Rhino12_13_12 by The Rhinoceros Times

The Rhinoceros Times

Vol. XXII No. 50

Greensboro, North Carolina

www.rhinotimes.com

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Turmoil Over Secret Raises Rages by Scott D. Yost county editor

Photo by Maria Sollecito

The annual Festival of Lights was held in downtown Greensboro on Friday, Dec. 7. The streets were fairly crowded even though the weather wasn’t perfect. But, after all, a winter festival should have some winter weather. However, it would have been nice if it had been frozen instead of wet.

Guilford County commissioners, department heads, employees and residents have so many questions regarding the 15 recent raises secretly granted to Guilford County department heads that the new Board of Commissioners may investigate the way the raises came about and take any appropriate action. (Continued on page 33)

Rhino Perkinettes Abandoning Perkins Rumors by john hammer editor

The Perkinettes have left the building and have left Mayor Robbie Perkins behind. Perkins is still mayor, but he no longer has the support

of the majority of the city councilmembers – the group we dubbed the Perkinettes. In fact, it would be safe to say that the majority of the City Council is pretty upset with Perkins and,

Schools Spitting in own Oatmeal by paul C. clark Staff Writer

Guilford County Schools has offered to sell High Point 10 acres the school board owns on Shadybrook Road, next to the High Point Athletic Complex and Miracle Field for children with disabilities, for $335,000. That is less than the $400,000 the Board of Education previously demanded from High Point, but more than the $255,000 High Point had the property appraised for in October. High Point Assistant City

right now, are more inclined to vote against him rather than with him. Councilmembers Jim Kee, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Zack Matheny and Nancy Vaughan have all expressed high levels of outrage with the behavior of Perkins. And newly appointed

Councilmember Tony Wilkins can’t be too pleased with the recent attempt by Perkins to brand Wilkins a racist. Perkins’ tactics of strongarming and lying to his fellow councilmembers have caught up with him. People around here are (Continued on page 40)

From staff and wire reports

The December Rhino Times Schmoozefest, the areas largest networking event, is Thursday, Dec. 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. at High Point Art, Antique and Design Center at 641 West Ward Ave. (Continued on page 10)

Manager Pat Pate said he recently received a voicemail (Continued on page 10)

Inside this issue

High Point News.......... 22 Entertainment Guide.... 13 Uncle Orson Reviews... 14 Puzzles............ 15, 32, 34 Yost Column................ 17 Scott’s Night Out.......... 18 Rhino Real Estate........ 19 Letters to the Editor..... 27 Editorial Cartoon.......... 42 under the hammer....... 43

Photo by John Hammer

Politics makes strange table-fellows. After being sworn in, Greensboro’s newest councilmember, Tony Wilkins, sat down at his first meeting beside Mayor Robbie Perkins. Last week Perkins used some underhanded stunts to try and keep Wilkins off the council.

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Frank Rakestraw Frank Paul Rakestraw died peacefully at Wesley Long Palliative Care, on Dec. 9, 2012, after a brief illness. Funeral services will be conducted at First Baptist Church in Greensboro at 2 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 13. Interment will be at 4 p.m. at Smyrna Presbyterian Church Cemetery at 3350 NC 65 in Reidsville. Frank was born in Reidsville, on August 19, 1944, to the late Benjamin Paul Rakestraw and Eva Sykes Rakestraw. He attended elementary and junior high in Reidsville, and graduated from Reidsville Senior High School. Frank graduated from UNC with a B.A. in history. He served two years in the US Army serving a year at Ft. Bragg, and a year in Heidelberg, Germany. Frank began his career with Blue Bell in 1969 and retired in 2009 as senior purchasing manager with (Continued on page 42)

Saying Good-bye To Mary’s Sweet Baboo by john hammer editor

Frank Rakestraw, a man better known to Rhino Readers as Mary Rakestraw’s Sweet Baboo, died at Wesley Long Hospital after a brief illness on Sunday, Dec. 9. Frank and Mary had been married for 45 years, and Frank was a man who proves the old adage – behind every good woman is a good man. Mary Rakestraw served on both the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and the Greensboro City Council, but Frank was the man behind the scenes, running campaigns and drumming up support. Frank was a tireless campaign worker for Mary and other conservative candidates. Walking neighborhoods, going door to door, is the old fashioned way to campaign, and something that was dear to Frank’s heart – and a very inexpensive way to campaign. Frank spent days every election year walking neighborhoods knocking on doors and talking to whoever would listen. You couldn’t know Frank for more than a minute or two without learning that he was a little more than fond of his alma mater, the UNC-Chapel Hill Tar Heels. He and Mary were extremely well traveled, having lived in Germany and in Belgium. They once traveled all around Turkey by public bus, once again classic (Continued on page 42)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

County Adds Big, Ugly, Yellow Eyesore by Scott D. Yost county editor

Guilford County government has a lot of strict rules and regulations against residents keeping rusty old cars in their front yards, and it has plenty of other ordinances restricting eyesores on private property – however, the county itself is apparently under no such restraints. Last Thursday, Dec. 6, Guilford County workers plopped a large, loud, ugly yellow generator – crowned by an old rusty muffler – at the northeast entrance of the governmental plaza in downtown Greensboro. The county is in the process of moving its Information Services (IS) Department – something that just about every other business and government in the world calls the information technology (IT) department – to the fourth floor of the BB&T building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro. In order to provide backup power for the county’s servers and other computer infrastructure, the county mounted the generator in a highly visible, much traveled spot right next to both the grassy lawn of the Old Guilford County Court House and the stage of Phill G. McDonald Plaza – also known as the governmental plaza. The large ugly yellow generator is also near the entrance of the county-owned BB&T building – which houses a branch of

that bank, the Guilford County Register of Deeds, the county’s veterans affairs office, and, of course, the county IS Department. Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen said that, on Dec. 6, he had to go to his office very early in the morning and, when he pulled in the parking lot, he wondered what was going on. Thigpen said, “I came in at 5 in the morning and there was this huge giant truck, and I was saying, ‘What in the world is this doing out here?’” He said he had to be out of the office the rest of the day on Thursday, but he said that, on Friday, Dec. 7, when he arrived, he saw what all the commotion was about. “I came in today and saw the generator and I was like, wow, OK,” Thigpen said on that Friday. In an email to The Rhinoceros Times, Thigpen added that he wanted to come clean about what was really going on. Thigpen, who was one of 15 department heads to recently get controversial raises that the county is calling “equity salary adjustments,” wrote: “Actually it is providing power for a giant drill I’m using to break into the BB&T Building … if the equity adjustments don’t work out.” On Friday afternoon, Dec. 7, county staff was running the generator – presumably testing it out after the move – and the noise could be heard across the street at The

World Headquarters of The Rhinoceros Times. For much of the day, the generator was covered with a blue tarp, and passersby were looking up at the monstrosity in the middle of the public area with the same curiosity and fascination that the Neanderthals had when observing the monolith in the opening scene of 2001. Thigpen said the giant generator happened to be right below his own office, but he hadn’t yet been in his office while it was running, so he didn’t know if it would be disruptive or not. Guilford County Facilities Director Fred Jones said the generator has been in operation for years, but he said that, when it was at its former location – the Bellemeade Center on 201 N. Eugene St. – it was in a more out of the way spot. “They moved it from Bellemeade where it was hidden by a wooden fence,” Jones said. Jones said an engineer had determined the best place to put the generator to backup the IS operations in the BB&T Building. According to Jones, in some cases, backup generators are put on the roof, but he said that due to the heavy vibration created by a generator of this size, it wasn’t advisable to put it on top of the BB&T building. Guilford County Property Management Director Sandy Woodard said the generator

runs on diesel fuel. She said she didn’t know the exact reason for the location chosen for it, but she said she knows there are concerns about transporting diesel fuel into and through a building. Woodard added that the generator seemed larger out in the open in its new location than it did in its old one. “It didn’t look that big,” she said. She said that the IS Department’s servers had to have backup power available because they control everything from county payroll to data services for the Sheriff’s Department and the Emergency Services and those servers. Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins was quick to point out that even though the generator is near city property, its placement there wasn’t the city’s doing. “It’s not a city generator,” Perkins said. “The county can do what it wants.” The mayor said that wasn’t the only case of a generator that he wished were more out of sight. “It’s unfortunate that these things are ugly and noisy – and that they have to be started from time to time to test them out,” Perkins said. Perkins added that there are other office buildings in Greensboro that have this type of generator, but typically those generators are placed out of the way and fenced in, (Continued on page 6)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Farmers Market Fees Up Nearly 50 Percent by alex jakubsen Staff Writer

Fees paid by vendors at the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market will increase dramatically Jan. 1. The annual cost of renting a table in the market will increase by about 48 percent. Elizabeth Gibbs, the executive director of Greensboro Farmers Market Inc., the nonprofit that took over management of the Farmers Curb Market from the city almost a year ago, now says they underestimated the cost of running the facility and have to raise rates on vendors to compensate. Gibbs said, “The fees are going up because it was a little undisclosed what things would cost to run this market.” She said the costs include advertising and administrative costs that were previously handled by the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department. She said that the market and Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. are now on their own for the first time. “Advertising is expensive,” she said. She also said they were taking advantage of free marketing like Facebook and word of mouth. Other changes kicking in next year include collecting annual payments in January instead of July, and a requirement that vendors give the farmers market advance notice of absences. The Farmers Curb Market will also start accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistant

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Program (SNAP) payments, similar to food stamps. Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. has been conducting both random and complaint based inspections of farms since taking over, and plans to continue, although some farmers said the process has been lopsided. Another change is that table rent rates are now progressive so that the more tables a vendor rents, the more each additional table costs up to four, rather than a flat rate for each table. Also annual vendors are now limited to four tables, although vendors with more tables as of 2012 can be grandfathered in. “The more tables you have, clearly you have a reason to have more tables. You have enough products that you need the additional retail space,” Gibbs said about the graduated rates, and why she thought it makes sense for additional tables to cost more than the first. Mike Faucette of Faucette Farms says he didn’t expect rates to go up so much so quickly. He said he had calculated his own rates have increased by around 47 percent. He also said he was not satisfied that Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. was investing enough money in advertising to justify the rate hikes. He said $2,400 had been budgeted for advertising in for 2013, and that it wouldn’t go very far. Faucette said he would be staying in the

market, but he knew of several vendors who either would not be back or would struggle to pay the new rates. “The rates are going up and they don’t sell enough to justify what their table rent is,” said Faucette. The farmers market will also be collecting payments for 2013 in January, instead of July, which is when the city has collected payments in the past. Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. started managing the market Jan. 1, 2012, and billed annual vendors for a full year’s rent in December, which is due in January 2013. Faucette said that the January due date for the annual payment could put some farmers in a tight spot, since they have less produce to sell. “A farmer makes his money in the summer time,” he said. Gibbs said that the farmers market is willing to work with vendors on deferred payment plans, and said no vendors had told her they would be leaving because of an inability to afford the new rates. Charles Brummitt, co-founder of Greensboro Farmers Market Inc., said that collecting rent earlier than July this year is necessary because Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. is a new company and needs cash flow to operate. Faucette, who said he had opposed awarding the contract to run the market to Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. from the beginning, said he would have preferred it go to the Greensboro Coliseum. He said

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that if Coliseum Director Matt Brown were running the market it would get better advertising, and wouldn’t have to rely on always making money to keep the doors open. Faucette also said he thought he had been inspected excessively. He said his farm had been inspected five or six times and that some newer vendors hadn’t been (Continued on page 10)

Eyesore (Continued from page 4) or other measures are taken to make them less visible. “The reason you don’t notice them more is because they hide them,” Perkins said. Thigpen, who couldn’t stop laughing as he considered the implications of the new giant generator that’s right out in front of his deeds office, said he was concerned that the security officer in the parking lot who sits a few feet away from it might be in danger of losing his hearing. But Thigpen also said county residents might now see more high-powered bands performing at the city’s main plaza. Thigpen added one more benefit to his list of possibilities. “If the city ever loses power,” he said, “there’s going to be a party at the Register of Deeds office.”

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Handpicked Bank Fails Schools’ Test by paul C. clark Staff Writer

The administration of Guilford County School Superintendent Mo Green has killed an effort by the Guilford County Board of Education’s four black members to divert taxpayer money from the banks Guilford County Schools usually uses to Durhambased Mechanics and Farmers Bank. After pressure from school board members Sandra Alexander, Deena Hayes, Carlvena Foster and Amos Quick, the school board in September voted unanimously to consider overriding the way it invests the taxpayer money it holds to steer money to one bank: the Greensboro branch of the black-owned, Durham-based Mechanics and Farmers Bank. Exactly why the four school board members, in a July 24, 2012 letter written by Alexander and signed by the other black school board members, tried to get Green, who is black, and Guilford County Schools Chief Financial Officer Angie Henry, who is white, to deposit money in Mechanics and Farmers Bank, has never been clear. Mechanics and Farmers Bank is not based in Guilford County. There are doubtless other black-owned banks. Alexander at the time merely said she had been approached by people in the black community, who she did not identify, who wanted money deposited in the bank. It’s hard to imagine anyone, black or white, who would have that issue high on their agenda, except for the bank’s owners or managers. In any case, the four school board members who signed the letter wanted to do a very small bank a very big favor. None of the four school board members has any experience in investment banking. It was odd for school board members to lobby for one particular business – and a business of particular importance, because it has to be able to safeguard taxpayer money and meet stringent state requirements. Nonetheless, Green’s administration followed the school board’s orders and on Oct. 26, 2012, issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) for investment services to all 20 banks licensed to operate in Guilford County. RFQs are issued for services that are based on qualifications, as apposed to products, which are bid based on cost. Guilford County Schools keeps its available money in three places: in a bank that is the school system’s central depository, and which is chosen after issuing a request for proposals (RFP) to get the most secure bank and the best price for its banking services; a short-term investment fund (STIF) account through the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer, which gives the school system safety and, according to Henry, a high rate of return; and in various other local banks that are used only to deposit the daily revenues of individual schools from things

such as gate receipts from athletic events. Along with the RFQ, which is supposed to weed out banks incapable of providing the service, Guilford County Schools issued an invitation to bid on an investment of $2 million dollars – a pittance in terms of Guilford County Schools, which has a $677 million 2012-2013 budget. Taxpayer money held by a large public institution shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a bank that can’t collateralize a $2 million deposit. That didn’t stop Alexander, at the school board’s Dec. 4 meeting, from complaining repeatedly that the bar had been set too high – that Guilford County Schools should have crafted a teensy-weensy deposit that Mechanics and Farmers Bank could handle. Alexander said, “It appears that you all set the bar very high – so high that only the largest bank in the country chose to really compete for the opportunity to provide services to us.” Alexander said that because, of the 20 banks, only six bothered to answer the RFQ for what is, for a bank, not a large institutional deposit. Of those six banks, four turned Guilford County Schools down, including Mechanics and Farmers Bank. The other three banks were BB&T, the Bank of Oak Ridge and First Citizens Bank. Two banks responded to the RFQ: American National Bank & Trust, which submitted an incomplete response that was not considered, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which submitted the only response qualified for consideration. Bank of America Merrill Lynch offered the school system an annual percentage rate of 0.20 percent – at a time in which money in the state STIF fund is earning 0.482 percent. Bank of America Merrill Lynch was offering less than the federal funds rate, the cheapest rate on any loan in America, which is now running 0.25 percent. In other words, Alexander had it backwards – in a time of cheap money, banks have little incentive to take deposits and the $2 million was setting the bar too low to interest them. Green and Henry’s report, presented at the Dec. 4 meeting, concluded briefly and with no need for explanation, “Given that GCS earned .482% in October 2012 on funds invested in the Short Term Investment Fund (STIF) with the NC State Treasurer, staff will continue investing all funds not required for daily operations in the STIF account.” The entire exercise, which must have taken hours of staff time, not to mention wasting the time of the banks, resulted in only one proposal from a bank, which Guilford County Schools declined. It was (Continued on page 8)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Music Hall No Longer Top City Priority by alex jakubsen Staff Writer

The Greensboro City Council swore in the new District 5 councilmember, Tony Wilkins, and discussed a myriad of issues at a council retreat on Tuesday, Dec. 11 at the South Campus of the Gateway University Research Park. As a first order of business the council voted to accept the resignation of District 5 Councilmember Trudy Wade, who resigned her seat to serve in the North Carolina Senate. Wilkins, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Wade’s term at the Dec. 4 council meeting, was then sworn in. Mayor Robbie Perkins employed a bit of showmanship to “set a little tone,” saying he felt the council had had a rough week. He showed off a talking stick he received from the late former Greensboro City Councilmember and Native American activist Lonnie Revels. Perkins said that Revels had been a unifying figure in Greensboro and transcended regional divides. “He was a mentor of mine and a dear friend,” Perkins said. Perkins let the councilmembers pass around the talking stick, but elected not to use the item in the traditional sense. “This talking stick was used in Native American meetings and whoever had the talking stick got to talk,” Perkins said.

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“Now we’re not going to get that formal today, because I know that would be too much of a reach for our group.” The meeting was for the most part an open discussion; councilmembers brought up issues they wanted to discuss and gave direction to city staff to look into them. They started off at Perkins’ suggestion and saying where they wanted to see Greensboro in five years. A running theme was lowering the unemployment rate and fostering development. “I want Greensboro to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state of North Carolina,” said Councilmember Yvonne Johnson, who took the lead in answering the question. Johnson also said she wanted to see Greensboro become known around the country as a “tournament town,” a theme the city has been promoting for years. Councilmember Zack Matheny said he agreed that employment was essential, and said he would like to see unemployment go down by a percentage point a year. “It’s not just about saying you want to support jobs,” Matheny said. “It’s about decreasing our unemployment rate.” Councilmember Jim Kee said, “I would like to see Greensboro be a leader in the technology field.” He said the waste-toenergy field was particularly important, not only for Greensboro but the whole country.

