EdCone.com

In case you missed the big news from the John Edwards trial this afternoon, yes, it is true, I had to take Edgeworth north to Battleground because Eugene Street was so clogged with cops and news vans and such. 

Also, this.

Many years ago we limited the volume of sugary drinks consumed by our family. Nothing better than a cold Coke, but not if you can swim in it.

I'm still not licensed to tell you that you should do the same thing at your house. Seriously though, stop. Portion control, it's what's for dinner.

But you should be able to make that decision for yourself, and maybe you want to go sharesies sometimes.

Anyway, it's great to know that things are so awesome in NYC that they can afford to focus on the soda police.

Jumbo beers still available.

Bobcats even suck at ping-pong.

The NBA may be back, but it looks like State will have NC's most exciting basketball team next year.

Pending the resolution of this case involving a blogger's right to post about food and health, please remember that I am not a licensed dietitian, although I can see how my frequent paeans to red meat, fried potatoes, and alcohol might confuse the casual reader.

I would guess that Greensboro will not be moving ahead with a downtown performing arts center this year.

A lot of work has been done, and a lot of progress has been made, but barring some deus ex machina on the funding side this thing is not happening in 2012.

With the ticket tax proposal in suspended animation, the amount of bond money needed to build a swell new PAC seems likely to be more than voters will bear in a still-shaky economy. 

But a delay should not be a death knell for the project. 

Whatever political calculations lay behind the timing of this campaign, a lot of people who liked the general idea wondered why we had to rush. Now there's time to finish the job of planning and marketing the facility. It's a necessary replacement for the superannuated theater that has been a major part of Greensboro's cultural life for decades, and it would be a great addition to downtown.

Let's keep at it.

There's talk beneath this post on the DPAC ticket tax* about Greensboro's self-image and ambitions, relative to other NC cities and as we choose to define ourself.

Missing the boom that remade Charlotte and Raleigh left us some nice possibilities in terms of being clean, green, and livable, which should be good for business and good for the people who live here. We have not focused on those goals as much as I'd like, but we haven't completely paved the county yet, either, so there's still hope.

The continued vitality of downtown is an important element of that strategy, and I think letting patrons of a new facility help pay for it is a good plan.

And it's worth remembering that a significant performing arts space is not just a status marker in the race to keep up with Wake and Mecklenburg, it's the kind of cultural amenity for which Greensboro has been known for decades. In fact, we're talking about replacing a superannuated facility and putting it in a better location, not dreaming of something completely new.

GSO's manageable scale and mellow vibe are big attractions for some of us, but those things are not all that define what this city is and what we can be.

* UPDATE: Tixtax a non-starter at General Assembly, courtesy of John Blust.

With friends like The Donald, Romney doesn't need enemies.

Wolf Blitzer is wrong to say "You're beginning to sound a little ridiculous," at least if graded on "beginning" and "a little."

Media General faced a double whammy: a revenue-killing recession and the "free news" reality of the Internet.

..."Over the past five years, our first thought was that this was heavily due to the recession and, like many other recessions in the past, that this was a cycle...But it kept going."

It wasn’t until the second quarter of 2011, Morton says, "that we realized the world had changed."

2011?

The CEO of a major media company confesses ignorance of his industry's biggest game-changer since television, or maybe the printing press. 

Thanks to Richmond correspondent RMM for the pointer.

Doc Watson's obit gets the better part of a printed page in this morning's New York Times. Love here from The New Yorker, LA Times, and BBC. More from the Winston-Salem Journal.

Nancy Vaughan says proposed tix tax legislation just voted on by GSO City Council is "targeted at PAC and specific language avoids other City facilities."

Which should go some way toward placating opponents of the proposed downtown performing arts center, but probably won't.

Most newspapers have profit margins that, while not what they were in the 90s, would still make other local businesses quite happy. 

A former editor says the problem is not profits.

But as long as the owners chase margins from a bygone era, investment for the future won't be happening.

And on the same theme, this.

Demand for electricity drives demand for coal, which being "abundant, widely dispersed, easily mined, and not controlled by any OPEC-like cartel" is not going away anytime soon.

No great surprises here, although the stats are compelling. I was surprised that US wind power, while generating just a small fraction of the electricity fueled by coal, was as big relative to global coal as reported.

The NBA has its most intriguing conference finals matchups in years. Lots of great storylines this season, with young stars and old stars and dynastic shifts bringing the league back to relevance in a way not seen since Jordan left the Bulls.

