March 10, 2016 by Rhino Times

Vol. IV No. 10

Greensboro, North Carolina

www.rhinotimes.com

Thursday, March 10, 2016

ENDORSEMENT ISSUE

RHINOSHORTS

RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

by John Hammer Editor

March in North Carolina used to just be about college basketball. This year it is also about elections. The primary election for offices from president to school board and District Court judge are being held Tuesday, March 15. Early voting polling places are now open and will be until Saturday, March 12. On Tuesday, March 15 polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. My friends at the Guilford County Board of Elections office have asked that I not write “vote early and often,” so I won’t. North Carolina may not get the attention from the presidential candidates that it might have, because all the candidates are focusing on Florida and Ohio, but Bill Clinton was in Greensboro this week and we’ll likely see some more big names come through before Tuesday. We did not endorse in the congressional races, which will be on the ballot. Feel free to vote for anyone you want, but the votes will not be counted. A panel of three federal judges ruled the 1st District and the 12th District unconstitutional after the ballots had been printed and some absentee votes cast. The legislature redrew all 13 congressional districts and is waiting to hear from the judges on whether the new districts will be approved or

if it is back to the drawing board. But whatever the federal court decides, the votes cast on Tuesday, March 15 in the congressional races won’t count. Former Winston-Salem City Councilmember Vernon Robinson is the latest to announce his intention to run in the new 13th Congressional District. Robinson doesn’t live in the district, but members of Congress are not required to live in their district, only in the state the district is in. Filing officially opens for the congressional seats on Wednesday, March 16.

The Rhino Times Democratic endorsements need a warning. I fundamentally disagree with just about every one of these candidates. So if you are a hardcore Democrat, you might not find them too helpful. But if you are a Democrat who usually votes for Republican candidates in the fall, and there are a lot of you out there, you might find them helpful. I have found the secret to control my weight, and it isn’t a diet. It’s a scale. I weigh myself every morning and then I write it down. For me, writing it down is probably as important as weighing myself because I have a very selective memory. It is important to weigh yourself at the same time every day, and most people’s weight does

(continued on page 4)

Photo by Joe Daniels, Courtesy of the Carolina Peacemaker Last week, the Greensboro Coliseum was the host for the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

RHINOSHORTS

table of

CONTENTS

(continued from page 2)

vary. If after a couple of days I have to admit that it is not an anomaly and I am indeed gaining weight, then I cut back on something. But it is so much easier to lose a pound than 10 pounds, and so easy to gain 10 pounds. I was at the Old Guilford County Court House this week for early voting and noticed that there wasn’t a single political sign for a Republican presidential candidate. No “Little Marco,” no “Lying Ted,” no “SmallHand Trump” and no “No-Win Kasich.” It seems odd. In fact, the only presidential campaign sign I saw was for Hillary Clinton. It made me wonder if there were an ordinance against

male presidential candidates placing signs in front of the Old Court House. Saturday night or early Sunday morning, the government steals an hour from us. For the life of me I can’t figure out why. In this world of working from home and flexible hours, does it really make that much difference that it’s an hour later than it should be. There is movement to do away with daylight saving time because we all know that it really doesn’t save any daylight. What sense does it make for the government to steal an hour this weekend and then give it back to us in the fall?

RHINO TIMES’ ENDORSEMENTS

26 YOST COLUMN BY SCOTT D. YOST

BY JOHN HAMMER

COUNTY SECURITY CONTRACT ON ICE BY SCOTT D. YOST

36 GUEST EDITORIAL BY JOHN BLUST

43 UNDER THE HAMMER BY JOHN HAMMER

10 STATE FINDING WAY AROUND FEDS BY SCOTT D. YOST

12 ATTEMPT TO RELEASE MORE BODY CAM VIDEOS HITS ROADBLOCKS BY JOHN HAMMER

14 THE SHAPE OF BUDGET TO COME BY SCOTT D. YOST

19 UNCLE ORSON

BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

21 REAL ESTATE

RHINO SHORTS

RHINOS AROUND WORLD

SUDOKU

PUZZLE ANSWERS

CHILDREN’S SCHEDULE

THE SOUND OF THE BEEP

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

NYT CROSSWORD

GET FUZZY

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

EDITORIAL CARTOON

Cover by Anthony Council

PUBLISHER Roy Carroll EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Hammer

GENERAL MANAGER Joann Zollo

managing editor ELAINE HAMMER

creative director ANTHONY COUNCIL

county editor SCOTT D. YOST contributing editor ORSON SCOTT CARD

advertising consultants CHRISTINE CHAPMAN DARDEN KELLY TYE SINGLETON

cartoonist GEOF BROOKS Gail and Phil Simmons celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary at Long Bay Resort at North Myrtle Beach. Send your Rhinos Around the World photos to letters@rhinotimes.com or to PO Box 9023, Greensboro 27429.

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

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Vote Steve

Republican Primary March 15

www.stevetroxler.com Paid for by Troxler for Commissioner of Agriculture

RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

Rhino Times’ Endorsements by John Hammer President – Republican Primary The Republican field has narrowed from 17 to two viable candidates. Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz. Trump has energized a portion of the Republican Party that has largely stayed home for years. Despite what the mainstream media says, his policies are not that different from those of Cruz. The big differences are that Trump is not beholden to big money like Cruz is, and Trump knows how to win. If the Republicans don’t nominate Trump, they lose all of the people who had never voted or who hadn’t voted in years but turned out to vote for Trump. Trump takes bragging to a whole new level. And it is fascinating that Trump brags about how rich and successful he is, and his broadest support comes from blue collar Republicans. The Republican establishment has completely lost its collective mind and is spending tens of millions of dollars in an attempt to defeat the Republican

front-runner – Trump. Why would the Republican establishment do such a crazy thing? Because Trump is not indebted to them. Trump hasn’t taken their money and doesn’t need their support. If Trump wins they are out in the cold. It is sad but they would prefer to see Hillary Clinton, who clearly can and has been bought, in the White House than Trump, which tells you something about their character. Trump is definitely a loose cannon. And what would be a far smarter move – but you can’t expect a smart move from the stupid party – would be to reason with Trump about some of his more outrageous statements. He has already toned down his rhetoric. It would make sense to try and work with him rather than against him, but they don’t do that because that doesn’t solve their problem, which is, if elected, Trump won’t owe them anything. They need a candidate they can control with money and they can’t control Trump. It’s the same reason Trump keeps

winning. A president not controlled by big money would be revolutionary, and the establishment doesn’t want revolutionary. They want the status quo, where they control everything from behind the scenes. Cruz is not a likable character. He is a career politician who has been on the public dole his entire working life. He worked for the campaign of President George W. Bush, then worked in the Bush administration. When he didn’t get the job he wanted from Bush, he moved back to Texas and was appointed solicitor general. Despite what Cruz says, he is just another politician, dependent on and beholden to big money. One of the most telling points about Cruz is that not a single fellow senator supports him. It is an incredible record. Of the fellow politicians who know him best – his colleagues in the Senate – he doesn’t have one friend. Senators have good friends across the aisle – senators who they disagree with on

politics but are friends with off the job. Cruz doesn’t have any on either side of the aisle. He is running as an outsider, not because he is an outsider – he is as much of an insider as any of them – but because nobody on the inside likes him. Cruz says that he should be the nominee because he can beat Hillary Clinton and Trump can’t. But Cruz can’t beat Trump, so how is he going to be Hillary Clinton? It is an argument that doesn’t hold water. Sen. Marco Rubio has won one state and the territory of Puerto Rico. In many states he has finished in single digits. He ran an upbeat campaign based on optimism about the future until he realized that wasn’t working, and then he began attacking front-runner Trump about everything including the size of his penis. Even if Rubio wins Florida, there is no path for him to win the Republican nomination. It is even less likely that Gov. (continued on page 16)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Vote Jim O’Neill Republican for NC Attorney General

“I know a good prosecutor when I see one and I see a great one in Jim O’Neill. He will make a great Attorney General who will protect the citizens of North Carolina. In the upcoming primary, vote for an Attorney General who has actually tried cases and has protected our rights.”

“We are proud to endorse Jim O’Neill for Attorney General. As Forsyth County’s District Attorney, Jim has a proven track record fighting for victims. Jim is the most qualified and experienced candidate in the primary and the one who has the support of law enforcement officers throughout the state.” –Randy Byrd, North Carolina Division President NC Police Benevolent Association

Attorney General –BJ Barnes Guilford County Sheriff

Jim4ag.com Paid for by Elect Jim O’Neill

JimONeill10.12.5C.indd 1

3/1/16 11:47 AM

RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

County Security Take Yourself-ie Contract On Ice Downtown. by Scott D. Yost

SEE AND BE SEEN WITH

#DGSOSelfie

Get the lowdown on Downtown Greensboro and share your favorite downtown moments by posting on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter using #DGSOSelfie (or you can email them to Selfies@downtowngreensboro.net). And all your postings may get you featured in our upcoming ads and social media feeds! By sharing your photos, you allow Downtown Greensboro Inc (DGI) to use them for the purpose of advertising. Photos will only be used by DGI and the City of Greensboro.

DOWNTOWNGREENSBORO.NET

2016 DOWNTOWN GREENSBORO INCORPORATED

The Guilford County commissioners, who were scheduled to approve expanded service from Greensborobased Lankford Protective Services Inc. at the Board of Commissioners Thursday, March 3 meeting, instead pulled that item from their agenda, and now, behind the scenes, they have a lot of questions for the company that provides much of Guilford County government’s security. The commissioners wanted to pause and regroup after a report in the March 3 Rhino Times that revealed the company had $7.2 million in federal tax liens for non-payment of payroll taxes. Sam Lankford, who owns and runs the business, said the debt was now under $2 million and his company was paying the rest off in an amicable deal with the Internal Revenue Service. However, the reports of the liens spurred a hastily called meeting on March 3 – just hours after the news broke that morning and hours before the commissioners meeting that night. Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing, Deputy County Manager Clarence Grier and County Attorney Mark Payne met with Lankford to discuss the situation. Before the news of the liens, the commissioners were set to approve an addition to an existing contract to use Lankford Protective Services to provide two armed security officers for the county – one at Guilford County’s human services building on 1203 Maple St. in Greensboro, and one at the county’s main services building at 325 E. Russell Ave. in High Point. That addition of services was on the commissioners “consent agenda” – which is where the commissioners put routine housekeeping matters that the board expects to approve on a unanimous vote. However, after the news of the huge tax liens, the matter was anything but routine. There’s more at stake than the contract for the two additional guards: Lankford provides a great deal of security work for both Guilford County and the City of Greensboro, and it has done so for years, establishing a good working relationship with both local

governments. However, some county commissioners were taken aback by the giant tax bill for unpaid payroll taxes and all of them wanted more information. There were similar talks in City of Greensboro offices. On Friday, March 4, city staff met with Lankford to discuss the situation. The city has a clause in its contract with Lankford that requires the company pay its taxes. Payne said Guilford County’s contract with Lankford doesn’t have a clause that states the company must pay its taxes but does have one that states Lankford must conduct its business in accordance with the law. Payne said that if the company was on a payment plan with the IRS and paying as agreed, that may satisfy that part of the contract. Payne said after the commissioners meeting on March 3 that the county was waiting on Lankford to provide some information that Guilford County had requested. There was no public discussion of the matter at the commissioners March 3 meeting. When the consent agenda came up at the meeting, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips noted that he’d spoken with commissioners individually about the matter during the day and that the item would be pulled from the agenda by mutual consent. He did not offer any further explanation at that time. Commissioner Ray Trapp said the day after that meeting that Phillips had informed him that county officials had met with Lankford and there were some questions that needed to be addressed before the board moved forward with adding extra security using Lankford. Lankford must have had quite a few meetings this week because, in addition to those with the county and the city, Lankford also met with the IRS according to several sources. The news of payroll tax nonpayment did not sit well with some commissioners. Commissioner Alan Branson said he was taken aback by the news. “I have to pay my tax bill,” Branson said. Branson also said that, when the commissioners conducted a manager

(continued on page 11)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

10 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

State Finding Way Around Feds by Scott D. Yost

Law enforcement officials across the state are mad as heck and they’re not gonna take it anymore – in fact, they’re doing something about it. In December 2015, law enforcement officials across North Carolina, and in other parts of the nation, were ticked off in a major way when the US Department of Justice abruptly ended a federal forfeiture program that allowed confiscated money from drug arrests and other crimes to be distributed to the local law enforcement agencies that made the bust. On Wednesday, March 2, a group of about 40 – made up of police chiefs, sheriff’s, state legislators and court officials from all over the state – met in Randolph County in an unpublicized meeting to establish a plan to rewrite North Carolina law to create a program that would provide state forfeiture funds for law enforcement. That law change would replace the losses from the sudden end of the federal forfeiture program.

When the federal government cut off that revenue stream for local law enforcement agencies in December, there was an outcry from across the state. And, at the March 2 meeting at Randolph Community College in Asheboro, the legislators and law enforcement officials began the process of changing state law to allow forfeiture drug money and criminal money to go to local departments. Republican State Rep. Pat Hurley of Asheboro is helping lead the effort to rewrite state law, and she helped put together the meeting in her county. She said those at the meeting were intent on restoring the revenue stream for local law enforcement. She said there were representatives from police and sheriff’s departments, the State Highway Patrol and Alcohol Law Enforcement at the meeting, as well as court officials such as district attorneys who also want to see the forfeiture practice continued. She added that there were attendees from many different parts of the state and that this

was the beginning of a statewide effort to change the law. Hurley said law enforcement offices across North Carolina relied a great deal on the money from the federal forfeiture program before it ended three months ago and that the sudden cessation left many law enforcement departments with revenue shortfalls. Hurley said North Carolina is one of a handful of states that doesn’t have state forfeiture laws that allow money to go to law enforcement, so, when the federal sharing rules on forfeiture changed, she said, there was no way for law enforcement agencies in this state to make up those financial losses. “It has had serious repercussions for law enforcement,” Hurley said. Todd Elmore, chief deputy of the Union County Sheriff’s Office in Monroe, was one of the presenters. Elmore was a federal law enforcement agent before taking his current job, and he said changing the law would be a good thing for law enforcement. “The federal system was designed

in the mid-’80s for state and local agencies with the federal government taking 20 percent,” he said. “Then they stopped sharing.” Elmore said the proposed legislation will “mirror” the federal asset forfeiture program. In the past, if there was a big money bust, a federal agent would be called in to assist local officers so that federal forfeiture rules would apply. Elmore said the move in December to end the sharing of funds left state law enforcement agencies in particular in the lurch. “North Carolina is one of seven that has no effective asset forfeiture law,” Elmore said. “Forty-three states do – and we desperately need to get a resolution to it.” The state does still see some forfeiture money from court convictions, but those cases are more limited in scope, require conviction before asset seizure, and the confiscated money goes toward school funding rather than to law enforcement agencies. (continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

security

(continued from page 8) search several years ago – the one that brought Lawing to Guilford County – one of the things he, Branson, wanted looked into was the financial situation of the candidates. “In my opinion, our service providers or our manager have to pay their bills,” Branson said. He added that, as far as the service provided, county officials had been very pleased with Lankford in the past. “I’ve never heard any complaints about them as a service provider,” he said. “I had no idea they were in that

situation.” He said he was still getting information on the matter. Phillips said this may mean that the county needs to revamp some of its vetting practices since the commissioners would like to know things like this before entering into a contract with a service provider. Phillips said the county would hopefully get some answers to the outstanding questions and the commissioners would have a better idea soon of the best course of action.

state (continued from previous page) Since Article IX, Section 7 of the state’s constitution requires that all state forfeiture money go toward school funding, the legislation to be proposed will mean rewriting that section of the state’s constitution. Elmore said the schools were not getting that forfeiture money as it is, since the cases were treated as federal cases in the past with the money going to federal and local law enforcement agencies. Elmore said the forfeiture money is a major tool for fighting crime. He said his county, for instance, has a big heroin problem and that confiscated goods and cash help fight that battle. “The money from the federal forfeiture was used to supplement our own funds,” he said. “It provided for other things such as advanced equipment. If we don’t get [the new law] passed, that money has to come from somewhere.” Elmore said taking the money from criminals goes a long way toward

removing the incentives for committing crimes. In federal, state or local busts, the goals are the same, he said. “Number one, make the arrest; number two, get the drugs; number three, take the assets,” Elmore said. He said the ability to take the criminals’ money is vital, and one reason officers want to take that cash is so it can’t be pumped back into the drug trade. “Nobody’s being greedy – it’s just that all of these crimes are self funding,” he said. According to advocates of the new legislation, boards of commissioners and city councils across the state could need to raise taxes to make up that difference. Elmore said that, if the new legislative effort is successful, local law enforcement agencies would be even better off than before because (continued on page 13)

PAT TILLMAN FOR SCHOOL BOARD

PAT TILLMAN FOR SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 3

• Servant/Leader • Engaged in Community • Combat Veteran (US Marines) • Champion for Parents • Reformer

Tillman

4kids

www.TillmanForSchoolBoard.com | www.facebook.com/PatTillmanForSchoolBoard/ Paid for by the Committee to Elect Pat Tillman

12 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

Attempt to Release More Body Cam Videos Hits Roadblocks by John Hammer

A funny thing happened to City Councilmember Justin Outling on his way to do something about police body cam videos: He ran into two obstructionist colleagues. Outling had planned to vote on his proposed body cam video policy at the next City Council meeting, Monday, March 14. But because of the way the council now does business, it had to go through the Public Safety Committee first. There it ran slap up against Councilmembers Marikay Abuzuaiter and Sharon Hightower, who put the kibosh on getting anything done in a timely manner. The proposal is not anything radical. The major difference in the current policy – which is that no one outside the Police Department can see the police body cam videos unless they are charged with a crime – is that if you

are in a video you have a right to see it. The lawyers of those charged with a crime can also see the videos and, if the crime is a felony, they can obtain a copy of the video. The whole problem with the body cam videos is that the city decided that they were personnel records. It doesn’t make much sense for a video to be a personnel record, but it appears the fear is that if they are not personnel records then they are public records, and anyone can request a copy or look at a video. Having them as personnel records is considered by many as being too restrictive, while having them deemed public records is considered by the city to be too open. What Outling was looking for was something in between, where at times the body cam videos are considered part of a criminal investigation and at

times they are considered personnel records. But the key to Outling’s proposal was that nothing would be done until the city went to court and received a declaratory judgment. The declaratory judgment would mean that the city took the new policy to a judge to get a ruling on whether it was legal or not. If the judge said it didn’t follow the law as they read it, then it would be back to square one. So nothing was going to change unless a judge ruled the that the new policy was legal. Neither Abuzuaiter or Hightower seemed to grasp the point that action by the City Council would start the process, not put the policy in place. Rather than send this on to the City Council for a vote, Abuzuaiter and Hightower agreed to send it to the City Council for discussion, and then the City Council would send it back to

the Public Safety Committee for more discussion and then it would go back to the City Council for more discussion and a vote. Plus, they wanted input from the “stakeholders.” Abuzuaiter complained on Monday afternoon, March 7, at the Public Safety Committee meeting, that she had only received the one-page memo on Friday and that she would feel more comfortable referring it to the full council after the full council had had a chance to review it. She also said that she wanted to get more community involvement. Hightower agreed that they needed more time before they could vote to send this to the full City Council. She said she needed more time to go through the one-page memo. Outling said, “A good solution right now is better than a perfect solution (continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

video (continued from previous page)

tomorrow.” He said that there was a cost involved in both acting and taking no action. He said, “I do think we need to act with a sense of urgency.” Abuzuaiter suggested her plan to discuss it at the next City Council meeting, send it back to the committee to discuss it and then back to the City Council, and that was what the committee agreed to do. Outling said the City Council had voted on matters when councilmembers received the information hours before the meeting. But he admitted defeat. There will be no sense of urgency. The overarching problem with the current policy and with the new policy is that some videos don’t fall in the category of criminal investigation or personnel records. The police officer is supposed to activate his camera for suspicious persons. What if the person is doing absolutely nothing wrong? The body cam is on the video is recorded. By what stretch of the imagination is that a criminal

investigation or part of a personnel file. If it doesn’t fit into the criminal investigation or personnel file exemption, it would seem it is a public record. But the City Council has already determined that no body cam video footage is a public record. City Attorney Tom Carruthers said that from talking to legislators, he understood the state legislature was not likely to take up the body cam video issue in the short session, which begins at the end of April. That means it would be 2017 before any action could be taken by the state. The city has 240 body worn cameras and last year they recorded over 191,000 videos, which amounts to 28,700 hours of video and 21.56 terabytes of data. And right now, unless a person has been charged with a crime, no one outside the Police Department can see any of it, unless the police officer who recorded it decides to release it. Since it is considered part of the officer’s personnel file, police officers do have the ability to release video footage.