He said he also wanted to see Greensboro’s median income raised. Councilmember Nancy Vaughan said she wanted Greensboro to leverage the Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) to create high-paying jobs. Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter said she wanted to see Greensboro’s services and programs excelling and attracting new people and businesses. Perkins then gave a PowerPoint presentation reviewing the council’s accomplishments in 2012 and listing

“ongoing initiatives” for 2013. Perkins touted saving money on the city’s solid waste disposal and recycling contracts and hiring a new city manager and city attorney. Perkins said one of the most significant actions of the council in the past year was to vote against the Jordan Lake Rules, which would have cost Greensboro between $8 million and $10 million a year to adhere to. Under ongoing initiatives Perkins talked (Continued on page 39)

Gilbert and Jones Calling It A Career by Scott D. Yost county editor

Two more Guilford County department heads – Board of Elections Director George Gilbert and Facilities Director Fred Jones – are retiring. Jones will leave county service on Feb. 1 and Gilbert is retiring on March 1. There’s no question this is a time of major transition for the county’s leadership: Guilford County just lost six long-time commissioners, and County Manager Brenda Jones Fox is retiring on Feb. 1; and, on Thanksgiving, Guilford County Emergency Services Director Alan Perdue announced that, on March 1, he would also be retiring. Before becoming the county’s election director, Gilbert served as an economic analyst for the State of Florida and worked for the US Senate in Washington, DC. Gilbert said that, in August 1987, his then soon-to-be-father-in-law sent him a newspaper clipping that told of the job opening in Guilford County, and, with some professional and managerial experience under his belt, Gilbert applied for the job. “He knew I had worked in the Senate in Washington and it sounded like a good fit to him,” Gilbert said. “It didn’t make sense to me; of course, I had to be able to tell him I applied for it.” Gilbert gave himself something of a crash course in election law before the interview. “I read the statute twice,” he said. Gilbert got the job that he’s held for the last quarter of a century. He said that, during his time as director, he thought the county had made a lot of progress in the way it holds elections. “Two things that have been the biggest difference are automation and education,” Gilbert said. He said the election process – from the way votes are cast to the way they’re counted – had been greatly automated in the last 25 years. He added that he was proud of the way Guilford County’s election staff and its poll

workers have approached their education on election matters. He said his staff was constantly continuing their education in the field – with several of them earning masters degrees. Since taking the job in the late ’80s, Gilbert has also continued his own studies. Now Gilbert and Guilford County Board of Elections Deputy Director Charlie Collicutt are both nationally certified election officials. “Those things didn’t exist in the ’80s,” Gilbert said. He said he and his staff worked closely with Guilford Technical Community College to establish a class for poll workers. He added that, ever since those classes began about eight years ago, between 700 and 800 poll workers have been certified through the program. There have been some bumps along the way to retirement. For instance, one of the most contentious election battles in Guilford County came in 2004 when former Commissioner Trudy Wade – who went on to serve on the Greensboro City Council and was recently elected a state senator – went up against former Commissioner John Parks. That closely contested election battle dragged on for over a year before (Continued on page 35)

Bank (Continued from page 7) an irresponsible waste of Guilford County Schools resources, but Alexander chalked it up as a consciousness-raising exercise. “I hope at least something that has come out of this is we recognize that construction is not the only place we can use underutilized businesses,” Alexander said. “I hope we have come to a higher level of consciousness.” It should be unnecessary to point out that the purpose of investment banking is to raise money – not consciousness.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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Schools (Continued from page 1) from Guilford County Schools Director of Facilities Planning Donna Bell saying that the school board would negotiate to sell the property – which High Point wants to use to add parking, a shelter for children with respiratory problems and a new soccer field to the Miracle Field Complex – for the $335,000. “I got a call from a couple of the staff people,” Pate said. “They called last week and said the school board had told them to call back and ask about an asking price of the appraisal without the discount.” The “discount” is the theoretical drop in value of the property caused by a 2006 shared-use agreement between High Point and the school board. The $335,000 figure must have been arrived at by the school board in a closed session at its Tuesday, Dec. 4 meeting. At the end of that meeting, the school board went into closed session to discuss and give its attorneys instructions for the sale of real property – almost always land – but did not vote in public session after the closed session. Guilford County Schools Chief of Staff Nora Carr acknowledged the issue came up in the closed session but wouldn’t discuss the outcome. “There aren’t any records of it,” Carr said. “There was a closed session on it, but the reason for the closed session is still

Thursday, December 13, 2012

active.” Nonetheless, a majority of the 11 school board members must have agreed, through a vote, straw poll or “sense of the board” discussion to let the land go for $335,000. The school board and the City of High Point have been dickering for months over the price of the 10 acres, which was intended for a middle school Guilford County Schools now acknowledges will never be built. The City of High Point and the school board have a shared-use agreement for the entire High Point Athletic Complex/ Miracle Field/10-acre site that would have to expire for the land to be worth $335,000 under High Point’s appraisal. The school board is taking a risk in haggling over the price of the 10 acres, because under the shared-use agreement, approved by a 6-to-3 vote by the High Point City Council on March 23, 2006, the school board gets free use of the High Point Athletic Complex for school games and regional, conference, state and national competitions – and gets to keep the gate receipts from such games. According to Pate, before the approval of the shared-use agreement, the school board paid High Point $50,000 a year to use the High Point Athletic Complex. “The assumption would be that if we ended the agreement, we would have to look at what the school board would have to pay to use the property,” Pate said.

“And the assumption would have to be that it would have to be what they were paying before.” In other words, by demanding $80,000 more for the 10 acres, Guilford County Schools is risking having to pay $50,000 a year to use the Athletic Complex – $500,000 every 10 years, or $1 million every 20. And that’s if High Point doesn’t raise the price. If the shared-use agreement is not terminated by either party after the expiration date, it will automatically renew for another 10 years. High Point has no incentive not to terminate the agreement if the school board won’t sell the 10 acres and if High Point can get $50,000 a year from the school board. The agreement does not cover the adjacent Simeon Stadium, which the school board owns. At the school board’s insistence, both High Point and the school board have been wasting money on dueling appraisals for the property, each costing roughly $3,000. The school board commissioned an appraisal in December 2011, which valued the property at $400,000, and which everyone involved on the High Point side of the squabble said was based on faulty information and on the faulty assumption that the High Point City Council would rezone the property for apartments. High Point City Manager Strib Boynton on April 11, 2012, wrote Guilford County

Market (Continued from page 6) inspected at all. Garland McCollum of Massey Creek Farm, another vendor at the farmers market, has a different view. “I was supportive of this route from the very beginning,” he said. McCollum said he had recommended that Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. raise rent rates even higher than they did to encourage more efficient use of the tables. “Many of the older producers, a lot of the reason they are there is because of social reasons,” McCollum said. He said he thought that was an important part of the market culture, but wanted to encourage vendors with room to spare to consolidate their tables to make room for potential new vendors. McCollum said he had also suggested rental charges for storage, cooler and freezer space. However McCollum did say he felt the Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. inspections had not been distributed as evenly as they could have been. He said he hadn’t been targeted personally, but that “I have felt there have been other vendors; that maybe they were overly scrutinized.” McCollum attributed the over-inspection of some vendors to the fact that inspections are partially complaint driven and many complaints come from competing vendors, which he said made for an atmosphere that was not ideal.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

School Superintendent Mo Green offering to buy the 10 acres for the 2011 county assessed tax value of $294,300. On June 13, 2012, Green, acting for the school board, wrote Boynton asking that the City of High Point conduct a separate appraisal of the property. The results of High Point’s appraisal were submitted to the city on Oct. 27, by Michael S. Clapp & Associates. Clapp & Associates valued the property at $255,000. Clapp did write that the property’s value would be increased if the High Point-Guilford County Schools shared-use agreement was terminated after its expiration date – from $255,000 to $335,000 – the price Pate said Bell asked of High Point. Despite the Clapp appraisal, it’s still hard to see how the land’s value would increase, even without the restrictions of the shareduse agreement, if that agreement expired. The High Point City Council is still unlikely to rezone the 10 acres, which in addition is the watershed of Oak Hollow Lake and subject to watershed restrictions. As Clapp wrote in his appraisal, “It is my opinion that the subject’s zoning could not be changed and that to appraise the subject under the assumption that the land could be rezoned from the existing PI [Public Institutional] zoning to a more intensive zoning such as multifamily would be highly speculative and inappropriate.”

“I think that’s getting more ironed out,” McCollum said. He said he thought management was seeking a balance between responding to complaints in a meaningful way and taking frivolous complaints too seriously. McCollum said his farm had not been formally inspected by Greensboro Farmers Market Inc. but that Brummitt is one of his customers and has visited the farm.

Rumors

(Continued from page 1)

in High Point. If you have never seen over 200,000 square feet of art, antiques and collectibles you don’t want to miss this Schmoozefest. As usual beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served gratis to those who sign in and wear a name tag. High Point Art, Antique and Design Center is amazing and free food and adult beverages is not a bad deal either. --Scott D. Yost mentions it in passing in his column, and we would like to congratulate him on his 10th anniversary with The Rhino Times. Scott claims to have written 4 million words for The Rhino during his tenure, but after extensive research, two independent accounting firms have only been able to verify 3,843,612 words. It appears that Scott (Continued on page 39)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

Thursday, December 13, 2012 HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

Page 11 HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

Sims Succeeds Where Smothers Failed by paul C. clark Staff Writer

Newly elected High Point Mayor Bernita Sims on Thursday, Dec. 6 pulled off a power grab that hasn’t been tried since 2003, when former Mayor Becky Smothers attempted it: abolishing the High Point City Council’s committee system and centralizing all control of the council under the mayor. Sims made the changes at the first meeting after her Monday, Dec. 3 swearingin, a meeting usually used to set up the committees. The High Point City Council has long operated under a system that is unusual among North Carolina cities but is immediately recognizable to anyone familiar with the workings of Congress or of state legislatures. Power on the City Council was diffused among several committees, each chaired by a councilmember, usually one with substantial time on the City Council. The City Council had, under shifting names, committees for finance, public safety, planning and development and at times other issues. Issues that came to the City Council were referred to the appropriate committee. The committee heard presentations from staff members, researched the issues then voted to

recommend that the City Council approve or reject the motion. The City Council usually voted to follow the recommendations of its committees with little discussion. The committees, after all, had done the research on the issue, and most City Council votes were routine to begin with. City councilmembers were free to vote against the recommendation of a committee, or to ask for discussion on it, but rarely did so except on controversial issues. That’s how Congress and the North Carolina General Assembly work, and it’s necessary for a large legislative body, in which hundreds of people can’t hear every issue. It’s more unusual for a small body such as a city council, although a city council is technically a legislative body. The High Point City Council often approved a week’s worth of recommendations from a committee with one vote, unless one or more councilmembers wanted to break one off for discussion. The net result of the system was to diffuse power among members of the council. Many issues were decided, and many proposals killed, in committee, usually out of sight of the mayor. Traditionally, High Point mayors have not chaired

committees. That gave the committee chairmen unusual power, and also allowed them to use their expertise. Former Councilmember and current Guilford County Commissioner Bill Bencini, for example, is an expert on land-use planning. Former Councilmember and current state House Rep. John Faircloth was a former High Point police chief, and so a public safety expert. No more. Now, nothing will be done by the City County in a meeting not run by Sims. Sims on Thursday completely scratched the City Council’s entire committee system. To understand how she did so, you have to understand another oddity of the High Point City Council’s traditional way of doing business: the legislative fiction of the “committee of the whole.” A legislative body acts as a committee of the whole when it wants all of the members of the body to hear the details of an issue before a vote. Congress hasn’t used that mechanism since 1986. For years, the Monday meeting that everyone considers a High Point City Council meeting has actually been a meeting of the City Council’s Committee of the Whole – a fine distinction, but one that mattered in High Point’s case.

The fiction was a vestigial leftover from the days when the City Council regularly held its actual meetings on Thursday mornings, but met on Monday as a committee of the whole to hear recommendations from the other committees. The Committee of the Whole made recommendations to the City Council – itself – which were then voted on at the Thursday City Council meetings. The City Council for years has almost never met as the City Council on Thursdays, instead reserving Thursdays for briefings by High Point City Manager Strib Boynton and his staff. So, at the end of the Monday meeting, a councilmember would make a motion to make all action final – meaning that a vote of the Committee of the Whole became a vote of the City Council, and a full City Council meeting wasn’t needed on Thursday. That was useful for City councilmembers whose work schedules didn’t allow them to attend daytime meetings. The City Council system was unusual – like many things in HIgh Point – but worked. It was easy to make fun of the City Council for holding what were sometimes 20-minute meetings, but the system was indisputably efficient. And the City Council could always vote to not refer (Continued on page 30)

The Rhino Times

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Page 12

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

The Sound of the Beep What follows has been transcribed from the answering machine tape on our comment line 273-0898. 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 273-0898 and start talking at The Sound of the Beep. Yes, I’m calling back. Just finished reading your Rhino again for this week. And after three weeks, I see that you still have elected not to run the one that I called in about four weeks ago after you asking you to run that basically dealt with trying to get people to get along, stop looking at white, black and yellow, and look at us as being one in the United States, not red states and blue states but United States. But I see you have elected not to run that. I think with the beginning of the year it’s a good time for people to start getting along and let’s solve these common problems that we have and stop bickering and fighting and arguing against each other. Hopefully, you’ll publish this this time. But if not, then I’ll just assume that you’d rather get the ones that call in complaining all the time about something, or knocking other people down all the time about something, or trying to create race wars and things like that. I think you need to publish ... %%% This is a message to the Greensboro Police Department. I have a suggestion. I walk. A lot of times when I get to stoplights cars are blocking the intersection. I can’t get through. They won’t – can’t move. They won’t back up if they can. I have to wait for one or two stoplights to change. They need to do like Winston-Salem has started to do. If cars are blocking intersections, give them a ticket. Fine them about $50 at a pop. Maybe that will wake them up. Pedestrians need to have room to walk. I thought pedestrians had the right of way. But, anyway, that’s just a suggestion. Maybe you can start it in January, but something’s got to be done for the people that walk don’t have to risk their lives. %%% Yeah, this is in regard to the editor’s note about, do you really want the police out there writing tickets for people with leaves in the streets. Yes, I want the police enforcing the law. Isn’t that is supposed to enforce it? So, really, that statement to me, I don’t really understand it. Maybe you can help me to understand it. But, yeah, the law should be enforced by the police. %%% Hello, Rhinoceros Times. Hello “Sound of the Beep.” I read your paper every week. I love it. I’m a big fan. I’m 40 years old, originally from New Jersey, but I’m residing in Greensboro. I have a complaint about police. Why are they always harassing panhandlers? We got rapists out here. We’ve got drug dealers. I mean, I know you’ve got to have a permit, but even if you have a permit, they write you a ticket. There’s two kinds of people in this world: people that really need help, and people that really need to help people. What is the problem? Holding a sign if you’re homeless and hungry. You got no other way to get around. Get bus money. You’re holding a sign, and if people want to give you a couple of bucks, what’s the big deal? I mean these police got jobs. They don’t know what it’s like for us. I just got out of domestic violent situation, and I had to leave. So, I’m homeless now. But I started panhandling. %%% Yeah, I’m sorry. I was cut off. But to make a long story short. The cops are really treating panhandlers like we’re some kind of mass murderers, and we’re just trying to eat. You know, there’s some homeless people out here. Some of us are not on drugs like myself. So, to the Greensboro PD, lay off of the panhandlers. If we’re not causing any trouble anywhere, and nobody’s complaining, and we’re not hurting anybody, what is the big deal? Go catch the drug dealers and your rapists and everything. Leave the panhandlers alone. All they do is stand there. Thank you very much, and y’all have a blessed day. %%% Yes, Steely Dan Fan Man. I was reading in the paper just now. It says this woman was charged with embezzling $129,000 over a seven-and-a-half year period from BB&T, and she was released without bond. Then it goes on to say in another article that a father and son were growing pot, and one had $125,000 secured bond, and the other had a $75,000 bond. Explain that. (Continued on page 28)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Page 13

Page 14

Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Uncle Orson Reviews Everything

See’s, Homeland, Cards, Tags, Macbeth by orson scott card

It started in 1973. Only two months returned from my LDS mission to Brazil, I was dating the girl who had played the lead in a production of Brigadoon that I directed the moment I got back. With no money and no driver’s license, my ability to come up with either gifts or dates was highly limited. So I hit upon the idea of giving her 12 ridiculously cheap gifts, one each day culminating with the 12th gift on Christmas day. It included things like eight bananas on the eighth day, and at the end I came up with 11 baskets inside a big hamper-sized basket, making a total of 12. Even when the gifts are slight, the anticipation magnifies them. Let’s just say that she noticed my romantic campaign. And even though it took four more years before she married me, I haven’t missed the 12 days of Christmas in 40 years. Today, as this issue comes out, I begin that 40th year. Nowadays I conclude the 12 days on the 24th, so they’re finished before Christmas day; that’s why I begin on the 13th. I’m not sure if I’m telling you this because it was such a fantastically romantic idea, which you should emulate, or to warn

you to avoid starting something like this because, if things work out well, it never ends. You have no idea how hard it is to come up with 12 gifts a year, with as many of them as possible having the same number as the day, and without ever repeating a gift. It helps, though, that I have a very cooperative audience: She wants to like the gifts. It’s rather like watching your 6-yearold dance. You’re just happy that they’re doing it at all; you’re not very critical about the quality of the performance.

.... Maybe you’ve noticed that there’s a See’s Candy store in Friendly Center. See’s is a western chain – they’re all over California and Utah, but this is the first time they’ve appeared east of the Mississippi. This is because See’s is thinking of opening a candy-making factory in Tennessee, along with a bunch of eastern stores. So this Christmas, they’ve opened a bunch of temporary Christmas-season stores, where you can buy a limited selection of predetermined packages. Caramels, candy bars, and lollipops are almost decorative compared with the real attraction: one-pound boxes of caramels,

nuts and chews, and other standbys. For me, the main attraction are the milk bordeaux. Covered with chocolate decors, these are See’s signature candies. Of course the chocolate coating is perfect; the centers, however, are what make them so popular. Essentially, they’re a “creamy brown sugar,” which doesn’t really begin to describe them. If you’ve never tasted See’s, then it’s worth stopping by and picking up a box or two. (If you want to sample the bordeaux without buying a whole pound, they do have individual bordeau candy bars.) But we’re also taking part in something rather like a contest. If See’s decides to go ahead with that Tennessee candy factory, they will open stores in the towns where these temporary Christmas stores do the most business. That means that the more our Greensboro store sells, the better our chance of getting a permanent See’s store here. I don’t think of See’s as competition for our local jewel, Loco for Coco. After all, I’ve been ordering See’s online during the entire time that Loco for Coco has existed. Their offerings are different, and they can coexist quite nicely, I believe. But if we have our own See’s store, we’ll be able to go in and pick up just a couple of chocolates as an impulse buy, a treat, an experiment. Think of it as your duty as a citizen of Guilford County to help bring See’s here. It’ll benefit a lot more people than, say, a baseball stadium or a performing arts center, and it won’t cost us a dime of tax money. It may, however, cause some of us to have to buy larger clothing. But that’s a matter of private self-control.

.... My wife started watching Homeland on Showtime before I did. She sampled it when it was offered on a regular network, and so she wasn’t aware, as she became involved with the show, just how much nudity and profanity it had. That’s because it was all cut out for the special promotional broadcast. Thus they proved that all that nudity was completely unnecessary and was there only for pornographic purposes. Except that it’s not even interesting as pornography. Just a dead spot where naked people bore each other and us as we wait for the story to resume. I always feel sorry for actors forced to set aside their art and offer themselves like slaves in a marketplace, with their bodies open for the inspection of strangers. But such are the times we live in. The cast of this television series is brilliant – some of our favorite actors: Claire Danes, who began with My So-Called Life and performed brilliantly in Temple Grandin and Me and Orson Welles.

Damien Lewis, who movingly played the lead in Band of Brothers and The Forsyte Saga. Morena Baccarin, who was unforgettable as the courtesan Inara Serra in Firefly and Serenity, and is always radiant in guest spots on TV series. Mandy Patinkin, who has two acting modes: brilliant and ham. In this series, he’s entirely brilliant – restrained, realistic, magnificent. And even as we move down the cast list, we find actors who are completely worthy to share the screen with these notables. What makes the story work, however, is the writing. This is like a more realistic, more paranoid, deeper, personal version of 24. Damien Lewis plays Nicholas Brody, a U.S. soldier who was presumed dead during his eight years as a prisoner of a terrorist mastermind. He was discovered and rescued during a raid on a terrorist stronghold, and now has returned to his family. But troubled (and marginally insane) CIA operative Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) has reason to believe that he is a double agent – that he was “turned” during his captivity. We quickly come to know that truly terrible things were done to Brody by his captors, and that he himself was driven to do unbearable acts that wake him up at night. He is capable of terrible violence and he is an angry, lonely, frightened, bitter man. But is he actually working for the enemy? Or are the “signs” of his being a spy for or agent of the bad guys merely Mathison’s paranoia turning one man’s pain into a vast conspiracy? We are only a few episodes into the series, but, unbelievably enough, the shows actually get better, though the early episodes are so good that it’s hard to believe that “better” is even possible. What makes this better than most spy stories is the human relationships. Mandy Patinkin, playing Claire Daines’s friend and boss, is morally complicated as he can’t decide whether to back her up or shut her down. She is every bit as questionable as Brody. And Morena Baccarin, playing Brody’s wife, Jessica, is tormented by the fact that in his absence, she fell in love with his best friend – who is now assigned to try to keep Brody as a sort of public mascot for the military. It means that she is constantly thrown together with her lover even as she tries to rebuild some kind of relationship with this tortured stranger who used to be, and thinks he still is, her husband. All very complicated and fascinating. Add to this some extraordinarily good child actors as their children, and writers who know how to spin the story so it feels real rather than contrived, and we’ve got an hour at a time of television at its best. (Continued on page 16)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Page 15

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle

No. 1209

LAST NAME FIRST By Patrick Berry / Edited by Will Shortz

Across

1 Striped pet 6 Befuddled

11 M r. _ _ _ ( o l d s o f t drink name) 1 5 Va r i e t y - s h o w overseers

18 Antipasto tidbit 19 Simulate

2 0 O l d p h o t o ’s t o n e 21 Loop locale, informally

22 Entry in a m e t a l w o r k e r ’s personal planner?

24 Roast a red-breasted bird? 26 Gall

27 Like movies and bonds

28 Pounds and pence? 29 Exercised caution

32 Copies from CD to PC 33 Distresses

34 What misbehaving kids must have inherited from their parents? 37 Funnywoman Boosler

40 Nose wrinkler

42 They might not be on the charts 43 Holds up

44 Napoleon, e.g., prior to exile?

For any three answers, call from a touch-tone phone: 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 each minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800814-5554.