So of course the N&R banners an NBA Sux! article across the top of its sports section, written by an obscure Colorado columnist and based on the opinions of an obscure former Air Force player.

Warren Buffett recently cited local sports coverage as one of the major strengths of local newspapers. His letter was kind of a big deal in the publishing world. Just not on Market Street.

"Facebook is not only on course to go bust, but will take the rest of the ad-supported Web with it." 

We'll see. 

Much more here from Doc Searls.

Ticket-tax proposal, crime reduction strategies, and more, in this week's report from the Manager.

A substantial local story about Bob Page and the impact on his company, Replacements Ltd., of his stand against Amendment One...

...reported in the New York Times.

Maybe the N&R will reprint it.

And when Florida State does join the Big 12 -- which happens soon, unless John Swofford can dig into his cutthroat bag of tricks and add Notre Dame while stealing Oklahoma, Southern California or the Carolina Panthers -- it will have two crushing effects.

Blame the Seminoles for the allegedly imminent death of the ACC?

Sure, why not.

Whales may possess an exotic sensory organ, but they are known to have terrible gaydar and only vestigial bullshit detectors.

We had a tomcat (named Tom) who navigated a cross-town journey several times. And that was before GPS.

Economic-development group tells scientists that scientists don't understand science, and Raleigh has its marching orders:

State lawmakers are considering a measure that would limit how North Carolina prepares for sea-level rise...

The Coastal Resources Commission agreed to delete references to planning benchmarks – such as the 1-meter prediction – and new development standards for areas likely to be inundated.

N&R devotes most of its A1 above-the-fold real estate to a photographic investigation of John Edwards' necktie selections.

Apparently, no actual news happened here in Mayberry yesterday. 

At least the new editor is taking things seriously and engaging readers over at his blog, where he addresses questions about the accuracy of a recent front-page report on the wage gap between men and women. Haha jk he's really busy catching up on that NYT story about GSO everyone else talked about three days ago and pondering  heavy stuff like "Why do we so love animal pics?"

"[A] landmark event in the downward spiral of print newspapers."

Even worse than it appears, given the very low rate of internet access in New Orleans.

I read TGWAMM on the recommendation of my mother, not too long after the eponymous war ended, and still think about it all these years later. Also, "Class" was useful back when I was writing about rich people.

RIP, Paul Fussell.

 

StreetWatch needs supplies for its outreach to the homeless. On the list: soup, canned pasta, beans, tuna fish, saltines, peanut butter, water, and toilet paper. Snacks and desserts are appreciated, too.

Please drop off donations for StreetWatch in the box in the lobby of the police station at 2602 S. Elm-Eugene St.

[A] newspaper that reduces its coverage of the news important to its community is certain to reduce its readership as well...

...American papers have only failed when one or more of the following factors was present: 1) The town or city had two or more competing dailies; 2) the paper lost its position as the primary source of information important to its readers or 3) the town or city did not have a pervasive self-identity. We don’t face those problems.

Warren Buffett writes to his new newspaper employees, pledging local control and adequate resources. Free content is an unsustainable business model, he says, and Berkshire is likely to purchase more papers.

A nice feature on John Isner that gives a sense of how hard he works and also provides a glimpse of the regular guy from GSO who happens to be a world-class tennis star. 

Clemson board to meet over ACC-breakup rumors.

The Mosaic Festival is a fun, free event in downtown Greensboro.

It happens a week from Saturday.

If you can kick in a few bucks, that would be awesome. 

If not, you should go and enjoy it anyway.

Lunch at United House of Prayer.

Dinner at Guy and Jerry's Burger Spot.

You're only young once.

A quick summary of who screwed up on the Facebook IPO.

An even quicker summary: Everyone.

It's like the last two bubbles hooked up and made an ugly baby.

Not what we needed to restore faith in the market. 

Three bits of long-settled wisdom that my country forgot during my adult life:

• Avoid land wars in Asia
• Keep a sharp eye on the bankers
• Prohibition causes more problems than it solves

The last one seems to be meming just now (NSFW; thnx to Fred for the pointer).

From my POV the big news on the Edwards trial is that a northbound lane of Eugene Street by the Preyer building is now a parking lot for "news" vehicles, making it that much harder for me to return to the bosom of my family each evening. 

Ginia Zenke was kind enough to send along some photos of the scene around the courthouse. I posted this one because of her caption for it: "Probably two different messages being broadcast here."