state

(continued from page 11)

under the new state law they would be able to keep 100 percent of seized funds without a cut going to the feds as it has in the past. He also said that the state forfeiture fund would be easier to administer because there would no longer be a need for the participation of federal agents. He said there’s a very limited number of federal officers working in North Carolina and at times it is difficult to bring them in on a case. Elmore said that, between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Secret Service, there were perhaps 70 federal agents operating regularly in the state. He said that, in the past, local law enforcement and the federal agents had worked together well on busts that resulted in forfeitures. He said the DEA had an excellent relationship with most local law enforcement and that many of the deals were conducted on a gentlemen’s agreement. Under the old system, where state law enforcement agencies relied on the federal government’s forfeiture program, the confiscated money from criminal activity would be turned over

to federal law enforcement, which would in most cases keep 20 percent as an “administrative fee.” The 80 percent was returned to the local agencies who had “detained” the cash or other ill-gotten gains. It’s not clear what regulations will be placed on the funds if the new legislation passes. The Greensboro Police Department and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, like others in the state – and in other parts of the country – relied on forfeiture funds for all sorts of special projects. In recent years, the Greensboro Police Department was getting over a half million dollars a year in forfeited assets after the feds took their cut. The Sheriff’s Department had just over $1 million in a federal forfeiture funds earlier this year, but, in recent weeks, it has been spending that money on equipment for a new Special Operations Center that will open soon. Late last year both departments got a terse letter from the Justice Department telling them that the key revenue source would be taken away. The letter, dated Monday, Dec. 21, (continued on page 15)

14 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

The Shape Of Budget To Come by Scott D. Yost districts. Lawing’s budget will serve as a rough draft. In some years the commissioners simply tweak the manager’s budget, but some years they alter it in significant ways. Regardless, the manager’s proposal goes a long way toward shaping county government for that fiscal year. The board is is currently scheduled to adopt the budget on June 16. Some years there’s more horse-trading than others and in the past the adoption date has been pushed back to the very end of June. State law requires the board adopt a new budget by June 30 at the latest. However, nothing bad happens if the deadline is missed. The commissioners haven’t raised property taxes since Republicans won a majority of seats in 2012. The Republican board has cut taxes twice in three years, and it’s no secret that Phillips really wants to see that downward trend continue while he’s chairman. Each year, the budget is considered “the chairman’s budget” because he or she is responsible

It’s that time again for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. March means the start of budget season, and this year’s board – led by Chairman Jeff Phillips – is now turning its attention to crafting the county’s 2016-2017 budget. Feb. 29 was the deadline for each of county government’s 24 departments to turn in their proposed budgets to Budget Director Mike Halford. Now he and his staff, working closely with County Manager Marty Lawing, will use that information – along with revenue projections, construction cost calculations and other factors – to craft a budget that will be presented to the commissioners on Thursday, May 19. The commissioners will then make their changes to the manager’s proposed budget. Guilford County’s current budget is around $560 million. Starting on Monday, March 14, Lawing will begin meeting with department heads as well as representatives of the county’s fire

for getting a majority to agree on the finished product, and he or she has the burden of convincing at least five of the nine commissioners to vote for it. Last June, when the commissioners knocked a penny off the tax rate, Phillips was pushing for an even greater cut. However, pushback from administrators and some fellow commissioners led to the one-cent cut. Funding for county schools – for maintenance, school debt repayment and school operations – takes up nearly half of the county’s budget each year, and Phillips said this week that school needs would be a major area of consideration when it comes to forming the 2016-2017 budget. May 1, which falls on a Sunday this year, is the statutory deadline for the superintendent to provide the Guilford County Board of Education with the proposed school budget; and May 15, also a Sunday in 2016, is the deadline for the school board to submit its proposal to the commissioners. One thing that’s not clear

yet is whether the departure of Superintendent Mo Green will affect the amount of school funding asked of commissioners. Green was never shy about asking for the moon – a practice the county commissioners routinely balked at – and now that Green has stepped down it will be interesting to see if there’s a new dynamic with Nora Carr, the school system’s chief of staff, and Terrence Young, chief information officer, running the show. The two are acting as co-interim school superintendents. Phillips said that each year county government focuses on how much to give the school system for its operating budget, but that this year there will be a focus by commissioners on the cost of building and maintaining schools. “I don’t know how that’s all going to shake out,” Phillips said, “but we will look at the capital side of the equation.” Phillips said that, aside from school funding, another big elephant in the

REVOLUTIONARY SAFETY, NOW IN MORE SIZES. Let’s get your car, truck, minivan or SUV ready to handle wet or slippery roads with the MICHELIN Premier family of tires. Thanks to EverGrip Technology, they’re safe when new . Safe when worn.

(continued on next page) PREMIER A/S ®

REVOLUTIONARY SAFETY, NOW IN MORE SIZES. ®

™

Let’s get your car, truck, minivan or SUV ready to handle wet or slippery roads with the MICHELIN Premier family of tires. Thanks to EverGrip Technology, they’re safe when new . Safe when worn. ®

PREMIER® A/S

™

SAFE WHEN

NEW

SAFE WHEN

WORN

PREMIER LTX ®

NEW*

WORN*

PREMIER LTX

Taylor’s Discount Tire | 2100 E. Cone Blvd | WWW.TAYLORSDISCOUNTTIRE.COM | (336) 375-8883

Taylor’s

09 BMW 1-Series

06 Lexus RX 330

13 Mazda i Sport

09 Audi A4

08 Mercedes GL320

AUTO SALES 336-375-1880

taylorsautosales.com

14,995

Auto, RWD, Leatherette

14,295

Auto, AWD, Leather

13,200

Auto, FWD, Cloth

15,995

Auto, AWD, Leather

16,495

Auto, AWD, Leather

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

budget (continued from previous page) room is the county’s massive debt. In May 2008, Guilford County voters approved more than a half billion dollars in bond debt for new schools, a new jail, expansion of Guilford Technical Community College and for parks and recreation, and the county is still it paying off, as it will for years to come. Debt repayment costs have been at or near peak levels in recent years, making budgets even more difficult. “Managing the debt service peaks have been a real challenge, and it will continue to be in the coming years,” Phillips said. “I’m proud of our efforts but I also continue to be concerned about the impact of our debt service. It’s a balancing act that won’t go away

for some time. The moves to slow down and smooth out the debt have been very helpful, but the debt is still a challenge.” Phillips added that another factor will be the county’s need for repairs and maintenance of existing structures. “We also have county facilities which have been underserved,” Phillips said. “Facilities have taken a back seat to other things, but there comes a time when you have to face the music.” Then there’s new construction. The county is building a new animal shelter estimated at between $6 million and $9 million, and, at the board’s annual retreat in February, the commissioners got hit with the news that the county would, out of the blue, likely be forced

state

(continued from page 13)

stated that changes were being made due to “the financial implications of recent budget legislation.” According to the letter, “While we had hoped to minimize any adverse impact on state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, the Department is deferring for the time being any equitable sharing payments from the Program. Thus, effective immediately, the Department will defer all equitable sharing payments to our state, local, and tribal partners and transfers of any items for official use. Payments that have already been executed by the U.S. Marshals Service will be transmitted to recipients. Funds already disbursed to state, local, and tribal agencies may continue to be expended.” In addition to money, the local

departments have also been confiscating items like fancy sports cars that undercover agents use and other items that can be sold at auction to raise funds. Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said he’s solidly behind the new effort to get a new state forfeiture law that would help fund his and other local departments. Barnes said he has used forfeiture money to do things like build his District 1 and District 3 substations and renovate the District 2 office. The sheriff said he wants this law enacted and said he would be helping with the effort. “Other states have [forfeiture] laws that all law enforcement agencies use and we don’t have anything like that,” Barnes said.

to spend $3 million to repair two parking decks that county officials have been told are structurally unsound. Also, there are plenty of other capital needs county officials consider pressing. Phillips said the multimilliondollar projects make it more difficult to lower the property tax rate, but he added that that is always his goal. The chairman said it’s too soon to say if there will be a tax cut and, if so, how much, but he added that the current Republican-majority has made it clear from its actions in the past – either cutting or holding the rate stable – that this board wants to see the tax rate go down. “We’ve been giving tax dollars back to the citizens of Guilford County, and as long as I’m on the board that will be a priority,” Phillips said. He also said the commissioners must be careful about how much they reduce the tax rate because there are plenty of pressing needs and they don’t want to reduce taxes too much too fast, only to need a tax increase down the line. Commissioner Alan Branson said he’d like to see at least a half-cent tax decrease this year. He said that changing circumstances make it hard

(continued on page 38)

16 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

endorsements (continued from page 6)

John Kasich can win the Republican nomination. Out of 2e primaries he has won none. How someone who can’t win a single primary can still claim he is going to be the nominee is baffling. If Kasich doesn’t win his home state of Ohio, he is effectively eliminated from the race, even if he refuses to drop out. President – Democratic Primary In the Democratic presidential primary it is no contest. Sen. Bernie Sanders is a man of conviction who says what he thinks. His socialist policies are way too far left for my politics, but he is an honest man who believes what he says. Politicians have a reputation for being dishonest, but Hillary Clinton takes it to a new level. She has lied about her personal email server so many times, it’s hard to keep up with what her current lie is. The fact is that she put top-secret information out there for anyone who knows how to hack into a home computer, showing an appalling conceit. Since government computers with the latest security are hacked by foreign countries, it is crazy to think that Hillary Clinton’s server with no security was not. She put lives at risk by using her own server and

doesn’t seem the least bit remorseful about it. The fact that she is now claiming that members of the families of the four men who were killed at Benghazi are lying about what she said to them the day the bodies were returned to the US is despicable, and not the least bit believable. It’s hard to believe that Hillary Clinton is the best candidate that the Democrats can put forward to run for president, but, according to the Democrats, she is. There is little doubt that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination, and it will be a sad day for this country if she wins. US Senate – Republican Primary North Carolinians should be proud of the job Sen. Richard Burr is doing. Probably not since Sen. Jesse Helms was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has North Carolina had such a powerful voice in the Senate. Burr is chairman of Select Committee on Intelligence, which means he knows more about what is actually going on the world than all but a few people. It also means that the other senators have tremendous respect and trust for Burr because

The New York Times

Hyper-Sudoku sudoku_518B Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

6 5 7 4

5 2 8 5

3 1 8 8 (c) PZZL.com

9 6 4 1

518B

Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution sudoku_518B

he can’t even tell them much of what he knows. I find interviewing Burr fascinating because, once a question is asked, you can watch Burr go through what he knows and what he can say publicly. He carries a wealth of top secret information around in his head and you can rest assured that none of it will be found on his personal email server. Burr has been in Washington since first being elected to Congress in 1995 and has been in the Senate since 2005 and has risen to a position of influence in the Senate. He has a conservative voting record, plus, unlike a lot of elected officials in Washington, he hasn’t forgotten where he’s from and spends as much time at home in Winston-Salem as possible. Burr has a rating of zero from the liberal American Civil Liberties Union and a rating of 100 percent from the conservative Family Research Council, but he gets lower ratings from some other conservative groups. Dr. Greg Brannon, who ran against Sen. Thom Tillis in 2014, has evidently set his sights on the US Senate, and the fact that this year he is running against a well-funded incumbent didn’t stop him from filing. Brannon is a Tea Party conservative who says Burr is part of the Washington establishment, which, since Burr has been in Washington since 1995 and is chairman of prestigious select committee, is hard to deny. What is hard to understand is how Brannon could go to Washington and with no political experience do a better job representing the people of North Carolina than Burr. Despite what those associated with the Tea Party seem to think, the votes in Congress are not all cut and dried, with conservatives on one side and everybody else on the other. Burr has a record of consistently voting conservatively. But sometimes in order to get things done in an elective body you have to make compromises. Larry Holmquist of Greensboro says that he is running for the Senate largely because the Senate voted to fund Obamacare. The fly in the ointment of this reasoning is that Burr – whom he is running against – voted against funding Obamacare. Burr did vote to end the filibuster by Sen. Ted Cruz, which Burr called “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” Most of the Senate agreed with Burr. Holmquist hasn’t raised the money to run a statewide campaign but may do well in Greensboro. Paul Wright, also running for the Senate seat currently held by Burr, is a retired judge who must like to run for office. He ran for governor in 2012, Congress in 2014 and now in 2016 for the Senate. He has a typically

conservative campaign platform, and he too is claiming that Burr is not conservative enough. Everybody has to do something in retirement, and it appears running for office is what Wright is doing with his time. US Senate – Democratic Primary The Democratic Party couldn’t find anyone with statewide name recognition to run for the US Senate seat currently held by Sen. Richard Burr, but four relatively unknown Democrats are running in the primary. Chris Rey, the mayor of Spring Lake near Fayetteville, claims credit for turning the town around and bringing in new business. He agrees that the Affordable Care Act needs some changes and, unlike most Democrats, talks about where he is going to get the money to pay for some of his ideas. Deborah Ross, a former state representative, has raised more money than any other candidate. She is a liberal’s liberal and the former head of the NC American Civil Liberties Union. One of her successes as a legislator was getting same-day voter registration passed. Ernest Reeves is a retired Army captain who likes to run for the US Senate. He ran in 2014 against then Sen. Kay Hagan. His campaign is selffunded, which means he has no more chance of success than he had in 2014 when he finished in single digits. Kevin Griffin is a Durham businessman who decided his first run for public office would be for the US Senate. He says the Affordable Care Act needs to be made more business friendly. Rey appears to be the best candidate with a proven record of success as a small town mayor, and not as far to the left as Ross. The winner will face the winner of the Republican primary, which is most likely going to be Burr. Governor – Republican Primary It would be foolish for Republicans not to support Gov. Pat McCrory for governor unless their goal is to elect a Democratic governor. McCrory is the only Republican in the race who can defeat Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper. McCrory as governor has been attacked from both the right and the left, which to me is a good sign. Taxes have been reduced while teacher pay and education funding has been increased. The state is benefitting from the improved economy and is in a much better fiscal position than it was when McCrory took office. The idea that the Republicans were going to be able to go in and get everything they (continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

endorsements (continued from previous page)

wanted immediately is short sighted. McCrory, if reelected, will no doubt continue to enrage both the far left and the far right, which puts him right where he should be – in the position to make changes and move the state in the right direction, not all at once but making steady progress. Former state Rep. Robert Brawley, who is running in the Republican primary, has had trouble getting along with Republicans during both periods he served in the House. The first time he threatened to vote for Democrat Jim Black for speaker, which didn’t sit well with his Republican colleagues. He retired from the House, but, when he came back, he got in a fight with then Speaker and now US Sen. Thom Tills. The result of that fight was that Brawley was defeated in the Republican primary. Not many bait and tackle shop owners run for governor, but this is North Carolina and Charles Moss is running again in the Republican primary. In 2012, he finished last in the Republican primary, but that evidently didn’t discourage him.

He’s not raising outside money to run, which means in a statewide race he will most likely finish last again. But looking at it another way, in 2012 he finished sixth, and this year he can’t finish any worse than third, so he will have moved up three spots. Governor – Democratic Primary Attorney General Roy Cooper has made his office more political than it should be. It’s understandable because for the past three years Cooper’s main job has been running for governor against Republican Gov. Pat McCrory. It’s hard to run against someone on the issues if you have been the one in court defending those issues. So Cooper has taken a hike on controversial issues and left the governor and the legislature to hire outside counsel to defend the state in court. It makes political sense, but Cooper was elected by the people of North Carolina to be attorney general. The people of North Carolina also elected McCrory governor along with large Republican majorities in the state

House and Senate. Cooper’s job is to defend the state in court whether he agrees with the position or not. Cooper has chosen not to do this. As any elected official he can do what he wants, he is only answerable to the people. But in this case the people should note that he hasn’t been doing the job they elected him to do. The people didn’t elect Cooper to simply defend the laws the Democratic Party liked. He is the attorney general of the state, not of the Democratic Party. Ken Spaulding doesn’t have a chance of winning the Democratic nomination for governor. He doesn’t have the money to run a statewide race, but, unlike Cooper he is opposed to allowing men in women’s bathrooms and vice versa, something that just make sense to many people. Spaulding is opposed to fracking and offshore drilling. He wants teachers to have tenure and smaller classes. Spaulding is an attorney who has served in the state House of Representatives and served on the NC Board of Transportation. Spaulding could use your vote. Lieutenant Governor – Democratic Democrats are lined up to run against Lt. Gov. Dan Forest in November.

Forest has no Republican opponent in the primary, but Linda Coleman, who Forest narrowly defeated in 2012, has to get past Holly Jones, Ronald L. Newton, and Robert Earl Wilson to win the right to face Forest. Coleman is facing a serious challenge from former Asheville City Councilmember and Buncombe County Commissioner Holly Jones, who has raised about $200,000. Unlike the other candidates, Robert Wilson a retired state employee with 20 years of working with the state legislature, seems to want to concentrate on economic development. The other candidates’ campaigns appeared to be focused on causing as much trouble as possible for the Republican legislature. Ronald Newton currently has some problems with his resume. He claims to be a tax lawyer but has not passed the bar in North Carolina, so in the eyes of the state he is not a lawyer. He is also the manager of the state chapter of the public workers union, and the last thing the state needs is more unions or unions with more power. Although all four would fight the Republican legislature, Wilson appears to be more interested in (continued on page 18)

FIRST ON THE BALLOT.