4 8 S t u ff

4 9 S u ff i x w i t h f a t a l

9 5 I t ’s s u i t a b l e f o r framing

53 Soprano role in “Il Tr o v a t o r e ”

100 Smarmy preprandial blessing?

12 Device with a click wheel

5 2 W. H e m i s p h e r e alliance

96 No.1 priority?

54 Fishing spear?

1 0 4 C a l i f o r n i a ’s S a n ___ County

5 6 Ve r i z o n f o r e r u n n e r 57 Where many last names start with “O”

58 Shirt front clip-on 60 Like superfans

61 Has a capacity of 6 3 Ti m i d s w e a r w o r d 65 Bit of news

6 7 S p o k e t o o n e ’s flock?

68 Small sandwich 69 “___ that” 7 1 U n d e rg o

73 1975 TV debut, briefly

7 4 M o o c h e r ’s m o s t valuable acquaintance? 78 Sent texts to, in bygone days 80 Hard water

81 Meaning reverser 82 Claim findings 83 The Salt, in Arizona?

85 Forum wear

8 6 _ _ _ C a s s i d y, 1 9 7 0 s teen heartthrob 87 High-flown poetry 88 Furnace worker

9 0 C o ff e e f r o m B i g S k y Country? 9 4 C o x s w a i n ’s teammates

13 Soweto uprising figure

2 5 “ L o v e Tr a i n ” g r o u p , with “the” 28 Passenger ship

11 3 L a g o o n e n c l o s e r

3 0 Ta e _ _ _ d o

11 4 B e n e v o l e n t N a r n i a denizen

11 8 “ T h e C h r i s t m a s That Almost ___” (1966 holiday film) Down

39 Early fratricide victim

59 66

67 72

84 87

95 102

101

103

107

38 Plenty

100

3 7 Ti m e l i n e d i v i s i o n s

37 43

104

105

106

108

109

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

110

40 Sacred piece

1 Specifically

41 Click again, maybe

2 Last Oldsmobile to be made

5 4 Tr y f o r a h i t

4 4 Tu r n s i g n a l ?

5 5 M i n o r- l e a g u e classification

4 5 “ H a v e Yo u S e e n ___” (1971 hit)

3 C o n n i v i n g s e rg e a n t of 1950s TV

4 6 Wo r d w r i t t e n a c r o s s a bad check

4 Hanes competitor

6 Frightened, in dialect

11 L o w c l a s s

36 Minor suit?

35 ___ law (acronymic 1970 measure)

11 7 L o o k e d b a d i n comparison

3 2 Tr a d e m a g a z i n e s ?

11 6 O k l a h o m a c i t y

10 More than none

3 1 Ve n n d i a g r a m s e t s , usually

11 5 _ _ _ j u d i c a t a

9 “Holy cats!”

23 It flows through Orsk

11 2 Wi n d - c h i m e location

8 Debating choice

20 Checks (out)

111 P a r t o o k o f

7 P r o c t o r ’s c h a rg e

17 Goes under

108 Beverage made by squeezing fruitfilled cookies?

16 Chewing-gum ingredient

1 0 7 O ff i c i a l s e a l o n a Havana cigar?

5 Up to now

15 Ed who wrote the 87th Precinct novels

14 Stock holder

106 Filmmaker Lee

47 Central parts

48 Certain female grouse

59 Exhaust

62 Cry from Homer

6 4 C o u n t r y ’s A c u ff o r Clark 66 Ankle-length 67 Rest area

49 Like biopsies

70 Petroleum component

50 Logical things to study?

7 2 Ti c k o ff

51 Busybody

75 Portable diversion

89 Iroquois factions

76 Longing

91 Source of irritation

77 Honey

9 2 Ti m e w o r n

79 “Girls” creator

93 “Benny & ___”

83 One called upon to

9 4 P l a y e r ’s t r o p h y

Dunham talk?

84 Suspicion 8 5 “ Vi s s i d ’ a r t e ” o p e r a 86 Loud osculations 88 Private action?

(1993 rom-com)

95 Lessened

99 Insurance seller 101 Place to rest a guitar 102 Fibbie

103 Musician Shankar 104 Carpal or tarsal starter

97 Barrelful at a

105 Unable to pass m u s t e r, s a y

9 8 L i k e C u z c o ’s

1 0 9 U p p e r c u t t a rg e t

hardware store builders

108 Refresher

11 0 G 8 n a t i o n

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Page 16

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Uncle Orson (Continued from page 14) Plus completely stupid passages of nudity that serve the function of really bad commercials, interrupting and distracting from the show. I wish the Naked Networks like HBO and Showtime would trust in quality and stop with the lowest-commondenominator time-wasting naked bits that are an insult to the artists and their audience.

.... For many years, after Hallmark stopped trying, we bought our Christmas cards from the Museum of Modern Art online store, which offered cut-paper cards of great ingenuity. But there’s a limit to how many cool things you can do with cut paper. And this year we discovered a way to create even more unusual and personal Christmas cards. FineArtAmerica.com is a website that offers some of the best of contemporary illustrators and photographers – and a lot of rather awful amateur stuff. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to sift out the good stuff and blow away the chaff. And, best of all, FineArtAmerica.com allows you to buy much of the art in the form of greeting cards. That is, they’ll put very high-quality prints of the art you choose on the outside of a card. Then you can either leave the inside blank or put in your own message. One of our favorite artists, Greg Olsen

– a more-realistic successor to Normal Rockwell – has some wonderful family- and child-centered pieces at FineArtAmerica. com, and we ordered many of his pieces as Christmas cards this year. We also sent out Jane Austen’s birthday cards – and found appropriate photographs and art to go with those cards. The prices are reasonable, considering the high quality FineArtAmerica.com delivers. I’ve seen prices as high as $10.95 for a single card, packs of 10 cards at $7.95 each, and packs of 25 at $6.50 a card. But Greg Olsen’s lovely painting of Christ, called “Walk with Me,” can be bought 10 for $2.95 each and 25 for $2.50 each. And FineArtAmerica.com also does a very good job with their art prints, on paper, canvas and metal, framed and unframed.

.... Speaking of customized art, LuggagePros. com offers “MyFly Tag” personalized luggage tags. You have to have the art you want to use already on your computer. It can be a photograph or any other image. You decide whether it goes on the luggage tag in landscape or portrait mode, and you can add a bit of text on the face, as well as your full address information on the back. There are several typefaces and a number of background and text colors available. The result can be a set of completely unique luggage tags; or, if you want, a whole bunch of tags with a corporate logo

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

on the face. If you order one, the cost is $6.95, but as soon as you order two, the cost drops to $4.95, with even more perunit savings at higher quantities. Check it out at http://www.luggagepros. com/myflytag.

.... Supposedly there’s a superstition among theater people, requiring that no one actually say the title of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Instead, they must call it “The Scottish Play.” I’ve been in theater all my life and have never met anyone who actually believes in this superstition. We say Macbeth all the time. It’s only an affectation to call it “The Scottish Play.” You start doing it in order to pretend that you have connections among British acting professionals. It’s true that Macbeth is a violent play, and also it’s macabre. There are ghosts and witches, madness and murders and atrocities. Women and children are murdered. But there’s just as much violence and as many atrocities in King Lear, and there’s a ghost in Hamlet, and madness abounds in Shakespeare. So it must be the witches. It must be the widespread belief that witches are Satan worshipers. Maybe the superstition arose because there was a feeling that saying Macbeth invited Satan. But that sounds like a crock to me. If there’s a group of people in the Englishspeaking world who don’t believe in

witches, it’s theater people. I think it isn’t a superstition at all – or at least not a theatrical superstition. I think theater people decided not to speak the title of Macbeth during a time when outsiders who believed in witchcraft were outraged at the presence of witches on stage during Macbeth. I mean, if the depiction of witches in Harry Potter could get a bunch of fundamentalists all exercised about witchcraft in our time, how angry might similar religious groups have gotten about Macbeth two or three hundred years ago? Avoiding the title was a matter of selfpreservation. You just don’t want those people to know that you might ever have appeared on stage with a witch. So you refer to “The Scottish Play” and they have no idea you’re talking about that evil satanic play Macbeth. So as I talk about Weaver Center’s production of Macbeth, let’s keep a few things straight. There are no actual witches on the stage. And the pretend witches are not sympathetically portrayed. In fact, their supposed prophecies are actually incitements; they provoke Macbeth and his wife to commit vile crimes in order to fulfil them. (They also have nothing to do with the very modern reinvention of “witches” in the form of a nature religion.) Set aside the superstitions, and what do you have? The story of a man who is intrigued by a supposed prophecy that he (Continued on page 32)

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Page 17

Yost Looks Back At One Decade In Zoo by Scott D. Yost county editor

A few weeks ago, I walked to the back of The Rhino Times’ and I asked Erika, who keeps these kinds of records for our office, this question: “Erika, can you please tell me the day in 2002 when I started working at The Rhinoceros Times.” “Dec. 9,” she said right away. I asked her how she knew the answer so quickly, and she said that, recently, she’d had to look that date up for another reason. So, now, as of this week, it’s been 10 years – one solid decade of working for The Rhinoceros Times. I did some calculations the other day and it comes out to about 8,000 words a week, 400,000 words a year, and, over the decade, about 4 million words. To give you an idea of how many words that is, if you started with the first word I ever wrote here 10 years ago, and you assigned that word the number 1, and you took the second word and gave it the number 2, and so on, and you kept going through every word I had ever written for The Rhino Times, then you would have to count all the way up to 4 million to get to the same number of words I’ve written. Before I began working here, The Rhinoceros Times had been trying to hire me for a while, but at the time I was writing for a business newspaper covering corporate park openings, and – never a big fan of change – I decided to stay in that job as a business writer, a job I didn’t like at all. So God had no choice but to close that newspaper entirely, and He had to fire 11 people just to get me to take the job at The Rhino. The Lord works in mysterious ways. And to all the people who got fired so that I could get my job here – I’m sorry about that, but you can take some solace in knowing that it all worked out very well for me at least. At that time, The Rhino needed not just a writer, but they needed someone to take over Scott’s Night Out as well, so they were under some real constraints – because they had to find, not simply someone who could write and investigate county government, but also someone named Scott. Which, as you can imagine, makes the hiring task much more difficult. When I arrived here in 2002, Scott’s Night Out was being done by Scott A. Farmington, who had taken over the job a few years earlier from Scott G. Williamson – a fascinating guy who later went on to become a photographer for Field & Stream, but who died tragically when he fell out of a redwood in Canada while trying to get a close-up of the extremely rare Saskatchewan Loggerhead Shrike. Actually, of course, Scott’s Night Out started in October 2005, after then Publisher Willy Hammer went out and bought me a Nikon and handed it to me one day, and said, “Now, when you go out, take some pictures.” Let me tell you one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about writing for The Rhinoceros Times these past 10 years: Everyone seems to read it. Mike Barber, a former county commissioner and former Greensboro city councilmember, used to really dislike The Rhinoceros Times, and he always used to tell me that he never, ever read it; but, then, one day I saw a copy open on his office desk. (In recent years, Barber and The Rhino have gotten along swimmingly, by the way.) So I think everyone reads The Rhinoceros Times – even people who say they don’t. And I mean everyone: from hot college girls who want to see if their picture made it in that week, to 92-year-old retired judges who just want to keep up with what’s going on in the schools or in city and county government. I’d be willing to bet you anything that you, for instance, also pick it up and read it, at least from time to time. In a fit of nostalgia, over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking through old Rhinos to pick my favorite things from the last 10 years. I was going to go back through all of them and write about them in a column. There was the time the county commissioners went on a convention in Hawaii. I think about how hard Editor John Hammer and I laughed and laughed when we came up with the idea of sending me to Hawaii to make sure the commissioners went to their boring convention meetings while they were on a taxpayer funded vacation in a tropical paradise. I took a flight ahead of the commissioners and was waiting at the airport in Honolulu when they got off the plane, and, when they saw me, they looked at me like I was the devil incarnate. Or about the time that I took the county commissioners’ official portraits and put them on Am I Hot.com so that everyone across the world could rate each commissioner’s sex appeal. There was a county commissioners meeting the night the paper with those results came out in a big cover story, and I can remember like it was yesterday the commissioners just laughing and joking with one another about each others Am I Hot ratings. (Hint: None of (Continued on page 16)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Celebrating 10 years at The Rhino and 7 years of Scott’s Night Out. – Scott D. Yost.

Yost

(Continued from page 15)

them were voted 10s). Well, most of them were laughing. The commissioners who ranked the lowest didn’t laugh quite as much as the others, but still … And then there was the time I wrote in my column that my copy editors had told me that “gullible” wasn’t a real word, and that they wouldn’t let me use that word unless I could find it in a dictionary. Well, several hundred gullible people emailed me, sent letters, came by the office in person, or called to let me know they had found a dictionary with the word “gullible” in it, and they provided me with the necessary information about the dictionary so that my copy editors would finally let me use the word in my writing. Then there was the April Fool’s edition a few years back when I had a giant cover story about how High Point was breaking away from Guilford County to form its own county. Even two weeks after that April Fool’s issue came out, the chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners made me stand up at the podium in a televised meeting and assure everyone that High Point wasn’t really breaking away from Guilford County. And then there was the time … Then it hit me. It hit me that the column I wanted to write was impossible to write because it would be – well, about a million words

long. Because, over the past 10 years, there have been so many fascinating, interesting and great things that have happened for me at this job, I could never list them all. I remembered a quote I heard years ago when I was a graduate student in philosophy at Chapel Hill: “To talk about one thing, you must talk about all things.” And that’s really true – and I certainly can’t talk about everything in this one column. So I decided what I wanted to do at the 10-year mark is instead simply thank a few people, past and present, who have made The Rhinoceros Times possible, and who therefore have made my job possible. For instance, I want to thank Erika Sloan, who helps the office run smoothly and who does so many necessary but imperceptible things that often we don’t appreciate her enough. And also Jacqueline DulnuanKersey, who is brand new but doing a great job so far. I want to thank Jerry Bledsoe, who has given us some terrific investigative reporting over the last 10 years, and Orson Scott Card, who regularly brings our webpage hits from all over the world, and who once had Rush Limbaugh reading The Rhinoceros Times over the national airways. I rarely agree with Orson – I mean, come on, Orson, how in the world can you not like Curb Your Enthusiasm? – but his name and his writing, known all over the planet, draws tons of attention to The Rhino from all over the world.

I want to thank our school reporter Paul Clark, who knows everything known to man, and Alex Jakubsen, who is new here but learning The Rhino ropes at a very fast pace. Did I say I need to thank a few people. Because God forbid that I forget to thank all the office dogs and cats over the years, because they are what make this office such a serene environment that’s the perfect place to laser-focus your thought on the writing task in front of you without any disruption in thought. So thanks Grace and JJ and Butler and Mina and on and on. A big thanks to Lisa Bouchey, who did so much for this publication when she was here over the years, and to Sandy Groover, who takes such great photos for us. I wouldn’t dare leave out Geof Brooks who draws the comics in the back of The Rhino each week but who also does so much more for us than that. I have been working with Geof to make his cartoons a little less mean-spirited, but, other than that, he does a fine job. Also Melissa Smith and Johnny Smith (no relation), and Marianne Rowe, who all sell ads – without those three, no one here gets paid a dime. They are, in the end, the people who put food on my table. I would also sincerely like to thank Conference Room and Fax – oh, wait, those two are listed on the employee phone list that I’m using as a cheat sheet, but I don’t guess I really need to thank them. And what can I say about Anthony

Council – aka DJ AC? Other than to say that he is an absolute pure and utter musical, graphical and visual genius who is the main reason the images in the paper are such a joy to look at. I really want to thank former sales manager Sherry Stevenson, the third most beautiful woman I know, who’s now starting a successful career with Allen Tate Realtors, and who has always been so pretty in the Christmas Scott’s Night Out each year. And I should thank the also beautiful Julie Wilson, who is a close fourth behind Sherry – not to mention the world’s only perfect woman. Julie went on to start her highly successful and national Hot Rawks business – but only after she sold many, many ads for The Rhinoceros Times over the years. I want to thank every corrupt city, county and school official through the years who have done the outrageous and corrupt acts that have given all of the writers here, myself included, such great material to work with. I need to thank the people at the Natural Science Center in charge of the penguins who let me hold the penguins while hundreds of school children looked on and wondered what was so special about me, that I got to have actual face time with the penguins while they only got to watch through a glass darkly. Also there is Hannah Hammer, who, (Continued on page 39)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Letters to the Editor Editors Note: Two weeks ago we published an anonymous letter to the editor by someone who claimed to attend a church they didn’t like. We thought it was a generic letter and didn’t think the church was recognizable. It turns out the letter was about Lawndale Baptist Church and many of those associated with the church recognized their church and were offended by some of the rude comments. We apologize to Pastor Joe Giaritelli and to everyone associated with Lawndale Baptist Church. We have the highest regard for the work Lawndale Baptist Church does in the community, including feeding the hungry and presenting a Christmas spectacular. We would never do anything intentionally to harm the reputation of the church or to upset its members. We sincerely apologize to all of those who were offended by our inadvertent publication of a letter from a rude and disgruntled person familiar with the church. Unfortunately, we can’t unprint the paper, but we do hope that you will accept our apology.