Bondless financing for the PAC has been the buzz behind the scenes for a while now. 

What surprises me is the confidence that big private funding is on the way. I heard some big numbers the other night, and from sources I thought might be off the table. I hope that's true. 

Sources who tell me they are themselves well-sourced say the demise of the ACC could be imminent, with FSU and Clemson jumping to the Big 12 and the whole thing then disappearing in short order as the SEC and Big 10 gobble up the remains.

We'll see.

"Local ordinances prohibiting oil and gas exploration and development activities invalid; petition to preempt local ordinance."

Thanks to Jeff Sykes for sending along this PDF of proposed fracking legislation for North Carolina, which seems to remove all local control over drilling decisions.

You didn't think they were going to stop at billboard ordinances and internet access, did you?

I've seen less-flattering thumbnail travelogues about GSO than Kim Severson's waiting-on-a-verdict placeholder.

And I'd agree that local interest in the John Edwards trial seems muted -- most North Carolinians came to their own conclusions about the man long ago, leaving the field to trial junkies and students of campaign-finance law.

Locals who got upset when Andrea Peyser called our town "derelict" last week must not be familiar with Peyser's highly ignorable schtick. 

UPDATE: Seriously, Greensboro, Peyser is not worth your ire.

I'm thinking about buying Facebook. 

Not shares, the company.

For serious, though, it seems healthy that investors are skeptical of Wall Street hype and waiting to see how higher valuations might be justified. 

I'm not sure from this clip that Mr. Worley understands that civil protections for gay couples would not require him to kiss a man.

Natural gas prices are low, and NC may have just a fraction of the reserves initially touted by the gas companies. 

We have time to get this right.

I thought about linking an earlier version of this story yesterday in a post about nickel-and-diming poor people, but, anyway, this headline is not quite accurate: "Wells Fargo To End All Free Checking Accounts By August."

People who maintain a minimum balance will still get free checking. We'll still be able to get penalties for our own dumb mistakes reversed, too -- I just did it last week at Wells Fargo. Fees are for people who can't afford them. (I guess one could argue that my account isn't really free, as it requires me to park funds with the bank, but the money has to go somewhere so it feels free to me.)

So, yeah, this (NSFW):

"Nobody’s clear about the Volcker Rule...It’s 270 some pages and if you gave it to six experts on the subject, they’d come back with seven interpretations what it means."

No, really? Wonder how that happened.

Banks are going to gamble with insured deposits as long as we let them.

Music lineup for the fast-approaching Mosaic Festival in downtown GSO.

Volunteers are welcome, so is financial support via Kickstarter.

Charlotte readies for convention protesters. 

Previously: "[I]t was announced that people who were not planning on being part of disrupting the 2012  Democratic National Convention in Charlotte should leave."

"[T]he Gate City has had big dreams, made big investments and grown."

Winston-Salem Journal looks east with envy at Greensboro's Coliseum complex, entertainment business, and can-do spirit. 

Buffett's Media General deal may be more about the deal than the newspapers.

We hiked close to ten miles around Lake Brandt this afternoon. Lots of people biking and kayaking and dog-walking and such. 

The extensive trail network is of course a terrible thing for Greensboro -- it's a shame to see public money poured into things the market disdains, but still, nice in its own way.

It's great that the N&R Ideas section excerpts local blogs, but shouldn't the paper identify paid opinions as such?

For example, Piedmont Publius is not exactly Sam Hieb's blog, it's a John Locke Foundation vehicle for which Sam produces content that must to some extent advance the viewpoints of the parent organization. Yet readers of the print edition of the N&R get no clue that this is the case -- even the URL, which includes "johnlocke.org," is invisible to them. 

That's not a knock on Sam, or JLF, but it does seem like an important detail for the N&R to omit. 

The poor ye will always have with you, so, what the hell: "The trick is to rob them in ways that are systematic, impersonal, and almost impossible to trace to individual perpetrators."

GPD press release on blown murder case after the jump. Not a lot of detail on what went wrong, beyond "administrative and documentation shortfalls," but much of the blame is dumped on the now-retired investigator who first handled the case, and the fixes all seem aimed at those administrative and documentation problems. Anyone know what mistakes were made?

Some pre-Carolinian history of North Carolina, rediscovered.

First JP Morgan took us back to 2007, then Facebook and the teevee hucksters tried to replay 1999. Junk bonds and S&Ls can't be far behind (or, ahead).