FIRST

IN INTEGRITY.

district 3

• PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATED • EXPERIENCED ATTORNEY • AUTISM SPEAKS “NATIONAL PARENT ADVOCATE OF THE YEAR” FIND OUT MORE AT: WWW.BRIANPEARCE.ORG WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/ PEARCEFORSCHOOLBOARD Paid for by Pearce for School Board

FIRST

IN CHARACTER.

FIRST

IN SERVICE TO OUR COMMUNITY.

“I’M A DAD WHO IS WILLING TO DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO MAKE OUR SCHOOLS BETTER FOR GUILFORD COUNTY STUDENTS.”

ALL

18 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

endorsements (continued from page 17)

economic development than just giving Republicans a hard time, so he gets our endorsement. Attorney General – Republican Primary Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill, who is running in the Republican primary for attorney general, says that the top prosecutor in the state should have some prosecutorial experience, and that seems to make sense. His opponent, state Sen. Buck Newton of Wilson, has been one of the leaders in the state Senate and is chairman of the Judiciary 1 committee, which means he has a good idea of the job from the other side of the spectrum. Newton is an attorney in private practice in Wilson, but he says his knowledge of the state government is what makes him the best choice for attorney general. Both are conservative Republicans who want to bring the attorney general’s office more in line with the rest of state government. Under Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is a liberal Democrat, the attorney general’s office has been opposed to many of the policies of the current Republican-controlled state government and has refused to defend the state government in court when he disagrees with the law. O’Neill says it is the job of the attorney general to defend the state in court, whether he personally agrees with the law or not. Of course, neither O’Neill or Newton will be running against Cooper, who is not running for reelection as attorney general, but running for governor. Attorney General – Democratic Primary In the Democratic primary for attorney general, state Sen. Josh Stein and Marcus Williams are running for the chance to face the Republican primary winner in November. Stein – a Harvard Law School graduate who worked in the attorney general’s office before being elected to the state Senate – is the better candidate. He says he will defend the laws of the state whether he agrees with them or not. Williams says he would not defend laws if he didn’t think they were legally defensible, which sounds like he’s not planning on going to court to defend the state if he thinks he’s going to lose. Williams also would like to use his position as attorney general to oppose some of the legislation passed by the Republican General Assembly. Anyone has the right to oppose legislation, but it isn’t the job of the attorney general. Williams does have 37 years of experience as an attorney in both civil and criminal court, but he is facing an uphill battle against Stein, who has raised over $1.5 million. Commissioner of Agriculture – Republican North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Steve Troxler has been in office since 2005, and by most accounts has been doing a good job of keeping the agriculture industry, which contributes $78 billion to state’s economy, ticking along pretty well. Troxler is a farmer from Brown Summit, so he knows farming, which some would think would be necessary to be the Agriculture commissioner.

He is being challenged by Andy Stevens, also from Guilford County, who is a gun right’s activist, and one of the major reasons he is running has nothing to do with agriculture policy – it is because Troxler won’t allow people with concealed carry permits to carry concealed weapons at the State Fair. Another issue that Stevens finds fault with is that backyard chicken farmers are being required to register their chickens with the state. The reason for this is a fear of bird flu, which hasn’t made its way to North Carolina yet, but has decimated chicken flocks in other states. The state says in case bird flu does come to North Carolina, it will be critical for the state to know where all the chickens are. Stevens thinks it is an unnecessary burden on backyard chicken farmers, although he doesn’t claim to be an expert on bird flu or the poultry industry, which has a $34 billion economic impact on the state. Troxler is without a doubt the best candidate in this race. Commissioner of Insurance – Republican Primary Joe McLaughlin is the best Republican candidate for North Carolina commissioner of insurance – if the idea is to nominate a candidate who can win. Mike Causey from Greensboro has run for commissioner of insurance five times and lost. Two chances, three chances to win a race may be reasonable, but at five it seems the odds are overwhelming that the outcome will be the same. Causey also ran for in the crowded 6th Congressional District race in 2014 and finished seventh out of nine candidates, with 3.2 percent of the vote. Causey has never won a race. Causey is a retired insurance agent who is also a farmer, and he had a farmers’ market for several years on Greene Street. McLaughlin by contrast was elected Onslow County commissioner. He is a certified financial planner who says he doesn’t have all the answers for the Department of Insurance but would look into why North Carolina has a Rate Bureau. Ronald Pierce is a contractor from Charlotte who was accused by the Department of Insurance of making fraudulent claims and he was arrested. The charges against him were dismissed, but he evidently still holds a grudge. The fact that the Department of Insurance accused him of falsifying claims and then the charges were dropped is not a good reason to make him insurance commissioner. He doesn’t appear to have any other big issues, or any experience that indicates he would be a good insurance commissioner. The winner of the primary will face Democratic Commissioner of Insurance Wayne Goodwin in November. Commissioner of Labor – Democratic Primary The Democratic primary for commissioner of labor has Mazie Ferguson, the former head of the Pulpit Forum in Greensboro, facing former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker. Meeker was mayor of Raleigh for 10 years and served on the City Council for eight years before that. He is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School and has practiced law since 1975. Ferguson says she would like to use her position

(continued on page 28)

endorsements REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

President: Donald Trump US Senate: Richard Burr Governor: Pat McCrory Attorney: Jim O’Neill Commissioner of Agriculture: Steve Troxler Commissioner of Insurance: Joe McLaughlin Secretary of State: A.J. Daoud Supt. of Public Instruction: Mark Johnson Board of Education • District 2: Anita Sharpe Board of Education • District 3: Patrick Tillman Board of Education • District 4: Paul Daniels

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY

President: Bernie Sanders US Senate: Chris Rey Governor: Ken Spaulding Lt. Governor: Robert Earl Attorney General: Josh Stein Commissioner of Labor: Charles Meeker State Treasurer: Ron Elmer NC House District 58: Amos Quick Supt. of Public Instruction: Henry Pankey Board of Education • District 1: Aaron Keith McCullough NONPARTISAN • DISTRICT COURT Jon Kreider David Sherrill CONNECT NC BOND Vote No

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

UNCLE ORSON Reviews

Uncle Orson Reviews Everything

ThingCharger, Cashews, At Sea by Orson Scott Card Now that everything we do involves battery-operated electronic devices, finding the right charger at the moment you need it can be a pain. You think you’ve lost the cord you’ve been using for ages. So you buy another. Then you find the first. I keep a full set of chargers and cables in my carry-on bag, so I don’t have to think about it when I’m traveling.

Except when I decide not to take my full-size laptop and I realize – at my destination – that the smaller case for my convertible tablet didn’t already have a full set of chargers. It only has the charger for the convertible itself. That’s a good thing, of course, since it’s completely nonstandard, but how long do you think my phone or my iPod nano are going to stay fully juiced? So I spend part of my busy trip

searching for chargers with the microUSB and the old wide-format Apple tip. Fun fun fun! You know where this leads. Now both bags have a full set of charging cables. And my charging station near my bed has a full set of cables. Oh, and downstairs by the chair where I watch TV, guess what? Chargers! Snakes coming out of the wall, that’s what they are. But instead of poison, they push out nutrition to those hungry hungry appliances. They also take up outlet after outlet. So when I saw ThingCharger as a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, I backed it immediately, because I wanted it to exist, and I wanted a bunch of them. ThingCharger is a thin rectangular box that plugs into a standard twooutlet wall charger, and on the other side has two wall-type outlets. So when you plug it into the wall, you still have the original two wall outlets. But you also have two USB ports on the bottom, and a single charging tip on the top. That charging tip can be microUSB or Apple Lightning or, for a bit extra,

the old 15-pin wide Apple connector. Surge protection is built in. And the tips, which store in the back of the ThingCharger, can be swapped out at need. A friend visits with a late-model iPhone, while you’re all about Android? No problem. Pull the ThingCharger out of the wall, swap out the tip, plug it back in and your friend can charge his overpriced object-of-worship just as efficiently as you charge your practical, workaday, grown-up device. The phone or other device rests on top of the ThingCharger. It isn’t lying on the floor or across the desk. It’s right on top, within easy reach, where you can see the screen from across the room. If you miss the snaky cables, or need to charge three devices, you can plug old-style cables into the USB ports on the bottom of the ThingCharger. And you still have the wall outlets. Don’t forget that, because keeping your wall outlets is one of the best aspects of ThingCharger. Oh, another thing. You can plug one ThingCharger into another, giving (continued on page 20)

20 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

uncle orson (continued from page 19)

you two tips on top, so you can have a tablet and a phone charging on top of the ThingChargers, where you can see the screens and they’re out of the way. Guess what’s going into my carryon bags. In hotel rooms, which are designed with as few outlets as possible, it’s going to be very helpful to be able to plug the lamp back into the wall and yet still be able to charge all my electronics. Is it the cheapest charging device? No. Most convenient? I think so. Best-made, with the most reliable electronics? That’s the claim, and I believe it. You can buy it on Amazon for $43, with micro-USB tip (you have to get your Apple tips separately). You can also buy it at Wal-Mart. If you want to buy from the manufacturer – or buy the extra tips you need – then go to www. thingcharger.com, where you can buy multiples at a much lower price. Right now, if you pay for five ThingChargers, they toss in two more for free. Do you really need seven charging stations in your house, for $200? That’s your call, and your budget. But in my view, it isn’t enough just to have outlets in every wall of your house. It makes sense to be able to charge whatever device is running low on juice, in whatever room you’re going to be in for the next while. Without searching for a charger.

.... When I developed my peanut allergy a few years ago, I was devastated, because I love peanuts. I love peanut butter. And now both of those are off the table for me. I don’t have one of those allergies where a whiff of peanut breath will send me into anaphylactic shock. You can eat peanuts around me without killing me ... so far, at least. (Allergies can get worse over time – or fade away.) One of the peanut treats I miss most is Planters Heat Peanuts. They are

Crossword Solution E V I L B L O A B A W D D A Y G O R C A N A U G E Z R A N O V D R E W B A S T A L H E L L O R L O D I S P C A S T E

H I T O N

A D E P T

From last week’s issue S T Y L I S H

F O R K

N E C L K A P M S I E R

R U N L O P H E B U I L D I T G P O P T A X I T Y P I N O P E D S R E R E N S O N S H F O O T A F S T O P H O E R S E D E L L B F U L L O M O A T O M T H D E H E E D E R

A T E L I A I N G G E C O R E D E M P O C A N H U T U S H G E S T R O P A W E G I N U T

S H E R P A S

A N C I E N E T L S O M E N S

R E D S

I E M A U D L O I S E I T R E A

P Y C A A I R G X P I A S P A U P E L C P L A C A D L D W O E C A U W O R D D R E S R E C O B A P E O P F U E O F T N U I T E S Q U E U B D E A

hot enough to wake me up when I’m driving long distances, but not so hot as to cause distress. But they’re still peanuts. In the absence of peanuts, I’ve tried alternative nuts. (I’ve been allergic to walnuts all my life, but no other tree nut has ever caused me a problem.) Almonds have a way of leaving chips and bits behind that no toothbrush or floss can ever find. Pecans taste like dust in my mouth. But cashews – even when I could eat peanuts, cashews were something special. The ultimate nut treat. They are also the weirdest of the tree nuts. The cashew nut itself dangles from the bottom of a red or yellow fruit, often called “cashew apple.” In fact, that apparent “fruit” is actually a thickened stem. The real fruit is the nut that we’re familiar with, inside a fibrous, caustic shell. Because that shell is aggressively unpleasant, processing the nut has to be done with great care. So for a long time, wherever the cashew grew it was the cashew apple – that swollen, fruitlike stem – that was used, while the hard-to-process nut was discarded. If you eat the cashew apple, you’ll really just chew it till you have all the juice, and then spit out the pulp. Usually it’s pressed and, perhaps, fermented to make a juice. When I lived in Brazil – the original sudoku_518A home of cashews – I remember going Created Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz into aby sorveteria and ordering cajúflavored ice cream. Bad choice. The 5 3 flavor was completely unfamiliar to me, 7 2 and I didn’t contained no cashew nuts, like it at all. 5 4 That’s because it was flavored with the cashew apple,4a perfectly familiar 9 flavor to Brazilians. If I asked for cajú 4 6in Brazil, that’s the flavor I’d anywhere get. If2I wanted 8 the flavor I was 9 familiar 6 with, I had to look for castanhas de 9 6nuts. 3 5 cajú –1cashew And if you ever wonder why cashews 1 are among the most expensive nuts,

Sudoku Solution

518A

Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution sudoku_518A M E T E R

S L E D S

E A R L

S I N K

S P I L L

Y A T E S

S A D I E L S

9 7 3 5 4 1 8 6 2

8 4 6 9 7 2 1 5 3

From last week’s issue

2 1 5 8 6 3 9 7 4

5 3 7 2 9 8 6 4 1

1 6 8 4 3 5 2 9 7

4 2 9 6 1 7 3 8 5

7 5 1 3 8 9 4 2 6

3 8 4 7 2 6 5 1 9

6 9 2 1 5 4 7 3 8

518A

it’s because they have to be processed with great care, so that not even a speck of the nasty shell gets into the bag or can of finished cashews. But America has such a taste for cashew nuts that it’s worth the cost of processing them – mostly in northeastern Brazil and in India, where they were transplanted by Portuguese traders in the 1500s. (Like kudzu in the American South, they were originally transplanted as a soil retainer, not only in India but also in east Africa and Madagascar. They rapidly spread to form extensive forests, according to Purdue University’s horticultural website, long before either the fruit or the nut was treated as a commercial crop. [If only kudzu had turned out to have a delicious fruit.] (www.hort.purdue.edu/ newcrop/morton/cashew_apple.html ) The biggest problem with using cashews as a peanut substitute is that peanut oil is so widely used, since it’s one of the best roasting oils because of its properties at high temperature. If you buy cashews from Planters, the nation’s biggest nut vendor, it will be roasted in peanut oil. And therefore it’s just as off-limits to me as peanuts themselves. So I’m always looking for reliable no-peanut-oil cashews. Dry roasting is one solution, but it’s often hard to find. (You can still get dry-roasted Yumnuts from Amazon.) And ... nobody makes dry-roasted cashews with the same kind of spicing as my beloved old Planters Heat Peanuts. Until Earth Fare started selling Sunshine Nut Company’s Cashews Roasted with a Spark of Spices. Sunshine Nut Company is ideological – founder Don Larson (a former director of cocoa operations for Hershey) moved to Mozambique specifically to start a cashew company with a social conscience. With something like the fervor that George Washington Carver once brought to the development of peanuts as a cash crop in the American South, the company still helps local farmers plant cashews and teaches them how to grow and harvest both the cashew apples and the cashew nuts. Also, 90 percent of Sunshine Nut Company’s profits are re-invested in Mozambique; according to the website SunshineNuts.com, “30 percent to support farmers through hand-up, not hand-out, programs; 30 percent to care for orphans and vulnerable children; and 30 percent to create new food companies – including micro factories in poor, rural areas.” But let’s face it – all the charitable intentions in the world wouldn’t help much if the result weren’t delicious. It is so delicious. The “Spark of Spices” cashews are exactly as hot

as I like them, and delicious. No more moaning over the loss of Planters Heat Peanuts! Not only that, but their “Roasted with a Sprinkling of Salt” cashews are exactly as salty as I like – and no more. The “Roasted and Perfectly Plain” cashews are really delicious – unsalted cashews, like unsalted peanuts, are a favorite alternative for me. They also sell cashews that are “Roasted with a Handful of Herbs,” but they are not to my personal taste – maybe because they just happen to be the wrong herbs for me. They are roasted in sunflower oil. They are safe, for me at least. And while the company headquarters is listed in Lewes Delaware, the nuts are still a product of Mozambique. Sunshine Nut Company’s cashews are packaged in tough, resealable 7-ounce bags. I find that tearing them open doesn’t work too well – I usually end up working with scissors to get a clean, full opening. If I were taking them with me on a trip, I’d cut open all the bags I was taking before I left, then reseal them till I needed them. Don Larson knew the food business from his work with Hershey, and he has not stinted on quality at any point. Cashews aren’t cheap anywhere, and no one would call these “discount cashews.” But they’re worth the price. You can buy them locally at Earth Fare, and Amazon sells them economically in bulk – by subscription, if you like. Sunshine Nut Company’s own website only offers the bags by the dozen, with three of each of the four flavors. (Since I don’t care for the Handful of Herbs flavor, that doesn’t work for me.)

.... I don’t know about you, but C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series was not long enough. And I also am a bit resentful that the BBC TV series about Hornblower (starring the inimitable Ioan Gruffudd) has not continued. Recently, though, I heard from a friend that another series of seafaring novels with a hero in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars – the “Great Age of Sail” – was every bit as good as Forester’s series. The author is Dewey Lambdin, and the hero is Alan Lewrie. Every bit of nautical adventure is there, just as Hornblower fans might wish. However, Lambdin was writing these beginning in the 1980s, so the rules of decorum were quite different from those followed by Forester. More to the point, Alan Lewrie’s nautical career begins toward the tail end of the American Revolution — decades before Hornblower went to sea as a midshipman.

(continued on page 32)

RHINO

www.rhinotimes.com

March 10, 2016

REALESTATE Everything you need to find, finance and buy the house of your dreams

USING VIDEO TO SELL YOUR HOME Lender Directory

Realtor Directory

Open House Listings

New Home Listings

22 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

AAF TANK MUSEUM 3401 US 29 â&#x20AC;˘ Danville

Radio-Controlled Tank Battle

On Saturday, March 12, watch a radio-controlled tank battle using infrared laser battle systems at the museumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 6,000-square-foot LQGRRU EDWWOHÂż HOG ,QFOXGHG LQ DGPLVVLRQ RI IRU DGXOWV DQG IRU FKLOGUHQ XQGHU DQG DGXOWV RYHU &KLOGUHQ XQGHU LQ IUHH )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ YLVLW DDIWDQNPXVHXP FRP IDFHERRN FRP $$)7DQNPXVHXP RU FDOO

ARTQUEST AT GREENHILL 200 North Davie St.

Free Family Night

(YHU\ :HGQHVGD\ IURP WR S P $UW4XHVW DW *UHHQKLOO KRVWV D IUHH )DPLO\ 1LJKW 6WRS LQ WR SOD\ DQG H[SORUH $UW4XHVWÂśV VWXGLRV ZKHUH IDPLOLHV FDQ FUHDWH DUW DQG VKDUH LGHDV FUHDWH RQH RI D NLQG SDLQWLQJV DQG ZRUN ZLWK FOD\ RU QHZ DQG XQH[SHFWHG PDWHULDOV DW WKH KDQGV RQ H[SORUDWLRQ WDEOH )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ FDOO RU YLVLW *UHHQKLOO1& RUJ

COMMUNITY THEATRE OF GREENSBORO Odell Auditorium â&#x20AC;˘ GSO College â&#x20AC;˘ 815 W. Market St.