Focus on Jesus Dear Editor, This is in response to the letter “Lukewarm club.” Anonymous, you are a “bench warmer.” You come in, drop some money in the collection plate (like it is your money to give) and say impress me. I feel that there are far more issues in your life than the church. Your letter is just the tip of the iceberg of what is going in your life. You want to put it on others. The church has not done for you what you want it to do. No church is going to be able to do that. Why? The church is made up of people. If you think that people are going to not let you down you have another thing coming. I am a Christian but that will never take away my sin nature. Try as I might, I will never be sinless. I am going to let you down but I know that Jesus will always be there for you if you turn to him. I would love for you to get in a church that you like but you must put your focus on Jesus and not the people at the church. Anonymous, you addressed the “Feeding of the 5,000.” If you have read the Bible accounts, Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:3244, Luke 9:10-17 and John 6:1-13, you will find that Jesus was not selective on who he fed. The people were told to sit and all were fed. Our feeding of the 5,000 also does not select who received the tickets beyond the limit of the number of tickets. It is intended to reach out to spiritual poor while reaching out to the people with the food. I cannot imagine that no one attending didn’t receive a spiritual blessing. Each person (rich or poor financially) had that opportunity for the blessing. What could be better? Why be so judgmental when Jesus should always be the focus of what we do and say. We have all come short of the

glory of God. I attended the “Christmas spectacular” last night. What did I see? I saw a program that praised the birth of Jesus Christ as my savior through song, music and story. Again, Anonymous, you see people. I saw praise and worship. I pray that you find answers to your problems. Might I suggest the Bible? Joy Limmer

Page 27

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Not against the public voting Dear Editor, The citizens of District 4 said they want a City Council representative who is thoughtful and independent, who listens and makes sound decisions. Regarding the performing arts center vote on Tuesday night: My no vote was a protest vote. City Council voted before it had all the information it requested. City Council voted without having the public hearing announced for Jan. 15. City Council’s vote violated its own procedure and due process. This is not good governance. Good sense and good manners would have dictated that City Council would have heard the results of months of work by citizens, consultants and staff before taking any vote. My vote was not to deny the citizens their chance for input. Quite the opposite. Nancy Hoffmann City Councilmember, District 4

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Where is US headed with Obama? Dear Editor, Obama speaks of taking America over the fiscal cliff if his requirements are not met by the Republican House of Representatives. Obama demands that taxes be raised on everyone making more than $250,000 and wants the right to raise America’s debt limit at anytime to any amount without having Congress’s approval. This would give Obama the right to raise America’s debt limit by $1 trillion more than four times a year without Congress having to vote to approve these actions. Obama wants more power than a president and shows that he has no will to help America. Obama wants to cut $1.2 trillion in debt in 10 years, but to be given the right to create over $4 trillion in debt in one year. How can this help America and our businesses? The 2 percent that Obama won’t touch is congressmen and government workers. Several trillion would be saved every year if congressional and government pensions were ended and turned into 401k retirement plans. More than $1.2 trillion in debt could be cut in one year, but Obama won’t touch these 2 percent of people. Veterans and other workers receive 401k plans for retirement, but our taxes pay for our government’s pensions. Do African Americans, Latinos and all Obama (Continued on page 26)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Letters (Continued from page 25) supporters believe that taxpayers should continue to pay for their pensions, while America goes over the fiscal cliff? Obama said it’s his way or no way at all today. Obama is still campaigning today to blame Republicans for all of America’s problems, so Democrats might win a Democratic House in 2014. When will America hold Obama accountable for these actions he’s taking every day? America would be funded for eight days if taxes were raised on everyone making $250,000. Wasteful spending must be cut also. The liberal media don’t mention Obama’s actions in the terrorist attack in Libya, because they’re too busy attacking Republicans daily. A Republican wouldn’t have seen the end to the liberal media’s attack for this action, but Obama’s above the law. Obama stated that he has no plans to fix entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. Obamacare states that it will take $400 billion more out of Medicare in the future and Medicare D will die in 2020. Is it Obama and Democrats who want to throw granny over the cliff? Both of these entitlements will go bankrupt if nothing is done by Congress to rebuild and fix these entitlements. Obama shows that wastefully spending America’s money is what he knows to do best. Obama spent over $6 trillion in tax money in four years

and Democrats passed not one budget. Will America support Obama when America is $22 trillion in debt with 20 percent unemployment? Many businesses are leaving America, because of Obamacare restrictions and the fiscal cliff. America said this is what they wanted when they voted in November. Can America take four more years of Obama’s large amounts of spending with low amounts of earning? These are the actions of a socialist nation that takes away from the wealthy to give unto who they find to be justified. France does this today, but about all their rich have left and they are now taxing everyone at high rates to pay for their actions. This is coming unto America if Obama’s actions continue. How do you describe a socialist America to your children and tell them that “One nation under God” with freedom no longer stands today? Boyd W. Thomas

for my seat in a hotly contested race. It was comforting to know how committed so many of you are to shaping the policies that affect our students, and I am proud to be working for you. Because campaign financing is a necessary but burdensome aspect of the election process, I was forced to call on friends like you and PAC members for help. Your response was gratifying. Thanks to you, I was able to mount a strong campaign and get my message out about the need for better schools and improved instructional services. I look forward to working in partnership with other elected officials, with parents, with the Guilford County Schools administration and teachers to increase educational opportunities for all of our children in the years to come. Sandra Alexander Board of Education at large

A thank you to voters

Raising more questions

Dear Editor, I am honored to have been reelected to serve the citizens of Guilford County as an at-large member of the Board of Education. It is with deep appreciation and humility that I say thank you to supporters for the friendship and assistance extended to me throughout the 2012 campaign. Your advice and counsel served as a source of encouragement and inspiration as I battled

Dear Editor, I found your article regarding Mike Pugh and the iPad quite interesting as well as quite revealing. It’s just another sad story about how some elected officials feel about entitlements. Also, it shows how supposedly intelligent adults can behave in such a childlike manner. Can you tell me what the policy is with Guilford County commissioners and whatever equipment they have at county expense? I’m sure they must have similar equipment, cell phones, fax machines, etc.

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Yes, Steely Dan Fan Man. One day later. Here I am again reading the morning newspaper. Some people forced their way into a home, terrorized some people and stole some items and drove away. Later a 22-year-old man was arrested and charged with five counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, and his bond is $1,000. Turn him loose. Why don’t you just turn him loose? Let’s turn him loose with no charges. Why don’t you just do that? %%% I would just like to say that a true hero doesn’t receive any pay or recognition for what they do. They go life through unnoticed and unrecognized. You would never know that they were hero. That leaves some of these out, doesn’t it? %%% Mr. President, quit trying to con people, and scare people, and do something for the people. Good day. %%% Yeah, this is in regards to John Hammer every week, or whenever he writes about

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Also, who of the commissioners voted against the Democrats’ “raises” you wrote about? If this action took place illegally, could the Republicans reverse it when they take over the county government? And who of the commissioners, if any, refused health insurance, seeing that some are on Medicare and possibly have other secondary insurance? As the power of county government transfers to the Republicans, let’s hope they do a lot better than what the Democrats have given us the past several years. Thanks for keeping us informed about things that go on and our daily papers would never tell us about. The Rhino is on top of things. Anonymous

Big Brother listening and watching Dear Editor, I appreciated you’re article about “Big Brother” recording calls made to Greensboro departments, along with your simple and effective solution to stop this unlawful practice through citizens requesting back logs to overload the city staff forcing the cancellation of their eavesdropping program. It would be great if you could also look into why there is now a camera on the corner of Cotswold Avenue and Lawndale Drive here in Greensboro. Last time I checked, there wasn’t a FedEx runway or NSA data center worth keeping an eye on out that way. Anonymous

Barack Obama and always throwing Hussein in there. What an fool he is. Are we supposed to think that now that his middle name is Hussin that we think he’s a terrorist or something? Come on, now, dude. Come up with some new stuff. Ridiculous. %%% Editor’s Note: It’s his name. What is wrong with calling a man by his name? %%% Well, what I would like to know is the leaf man coming and picking up the leaves over in Glenwood at all this year? We started out – when I first moved here, our garbage was picked up twice a week. Then, they cut it down to one. Then they promised to pick up the leaves twice November and December. Now, they got down to where they’re not picking up leaves but once a year. But they want to raise our water bills, and raise this, and raise that. I would certainly appreciate it if they would get out here and pick up these leaves. I’m getting tired of looking at them. They must not have but one truck running, because I haven’t seen any anywhere. Thank you, and a Merry Christmas to the garbage leaf rake man. %%% (Continued from page 30)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Rumors

(Continued from page 1)

included headlines, by-lines and hyphenated words in his count. We regret the error. --We are giving away tickets to the Accidental Mummies exhibit at the Natural Science Center, going on through Dec. 30, on our website. To register for this ticket giveaway,

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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go to rhinotimes.com, click on Free Tickets and follow the directions. If you are asked for your Social Security number or mother’s maiden name you have gone to the wrong website. --We keep having historic government meetings around here. The Greensboro City Council met at the Gateway University Research Park on Lee Street for a mini-retreat Tuesday. But the council did take care of some important business – it accepted the resignation of state Sen. elect Trudy Wade and swore-in the new District 5 Councilmember Tony Wilkins. Thursday the Guilford County Board of Commissioners will hold its first regular meeting since 1998 with a Republican majority. --I know it’s December, but the warm temperatures and the cherry trees in bloom on my way to work make me think its spring, and then we get hit with a blast of cold. I’m not sure global warming is all its cracked up to be. --The News & Record has made a lot of enemies in the blogging community by requiring people who post comments to use their real names. It’s an incredible move when you consider the News & Record made a big point of not holding its own reporters to the same standard. ---

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Santa didn’t let rainy weather keep him from getting Christmas lists from children at the Festival of Lights on Friday.

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Carolina Theatre President Keith Holliday changed his hairstyle slightly to announce that KC and the Sunshine Band will be featured at Command Performance, a fundraising gala for the Carolina Theatre scheduled for April 18.

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Sims (Continued from page 11) big issues to committee at all, avoiding the type of problem the Guilford County Board of Education created when it tried to handle a half-billion-dollar construction program primarily in committee. The last time a mayor tried to eliminate the committee system was in 2003, when Smothers retook the mayor’s chair from Arnold Koonce. Smothers, flush with victory, announced that she was going to scrap the committees and do all the City Council’s business in meetings of the full council run by Smothers. The results were not pretty. In 2003, the City Council was dominated by long-time councilmembers, many of whom chaired committees, and few of whom were willing to grant Smothers, fresh from a four-year exile from the City Council, that kind of procedural power. A delegation of councilmembers, led by Bencini, sat Smothers down and told her the facts of life – that there was no way they were going to vote for Smothers’ attempt to centralize power under the mayor. The proposal died in that room. The surprising thing about the major change Sims made Thursday in the City Council’s way of doing business was that it met no such opposition. The new City Council, having, over two years, lost Bencini, Faircloth and longtime Councilmembers Chris Whitley and Latimer Alexander, lacked the experience and to oppose Sims. And it’s quite possible that some of the new councilmembers weren’t even aware of what she was doing. Sims actually did away with the committee system in a vote to approve the ordinance establishing the City Council’s meeting schedule. Sims merely proposed a meeting schedule that did not include meetings of High Point’s traditional committees. Ward 3 Councilmember Judy Mendenhall made the motion. Smothers seconded it. The motion passed 9 to 0, and that was that. From now on, the Monday night meetings will be City Council meetings – not meetings of the Committee of the

Whole. And if any issues do need research and deliberation in committee, they will be done during the Thursday meetings, which will now be meetings of the Committee of the Whole. In other words, all councilmembers will be expected to attend Monday’s City Council meetings, chaired by Sims, and if a Thursday committee meeting is necessary, which it almost certainly will be, all councilmembers will be expected to attend – and that meeting, too, will be chaired by Sims. Votes at the Monday meetings will be votes of the City Council, and will require no separate vote to be final. Traditionally, the one committee meeting attended by most, and sometimes all, councilmembers was the meeting of the City Council’s Finance Committee, which were held at 3:30 p.m. Monday, before the 4:45 p.m. Committee of the Whole meeting. The Finance Committee made recommendations on anything that required spending money. Sims retained the Finance Committee meeting, since most councilmembers show up for it anyway, but it will now be, according to High Point City Clerk Lisa Vierling, a “Committee of the Whole finance meeting,” run by Sims, instead of a separate Finance Committee chairman – and all members will be required to attend. Sims said, “Based on the number of the new individuals on the council, we go to Committee of the Whole, so everyone will be able to get all the information and participate in making all the decisions.” Sims also told the councilmembers to keep their Thursday mornings free for Committee of the Whole meetings and manager’s briefings. She said, “I would ask that you all block this time on your calendars on the front end so you don’t get surprised when there’s a meeting at that time.” The new system pretty much guarantees Thursday morning meetings – one week, a committee of the whole meeting, the next, a city manager’s briefing. Sims justified the new system, particularly the Thursday morning meetings, based on the number of new councilmembers. She said, “That’s part of the learning curve, and

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if you’re not at those meetings, you’re in danger of missing things.” The new system was obviously arranged before Thursday’s meeting. Mendenhall said that, if there were only a couple of spending items on the City Council’s agenda, the “Committee of the Whole finance committee” might not have to meet. “We will give you notice prior to that,” she said. “We can do that in council meetings.” Note the “we,” which may be an early sign that Mendenhall may wind up in the voting majority Sims will have to assemble if she is to accomplish much as mayor. Boynton, too, knew in advance about the abolishment of the committees. “Bernita and I talked about this,” he said. “We thought it might be helpful for the new councilmembers, who wanted to know when we really meet ... to give some times so that we don’t just meet willy-nilly.” Councilmember Foster Douglas asked how the new system would allow the City Council to do in-depth research on issues of the sort done by the traditional committees. Sims responded that it would work much the same way, but at Thursday meetings – which raises the likelihood of very long Thursday meetings. “I will chair those meetings,” she said. “It will come before the committee of the whole. The only difference is there is not a set, different committee that handles that issue.” The City Council voted 8 to 1 to elect AtLarge Councilmember Britt Moore mayor pro tem. Douglas, who has more seniority than Moore, cast the only no vote. Foster said that recent City Council practice has been to elect a senior councilmember mayor pro tem. “Every since I’ve been on the council, it was either you, Latimer or Chris, who were the three senior members of the council,” Douglas protested to Sims. “Nobody else was even put up.” Sims said it used to be a requirement that the mayor pro tem be an at-large councilmember, but that was changed several years ago. In any case, she said, “This council makes the decision on how

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this council wants it to work.” Douglas, who, along with former Ward 3 Councilmember Mike Pugh, who Mendenhall defeated in November, was definitely not part of Smothers’ voting bloc, is shaping up to be a thorn in Sims’ side, as he was in Smothers’. Whether or not he is joined by any new councilmembers remains to be seen. Sims has said she will also set up three mayor’s commissions – commissions of private citizens to advise the council. She said there will be three committees: one on youth, family and community issues; one on culture and the arts; and one to bring “millennials” – High Point citizens between 18 and 35, who are largely disconnected from the political process – into the process. Sims has not specified how the mayor’s commissions will work.

Beep (Continued from page 12) Remember, President Obama went down to where the hurricane hit before he got elected. But he’s not been back down there since he got elected. He don’t want to associate with them people. He’s fixing to go to Hawaii. He also did not want to straighten it up to where people would get a check three or four years from now. He really don’t give a nothing about the people in this country. All he cares about is himself. And if you remember, he said, I’m going to fundamentally change the US. He told the truth, and the people voted him back in. They undoubtedly like it this way. %%% Yes, I’m calling as an employee of social services who has worked in the food stamp department for 10 plus years now to say that all of the people who are calling in to The Sound of the Beep who have things to say about people who are on food stamps need to realize that the dynamic of people who are on food stamps now has changed greatly since the economy has changed. We have individuals who were making (Continued from page 34)

12223_Rhino Ad_Rhino Times.qxd 11/20/12 2:27 PM The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

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Lorillard Tobacco Company wishes to thank its employees for the many contributions they made to our community in 2012. MURRAY S. KESSLER

