June 16, 2016 by Rhino Times

Vol. IV No. 24

Greensboro, North Carolina

www.rhinotimes.com

Thursday, June 16, 2016

TRUMP CONNECTS

WITH LOCAL CROWD Scott D. Yost

Commissioners Anticipate Tax Cut

City Salaries plus Under The Hammer, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything AND MORE

RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

THE WEEKLY Hammer

The Weekly Hammer

Politically Incorrect Trump Connects With Local Crowd by John Hammer Editor I had never seen Donald Trump speak in person before he appeared at a rally in at the Special Events Center at the Greensboro Coliseum on Tuesday, June 14. I had watched numerous speeches on television and seen him in most of the seemingly endless series of debates for Republican presidential candidates, but seeing him in person is different. I was on the floor to the left of the podium, with a few people between me and the barrier. I found it to be an unusually polite crowd. When people saw I had a camera and was trying to get a good shot of Trump, they did their best to give me room. One large guy in front of me actually crouched down for a few minutes so I could get a shot. I was also in the area beside the entrance to get into the VIP area, so people had to move out of the way to let the campaign workers lead VIPs into the cordoned off area directly in front of the podium. People squeezed out of the way whenever they were asked. Everybody around me did laugh when one of the campaign workers said we had to keep a lane open; that was clearly impossible since the pressure from the crowd would force people back into the imaginary lane. People chanted, “Build the Wall” and “USA,” but the area I was in was unusually well behaved for people packed in as tightly as possible. I don’t know about the entire crowd, because I couldn’t see more than a few hundred of the 6,000 people there, but I didn’t hear anything approaching an inappropriate comment or see any signs of anger that others have reported. The people around me, and it was a racially diverse crowd, seemed excited to get to see and hear Trump in person and were as accommodating to each other as the tight space allowed. It helps that Trump has the ability to connect with the crowd. It’s not unique, but it’s been a while since any Republican with good stage presence has been on the national scene. Trump is good in front of cameras, which is why he won every presidential debate, but he’s better in person. Watching a Trump speech on television, it can seem disjointed. He goes off on tangents. He starts talking about one topic and then ends up somewhere else. In person it all makes a lot more sense because he is responding to the crowd. Instead of speaking to the audience, he

is having a conversation with the audience and conversations rarely follow a straight line. Trump tries out a line and if he perceives a good response he continues down that path, if not he moves on to something else. He does have notes and seemed to take special care in saying LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender). He had been criticized at an earlier speech for saying LBGT. He also expressed compassion for the LGBT community, which evidently surprised some of his detractors. Of course, those detractors might be surprised to learn that some Republicans are also members of the LGBT community. Trump, unlike his likely Democratic opponent, he doesn’t read a speech that follows a pattern set by a team of professional speechwriters; he follows the pattern set by the audience. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, seems to get in trouble every time she goes off script. Trump is pretty much always off

script. Trump noted that she said she was going to put coal miners out of work and then didn’t do very well in West Virginia. Trump added that he was going to bring those jobs back. The Special Events Center was filled to capacity and at least several hundred were turned away when the Greensboro Fire Department wouldn’t allow them to cram any more people in. Trump attracted a good number of Republican elected officials, including the lone Republican on the Greensboro City Council, Tony Wilkins, as well as Republican Guilford County Commissioners Jeff Phillips, Hank Henning, Alan Perdue and Alan Branson. The 13th Congressional District Republican nominee, Ted Budd, was also in attendance, as well as former Greensboro City Councilmember and former Guilford County Commissioner Mary Rakestraw and Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party Ernie Wittenborn. State Sen. Trudy Wade and Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes were both warm-up speakers. Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party Robin Hayes was the master of ceremonies for the early speakers, and Hayes, with his avuncular style, did a good job of keeping things moving along while the crowd waited for Trump. Diamond and Silk, Lynette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson – two middle-aged black women from Fayetteville who have had YouTube videos of their support for Trump go viral – seemed as comfortable in front of a crowd as they do in what appears to be a hallway at home shooting a video. The two switched their party affiliation from Democrat to Republican to vote for Trump in the primary and have appeared at a number of Trump rallies. It appeared that a good portion of the (continued on page 14)

(continued on page 14)

Photo by John Hammer The crowd showing their support at the Donald Trump rally the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center on Tuesday. More photos page 26