Musical Narnia

7KH 'UDPD &HQWHU SUHVHQWV Narnia D PXVLFDO YHUVLRQ RI & 6 /HZLVÂś classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Friday, March 11 WKURXJK 6XQGD\ 0DUFK LQ WKH 2GHOO $XGLWRULXP DW *UHHQVERUR &ROOHJH : 0DUNHW 6W $OO DFWRUV DUH ORFDO FKLOGUHQ LQ JUDGHV WKURXJK 7LFNHWV DUH )RU PRUH LQIRUPDWLRQ YLVLW ZZZ WKHGUDPDFHQWHU FRP RU FDOO 6KRZV DUH )ULGD\ 0DUFK DW S P 6DWXUGD\ 0DUFK DW D P DQG S P DQG 6XQGD\ 0DUFK DW S P

UNCG THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE 406 Tate Street â&#x20AC;˘ Taylor Theatre

James and the Giant Peach

-DPHV OLYHV ZLWK WKH PRVW UHYROWLQJ DXQWV LQ (QJODQG 7KH\ PDNH KLP ZRUN DQG VODYH DQG QHYHU OHW KLP SOD\ 7KHQ RQH GD\ KH meets a mystical old man who gives him a bag with the strongest PDJLF WKH ZRUOG KDV HYHU NQRZQ :KHQ KH DFFLGHQWDOO\ VSLOOV LW QHDU DQ ROG SHDFK WUHH WKH PRVW LQFUHGLEOH WKLQJV VWDUW WR KDSSHQ 6KRZV DUH )ULGD\ 0DUFK DW D P DQG QRRQ 6DWXUGD\ 0DUFK DW D P DQG S P 6XQGD\ 0DUFK DW S P DQG 7XHVGD\ 0DUFK WKURXJK 7KXUVGD\ 0DUFK DW D P DQG QRRQ 7LFNHWV DUH WR )RU LQIRUPDWLRQ FDOO RU YLVLW SHUIRUPLQJDUWV XQFJ HGX

CHECK US OUT ON THE OPEN HOUSE PAGE

This schedule brought to you by your friends & neighbors at

Coldwell Banker (336) 282-4414

USING VIDEO TO SELL YOUR HOME

REAL ESTATE

BY SANDY GROOVER Selling a home in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s technologically focused world generally requires more than a sign in the front yard. And when it comes to images, videos, used correctly, can be an effective home selling tool. Interestingly enough, while the use of online searches for homes is more frequent for younger generations, older boomer homebuyers â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those ages 60 to 68â&#x20AC;&#x201C; find video tours more useful than younger buyers. It appears everyone is incorporating online tools in the homebuying process, according to a 2015 report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), 94 percent of millennials â&#x20AC;&#x201C; ages 25 to 35 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; employ them, as do 84 percent of baby boomers and 65 percent of those ages 69 to 89 years â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the silent generation. Creating an effective high quality virtual tour is challenging and should be carefully thought out and well done. Americans are used to high quality video in online advertising, and the same is expected from home sellers and real estate agents. According to Stephen Schweickart, CEO of VScreen, a leading video services company, the strategy for selling a luxury home is different from that of selling a starter home. First-time homebuyers are looking for different features than second-home buyers, investors or empty-nestors. So videos should be tailored to the needs and desires of the target audience. Schweickart suggests having a strategy that helps the buyer envision the lifestyle they are seeking. So the video doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to include every

room, but should spotlight the desired features and lifestyle. He suggests that each highlighted feature be shown no longer than for five or six seconds, and the entire video should be between 60 and 90 seconds. That means focusing on 15 to 18 shots. Research shows that nearly half of a viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience comes from listening, so including a voice-over narrative that tells the story helps connect with the buyer. And, according to Schweickart, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s what presenting your house by video essentially is â&#x20AC;&#x201C; storytelling. Schweickart also has a warning for those who attempt to make a video themselves. He says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Never shoot with a hand-held camera, because it makes shots shaky and jerky.â&#x20AC;? Professional videographers use rolling tripods for stability and smoothness in their filming. Another factor that can make a video look amateurish is poor lighting. Unless a video can be done well, it probably shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be a part of the sales package. Poorly made videos are perhaps the number one reason real estate professionals hesitate to use this technique. Greensboro Realtor Gil Vaughn of Keller Williams said he is one of those who is hesitant about using video in his marketing efforts. So far, he said, he hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seen any videos he really likes. Vaughn does, however, see video as a tool of the future, especially in the sale of higher-end homes. The high-end home sellers are the ones (continued on next page)

REAL ESTATE

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

(continued from previous page) most likely to invest in the creation of a professionally produced video and also the ones most likely to recoup that investment. Although professionally produced videos generally give the best results, if you want to try shooting one yourself to help entice people to visit the house, there are a number of things that should be done. First of all, prepare the home just like

you would for a traditional open house. Clean up the outside and remove clutter and excess furniture inside. Also remove any valuable items such as jewelry and antiques. It’s an unfortunate truth, but thieves also check out for-sale houses via videos. When shooting the video, start with the outside of the home and shoot during what is known as the “golden hour” – late afternoon. It’s a time when the light is soft and doesn’t produce

the harsh shadows of mid-day. Lead the viewer up the front walk, through the front doors and into the home. Once inside, the viewer should see a home that is free of clutter and well lit. Shoot the interior when the house is bathed in as much natural light as possible. Good lighting is absolutely essential to good video. As Schweickart says, the viewer doesn’t have to see every room in the

house. They will, however, want to see the kitchen, living areas, master bedroom and outdoor living spaces. Make sure you are highlighting only the best features of the home. Help the viewer feel as though they are in the house, giving them a feel for the home’s personality. Keeping the video brief is essential, one to one-and-a-half minutes tops. Today’s viewers have short attention spans and busy schedules.

YOUR MORTGAGE EXPERTS Adam McKim 336.253.2667

David Nishan 336.215.5597

Debbie Barrow 336.373.5156

www.citizenslo.com/amckim

www.davidnishan.net

www.suntrust.com/debbie.barrow

NMLSR ID: 659105

NMLS ID: 174359

NMLSR ID: 659011

Don Owens

Eric R. Apple

Don Scarborough

Branch Manager

336.542.2494

Why close on time... When you can Close Early?

336.402.3695

336.944.3267

www.CloseEarly.net

don.scarborough@community1.com

NMLS ID: 98786

www.ericapple.com NMLS ID: 457614

NMLS ID: 872030

OPEN HOUSES • SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 • 2-4PM

517 Barnsdale Ridge Road Kernersville, NC 27284 4BR 3BA (757378) Lisa Pfefferkorn 972-1234 $230,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

2610 NC Highway 66 S Kernersville, NC 27284 2BR 2BA (780783) Bobby Saunders 830-0233 $119,990 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

211 Winged Foot Court Winston Salem, NC 27107 5BR 3BA (768569) Andy Millsaps 816-3699 $399,900 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

1107 Bessemer Avenue #C Greensboro, NC 27408 2BR 1.5BA (766094) Andy Millsaps 816-3699 $85,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

226 Winged Foot Court Winston Salem, NC 27107 5BR 3BA (750157) John Mooney 345-6972 $395,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

7085 Lanier Road Summerfield, NC 27358 4BR 3.5BA (785669) Kim Delahanty 612-644-2766 and Pamela Harper 336-508-8967 $435,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

3716 Spanish Peak Drive #3D High Point, NC 27265 2BR 2BA (780813) Elizabeth Sheffield 259-7944 $95,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

6315 River Hills Drive Greensboro, NC 27410 3BR 2.5BA (785623) Julie Campbell 747-3245 $189,900 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

6071 Old Orchard Road Kernersville, NC 27284 4BR 3.5BA (777419) Sharon Whitfield 448-8033 $440,000 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

104 Wentworth Drive Winston Salem, NC 27107 4BR 3BA (720805) John Mooney 345-6972 $399,900 COLDWELL BANKER TRIAD, REALTORS

REAL ESTATE

LOCALREALTOR DIRECTORY

24 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

www.rhinotimes.com

Chidi Akwari 336.337.1927

Gil Vaughan 336.337.4780

Wayne Young 336.253.4472

www.justcallgil.com

www.allentate.com/wayneyoung

Karen Bickham Jobe 336.430.6552

Xan Tisdale 336.601.2337

Successfully selling homes for 30 years

http://www.trmrealestate.com/broker/karen-bickham-jobe

http://xantisdale.bhhsyostandlittle.com/

Chidi@Akwari.com

karen.jobe@trm.info

GilVaughan@gmail.com

xan.tisdale@bhhsyostandlittle.com

wayne.young@allentate.com

Betty Howard 336.337.7535

betty@bettyhoward.com

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 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. Scott D. Yost has gotten some negative compliments in the Rhino the last couple of weeks. I just want to compliment Scott. I’ve been reading the Rhino about a year now. And after reading the Beep, Yost column is my next favorite. Scott, you are a great journalist and you would make a great comedian. Some articles that come to mind were about your end-of-the-world party music last year, and I still want to ride with you to Stokes County. You decluttered your house, which I’ve been thinking about doing since your article. You love Duke everything and Coach K. You’re single, and you hate squirrels, and you put Stevia in your coffee. Me, too. Everything above, me, too. Go Duke. Go Blue Devils.

%%% I just read the Rhino Times issue on the Project Kudzu. I want to say I think it’s an excellent idea. I think that they should receive the funding that they’re asking. The only thing I believe is that there will have to be communication between law enforcement and victims of crime. Back in October 2015, my home was broken into. Whoever broke into my home left a trail of blood from the window to the front door, fingerprints as well. And since then it’s currently March 2016, I have yet to receive a phone call explaining what has been done or what has not been done. So, I think communication is going to be key to any type of progress in law enforcement.

%%% I just heard Hillary say she wants to make us all whole again. Or is that she wants to make us in the hole again? Good day.

%%% Yes, I would like for someone to tell me just exactly is wrong with Donald Trump running for president. Anybody in the world can run for president. Look at old Jimmy Carter. All he did was walk about and said, good day, I’d like to be your president. So, I’d like to know, why everybody has got it in for Trump. Most of them has been sitting up there on their hind ends for the last 15 years, and they know how the game is played. They know how they can sucker us in. Donald Trump gets up there and tells what he’s going to do for this country, and they don’t like it because they all got their little game playing. They’re going to carry on just like Obama has been doing. I don’t want none of that bunch in Washington running for president. I’ll take my chances on Trump.

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 anti-seizure drugs. These drugs may cause you to feel uncomfortable and have a variety of harmful side effects.

%%% All that they talk about building a wall, building a wall. Nobody has ever mentioned about them coming under the wall. I don’t understand that. (continued on page 28)

In order to effectively treat your neuropathy three factors must be determined. 1) 2)

What is the underlying cause? 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) 2) 3)

Figure 1: Notice the very small blood vessels surrounding each nerve. 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. As you can see in Figure 2, 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.

Increase blood flow Stimulate small fiber nerves Decrease brain-based pain

The treatment to increase blood flow utilizes a specialized low level light therapy using light emitting diode technology. This technology was originally developed by NASA to assist in increasing blood flow. The low level light therapy is like watering a plant. The light therapy 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. Figure 3: The blood vessels will grow back around the nerves much like a plant’s roots grow when watered. To learn more, attend the Peripheral Neuropathy Workshop. Details below. Have You Been Told You Have To “LIVE WITH THE PAIN?”

Neuropathy Workshop Saturday, March 12th 11:00 am & 12:30 pm

%%% I heard on the local news in the cable news this weekend that a black man in Washington, DC, shot and killed his wife as a disturbance police call was made. And he shot one police officer and killed her. And, then, he shot the other two officers, but they lived. Now, I only heard about this once or twice. Now, if it had been the other way, a white man shot a police officer, it would have been unreal on the news. So, where are y’all Black Lives Matter now? Al Sharpton? It was a black man. He was in the Army. He was working at the Pentagon. Unreal. Y’all need to speak out if y’all really Black Lives Matter.

NEW ADDRESS Figure 2: When these very small blood vessels become diseased they begin to shrivel up and the nerves begin to degenerate. The main problem is that your doctor has told you to just live with the problem or try the drugs which you don’t like taking because they make you feel uncomfortable. There is now a facility right here that offers you hope without taking those endless drugs with serious side effects.

515 College Road #11 Greensboro, NC 27410

FREE!!

Refreshments provided.

Call: (336) 316-0827 Call NOW! Seating is limited. Dr. Joe Draper, III, DC Advance Wellness is located near Guilford College.

26 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com YOST Column

Yost Column

Yost Says You’ll Be Safe When You’re Dead by Scott D. Yost Did you know that picking a Venus causing deadly thing is baby powder flytrap in North Carolina can now land – the thing that, since 1894, we have you two years in prison? The law, literally been slathering all over our enacted earlier this week, is meant babies. to protect the Venus Flytrap, a rare You would really think that if there carnivorous plant that only grows in were any one substance in the the wild in swamps near Wilmington. known universe that could be trusted It’s estimated that there are only as absolutely safe, it would be the 35,000 plants remaining in the wild. stuff that we are rubbing all over our The plant’s numbers have dwindled babies – but, apparently, even that is in part because of people stealing a deadly substance. them from protected lands. So the big news in that story isn’t really that baby powder causes – WUNC report, Dec. 3, 2014 cancer – no, the real story is that you apparently can’t trust in the safety of Hitler had a really tiny penis. anything at all. We knew gunpowder was deadly, – New York Post headline, and now we know baby powder is Feb 22, 2016 too. So it should come as no surprise to you next month when we find out that powder-puff football carries I give up. all kinds of hidden life-threatening So, you know how they used to say dangers. eating this is bad for you, or eating So, like I said, I give up. Things that is bad for you, or that using this will be much simpler if you just adopt product or that product could be and live by this one simple rule: deadly? Everything you see, hear, smell, Well, according to the latest touch, eat or come across in any medical science to hit the news way in life is extremely deadly and recently, do you know what the latest is out to kill you. deadly household item is? The good news is that, if you just When I heard this for the first time follow that rule and stay out of contact on NBC news a few weeks ago, it just with everything, you should be fine. made me throw my hands up in the I’ll tell you what; let’s move onto air in frustration and shout out, “I give happier thoughts … up – everything is deadly!” The news I saw was the recent Like this tidbit about Hitler. report that, of all things, the newest Authors Jonathan Mayo and Emma known killer in our lives is … Craigie, in their new book Hitler’s Last Baby powder. Day: Minute by Minute, studied some Which apparently gives us cancer. previously unseen medical records, I kid you not: The latest cancerand found that Hitler had a very small

penis. Good for them for doing the research, but I feel like all of us had probably already guessed that. Given that even baby powder, of all things, can kill you, it’s no wonder we overreact to everything that causes a threat, and you can see why every business is always bending over backward to avoid a lawsuit. Along those lines, the other day I went to see the horror movie The Boy at the Regal Greensboro Grande theater in Friendly Center and I got a large Diet Coke before the film. I don’t like getting the large drink because it is way more than I can drink during the movie, but I do like the fact that, if you get the large, they give you free refills. Anyway, I got the big drink and, as you know, when you get the big drink at a movie theater, you get the big drink. There was virtually no one else in the theater on that day, and I went into the restroom to use the urinal. Now, in case you’re wondering, there’s not enough room to rest your drink on the top of the urinals and I found that out. Since the theater did not plan well enough ahead and make the tops of their urinals wide enough to rest the bottom of the big drinks they were selling, my brand new giant soda tumbled off and hit the bathroom floor and completely emptied all over the place. I took my giant empty cup back to the concession stand where I’d bought it two minutes earlier and informed them of the design problem with their bathroom. They gave me a new drink. Now, I didn’t think much about it after that – but apparently the Regal Grande staff did. When I came out of the movie, and walked by the restroom entrance two hours later, there was a huge “Caution” sign and what looked like police crime scene tape and inside this is what I saw. I looked at the scene and I was like: “Good Lord, it’s a Diet

Coke that I spilled, not yellow-cake uranium.” I don’t know why the Venus flytrap is suddenly all over the news, but apparently every plant, like every human, gets its 15 minutes of fame, and now that plant is in the limelight. One thing I learned from all the recent publicity, by the way, is that they only grow in the wild in a very small patch of wetlands near the coasts of eastern North Carolina and South Carolina. Now, these are very creepy plants and I really don’t know why anyone would want to own one, but I saw on the news that it’s now a felony to dig up a Venus flytrap. In fact, you can, no kidding, get up to two years in prison for Venus flytrap theft. I read recently that they had just made the first arrest under the new law and I really felt bad for that guy because in prison when the convicts are all standing around during a break from cracking large rocks with a pickaxe, it would probably go something like this... Convict 1: “What am I in for? Murder one. I strangled my sister. What about you?” Convict 2: “Felony trafficking and attempted murder. A Mexican drug cartel kingpin tried to short me on 20 (continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

yost

(continued from previous page) survivor (Nina Hoss), unrecognizable after facial reconstruction surgery, searches ravaged postwar Berlin for the husband (Ronald Zehrfeld) who might have betrayed her to the Nazis.” I thought for sure that would have won the award in the “Feel Good Date Movie of the Year” category.

keys of black tar heroin so I shot off both his kneecaps.” Convict 3: “I shot an old lady and her grandkid during a liquor store robbery. What about you, Johnson, you’re being awfully quiet over there. What’d they get you for?” And then you would be like, “Uh, digging up Venus flytraps …” Something tells me that after they know what you are in for you are not going to be seen as the alpha dog in that cellblock, if you know what I mean. Speaking of Venus flytraps, I found this online article for new Venus flytrap owners that was titled “What do you feed your Venus flytrap?” I didn’t read the article so … hmmm, geez, I don’t know. That’s a real puzzler. Uh, hello, I think I have a correct guess for that. That’s about as hard to guess as Hitler’s penis size.

in downtown Greensboro should be used to house the homeless. Maybe I’m missing something, but I thought we already did use the jails to house the homeless.

There’s been a lot of talk lately among News & Record writers about whether the abandoned jail

So let me get this straight. In 2016, the big rule change is that men can use the women’s bathroom? Is that

right? Am I hearing that right? Everyone enjoyed the Academy Awards recently, but I was surprised to see that the movie Phoenix didn’t win an Oscar. If you don’t know what it’s about, here’s a description from Internet Movie Database: “A disfigured concentration-camp

The FBI is trying to get Apple to invent a way to break into a secure iPhone. I read that the technology to do that would involve Apple using three to five software engineers that would spend two or three weeks creating a technology that would disable the phone’s auto erase function, reduce the time between guesses and allow the FBI to electronically input pass code guesses so they could do a large number quickly. They say it’s a very complex operation, but it can be done by the top minds at Apple. Great, after they finish that, maybe that same team of experts can figure out a way for me to get this &$%#-ing U-2 album off my iPhone.