NED HENNIGHAUSEN

WILLIAM G. CRUMP

Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer

Executive Vice President, Production Operations

Senior Vice President, Human Resources

These employees contributed to United Way for the 2012-2013 campaign. Names used by permission. RONDA T AARON • EDWARD ACKLEY • BARBARA J ADAMS • JACQUELINE M ADAMS • RHEDA G ADAMS • DENNIS F ADAMS • BRENDA A ADAMS • JIMMY L ADKINS • JOHN M ADKINS • KARLA ADKINS • CHRISTINA M ADT • DONALD L ALBERT • JACK L ALBERT • JAMES L ALCON • NELEETA P ALEXANDER • EUGENE ALEXANDER • DWIGHT E ALLEN • RICKY A ALLEN • DUBOIS W ALLEN • TIMOTHY D ALLEN • JERRY H ALLEY • ROGER D ALLEY • ROBERT D ALLRED • NORA B ALLRED • DOUGLAS J ALSTON • RACHEL M ALSTON • THOMAS L ANDERSON • ROBERTA ANDREWS • ROBERT A ANNISETTE • HAROLD W ANTHONY JR • RANDALL C APPLE • JAMES D ARMFIELD • JONATHAN ARTIS • BARBARA W ARZONICO • ALAN S ATKINS • DONNA M ATKINSON • BRENDA D AUSTIN • KENNETH L AUSTIN • ROBIN J AUSTIN • JAMES T AUSTIN • DONNA AYERS • NOEL V BABER • MIRZA S BAIG • ROBERT K BAILEY • ALEX L BAILEY • MARK A BAKER • GWENDOLYN W BAKER • CARMEN W BAKER • PHYLLIS W BANKS • ROBERT W BANNON • CHARLES W BARHAM • TERESA W BARHAM • KRISTINA A BARKER • MARY A BARNES • TANYA K BARRETT • DEAN P BARTLETT • KEVIN P BATEMAN • JAMES E BATTINELLI • HAROLD E BATTS • FRANK L BEAL • CHARLES F BEAMAN • JOE BECK • LARRY M BECK • LAWRENCE M BECKMAN • DEBORAH J BEELER • CYNTHIA L BELINSKY • CLARENCE M BELL • RICHARD J BELONGIA • MELANEE B BENNETT • JAMIE K BENNETT • SCOTT & MERILY BENSON • JAMES L BENSON • SPARKLE T BENTON • ELSIE W BERNARD • IAN M BESS • WATSEKA G BETHEA • STEPHEN R BETHEA • LAURA G BETTS • DENNIS R BETTS • DEBORAH BIGBY-OBOMANU • KAREN W BIGELOW • MICHAEL BIGGS • LEAH B BILLINGSLEY • BETTY J BILLINGSLEY • MARK BISSETTE • CAROLYN S BLACKWELL • GREGORY M BLACKWELL • DORIS J BLACKWELL • ALBERTA M BLOUIR • DAVID BLUNK • ROBERT S BOBAK • KIMBERLY A BODE • ROBERT C BOGAN • TRACY A BOGGIANO • CLIFFORD R BOLEN • IVI L BOLER • KENNETH J BOLES • SHARON W BOTTS • JODY BOULWARE • JEFFREY O BOWDEN • NATHANIEL A BOWDEN • JAMES M BOWEN • JONATHAN D BOWERS • MICHAEL L BOWERS • TAMARA A BOWLAND • DARLENE F BOWMAN • UDELL BRADSHAW • MARY B BRADSHAW • MICHAEL L BRADY • GWENDOLYN M BRADY • MIKE BRAME • SHELLA L BRANCH • WOODY BRANDON • JAMES L BRANSON • VICKI F BRAY • STEPHEN P BRECHTLEIN • JAMES M BRETH • ANGELA F BRITT • ANNIE T BROOKS • DWIGHT L BROOKS • DEWAYNE A BROOKS • CHARLES O BROOKS • REBECCA N BROOME • JOHNNY R BROWER • TIMOTHY W BROWN • SHAMICKA R BROWN • ELSIE J BROWN • HATTIE L BROWN • WILLIE B BROWN • DAVID C BROWN • JEFFREY S BROWN • JAMES E BROWN • STEVEN E BROWN • TERESA B BROWN • DIANE L BROWN-QUANDER • DENNIS K BROY • ROBERTA E BRYAN • SHARON S BRYANT • WILLIE E BRYANT • RANDY L BUCK • WILLIAM J BUCKNER • MARK M BULLOCK • MICHAEL H BULLOCK • JULIAN BULLOCK • RODNEY E BUMPAS • D. JUAN BURGE • CARL J BURGESS • MICHELLE L BURKE • LAWRENCE R BURNS • CYNTHIA BURNS • WAYNE T BURROUGHS • ALAN C BURROWS • JAMES K BURTON • DEBBIE M BUSICK • BRIAN L BUSICK • RONALD J BUTLER • DERRICK P BYRD • BRAD J CABANISS • LANE D CAHILL • EDITH P CAIN • ROBERT W CALDARELLA • MICHAEL T CAMPBELL • JAMIE N CAMPBELL • KEVIN M CAMPBELL • JAMES F CARDWELL • MARGARET D CARONNA • DONNA D CARPIO • NANCY L CARRICK • KEITH D CARROLL • WILLIAM S CARROLL • MARTHA A CARTER • DAVID R CARTER • CHRISTINA R CARTER • EDWARD T CARTER • STEVEN D CARTER • BETTY C CARTER • MICHAEL L CARTER • JOHN D CARTER • LINDA J CARTER • DENISE S CARTER • KEITH J CARTER • CYNTHIA M CARTER • TONY L CARTER • FRANKIE L CARTER • PAUL A CARTER • DUANE N CARTER • JAMES A CARTNER • WILLIAM R CARUTHERS • DAVID A CASANEGA • BOB CASO • CURTIS CASSELL • ANTOINE L CAUTHEN • CHRISTINE A CAVENAUGH • WILLIAM A CAVINESS • JOHN R CAVINESS • KEVIN J CHADWELL • CHRISTINE W CHAMBERS • AMY P CHAMBERS • WALTER M CHAVIS • KENNETH B CHERRY • REGINALD R CHESTNUT • DAVID W CHILSON • ED CHODYNIECKI • TRACIE U CHRISMON • DAVID L CHRISMON • DAVID M CHRISTMAN • RODNEY C CLAPP • VICKY L CLAPP • ALLAN W CLAPP • TIMOTHY P CLARE • ANNA B CLARK • DANNY E CLARK • DUANE W CLARK • KEVIN D CLARK • BRIAN A CLARK • FRED M CLARK • SHARON E CLEARY • MARY V CLEMENT • AILEEN S CLOUGHER • DEBORAH L CLOUSER • DAVID L CLOWERS • BETTY L COBB • MARK E COBY • DEBORAH L COCKERHAM • NATASHA COGGINS • LARRY M COGGINS • GLENDA C COLEMAN • FRANK J COLEMAN • JOSE M COLLAZO • DONALD H COLLINS • MATTHEW C COMBS • BARBARA F COMBS • PHILLIP N COMER • SAMANTHA M COMER • QUINZEL L COMER • CHARLES D CONNER • ANTOINETTE S CONYERS • KAREN E COOK • MARTIN G COOK • MELVIN E COOK • JOHN H COOKE • BETHANY T COOPER • MISTY D COPE-WILLIAMS • IRIS M CORA • THOMAS CORBETT • ARTANZA COUCH • RONALD L COX • JUSTIN T COX • DOLORAS S CRADDOCK • MYRA E CRADDOCK • CHARLES D CRAVEN • RICHARD CREWS-IDOL • MARK G CRISCO • FRANKIE W CROSS • TAMMY A CROSS • EW CROUSE • DAVID W CROWL • CHARLES D CRUM • RANDALL W CRUM • WILLIAM CRUMP • STEVE A CRUSE • JAMES C CULBRETH • WILLIAM M CUMMINGS • CATHERINE CUNDELL • ANN CUNNINGHAM • SHEILA A CUNNINGHAM • WILLIAM M CUNNINGHAM • MICHAEL W CURRY • KENNETH L CURRY • MICHAEL E DALTON • CHRISTOPHER M DALTON • SON T DANG • BOBBY R DANIELS • JAMES R DAVENPORT • ANGELA D DAVIS • LESLIE A DAVIS • JEFFREY H DAVIS • CALVIN E DAVIS • DENNIS P DAVIS • JAMES L DAVIS • TONYA L DAVIS • KRISTINE DE LA CRUZ • JOHN G DEATHERAGE • MICHAEL R DECKER • ANGELA M DEFRANK • DORIS M DEMPSEY • MICHELE M DEUTERMAN • PAUL B DICKENS • DAVID M DICKENS • CHRISTOPHER A DICKERSON • JERRY P DICKERSON • ALPHONSO C DICKEY • ELDA DIEZ-KING • JEROME K DILLARD • DERRICK M DILLARD • PATRICK W DIXON • DAVID W DIXON • CLARENCE DIXON • ALLEN W DOBY • CARL C DOBY • CLIFTON H DODSON • ROY H DODSON • TONY L DONNELL • MARY A DONNELL • SARAH S DOOM • ERIC & TERRI DOSTER • HOLLY B DOUCETTE • MOODIE F DOUGLAS • KEVIN E DOUGLAS • BENJAMIN F DOWELL • JOHN E DOYLE • MARK W 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JANET D GILLEY • WILLIAM M GIORDANO • STEVEN L GLASPIE • POLLY K GLASS • JOHN D GNAU • KEVIN M GOEDECK • THERESA M GOETSCH • JANE G GOINS • CHARLES J GOLDSON • LUANNA R GOODALL-RORIE • LYDIA M GOODE • JUDY A GORDON • JIM J GORDON • WAYMON M GORHAM • GLORIA M GORHAM • JOAN G GOWER • JEFF GRAY • EDWARD E GRAY • JESSE C GRAY III • ROBERT M GRIFFIN • KATHY W GRIFFIN • ROBERT N GRIFFITHS • STEVE K GRIGGS • KIMBERLY A GUNN • GEORGE R GUNTER • STANLEY GUNTHROP • MARK A GWYNN • SONYA L GWYNN • MELISSA A HAGAN HUGHES • KEITH A HAIRSTON • DEBRA A HAIRSTON • CHARLES D HAITH • CURTINA L HALE • BOBBY L HALL • BRADFORD E HALL • OLIVIA R HAMILTON • BENJAMIN A HAMILTON • BRIAN R HAMLET • VIRGINIA A HAMLIN • MIKE HAMMER • TRUDI R HAMPTON • ANGELA M HAMPTON • FRANCINE M HANCOCK • HARRY G HANKINS • JOHN I HARBISON • JERRY L HARDEN • COREY G HARDING • TIMOTHY R HARDY • ERNEST J HARMAN • ROBERT L HARPER • GREGORY E HARPER • LINDA H HARPER • BILLY J HARRELL • SHANNON B HARRIS • MICHAEL B HARRIS • WILLIAM R 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KRISTRA A HUMESTON • JESSICA R HURLEY • MR. & MRS CHRISTOPHER HUSKEY • BILLY D HUTCHENS • JEFFREY T HUTCHINSON • CUIHUA Z HYATT • BILL INGE • YANCEY L INGLE • ALISON F INMAN • GEORGE H ISLEY • JERRY JACKSON • GARY M JACKSON • SHELIA L JACOBS • WAYMAN E JACOBS • KEITH W JAGGERS • EARL L JAGGERS • HENRY T JAMES • KAREN H JAMES • TERESA D JAMES • SHEILA V JARRELL • JEFFREY W JARRETT • JEFFREY T JARRETT • ELBERT O JEFFRIES • MARTHA L JEFFRIES • BOBBIE B JENKINS • BARRY R JENKINS • JEFFREY B JESSUP • MATTHEW T JOHNSON • OLABISI N JOHNSON • VAN A JOHNSON • RUSSELL J JOHNSON • GAIL JOHNSON • SANDRA G JOHNSON • RAY JOHNSON • SUSAN R JOHNSON • LORI F JOHNSON • JAMES R JOHNSON • ASHLEY D JOHNSON • GREGORY K JOHNSON • LINDA F JOHNSON • JEREMI D JOHNSON • WILLIAM M JOHNSON • LEONARD H JONES • CAROLYN M JONES • IVORY R JONES • JOSHUA L JONES • PAMELA S JONES • BRANDON F JONES • GLENN T JONES • KET JONES • LARRY L JONES • CONSTANCE C JONES • LARRY S JONES • MURPHY G JONES • DARLENE L JONES • CAROLYN 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LAWRENCE • ASHLEY W LAWSON • JAMES L LAWSON • PHILLIP L LAWSON • JIMMY L LAWSON • ERNEST LAWSON • TIMOTHY D LE • JAMES K LEE • IRVING R LEE • JOHN R “LEE, JR.” • JONATHAN R LEERKES • MYRNELLE LEGAGNEUR • ROBERT E LEMONS • KEVIN R LEMONS • TONI M LEMONS • IAN Q LEONARD • BRYAN R LESTER • MARSHALL L LESUEUR • KRISTIN G LEUNG • KIMBERLY S LEVETTE • HOUGHTON & JOANA LEWIS • JOHN K LEWIS • ANGELA R LEWIS • BARBARA A LILES • CHARLES R LILLY • WILLIAM G LINDE • DWAYNE P LINDNER • VICTOR D LINDSLEY • SHARON L LINEBERRY • JOHN G LINEBERRY • JACK H LIPFORD • TIM W LIVENGOOD • PEGGY C LIVERMAN • SHERI B LOCKAMY TAYLOR • LAVERNE PEACHIE LOCKLEY • MICHELLE R LONG • DAVID G LONG • DON LONG • GERALD A LONG • ADAM D LONG • MADELEINE S LONGWADE • LYDIA E LOPEZ • VINCENT M LOSITO • RUTH A LOWE • JANICE D LOWE • EVELYN B LOWE • WILLIAM D LUNSFORD • MINNIE C LYNN • DAVID R LYNN • RON MABE • WILLIAM K MABE • LONZE A MABE • JOSEPH B MABE • TONI G MABE • LAMONT MACKEY • SCOTT D MADDEN • RONALD K MADDOX • BRYAN C MALLERNEE • RUSSELL L MANESS • JEFFREY L MANNING • JAMES W MANNS • LESTER O MARLEY • ALAN MARRO • LUCILLE K MARROW • MICHAEL S MARSHALL • RANDY E MARSHALL • LISA H MARSHALL • STEPHANIE L MARSHALL • JOHN M MARTIN • JACQUELINE H MARTIN • ALFRED MARTIN • DAVID M MARTIN • DARYL W MARTIN • TIMOTHY W MARTIN • KEITH J MARTIN • CHERYL L MARTIN • BELINDA G MARTIN • FRED M MASCIA • RAYMOND E MASLYN • APRIL C MATTACCHIONE • TODD A MATTHEWS • PHILLIP C MATTHEWS • HERMAN C MAY • ERIC S MAYO • LARRY J MCADOO • ROSELYN P MCCAIN • STEVEN L MCCAIN • CRYSTAL W MCCALL • ROBERT D MCCASKILL • PAMELA Y MCCORMICK • STEVEN R MCDONALD • MICKEY C MCDONALD • ROBERT E MCDONALD • TONY G MCDONALD • CHRISTINA M MCDONALD • GARY A MCDONALD • JUDY K MCDUFFIE • SAM MCGEE • GARY R MCINTYRE • THOMAS F MCKENNA • JENNIFER P MCKINNEY • FREDERIC W MCKINNON • JULIA G MCMURTRY • LESLIE N MCNEAL • ERIC MCNEBB • GLORIA M MCNEILL • SHERWOOD G MCNIEL • MICHAEL D MCPHERSON • TONY E MEADE • DENISE N MEADORS • MATTHEW G MEDLEY • MARK C MEDLEY • RONNIE E MELDAU • DEBORAH S MELDAU • DONALD MELLEN • RICHARD & MERIDITH METCALF • NOLA F MEYER • KIT MEYERS • STEPHANIE H MICHAEL • TIFFANY N MILLER • LARRY W MILLER • MARSHALL E MILLER • MICHAEL L MILLER • JAMES B MILLER • CHRISTOPHER E MILLER • CHARLES D MILLER • RICKY L MILLIKAN • RONALD MILSTEIN & VICTORIA CARLIN • ROBERT A MILTON • EDWARD MILTON • AVA C MILTON • GEORGE H MIMS • DORETHA A MINISH • MARY K MISSLER • BETTYE L MITCHELL • ZOLTAN G MITRU • JOHN H MIZE • LAWRENCE D MOEHLMAN • LORI R MOORE • LAURA G MOORE • JAWANDA L MOORE • TERRY L MOORE • WILLIAM L MOORE • WILLIAM J MOORE • RUSSELL F MOORE • JENNIFER S MOREHEAD • ALICE W MOREHEAD • MONIQUE T MORGAN • TOM & COTTON MORING • MICHAEL & JENNIFER MORROW • LEON “MOSES, JR.” • DIANNE M MOTLEY • RONALD C MOTTA • LINDA S MUELLER • RICHARD W MUNTYAN • PAUL A MURDOCK • MICHAEL A MURPHY • WILLIAM A MURRAY • BRANDON D MUSTEN • JOEY D MYRICK • DAVID V NALL • JOSEPH A NALLEY • HAROLD D NALLEY • PATRICIA G NANCE • ALAN O NANCE • KIMBERLY H NANCE • SHARON R NANCE • GEORGE & BOBBIE NAUMAN • PATRICIA L NEAL • TERRY W NEAL • JOHN W NELSON • JAMES B NELSON • HAL B NELSON • KENNETH W NESBITT • FAITH T NETTLES • PAUL A NEWBERRY • CURTIS R NEWMAN • HAROLD G NEWSOME • JAY A NEWTON • THUONG & HA NGUYEN • BONITA L NICHOLS • MICHAEL NIEMCZURA • WILLIE E NOBLE • PATTY S NORMAN • SUSAN M NORRIS • ROBERT J NORRIS • JAMES L NORRIS • JACKIE “NORRIS, JR.” • RITA B NUNN • EDWIN L NUNN • JOHN W NUNN • MILTON T NUNNALLY • LAURIE A OAKLEY • JAMES R OAKLEY • ROBERT T OAKLEY • ROBERT R O’BANION • JOEL H ODELL • JOHN E ODELL • ERIC V OGLESBY • JEFFREY P OLDHAM • MICHELLE D OLSEN • SHIRLEY H ORGIAS • DUANE K ORTEGO • DIANE L OSBORNE • WILLIAM E OSBORNE • FRANCES G OSBORNE • BRENDA S OVERBY • GARY L OVERTON • JAHMIL O OVERTON • TAMMIE G OWENS • THOMAS M PACE • ROBERT E PAGE • PATTI H PARDUE • LEON D PARKER • WILLIAM W PARKER • LINDA F PARRISH • ANGELA S PASCIOLLA • AARON L PASS • RICK PATRUM • DUNCAN F PATTERSON • JONATHAN M PATTERSON • RONALD PATTERSON • REGINALD L PAUL • RODNEY D PAUL • MARK A PAYNE • CAROL G PAYNE • IRENE T PEARCE • HARVEY PEARMAN • MATTHEW T PEEPLES • JOSEPH T PEERENBOOM • DANA O PEGRAM • WILLIAM R PEGRAM • CHERYL D PEGRAM • NORMAN A PEGRAM • JOSEPH A PEGRAM • JESSE L PEGRAM • DONNA & DALE PENDLETON • DEBBIE PENGRYN • RANDY L PENN • JORGE E PEREZ • FLORIAN R PERINI • ALAN M PERKINS • LEVETTE PERKINSON • RONALD W PERRIN • NORMA J PETERSON • ANTHONY B PETITT • DANIEL L PETREE • BRIAN S PETTICORD • TERESA H PHILLIPS • PETE T PHILLIPS • MARSHALL P PICKARD • TREVOR A PIERCE • CATHY W PIKE • HARRY PIKE • LARRY L PINNIX • JAMES T PISCIOTTA • ANITA F PITTS • MARTY L PLESS • JANICE H POINDEXTER • SHARON S POPE • ANTONIO L POPE • KIRK D PORTER • VIRGINIA W PORTER • ANGELA M PORTER • JEFFREY C POSEY • MICHAEL L POWELL • JOY E PREDMORE • MICHAEL C PREVETTE • WANDA V PRICE • GREGORY L PRICE • DONNA M PRICE • STACY E PRICE • CAROLYN A PRICE • ROBERT C PRITCHARD • JIMMY R PROPST • JEFFREY D PRUITT • TIMOTHY D PRUITT • WILLIAM E PRUITT • KEVIN M PULASKI • GINNY G PURCELL • JON A PYRTLE • GLENN W PYRTLE • TONI K QUAKENBUSH • TIFNIE L QUEEN • JOE D QUESENBERRY • CAROLYN B RACKLEY • THOMAS E RAHMING • LISA W RAKESTRAW • JAMES A RANDO • CHERYL L RANKIN • HARRY S RANKIN • SHIRLENE A RASH • PHILLIP W RASH • GEORGE F RAWE • REGINALD R RAWLINGS • LINDA J RAY • CHERI P RAYLE • MICHAEL J REED • BROADUS G REESE • PATRICIA S REICH • PAMELA B REID • JAVAS L REID • JOHN P REILLY • KEVIN H REINERT • DONALD W REYNOLDS • LINDA M REYNOLDS • JESSAMINE K REYNOLDS • RONALD J RICCI • CARL E RICHARDSON • GRAYLING E RICHMOND • ERIC B RICHMOND • JAY K RICKERTS • JEANETTE N RICKMAN • JUSTIN R RICO • KENNETH A RIEDER • RACHEL S RIGNEY • KEVIN L RIMMER • MICHAEL D RIMMER • MICHAEL W RIMMEY • PHILIP G RINEY • KEVIN RITTER • STEPHEN D RIVERS • JENNIFER J ROBARDS • TRACI L ROBERTS • DAVID M ROBERTS • TERESA G ROBERTSON • MICHAEL W ROBERTSON • CHARLES I ROBERTSON • DONNIE ROBERTSON • EDWARD A ROBINSON • MARK L RODGERS • PAMELA D RODRIGUEZ • ED L RODRIGUEZ • WESLEY R ROWLAND • RONALD A RUBERTI • FAYE R RUDD • ALBERT C RUFFO • JAMES A RUMLEY • MYRICK L RUSH • SHEILA B RUSSELL • LINDA M RUSSELL • JACK RYMER • MARK R SACKFIELD • ALLEN SALLEZ • JENNIFER E SALMON • ROY B SANDS • STEPHEN O SANYA • VANESSA D SAUNDERS • CLYDE T SAUNDERS • ROBIN B SAUNDERS • MARK SAWYER • BRIAN C SCALES • ARTHUR S SCALES • CARL E SCALES • EDWARD M SCHEER • MELISSA L SCHEITLER • MAX SCHMIDT • SHIRLEY A SCHNEIDER • JOHN G SCHNEPF • MARINA O SCHOLTEN • KATHY S SCHRONCE • TERRY A SCOTT • KELLI A SCRUGGS • TAMARA B SEAGRAVES • LATONYA S SEARCY • CHRISTOPHER C SEARCY • MICHAEL D SELLARS • BARBARA A SELLS • ROBBIE B SESSOMS • TIM SETLIFF • ANTOINE M SEYMORE • DONNELL R SEYNI • MICHAEL & DEANNA SHANNON • RANDALL F SHARPE • SARAH D SHARPE • KECIA L SHELTON • LUKE H SHEPHERD • ELBERT M SHEPHERD • MATTHEW J SHEPPARD • FREDERICK P SHIELDS • SCOTT B SHIRLEY • JOHN & ROBIN SHOBERT • RICHARD N SHOEMAKER • S SHUMATE • WILLIAM K SIEGEL • JERRY B SIMMONS • HAROLD A SIMMONS • DANNY R SIMMONS • JODY F SIMMONS • CLYDE & BRENDA SIMMS • LENNY J SIMPSON • HENRY A SIMPSON • MS SHARON L SIMPSON • JACKIE SIMPSON • JENNIFER C SINGH • RAJESH SINHA • LARRY S SINK • GENA G SISK • DAVID H SKINNER • LARRY SKLADANOWSKI • DIANA & DARRELL SLADE • DAVID F SLEDGE • ANGELA S SMALL • STEPHEN S SMALL • KENNETH W SMITH • RANDELLE R SMITH • KIMBERLY K SMITH • JAMES R SMITH • MARK N SMITH • WILLIE M SMITH • CAROLYN D SMITH • CHADWICK S SMITH • JARVIS D SMITH • RANDY L SMITH • THOMAS B SMITH • SHANNON K SMITH • LYNN SMITH • EDWARD C SMITH • DONALD J SMITH • ROBERT D SMITH • CLYDE M SMITHEY • WILLIE A SMITHEY • ANDREA H SMITHEY • CAROLINE M SMOTHERS • DARRELL L SNOW • PAULETTE H SNYDER • LINDA A SOCIA • RICHARD T SOMERS • TERESA A SORRELL • MARIA D SOTO • VANCE E SOUTHARD • LAURIE E SOUTHERLAND • JULIA D SPANGLER • KATHLEEN A SPARROW • RANDY & PAMELA SPELL • HARRISON L SPENCER • LANCE E SPIVEY • JESSICA A SPIVEY • LISA F SPRINGS • TYRONE J SPRUIELL • O K STALEY • RONISA D STANLEY • NANCY V STANLEY • RENA W STAPLES • EDWARD F STAPLES • DOROTHY L STATON • JASON J STEELE • GEORGE T STEPHENS • JERI D STEPP-SCHNEPF • PHILIP B STERN • ROBERT D STEVENS • ERIC R STEWART • TONYA M STEWART • SCOTT A STONE • JOHNNY STOUT • KEITH F STRAUGHAN • ROSLYN A STREGLES • DELOIS B STROUD • DEBRA B STROUTH • CHRISTOPHER STUBBLEFIELD • N STUDDARD • ELWOOD STULTZ • JOHN L STUMBO • DEBRA J STUTTS • KEITH STUTTS • DAVID L STYONS • KYLE B SUGGS • FELICIA D SUMMERS • BRENDA SUMMERS • JACK D SUMNER • TINA SWAIN • BRYAN L SWING • MICHAEL W SWOFFORD • STEPHANIE & RONNIE SYDELL • GARY D SZULCZEWSKI • MAZIAR TAHMASEB • JAY K TALTON • JAMES TALTON • JOHN E TARRANT • PAMELA M TATE • FRANCES A TATONETTI • RAYMOND TATONETTI • DAVID H TAYLOR • RANA TAYYARAH • WILLIAM A TEEL • LARRY E TERRELL • BILL TERWILLIGER • PAMELA W TESH • NEIL THAGGARD • BRIAN K THOMAS • KENNETH M THOMAS • ROBERT P THOMAS • TIMOTHY M THOMAS • THURMAN E THOMAS • RANDALL W THOMASSON • JULIAN J THOMPSON • TRACY & ANTONIO THOMPSON • WILLARD S THOMPSON • DAVID THOMPSON • SHIRLEY I THOMPSON • YVONNE THOMPSON • WALTER THOMPSON • TOMMY G THORN • GENE Y TIESLER • RONNIE E TILLEY • JAMES H TILLMAN • STEPHEN R TIPPETT • JACQUELINE H TISDALE • JOSEPH E TISKA • JOHN W TOLER • LISA N TOMPKINS • CHARLES E TOTTEN • WILLIAM & CAROL TRUE • ROBERT J TUCKER • CHRISTOPHER M TUDOR • MERLENE TUDOR • MARK TURI • CLARK TURNER • TYLER S TUTTLE • TYRON M TYSON • GWEN TYSON • FLORO B UNGOS • STEVE A VANCE • JEROME M VANCE • TIMOTHY R VANETTEN • DIONNE M VANHOOK • JERRY VANHOOK • DOROTHY D VANNOY • FELIX VANSTORY • DORIS S VAUGHN • WILLIAM H VAUGHN • JOYCE A VEERAPEN • CLEMENT P VEERAPEN • PAMELA G VERNON • SUSAN A VINCENT • CATHERINE H VINCENT • FLOYD E VINES • IAN A VOGLER • BRUCE E VON DERLIPPE • BAU V VUONG • CHRISTINE W WALKER • MARIA A WALKER • LEVI A WALKER • STEVEN L WALKER • LEDELL WALKER • JERRY H WALKER • REGINALD R WALL • THOMAS R WALL • LYNN W WALLACE • MICHAEL W WALLER • BRIAN K WALLER • SHING-RU WANG • DAVID J WANTUCH • RAYMOND L WARD • KEITH R WARD • DYKTER B WARD • JOE M WARD • RICHARD P WARE • MARK D WARREN • T J WARREN • SHIRLEY WARREN • KENNETH G WASHBURN • HENRIETTA B WASHINGTON • JOHN S WASHINGTON • JIMMIE L WATKINS • ALAN J WATKINS • KEITH Q WATKINS • JAMES WATKINS • SONYA G WATLINGTON • KEITH T WATSON • MARSHALL WATSON • KAREN G WATSON • RENA WEAVER • DEWEY E WEBSTER • LINDA S WEBSTER • TIFFANY R WEEKS • LESLIE M WELCH • WAYNE & REBECCA WELCH • PB WELLS • JAMES S WESCOTT • SAMUEL C WHEATLEY • TIMOTHY L WHEELER • RICHARD W WHIDDON • THOMAS J WHITE • THOMAS A WHITE • ROY F WHITE • CREOLA J WHITE • STEVEN B WHITE • JOAN M WHITE • FRANCES D WHITE • RONALD O WHITFORD • ANGELA E WHITMIRE • WILLIAM C WHITTEN • NEIL L WILCOX • TONY E WILEY • JAMES G WILLIAMS • CHRISTY D WILLIAMS • MR & MRS W. EARL “WILLIAMS, JR.” • JACQUELINE V WILLIAMS • KEITH I WILLIAMS • ERNEST L WILLIAMS • HOYTE W WILLIAMS • VICKIE H WILLIAMS • EVAN WILLIAMS • WAYNE L WILLIAMSON • NATHAN D WILLIAMSON • SHARON L WILLIAMSON • MATTIE JO WILLIAMSON • CYNTHIA S WILLIARD • ROSE M WILSON • BETTIE L WILSON • CURTIS F WILSON • THOMAS C WILSON • SHERRI B WILSON • RECO D WILSON • CATHY J WILSON • BONITA E WILSON • BUDDIE A WINCHESTER • JAMES B WINCHESTER • TIMOTHY W WINDSOR • BRYAN L WINGATE • JENNIE B WINN • LARRY D WITCHER • ZAWANNA W WITHERS • SUSAN D WOLFE • IVEY H WOLFE • TERESA T WOMACK • JANE G WONG • DEAN S WONG • STEPHEN N WOODALL • SHIRLEY M WOODALL • ANDREW D WOODLIFF • NICOLE R WOODS • ROBERT E WOODS • ELBERT WOODS • TERRY P WOOLARD • MARTIN K WORRELL • SHAUNA L WORSLEY • KEITH R WRENN • STEPHANIE E WRIGHT • BARBARA S WRIGHT • HUNTER C WRIGHT • JAMES MELVIN WRIGHT • LELIA WRIGHT • WILLIAM L WYATT • DAVID M WYRICK • JOSHUA A WYRICK • JOHN R YENGLE • THOMAS O YOUNG • DAVID A YOUNT • LAURA F ZAHRAN • ANTHONY ZIMMER • RONALD E ZINKE • SAMUEL P ZOLOT •

