Month: September 2006

  • Harbor Twins

  • Tower Resculpt

  • All Quiet on the Election Front?

    Or are we waiting on the real battles to begin?  This election season I have two goals: to squash the mediocre Orange County districting referendum and to get Judge Baddour elected. Here’s my latest Chapel Hill News column “Election referendum doesn’t fly”: How much does it cost to unload a real turkey? This month, our […]

  • OrangePolitics: Three Down, Many More to Go

    Congratulations to Ruby, the editors and many commenters that have made local ‘blog OrangePolitics such a vital forum for our community. Three years ago, less than a week into OP’s life, Ruby graciously permitted me to blather on about Chapel Hill’s red-light scamera fiasco. Over the years, though I know I’ve tested her patience, she’s […]

  • Madison: Some Smoozing, No Snoozing.

    At least, not much snoozing as participants have reported on local ‘blog OrangePolitics.org. I appreciate the time and effort Mark Chilton, Gene Pease, Fred Black and Dan Coleman put into real-time reviews. I hope some of our other “known” blog commenters (Anita, Linda, Aaron, Andrea, Diane ?) get in to the act. [UPDATE:] Anita and […]

  • UNC’s Board of Trustee Roger Perry: You’re Insulted?

    UNC trustee and local developer Roger Perry said his sense was that UW-Madison officials essentially tell the community that the university’s mission requires it to do a certain project, and then everyone goes to work on preventing negative impacts, without trying to stop the project in general. He said he’d like to get to that […]

  • Robert Seymour on Our Community’s Fit, Frail and Fragile

    The fit 80+ year-old Robert Seymour has a short WCHL commentary [*MP3] on the Human Services Advisory Council’s 5-year master aging plan to help manage the greying of Orange County. He notes our county already has more than 18,000 residents over 60 years old – a figure sure to explode as the “baby boomers come […]

  • Chancellor Moeser’s “Freelance dissenters”

    Freelance dissenters? What an odd turn of phrase, Chancellor Moeser. From today’s soon to evaporate HeraldSun, a story from the Madison smoozefest. Alan Fish, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s (UWM) associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and management, describing UWM’s “Good Neighbor” policy: In many instances, the university now goes to residents to talk before it even […]

  • Whither the media? Recent national, regional and local gaffs…

    National: Newsweek, in their Oct. 2nd issue lead story “The Rise of Jihadistan” reports on Afghanistan’s continuing “reversal of fortunes”: Jabar Shilghari, one of Ghazni’s members of Parliament, is appalled by his province’s rapid reversal of fortune. Only a year ago he was freely stumping for votes throughout the province. Today it’s not safe for […]

  • Madison Smoozefest: The Cost of Aaron Nelson’s Brickless Breakfast

    The Chapel Hill News (CHN) just posted Lisa Hoppenjans’ initial article on the Madison trip (Lisa is one of three reporters bird-dogging the event). Aaron Nelson once again weighs in on the importance of building personal relationships amongst the delegation: “There’s certainly room to improve the quality and tenor of communication when we are in […]

  • Madison Smoozefest: Aaron Nelson’s “Phone Call”

    Fred, one of the Madison attendees, over on OrangePolitics said he didn’t like my suggestion, given the organizer’s professed desire to “build relationships” – establish “synergies” amongst the group, that, for a few folks, there was a bit more to the Madison trip than simple learning or altruistic desire. Chamber of Commerce director and trip […]

  • The Best Things in Life…Carrboro’s Musicfest

    Wonder if this Carrboro event will end up in Chapel Hill Magazine? Stringband goodness from the Carolina Chocolate Drops This weekend’s Carrboro Music Festival should be great especially if the weather holds. The 9th Annual Carrboro Music Festival is September 24, 2006. Our day long, free festival will feature numerous musical styles at 21 indoor […]

  • Sally, Kirk and Shearon-Harris

    Following up on my post Shearon-Harris Offline: Who Tripped Over the Wire?, I’d like to direct your attention to two of our wonderful local ‘bloggers. Sally Greene has two great posts on the Shearon-Harris nuke plant safety issues and the resulting spin. First, FAIRWarning Tonight I went to the briefing in Pittsboro on the Shearon […]

  • Next Stop, NextBus.

    According to the following Sept. 22nd Town news release, the NextBus system is nearly ready for its trial run. Suggested online access is through Chapel Hill Transit’s www.chtransit.org site, the blue “Real Time Transit” link. I suggest by-passing the lame Java-applet and go straight to the vastly simpler and more forward thinking Google Maps interface. […]

  • Hillsborough425: Yes, it is interactive!

    One of my readers was slightly confused about whether the fly-by of Hillsborough425 documented in my post Hillsborough425: Google Earth Fly-By, Alpha Quality was live or not. Yes it is! If you have the proper version of GoogleEarth installed ( GoogleEarth v4.0291.beta ), then opening this link will crank up the application and display the […]