odd-shaped or thin and frayed to use in any other way became dust-rags and moppingup rags and even, in families with both frugality and skills, rag mops.

Those days are gone. Children’s clothes are passed down, either within families or within circles of friends. Adult clothes we’re tired of or which no longer fit or are out of style go to Goodwill or, shamefully, into the garbage – usually after spending years in the back of the closet or a box in the attic or basement. (Though some frugal reusers still exist: Iron-On Patches are still available for purchase.)

So paper towels do all the clean-up jobs that rags used to do. Nobody uses them to patch clothing, because they’d instantly fall apart and because clothes are so cheap that few people bother to patch them. Patches are embarrassing – they suggest that our credit cards might be maxed out. And since very, very few people learn how to sew and do it often enough to have any skill at it, they don’t have any idea how to sew on a patch so it doesn’t fray and stays in place. (And just try finding somebody who actually knows – not in theory, but with actual skill – how to darn

socks.)

Meanwhile, the announced purpose of paper towels – to be towels – is relatively rare. We all still keep a hand towel and dish towels in the kitchen, and I don’t know many people who keep a roll of Bounty or Viva in the bathroom instead of a hand towel or two.

In fact, paper towels make lousy dish towels, unless you like using dishes with paper towel dander clinging to them. Though, oddly enough, a damp paper towel is very good at wiping out bowls that have gathered some dust, because when the towel is damp and the bowl is dry, you don’t get that paper fluff in the bowl.

Kleenex has now devised, and is marketing – or test marketing – Kleenex Hand Towels. They are designed to replace the bathroom hand towel.

They come in two types of box.

The first is a rectangular top-of-thecounter box, like ordinary tissues, only what pops up for you to grab is a hand towel.

The other box has one beveled edge; this is where the opening is.

The idea is to place it on the towel rod where you used to keep cloth hand towels. You put the bevel down into the gap between the rod and the wall, with the opening facing forward.

Now, each time you pull downward on a towel to pull it out, it lodges the box more firmly into that gap, so it doesn’t fall from its perch.

And, because it’s not sitting on a counter that’s likely to get wet, the box doesn’t soak through at the bottom.

Of course, in a bathroom like ours, which uses hooks and hoops to hold our cloth towels, this design doesn’t work – but most people use towel rods, and so this box would serve them well.

Since the towels aren’t on a roll, you don’t have to worry about tearing them at the perforation; (continued on page 38)

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37

38 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

uncle orson (continued from page 37)

there is no perforation. Very simple and convenient – just as easy as reaching for a cloth towel ever was.

And, unlike a cloth towel, each new Kleenex Hand Towel is dry and clean when you take it. No sitting out wet, mildewing, with all the dirt from previous uses festering until you spread it on your own hands. (There, have I made you shudder at the thought of using a cloth hand towel?)

I’ve been using the Kleenex Hand Towels for a couple of weeks at the beach, and I have to say, I really like them. I was surprised at how well they work – much better than any paper towels I’ve used in public restrooms, even the tony ones that set out folded white towels in a little bin.

The Kleenex Hand Towels are not strong enough to use for scrubbing, but they hold together perfectly well when I use them to dry one hand and then the other. They’re absorbent, and when I’m done with them I don’t feel any desire to wipe my hands on my pants, as I do after using most airblower hand dryers in restrooms.

Speaking of air-blower hand dryers, the only good ones I’ve actually used are the Dyson Airblade Hand Dryer. They’re so loud that you can’t hear yourself think while using them, and they practically whip the skin off your hands, the wind they make is so intense. But they get your hands dry in a very short time.

So why doesn’t every

establishment install them in their public or employee restrooms?

Because they cost more than $1,300, that’s why – more than three times as much as the almost-good downward-blowing hand dryers.

As usual, the best costs more, and most builders or outfitters opt for mediocre in order to cut their handdryer budget by two thirds. This is a smart decision, because people generally go into public restrooms wearing clothes, and with a little encouragement they’ll recognize that clothes are perfectly adequate hand towels to finish the job so weakly begun by the ordinary air-blower.

The Kleenex Hand Towels, though, achieve a much more acceptable level of dryness, using only one towel per hand-washing. So when calculating the value to you of switching to the hand towels, keep in mind that you’ll be using less than half as many paper hand towels as you usually do in public restrooms.

If we had a towel rod, I’d start using these as soon as we return home from vacation. In fact, I may retire my towel ring and make the switch.

Of course, with my luck, as soon as I do that Kleenex will stop offering this convenient, sensible packaging.

....

At the risk of saying the obvious, let’s remember that breaking away from Great Britain was not the main

Speed Bump

by Dave Coverly

achievement of our Revolution.

What set us apart, what made us an exemplar to all nations, was that we established a democratic republic, by means of a written Constitution ... and then we kept it.

We fought many political battles to achieve our enduring democracy, and one bloody Civil War. But the institutions of our government remained and remain largely responsive to the will of the people, with checks and balances enough that it’s hard for idiots in power to make lasting changes during their term or terms in office.

Not only that, but we have maintained American government as one of the least corrupt in the world. We don’t expect to have to pay a bribe in order to get a wedding license, or set a trial date, or file to run for office. While some city governments are famously corrupt, like the Chicago machine that produced or current president and which supervised the near theft of the 2000 presidential election in Florida, that corruption is kept in check by a federal government which, with the huge exception of the IRS and the Clintons, remains largely unbribable.

But our constitutional system is changing, and the seeds were sown long ago. The paper Constitution has been at risk ever since, in Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court asserted the right – never granted in the Constitution – to nullify acts of any other government body if, in the Supreme Court’s opinion, they violate the Constitution.

The problem always was and is today: Who nullifies unconstitutional actions by the Supreme Court? Ever since Roe v. Wade, when the Supreme Court openly invented a right that is not and never was written in the Constitution – on the specious grounds that it was “implied” – the court has obtruded itself more and more into the legislative domain.

No longer do radicals attempt to amend the Constitution in order to mandate desired changes in society. Instead, they win the hearts and minds – or at least the timid conformity – of the law school elite, giving federal judges and Supreme Court justices, chosen from their number, a thin cover for wholesale constitutional changes that instantly become binding, without any recourse, upon the entire nation.

Then those radicals eagerly pursue and punish anyone who disagreed or disagrees with these changes, and even long-established constitutional rights, like freedom of religion, are trampled underfoot by puritans who cannot stand the thought that anyone, anywhere, might be free to disobey

their newly invented laws.

This Fourth of July, for me at least, is tinged with bitterness, not because I “lost” some political battle – in fact, I was on the winning side every time.

It’s because political battles are increasingly irrelevant. Freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and freedom of speech are openly assailed, without any help from – and usually with the complicity of – the federal courts.

And most of us simply roll over and play dead, for fear that if we speak up we’ll be punished. And believe me, folks, you will. The champions of these social changes hate freedom and democracy, and the only constitutional rights they respect are the ones they invented and have imposed on us without any democratic process.

Not since 1860 has America faced such a challenge to our founding principles. And in those days, it was the unbearable crime of slavery that posed the challenge. Today, it’s nothing more than fashionable groupthink – but the hate and rage and relentlessness with which the radicals pursue and punish their opponents is almost as savage, if not as physically direct, as the way any anti-slavery spokesman in the antebellum South was utterly silenced, either by intimidation, ejection or death.

In this time of crisis, instead of choosing between Lincoln and Douglas, with two splinter parties offering viable alternatives, we are probably doomed to choose between Corruption and Buffoonery.

It’s conceivable that either or both of the major parties may wake up and realize how irresponsible they both are, offering us such monstrously inappropriate candidates for the presidency. The Democrats have superdelegates who could change their mind about this obvious liar and crook, Hillary Clinton. And the Republican establishment can show some guts and ignore the howls of the die-hard Trumpites, holding an open convention in respect for the solid majorities of Republicans in almost every state who voted resoundingly against the Trump nomination.

But they probably won’t. Even a cynical assessment of their election chances won’t help, because both parties are set to nominate the candidate that the other party can most easily defeat – except that the other party is nominating a worse one, if that were possible.

I will probably vote for Trump, for no other reason than to keep Hillary and the groupthink Left from choosing any Supreme Court justices until (continued on page 40)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

The Sound of the

beep

What follows has been transcribed from the answering machine on our comment line. We edit out what is required by the laws of the state, of good taste and of good sense. The limit on phone calls is one minute and each caller may make up to two calls per week. If you have something to say, call our comment line at 763-0479 and start talking at The Sound of the Beep.