N.C. Dietetics Board Goes After Michelle Obama (a CJ Parody)

Board ups aggression Uncle since court Orson ruling dismissing lawsuit Page 32

(Continued from page 16)

will rise from his current barony to the royal throne. His ambitious wife helps him to murder the current monarch and take By Lief e. Green his place. But others rebel against their Nutrition Correspondent usurpation and eventually they are ousted RALEIGH and killed. he North Carolina Board DiIn other words, politics as of usual. etetics/Nutrition has decided Hitler. Napoleon. Many of the later First Lady Michelle Obama’s Romanthat emperors. A good number of the advocacy of healthy It eating amounts to Ptolemies. Absalom. happens over and practicing nutrition without a license, over in history. which is illegal in North Macbeth is thus one of Carolina. those timeless storiesBuoyed that remains powerful because, by a recent court decision despite the fantasy elements, it is truthful to dismiss a suit brought against the about human nature, politics and war. board by a diet blogger who likewise Still, Macbeth is a by very choice had been targeted thedifficult state board, for a high school theater program. officials say they will become First, even there’s the obvioustoward problemanyone with almost more aggressive who all Shakespeare In Shakespeare’s gives unlicensedplays. diet advice. era, all the actors were male. The female Board Director Charla Burill told parts were played by apprentice boy actors Carolina Journal the first lady has been whose voices had not yet changed. sent a cease-and-desist letter because Obviously, some of these apprentices she gave nutrition advice on one her were powerful performers – that’sofwhy many recent campaign trips to North Shakespeare could write brilliant parts like Carolina. Lady Macbeth, Juliet, Katherine Minola, Over the past women’s five years, thewere nuand Portia. (Some parts trition board has investigated nearly 50 played by adult males. The nurse in Romeo and Juliet, for instance, was—certainly individuals or organizations includplayed by the clown; it would be and surprising ing personal trainers, nurses, even if Goneril and Regan were nota played by Duke Integrated Medicine, wellness adult men.) center — that have offered advice Mostwhat female parts, though, about people should eat. are less demanding, and all of them have fewer The board’s aggressive far enforce-

Thursday, December 13, 2012

speeches and scenes than the leading males. performers play these roles imperiously; Also, there are far fewer female parts in the they’re quite convincing. The result is a powerful, moving first place. Now, in most high school drama presentation of a play that should have programs, there are three or four female been beyond the reach of a high school students to every male. How, then, do you performing group. It helps that certain key cast a Shakespeare play? Working in the actors rise above the normal high-school opposite environment from Elizabethan practice of reciting rather than acting drama, you have far more female students Shakespeare’s dialogue. DJ Gayles as chasing fewer same-gender roles than Macbeth and Cara Farlow as Lady Macbeth the Elizabethans had apprentices chasing have strong voices and make powerful figures on the stage. female roles. It almost can’t be helped, though, that The solution, of course, is to change some of the male roles to female. This Macduff walks away with every scene he’s often sacrifices major plot points, however, in. Kyle Kite is surprisingly mature as a since they make no sense with females in stage performer, and his emotions are the certainDietetics roles. Board nutrition enforcement officers tried to serve cease-and-desist State In Macbeth, you would theDemocratic result papers to Michelle Obamathink at the National Convention in Charlotte, but would be disastrous. The play is thick withagents in the Time Warner Cable Arena. (CJ were unable to get past Secret Service men inby determinedly male roles – soldiers, photo Don Carrington) From last week’s issue kings, thanes. Only Lady Macbeth, Lady CJ. nament became a national story when CJ P O O“But F FMrs. A N CObama L U B Sreaches A C Ca U B E Macduff and the witches are female. C A P O A L I B A B A E N C L O S E S tionwide audience. She hasn’t taken reported on the court battle with Steve But in the Weaver production, which T H E L O X F A C T O R A T R A N D O M Cooksey, the(Thursday), Charlotte-area C K L Econtinuing R V A N education L O I N J credit O K E opens tonight directorblogger, Lindsey aS Usingle H I D on E B I T E O N D E program organic farming, and who sued the board on First AmendClinton and the designers have made some A S H E N C L A S S I F I E D L O A D still she won’t keep her mouth shut ment grounds, saying it censored his powerful and effective choices. S H A R L S A T A F O R E L K E F A V O mealworms R I T E S O L and O N compost. D W A RAll F website when urged him to remove First, the setit and costumes have a about A M E A V O N Y E W M A R I F O O this talk about whole grains and root an advice column from the site. vaguely Japanese motif that gives a sense of R U N S F O R S L A L O M D A N C I N G abstraction to everything. This is followed downright By singling out the first lady, vegetables S T R AisT getting A H E A V E D danS L O W I N G V O T E R S M I D S I Z E by having the all the battlehas scenes sloweditsa gerous. We’re afraid Sasha and Malia however, board ratcheted W E N N O E S I N C S A N A M A V little, and dancelike in the movement, so daughters] normally aggressive efforts at policing [the O R AObamas’ N G G L O A M I might N G T Aget B Lthe E R O I L A Pnotion P T F T ScanPpack U E Ra we are talk not to expecting Thus we frightening thatAthey foodie a wholerealism. new level. D I R E C T O R S C L O U T A P E S T accept“We female soldiersdon’t and pay unrealistic normally close healthyAlunch L I E without R I N D first C Aconsulting N E sword-fighting without flinching. L O B G U nutritionist. N S O E D B T A II Ntell S It’sO scary, attention to people who live outside aB licensed C A L I E N T E F L O A T T U E S D A Y Then,Carolina,” the royal Nan parts E. areStaight, played the by you.” North E R C U T T O P H A T S E A R N women as queens,ofrather than kings. told The UP NI DE Staight board’s– director enforcement, R H P S said S W E Obama’s A R A T D “Let’s S C S

Crossword Solution

The Rhinoceros Times Move!” initiative was Greensboro particularly

troubling. The project’s website has an entire section about food and nutrition titled “Eat Healthy!” sudoku_347A most convincing in the cast. “The page opens with this senThe part is also written to be the real hero Created Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz tence:by‘Parents and caregivers play a of the story. Even though Macbeth is the key role in not only making healthy 8 whose decisions 9 protagonist, the person choices for children and teaching chilshape the play, it is Macduff who suffers dren to make healthy 5actually choices 4 most without dying, for andthemit is selves,’ Staight said. “It offers a down. set of Macduff who eventually brings him 6will be performed 5 at Weaver dietary guidelines. It’s9completely irMacbeth responsible and outrageous for a lay(300 South Spring St.) on Dec. 13,814, and person to say and16it atviolates our 15 at 7 p.m., andthat, on Dec. 2 p.m. The regulations.” 2 is $6 for students and 1 $87 for adults; cost The board attempted to the deliver they accept cash only. It’s by far best 3 1 4 2 its warning letter to the first lady high school drama in Guilford County,durand ing faculty September’s Democratic National the make sure that productions are 2 in Charlotte, 5 but 4Staight Convention always innovative and illuminating. We’re said the Secret rebuffed 1her enlucky thisService program! 7to have 3 forcement attempts. Since then, she said, Obama has 347A Distributed by The New York Times syndicate (c) PZZL.com been careful to schedule campaign visits to North Carolina on short notice so Solution sudoku_347A week’s issue she couldFrom land,last give a quick pep talk to supporters, and then leave the be1 5 3 7 8 2 4 state 9 6 fore nutrition officers could get to her. 7 9Staight 8 admits 5 6 the 4 board’s 3 2 en1 forcement efforts grew more difficult 2 6as 1President 3 9Obama’s 5 7 cam8 in4October paign saw North Carolina voters warm 5 4 7 3 9 6 1 8 2 to Republican challenger Mitt Romney. 2 6“When 9 8Obama 5 1 for7 America 3 4 wrote off North Carolina, it became 3 8 that 1 the 4 first 2 lady 7 9wasn’t 6 go5 obvious ing to return,” Staight told CJ in late 6 3 2 9 1 5 8 4 7 October. “We’re worried, because if Obama 8 7 loses 5 the 6 election, 4 3 they’re 2 1 mov9 ing to Hawaii, and there’s no way we 9 get 1 her.” 4 2 7 8 6 5 3347ACJ can

Sudoku Solution

E.A. MORRIS

FELLOWSHIP FOR EMERGING LEADERS The E.A. Morris Fellowship is seeking principled, energetic applicants for the 2013 Fellowship class. Applications available online or at the John Locke Foundation. Application deadline is November 30, 2012. Please visit the E.A. Morris Fellowship Web site (www.EAMorrisFellows.org) for more information, including eligibility, program overview and application materials.

Eligibility

• Must be between the ages of 25 and 40, must be a resident of North Carolina and a U.S. citizen • Must be willing to complete a special project requiring leadership and innovative thinking on a local level • Must be willing to attend all program events associated with the fellowship • Must not be the spouse of a current or past Fellow.

Timeline

September 15, 2012: Application period opens November 30, 2012: Applications due January 3, 2013: Finalist notifiction & invitations to Selection Weekend February 2-3, 2013: Hello/Goodbye Gala & Selections Weekend

March 15-17, 2013: Retreat 1 — Pinhurst, NC June 14-16, 2013: Retreat 2 — Blowing Rock, NC October 18-20, 2013: Retreat 3 — Coastal NC February 1, 2014: 2013-14 Fellowship ends/Hello Goodbye Gala

www.EAMorrisFellows.org Contact Karen Palasek | kpalasek@johnlocke.org 200 W. Morgan St., Ste 200 Raleigh, NC 27601 | 919-828-3876 | 1-866-553-4636

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Raises

(Continued from page 1)

The new nine-member Board of Commissioners, with a Republican majority for the first time in 14 years, holds its first regular meeting on Thursday, Dec. 13, and discussion of the controversial raises – which were given out by the county’s Human Resources Department after a Thursday, Oct. 18 closed session of the previous Board of Commissioners – is expected to be brought up at that meeting. Newly elected Commissioner Jeff Phillips said the raises and the way they came about cause him concern on several fronts. He said he’s disturbed by the secrecy surrounding the raises, the fact that the commissioners never voted on them and the mystery of how Guilford County seems to be able to pull money out of nowhere in the middle of a budget year. No funds for raises were appropriated in the 2012-2013 county budget that the Board of Commissioners adopted in June. Phillips said raises such as these should be part of the budget process each year and, furthermore, that they should be done out in the open. The process was so secret that some department heads said this week they didn’t know they had gotten a raise until they saw their name beside the amount of their raise in the Nov. 22 edition of The Rhinoceros Times. Phillips also said he had no knowledge of the raises until he read about them in The Rhino Times.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

He said the new board needs to look into the matter. “I think we should revisit it; I think we will,” Phillips said. “I’m still working to find some answers. We need to understand and consider fully the way that was done. If I have any say in it, we will.” Phillips said the raises and the process by which they were awarded are a perfect example of why he ran for office – to make Guilford County government more transparent. He also said the fact that the legality of some of the raises is in question is troubling. “That’s all the more reason for us to revisit this,” Phillips said. New Commissioner Hank Henning also said the controversy over raises now falls squarely into the lap of the new board. “At the next meeting or whenever, we’re going to have to deal with it,” Henning said. Henning said the previous board should have done the same thing with the directors’ raises that it did with a controversial Prison Farm rezoning that’s on the horizon. He said they should have left the question for the new board to answer. “I think they should have let us handle it,” he said of the raises. “They should have waited until we got in. They did the right thing with the Prison Farm.” Now, Henning said, the new board will have to deal with the raises as a “residual issue.” He said the raises are just more

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expenditures to go with the other spending that the new board has been saddled with. “The bigger picture is that all of these are budget issues – it all has to be dealt with,” Henning said. He said another key concern about the raises is the way it was done – behind closed doors with zero transparency. “It’s not my money; it’s not the county manager’s money – it’s the taxpayers money,” Henning said. He said that, since it’s taxpayer money, those taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent, and that certainly includes, he said, a right to be informed when department heads are given raises. Of Guilford County’s 25 department heads, 15 received raises. Seven of the 15 raises awarded, by law, require a vote by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners – which never happened. The lowest raise, $1,947 went to Guilford County Board of Elections Director George Gilbert, whose salary increased from $97,372 to $99,319. The largest, $14,222, was given to Department of Social Services Director Robert Williams, whose salary went from $125,778 to $140,000 a year. County Attorney Mark Payne fell in the middle of the pack, with a raise of $4,400, which moved his salary from $148,600 to $153,000 a year. Former Commissioners Mike Winstead and Paul Gibson, Sheriff BJ Barnes, Gilbert and many others say they see no rhyme or reason to the amounts of the raises – and