THE

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES THE

table of

CONTENTS

WEEKLY HAMMER

WEEKLY HAMMER II

15 UNCLE ORSON

BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

BY JOHN HAMMER

17 REAL ESTATE 23 YOST COLUMN

COMMISSIONERS ANTICIPATE TAX CUT THIS YEAR

BY SCOTT D. YOST

35 UNDER THE HAMMER BY JOHN HAMMER

BY SCOTT D. YOST

CITY SALARY LOGIC HARD TO GRASP BY JOHN HAMMER

COMMISSIONERS GIVE SCHOOLS A DEGREE – THE THIRD DEGREE BY SCOTT D. YOST

10 ANIMAL SERVICES

BOARD HAS SMALL SHOES TO FILL BY SCOTT D. YOST

RHINO SHORTS

NYT CROSSWORD

PUZZLE ANSWERS

CHILDREN’S SCHEDULE

THE SOUND OF THE BEEP

SUDOKU

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

EDITORIAL CARTOON

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Cover: Donald Trump speaking to over 6,000 at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center on Tuesday, June 14. Photo by John Hammer with help from Larry Proctor

PUBLISHER Roy Carroll EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Hammer

GENERAL MANAGER Joann Zollo

managing editor ELAINE HAMMER

creative director ANTHONY COUNCIL

county editor SCOTT D. YOST

advertising consultants MICK HAYWOOD TYE SINGLETON

contributing editor ORSON SCOTT CARD

cartoonist GEOF BROOKS

216 West Market Street, Greensboro NC 27401 P.O. Box 9023, Greensboro NC 27429 | (336) 763-4170 (continued on page 11) (336) 763-2585 fax | sales@rhinotimes.com | www.rhinotimes.com

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THE WEEKLY Hammer II

Mitch’s Mess Still Plagues City by John Hammer Editor Over 10 years after he resigned as Greensboro police chief, David Wray is back in the news. The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that the city does not have sovereign immunity in his case and he can sue the city for legal fees incurred from his tenure as a city employee. The city has had a policy since 1980 of paying the legal fees for employees if the legal expenses are a result of their work as city employees. In fact, the city seems to have a policy of paying the legal fees for city employees with the notable exception of Wray. On Friday, Jan. 6, 2006, when he was Greensboro police chief, Wray was locked out of his office by then City Manager Mitch Johnson. On

Monday, Jan. 9, Wray resigned as police chief. On Tuesday, March 3, 2009, Johnson was fired as city manager. Now, more than 10 years later, the City of Greensboro continues to defend Johnson’s actions even though he was fired and denigrate Wray who resigned. The majority on the Greensboro City Council in 2006 never questioned the management philosophy that led to locking a city department head out of his office rather than disciplining him, firing him or forcing his resignation. An interview of Wray by Johnson, which has been made public, reveals Wray said the city needed an acting police chief because he was locked out of this office. Johnson evidently was going to allow the

Police Department to operate with a chief who couldn’t do his job. It also shows that Wray was never given the chance to defend himself against the accusations. The interview was about how Wray would leave office, not whether he would or not. After Wray’s resignation, councilmembers said that serious criminal charges were expected to be filed against Wray and some of his command staff as a result of the investigations that Johnson had initiated. No such charges were ever filed. The only charges that resulted from the investigations of the police department by the City Legal Department, by Risk Management Associates (RMA) and an investigation of 16 months by the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) were against Police Sgt. Tom Fox and Detective Scott Sanders. All the charges against Fox were dropped. Sanders was tried for accessing a government computer without authorization and found not guilty. Most of what had been reported in the press about the lengthy investigations turned out to be false and it seemed the only people who believed the numerous press accounts were on the City Council. There were no secret police, and

the infamous black book was a lineup book to investigate a specific allegation made by a prostitute that she was molested by a black police officer who was on duty and in uniform. The only person outside the Police Department who was ever shown the book was the prostitute, and she failed to identify the officer. Since the allegation was against a black police officer, only photos of black men were in the lineup book. If the allegation had been against a white officer, only photos of white men would have been in the lineup book. It’s the way lineup books are done. Johnson admitted in a sworn deposition that he had no evidence that the so-called black book had been used for anything other than the investigation of one specific complaint against a police officer. The turmoil started by Johnson did result in the entire Police Department command staff except one resigning or retiring. The one who didn’t leave was Deputy Chief Tim Bellamy, and he was promoted to chief. Losing the command staff in one fell swoop left the Police Department in bad shape as far as experienced leadership and morale were concerned. The numerous investigations didn’t result in any charges against Wray (continued on page 9)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