Just somebody let me know if you disagree so I’ll know how ignorant you people are. We can all agree that taxes pay for essential necessities for all of us. Every single citizen. Then we can also agree that there’s one side that wants to keep cutting tax revenue down to the bare minimum if not less than what they need to get the job done. And you have another group that’s trying to keep the boat afloat by doing the very least of tax raising that they can. I think we all know who the problem is. The problem is the people who are telling you that taxes are bad, and they want to continue to lower them even though it affects every single one of us in a negative way. Taxes are not bad unless you believe the stupid rhetoric by these dumb lying politicians.

%%% Editor’s Note: The Republicans who control state government have reduced taxes, and revenue has increased significantly. The state no longer owes $2.75 billion to the federal government, has over $1 billion in reserves and has consistently raised teacher salaries. It appears lowering taxes might be a good idea.

%%% Section 8 vouchers for government-subsidized housing should be used in every neighborhood in every city. Even in your wealthy gated communities, Section 8 vouchers should be used. People that look down on poor people might realize there are poor people that are actually make excellent neighbors. I think it’s wrong to discriminate against people because of income. Section 8 vouchers should be used in every section of Greensboro, not just the poor section. Everyone deserves the right to a good school. Everyone deserves a right to a nice, safe neighborhood.

People should not be frowned upon, or turned against, or discriminated against, or penalized because they don’t have money.

%%% Yes, I’d like to say I was looking at the magazine last week, and I saw some blacks at Donald Trump’s rally. And I just say that any black person that supports or believes in Donald Trump must be on crack. I don’t know what they see in that man. Because, apparently, Donald Trump ain’t going to save black people from going to hell. Only black folks can save themselves. If they believe in him, they’re really going to hell.

And those sisters that believe in Donald Trump, they must be on crack, too, or something. I don’t know what they’re thinking. I mean, those old buzzards need to check themselves if they’re going to believe in Donald Trump that bad. I mean, why are you going to trust a man you don’t even really know, a man who really ain’t done anything for black people as far as I’m concerned. Donald ain’t done squat diddly for black folks in his entire life. I mean trust him, then you must be on crack.

%%% Yes, I’d like to comment about the mass shooting that went down in Orlando and the kid that got eaten by the alligator or whatever. Like I said, that stuff that happened down in Florida is unfortunate, but it don’t surprise me. It’s like everything is going on according to the Bible or Koran. Everything is happening because those two right there. And, plus, in a way it’s like the old saying, what goes around comes around. I guess what’s coming around is coming back to Florida, because Florida

(continued on page 40)

39

RHINOSHORTS (continued from page 13)

than 60 mph flashed past my front bumper. Fortunately, I had caught the car out of the corner of my eye and had slammed on the brakes. The car passed within inches of mine.

The driver could not have possibly thought he was going to make the yellow light. It had been green in my direction long enough for two cars to pass through the intersection and for me to slowly make my way into the intersection.

I don’t know if the driver saw me and swerved or just decided to barrel through the red light and was lucky.

If he or she had hit me, it would have totaled both cars and we’d both be fortunate if we weren’t seriously injured.

When I lived in Washington, DC, I learned not to enter an intersection until all the cars running the red light were through. The joke was that drivers behaved as if seeing that the light was at one time green was enough to go through the intersection.

It appears we are approaching that in Greensboro.

If I had hit the gas when the light

turned green there is no way I would have made it through the intersection without being hit, maybe more than once. And it wouldn’t have mattered at all that I had the green light, my car would have been destroyed and, if I was lucky, I would have only had to spend the morning in the emergency room. If I hadn’t been lucky I might be rueing the fact that I didn’t take the advice Scott Yost gives in his column this week and had not already written my own obituary.

It was unfortunate that with the biggest crowd of the year downtown for the Fun Fourth Festival, the fountains at Center City Park were not operating.

Greensboro is buying the park from the foundations that own it, and the fountains are being repaired so it can be sold.

If the City Council had known that if they agreed to buy the park the fountains would be turned off for Fun Fourth, the council might have delayed the vote.

40 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

uncle orson (continued from page 38)

them.

Trump’s snarling, sneering mouth is his own creation, as is his ridiculous hair; Lincoln was tall and gaunt because he suffered from a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. Still, during the campaign for president, Lincoln took one 11-year-old girl’s suggestion to heart, and changed his appearance by growing a beard – just at the time when beards were becoming fashionable for serious adult men in American society.

The beard hid some of his gauntness and made him look more acceptable and normal – dignified and presidential.

There is one thing Donald Trump could do, right now, in direct imitation of Lincoln: He could cut his hair. I mean cut it, revealing whatever bald spot or failed plugs he’s been “hiding” all this time. He could also stop dyeing it orange.

He could turn it into a campaign coup. “This election is about the most powerful office in the world, at a time of crisis. I have set aside my vanity

we can sort out the court’s anticonstitutional behavior pattern and establish a legal recourse to overturn Supreme Court invention of nonexistent “rights.”

But Donald Trump could, if he cared to, make some attempt at acting like Lincoln.

Remember that Lincoln was an ugly man from the frontier, tall, awkward-looking, homespun. He entered the national stage because of the 1858 equivalent of a hit TV series – his series of seven debates with Stephen Douglas as they contended for Illinois’s US Senate seat. The texts of the debates were reprinted everywhere. Everyone who cared about politics read them. The debates led directly to both men becoming the nominees of the major parties.

Now, Lincoln had at least served in Congress, so he wasn’t as ignorant as Trump. And he was not the narcissistic terrified mean-spirited clown that Trump is – but his enemies claimed that he was a clown, an ape, and his physical appearance was weird enough to get people to believe

in order to show you who I really am, covering nothing.”

He has, as exemplars, famous bald men like Bruce Willis, who – in the midst of his reign as one of the world’s top box-office draws – allowed himself to be photographed without a toupee, and even played roles where his baldness was simply part of the character.

Donald Trump aspires to play the role of president of the United States.

He could show us that he at least takes that role seriously enough to come out of disguise. Instead of wearing that repulsive hair to meet with foreign leaders, or to address the American people about issues of real importance, he could do it as a real human being, with a short haircut of a completely natural color.

In other words, he could symbolically become an honest man, in a campaign where he’s running against a lying snake.

This would take such a sacrifice of his vanity and ego that it would suggest that he really does have an underlying maturity that might allow him to grow into the office he aspires to.

Will he do it? Of course not.

This isn’t that kind of election year.

beep (continued from page 39) knowing its history and stuff has always been hell. So, really, I guess Florida must be in hell, because of its hellish history. So, in a way I don’t feel sorry what happened down there in Florida.

It’s like the old saying, what goes around, comes around.

So, now, I guess Florida got its own chastising over its past of what it’s done to black people and Indians. So, really Florida is catching hell because of its past.

%%% I’m a DSS employee, and I’m looking here at the county salaries. And I think it’s pathetic that all these big county employees are making all this money, and we are the ones doing all the work, working like dogs, bringing home some $30,000. Marty Lawing is making almost $200,000. And when you call and leave him a message, he does not call you back. I have

(continued on page 42)

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

41

YOST Column

Yost Column

Yost, Evel Knievel Share Death Wish

by Scott D. Yost Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down.

– Anonymous

In July 1974, after Evel Knievel announced his plans to jump Snake River Canyon on a motorcycle, a reporter asked him if he had a death wish.

“Yeah,” the daredevil replied, “I want to die in bed with a beautiful woman when I’m 110 years old.”

Knievel never got his death wish: He actually died in Clearwater, Florida, on Nov. 30, 2007 at age 69, and, as far as I can tell, there’s no indication he was in bed with a beautiful woman when it happened.

The day after his demise, newspapers across the country ran his obituary.

Right about the time of Evel Knievel’s death, it became big news that the Associated Press had an obituary already in the can and ready to go for one particular singer. It’s common practice these days for

newspapers to have obituaries on hand for celebrities, but it became a big deal that the AP already had the obituary for this singer because it was the first time anyone could recall that they had an obit written up and ready to go for someone under 30.

Can you guess who that was?

You’re exactly right – it was Britney back in her crazy shave-your-head and drive-with-your-baby-on-top-ofthe-car days.

Britney made it through that dark time, but it’s never a good sign when you’re in your early 20s and the newspapers already have your obit written up.

On the other hand, you also don’t want the newspapers throwing something together at the last minute – especially if you die on a major holiday when the newsroom has been left in the hands of the administrative assistant and an intern.