Page 33

they say the process that determined who got raises and how much each received is a mystery. Guilford County Assistant Manager Sharisse Fuller, who’s also the county’s human resources director, said the raises aren’t “raises” but instead are “equity salary adjustments.” She said they were determined by looking at what others in comparable jobs in Guilford County government are being paid. She said the salary reviews did not look at pay in other counties or in other local governments. As a result of the raises, some county employees are now being paid more than the salary set by the Board of Commissioners – that is, they are being paid more than they’re legally entitled to receive. In the case of the sheriff and the register of deeds, as well as those who got raises and who work directly for the board – the county attorney, the finance director and the clerk to the board – their salaries by law are set by a vote of the Board of Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners also sets the salaries for two other county employees who got raises – Gilbert, the director of elections, and Williams, the director of social services. Though those two department heads are hired and fired by the boards that oversee their departments – and those boards also recommend pay increases or decreases for those directors to the county commissioners – the salaries of the two directors must (Continued on page 34)

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Raises

(Continued from page 33)

be set by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Since seven county directors are now being paid salaries higher than their salaries approved by the Board of Commissioners, those seven directors are currently getting “gifts,” also known as “emoluments.” It is illegal for the county to give out taxpayer money as gifts. Apart from the legal ramifications, there’s also the fact that the raises have angered so many. Some county department heads not on the list feel cheated because they didn’t get a raise. The county employees who haven’t had raises in four years are angry. Taxpayers who have been told time and again that the county’s budget was so tight there was no money for raises or anything else aren’t pleased. New commissioners who are left to help clean up the mess don’t like it. Even some of the department heads who got raises say they’re displeased over the move because their employees weren’t first in line to get raises. Some of the department heads who got raises said they’ve requested raises for their employees for years and have been rejected by county administration time and again. Fuller maintains that these are “equity salary adjustments” and she said that some other employees besides department heads have gotten the adjustments and others will follow. The word “adjustment” suggests that salaries could go either up or down, but, even though Fuller insists on using that word, she admits that the salary changes resulting from the equity studies have been upward adjustments in each and every case. County staff attempted some damage

control. At 4:40 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 7, the county sent out an email “on behalf of Sharisse Fuller.” It was titled, “To All County Employees.” The email, which Fuller also sent to commissioners and members of the media, stated: “There have been a number of inquiries about ‘equity reviews’ being completed by Guilford County Human Resources. All County employees are governed by the Fair Pay Act, and most by more than one of the statutes/laws below. All positions are being reviewed to ensure compliance with the following Federal laws.” The email goes on to quote the equal pay provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, as well as those provisions in the Equal Pay Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The Ledbetter act, passed in 2009, amended the Civil Rights Act to prohibit wage discrimination based on sex, race or national origin for employees who work in “equivalent jobs.” After explaining the reason for the “equity reviews,” the email attempts, in a question-and-answer format, to “hopefully help clarify this process.” The email states, “All County employee positions are being reviewed in accordance with the Fair Pay Act.” According to Fuller, there is currently one full-time human resources employee assigned to “equity review,” and her department is moving “as quickly as possible” through each group of county employees – for the most part department by department – to adjust salaries. Commissioner Carolyn Coleman said, in the Oct. 18 closed session where the raises were discussed, that the county shouldn’t increase the directors’ salaries until lowerpaid county employees got raises. If the

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Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

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county had taken Coleman’s advice, it would have mitigated the resulting public relations nightmare to some extent – but, for some reason, county staff was determined to get the money into the hands of the department heads. Last week, Barnes said he was mystified by the raises. He said he didn’t know how anyone could compare the sheriff’s jobs to any other job in the county, and he said that, if someone had asked him beforehand, he would have told them to give raises to his employees before giving one to him. This week, Gilbert said he was baffled by the logic behind the amounts of the raises awarded and he also said that under state statute the Board of Elections makes recommendations on salary increases for election directors and the Board of Commissioners has the ultimate say. Gilbert is retiring in a few months and he said that, with the knowledge that a raise wouldn’t really affect him very much, the Board of Elections recommended he be compensated with a lump sum bonus of $8,000. However, he said, the Board of Commissioners never acted on that recommendation. Then, Gilbert said, he found out he had gotten a raise that was never approved by the Board of Commissioners. Gilbert said that, when he saw the list of directors getting raises and the amounts, none of it made sense to him. “I wondered why they selected those department directors,” Gilbert said. Gilbert said he is now attempting to discover the rationale behind the pay increases. “I have requested from Sharisse the information on the equity adjustments,” Gilbert said. “I want to see the reasoning behind the adjustments for my position and other positions.” Gilbert said that learning the way raises were calculated might help him understand the disparity that he feels exists between the pay of the employees in the county’s elections department, which, he said, seems low compared to the pay in other county departments. He said his staff is highly effective, well-trained, experienced and very well educated, but they never seem to get the same pay consideration that’s granted in some other departments. “That’s the battle that I’ve fought for years,” Gilbert said. He said he would put the education and experience of his department up against any other county departments. “I’ve got one, two, three, with master’s degrees, and a PhD,” he said. He also said that salaries for some employees – such as those in human resources and the Finance Department – seem to be higher than the pay of employees in similar positions in other departments. Gilbert didn’t make the point, but Fuller is the head of human resources and Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox was the head of the Finance Department before she was made county manager four years ago. Fuller said Guilford County is using a point system that provides a fair methodology for examining pay for similar

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

jobs across county departments. She said the equity review calculations take into account employee classification, pay grades, education and experience. Payne said that in some cases, department employees have had raises before the department head. For instance, he said, the employees in his office had been reviewed for equity pay and had their salaries adjusted before his own salary was studied and his raise granted. Payne told The Rhinoceros Times last week that, though the Board of Commissioners never voted on the raises, “Approval without formal action is enough.” However legal experts at the NC School of Government, the attorney for the NC Press Association, and several other local government attorneys said the Board of Commissioners must take an official public vote to grant pay increases in those cases – such as the sheriff, the finance director, the election director, etc. – where the board determines the pay of those employees. When The Rhino Times asked Payne if he had a conflict of interest in this matter, he said it was not a legal conflict of interest for him to be a recipient of a raise and also one of the people making the judgement on the legality of the raises. He said he did not recommend the raises, but merely played his role as county attorney once the process was in motion. Amanda Martin, an attorney for the NC Press Association, also said Payne did not have a conflict of interest under the law. She said that the role of county attorney sometimes out of necessity means the county attorney will make a judgement that could influence his or her salary. Martin said that in some extreme cases a county might seek outside legal help to decide a debate of this nature but she said she thought those cases would be the exception rather than the rule. Payne said there was a “consensus” in the Oct. 18 backroom meeting. However, some commissioners who were in that (Continued on next page)

Beep (Continued from page 30) $100,000 a year who have been laid off from their jobs who are now dependent on social services for food stamps. And most of those individuals who receive unemployment benefits, their benefits are between $10 and $60 per month. So, no one is getting rich on food stamps. And for people to have a stigmatism about individuals who receive food stamps … %%% Yes, I’m calling about the raise that Robert Williams, the director of social services got, that he’s getting paid $140,000 a year when that man could not process a food stamp, Medicaid, Work First, welfare or day care application if his life depended on it, but the employees have not had a raise (Continued on page 38)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Gilbert (Continued from page 8) Parks was finally declared the winner. In this year’s Nov. 6 election, Gilbert and other Guilford County election officials came under fire in the national media after simple calibration issues convinced some conspiracy theorists that the county’s election machines favored President Barack Obama. In a few cases, a tap on Mitt Romney’s name caused President Obama to show up as the voter’s candidate of choice. Critics across the country came after the elections department even though the error was an easy one for voters to catch, was limited to a handful of machines, and the same type of issues arose everywhere electronic touch screens were being used. Gilbert, who’s known as a voracious reader with a keen intellect, said he’s looking forward to retirement. “I plan to find out what is really important to me,” Gilbert said. He said he’s not sure that’s possible when someone is focused on work-related matters day after day. He said he’ll be interested to see what challenges he decides to take on “on a purely voluntary basis.” Gilbert has some strong opinions on election issues that he couldn’t share in full as a county elections director, and he said he may write a book or two in the coming years. Gilbert has testified before federal election officials in Washington.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

He also said he’s looking forward to traveling with his wife and going through his music collection to see if any of his old albums are worth a lot of money. Gilbert said that, even with the county losing a lot of its leadership in a short period of time, he has faith the county will continue on just fine. “We’re all replaceable,” Gilbert said. Guilford County is also losing its longtime facilities director to retirement. Jones

Raises (Continued from previous page) closed session – including Commissioners Winstead, Gibson and Coleman – say they didn’t favor the raises, and another commissioner, John Parks said he remained silent in the discussion. Commissioners Skip Alston and Billy Yow said they favored the move. Commissioner Bruce Davis said he believed the raises were necessary but he said he thought he remembered the board coming out of the closed session and taking a public vote to grant the raises after the closed session discussion. Two people in the backroom meeting said that Commissioner Bill Bencini and Payne had a disagreement during the discussion about the meaning of the word “consensus.” Bencini told The Rhino Times this week that in the closed session

Page 35

said that, after 35 years of working for the county, it was time to call it quits. Jones said he knows very well what he wants to do in his golden years. “I’d like to play a lot of golf,” Jones said. He said his goal has always been to retire while his health was still good. He said watching his father’s retirement made a strong impression on him. Jones said his father’s health was already in decline at the

time he retired years ago. “I saw my father retire from the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department when he was having health problems and he didn’t really get to experience the joys of retirement,” Jones said. Jones said that, after watching his father go through that, he always told himself he would retire at a time when he could still enjoy it. He said that earlier this year he decided that time is now.

he expressed concern that the discussion was taking place behind closed doors and he also said he questioned the need to do something right away. “The reason for the urgency was lost on me,” Bencini said. There’s also the fact that some commissioners were in favor of increases for some on the list but not for others. One former commissioner who was in the closed session said, “There wasn’t a commissioner in that room who thought Mr. Williams should get a $14,000 raise.” Another commissioner who was in the closed session said Williams should have gotten a large raise since the Board of Social Services had recommended one for years. Webster’s Dictionary defines “consensus” as “an opinion held by all or most.” Even if there had been clear and

unanimous consent from each and every commissioners in the back room, none of that would have mattered at all when it came to actually giving the raises: By law, there must be a public vote by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to increase the salaries of the seven department heads whose salaries are determined by the board. It’s unknown how the situation will be resolved. NC General Statute 143-318.16A offers “remedies for violations” of the open meetings law. It states, “Any person may institute a suit in the superior court requesting the entry of a judgment declaring that any action of a public body was taken, considered, discussed, or deliberated in violation of this Article. Upon such a finding, the court may declare any such action null and void.”

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Beep (Continued from page 34) in four plus years. What can be done about that? %%% In regards to the fiscal cliff, I have a suggestion on a cutback. And this affects the president, all the way down to the lowest person in the Senate and the House. They need to cut their salaries 20 percent. If they’re going to cut defense and everything else, they need to do that, too. They’re no better than anybody else to get a cut in salary. And, then, they’ll still be

making more than I made. I dare them to try to live on what I live on. They couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t pay their liquor bill for the month. They ought to try to use the hospital insurance we have. That wouldn’t work either, because they have a special kind. Hit in the pocketbook. Maybe that will do some good. But the people that get all these loopholes, they ought to be cut out and pay their fair taxes. People on Social Security can’t afford anymore. I can’t pay any more than middle class. They better wake up and get started, because a new election is coming in November. And by golly I won’t forget.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

%%%

Yes, I just got the new iPhone app called Obama. All you have to do is put in a secret password, Democrat, and it automatically puts money into your Apple account. %%%

Editor’s Note: And yet he was reelected by a wide margin. %%%

When we were kids we were told that anybody can be president. Now we know this is true. With no military or business experience, the thinnest resume of any president in memory, and a questionable background, Obama has lowered the bar to the floor. Yes, children, anyone, I mean anyone, can be president.

Hello. My name is Lawrence. And I’m calling about the Under the Hammer on Thursday, Nov. 29. It says in there in part, they subsidy for ethanol is absurd. I take it Mr. Hammer is taking about the 45-centper-gallon total subsidy for alcohol. Actually, that expired last January 2012 and has not been in existence since then. That can be verified by just getting on the (Continued on next page)

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Music Hall (Continued from page 8) about the economic development strategies, the parity study and disparity study and the attempts by the city to get housing under control. Perkins also touched on the proposed Greensboro Performing Arts Center (GPAC), which he said could be

Yost (Continued from page 16) over the years, has taught me a lot about God (not to mention about the devil), and William Hammer, who ran the business side of The Rhino for years and who has taught me a lot about photographing beautiful women. Speaking of beautiful women, I want to thank every single woman who has graced the pages of The Rhino in Scott’s Night Out over the years, and I want everyone to know that I forgive all the Rhino readers in the area who think Scott’s Night Out is the one and only thing I do here each week. I need to thank the News & Record county beat reporters past and present. Like Alex Wayne, Nate DeGraff and Joe Killian and the other people at the News & Record who are usually very good sports when I make fun of them. Merry Christmas this week and next week I will go back to making fun of all of you again. I also want to thank The Rhino Times delivery people because one year I forgot to thank them at a Christmas party but they are vital and without them there would be no Rhinos to be found anywhere.

Beep (Continued from previous page) Internet. Also, there is a comment about all the engines that have been destroyed by ethanol. I don’t know where that came from. I’m not aware of any report talking about any engines destroyed by ethanol. Perhaps he’s talking about a lawnmower. %%% Editor’s Note: One subsidy did expire, but it was simply replaced with another one. Look up the renewable fuel standard for more information. %%% This is a message for the guy that’s going around and taking down signs for people that have small businesses that cannot afford to advertise. You’re a swell guy. I hope you have a blessed and merry Christmas. Thank you. %%% Hey, I just want to say one thing. You know, I’m about really sick and tired of hearing about this guy that shot his girlfriend up there. You know, he’s a millionaire, running up and down the road doing nothing but making touchdowns, or whatever you want to call it. You know,

Thursday, December 13, 2012

complimented by the proposed downtown university district, a proposed joint campus downtown. The Gateway University Research Park, where this meeting took place, is a joint campus and has over 100,000 square feet of vacant space. After his presentation Perkins invited the councilmembers to bring up priorities for

And I certainly want to thank the advertisers who keep us going. As long as I live, I’ll never get over the person who wrote in complaining that he liked The Rhinoceros Times but who went on to say that we had too many ads. I remember thinking: Well, mister, that’s why it’s free. And there simply are not enough good things in the world that I, or anyone else, can say about Elaine Hammer, who does so much for The Rhino. All I can say about Elaine is that she is one miracle away from being a saint. And I certainly, certainly want to thank John Hammer, the creative and driving force behind this publication and the one who, along with his brother, created and grew a highly unusual family-run weekly newspaper that has helped make this entire county a better place to live than it would have been otherwise. How many people can you say that about. I also want to thank God for shutting down my former paper and forcing me to take this job against my will: His ways are not man’s ways, but in the end, He really seems to have a handle on what He’s doing.

1976 my son killed his self, you know? We never heard nothing about that. Here we got all this crud going on with this man up there that killed his self, his girlfriend and everything. Let’s get this thing straight, you know. He’s nothing important. He’s no more important than that man up there in the White House. Thank you. %%% Just a point of information for anybody who is planning to see the new version of Anna Karenina. Don’t waste your time. It is horrible. Plot doesn’t even go far enough. Horrible. The dresses are pretty. The people are pretty. The jewelry is pretty, but the way the story is treated is melodramatic, silly and a total, total waste of your time. Tolstoy should be glad he’s dead, or this would insult him. %%% Yes, this is just a reminder to all the entitlement bloodsuckers out there. Remember, Santa Claus is coming. You got to be good to get more entitlements. Well, he ain’t actually coming. He’s already here. He’s been in the White House for four years. Thanks. (Continued on page 40)

2013 in four categories; jobs and economic development, public safety, infrastructure and organizational development. Matheny said he wanted the city to procure “shovel ready sites” to attract business development in Greensboro. He said that since the city didn’t appear to be making progress partnering with private developers; they should consider partnering with PTIA. “If we can’t partner with private developers why can’t we partner with the airport so we can create our own shovelready sites?” Matheny asked. Perkins said that the question was how much money the city had to put toward such a venture. He also said the city may need to look beyond jurisdictional boundaries to create regional sites. Kee brought up the land around White Street Landfill, about 1,600 acres of which he said could be developed and used to attract businesses. He also said that the methane produced by the landfill, which the city currently flares off and gives away, could be given to companies to run their facilities as an incentive. Kee said the city needed to commit to infrastructure. Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth said an analysis of the infrastructure costs was already underway and would take around six months to complete. Kee said that wasn’t fast enough and handed out a proposal he had received from

Page 39

Evans Engineering Inc. to analyze the land in two to three months for $40,000. He also handed out a proposal from Davenport Transportation Consulting to conduct a transportation study of the area to identify what transportation infrastructure would be needed to support development for $18,950. City staff said that although the city would take six months overall to complete its analysis of the White Street Landfill area, some information would be available earlier. The council also discussed the HayesTaylor YMCA relocation. Perkins said it was an important part of development in that area, and that he wanted to see it completed sooner rather than later. He suggested giving the Hayes-Taylor Memorial YMCA $2 million for the project. Perkins also supported finding $2 million to finish the remodeling of the old IRS building for police headquarters. The city bought the building from the federal government for $1 and has already put hundreds of thousands into remodeling. Perkins brought up GPAC again at the end of the meeting, saying it was something the council should move forward on. However, he admitted that the council had been “making more sausage than wedding cake this week.” He explained to a perplexed council that his figure of speech was to say the council’s handling of the issue hadn’t been pretty.

Page 40

Thursday, December 13, 2012

CHILDRENS

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Carolina Theatre 310 South Greene St.

Christmas Movies

Get in the Christmas mood with movie classics in the beautiful Carolina Theatre. Tickets are $5 for students, senior citizens and military; $6 for adults. For information, call (336) 333-2605 or visit www.carolinatheatre.com Thursday, Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m.: Elf Monday, Dec. 17 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.: Holiday Inn Tuesday, Dec. 18 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.: It’s A Wonderful Life Wednesday, Dec. 19 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.: White Christmas Thursday, Dec. 20 at 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.: A Christmas Story

The Nutcracker

The Greensboro Ballet performs the timeless Nutcracker on Friday, Dec. 14 at 8 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 16 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $35.

Greensboro Natural Science Center 4301 Lawndale Drive

Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato

Now through Dec. 30: They were miners, fathers, mothers, soldiers, farmers and children. They are revered by their descendents and have been visited by millions. This collection of rare, shocking and completely accidental mummies combines science, art, history and cultural anthropology to immerse the visitor in a world of a Mexican city over 100 years ago where deceased residents were naturally mummified in their crypts. For information, call (336) 288-3769 or visit www.natsci.org.

New Holiday Shows

Laser Holidays will have visitors of all ages singing along to a mix of classic and modern holiday tunes as a dazzling laser show dances across the 40 foot dome, daily at noon. The Light Before Christmas 3D teaches two children the meaning of Christmas, daily at 2 p.m. Admission is $3 in addition to general admission. For information, visit www.natsci.org.

High Point Museum 1859 E. Lexington Ave

Candle Dipping

On Saturday, Dec. 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., light up the dark days of winter with a candle made in the historical park. Costumed interpreters will show you how. All ages welcome. The cost is $1 per candle (limit two per person). Free for members.