County Commissioners Anticipate Tax Cut This Year by Scott D. Yost The Guilford County Board of Commissioners plans to cut the county’s tax rate when it adopts the 2016-2017 budget on Thursday, June 16 reducing that rate for the second year in a row. It will mean the third tax cut in four years since the board gained a Republican majority in December 2012, after a 14-year period of Democratic majority in which large tax hikes were the order of the day. Plans can always change right up until the moment a vote is taken. However, as of Wednesday, June 15, sources on the board said that the Republican majority would lower the tax rate even though there are concerns about pressing county needs and rising debt obligations from the hundreds of millions in bonds approved by county voters in 2008. “It won’t be one cent,” one commissioner said of the coming tax cut. Last year, the commissioners cut the tax rate from 77 cents to 76 cents for every $100 of assessed property value. The cut this year is expected to be in the range of a quarter-cent to a half-cent. Each penny on the tax rate produces $4.7 million in revenue for the county. The 2016-2017 budget that the board is expected to adopt Thursday night should come in very close to $600 million. In May, Guilford County Manager

Marty Lawing proposed a budget that held the county’s tax rate steady at 76 cents. However, the commissioners, led by Chairman of the Board Jeff Phillips, have spent the last several weeks looking for ways to cut costs from that proposed budget. Phillips said this week that they had made some “modifications” to Lawing’s budget. Commissioner Hank Henning said that in the budget process the county was separating “wants” from “needs,” and he added that this has been a tough budget process given Guilford County’s large debt obligations. He said that anytime the county considers cutting taxes, the commissioners have to carefully evaluate the impact of that move. “We have to ask, will county functions be hurt?” Henning said. Henning also said there were concerns that state funds to the county might be cut this year. If the county loses some state funding, it will be even more of a burden on county finances. Henning said the state is already not giving the county the full proceeds from the education lottery that had been promised. Some of the savings in the 20162017 budget will come from the elimination of a proposed position for a public information officer to handle the county’s public relations, putting off some building and repair projects that aren’t seen as urgent, and by not funding all of the proposed new

positions for the Social Services Division of the Guilford County Health and Human Services Department. The commissioners are also expected to give the Guilford County school system less than is recommended in the county manager’s proposed budget, however the schools will still get millions more in 2016-2017 than they got in the current budget. Democratic Commissioner Carlvena Foster, who served on the Guilford County Board of Education before becoming a commissioner, said this week that she was open to listening to what the Republicans had to say about the budget, but also said she definitely did not want to see school funding reduced from the manager’s

proposed budget – which she said was a reasonable amount. In the budget expected to be adopted, the Friends of John Coltrane music festival will get $20,000, the High Point Arts Council $50,000 and the United Arts Council of Greensboro would get $55,000. The African American Atelier would receive $50,000 and the National Folk Festival would get $25,000. The budget is also expected to give $40,000 to Downtown Greensboro Inc., $20,000 to East Market Street Development, $40,000 for the Guilford County Tourism Development Authority and $75,000 to the High Point Market Authority, better known as the furniture (continued on page 21)

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HINOSHORTS

The 13th Annual Beach Music Blast Commerce Place is every Thursday evening from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in June. This week, Thursday, June 16, the Special Occasion Band performs; Thursday, June 23 is the always-popular Sleeping Booty; and the season will end on Thursday, June 30, with The Embers. Tickets are $7 and benefit the Children’s Home Society of North Carolina.

The Muse and I drove to State College, Pennsylvania, last weekend and, although people talk about the highway infrastructure in the state as in need of repair, compared to the states we drove through, North Carolina is still the “good roads state.” I couldn’t believe some of the twists and turns we had to make to stay on what appeared to be a major highway. And I’m convinced a couple of states are saving money by not putting up speed limit signs and then making money by ticketing unsuspecting travelers. My guess is it’s a system that has proven effective.

The Rhino Times Schmoozefest is a Thursday night tradition, but not this month. The June Schmoozefest, through the magic of modern technology, is brought to you one day early and will be held Wednesday, June 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Porter House at 4608 W. Market St. So be sure and set your smart phones back a day.

The Greensboro City Council committees, despite complaints from councilmembers, continue to meet and continue to do next to nothing at their meetings. Far from drilling down on issues with lengthy indepth discussions, the goal of most councilmembers seems to be to get through the meeting as quickly as possible. On Monday, June 13, the General Government Committee met for 26 minutes and the Public Safety Committee met for less than 10 minutes.

In some cities there have been problems at political rallies this year, but the Greensboro police did a great job of keeping incidents to a minimum at the rally for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center. The police were out in force and, for the most part, prevented problems from happening. If people come to a rally with their hearts set on getting arrested, there’s not much anyone can do to stop them. But at least from what I could see, protestors were ushered out with as little muss and fuss as possible. Outside, the police kept the Trump supporters and Trump protestors separated so that knuckleheads on either side couldn’t get in too much trouble. Some people need to be protected from themselves and the police did a good job of it.

The budget proposed by the North Carolina Senate lifts a spending cap that made all the sense in the world, which is no doubt why the government is doing the nonsensical thing of lifting it. The cap was $500,000 on light rail systems. The $500,000 cap essentially prevented any light rail from being built, which is a smart move. Investing in light rail right now is like buying stock in an electric typewriter company or a pager system. I used to see ads on matchbooks to buy your own pay phones and the money would start rolling in. I bet you can get all the pay phones you want if you will simply agree to haul them off. First of all, light rail doesn’t work in North Carolina cities because it’s nearly impossible to retrofit cities that have grown up based on automobile transportation to light rail. You need population

density for light rail to work. If some city in the state had been smart enough to hang on to its trolleys, they would now be tourist attractions and grandfathered in. I rode the trolley once in Charlotte and it was so slow because of the absurd traffic regulations it had to follow, it could not be considered viable transportation. The main reason not to spend several billion dollars on light rail is that before they can finish a light rail line and have trains running on it, we will have self-driving cars. I would imagine fixed-route self driving cars and self-driving cars that are more like taxis that will take you anywhere you want to go. I would also imagine they will be all electric, and the car will link to the phone in your pocket and the charge for your ride will be automatically deducted from your account when you exit the car. Even the federal and state governments should not be dumb enough to spend a couple of billion on light rail tracks at this point. If they do, they will probably pave over the tracks like they did with the trolley tracks and make them smart car roads. Women are suing in Colorado because they have to wear shirts in public and men don’t. I have to agree with the women. It doesn’t seem fair to have different standards based on biological sex. All mammals have nipples. It seems absurd that for a woman to expose her nipples is a crime but for a man it’s OK. In my mind this is entirely different from the Charlotte ordinance creating gender-neutral bathrooms because that ordinance would force people to share restrooms and showers with people of the opposite sex whether they like it or not. I do think that people have a right to privacy and they also have a right to express themselves if it doesn’t harm anyone else. I don’t understand how seeing a female nipple causes harm. Most women will choose to continue to wear shirts, just as most men do today, but those who choose not to should be able to enjoy that option without fear of arrest.

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City Salary Logic Hard to Grasp by John Hammer Greensboro is reportedly trying to do something about problems with its pay scale, including wage compression where employees with years of experience are paid nearly the same or in some cases less than new hires. The most blatant example of the salary issues in city government, however, is right at the very top of the salary list, and it’s worse this year than last year. The highest paid employee on the City of Greensboro payroll is not the city manager in charge of running the entire city, it’s the not the police chief in charge of keeping the citizens safe, it’s not the water resources director who is in charge of providing clean drinking water and cleaning the wastewater to levels where it doesn’t pollute our streams. No, it is Coliseum Director Matt Brown, who is in charge of entertainment. Brown is paid $288,000 a year, which is $88,000 more than his boss, City Manager Jim Westmoreland, who is paid $200,000 a year. But what is interesting is that last year Brown made $270,000 and Westmoreland $191,000. So Brown received an $18,000 raise and Westmoreland a $9,000 raise – the two largest raises we could find of any city employees this year, but the raises increased the difference between Westmoreland and his employee. As they say, the rich get richer. Last year Brown didn’t get a raise but two years ago there was Brown, Matt Westmoreland, Jim Carruthers, Tom Scott, Wayne Parrish, David Peterson-Buie, Becky Lusk, Rick Nugent, Bobby Wilson, Chris Wyrick, Dale Drew, Steven Scott, Andy Hammond, Connie McDowell, Kenny

Dir Coliseum City Mgr City Attorney Police Chief Asst City Mgr Chief Deputy City Attorney Dir Finance Fire Chief Asst City Mgr Dir Field Ops Dir Water Rec Asst City Mgr Dir HR Dir Engineering & Inspec