In fact, nowadays, when a famous person is near death, the AP even goes ahead and sends out the obit to newspapers. Now, when they

do, they also send out about 50 notices – probably in big red font – that say the obituary isn’t to be used until the person actually dies, but in some cases, newspapers end up printing the obits anyway. Wikipedia has a whole page on “premature obituaries.”

Now, for non-celebrities, the obituaries you read are ones that family members sent in to the local paper. One thing I don’t get about the News & Record is that they always put the obits in the “Life” section, which makes no sense whatsoever to me. It seems exactly where an obituary should NOT go – but far be it from me to attempt to tell the News & Record how to run their business.

If the family of the deceased doesn’t write an obituary and pay to have it in the News & Record, the paper will run a short death notice, but that’s all you get. They don’t write it for you. However, if you’ve

achieved some sort of notoriety – good or bad – the News & Record might do a story on you and your death. So, if you’re well known, that might be something to worry about because it is not one of those things that the News & Record knows how to do. Death is just simply not their strong suit. Specifically, there are only four things they know how to write about: (1) Rich Fork Preserve (2) Coal Ash (3) Murders and DUI’s in Rockingham County (4) HB2 So, if they do write a story on you, it might come out something along these lines …

Rhino Times scribe Scott D. Yost went to the great beyond on Thursday. Yost, who attended Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, never (continued on page 42)

42 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

yost

(continued from page 41) had a DUI in Rockingham County, nor was he ever accused of murder in that county.

The writer who worked as a stockbroker and an Elon philosophy teacher before entering journalism, defined himself as male and is said to have used male bathrooms for his entire life. The funeral will be held at Green Hill Cemetery, which is about 25 miles from Rich Fork Preserve and roughly100 miles from the closest Duke Energy coal ash spill …

Nobody wants their final memory to be written like that, so it hit me that it would be a good idea if we just all wrote our own obituary ahead of time.

You know, if you want something done right, then do it yourself. Also, that way, you won’t be heaping that burden on your grieving family at the time of their great loss.

When you die, everything will already be done, and, also, you can control the message – something that politicians always remind us is absolutely critical to do. You know, if you write your own obit, you can point to your better qualities.

So, this week, I thought I’d go ahead and write mine and just put it out there for when it’s needed – which hopefully will be a very long time from now.

Here goes …

Scott Dayvault Yost, a native of Greensboro, NC, died peacefully at the age of 110 yesterday in bed with a beautiful woman. [This is just my placeholder for now – please insert actual circumstances after the fact if that is not how it went down.]

Yost, who became an awardwinning horror writer at an early age and is considered something

beep (continued from page 40) left three messages. Ms. Heather Skeens is almost making $122,000, and there’s no even reason even talking to her. You can’t talk to HR. So, there’s nobody to talk to in case you have a problem.

%%% Let me, if I may, describe a scenario, and you tell me if you’ve ever seen such scenario take place.

She’s driving. He’s in the passenger seat with the seat leaned all the way back, his hat on backwards, because she is the one with the job, the car and the insurance and the money. He has nothing. They go out to eat. She reaches in her pocketbook, gets out the debit card and pays. He does nothing. He doesn’t even leave a tip. And guess what he will have 25 years from now? Again, nothing. Then these same women are the same women who work every day, who drop kids off at daycare on the way to work, pick them up on the way home …

%%% Let me get this right. I just read what the new Guilford County school superintendent from New York is going to be making $250,000 a year for four years. I think that’s $1 million in salary. Am I correct?

We all need to remember this the next time the principals and

teachers start fussing and crying about no money in their schools because of budget shortfalls. We all need to remember this. Surely this superintendent is not going to model our schools after the failed education system in New York. Let’s hope not.

City, county and all federal employees continually wanting more money, constantly. It never ends. While the private sector, who pays their salary, has had to work for less money, face massive layoffs. Does that make sense? Of course it doesn’t.

%%% I served my country while Bush was in office. Thank God I was discharged before Obama took office. Now my upmost sympathy goes out to any military personnel who may serve under Hillary Clinton as commander in chief. The military demands respect.

Hillary deserves none. She deserves no respect in this matter. Southern Guilford County here. Thank you.

%%% This is too good to be kept. Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren are campaigning. And one of the ladies on Fox News said that is Thelma and Louise. They would drive the country off a cliff, sure enough. But what I never hear them say, and I’ve called in before about this, what are we going to do about $19 trillion?

of a literary genius in France, did not have any children that he knew about. He was a well-known and much beloved columnist and reporter for the Rhino Times, a local weekly newspaper, and was considered by many to be something of a “local treasure” if you will.

Yost was married once but that did not end well, though the failure of the marriage was not his fault but instead was the fault of someone else who shall remain unnamed.

Former two-time North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt won reelection to the governor’s seat by defeating Yost in the 1996 gubernatorial election [I encourage you to look that up if you have your doubts]. However, Yost’s star did not burn out after that setback, and he went on to reach what is considered by many to be the pinnacle of his career – when the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to name a chair in the commissioners’ meeting room

Nobody has addressed that. Hillary’s talking about spending more. She’s talking about letting children go to college for nothing. That is real good bookkeeping if she can let them go for nothing and they can lower the national debt.

%%% I’m calling in reference to a man that stands on a corner with a sign that says he is homeless and he has bone cancer. Neither of these statements are true. I know for a fact the man owns his house. He does not pay no rent. And he neither has any kind of cancer. So, the next time maybe if you see him instead of giving him $1, maybe we should give him a Bible tract that said thou shalt not steal.

%%% The Burlington Christian revival in the giant tent near Cox Toyota is still drawing Christians to worship five days a week. Attendance has been more than 3,000 per night and 15,000 for the week. For the last four weeks it is more than 60,000 people with over 500 lost souls being saved and brought to the Lord. There is still time to join the revival and get right with the Lord. If you read the local fish wrap, they have not reported one word about this fantastic news and Christian story. I wonder why.

%%% I was just watching a thing about Istanbul, Turkey. Bombing. I would love to be a fly on the wall with Hillary Clinton and Obama. I bet they’re grinning. They’re getting exactly

“The Scott Yost Chair” and mark said chair with an honorary plaque. (It should be noted that the board did so on a unanimous vote.) It is thought to be the only time in the history of the planet Earth that a board of commissioners has named a chair after a reporter.

Throughout his life, Yost was kind and loving toward others and small animals, with the notable exception of the mice who entered his home, which Yost captured in glue traps.

And it was only after carefully considering other options that all seemed even less humane did Yost take the mice and …

OK, you know what? Writing your own obituary is more depressing than I imagined it would be. In fact, it’s kind of creepy, so I’m going to just stop there and let the News & Record fill in the rest.

But I do encourage you all to come to the funeral – you know, once I hit 110.

what they want. That’s what the American people are going to get.

Better face it. Better look what you’re doing. Don’t vote for Hillary Clinton or you’re going to get worse and worse and worse.

%%% As recently stated, when it comes to the Benghazi incident, Hillary would rather move on. I think when it comes to a lot of issues, Hillary would rather move on. It’s evidently the Democratic way. Put a BandAid on it. Keep looking forward, and don’t look back. Southern Guilford County here.

%%% Who didn’t see this one coming?

The fix was in the whole time.

And I told anybody who would listen after Mo Green left, the next superintendent would be a female minority, especially after the uproar the minorities in this city created after we hired a white police chief. But now we have a superintendent who’s leaving her current position up in Syracuse in a cloud of controversy where she will not punish the minority children who create problems in the schools up there, or she’s not tough enough on the minority children and kids up there who create problems in the schools.

%%% It’s June 29, and after what’s happening in Turkey, knowing that ISIS says they was the one (continued on page 45)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

A HAIR TO THE LEFT Copeland

A Hair to the Left

43

EXTRA SAVINGS THIS WEEK!

D-Day and 17 Years in Normandy

by Doug Copeland As we celebrate our country’s freedom this week it reminds me that Americans have a history of ensuring freedom, not only for us but for people around the world.

American men and women have given their lives to free others from tyranny and oppression.

For the past 17 years, including this past June, I have traveled to Normandy, France, on the occasion of the D-Day anniversary, June 6, to personally thank the American and British men who landed on the beaches that fateful day in 1944 to begin the journey of freeing the world for democracy.

Though I have spoken about these trips to many civic clubs and military associations, I have never written about my experience over these 17 years. It is impossible to condense those 17 years into a newspaper column, so I will share but a few stories of the men and women I have met to give you a sense of that experience.

It began as a one-time trip inspired

by Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation. I wanted to go to thank the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy. From the internet I learned these D-Day veterans came back for the ceremonies many French villages in Normandy held to thank them for liberating their villages.

Motivated by this book, but not knowing a soul, I went on a mission to meet the men that did the impossible. I flew to Paris. Drove to Normandy. Stopped at the first D-Day invasion site closest to Paris, which coincidently was also the first site liberated at midnight, June 6 – Pegasus Bridge. At a cafe next to the bridge sat dozens of British veterans, about 75 years old at the time. While

I’d flown all the way to France for this purpose, I was not sure exactly what I was going to do. I went up to the first veteran. Unplanned and unrehearsed I said exactly what I felt – and still feel: “My name is Doug Copeland and I came from the United States to thank you for what you did.”

As I did that I could see the gleam in their eyes and spring in their response in spite of being in the winter of their lives. That one sentence launched a journey that continues today.

Just to give readers a sense of those 17 years, let me share a few of these men’s stories – remarkably, not their wartime escapades but their interactions with the French people because of their experiences in June 1944.

There is the story of Capt. John Hunter of the British 6th Airborne Parachute Corp. He dropped during the early hours of June 6. Among his many stories is one that took place during our many visits in Normandy.

The Battle of Normandy was not just that one day. It was weeks long.

One year he shared the progress of battle. Even in his late 70s, we wandered the woods. As we drove he told me the story of the French villagers that had hidden him and his mates during those days. He took me to the villages and crossroads that had given him refuge, and to the homes where he’d been hidden in.

He took me to a church cemetery and showed me the graves of twodozen French villagers, adults and children, who had hidden him and his countrymen. The villagers had been found out. He pointed out the dates of birth on many of them. A quarter of the headstones were of children, 8 to 14 years old. As a group these twodozen French villagers were brought

(continued on page 46)

Due to health reasons, after 30 years, Jay Winepol is retiring and CLOSING THE DOORS FOREVER!

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44 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

This Summer’s Last Beach Music Blast

Photos by Elaine Hammer More photos rhinotimes.com

airport (continued from page 11) one-ply stuff that feels like sandpaper, he replied, “We get the good stuff that we put at our offices, but we get the stuff that feels like sandpaper for the terminals” – though his tone suggested that he was joking.

He said there are many special operating costs when it comes to running an airport.

“Anytime there’s a snow event, there’s a large cost in chemicals,” Baker said, citing one example.

The $29.7 million in revenues is generated from a number of sources.

Baker said airport revenues come in three categories that bring in roughly equal amounts of PTIA’s overall revenue. He said about a third of the airport’s revenue – roughly $7 million or $8 million– comes from parking and related charges. He added that another third comes from fees charged to airlines and passengers such as landing fees and rental car fees, or from the cut the airport gets from books, gifts, meals and snacks sold at the shops, stands and restaurants.

Finally, he said, about one-third of the airport’s revenue is generated from non-airline activities such as fees from HAECO, HondaJet and others.

One reason growth at the airport is so important to area leaders is that the facility is so closely tied with the area’s strategic plan for job growth countywide.

In fact, next week, Greensboro Partnership President and CEO Brent Christensen, who’s also a lead staff person for the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA), is attending the

Farnborough International Airshow in England to help draw the attention of more aviation companies to PTIA. “Aviation is one of our target industries – and that’s been helped by the aggressive stance that the airport has taken,” Christensen said.

He added that Guilford County had seen some solid success in that industry in the past and said the projects at PTIA that are opening up so much new useable space put the county in a position to expand on those past successes with a round of new airline-related businesses in the coming years.

“I think you will find very few places where not only do you have space available – property on the field with access to the runway – but you also have the commitment to education in aviation, from Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) to Guilford County Schools,” Christensen said.

Though PTIA already owns a lot of land for development, it continues to add more. Baker said the airport is still acquiring property when it becomes available. The airport’s current capital plan funding includes just over $4 million for land acquisition.

The PTIA budget projects that revenue from terminal rental will be up by 1.3 percent in the new fiscal year and parking revenues will increase by 2.2 percent. And the rent for the airport apron – the area of the facility where airplanes park, load and unload – is expected to increase by 14 percent.

That revenue jump is largely the result of American Airlines renting another

gate from PTIA. In other good news, the airport’s revenue from cargo operations is projected to increase 23 percent due to a lease for a Christian aid organization, Samaritan’s Purse, as well as an adjustment in the airport’s deal with FedEx. Some additional money is expected because of new leases with RSVP Communications and Highways & Skyways.

The airport has had a lot of financial help from its transportation partners.

When the DOT or the Federal Aviation Administration comes in and does a project with grant money that will enhance the airport, PTIA must pay some of the cost – usually 10 percent.

In recent years the airport has seen an infusion of money from those outside sources for a small percentage of matching funds.

“We have been very, very fortunate in that regard,” he said.

Grant money now on the books for projects in various states of completion total about $110 million. Those include a noise mitigation program that provides soundproofing in airport area homes – especially older ones, which often don’t have proper insulation and sound protection. It also includes the taxiway bridge construction, the large tower relocation, parking deck and road repairs, runway and terminal renovations and the development of a site on western area of airport land.

One key metric that airport officials keep close watch on is the number of passengers using the airport, and the prediction in the new budget is that those numbers will head up slightly after what’s been a lengthy decline. Over the last two decades, PTIA has lost a lot of traffic due to the consolidation of travel around hub airports. Baker said

that planes serving PTIA are in some cases adding more capacity.

Baker said a slight increase in passenger traffic was the best guess of what would happen in fiscal 20162017, but he also said that no one knows for sure what will transpire in the new fiscal year.

“It’s more an art than a science,” Baker said of the forecasts for passenger use.

He said one positive factor playing into that prediction is the forecast for the industry overall, which calls for added airline traffic.

“We are likely to see the table scraps of that expansion,” Baker said.

Airport officials aren’t expecting a large increase in that number, but even a slight uptick is welcome considering the steady decline of flyers that PTIA has experienced in recent years.

In 2011, PTIA had 893,000 passengers, which dropped yearly and sank to 824,000 in 2015. That happened even though the number of passengers that have flown US airlines went from 731 million in 2011 to 799 million in 2015.

The number of charter passengers at PTIA has fallen by almost half in the last five years.

Airport officials say there are making multiple moves to make the airport more attractive to flyers, and a new Starbucks and more aggressive advertising of the airports valet service is part of that plan.

“People love it,” he said of the airports valets offerings.

Baker said that, after reviewing recent passenger numbers, 2015 appears to have hit bottom, and passenger use of PTIA seems finally be on the upswing after the lengthy decline.

ask

C

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

arolyn...

45

Straight Talk

from the Dancing Divorce Attorney

by Carolyn Woodruff

Ask Carolyn…

Dear Carolyn, What causes a parent to favor one child over another? I am a father, divorced from my two children’s mother.

For the life of her, that “mother” cannot treat our daughter fairly and favors our son. The children are now 9 and 11, and the daughter is older. Both children are smart and in good health. She just gave a lavish birthday party for the son, and I don’t think she did more than a cupcake for our daughter’s birthday. Can I do anything to help the situation?

Carolyn Answers ...

The favoritism you describe is so sad and so very harmful, not only for your daughter but your son in a predictable

way. Favoritism is taboo in our society, and as an American population, we dislike the favoritism of one child over another as a general rule. Of course, there are some necessary exceptions, such as a newborn or a sick child that might have special needs. These situations are not arbitrary favoritism, and in those instances, the best thing to do is candid discussions with all of those who are affected. Discussion and transparency generally will offset the negative consequences.

This justifiable favoritism doesn’t seem to be what you are talking about, however.

I would have to know more facts to understand the cause of the favoritism you are witnessing, but a common cause is a patriarchal culture where a boy child is valued more than a girl child. Perhaps your ex-wife grew up in a patriarchal family of origin, and she considers neither herself nor her daughter to be equal with your son and you. I think this is strange in 2016, but based upon what I see every day

beep (continued from page 42)

%%%

nice in northwest Greensboro. So, you can have a home that’s nice, and you’re proud of and it not be in the northwest part of the city. There are nice homes in every part of Greensboro, not just the northwest.

I know you don’t believe this, but it’s true. I am very proud of my home, and I appreciate my home, and I think it’s a beautiful home.

I’d like to ask people in northeast Greensboro a simple question. Is it OK with you that I’m proud of my home, and I love my home, and I think my home is very nice, and I think my home is in a nice area, but it’s not in northwest Greensboro?

Uh-oh. Culture shock. Look out.

And I thought only homes that were

I’m calling in support of the letter by Frank Swanson. I think he’s right.

Until the school board learns to spend the money that we’re giving them at the classroom level, and not at an administrative level, I don’t think they should get another penny. (continued on page 48)

wanting to get over here to come in with the Syrian refugees, does Hillary Clinton still want to bring 65,000 of them in here when the FBI said there was no way possible to check on who was coming? The only thing they can do is tell them their name, and that’s all they know about them. If she’s that

in my family law practice, I think this view still exists. You mainly see this favoritism problem with step-children, the Cinderella story over and over.

You should seek to deal with this problem because psychologists report that the consequences of favoritism last for the rest of your children’s lives.

The consequences are far worse than you might imagine and can be very bad. For the disfavored child, you need to look for depression, greater aggressiveness, lower self-esteem and poorer academic performance.

These may be life-long problems existing long after your daughter leaves home.

This toxic family environment isn’t good for your son either. Even though he is favored, his sister is going to learn to resent him, and the brothersister relationship will be poisoned.

I would suggest two things to you.

First, seek a psychologist who has studied the topic of parental favoritism and its consequences. Psychology Today has published articles on the topic “When Parent’s Play Favorites.”

If you have the means, seek out one of the psychologists who writes on the topic. Get counseling for yourself and both of your children. Second, while I don’t think you necessarily have an easy case with a judge, I would ask

for primary custody if I were you, and minimize the contact both children have with that mother. It is not going to get better; it is likely going to get worse.

I would arm myself with as much data and as many experts on the topic as possible. Keep a day to day detailed diary on every incident of favoritism.

Ask the court to order this mother in therapy with a therapist who hopefully can educate her on the harms to both children of parental favoritism.

Dear Carolyn, I had two children by in vitro fertilization (IVF). My husband and I are now going through a divorce and we have four frozen embryones that could still be used. The storage facility says that the frozen embryo may be good for at least eight more years. The contract with the storage facility says we both have to agree on the disposition of the frozen embryo, or the facility will simply continue to keep them frozen and send us an annual bill, which we must pay or the facility will send a collection agency after us.

What happens in my divorce if my ex and I cannot agree on the disposition of the frozen embryo? I may want more children, but my ex does not.

(continued on page 47)

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46 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

d-day

City Should Reimburse Wray

(continued from page 43)

by Bill Knight

to the town square and, in front of the entire village population, executed.

Nothing matches what I was to witness a few minutes later.

We left the cemetery, traveled into the village and stopped at a memorial in a roundabout. Capt. Hunter and his friend Johnny never said a word. They did not tell me what was next. They opened their car trunk.

Removed a wreath of poppies they brought from England. They marched to the memorial. They stood. In full military style they placed the wreath on the memorial. They saluted, paying tribute to the actions of those French villagers, the men, women and children that risked – and gave – their lives to save their British liberators.

There were no brass bands playing. No spectators. No dignitaries. Simply these two veterans paying tribute in their own solumn way.

Then there is Jack Schlegel.

One of the many members of the US 82nd Airborne, 508 Parachute Infantry Regiment. On the night of June 6, his unit was scattered all across rural Normandy near Sainte Mere Eglise. He and a friend hid in a French farmhouse from 2 to 5 a.m.

The farmer and his wife fed them and gave directions to their liberators.

On the way out the door, as a sign of gratitude, Jack gave his paratrooper badge to the farmer’s wife. The two soldiers moved on.

Forty years later, in June 1984, Jack Schlegel returned to France for the first time. He searched for the place where he had stopped 40 years earlier. He got lost and stopped at a farmhouse to ask for his way because the place had changed a lot. He came into a farmhouse and explained the aim of his visit. He was invited to

come into a bedroom, at the bedside of an old dying lady. She asked someone to bring her handkerchief box. She opened it and showed Jack a paratrooper badge on which he recognized his initials. Paralyzed by the emotion, he realized that this lady was the one to whom he had given the badge in the morning of June 6, 1944. The old lady confided to him she had always thought that one day, the young American who had given this present would have come back. Now she could leave this world completely fulfilled.

Jack’s post war visits to Normandy continued and in 2014, the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the news agency Reuters followed Jack around for a week during his visit.

He was hale and hardy traveling the countryside to various ceremonies.

On the 6th, he found himself standing just behind President Barack Obama during a ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery. A photo showing Schlegel just over the president’s shoulder was transmitted around the world by The Associated Press.

As he sat at the end of his 10 days in Normandy in a French villager’s home, he said, “If I were to die today it would be OK, as I have already been in heaven this week.”

On June 8, Jack returned to his home in New York State and three days later died.

Andrée Mesnage lives in the village of Amfreville, 100 villagers, six kilometers from Sainte-Mère-Église, famous for the classic movie The Longest Day, where Red Buttons hung from the church steeple.

Andrée was a very young girl when the Nazis invaded her village. She (continued on page 50)

On August 1, members of the Greensboro City Council will have an opportunity to inspect the personnel file of former Chief of Police David Wray. At stake for Wray is his claim for reimbursement of his legal bills that were paid as a consequence of accusations of racism brought against him and his administration.

The city originally based its refusal to pay on a belief that Wray had acted outside his scope of employment. In its most recent reasoning, the city attorney cited several former managers who said Wray acted maliciously. If he acted maliciously, as they claim, he must have been within the scope of his employment; otherwise why did they make the point.

Nothing of a malicious nature was ever discussed with me while I served as mayor, and, further, the city has been unable to produce any factual information in support of the malicious allegations. I think the malicious charge is baseless.

Remember, investigations by the FBI resulted in a finding that no racial discrimination existed in the Police Department while David Wray was chief.

Additional investigations by the SBI and local authorities found nothing that provided a reason to bring charges against David Wray or the department.

In a parallel matter, the city retained its paid outside attorney Alan Duncan to prepare a brief for federal court, to be presented in its defense against a racially charged lawsuit brought by several black officers. (David Wray was not part

of this suit, but his administration was repeatedly mentioned in the brief).

The 42-page brief offers several important facts that should not be overlooked when considering the merit of Wray’s request for reimbursement: “The record does not support a finding that any alleged harassment was based on race.” (page 6) “Two officers who had disagreements with Wray stated unequivocally their belief that none of Wray’s decisions while chief were racially motivated.” (page 10) “There was no evidence that a lineup book as alleged ever existed.” (page 16) These are the city’s own words in a legal brief prepared by its paid outside attorney.

Except for a claim of racism – a time when responsible city leaders donned helmets and dove for bomb shelters rather than stand by their chief – this matter might never have seen the light of public day.

David Wray, his family, friends, community and fellow officers have suffered enough as a consequence of the groundless charges leveled in the press and other outlets.

A report by RMA attempted to find him guilty of numerous charges grounded in racism, a report that was poorly written, seemingly having found an answer in search of a question. I think RMA was a case of CYA by the city.

It is time to man up and reimburse Wray’s legal fees – enough money already has been wasted. A career police officer who served his city with distinction for many years has been tarnished. The City Council needs to do the right thing and set things straight once and for all.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Letters LOSING SATELLITE WARS DEAR EDITOR,

The Chinese dictatorship is militarizing Earth’s orbit and, for some reason, our government isn’t going to do anything about it.

China just recently launched its “Roaming Dragon” satellite. It is supposed to clean up space junk, which would be a good idea. The Roaming Dragon has a robotic arm that can catch old Chinese satellites.

Of course, it can catch new American satellites as well. Our government doesn’t have one of these.

Later this year, China is going to launch a hyper-spectral imaging satellite that can detect stealth aircraft and underground bunkers.

This satellite will collect data on 328 electromagnetic bandwidths.

Our government does have a similar satellite, but it can only collect data on a couple of hundred bandwidths.

And don’t forget that China shot down a weather satellite in 2007.

Chuck Mann

BUT NOT ALL THINGS REPORTED DEAR EDITOR,

I am sick of NPR. All Things Considered reported on verbal abuse and other “microagressions” against immigrants in the UK today, July 5.

These micoagressions apparently even include being glared at. So a white British person (admittedly probably uncouth) staring at a nonwhite person is international news, following our outrageous decision to re-assert our independence.

This follows literally dozens of stories aired by NPR describing how Brexit is disastrous for the UK, the EU and the world in general.

Except that the right to selfdetermination is a human right explicitly enunciated in the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights. Somehow that aspect escaped NPR, as did Britain’s right to assert that right.

The little old English lady that NPR rolled out tonight – supposedly an 80-year-old conservative –decried the “nastiness” of isolated incidents of bigotry towards foreigners, as do I. But isn’t it odd that other incidents of “nastiness” never constituted international news according to NPR?

47

LETTERS To The Editor

TO THE EDITOR The organized group of Muslim men in Rochdale who “groomed” young British girls as sex slaves? Not news.

The regular London demonstrations of militant Muslims who carry signs saying, “Sharia law will prevail,” and “The west will be conquered” and other more vitriolic messages – not news; in fact not even “nastiness” according to NPR. The British people dared to reclaim their right to control their own country.

That’s why the internationalist leftists are shocked and ticked off. But how can you protest a free and democratic vote?

Democrats are only Democrats when democracy goes their way.

Otherwise they are petulant, irrational, selfish, childish fools who have never grown up. And hypocrites.

Just listen to NPR.

Christopher Rees

FOR A FIGHTING CHANCE DEAR EDITOR,

Since some people dislike the NRA and what they stand for, and since we recently had another massacre in Orland, let’s look at another point of view.

What if one of the bartenders had a right to carry permit and his gun was close by where he was working? What if the usher in the theater also had one?

What if all churches had two faithful members with one? What if all public schools had one armed policeman stationed at the front door to observe all who entered?

This solution is not perfect, but at least it gives people a fighting chance.

If we keep doing the same thing, the same way, we’ll get the same results.

The NRA and our military are the backbone of our country.

G.L. Herbin

NOT ENOUGH PROOF? DEAR EDITOR,

In past letters I have referred to politicians at the national level as “lords and ladies” and we citizens as “serfs” in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

Not anymore.

Director James Comey admitted they found 110 emails with classified material on them in Hildabeast’s personal server yet this was not enough to prove intent. He also said if anyone had done this they would have

been brought to the carpet.

Really? (Paging Gen. Petraeus.)

Corruption has just been legalized.

There are now officially two sets of rules, one for the unwashed masses and one for the elected/appointed elite and their party toadies.

In my humble opinion we now need to post the following on Craigslist: “For Sale: One bloated, corrupt, ineffectual national government.

Any offer accepted.”

Trump was never my first choice, (or second or third for that matter), but at this point he is the only option to Hillary. If the Republican Party at the national level cannot and will not bite the bullet and at least try to work with Trump then they may as well disband the party and hope they can find jobs a municipal trash collectors because that’s all they’ll be good for.

They’ve already ignored the majority of the base, sold out to dear leader and started eating their own.

This nation, this (up until recently) successful experiment in self-rule, this

way of life as we know it, this once beacon of liberty is about to go into the trash heap of history along with the Greek and Roman cultures. And for the same reason that they did, that being a growth of apathy among the people. A conscious decision that bread and circuses were more important than monitoring those they elected to represent them.

Unless something happens, we the people are going to reap what we have sown.

Now more than ever is the time to be getting out to the polls and voting, even if you have to hold your nose while you do it. Using that incredibly stupid line of reasoning of not voting, or voting for a third candidate because you don’t like Trump, is voting to put Clinton and her ilk in control. Or as some have put it, a third dear leader term.

And while you’re at it, take a real hard look at the national party “leadership” and where they have cast their lots.

Go Galt and go vote

Alan Marshall

carolyn

(continued from page 45)

Carolyn Answers ...

You ask a most intriguing question.

My strong advice to anyone is to make sure the IVF contract clearly covers the contingency of divorce or any subsequent disagreement over the use of a cryopreserved embryo. A typical contractual provision might be: “The cryopreserved embryo shall not be implanted in the womb without the written permission of both gamete donors given at the time of the implantation. In five years if no joint decision has been made by the donors, the cryopreserved embryo will be donated for research by the storage facility.” This provision allows for a change in circumstances, such as a divorce when the parties now disagree on the disposition. It also allows for surrogacy.

The law is still in a developing stage on the issue of cryopreserved embryo in divorce nationally, and the law in North Carolina lags. There is an interesting case from Massachusetts, A.Z. v B.Z. Husband and wife were donors to create a frozen embryo, and husband gave wife blank forms stating

she controlled the use of the frozen embryo, even in the event of divorce.

They had twins. Subsequently, they divorced. The facility notified now ex-husband that ex-wife sought to implant the embryo in her womb and have another child.

Ex-husband got an injunction from the court prohibiting her from implantation.

Notwithstanding the contract signed in blank, circumstances had so changed since the creation of the cryopreserved embryo that enforcement of the blank forms was improper. The public policy of Massachusetts is that a gamete donor should not involuntarily be forced to be a parent.

Just think about it. What a way to get more child support after the marriage is over. The DNA would match.

Note that answers are intended to provide general legal information and are not specific legal advice for your situation. The column also uses hypothetical questions. A subtle fact in your unique case may determine the legal advice you need. Also, please note that you are not creating an attorney-client relationship with Carolyn J. Woodruff by writing or having your question answered by Ask Carolyn.

48 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

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learning and adapting and the world’s security forces are not.

As noted, Lynch held a private meeting with former President Bill Clinton last week and, according to Lynch, it was to talk about their grandchildren.

If Lynch were going to meet privately with Clinton, the only elected president ever impeached, she should have at least gotten some pointers on lying.

Clinton is a consummate liar; Lynch not so good.

One key to telling a good lie is that the lie itself is believable.

Nobody with a dollop of common sense believes that, with the Justice Department engaged in an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email server and her relationship with the Clinton Foundation while she was serving as secretary of state, Lynch and Clinton got together in private to talk about their grandchildren.

She might as well have said they sat silently on the same plane for half an hour and neither one said a word.

Clinton did not ask for the meeting because he wanted to show Lynch the latest photos of his grandchildren and Lynch did not agree to the meeting because she was dying to see photos of Clinton’s progeny.

What this says about Lynch is that she has no personal ethics and will

do whatever she is told to do.

The mainstream media should ask Bill Clinton what the two talked about every time he pokes his face out in public and do the same for Lynch, who should know better. Lynch has been around long enough to know that you don’t meet privately with the husband of a high profile subject of a Justice Department investigation.

If all they were going to do was talk about grandchildren and golf, they had no reason to met privately.

But the fact that the meeting was in private guarantees that it was not simply a social visit. They could talk about grandchildren and golf in front of the press. The two didn’t need to hide on a private plane protected by the FBI and Secret Service to do that.

It’s not simply Hillary Clinton who is under investigation. The State Department relationship with the Clinton Foundation, headed by none other than Bill Clinton, was also being investigated. There is a lot of evidence that countries that made large donations to the Clinton Foundation and paid Bill Clinton exorbitant sums for speaking got preferential treatment from the State Department run by Hillary Clinton.

The Clintons are infamous for hiring private detectives to get information about their opponents. Maybe Bill Clinton wanted to show Lynch some of the information they had about her or her family, which if not handled

beep (continued from page 45)

%%% I was just reading in the Rhino about the economic growth.

There’s not going to be an economic growth in Greensboro because our mayor is giving all the money away, and is giving herself a 60 percent raise. This is a crooked City Council that we’ve got. And if Skip Alston wants some money, they give him all he wants to that museum, which that is totally wrong. I was in Wal-Mart the other day, and went down the bread aisle, and there was a pair of shoes where somebody was stealing Wal-Mart blind. Put a pair of shoes on, wore them out of the store, and put their old ones by the bread.

They’re going to put Wal-Mart out of business. And anybody that opens

up a business in Greensboro, they’re going to steal them blind, put them out of business, too. I would not open a business in Greensboro because the law can’t do anything about the people stealing because Nancy Vaughan and that foolish man we got for city police chief won’t do anything about it. They’re stealing and doing everything they can because nobody does a thing about it.

%%% Me again about the economic growth. I’d like some members of the City Council to go down Bessemer Avenue and look at the economic growth. There’s hundreds of cars sitting with no tags on them. You’re not getting any tax money out of them people. Bessemer used to be a nice neighborhood. Look at

properly could end up in the hands of the press.

There are almost endless possible scenarios, but one that is not possible is that the two talked about grandchildren and golf for 30 minutes.

Anyone who thinks Lynch saying that she was not going to interfere in the investigation of Hillary Clinton and would allow the career professionals rather than political appointees to make the decision on whether or not to indict Hillary Clinton is so naive about politics, they rate somewhere far below the low information voters.

What public officials like Lynch say in public and what they do in private are two entirely different things.

There were a thousand ways for Lynch to influence the outcome of that investigation behind the scenes.

In the end, Hillary Clinton would have been indicted if Obama wanted her to be indicted and wasn’t because he didn’t want her to be indicted. It’s that simple. Anyone who believes otherwise doesn’t understand our political system.

The 800-page report on Benghazi leaves at least one major question unanswered: Where was president Obama during the long night when the American consulate in Benghazi was under attack and four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, were killed?

Why wasn’t Obama in the situation

the businesses that’s been out of business because people breaking in and stealing everything they got. OK, City Council, get off your behinds.

Go over there and look around and there’s your economic growth.

%%% Yeah, Steely Dan Fan Man. How can Obama be running the country and be out on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton? I mean, he’s never really done anything to run the country as it is, and it seems like in his last few months he would at least make some kind of attempt to gain some kind of traction to get his head, at least a hair of his head above water. Anyway, isn’t that a conflict of interest to be running – to be campaigning for somebody that you are in charge of whether or not they’ll be indicted? That don’t sound right.

%%% A caller in last week’s Beep predicted the demise of the United Kingdom, or

room or wherever presidents go to get real time information on terrorist attacks?

Obama has refused to answer that question. If the White House Press Corps were not full of sycophants, he would be asked that question on camera, but there is little chance that will ever happen.

Liberals completely miss the boat on the message that Brexit was sending. It’s not about economics.

It’s more about leadership. What the people of Great Britain were saying to the establishment is, we don’t trust you to do what is in our best interest.

It is difficult to overcome the constant liberal ideology from the liberal news media. Look how far left the Obama administration has pulled this country.

President Ronald Reagan is always credited or condemned for taking the country right, but Obama has driven the country so far left that I don’t think we can see the right side of the road anymore.

When Obama was elected in 2008, gay marriage was not an issue, nor was it an issue when he was reelected in 2012. It wasn’t an issue, not because gay activists weren’t lobbying for it, but it wasn’t an issue because everyone in politics was against it. Hillary Clinton, Obama, Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain, everyone was in agreement that a (continued on next page)

England as he incorrectly called it, now that we have left the European Union. Well, I’ll make a wager with you, Buddy. I’ll bet you $100 that in five years’ time, that is to say five years from our independence day, June 23, 2016, if you compare the economy of the United Kingdom compared to the economic growth, or lack thereof, within the EU, that the United Kingdom will leave the EU in its dust. Sixty-percent of our regulations in the UK come from Brussels from an unelected commission including the shape of the bananas that we are allowed to import into the UK, and the kind of cabbage that we must grow.

Regulations about the cabbage constitute 16,000 words. Now that we’re free of those European bureaucrats, we will leave them in our dust. And you needn’t worry about the future of the UK. It’ll do just fine. Just sign me off as An Independent Thinker.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

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marriage could only exist between one man and one woman.

Now, in 2016, if you question the right of two men or two women to marry, you are a homophobe and deserve to be shunned by society.

That is a remarkable transformation.

Now North Carolina has become a pariah among states because the legislature passed a law against gender-neutral bathrooms and locker room facilities. It is an incredible turn of events.

I read somewhere that Social Security was not in trouble and was an issue invented by Republicans.

Were that it was so.

There is a Social Security trust fund, but it is filled with over $2 trillion of IOU’s from the federal government.

When the Social Security tax was generating more revenue than was being paid out, Congress took the money and spent it, giving the Social Security trust fund IOU’s.

If Congress were even close to balancing the federal budget it wouldn’t be a problem, but since this is money the federal government owes to future retirees, it should be added to the national debt of $19 trillion.

And since the federal government owes $19 trillion and that figure is rising, there is not much chance that the federal government is going to have $2 trillion left over any time in the next 20 years to pay back the Social Security trust fund what it owes.

So what actually happens with your Social Security tax is not that it goes into a trust fund, it’s that it is immediately paid out in benefits to people who have already retired, and the huge looming problem is that

Social Security is paying out more than it is taking in.

With people living longer and the baby boomer generation retiring at an amazing rate, this problem gets worse every year.

Obama’s massive miscalculation with ISIS may prove to be far more dangerous than it appeared at the time. Back when Obama thought ISIS was the jayvee team, it was on the verge of taking over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Now ISIS is giving up territory, in part due to Russian involvement. The Russians actually drop bombs on ISIS locations; Obama has our military drop leaflets.

And this may be a case where Putin saves Obama from an extremely embarrassing defeat. If Putin can destroy the heart of ISIS, the world will be a safer place.

However, If the leadership of ISIS realizes they can’t win against Russia and the US and they scatter, things could get much worse.

We’ve already had a taste of what ISIS terrorists can do in a free society. If the ISIS leadership gives up on the idea of a state and decides its purpose will be to wreak as much havoc on the rest of world as possible, we are in for a rough ride.

The ISIS leaders are impressive.

They came out of nowhere and took over an area of Syria and Iraq bigger than a lot of countries. And for a time they were holding their own against the US, Iraq, Syria and the Kurds.

The US refused to fight or aid those fighting ISIS with heavy weapons.

The other three didn’t have the firepower to fight ISIS, which had all the US weapons the Iraqi army left on the battlefield in the first battles with

ISIS when the Iraqi army ran as fast and as far as they could.

ISIS, however, can’t stand up to Russia, with its vast military superiority and a willingness to use that military power that the US doesn’t have.

This is one case where rooting for Russia makes sense. If the leaders escape instead of being killed, the west is in real trouble. They are smart, ingenious and horrific. They also have all the fake passports they want, so if they escape there is no reason to think some of them won’t decide to immigrate to the US and cause as much death and destruction as possible.

Nobody wants to fight a war in the Middle East, but it is far better to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq than in New York and Chicago.

An article in The Washington Post explores the fact that fake bomb detectors are still in use all over Iraq, even though the British man who sold them to Iraq has been convicted of fraud and is in prison.

The bomb detection wands don’t actually detect anything. According to The Post article, the device is “little more than an aerial attached to a plastic handle.”

It was originally sold as golf ball finder. It doesn’t find golf balls any better than it finds bombs, but not detecting golf balls doesn’t kill anybody.

It does make you wonder if the Transportation Security Administration is using the same device. Since the TSA detected only 5 percent of the bombs, guns and weapons that government agents attempted to get through security check points, and it seems that by pure dumb luck you could find 5 percent, maybe the TSA got duped just like the Iraqi government. It would explain a lot.

49

The word is that Donald Trump is going to fill the stage at the Republican National Convention with celebrities instead of politicians.

Let’s see, would the American people be more likely to tune in to see a celebrity or to listen to some old, unattractive, boring politician they have never heard of drone on about some arcane point of federal tax policy? It’s a tough call.

Trump is no dummy and he learned what makes people tune in on his reality show. You can bet the Republican National Convention will be the most entertaining in decades.

Certainly no one is going to mourn the absence of Kasich, who could bore tax accountants to sleep. I’m pleased that he won’t be attending the Republican National Convention because if I had to listen to him talk one more time about how he singlehanded balanced the federal budget I was likely to throw something at the screen.

We also won’t have to watch McCain – who can be a funny and entertaining extemporaneous speaker – try to read something some speechwriter wrote for him that evidently he didn’t bother to go over before he reached the podium, like he did when he was running for president.

For all you Trump haters out there, here is something to think about. Why do Trump’s kids like him so much?

It’s not because he’s rich. I know plenty of people with rich fathers who can’t stand them. In fact, my experience is that it is far easier to get along well with parents if they aren’t rich.

Trump’s kids certainly don’t get along with him because he was so good to their mother, because he dumped their mother.

But his kids, who know him well, seem to not only love him but respect him, and the feeling appears mutual.

50 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

d-day (continued from page 46) grew up into her teenage years during the occupation. She hated the Nazis.

She is the quintessential Norman woman – classically aged by the weather, the years and the rural French countryside. Year after year she, along with so many of her fellow villagers, stand reverently at the local ceremonies marking the June 6 anniversary of the D-Day landings in her village.

One year after the liberation, 1945, Andrée Mesnage walked to the landing site of the 508th. She placed a bouquet of flowers on the site. The next week she did the same. And the following week. Now, each week for 72 years she has visited the landing site of the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne and laid flowers on that site. No one told her to. No one asked her to. She does it out of what is indeed eternal gratitude to thank those men, living and dead, for liberating her village.

Her step is a bit slower today, but when I saw her in June she was still honoring her commitment, still honoring these soldiers for the

difference they made in her life.

Every now and then in Normandy Greensboro enters the picture when least expected.

In 1943, the US Army Air Force opened a training base near the intersection of Summit and East Bessemer Avenues in Greensboro. At 652 acres in size, it was the largest base in America located within the boundaries of a city.

As many as 40,000 soldiers were stationed at the Greensboro facility at any given time. The base was comprised of 964 buildings, including 500 barracks, 14 mess halls, 55 recreation rooms, four movie theaters, 10 PXs, five chapels, three libraries and an equal number of gymnasia and one large base hospital. Over 330,000 servicemen were processed here.

Well, one night the veterans of the American 507th PIR, 82nd Airborne and guests being entertained in a Frenchman’s home. The house was packed to the gills. A veteran walks up and asks where I was from. I said North Carolina. He asked where in

North Carolina. I said Greensboro.

He asked where I was born. I said Greensboro. He repeats. No, where were you born? Not exactly understanding I said, St Leo’s. He yelled across the villager’s home for his wife, Mildred, to come running.

The entire room turns. Mildred comes running.

It turns out his wife followed him to Greensboro. She was pregnant.

After he shipped out she could not travel and she had their first son at St. Leo’s. They had never met anyone from Greensboro. And, of course, never met anyone born at St. Leo’s.

It was an emotional moment for this couple. As I felt the connection to these men through these years it was a turnabout to see the connection they felt. To find someone born in the same hospital as their son, and who had actually grown up next to ORD. You do not have to be a great scholar to understand that the freedom we enjoy today was decided during those June days in 1944. And for 17 years these men opened the door to their private fraternity to me.

They gave me a rare glimpse into their world, and I am honored and

richly blessed by their friendship, their graciousness and their service.

I was not prepared for the emotional impact that subsequent visits would have on me, the friends I would make and how relatively quickly I’d lose them.

These men were never in a war movie. They were never written about. They were our neighbors.

They were ordinary people that did extraordinary things. While I cannot remember all their words, I remember all of our conversations vividly. In the dark of night I recall their faces and wonder about them. Knowing intellectually so many, if not most, are gone, I still carry them alive in my memory. For me they never change.

Though old when I met them, they never age beyond that day I said, “My name is Doug Copeland and I came from the United States to thank you for what you did.”

Fewer and fewer come back each year. My best living D-Day veteran best friends range in age from 89 to 102. And while I only intended to go that single time, I plan to keep going back until they no longer can.

Someone needs to say thank you.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under theHAMMER

51

by John Hammer

FBI Director James Comey could have resigned.

Instead, he stood at the podium, outlined in some detail the crimes that Hillary Clinton had committed and then said that he wasn’t recommending she be indicted. It didn’t make any sense.

Comey is reportedly a smart man but he made the illogical argument that he wasn’t going to recommend for indictment because no prosecutor would bring the case to court. So he wasn’t going to recommend Hillary Clinton be indicted because no prosecutor would prosecute the case, and no prosecutor will prosecute her because he didn’t recommend her for indictment.

Could he have meant that he had already been told that the attorney general didn’t care what he found and the case was not going to be prosecuted? That would have made a lot of sense.

What Comey didn’t say was that Hillary Clinton didn’t break the law.

So he said in summary that Hillary Clinton violated the law on handling confidential and topsecret documents while secretary of state, but despite that fact, the FBI is not recommending prosecution.

When the things that government officials say don’t make sense, it is invariably because politics is involved. (And in this case we know politics was involved because it included Bill Clinton, who is a consummate politician and met with the Attorney General Loretta Lynch last week. Despite what Lynch says, they didn’t meet to talk about grandchildren.)

Comey’s statement did go into some detail about all the lies that Hillary Clinton has told about her use of a private server: There were classified documents on her server, some were classified at the time and some were marked classified.

Hillary Clinton used a variety of mobile communication devices to access her email, so it wasn’t that she used the server against regulations for the convenience of carrying only one phone.

She didn’t turn over all of the

government related emails to the State Department when ordered to do so and her lawyers didn’t read every email. They also deleted emails so that they could not be fully retrieved, but fragments were recovered that were not about yoga, her mother’s funeral or her daughter’s wedding but were about State Department business.

Those emails that were government related are by law to be kept in government archives, which is another law she broke.

It is likely that foreign countries hacked into her private email server and gained access to top-secret government documents.

And those documents are so top secret that the American people can’t be told anything about them, but the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans and certainly the Israelis have them.

It seems they might as well release them since the only people who don’t have access are law-abiding American citizens.

The statement by Comey proves that we are not a country of laws.

There is one set of laws for us common folk, but people like Hillary Clinton don’t have to obey them.

Gen. David Petraeus was prosecuted and pled guilty to keeping classified information in an unlocked drawer at his home. He was also accused of allowing his biographer and girlfriend, who had security clearance, to view classified documents, but he was not tried or convicted of that.

Which is worse, keeping classified information in an unlocked drawer at home with no evidence that it was ever seen by anyone other than his girlfriend or putting top-secret information on an unprotected server for the world to see?

According to the US Justice Department, the former is a serious crime and the latter not a crime at all.

It’s a sad day for the United States of America.

I’m beginning to think that political pundits can’t learn. The glitterati of the political pundit class are saying exactly the same things about the Trump campaign they were saying a year ago, which is that Trump is going to lose because he doesn’t have an expensive and extensive national campaign organization, doesn’t

have the support of the Republican hierarchy and isn’t spending all his time raising money.

In state primary after state primary, Trump proved the political pundit class doesn’t know squat about current politics.

Remember back when the political pundits said that because Trump didn’t have well-organized state organizations that Sen. Ted Cruz was going to steal his delegates on the second ballot and win the nomination? It turned out Cruz spent too much time and money on building statewide organizations when he should have been concentrating on winning primaries.

This is in no way a traditional presidential election. For the first time in modern history we have one presidential candidate who was under criminal investigation by the FBI during the campaign and another who doesn’t have the support of his own party establishment.

Trump has enormously high negatives, but they aren’t as high as Hillary Clinton’s.

Even though she wasn’t indicted, you can bet that information about the investigation is going to leak out from FBI agents who are furious that because she is Hillary Clinton she was allowed to endanger the lives of US operatives all over the world and walk away unscathed.

What the political pundits should be considering is the Brexit referendum in Great Britain. The leadership of both major British political parties was against leaving the European Union.

London voted against it.

But the people of Great Britain paid no attention to the political leaders or the city slickers. The people of Great Britain don’t trust their political leaders anymore than the people of the US trust theirs. The people decided that they knew what was best for their future and the politicians were telling them to vote according to what was best for the future of the politicians, not the country.

It’s not much different than what you have here in the US with the leadership of both political parties, plus politicians in both political parties, being against Trump.

What Trump knows and what the political leadership in this country forgot long ago is that on Election

Day, President Barack Hussein Obama, Gov. John Kasich, Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney and Joe the Plumber each get exactly one vote.

Obama’s vote on Election Day doesn’t count one whit more than an outof-work coal miner who can barely breath and has to be assisted to the polls.

Trump knows that if enough regular Americans will go vote for him, it doesn’t make any difference whether the people who are currently running this country vote for him or not. All 100 US senators could vote against him and that is just 100 votes.

And Trump continues to speak to the voters in language voters understand. The mainstream media, hate the language that Trump uses.

He isn’t politically correct and he doesn’t parse every phrase or use focus groups to find out which words move people. He simply says what’s on his mind and so far it has worked.

Wouldn’t it be a better world if more people running for office did the same thing?

One of the significant points about the attack on the Istanbul airport is that it appeared better organized than previous attacks.

First there was a bomb in the parking lot to distract security, then an attack on the people waiting to go through security.

So while the airport security officers were strip searching grandmothers with artificial hips and babies with full diapers, the terrorists were taking advantage of the crowd of people waiting to be searched and killed 50 of them.

The US is fortunate that ISIS didn’t try this type of attack in a US airport when the Transportation Security Authority was involved in a work slow down to get more money and lines for security were over an hour long.

If ISIS had chosen to attack during that mess caused by the TSA, the terrorists might have been able to kill hundreds.

ISIS is getting smarter about its attacks and the airport security forces are still operating as if the only threat was from a 9/11-style attack to take over commercial aircraft. ISIS is

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52 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, July 7, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com