Children Are Our Future This schedule brought to you by your friends & neighbors at (336) 282-4414

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Perkinettes (Continued from page 1)

pretty trusting and they like to think their mayor has the best interest of the city at heart, but councilmembers now say Perkins is obsessed with the performing arts center and has been using deceit and threats to try and get it passed. Kee, who has emerged as one of the true leaders on the City Council, said he didn’t appreciate being blindsided by supposedly racist caricatures and then being branded a racist himself for supporting newly appointed Councilmember Wilkins. Former City Councilmember Trudy Wade was elected to the North Carolina state Senate and resigned from the City Council last week. Wilkins was appointed to serve the remaining year of her term representing District 5 on the City Council. Wilkins won on an extremely divisive 5-to-4 vote at the Dec. 4 meeting. Councilmembers Wade, Kee, Abuzuaiter, Vaughan and Matheny voted for Wilkins. Voting against Wilkins were Perkins, and Councilmembers Diane Bellamy-Small, Yvonne Johnson and Nancy Hoffmann. At the Dec. 4 meeting, after Wilkins was nominated, Bellamy-Small had two political caricatures created by Wilkins for his blog projected on the video screens in the council chambers. One was of herself and the other was of former Councilmember Goldie Wells. Bellamy-Small said it was racist to depict African-American women in a caricature. What Kee pointed out is that there were 15 other similar caricatures that Wilkins had created and posted on his website, all of them white people, and some of them

Beep (Continued from page 39) %%% Good morning, Beep. Just sitting here drinking my coffee and reading the news and fish wrap. Reading about Mr. Tony Wilkins. If T. Bellamy-Small and Mr. Perkins can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, they need to get out. Thank you. %%% Hello. This is High Point calling. You know, I’ve noticed something about these progressive liberal Democrat Republicans. They’re like vampires. They drain the life out of people making a living. All of their works are done at night, because light will expose them. They have no reflection in mirrors, because they have no substance. And whenever they see the cross, they flee in terror. %%% Hello. This is in reference to the Dec. 6 paper. The lady in the Beep says all she could talk about was the word prejudiced. She needs to look at Obama’s record. Obama has done nothing for anyone. All he’s doing is handing out cell phones. He’s catering to the unions. He’s catering to the illegal aliens and the Mexicans. That’s how

extremely similar – showing politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths. Wlikins is not an artist, so the caricatures were altered photos, and although they may not be great caricatures, there is nothing racist about them. However, if those two were the only two that Wilkins had ever done, as was the strong implication by Bellamy-Small and Perkins at the City Council meeting, then that would be something that needed to be discussed. Kee said to call political satire racism was just wrong. Kee said political satire is just part of politics and that he has been the subject of political cartoons and he didn’t see anything racist about them. Kee said Perkins tried to use racism to divide the council. He said that if Perkins and company thought the political cartoons that Wilkins had done were wrong they should have told the whole story and shown all 17 cartoons. Kee and Abuzuaiter also said they didn’t appreciate being blindsided by the accusation. Kee said, “You should consult with your team.” Kee said that about a week before the vote he was told by Perkins that he needed to vote for MacArthur Davis for the soon-to-beopen council seat. Kee said he didn’t know Davis but did talk to him on the phone, and their conversations raised some questions. He said that Davis said he supported the downtown performing arts center and that he would not run for reelection but would simply be a placeholder for a year. Kee said, “A placeholder that’s interesting.” Kee then said a few days before the vote he was told by Perkins that he shouldn’t (Continued on next page)

he got elected. They would have elected him if he had been prison. This man isn’t fit to be president. He can’t even tell the truth about what went on in Benghazi, nor can he tell the truth about what went on in Fast and Furious. His way of telling the facts, or having the facts get out, is to trickle out. Because he puts a woman out there, Ms. Rice … %%% Continuing. It has nothing to do with prejudice. Black folks have been in all kind of state, local and high-level politics for as long as we know. Colin Powell, for example, fine man. I don’t know how in the world he could bring his self to back somebody like Obama. But there’s others as well. Mr. West. Several others. But Obama is not fit to be the president of this country. He lies every chance he gets. He’s going to allow the gays to be married. He’s going to hand out birth control pills. He is not fit to be in the office of the White House. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him for the simple fact he would not tell the truth. All he had to do was come forward on Benghazi and tell the facts of what went on there. And it’s been two months, and these families still don’t know how their loved ones got killed nor …

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Perkinettes (Continued from previous page)

vote for Davis but should vote for Dottie Salerno. He said he didn’t know Salerno and was troubled by the fact that she had been out of politics for over 10 years. He said he was also concerned because when he asked her about the performing arts center she said that Greensboro “had to have it.” Kee said it appeared to him that Perkins was just trying to use this appointment to line up a fifth vote for the performing arts center. Kee said he knew Wilkins, who said he supported having a bond referendum for the performing arts center, and thought he would be a good councilmember. Kee said that he thought they ended up with three good candidates for the District 5 seat but that Wilkins was the best, so that is who he supported. He said after interviewing all the candidates and making his decision he said that Perkins trying to use race to divide the council was “unconscionable.” Kee also said Perkins told him that if money for the performing arts center was going to go on the ballot then Perkins thought money for the Hayes-Taylor Memorial YMCA and the Bessemer Shopping Center should also be voted on by the people. Kee said that Perkins later said he was just kidding about bonds for the HayesTaylor YMCA and Bessemer Shopping Center, but at the time Kee said he took it

Thursday, December 13, 2012

as a threat not a joke. Abuzuaiter said that Salerno’s position, that the city “had to have the performing arts center,” bothered her as well. She said that before the council meeting Perkins had told her to check out Wilkins’ blog and after that she wouldn’t be voting for him. But Abuzuaiter said she had no idea that at the meeting they would show only two of the 17 political caricatures Wilkins had posted. Abuzuaiter also said that all during that meeting Bellamy-Small was working to get her stuff organized, and “My assumption is that Dianne was handed all of that just before the meeting.” She also said she assumed it came from the mayor. Abuzuaiter said she was threatened with being responsible for losing the money for LeBauer Park if she didn’t vote against having a bond referendum for the performing arts center. She said she was told that if she didn’t vote for the performing arts center to be funded without a vote of the people that she would have to go before the voters and explain how she lost $10 million for a park for the children of Greensboro. Abuzuaiter said that Perkins told her the performing arts center and the park were “linked.” Kee said he was told the same thing. Abuzuaiter said she read the endowment and realized that LeBauer Park could be built anywhere, and that it was not at all dependent on ever building a performing

arts center. Abuzuaiter said that she told Perkins, “You are not going to blackmail me with the children of Greensboro.” She said, “The tactics that are being used are unthinkable.” Abuzuaiter also objected to Perkins saying that he “tried to guide her vote.” She said, “I’m 58 years old. I’ve raised two boys and run a small business for years. I’ve been through so many life experiences I think I can make my own decisions.” Kee said, “Perkins shouldn’t use divisive methods for political gain. The performing arts center is an obsession.” Kee added that the performing arts center was difficult to support because of the lack of transparency. He said even councilmembers can’t get financial information about what is going on. He said the city has put in $250,000 and that has been matched by a private donation or donations but the City Council doesn’t know who matched the money. Kee said councilmembers also weren’t told anything about the $20 million in pledges that have reportedly been lined up. He said the council needed to know about the pledges because “If it doesn’t go well then, just like Trudy said, the citizens are on the hook.” He said, “I’m not willing to take that gamble without the consent of my boss, the people.” And he added, “If the people vote for it then I’m for it.” Kee said that his support for the performing arts center had always

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been based on the premise that the project wouldn’t go forward without a vote of the people. He said that from the very beginning the plan was to have a bond referendum for the performing arts center. He said there had been questions about the amount of money that needed to be on the bond and when the bond referendum would be held, but that there was always a bond referendum planned. Kee said the opposition to Wilkins by Perkins was all about the performing arts center and for Perkins getting that fifth vote. He said that for him to be “perceived as a councilmember who supports racism, that’s dirty pool.” Abuzuaiter said that when elected she felt she was part of a team. Now, she said, “Our team is broken. I was hoping to be able to get some things done.” She said, “I did follow a lot of Robbie’s lead initially.” But she added those days are over. Right after the Dec. 4 meeting, Matheny said, “It’s not mayoral to try and make someone out to be a racist.” Vaughan also expressed outrage that Perkins would use just two of the 17 caricatures to try and brand Wilkins as a racist. Perkins did his utmost to keep Wilkins off the City Council, but on Tuesday, Dec. 11, Wilkins was sworn in to represent District 5 for the next year, and he shook Perkins’ hand and sat down at the table right beside him.

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Sweet Baboo (Continued from page 2) Frank, because it was interesting, exciting, different and easy on the wallet. More recently Frank had found a place closer to home that he loved, and that was Orlando, Florida, and Disney World. Frank loved it down there and had planned to make one more trip, but his health didn’t cooperate. I usually saw Frank when he was in the midst of a political campaign, which means he was trying to get more done in a day than is humanly possible. But although I knew he was in a huge hurry, he never seemed to be. He seemed to be just ambling along,

happy to stop and chat for a moment, even if he didn’t have time to sit down. I’ll never forget one day when Frank stopped in my office on East Market Street when he did have time to sit down and talk politics. I had a big green chair for visitors, where they sank practically down to the floor. Frank was sitting in that chair and we were talking about something crazy the Guilford County commissioners had done, and I noticed that it looked like smoke was coming out of the pocket of Frank’s sport coat. I mentioned to him that he seemed to be on fire and he said, very matter of factly,

Rakestraw (Continued from page 2) VF Jeanswear. He loved his God, Sunday school class, family, friends, Tar Heel sports, politics and traveling with his wife, Mary. Frank was a member of Crescent Rotary. He joined the club on August 2, 1982 and served as club president from July 1, 1989 to June 30, 1990. He was a Paul Harris Fellow, a sustaining member and benefactor. His last public service was chairman of the Guilford County Equalization and Review Board. He resigned in November 2012. Survivors include his wife of 45 years, Mary C. Rakestraw, brothers-in-law Thomas C. Childrey and wife Lorene of Burlington, North Carolina, and Robert

L. Childrey and wife Judy of St. Paul, Minnesota, many cousins, nieces and nephews, and great-nieces and nephews. Memorial gifts may be made to the Rotary Foundation, 14280 Collections Center Dr., Chicago, Illinois, 60693; American Red Cross, 1501 Yanceyville St., Greensboro, 27405; Hospice and Palliative of Greensboro, 2500 Summit Ave, Greensboro, 27405; or First Baptist Church, 1000 W. Friendly Ave., Greensboro, 27401. Frank will be remembered as a good and decent man with an incredible sense of humor and memory. Online condolences may be made at www.forbisanddick.com.

“Oh, that’s just my pipe.” He had put a lit pipe in his pocket when he walked in the door and was not the least bit concerned about it. His pocket continued to smoke and we continued to talk. I didn’t know Frank well at that point, but I decided right then that Frank Rakestraw

Under (Continued from next page) get the Democrats to vote with him, and he almost lost his chance. He was giving away money right and left to buy votes rather than change anything in the bill. So the only way he could get Democrats to go along with him was by bribing them. How in the world is he going to deal with Republicans? So far, not too well. Obama is the president for four more years. So it would appear that every year there is going to be this huge standoff and all of this drama because Obama insists that he get to raise taxes on the wealthy. It doesn’t make a bit of difference fiscally whether taxes get raised on the wealthy or not, but it is something that he is determined to do because he wants to do it. Here is something Obama might want to try in the first year of his second term; he might want to try passing a budget. Since Obama has been president Congress has not passed a budget. That was at one time

was my kind of guy. He had the remarkable ability to enjoy life, which is a wonderful gift. Frank loved the Tar Heels, thought Disney World was one of the best places on earth, believed that Mary Rakestraw hung the moon, and will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

a huge deal, passing a budget, but with Obama it has become something that is just ignored. The Democratic majority in the Senate doesn’t even bother to prepare a response to the Republican budget passed by the House. But passing a budget requires negotiation and compromise, and it appears our president does neither.

,,, If the Bush tax cuts were only for the wealthy, as the media has been telling us now for years, why, if the tax cuts are allowed to expire, is it going to be disastrous for the middle class? Tax cuts for the wealthy are not going to affect the middle class whether they expire or not. Is it possible that the media has been lying to us all this time and the Bush tax cuts were for the middle class as well as the wealthy? It seems like even the Democrats would have to admit that is the case, if they were honest.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Reporters think of themselves as bloodhounds, or bulldogs. Once they get on the trail of a good story nothing can deter them. Actually, reporters are far more like cattle or sheep. Someone pours some feed into the trough and they completely forget about everything else and stampede over to feed. Then someone throws out some bales of hay and they run over to the hay. What happened to Benghazi? Four Americans, including an American ambassador, were murdered during a terrorist attack at a government compound in Benghazi on Sept. 11. We don’t know how it happened. We don’t even know what happened to Ambassador Chris Stevens and why a group of Libyans ended up taking him to the hospital. According to some reports he was still alive when he arrived at the hospital. Why wasn’t the compound secured after the attack? Why were people, including reporters, allowed to wander around the site and pick up sensitive, if not top-secret, government documents and personal effects? Why did it take three weeks to get an FBI team in there and why did they only stay a few hours? Not to mention why did the White House lie to the American people about what happened? Shouldn’t the reporters covering the White House be asking some of these questions every day until they get some answers? We don’t know why no aid was sent to an American compound under attack for seven hours by al Qaeda. It appears that nobody is asking questions, because the national reporters are being fed the fiscal cliff story. The fiscal cliff is largely smoke and mirrors. If the Republicans raise taxes on the socalled “wealthiest” Americans, as President Barack Hussein Obama insists on doing, then it deserves to be called the stupid party and should just go off in a corner and curl up. Obama doesn’t want any restrictions on his spending. He has made that clear. He wants Congress to give him the power to raise the debt limit on his own. He is already spending over $1 trillion more dollars a year than the government collects in revenue, but that isn’t enough. The fiscal cliff is not real. It was created by Obama and Congress and can be dissolved by Obama and Congress. Benghazi was real. Four Americans died at Benghazi, including the first ambassador killed in the line of duty since President James Earl Carter was in the White House wearing cardigans and turning down the thermostat. Speaking of that, Carter was president during tough financial times. He turned the heat down in the White House and publicly took other austerity measures to set an example for the American people, and also to send the message that we were all in this together. Obama has taken the opposite approach. He and his family live more lavishly than

Thursday, December 13, 2012

the royal family of Great Britain. The Obamas have 54 holiday trees, what most people call Christmas trees. They fly on vacation in separate 747 jets because Michelle Obama wants to get there a couple of hours early. White House parties cost millions of dollars each. The administration has never explained “Fast and Furious,” a program that armed Mexican gangs and resulted in countless deaths. Congress was interested for a while, but the fiscal cliff seems to have grabbed all the headlines.

,,, The federal government encourages and rewards risky behavior. This is apparent in a multitude of policies, but it’s nowhere more apparent than in the policies concerning coastal development. If you build a million dollar house with waves breaking on your doorstep and, lo and behold, a hurricane destroys your house, the government builds you a new one. Many people actually benefit from having their homes destroyed. With Hurricane Sandy this is demonstrated again in the attitude of beach towns about sand dunes. Some towns had already spent millions of dollars building sand dunes and they had relatively little damage. Other towns refused to build any sand dunes. According to The New York Times, it was largely an aesthetic debate – with sand dunes you couldn’t see the ocean from the boardwalk. As it turns out, those towns that spent the money on sand dunes suffered relatively little damage and those that refused to build sand dunes were wiped out. It would be nice to think that the federal government was going to say to the towns that didn’t prepare and now need hundreds of millions of dollars to repair the damage – “too bad,” you should have thought about hurricanes earlier. But that isn’t how it works. The federal government treats people like that too. People who go to school, work hard and get high paying jobs are rewarded by having huge chunks of their income confiscated by the government in the form of taxes. People who drop out of school, don’t look for a job, don’t work and make no money get big checks from the federal government every month for food, shelter and even cell phones if they want them.

,,, Republicans are and will continue to talk about why Mitt Romney lost. According to an article in the National Review, it is because although the economy is bad it is getting better. Of course, if it’s the case that all the economy has to be doing is improving, then former President George Herbert Walker Bush should have been reelected because the recession had ended and the economy was improving. The news media failed to report that fact until after the election, but people knew things were improving. But here is an idea on how the Republicans

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might do better next time – insist that at least two of the presidential debate moderators be registered Republicans who will admit to having voted for Republican presidential candidates in at least two out of the last four presidential elections. It will be tough to find two journalists who are registered Republican and have actually voted for Republicans, but maybe Rush Limbaugh would do a debate. He is no more partisan than Candy Crowley, or Martha Raddatz. I would bet that the total number of Republican candidates those two have voted for in their lives could all meet in a telephone booth, and the only problem would be finding a phone booth. Imagine the moderator at a presidential debate, who is just supposed to ask questions, saving President Obama from a disastrous line of questioning from Romney by stepping in and offering the answer herself. (By the way, that would have been disconcerting and weird if she had been right, but she was definitely wrong. However, it doesn’t matter that she was wrong because the disaster was averted and her friends in the media have protected her.) The real story of the election appears to be the media. It is going to be nearly impossible to get a Republican president elected with the media that currently exists. What Republicans should be doing is encouraging conservatives to go into the news business. Fox and talk radio are just not enough. The right needs more media clout. The right has nothing to rival The New York Times or The Washington Post.

,,, Now, long after the election, we find out that the Labor Department is revising its estimates of job growth downward – in September by 16,000 jobs and in October by 33,000 jobs. That is about 10 percent in September and 20 percent in October. Certainly that somehow affects the unemployment rate. It was extremely curious that the unemployment rate fell to below 8 percent for the first time in Obama’s presidency two months before the election. And now those numbers are being revised? It is incredible the lengths the liberals went to in order to get Obama reelected, but it worked. Maybe in another few months those unemployment figures will be revised upward because by then no one will care.

,,, The entire philosophy of the government at this point is wrong. Apparently the goal of the government is not to provide people with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness but to take money from those with jobs who are earning a living and giving it to people who don’t work. The way that the government should be trying to raise people out of poverty is to provide those in poverty with jobs and the chance for advancement. Instead, what our government is doing is providing a

By John Hammer disincentive for people at the low end of the economic scale to work. If people can make more money not working than working, why work? The people with good jobs, who make enough money to be taxed, earn enough that living off the government would mean a big drop in their income. But government benefits are getting so rich that for people at the lower end of the economic scale it makes more economic sense for them not to work. The money that should be going into infrastructure, which helps everyone, is instead being spent on providing for people who don’t work. Most Americans have no objection to providing a safety net for people who are down on their luck, but our government has gone far beyond a safety net and now provides things like cell phones to those who don’t work and aren’t looking for jobs. What is worse is the government is no longer spending money it has but is going into enormous debt to provide benefits for an unsustainable portion of the population. At the other end of the income ladder it is just as absurd – people who have incomes in the millions still receive Social Security and free medical care from the government. If Social Security worked the way it was designed to work it would make sense to pay everyone who paid in to the program, but the government long ago spent the money that people who are getting Social Security receive. The lockbox is full of government IOUs, which are worth whatever the government says they are worth.

,,, It appears that Obama is well on his way to following the plan to bring down the government described by two Columbia University professors in a paper published in 1966. Richard Cloward and Frances Priven wrote in that paper that if the government started providing benefits at an unsustainable level that the system would collapse, and their suggestion was that the system be replaced with a guaranteed income. We are certainly at an unsustainable level, but it appears that Cloward and Priven didn’t consider the fact that the government one day might be borrowing over a third of the money it spends.

,,, There is all this talk about the fiscal cliff and Obama negotiating with the Republicans. When has Obama ever in his life negotiated anything? Isn’t this how his entire first term was spent, with Obama trying to bulldoze everyone and mainly failing? Obama could have gotten Obamacare through the Senate while he had a filibuster-proof majority, but he is so insistent that things be done exactly his way or the highway that he couldn’t even (Continued on previous page)

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro