Tag: CivilLiberties

  • Community Networking: Profiting from Poor Leadership Clearwire Gains a Toe-hold

    Profiting from Council’s continued inability to craft effective technology policy, Clearwire, a wireless Internet service provider utilizing proprietary spectrum, has gained a toe-hold in our community. These days, it’s hard to imagine getting through high school without the Internet. However, there are at least 100 students at East Chapel Hill High School whose families cannot […]

  • Chapel Hill News: Crushed by Council’s Jagganath

    I commented Dec. 4th that the Lot #5 development juggernaut was powered by an all-consuming illogic I fully expected to crush rational opposition. I wasn’t disappointed [VIDEO]. Echoing that sentiment, today’s Chapel Hill News speaks of a “proposal…so big and had so much town involvement — Mayor Kevin Foy and council member Bill Strom have […]

  • I’m just a Bill

    Former Council member, occasional OP poster and Director of Bill Drafting for the North Carolina General Assembly since 1981, Gerry Cohen has a new ‘blog, NC Bill Drafting: 30 Years on Jones St., capturing the tug-n-pull of NC’s legislative tides. What a great niche subject covered by a key player. For instance, he notes in […]

  • Fish, Fowl, Eyeballs, Journalist: None of the above?

    My Nov. 4th Chapel Hill News column was kind of choppy this week. I guess one of the “nots” I can add to the list is a paragon of brevity. Some folks use the term “citizen journalist” to describe what I’m doing on CitizenWill – a description that hasn’t quite jelled into a term of […]

  • District Referendum: What would Abe think?

    District referendum won 18703 (68.52%) to 8593 (31.48%). The negative consequences of this decision will not be fully apparent until 2010 and beyond. With reform in the air, with winning candidates Nelson and Gordon both saying there’s more to be done, with every media endorsement suggesting further action, the next phase of broadening electoral participation […]

  • Election Day 2006: Hogan Farms and Beyond…

    Covered Hogan Farms from 6:45am to 9:45am. BOCC candidate Jamie Daniels was handing out material until roughly 9am. Stein supporters covered the precinct from 7ish on. The Democrats staffed a table handing out sample ballots the whole time I was there… As of 9:35am, 300 confirmed voters with another 10-15 milling about waiting to go. […]

  • Please Vote Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

    For my RSS reading readers ;-)! Find your precinct HERE . Please vote Tuesday, Nov. 7th. Polls are open 6:30AM until 7:30PM. Vote NO, NO, NO on either of the divisive Orange and Chatham county districting referendums. Vote YES for Baddour and Anderson Superior Court District 15B. Vote YES for Vanderbeck commissioner Chatham District 4. […]

  • Sign, Sign Everywhere a Sign…

    This time last year I was catching 14 winks in preparation for election day. Earlier in the evening I had made the rounds collecting my outlying signs for redeployment. About 3 hours from now, I was leaping out of bed to fill some balloons, say a hasty goodbye to the family and rush to pick […]

  • Election Signs 2006, Care And Feeding

    Maintaining election signs feels like an art form. During the 2005 election season, I plotted various energy saving routes to “care and feed” for my signs as I drove around town on regular errands. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. I didn’t just fix my own signs. Heck, at one point I’d repaired […]

  • Vote No on Orange County Districting Referendum, Another No from Katz

    A resounding NO from former Orange County Democratic Party chair Barry Katz in his Oct. 28th LTE to the Chapel Hill News: I will vote no on the ballot referendum to restructure the Orange County commissioners. First, there hasn’t been enough public debate on the merits of change, and I oppose change without voters’ understanding […]

  • Vote No on Orange County Districting Referendum

    Thank you Orange County League of Women Voters for sponsoring tonight’s forum. There were 15-20 folks in the audience this evening, including former BOCC candidate Artie Franklin, current BOCC candidate Jamie Daniel and Superior Court District 15B candidate Chuck Anderson. Fright-night, referendum style, came a day late as Moses Carey pretty much reprized his earlier […]

  • Fool me once, shame on you…: Possible Republican Judge Election Trickery

    According to WCHL1360 some kind of organized tomfoolery is going on at the Morehead Planetarium polling place Some students from UNC Chapel Hill are working to get votes for Conservative judges, but are not always transparent in their efforts. Chapel Hill attorney Bob Epting says a young woman approached him outside the polling place and […]

  • Nov. 1st: Carey, CitizenWill and the 2006 Redistricting Referendum in Hillsborough

    I’m once again on the hot seat tomorrow as pro-referendum Orange County Commissioner Moses Carey (and legions of staffers) try to counter my pro-democracy arguments against local election redistricting 😉 Seriously, if folks walk away understanding how this redistricting actually diminishes “small d” democracy, distorts voter-power, potentially overweights rural influence and that other, better, alternatives […]

  • Chapel Hill, a “self-consciously quaint” destination….

    Local ‘blogger Mark Kleinschmidt (and fellow 2005 Council candidate) alerts Chapel Hillian’s to an upgrade (?) in our image.

  • Judge Free Speech

    As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m hooked on the ‘blog CreditSlips, “A blog on all things about credit and bankruptcy. We are seven academics who will use this space to do what we like to do when we get together–discussing and debating what does happen and what should happen when consumers and businesses […]