Let Us Help You Look And Feel Your Best Cosmetic Surgery, Botox, Injectable Fillers, Laser Skin Treatment, Fraxel®, Re Store Treatment, Obagi, Skin Ceuticals, Restylane, Radiesse, Breast Augmentation, Breast Reduction, Mastopexy, Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck), Liposuction, Facelift, Blepharoplasty, Vanquish Fat Reduction

Board Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery

Dr. Virgil V. Willard, II and Bandit

Private outpatient surgical suite and overnight stay available at Comfort Cottage

by appointment 336-886-1667 1101 North Linsay Street • Suite 202 • High Point, NC 27262 • 336-886-1667 • www.plasticsurgerync.com

28 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

endorsements (continued from page 18)

as commissioner of labor to promote unions in North Carolina and promote a “living wage” for workers. Meeker says his emphasis would be on making certain employees receive the money they’ve earned and work place safety. Meeker, based on experience and platform, is the better candidate. The winner will face long time Commissioner of Labor Cherie Berry. Secretary of State – Republican Republicans A.J. Daoud and Michael LaPaglia are running for secretary of state and the will face Democrat incumbent Elaine Marshall, who has no primary, in November. Daoud is the former North Carolina 6th District Republican chairman and ran for secretary of state in 2012. Daoud is a former police officer who ran a funeral home business in Pilot Mountain. Daoud has been active in Republican state politics, traveling around the state for Republican events. LaPaglia runs a consulting business in Durham that works with museums and historic sites. It is LaPaglia’s first run for public office.

Both candidates say they would concentrate more on small businesses and helping economic development in the state rather than just keeping track of businesses. Daoud appears to be the better candidate. His statewide contacts will help him running in this race that few people know much about. Marshall is going to be tough to beat in November. She has been secretary of state since 1997 and ran against Sen. Richard Burr in 2010. She has statewide name recognition. Superintendent of Public Instruction – Republican Primary Three Republicans are running for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. One thing is certain – any of the three would be a better superintendent than the current superintendent of public instruction, June Atkinson. Our pick is Forsyth County Board of Education member Mark Johnson, who is an attorney and started his working career as a schoolteacher. That experience with the public school system in North Carolina separates him from his opponent, Dr. Rosemary

beep (continued from page 25) I don’t care how high they make the wall, they showed the man that got out of jail down there, they run a tunnel about a mile to come up under his cell. It will be no trouble to tunnel under it. Looks like to me they could dig a ditch about 15 or 20 foot wide, and about 40 feet deep, it would be a whole lot better than trying to build a wall, and fill it full of Rottweilers and German shepherd dogs. Just feed the dogs and leave them in the ditch. Have one stationed about every two or three miles. That would stop them from coming over here.

%%% I invite any person who is going to vote for Hillary to see the movie 13 Hours. If she had anything to do with the four deaths and injuries that happened there in Benghazi, let’s just say she’ll be going to a very warm place in the afterlife. It’s absolutely shameful what happened.

%%%

The mass media in this country are not trying to inform you. They’re trying to manipulate you. Now, I am no supporter of the KKK, but there was an incident in California recently in which a handful of KKK members exited their truck and were promptly attacked and assaulted by counter protestors. The headlines in the media read like Clashes Occur at KKK Incident, or Protestors Stop an Incident, as if there were no perpetrators, as if this was just an act of God. But that is not true. They were violently attacked by counter protestors when they were trying to assert their First Amendment rights. Just imagine if the roles were reversed? The headlines would read something like, First Amendment Rights Quashed by Violent Bigots, or Protestors Stopped by Aggressive Bigoted, Violent Attackers. But that’s the kind of media we have. Just sign me off as An Independent Thinker. (continued on page 33)

Stein, a Burlington pediatrician. Stein homeschooled her daughter who is now in private school. Johnson’s experience as both a teacher, the low man in the system when it comes to education policy, and the school board, at the top of the local system, gives him an unique perspective and one that hopefully he could translate into better policies for all the students of North Carolina. J. Wesley Sills is the low man in the system. He has been teaching social studies in Harnett County since 2012 and has been a licensed teacher since 2015. Before he went into teaching he was an insurance salesman and worked on yachts around the world for five years. Sills doesn’t appear to have the experience to step into the role of superintendent of public instruction. Superintendent of Public Instruction – Democratic Primary The word on the street was that North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson was going to retire, but she didn’t. She is running for reelection and Henry Pankey, a high school assistant principal, is running against her. Pankey says all his decisions will be made on the best interest of the students. Atkinson has been fighting a rearguard action against the Republican legislature and Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest. She offers opposition to charter schools and, earlier this year, Speaker Pro Tem of the Senate Phil Berger in a strongly worded letter accused her of taking money that was supposed to go for a reading program and using it for administrators. It’s difficult to change education in the state when the superintendent of public instruction is fighting for the bloated education bureaucracy. Pankey has to be better. State Treasurer – Democratic The position of North Carolina State Treasurer is open because State Treasurer Janet Cowell is not running for reelection. Two Democrats are running, and if you have a single fiscally conservative bone in your body, the choice is Ron Elmer over Dan Blue III. Elmer says he can save the state pension fund billions by taking the investment portfolio in house instead of paying huge fees to Wall Street firms. Elmer has also suggested a board of trustees to help oversee the pension fund. State employees who pay into the fund would be represented on the board. Blue wants to continue the same old, same old, where the state pays enormous fees for the privilege of

having the state’s money invested. Elmer, a Democrat trying to save the state money, deserves your support. The winner will face Republican Dale Folwell in November. NC House District 58 – Democratic North Carolina House District 58 Rep. Ralph Johnson is being challenged in the Democratic primary by Guilford County Board of Education member Amos Quick. There is no Republican opponent, so the winner of the primary essentially wins the seat. Johnson is running for his second term in the state House and this is his first elective office. There is a lot to learn about the legislature, state government and a myriad of bills that come before the state House during a session. Johnson has at times seemed overwhelmed by the whole process. Johnson cast some votes with Republicans, but mainly voted the Democratic Party line and didn’t make waves. Quick has been a productive member of the school board. It seems he could take that knowledge of public service from the school board and be an effective member of the House. I think Quick would go to Raleigh and try to get some things done, which is possible for a Democrat who knows how to work the system. Quick would be a good addition to the Guilford delegation. Board of Education The upside of holding the primary elections in March is that North Carolina voters get a voice in determining the party presidential nominees. The downside is that local races get lost in the tumult of the presidential races. This is the first year for partisan Guilford County Board of Education elections, and it gives the voters a chance to bring about change to the school board. It doesn’t seem that anyone is arguing that the school board is doing a great job. The big difference is that school board members argue that it is the state’s fault, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ fault, the federal government’s fault, the parents fault or the students’ fault, and they aren’t willing to take responsibility for the failing schools in Guilford County. District 1 – Democratic Primary District 1 Guilford County Board of Education member Aaron Keith McCullough is being challenged by former Greensboro City Councilmember T. Dianne Bellamy Small. It is almost impossible to exaggerate how disruptive Bellamy-Small can

(continued on next page)

endorsements (continued from previous page)

be on a board or council. It is also almost impossible to exaggerate how little Bellamy-Small accomplished in her 10 years on the Greensboro City Council. It takes five votes to pass a motion on the City Council, and since Bellamy-Small was barely on speaking terms with most councilmembers it was extremely difficult for her to put together the votes to do anything significant. McCullough appears to be a thoughtful and considerate member of the school board, and the school board, the school staff and the children of Guilford County will all be better off if McCullough is elected. District 2 – Republican Primary After taking an eight-year break, Anita Sharpe is running for the District 2 seat on the school board. Sharpe is running against John Nosek in the Republican primary and they are coming from very different places. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democratic Guilford County Board of Education member Jeff Belton in November.

Sharpe served on the school board for 18 years before stepping down. Nosek has no experience with the public schools other than attending Page High School. Nosek described his experience with public schools, other than as a student, as “none.” Usually people running for school board have become involved in a parent teacher association, some school committee or volunteered at a school. Most become involved because they have children in school. Sometimes, by the time they work their way up to the school board, it is their grandchildren and not their children in school. But an interest in the schools because of their own children is usually where it starts. Nosek is married but has no children. He said he had been to a couple of school board meetings but had no other involvement. By contrast Sharpe has been to 18 years worth of meetings and saw the schools through the consolidation process. For much of her time on the school board she was a voice of reason, serving with a group that just wanted to do what it was told to do

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

by the administration. If some new members get elected to the school board they will benefit from Sharpe’s vast store of knowledge about the schools and how to get things done. Sharpe was a good school board member when she served before, and there is every reason to think that after a few years off she will come back even better. It’s hard to know why Nosek is running. He says he wants to work to improve education, but there are lots of avenues to do that without being on the school board. Volunteering in the schools would be one way to find out first hand what is really going on versus what is reported in the news. Nosek is young, bright and energetic. He might quickly learn about public education and be a good school board member. But in this case he is running against Sharpe, who has a long history of voting the right way on issues and she already knows the system. If you want improvement in the Guilford County school system, you are much more likely to get that from Sharpe than from Nosek. District 3 – Republican Primary Both Brian Pearce and Patrick Tillman are parents with children in the public schools. It appears both

would be good additions to the school board. Unfortunately, both Pearce and Tillman are running in the Republican primary for the District 3 seat. I think Tillman is the better bet. Tillman ran for an at-large seat on the school board four years ago and won the nonpartisan primary but lost the general election to Guilford County Board of Education member Sandra Alexander. Tillman knows public education. His mother was a teacher and his father, state Sen. Jerry Tillman, retired as an assistant superintendent. The fact that Sen. Tillman is chairman of the Senate Education and Higher Education Committee wouldn’t hurt Guilford County Schools, which has had a less-than-friendly relationship with the legislature. Pearce got involved in the schools because he has a son with autism. He was shocked when a school administrator refused to talk to him at a school board meeting and when an administrator said, “Well, maybe things have to get worse before they get better.” Pearce said that kind of attitude made him decide to run for the school board. Pearce has served as chairman of the Greensboro Board of Adjustment,

(continued on page 31)

30 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com NEWS OF THE WEIRD

Man Reunited With Childhood Toilet The Continuing Crisis Retired engineer Harry Littlewood, 68, watching workers tear down outdated public housing in Stockport, England, recently, rushed over to ask the local Stockport Council about recovering a “souvenir” since the teardowns included his residence growing up. The council agreed, and Littlewood was awarded the toilet he had used as a boy. “I never thought I’d see it again,” he mused. He said he would probably turn it into a planter. The Square Wheel of Justice In February, New York’s highest court finally said “enough” to the seemingly endless delays on a multimilliondollar judgment for negligence that occurred 23 years ago. Linda Nash had sued, among others, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for injuries she suffered when trapped in an underground parking garage during the World Trade Center terrorist act. (No, not the one in 2001, but

the bombing eight years before that, which killed six and wounded more than 1,000). Nash was 49 and 72 now, and after winning a $5.4 million jury verdict in 2005, endured 10 more years of appeals. In its final, unsuccessful motion in the case, the Port Authority said it had spotted a technicality and that Nash should start over. Unclear on the Concept Progressives’ Anxiety Disorder: Several students at the Ivy League’s Brown University complained (quoted in a February story in the student newspaper) that classroom work (ostensibly what Brown charges $50,000 a year in tuition for) was increasingly a burden, distracting them from their more important calling: organizing and protesting against various “injustices” on campus. Students were underperforming academically (and suffering health problems and anxiety issues) because, said the students, Brown

still expects them to complete course requirements even though they are busy denouncing racist columns in the student newspaper and challenging the weakness of Brown’s “diversity” policies (among other targets). The Aristocrats! Australian Neville Sharp brought his “A” game to a pub in the Darwin suburb of Humpty Doo in February and, in a Guinness World Record attempt, expelled a 110.6-decibel belch (which, if certified by Guinness book officials, beats the old record of 109.9 by a gentleman in the UK). Sharp gives all credit to his sister for teaching him, as a child, proper belching technique. Perspective Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (who left the company early, and like Bill Gates, became known for his philanthropy, which has been directed toward conservation projects including coral reef restorations) is the owner of the 300-foot yacht whose anchor in January accidentally crushed 14,000 square feet (about 80 percent) of the Cayman Islands’ precious West Bay coral reef. Harm to the islands’ ecosystem, world-famous for its diversity, will not quickly be repaired, said officials. The MV Tatoosh’s business in the area was not reported, but Allen was not aboard. Cayman Islands is a popular vacation and diving spot (and tax haven). Uselessness of the Miranda Warning The three young men charged so far in the Feb. 17 murder in a South Carolina bowling alley made their first post-crime courtroom appearances memorable ones. According to a WYFF-TV (Greenville, South Carolina) report, Albert Taylor, 22 (and labeled as the shooter by police), seemed indifferent to the charges, but questioned the judge about courtroom cameras, appearing preoccupied. As he was being ushered out, he turned to address the camera and barked, “What’s up, y’all? You can follow me on Twitter, follow me on Instagram, Snapchat.” Alex Smith, 38, asked a sheriff’s deputy in Limestone County, Alabama, at 3 a.m. on Feb. 19 for a “courtesy ride” to a nearby Wal-Mart, and the deputy agreed, but following procedure, said

he’d have to search Smith before letting him into the patrol car. According to the subsequent arrest report, Smith consented. The deputy then turned up a veritable drug supply store in Smith’s pockets, his backpack and his duffel bags: drugs (meth, marijuana and black tar heroin), two syringes, a drug cooking spoon, two marijuana pipes, a meth smoking pipe, and a supply of baggies of the type frequently used for drugs. Smith was charged with drug possession and trafficking. Bright Ideas Williams Lake, British Columbia, has the most violent crime per capita for its size (pop. 10,800) of any town in Canada, and in February the city council unanimously passed a dramatic action plan: to inject “high risk” criminals with “GPS tracking” devices. The program was immediately denounced by privacy advocates, but that challenge is almost beside the point – since injectable GPS tracking does not even exist. (Councilors likely confused implantable microchips, which contain data but do not track, with GPS transponders, which track but only via sight-line contact with a satellite.) Latest Religious Messages Local governments in Taiwan’s Southwest Coast National Scenic Area in Chiayi province recently put the finishing touches on a 55-foot-high “church” in the form of a shoe made from more than 300 glass panels (and costing the equivalent of about $680,000). According to a BBC News dispatch, no religious services will be held there; rather, the church will be a destination for weddings and feature other events tailored for glass-slipperobsessed females. Prosecutors in Spain finally filed charges this year against three women for a May 2014 protest that was apparently aimed at religious intolerance of homosexuality, and are asking that the charges against the women be labeled anti-Catholic “hate” crimes. One judge particularly noted the anti-Catholic props – rosary beads, prayer lace, canonical hoods and a 6-foot-high plastic vulva constructed to resemble the wellknown representation of the Virgin Mary. In January, judges called police to court to help identify the women.

endorsements (continued from page 29)

which is appointed but holds public meetings, and that type of experience will come in handy if he is elected. Both candidates say the school system is top heavy with administrators. Tillman seems to have more knowledge of the workings of the school system and a more defined plan on what he would like to do as a board member. It’s a close call and either would be a good addition to the school board, but I think Tillman has the edge. The winner will face former Guilford County Schools Regional Superintendent Democrat Angelo Kidd. District 4 – Republican Primary On the Republican side there is only one school board member running for reelection in the primary and that is Board of Education member Linda Welborn in District 4. She is being challenged by Paul Daniels, who she defeated four years ago. There is no Democratic opponent so the winner should win in November. Welborn got elected to the school board as an outsider, but once on the board it appeared she drank the Kool-Aid and now sounds like every other member of the school board – blaming everyone else for the schools’ problems. One of the constant mantras from the school board is that they don’t get enough money. Who does? The job of the school board is to do the best job they can with the money they are allocated. The school board’s job is not to constantly complain about the fact that they didn’t get all the money they requested. Welborn can hardly speak about an issue without blaming all the funding sources for not providing more money. She also constantly complains about charter schools. Once again charter schools are mandated by the state. It doesn’t matter what individual school board members think or believe about charter schools. The state legislature has decided they provide a good alternative for parents and they are here to stay. Complaining about them accomplishes nothing. Daniels served on the school board as one of its more conservative members and deserves the chance to go back. Daniels is something of a policy wonk, full of facts and figures, but he says he is running again because, with the partisan races, “This is a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to elect a majority of folks who don’t see education the same way the majority of folks on the school board do.”

He said the school board should be leading the administration not the other way around, which is the way it is now. And he said that teachers have to be supported in the classroom. Daniels said that raising the graduation rate was easy; Guilford County Schools could have a 100 percent graduation rate this year by lowering the standards. But the problem is that students are currently graduating without the skills to get a good job. Daniels believes that the schools need to concentrate more on preparing students for the workplace, and one way to do that is increasing the cooperation with area industries. Daniels said, “There is a huge disconnect between the central office and the schools.” He said that charter schools provide a good alternative for parents, and if some school board members don’t like charter schools, they should work to make Guilford County Schools so superior that no one would consider sending their children to charter schools. But he said that he thought charter schools served a good purpose in public education. Daniels has solutions; Welborn has complaints. District Court Electing District Court judges has never made any sense to me. People don’t know who they are, and the candidates are restricted on what they can say by judicial ethics. In each of the two primary elections on the ballot for District Court judge, there is a sitting District Court judge recommended by the Bar Association and appointed by Gov. Pat McCrory. So each has been doubly vetted by fellow attorneys and by the governor’s office. Judge Jon Kreider is running against Miranda Reynolds Reavis and Bill Davis. We recommend Kreider, who was appointed to fill a vacant seat by McCrory Judge David Sherrill is running against Ron Butler and Lora Christine Cubbage, and we recommend Sherrill, who was also appointed to fill a vacant seat by McCrory. During election season, signs get placed all over the place – most legally but some illegally. Cubbage is one of this election season’s winners in the illegally placed sign contest. Certainly an overzealous campaign worker could put out some signs illegally without the knowledge of the candidate. But with Cubbage, her signs are illegally placed all over (continued on page 42)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

32 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

The New York Times

crossword puzzle No. 0228

COURT JESTERS

BY TIMOTHY POLIN / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 19

A CR O SS

1 Make less dangerous, in a way 7 Sleep-lab study 12 Some school edicts 16 Small invention 19 Eagle constellation 20 Signature Michael Jackson wear

57 “

112 Short flight

17 Batting .200, maybe

58 Busted timer?

114 Nougaty treats

18 Queen ____ (popmusic nickname)

60 Illicit sum

116 Writing “30 and single” when 62 Anderson of “WKRP” it’s really “50 and 64 Historic siege site married,” e.g.? 65 Legendary 120 Reduces to siege site smithereens 66 Desi Arnaz?

33 Is unacceptable

21 Runway model?

74 Cutting edge

23 Fly swatter?

76 Karaoke-bar sight

25 “It seems to me …”

77 Key of Brahms’s Symphony No. 4

36 Père d’un prince 123 Morning condensate 37 1961 space chimp 124 Chichi 39 Improvise,

27 Rationale 28 Trickle 30 “The Good Wife” figures: Abbr. 31 Confer

in a way

42 Isolated

81 One of the Gabor sisters

44 Softly

84 Prompt

quarters

54 Brings in

101 Lament from an unlucky shrimper?

56 Palindromic girl

105 Devotee

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

35 Virtual address

79 Winning an Oscar for 126 Go through “Norma Rae”?

85 Actress Thomas 34 Drool from both sides 87 Reclined of the mouth? 88 Acrophobe’s term for 38 Screams bloody a route through the murder mountains? 40 Brought up 90 Encouraging word 41 Narrow lead in 91 Fire place? baseball 92 Attended 42 Quaker of note? 93 Soothes 45 In base 8 94 One of the Furies 47 Sound near a spittoon 97 Asian territory in 50 Brooding music genre Risk 51 Tip of an épée? 99 Round after the 53 Sci-fi film with a 2010 sequel

125 Cantina appetizers

108 Fallout from the 2000 election? 109 “My bad!” 110 Put off

DOWN

1 Applies gingerly 2 Outfit

7 Forever

55 Ground-beef contaminant

120

10 Time for last-minute planning 11 Oxygen-dependent bacterium 12 Card-table cloth

59 Rio Grande city 61 “Downton Abbey” daughter 63 “Jeez!” 67 Flummox

13 Not fully independent 68 De jure 14 Piece corps, briefly? 69 Showroom models 15 Almost dislocate 16 Violation of Yom Kippur?

accomplishments. The actual story – including Lewrie’s dalliances and loves and marriage and all – is very good and completely believable for a man of his time. However, Lambdin’s detailed depictions of said dalliances begin to cloy very quickly, if only because love-making is not as complicated as a sailing ship, and so rhapsodic accounts of such operations become mind-numbingly repetitive. When you’re reading, it’s easy to skip and skim. But when you’re listening to the audiobooks, as I’m doing, skipping

70 77

102

93 99

103

115

104

124

85 Ghostly sound

110 116

100 105

106

111 118

121

122

125

126

96 Morsel

107

112

117

113

119

107 “Wanna play?”

98 1994 bomb based on an “S.N.L.” 79 Rug dealer’s special? 88 Say, “When I met the character Dalai Lama last 80 Prepares for a year,” say 100 Something to boost Mr. Universe 89 “Qué ____?” 102 Bridge whiz competition, say 78 Achieve success

109

92 97

75 Astral lion

50 54

123

82 “____ the day!” 71 Residents of 3-Down (cry repeated in Shakespeare) 72 Trackpad alternative 83 Settled the score 73 Lean on

(continued from page 20)

108 114

58 62

54 CD-____

79 85

53 “Use your head!”

9 O.K.

6 Archer’s battle weapon

58 Mobile-home resident?

101

52 Stabilizer of a ship’s compass

4 Oft-married Taylor

8 Like lumberjack jackets

43 Echolocator 46 “Three Billy Goats Gruff” villain

5 Keg contents

3 World Heritage Site in 48 Smash up the Andes 49 “You win!”

uncle orson And socially speaking, that makes all the difference. You see, English society went through a radical change during this time with the rise of Methodism, and a high degree of sexual permissiveness was replaced by a higher standard of decorum. Lewrie was definitely of the social class in which whatever a “gentleman” wished to do, he could do, as long as he was reasonably discreet. And Lewrie did it. Dewey Lambdin seems as committed to narrating Lewrie’s sexual exploits with the same detail and thoroughness as his nautical

29 Veteran 32 A question of time

24 Give a tongue-lashing

121 Cropped up

26 Attack order

22 Don’t bother

70 Unsteady gait

122 Canadian smacker

86 Apportion

111 Anti bodies? 113 Petitioned 114 Whacked 115 Kind of dye

91 Sugar

103 Domineering

117 The Depression, for one

92 Goth-looking, in a way

104 Actress Thompson of “Creed”

118 Smoked deli purchase

95 It’s hard to get across 106 River along Avignon 119 Popinjay

becomes much more difficult. I’m doing it anyway because life is short, and I want to get back to the story as quickly as possible. If coarse (but authentic) language bothers you, stick with Hornblower. If you want authenticity and can bear with Lambdin’s commitment to obsessive thoroughness about sex, prostitutes, pederasts and pirates, then I recommend the Alan Lewrie series highly. One of the best thing about the books is the array of other characters, naval and landside, commissioned and regular seamen. Lewrie quickly learns that all captains are crazy, in one way or another; some delightfully so, and others appalling and dangerous to everyone on their ships.

Lewrie has the attitudes toward women that were common in his day; Lambdin does not, as so many authors do, make Lewrie anachronistically wrong in order to be politically correct. Lewrie is no feminist – he finds it tedious when intellectually gifted women try to talk about matters “outside their sphere.” But Lambdin tells these things with such panache that we know that he knows that we’ll like these bluestocking women precisely because they don’t “know their place.” For instance, Lewrie encounters Lord Nelson’s famous mistress, Mrs. Hamilton, before Nelson does – including a brief and torrid affair – but hasn’t the brains to appreciate her as Nelson does.

(continued on next page)

uncle orson (continued from previous page)

Best of all, though, we meet Nelson himself, long before he’s the great and famous hero of Trafalgar, and we see, through Lewrie’s eyes, how Nelson is protected and advanced early in his career by the patronage of higher officers. Since the American military still functions in much the same way – careers depend on having a high officer looking out for you, making sure you get the right assignments – it’s illuminating to see how Lewrie both resents and imitates the officers who are climbing in rank through cultivating flattery-centered friendships with their superiors. Every volume I’ve read so far – six to date – has been as good as the others. When Lewrie is in a bind, where he has no good options, we suffer along with him. It’s fun to meet Napoleon as a young colonel of artillery who is taking apart the British defenses at Toulon; but it’s also educational to see how the utter stupidity of military decisionmaking on most occasions arises from the fact that the military does not weed out the idiots until several years into a war, and the equally important fact that nobody ever has enough information,

enough soldiers, and enough materiele to carry out an excellent campaign. Again, nothing has changed in the intervening years. How many years of incompetence before you get a Petraeus? And how long before competing civilian or military interests bring him down? (There are still forces that recently tried to punish Petraeus retroactively for daring to make Bush’s occupation of Iraq effective after all. Malice has no expiration date.) John Lee’s performance of the Alan Lewrie audiobooks is outstanding. He has mastered many English accents from every region and social class, and his handling of foreign languages is never less than adequate. This is a world in which gentlemen all speak Latin and French, to a degree, and one must speak with allies or competitors from Italy, Spain, Portugal, China, the Netherlands and who knows where else – since I still have many volumes to go. Unlike Hornblower, who was an obsessive swimmer, Alan Lewrie is a committed non-swimmer, which almost costs him his life when the gunboat he commands at Toulon is

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES burning and sinking under him. At some point, one would imagine that he would undertake to learn how to swim ... but the fact remains that hardly anybody in the British Navy at that time bothered to acquire that particular skill. Which makes sense, considering that in most cases, you would hit the water in such remote places, in such shark-infested waters, that drowning in a few minutes made as much sense as swimming until you either became shark food or you drowned from exhaustion. These are lively, invigorating, yet meticulously accurate books, and Dewey Lambdin’s afterwords are a delight. Each of the later books begins with a summary of what went before, so that you really can begin almost anywhere. But the books in order are: The King’s Coat, The French Admiral, The King’s Commission, The King’s Privateer, The Gun Ketch, H.M.S. Cockerel, A King’s Commander, Jester’s Fortune, King’s Captain, Sea of Grey, Havoc’s Sword, The Captain’s Vengeance, A King’s Trade, Troubled Waters, The Baltic Gambit; King, Ship, and Sword; The Invasion Year, Reefs and Shoals, Hostile Shores, The King’s Marauder and Kings and Emperors. Read them in order. Why deny yourself the fun of watching Lewrie grow up, as a naval officer and as a man?

beep (continued from page 28)

%%% Thanks for the article on the $92 million jail that was built. Yes, it was a waste of taxpayers’ money. I would have been fine with giving each jail cell inmate a can of paint and a brush. They have a lot of time on their hands. Other renovations of those cells could have been done by professionals. The sad part is that, whenever Sheriff Barnes continues to ask for buildings, the majority of the county commissioners give him what he asks for. And, now, recommendations have been made to renovate the old jail for a homeless shelter. Folks, get out and vote. Get out and vote. They’re saying that convicts, murderers, rapists, thieves get a better place to live, a $92 million jail, while homeless mothers and their children, homeless fathers and their children, get the old jail. What’s wrong with this picture?

%%% (continued on page 34)

34 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

beep (continued from page 33) I’m calling in response to the Ted Cruz’s family being covered under Obamacare. I’m looking at the editor’s note, and it’s saying this is not true. The Cruz family is covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Well, the Obamacare insurance is not just – the program is called Obamacare, but there are different types of insurance under that such as BlueCross and BlueShield that was made available through Obamacare. So, I think this deserves some more research. So, it can be possible the Ted Cruz family is covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, but he obtained it possibly through Obamacare. Insurance is a company name, not just Obamacare. All right? Thank you.

%%% During the recent debate, Marco Rubio mentioned that Donald Trump may have connections with the Mafia. I think Rubio forgets that his family worked for the Mafia boss Meyer Lansky in Cuba and later worked for him in Las Vegas. So, if there is anyone that has Mafia ties, it’s Marco Rubio. You know, he needs to get his story straight before he starts spewing out all these things that aren’t relevant to his opponent’s connections.

%%% Well, we’ve taken a country that’s the best country in the world and turned it into the biggest mess that’s ever been. Nothing particularly wrong with Barack Obama as far as I’m concerned personally. But the black people all voted for him just because he was black, which is absolutely what you don’t do. You don’t vote for somebody because they’re good looking, or got blue eyes, or whatever. But that’s what they done. The next time, Romney was not strong enough to defeat him. And, now, we got a socialist running, which is not going to get anywhere. We got Democrats fighting one another. We’ve got the Republican candidates fighting one another like fourth graders and turning it into an absolute mess. I’m a registered Republican. But I don’t know at this point whether I’ll even vote or not. When Hillary Clinton gets in, and she probably will, they’re going to have to cut what these people are drawing. And when they start cutting their money …

%%% Steely Dan Fan Man. I got a prediction. By the time Obama leaves office, I bet Bernie Madoff will have a total presidential pardon. I’m saying this because there’s going to be an excuse made, whether it be age or health. And I got to tell you, people die in prison every day because of health and age. So that’s really a lame excuse, especially considering who it is and what it’s all about. But that’s my prediction. Shout out to Blue-Eyed Devil, too.

%%% Your article on the new jail fiasco almost hit the nail on the head. What you failed to mention

(continued on page 38)

Get Fuzzy

by Darby Conley

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Letters IN PRAISE OF BLUST DEAR EDITOR,

I am writing in response to the cartoon referring to Rep. John Blust as “ineffective.” It is disappointing to see this, since it was through the efforts of Rep. Blust that we now have the current ninemember Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Rep. Blust was able to push this bill through the House session in 2011, and despite some initial pushback in the Senate and a temporary victory led by Sen. Gladys Robinson, he was constant in his pressure to get the bill passed through that chamber. This ultimately then led to the redistricting of the Guilford County commissioners board, and in turn gave us the board which we now have. I would not call that ineffective. In

LETTERS To The Editor

TO THE EDITOR fact, a December 2011 “year in review” issue of a certain local weekly paper, which is no longer published, praised Rep. Blust for shepherding this bill through the House and joining with Sen. Berger to make sure that the bill was successful. Our commissioners are doing some great things, and I thank Rep. Blust for getting the ball rolling here. I will also just briefly mention the tireless work of Rep. Blust to rid our NC General Assembly of corrupt lawmakers such as one time Speaker of the NC House former Rep. Jim Black. But do not take my word for it, readers. Just Google the two names, and a myriad of articles will appear, of Rep. Blust writing, speaking out and editorializing against the corruption brought on by such figures as Reps. Black, Decker and Morgan, just to name a few. These were sleazy politicians who did things such as

making deals – including bribery – by handing over envelopes of cash at a pancake restaurant, in order to consolidate power, all the while with total disregard for the people of NC. John Blust correctly referred to the corruption of Black and company as a “black mark on our institution.” In the end, Rep. Blust is still working on behalf of his constituents, and working to ensure corruption does not again grab hold of the institutions in Raleigh. Thanks in part to legislators such as John Blust, Jim Black went to jail, Michael Decker went to jail and Richard Morgan lost his primary, and every election since then. Three up, three down. I will finish with this: The organization which ranks the “effectiveness” of the legislators once ranked Jim Black as No. 1. Right up until the time he went to jail.

Theresa Yon

VOTE HOLMQUIST DEAR EDITOR,

I am voting for Larry Holmquist in the Republican US Senate primary, and I encourage you to vote for him as well. I have known Larry for several years, and I know him to be a man of faith and strong moral character. He is also a very compassionate man, and a man of integrity and courage. He will not be compromised by the money or other temptations in Washington, and he will stand up and fight for our nation and our state every day. He’ll be a “breath of fresh air” in the Senate and will make all North Carolinians proud. Please join me in voting for Larry Holmquist in the Republican US Senate primary.

Daryl Lundy

(continued on page 36)

36 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

letters

(continued from page 35)

REELECT WELBORN DEAR EDITOR,

Linda Welborn is running for reelection to the Board of Education in the District 4 race. I have known Linda and her family for nearly 20 years and have always found her to be honest, reliable, tough, disciplined, fearless, thorough, thoughtful, thrifty and caring. These are the qualities I would like to see exemplified for the children of our schools and we need leaders like Linda that will not just talk the talk, but will take action using these traits as her guide. Linda is not a politician, she is a person of action that demands high standards and will represent District 4 to the best of her ability. I encourage you to support her on March 15.

David Michaels

GOP CAN DO BETTER DEAR EDITOR,

In 2008, the American electorate was mesmerized by the possibility of electing either the first AfricanAmerican or the first female president. Emotions ran high and you cannot dispute that emotions won out – twice. The same seems to be happening once again. Emotions are controlling our decision making. Take the reactions for and against Donald J. Trump’s candidacy for instance. People are either for him or against him. Few appear to be neutral. But if you listen to Trump supporters and detractors, it’s closer to an argument than a discussion. Supporters of Trump display all the elegance and grace of the Occupy Wall Street crowd. Are they wrong? Not necessarily. They are disgusted with the current federal leadership and are willing to promote anyone willing to stand up and fight. But they are doing so without thoroughly researching the candidates. That is exactly what happened with Obama. Money does not bestow refinement. You are either born with it or learn it; you can’t buy it. What has been evident since the first GOP debate is a disgusting display of arrogance, unnecessary insults and language that clearly should not be used in mixed company. That, for me, eliminates Trump as a viable candidate. He could be an embarrassing president. But what of his leadership? He has stated that he is not supportive of Israel. And if “others” don’t play by “his rules,” he will add massive tariffs to goods from China and Mexico. That would start trade wars curiously

similar to what happened in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 imposed massive tariffs on goods imported from countries worldwide. Our tariffs on imports, mirrored by their tariffs on our exports, extended the Great Depression for many years longer than necessary. Is that what Trump supporters want? What about Trump’s business acumen? What happened to Trump Airlines? How about Trump University? Trump Vodka? Trump Steaks? Trump: The Game? Trump Mortgage? Trump supporters tend to accept only their own personal views. No attempt is made to even consider differing opinions. It’s called “confirmation bias,” whereby a person agrees with a belief only if that view conforms to his own. We can do so much better than Donald J. Trump as a contender. Do not allow emotions to cloud your decisions. That is a mistake we cannot afford to revisit.

Robert Fullerton

SEARCH FOR JUSTICE DEAR EDITOR,

Thank you, Dave Davenport Jr., for bringing the death penalty to our attention. The problem with not invoking the death penalty is the victim and their families. After a short while, we forget the sleepless nights, the crying all day, the nerve medicine some have to take. These are the people that want to see justice. The death penalty is God’s law. He knows what is just for a killer.

G.L. Herbin

FLUSH IT DEAR EDITOR,

I think things are getting out of hand and certain groups are just asking for way too much. The talk is about transgender bathrooms. What is next? Sex offenders running day cares? The bond a guy has with a man’s bathroom is special. It’s a place where you catch up on reading and phone calls. It’s a place where you handle your business and not be afraid to be around other men. The liberals are now turning the bathroom into a circus. The fact is God gave men and women different plumbing and that’s what we should use to pick a bathroom, not a political agenda. The nation is turning into Sodom and Gomorrah. We

(continued on next page)

Eye of Beholder by Rep. John Blust District 62 The cartoon in last week’s issue of the Rhino made me wistful for the bygone days of the old Rhinoceros Times, during which I enjoyed good commentary and was allowed to publish numerous columns about all sorts of political topics over about a 20 year period. I think I received The Rhinoceros Times endorsement in every primary and general election. The Rhinoceros Times praised me for the same things for which the Rhino Times is now critical. I have remained consistent over this period of time. The cartoon labeled me as one of the least “effective” members of the North Carolina House. “Ineffective” is a rather amorphous term with no clear meaning. “Effectiveness” is in the eye of the beholder. In political speech, “ineffective” is a term often applied as an epithet against conservatives who don’t go along with the establishment on all matters. Often, the establishment wants to do things that are at variance with conservative principles. The establishment can usually get enough legislators to go along and, hence, the conservative members lose as to the legislative outcome. Then the conservative members who lose on the issue are called “ineffective.” This presidential election year demonstrates that most of the Republican base is on to this game. This explains the enormous backlash we are seeing against the establishment politicians. The electorate gave us majorities in the 2010, 2012 and 2014 elections. But at the federal level particularly, we are not seeing the results promised if the people gave Republicans the majority. Our base voters are now fed up with lack of results. This is not as true as at the state level where here in North Carolina, the Republican majorities in the legislature largely delivered, at least in the first two sessions in the majority. But in the last session, serious backsliding started to occur. The NC House, for instance, passed a budget that spent about $1.1 billion above the request of the governor.

The Rhino Times correctly criticized this House budget. The NC Senate passed a whopping increase in the gas tax. I helped galvanize conservatives in the NC House and we stopped both of these measures by standing together on conservative principle. Even though only 11 House Republicans voted no to the House budget, we were able to assemble a group of 24 House members to sign a letter to the speaker making clear we would not vote for any final budget that came out the House/Senate conference committee that didn’t do about 10 or 12 things differently than the original House budget – including spending about $700 million less than House leadership wanted to spend. We were able to achieve most of these objectives in a final budget that moved far more toward the more conservative Senate budget. I think I was very effective in achieving a better state budget and stopping a massive increase in the gas tax. I humbly maintain that these outcomes (and many others) would not have happened without my leadership. Saving the taxpayers around one billion dollars last year (and even more in future years) was a major accomplishment. This took up a lot of my time. Additionally, I am a chairman of a Judiciary committee. It is known as a very productive committee. This chairmanship takes up enormous amounts of time, not just presiding over the committee meetings but also reviewing the bills of other members, meeting with staff and interested parties and negotiating with bill sponsors to work out the details of the many bills assigned to this committee to get them in shape for committee action. I believe that Republican voters who are fed up with the inaction of the Republican establishment in Washington will want to send the kind of person to Congress who will stand on principle and work with other conservatives to make progress on moving America back in the right direction of freedom, prosperity and security.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

letters have unwed couples playing house, baby mama lifestyles, gay marriage, animal cruelty, drugs and violence and a nation turning away from God – all acts of a liberal nation. The Bible speaks of Elijah coming in Malachi, and it will come, and all those that take part in works against God will face his wrath. Read whatever Bible you want. Go to whatever church you want. But the fact is, the sins of man can’t be erased by political correctness. God’s law does not change like man’s law does. So go ahead and open up your transgender bathrooms. It’s a good place to flush the liberal agenda down the toilet.

Sal Leone

PROBLEM POTHOLES DEAR EDITOR,

I was very pleased to see the News & Record Sunday editorial cartoon about potholes in our streets. I moved to Greensboro in 1968 and was favorably impressed with the streets, roads and landscaping. I remember

the whims of voters instead of funding it through an official bill? Third, Connect NC will likely turn into a tax increase when bonds sell poorly The $2 billion Connect NC Bond on based on the previous performance of the March 15 ballot is misleading in the “no need for taxes” voter approved more ways than one. bond passed 15 years ago. This First, this “infrastructure” bond happened because no one saw the contains no transportation funding, dot com bubble bursting. Today, few with most of the money going to the see the storm clouds gathering around UNC and community college systems government bonds with defaults for new buildings, adding to underused classroom spaces averaging just 18 starting overseas in Greece and Brazil coming home to roost in places like hours of instruction time per week. Even the millions set aside for Puerto Rico, Illinois and Detroit. Bonds are subject to investor agriculture is deceptive, skipping momentum. Not all securities during farms and going to agricultural the 2007 housing crisis were bad, but facilities on NC State University’s they suffered from guilt by association campus. Nowhere will you find funding as investors fled the entire housing for K-12 education, which, like roads, market, wiping everyone out. North would benefit the majority of North Carolina’s AAA credit rating won’t be Carolinians for years to come. Much of able to protect the Connect NC bonds the remaining $2 billion in bond money sold on open markets from being will sit unallocated, waiting to be dolled associated with the coming implosion out to special interest projects, thanks to the loosely written language of the of bonds from Illinois and other high tax states. This will leave taxpayers to bond itself. Second, Connect NC is putting the pay the difference in new taxes. We’re better off having the $79 Million National Guard funding legislature approve money up front front and center in TV, radio and fullfor roads, K-12 schools and returning page mailers as the primary reason the remaining money to citizens in the to vote for it. If the National Guard form of tax cuts to further grow our funding is so important, why are they economy. only getting $79 million (4 percent)? And why is the legislature relying on Anonymous

BOND MISLEADS VOTERS DEAR EDITOR,

(continued from previous page) telling my wife that this is the type of community where I want to raise our children. Since then, Greensboro has added many streets. Today it is hard to find a city street that does not have potholes or poorly repaired potholes and other street repairs. This can be very costly to drivers. A recent TV news program showed repairs from potholes can be as much as $1,000 per vehicle. More important are the safety issues. I have observed many vehicles change lanes without signaling to avoid potholes. This council and the previous one dedicated much time and taxpayer resources towards social issues and special interest groups. So Mayor Vaughan and councilmembers, when can the taxpayers expect you to return to your basic responsibilities and properly repair our streets and roads? These repairs will benefit all of citizens as well as the visitors we seek and place such a high value on. The ball is in your court – let the citizens know what you are going to do about this growing pothole problem.

Randy Uzzell

38 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

budget

(continued from page 15) to say what will happen. Branson said that last year he was one of the commissioners who was pushing for a decrease of a full penny, but there was a lot of resistance from some and it was only in the final hours that the board moved from a half-cent to a one penny cut. Most Republicans now on the board were so against tax increases when campaigning that it’s almost impossible to imagine a tax increase as long as they hold a majority. When the Board of Commissioners was controlled by Democrats for 14 straight years before 2012, large tax increases in just about every non-election year were the order of the day. Like Phillips, county staff is also now focusing on the upcoming budget. Halford is fairly upbeat in his revenue predictions, which he’s basing largely on the numbers from the second half of 2015. But the budget director’s comments are still cautious.

“We had a very good tax year last year,” Halford said. “The economy continued to improve – albeit slowly. But this budget captured a lot of that growth, so at the end of this year we’re not going to have that. But it’s still positive.” Halford said tax collection efforts have been going well in recent years. The property tax collection rate is very high and Halford said Tax Director Ben Chavis and his staff had done a “great job.” The current collection rate is over 97 percent. “That’s quite an accomplishment,” Halford said. “You want to collect all the taxes you are levying so you don’t have to adjust your tax rate for the people who don’t pay.” Halford said revenue projections in recent years have been on target. “We always want to get it as close as possible so that they don’t leave any more money on the table,” he said.

beep (continued from page 34) is the fact that pre-trial and the sheriff are pushing the magistrate judges to release those arrested on their own recognizance and written promise to appear. But this results in Guilford County having the highest failure to appeal rate in the state. The victim of the crimes don’t get their day in court because the defendants don’t show up for trial. But it looks good on paper that the jail population is down. I think you should do an in-depth article on that failure to appear rate and on the people that are being let go now that a few years ago were always placed under bond.

%%% Lately in Charlotte there has been an uproar over transgenders using the bathroom for the women and children, and here in our fair city of Greensboro we’ve had hints about bathrooms made, but these people are all – there’s nothing wrong with letting these people have rights or whatnot. But, come on now, it’s getting ridiculous. Some old fool fellow getting into the women’s bathroom, they ain’t going to like it. And, so, you see how that goes. And maybe we’ll make some kind of law, because after all, Bruce Jenner

went to all that work to turn himself into a woman, but he didn’t want to give up his talleywhacker. He hung on to it. So, it’s just ridiculous how all of this is gone about these rights to do this and do that. That’s ridiculous.

%%% The Democrat or the Republican candidates who are running for president have not even mentioned anything about this voter ID bill that is now a law in a lot of states now, particularly in North Carolina. And they don’t understand that this law is really going to affect the voting process of really even getting votes. But it seems like none of them are addressing this issue because of its racist tones that it has targeting women, minorities and college students.

%%% Yes, I’m glad we live in a country where we can debate and have these things. I have really enjoyed the Republican and the Democratic post debates, because you do see and hear where people are coming from when you listen to these debates on TV and radio.

%%% (continued on page 40)

Halford added that the revenue projections used to form the 20142015 budget ended at 103 percent of the actual revenues. He said that revenue, such as that generated by the Register of Deeds office and ambulance fees, is trending in a positive direction. Halford added that other expenses, such as foster care costs, are up. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services has been asking for a lot more positions for handling food stamps and Medicaid benefits. That department already got a dozen positions added, and those will have to be accounted for in the new budget. Guilford County has beefed up its savings account – known as the “unrestricted fund balance” in recent years. For much of this century, the fund balance hovered at 8 percent of the county’s budget, the minimum recommended by the Local Government Commission. However, in recent years, the fund balance has climbed to roughly 13 percent. For the upcoming budget, the county manager is cautious but generally optimistic. Lawing said there’s been some growth in revenues but he would like to see more. “Before the retreat we looked at revenue projection and we’re not seeing much growth,” Lawing said. He added that he’s hopeful the costs such as the estimated $3 million in repairs to the parking decks won’t be as bad as thought. “I hope it will start being less than that – that’s an estimate,” Lawing said. He added that it is of course better to estimate too high than too low. He said the parking deck issues certainly do need to be addressed because they are safety concerns. “I can’t see any cracks in the concrete or anything,” he said, adding quickly that experts using X-ray analysis assured county officials that the problems were very real indeed. The manager also said that, before he offers his budget proposal, he doesn’t generally get specific instructions from the commissioners but he has a good idea what they want from the work sessions. “It will pretty much be a hold-theline budget,” Lawing said. He said he doesn’t tell departments to restrict their requests ahead of time, but they are aware of the county’s revenue situation and its limited ability to fund new positions. Lawing said that, in the past, the commissioners had sometimes relied on a budget committee to mold the budget, but the current process would rely on more meetings between staff and the full board. For years, Guilford County has handed out donations to various groups

to support museums, the film industry, tourism, at-risk kids and other causes. The Republican commissioners who control the board have pledged to stop funding nonprofits – also known as “community based organizations,” or “CBOs,” though the county will continue to contract with some that provide services to the county. Commissioner Hank Henning said one thing he keeps an eye on at budget time is the line between the things the county is mandated to do and what it isn’t. He said many of the nonprofits do good work and serve important purposes but in many cases it isn’t something the government should be funding given pressing obligations mandated by law. “I think we often confuse wants with needs,” Henning said. Though the Republicans on the board pledged last June when the budget was adopted that they would no longer fund any of the CBO’s, in the budget, Commissioner Ray Trapp said he’s going to do what he can to see that those groups get some county money. Last year, Trapp was adamant that the Republican’s who controlled the board didn’t give enough money to CBO’s and now that there’s a high likelihood they will be cut out entirely in the 2016-2017 budget, he’s even less pleased. “I’m going to fight to get the CBO’s in there,” Trapp said. “That’s probably not happening, but that’s not going to stop me from fighting for it.” Branson, a Republican, when he heard what Trapp would propose, said he didn’t expect Trapp to have much luck. In addition to getting money for the nonprofits, Trapp also said he wants the county to focus on providing better mental health services. He said he’s not necessarily convinced the county needs to spend more on its mental health offerings, but that there’s a disconnect somewhere because the county is currently spending a whole lot to provide mental health care for citizens, but mental health problems are becoming more prevalent. “You still see people walking down the street talking to themselves,” Trapp said. Some years in the past, when the economy was in a tailspin, departments got orders from managers that they needed to cut a set percentage out of their budget requests before turning them in to the budget director. Guilford County Register of Deed’s Jeff Thigpen, who’s been heading up the deeds department since 2004, said that that, at least, is no longer the case. “The good news is we’re not starting this off with a 10 percent cut out of the gate,” Thigpen said.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under

WHAT HAVEN’T WHAT HAVEN’T YOU HEARD? YOU HEARD?

(continued from page 43)

It is incredible that pundits on Tuesday night were talking about Gov. John Kasich being the possible Republican nominee. Kasich has been in 23 primaries and is 0-23. In a good number he finished dead last, and in most he had vote totals in the single digits. Even if he somehow comes back and wins Ohio, his home state, that would give him something like a 1-30 record. And he is being touted as the possible Republican nominee. It is incredible the lengths the political pundits will go to find someone to support other than Trump. Sen. Ted Cruz has done the best against Trump – winning six out of 22 primaries. But the big problem with Cruz is he does best with evangelical Christians, which means he should have won in the South and he has not. His best states are behind him. The other problem with Cruz is that the people who know him best as a politician hate him. Not a single US senator has come out in favor of Cruz. He doesn’t play well with others, and the others on the Senate playground refuse to let him in the game. We constantly hear from the liberals who want to bring about change without having to pass laws by having the Supreme Court interpret the Constitution, not by taking into consideration what was meant when it was written, but by viewing it with their own standards. But the founding fathers didn’t write a constitution and say, this is it, you cannot add or subtract a word. The founding fathers provided a method to change the Constitution and it has been done 27 times since it was written. In fact, it started out being immediately amended with the Bill of Rights. It’s the “First Amendment” that protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. In 1919, the American people decided that alcohol should be illegal and the Supreme Court didn’t find some clause in the original Constitution that they suddenly interpreted to mean that alcohol was illegal. No, the people passed a constitutional amendment. That didn’t workout so well, but once again the Supreme Court didn’t decide that the 18th Amendment didn’t mean what everyone thought it meant in 1919. Instead, the people of the United States in 1933 passed the 21st

Amendment repealing the 18th. But look at our times. The Supreme Court decided that abortion should be legal. This could have been done with a constitutional amendment, but it was not. It was done by the Supreme Court deciding that suddenly the words everyone had interpreted one way didn’t say what everyone thought they said. It’s the same with gay marriage. Suddenly five justices on the Supreme Court decided that any two unmarried people could marry each other regardless of gender. It is a breathtaking change in society. If the people of the United States wanted gay marriage to be legal, there is a way to amend the Constitution. It has been done in the past and could be done again. It’s interesting that since 1992 there have been no amendments to the Constitution. One reason for that may be that the Supreme Court has decided that it knows best. No longer is the court dependent on the people or even the elected bodies to decide what the law of the land will be. The Supreme Court justices appointed for life get to decide. We have in effect moved from a republic where we elect representatives to make our laws to an oligarchy where nine people appointed for life make those decisions for us. If Hillary Clinton wins in November and is allowed to appoint a member of the Supreme Court who believes like she does – that the court’s job is to make the law not interpret the Constitution – we will no longer have a nation ruled by elected bodies. It is a frightening but very real possibility.

GENIUS™ TECHNOLOGY BY

Call Now for a Free Test & Demo

“With my new hearing aids, I can hear the birds “With my new aids, I can hear the birds chirp, myhearing grandchildren on the phone, and my chirp, my grandchildren on the phone, and my girlfriends at our bridge games. These may be girlfriends at our bridge games. These may be the best hearing aids I’ve everI’ve owned!” the best hearing aids ever owned!” - Nida M.

- Nida M.

Whetherit’sit’s a grandchild’s ﬁrst words or a business introduction, some things just Whether a grandchild’s first words or a business introduction, can’t things be repeated. from Miracle-Ear clears away distracting from some just can’t GENIUS™ be repeated. technology GENIUS™ technology background noise and helps you focus innoise on what’s important. GENIUS technology Miracle-Ear clears away distracting background and helps you on your what’shearing important. GENIUS technology lets you and letsfocus you in and care professional customize your experience, so you can your caresolution professional your experience, so needs. you ﬁnd hearing a hearing thatcustomize works for your individual can find a hearing solution that works for your individual needs. ™ GENIUS ™™ ™ GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY TECHNOLOGY

GENIUS™ TECHNOLOGY

Features directional hearing, even in our smallest

Features directional hearing, even in invisible model. Enjoy conversations in noise and our smallest invisible model. Enjoy hear what you have been missing. conversations in noise and hear what you have been missing.

Delivers a high definition digital sound the most natural listening experience. to provide the most natural listening experience.

Use the GENIUScontrol Appsmartphone and turn or Android™ into a remote control. your iOS® or Android™ smartphone into a remote control.

TECHNOLOGY

Delivers a high deﬁnition digital sound to provide Use the GENIUS control App and turn your iOS®

WHY CHOOSE MIRACLE-EAR?

WHY CHOOSE MIRACLE-EAR? Personal relationship with a local hearing professional n

I predict Donald Trump is going to be the next president, and that isn’t based on any polling data or inside information. It is based on a number of public meetings I’ve been to that had nothing to do with the presidential election. But what I’ve seen are that people are so frustrated with the government that they are willing to try something new and possibly disastrous. People see it at every level. The government has gotten so big, so unwieldy, so uncompromising and so powerful that people are sick of it, sick of the politicians they have elected, and are ready to try something different. If Trump doesn’t win, I think the level of unrest in this country will grow. (continued on page 40)

n n n

Industry-leading limited 3-year warranty* evaluation**

Personal relationship with a Free annual hearing local hearing professional

* Industry-leading limited warrantyanytime Free cleaning and3-year adjustments

Free annual hearing evaluation**

Discover more about GENIUS technology and all the options Free cleaning and adjustments anytime

available from Miracle-Ear at Miracle-ear.com and schedule your hearing screening today at (336) 292-9600 or (336) 584-5086.

Dave Powell, BC-HIS

Discover more about GENIUS technology and all the options available from Miracle-Ear atMiracle-Ear <local-website>, and schedule your hearing Miracle-Ear screening today at <variable phone>.

5921 W Friendly Ave, Suite A-2 Greensboro

292-9600

422 Huffman Mill Rd, Suite 104 Burlington

584-5086

Financing Available if Qualified • Miracle-ear.com SPECIAL OFFER

SPECIAL SPECIAL OFFER OFFER

UP TO

2,000 OFF

a GENIUS Miracle-Ear® Hearing Solution when SPECIAL you trade-in your current a GENIUS Miracle-Ear Hearing Solution whenhearing aids OFFER you trade-in your current hearing aids ®

Valid toward the purchase of Miracle-Ear ME-1or ME-2 Solution (2 aids). Valid at participating Miracle-Ear locations only. Not valid with any other discount or offer. Does not apply to prior purchases. OFFER EXPIRES 03/31/16 Valid toward the purchase of Miracle-Ear ME-1or ME-2 Solution (2 aids). Valid at participating Miracle-Ear locations only. Not valid with any other discount or offer. Does not apply to prior purchases. OFFER EXPIRES <MM/DD/YY>

*Not valid on Audiotone® Pro. **Hearing test is always free. Not a medical exam. Audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. †If you are not completely satisfied, the aids may be returned for a full refund within 30 days of the completion of fitting, in satisfactory condition. Fitting fees may apply. See store for details. iOS® is a trademark or *Not valid on Audiotone® Pro. **Hearing test is always free. Not a medical exam. Audiometric test to determine proper amplification needs only. † trademark of Cisco themay U.S.beand other countries and iswithin used30 days of the completion of fitting, in satisfactory condition. If youregistered are not completely satisfi ed, theinaids returned for a full refund Fittingunder fees may apply. See store is foradetails. iOS®of is a trademark license. Android™ trademark Google Inc.or registered trademark of Cisco in the U.S. and other countries and is used ™ under license. Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

16054ROPA

40 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

under

(continued from page 39)

If you believe what the government tells us, the economy is getting better. But the people know that it hasn’t gotten better for them. So many people who lost their jobs in the 2008 recession are working but aren’t making nearly as much money as they were before the recession, and they don’t see things getting better any time soon. The government says the economy has come back but our wallets and bank accounts say that it hasn’t. It has become a common Republican talking point to say that this generation of Americans may be the first to hand off a country to the next generation that is worse off then it was when it was handed to us. It sounds great, and Sen. Marco Rubio seems to try to work it into the answer of every question he’s asked. But the historical accuracy of it is questionable. If you take the generation that was

beep (continued from page 38) Hillary Clinton is on some type of medication that hypes her up. Her eyes, at times, appear glassy, and she talks extremely fast. In my work I see these people all the time. She is dangerous. Drugs like this don’t make people lie.

%%% There was a woman on Fox News Live, a congressman that’s backing Marco Rubio. She made more sense than anybody I’ve heard on TV lately. She said we need to find out what Donald Trump plans to do with this country if he becomes president. He is a real good campaigner, just like Obama was a real good campaigner. So, we didn’t know what he was going to do. Well, we found out. It was too late. So we’ve reached seven years so far of this man doing all these things to try to fundamentally transform the United States of America. Now we need to find out what Trump wants to do.

%%% Hi. Good afternoon. I just have been reading the local fish wrap,

(continued on page 42)

born before the Civil War, who lost friends and family in that war when we fought against each other, I think you would find a generation of people who found life before the war better than life after the war. I think those who lived through the Great Depression would argue that life was better before the Depression than during the Depression. And the Great Depression was followed by World War II, when over 400,000 Americans were killed, millions were wounded and the lives of almost every American was disrupted. It would be hard to argue that Americans born in the early 1920s, who grew up in the Depression and then lived through WWII, found the country a better place when they came of age than it was when they were born. Evidently political pundits have a lot in common with TV weathermen, and just because they get something dead wrong they don’t stop predicting. The pundits who, back in the summer were saying that Donald Trump had zero chance of winning the Republican primary, are now saying that even if Trump wins the primary he can’t beat Hillary Clinton. These people make their living making political predictions, and many of them predicted that Jeb Bush was going to beat Trump. As it turned out Trump beat Jeb Bush with one phrase, “low energy candidate.” After Trump said it, there was no way you could look at Bush – kind of slumped over, talking endlessly about some arcane policy point – and not think low energy candidate. But now we are supposed to ignore the fact that they were completely wrong about Trump back in the early summer, late summer, early fall and then winter, and believe they are right about his chances now. It would appear that Trump has tapped into a frustration that regular working Americans have with the entire political system – one that the well-paid pundits who hobnob with politicians and other well-paid pundits are missing entirely. People in Washington, DC, are doing well because the government is growing so fast and spending so much money that all you have to do is get a bucket and go down to the money trough to become rich. They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but it does on the cherry trees in Washington. Right now the Republican

establishment, helped by liberal billionaires, are throwing everything they have at Trump, trying to defeat him in Florida and Ohio next week. If they are successful and Trump cannot win the Republican nomination outright, the Republicans will have a brokered convention. Judging from the Republican presidential candidates the Republican establishment has supported in the past, it looks like they might decide to give the nomination to Mitt Romney, who will go down in defeat again; Kasich, who hasn’t been able to win a single primary; or perhaps they will fall back on Sen. Marco Rubio, who has won two if you consider Puerto Rico, which doesn’t get to vote for president in a real primary. Regardless of who the Republican establishment picks, if it isn’t Trump then they lose the thousands of voters who have come out of the woodwork to attend Trump rallies and support a candidate who is not beholden to the big money. The result will be that Hillary Clinton will be the next president. But the Republican establishment seems to be OK throwing the race in order to destroy Trump, because he refuses to play the game where presidential candidates sell their souls to the major donors to raise the money for a national campaign. The top Republican elected officials met with liberal Democratic billionaires last week to try and devise a strategy to defeat Trump. So far even that hasn’t worked. Think about all the people who are saying that Trump would be the worst thing that ever happened to the Republican Party. They have two things in common. Either they are people who are paying the huge amounts of money for modern political campaigns so they control the politicians, or they are the politicians and pundits who are controlled by these people. Do you really think that Rubio – who has virtually no personal wealth and has spent $40 million on his campaign – can go out on the stage and say whatever he wants? Do you think he was the one who decided that, after running a campaign of optimism about what America could be, suddenly decided that attacking Trump for having a small penis was the way to go? Does anyone believe that Jeb Bush, who spent over $100 million of other people’s money on his campaign, ever said anything that wasn’t approved by the people who gave him all that money? The last time we have seen a

Republican candidate anything like Trump was when Sen. John McCain was doing so poorly in 2008 that he had to fire his staff and for a couple of months ran around the country saying whatever he wanted, like singing, “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” He went from last place to first because he had nobody telling him what he could say. He spoke his own words and did what he wanted. Then, once he became popular and started raising big money, he hired his staff back and the real McCain was not seen or heard from again. He ran one of the worst presidential campaigns in history and became so boring it was amazing that even he could stay awake through an entire speech. The Republican establishment that is so opposed to Trump is made up of the people who control or are controlled by the big money. If someone contributes $100 to a local political campaign, they expect some access to the candidate if he or she is elected – and they generally get it. Imagine what someone who contributes $10 million or more to a campaign gets. Do you think a $10 million donor gets put on hold when he calls the candidate? If you do, you don’t understand money or politics. Trump’s popularity has less to do with what he says. Things like supporting Planned Parenthood except for the abortion wing is something no other Republican candidate would say because their handlers would tell them not to. Trump doesn’t care. He says what he wants and the people recognize that. They may be totally opposed to Planned Parenthood and everything it stands for, but they recognize that Trump, unlike every other Republican candidate, is saying what he thinks. Cruz’s campaign got its real start when a billionaire put $10 million into his PAC and got a bunch of his friends to make similar donations. Do you think that Cruz can go out and support something they oppose? Can Cruz take a position that his huge donors oppose? No. Not unless he wants his money to dry up. On the Democratic side, Sen. Bernie Sanders has raised his money mainly from small donations. He is free to go out and say what he wants. If he were being controlled by big money he would be attacking Hillary Clinton relentlessly, but he does not. There is no way that big money would allow Sanders to say he doesn’t care about Hillary Clinton’s email problem. It is great issue for him. If big money were controlling Sanders, he would bring it up every chance he had. But that isn’t what interests Sanders, so he lets it slide. It’s not a (continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under

(continued from previous page)

smart political move, but the people who support Sanders, like the people who support Trump, are sick and tired of politics as usual. Sanders supporters may not agree with all of his socialist ideas, but they recognize that Sanders is a real candidate saying what he thinks, which is the exact opposite of Hillary Clinton, who doesn’t utter a word that hasn’t been approved by a focus group. The reason this election is so different is that the American people are finally waking up. Every four years the Democrats would shout, “It’s all the Republicans’ fault,” and the Republicans would shout, “It’s all the Democrats’ fault,” and sometimes the American people listened to the Democrats and sometimes to the Republicans. In truth they are thick as thieves. What the American people have learned is that there isn’t much difference between a professional politician who is a Republican and a professional politician who is a

Democrat. They all work together, and the goal is to make each other richer and more powerful. Now the American people are waking up and realizing that Cruz, Clinton, Rubio, Kasich and Sanders are all variations of the same theme. The only one who hasn’t been feeding from the public trough their entire adult life is Donald Trump. There is a good chance that Trump won’t be able to change anything. But the idea that one of the professional politicians in the race is going to change anything is absurd. At the last debate, Rubio talked about how negotiating a hotel construction contract in a foreign country was not the same as foreign diplomacy, which is true. But it is a lot closer to foreign diplomacy than putting gas in your car with a Republican Party credit card at a gas station run by a foreign-born attendant. Rubio got out of law school and started running for office. He has been feeding at the public trough his entire adult life. Cruz is running as an outsider, but

he is another professional politician. He worked for the campaign of former President George W. Bush, worked in the Bush administration and, when he didn’t get the job he wanted from Bush, went back to Texas to be appointed solicitor general. He has no experience in the private sector. He is actually just another candidate who has been on the government dole his entire adult life. He is considered an outsider, not because he comes from the outside but because he is so hated on the inside. The Senate is extremely collegial, but you can’t find a senator who will support Cruz. So the people who know him best as a politician are unanimous in their belief that he should not be president. Trump is the only outsider left in the race. He hasn’t made his billions by working for the government but by running his own business. This is his first run for public office. More and more people are coming to the belief that Washington can’t be fixed by one of the ones responsible for making it what it is, and Trump is the only candidate that doesn’t have to bear part of that blame.

take care of yourself in all the ways that matter.

Mitt Romney gave one of the best political speeches of his career last week. It was well written, well delivered and he made good points. The big question is, why didn’t Romney make a speech like this when he was running against Obama? Romney saved his fire to attack a fellow Republican. When Romney ran for president, his speeches could have been taped and handed out to insomniacs as sleep aids. But in attacking a fellow Republican, he doesn’t hold back. It would appear Romney was speaking in favor of a brokered convention because he hopes that the Republicans will choose him to run again. If the Republicans make that mistake, then they deserve four years of Hillary Clinton, a Supreme Court that will trash the Constitution and the loss of the majority in the Senate. Losing the Senate won’t be a big deal because winning it certainly hasn’t made any difference in Washington. If anything, Obama has had an easier time with a Republican majority than with the Democratic majority. Current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid look alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike.

Wellness of mind, body and wallet. Visit us online or at our Greensboro Battleground Financial Center to get started: 3 314 B a t t l e g r o u n d Av e n u e

be your best you.

42 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

POLITICAL CARTOON RECYCLING 101:

endorsements (continued from page 31) town. All candidates should obey the campaign laws, but particularly those running for judge. Connect NC Bond Vote no on the Connect NC Public Improvement Bond, which was named when it included over $1 billion in transportation funding. There is no transportation money in the bond, but many people will still vote for it because they think it is a transportation bond. It’s deceptive. The sales point has involved going to every portion of the state and talking about the millions that would be spent in that area. Greensboro is supposed to get over $200 million from the bond for NC A&T State University, UNCG and Guilford Technical Community College. It is true that the current plans for bond revenue spending set that amount, but the truth is in the fine print. The only thing the state is required to do is spend the money “to fund capital improvements and new facilities for the State.” That is from the ballot. In fact, the legislature could decide to use the $2 billion to tear down

the incredibly ugly state legislative building and build a new one. No one is talking about this, and the fact that any legislator who voted for it would likely lose the next election makes it unlikely. But what is very likely is that some of the money now set for some projects will be shifted to other projects or to as-yet-unnamed projects. The cost of some project is going to come in much higher than estimated and other projects will lose out. Two other things about the bond bother me. One is the amount. The state has an annual budget of $22 billion. Cut 2.5 percent of spending from the budget and pay for the bond projects without borrowing money over four years. The other is these are not projects that are critically needed. As noted, they are spread across the state based on population and region. Everybody had to get something, and if you read about many of the bond projects, they don’t exist. Some community college is going to get funding because that area has to get something and no doubt there are needs. Of course, no

community college president is going to turn down “free” money. Guilford County has passed its own bonds, paid for by the taxpayers of Guilford County, to improve GTCC. So why should we now be taxed to pay for community college systems across the state? Finally, they say no tax increase will be needed to pay for the bonds. This is a pig in poke. No tax increase is going to be attributed to pay for the bond debt by this administration. But who knows. If the bond passes and the Republicans lose control of the legislature, you can bet the Democrats will raise taxes to pay for the bonds and then say the Republicans were lying. If no tax increase is needed that means the people of North Carolina could get a tax break if the bonds don’t pass. I, for one, plan to vote against the bonds. And if enough people follow suit, we need to demand a tax break equal to the amount it would have cost to finance the bonds. It won’t happen, but it should. It’s been a clever campaign, and it will probably pass, which means we didn’t learn anything from the 2008 recession and we will continue to pile on the debt during good times and raise taxes during bad.

beep (continued from page 40) in other words the News & Record, and it says in there that Sheriff Barnes is going to come up with a training class to teach safety for concealed carry permit holders, roughly 18,000 according to the News & Record concealed permit holders in Guilford County. Guilford County has a population of approximately 508,000 people. So there is 3 percent of the people in Guilford County with a concealed carry permit. What about the other 97 percent? Shouldn’t they have a little training also? Thank you very much. Appreciate you listening.

%%% Just wanted to tell John Hammer, why you’re hammering the school board and Mo Green’s $30,000? He didn’t get $30,000 for resigning. Do you remember the fact that he never took a raise the whole time he was chair here? OK. So, have a good day.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under theHAMMER

by John Hammer

It appears that President Barack Hussein Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were hoodooed in the agreement to lift sanctions against Iran. This week Iran said it wanted out of the agreement. Iran has already violated the agreement by testing missiles and buying a missile defense system from Russia. Iran reportedly has the $100 billion or $150 billion that had been frozen when the sanctions were put in place, so that incentive to follow the terms of the agreement is gone. And, perhaps more importantly, Iran knows that Obama will never be able to put together the coalition of countries that had agreed to the sanctions. Certainly there is no chance that Russia under President Vladimir Putin is going to reinstate sanctions. Putin wants to sell arms to Iran and the US placed sanctions on Russia when it invaded Ukraine and took possession of Crimea. Obama ignored the agreement that said we would defend Ukraine and has refused to even supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs to fight Russia, but the sanctions on Russia did not help US-Russia relations. Obama has also managed to anger most of our longtime allies in Europe, so they will be less likely to join in sanctions to help Obama save face. Also, Iran knows that this agreement is the cornerstone of Obama’s foreign policy achievements. Obama has invested a tremendous amount

of political capital in approving the agreement with Iran. To walk away now means that Obama has to admit that his critics were right and he was wrong, and that isn’t going to happen. What is likely to happen is that Obama will offer Iran more concessions to stay in the agreement and Iran, which already got almost everything it wanted in the agreement, will get the rest. Obama has decided that despite the fact that the majority of Congress is against it, he will open the border with Mexico. The Border Patrol is reportedly being pulled off the busiest parts of the border and placed in areas where there is less activity. Obama couldn’t get Congress to go along with his immigration plans, so he has once again decided to do it on his own. One aspect that is being brought up more and more is that it’s not just children and families crossing the border – drug cartels are using the open border policy to transport mass quantities of drugs into the US. There is also nothing to stop terrorists from crossing the border into the US if the Border Patrol is being ordered not to do its job. Republican presidential candidates agree that the border has be secured and it appears Obama is doing his best to create an open border while he can. It’s time for the Republican establishment to embrace Donald Trump. It’s past time, but there is no time like the present. He is going to

NEED CASH?

be the Republican nominee with or without their support. Trump seems to be a forgiving guy, so if the Republican establishment doesn’t want to get left waiting outside the White House fence next January with the Democrats, it’s time to get together with Trump and talk about his presidency. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, should throw some primaries and let Sen. Bernie Sanders have the nomination. Trump will tear Hillary Clinton to pieces during the presidential debates. The moderators will throw softballs at Hillary Clinton the way they always do. “Ms. Clinton, how does it feel to be a grandmother?” is one likely question, which would be followed by, “Mr. Trump, would you explain all the factions fighting in Syria, the various names they go by and who their leaders are? And please include who was aligned with whom when this debate began and how that has changed since you have been on the stage?” Then, if Trump did answer such a question and mispronounced one of the names, that would be the big news. But that won’t matter because, as we have seen during the Republican debates, Trump will ask Hillary Clinton his own questions and then he will provide commentary for her answers like, “That is a huge lie.” Since Hillary Clinton can only remain a viable candidate by constantly lying about nearly every aspect of her political life, it will not be pretty. The Republican establishment should get behind Trump because, as he has proven in debate after debate

Affordable quality you can trust...for over 35 years Synthetic Oil Change...$99 95 Includes up to 7 quarts Castrol Syntec 5w30, filter and labor

Cherry’s Fine Guns is looking to buy or consign guns. We are interested in most handguns, most antiques and some long guns. If you are looking to put some cash in your pocket, give Kevin Cherry or Gurney Brown a call today. Please call Gurney or Kevin for details at 854-4182. Our ofﬁce hours are Monday thru Friday 8 until 5. Be sure to call us before bringing in your guns so we can have the proper expertise available when you arrive

FINE GUNS 3408 WEST WENDOVER AVENUE, SUITE N. GREENSBORO, NC 27407 Phone: 854-4182, 24-hour Fax: 854-4184 E-mail: ﬁneguns@cherrys.com

and primary after primary, he is the best the Republicans have at taking command and walking away the winner. Nobody is going to convince the diehard Democrats to support any Republican, but the election is not about diehard Democrats or diehard Republicans, it is about all those people in the middle. Hillary Clinton has swung way out into left field to battle Sanders. As soon as she has the nomination in hand she will start running as fast as she can for the center, but Trump will not allow her to disavow her former statements without paying a price. He also is not going to allow her to ignore the entire private email server scandal, the fact that her top aide, Huma Abedin, had four highly paid jobs with enormous conflicts of interest, or that Hillary Clinton refused to allow the military to send aide to her people when the compound in Benghazi was attacked by terrorists and the result was that four Americans including the ambassador were killed. Trump is not going to let a political lightweight like Hillary Clinton best him in a debate. The pundits will say he wasn’t nice and was rude, but, fortunately for everyone, what the pundits think doesn’t matter. If it did Trump would have been gone in June. What matters is what the American people think and the American people in state after state have said that Trump is their favorite Republican candidate. (continued on page 39)

Annual Brake Fluid Change..$99 95

Coolant Change...........$99 95

Looking at Buying a Pre-Owned Car?

Ask about our pre-purchase inspections! 2629 Randleman Road | www.kormanautoworks.com

336.275.1494

44 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, March 10, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com PAID ADVERTISEMENT

orward Head Posture (FHP) has become a modern day EPIDEMIC! It’s affecting your health and most folks have no idea it’s causing them long term health damage. How? Studies show that our head weighs 10 times more than it should every inch forward that it’s positioned from its natural state. This in turn can create short term pain and long term damage. Try holding a bowling ball that’s 10 pounds close to your chest with your palms up in the air. You can hold the ball for a long time, no problem. Now extend your arms out in front of you a few inches. It’s not long before that ball really starts to feel heavy. This is how your muscles and nerves would feel if your head was leaning forward all day at the

computer screen or on your cell phone. Studies show FHP can add an abnormal load of up to 30 pounds on the neck. This in turn causes long term arthritis, neck and upper back pain and can also cause chronic headaches. A study by a very well known physician named Rene Cailliet, M.D., went one step further and found that FHP depleted lung capacity as much as 30 percent. Lean forward with your head and try to take a deep breath. You can’t. This is because your lungs are more compressed due to your posture. If you were to choke you would have a real problem because your body isn’t taking in as much oxygen as it should daily. Think about that for a minute. How do you think that in turn affects your body? You need elements such as oxygen to reach your brain to not only survive but to thrive. Most would never think that posture would affect their long term health status but it can and does. Most patients come to us with pain and, after treating their posture, they end up telling us how they not only don’t have any more pain, but they are not as tired, have fewer to no headaches, are not as easy to agitate, sleep better and are alert more at work. At Pain and Laser Centers of North Carolina, our ofﬁce takes a very unique approach that is scientiﬁcally sound and focuses only on the position of your

spine. It’s not certain supplements or “out there” treatments. A simple evaluation, exam and X-ray can best determine the overall health of a patients spinal posture. Here at Pain and Laser Centers of North Carolina we provide gentle, not surgical, treatments to help align the curves in the spine. Ear over shoulder, shoulder over hips, hips over knee and knee over ankle alignment are indications of good posture. Take a side standing photo of your spouse/ friend/child. If you see that one of these areas are not lining up then they probably have forwarded have FHP or Forward Head Posture. We also give our patients easy at-home treatments to help stop the effects of FHP. I love working with patients to educate them on healthy living so that they can keep themselves and their families as healthy as possible. I feel we provide our patents with the most advanced and effective treatments available in Greensboro. For example, we use LASERA, a non-surgical treatment system used to strengthen and improve muscle memory and bone structure with measurable results during the treatment process. I hope you take the time to have your posture checked. Your posture is important

to your long term overall health. Posture affects most people at some point in their lives and can lead to overall poor health and chronic long term health problems.

Give us a call for our $79 (This is a $154 value) posture evaluation and get one LASERA treatment included in your full evaluation.

We also are glad to come to your workplace and help evaluate your ofﬁce as a team at no charge with our portable posture software. (This is not a detailed exam/X-ray but an onsite computerized evaluation) Call us today for your evaluation

336-790-7515

Dr. Aaron Williams, D.C. Please go to our website to see more picutres of forward head posture

painandlasercentersofnc.com

3831 W. Market St. Greensboro NC 27407 • 336.790.7515 painandlasercentersofnc.com This offer does not apply to patients with the following insurance plans: BCBSNC, NC State Employees Health Plan, Federal Employees Health Plan, CIGNA, Cigna - HealthSpring, MedCost, Select Health, Healthgram, Absolute Total Care, HealthTeam Advantage (Care N’ Care), Medicare/Medicaid. *Medicare and other federal insurances exempt from free laser treatment * If you decide to purchase additional treatment, you have the legal right to change your mind within 3 days and receive a refund.