$288,445 $200,324 $164,000 $153,532 $149,133 $146,586 $143,453 $143,320 $143,144 $142,078 $141,924 $139,704 $137,181 $136,122

outrage expressed by many taxpayers because, before she left for a job in Washington, DC, former City Manager Denise Roth gave Brown a $51,000 raise and a $51,000 bonus. Deputy Coliseum Director Scott Johnson, the number two man at the Coliseum, is paid $131,000 after receiving a much more normal $5,000 raise. So Brown is paid more than double what Johnson makes, $157,000 more. Away from the Coliseum the salaries fall more in line with what you would expect. City Attorney Tom Carruthers, along with Westmoreland, works directly for the City Council. Westmoreland and Carruthers are the only two employees that the City Council hires, fires and sets their salaries. Carruthers received a $6,000 raise from $158,000 last year to $164,000 this year. Greensboro Police Chief Wayne Scott received a raise from $149,000 last year to $154,000 this year. So we are out of the range of $18,000 raises and even $9,000 raises. Last year Assistant City Manager Wesley Reid was fifth on the list and he retired. Fire Chief Greg Grayson was sixth and left for another job. Assistant City Manager Andy Scott, who had the title and salary of assistant city manager but who had been working in Workforce Development, has also retired, and Assistant City Manager Mary Vigue left her position to run the Say Yes to Education program. Barbara Harris, the director of neighborhood Johnson, Scott Plummer, Lillian Davis, Larry Nickles, Jane Fischer, Adam Hofer, Christine Druga, Marlene Schwartz, Sue Blanton, Brigitte Marro, Joseph Neal, Melanie Walcutt, Wade Waterman, Jamiah Harris, Barbara

development, was promoted to interim assistant city manager, and that leaves the city with two assistant city managers and one interim this year as opposed to five assistant city managers last year. So fifth on the list this year is Assistant City Manager David Parrish at $149,000, and sixth is Chief Deputy City Attorney Becky Jo Peterson-Buie at $147,000. Seventh is Finance Director Rick Lusk at $143,000, followed by Fire Chief Bobby Nugent at $143,000 and Assistant City Manager Chris Wilson also at $143,000. One name on the list that we were particularly interested in is Amanda Lehmert, who covered city government for the News & Record and left the newspaper business last year to work for a marketing company. This spring she joined the Communications and Marketing Department of the city. We didn’t find Amanda Lehmert on the city salary list because she is working for the city under her married name, Amanda Killian, and is being paid $48,000. She is married to News & Record reporter Joe Killian, who until recently covered city government and is now covering the state legislature in Raleigh. Below are the salaries for the 521 city employees who make $60,000 or more. For a complete list of salaries for the 3,014 city employees, go to rhinotimes.com. Next week we’ll have the salaries for the Guilford County school system.

Deputy Dir Coliseum $131,109 Dir Workforce Dev $127,736 Dir Budget & Evaluation $125,775 Chief Info Officer $125,727 Dir Transportation $123,238 Mgr Sr Info Tech $121,901 Mgr Sr Financial Svcs $121,554 Dir Planning $121,511 Dir Public Libraries $121,074 Mgr Sr HR $118,643 Dir Guilford Metro Comm $118,283 Dir Parks & Recreation $118,283 Mgr Sr HR FLSA/EEO/ER/LD $116,881 Interim Asst City Manager $116,296

Banks, Carla Dir Comm Hunter, Clarence Deputy Fire Chief Borchers, Michael Mgr Sr Water Rec Payne, Christopher Mgr Sr Admin Svcs Crossling, Love Dir HR Richardson, Betsy City Clerk Marriott, Christopher Mgr Sr Solid Waste Blackburn, Ida Mgr Total Compensation Hinson, James Deputy Chief Police Cheek, Brian Deputy Chief Police Wise, Gerald Mgr Credit Union Shumate, Darrell Mgr Facilities Robinson III, Graham Deputy Fire Chief (continued on page 11)

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Commissioners Give Schools A Degree – The Third Degree by Scott D. Yost

The Guilford County school system doesn’t take half of the county’s budget – yet – but it does take nearly half, and, the way things are trending, it could hit the 50 percent mark in a few years. Given that about 43 percent of Guilford County’s budget each year already goes toward funding county school operations, school building and debt repayment, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners was eager, at a Thursday, June 9 work session, to determine if that money is being spent wisely. The commissioners had a whole lot of questions for the school officials in an attempt to justify a request for a $15 million increase in school funding: $192.5 million for school operations and $11 million for school repair and maintenance in the 2016-2017 county budget. At the afternoon work session, Guilford County Schools Co-interim Superintendent Nora Carr, school staff and school board members tried to make the schools’ case for needing more county dollars next year than the schools got for the current fiscal year. Given the large amount of money in play, the county commissioners asked the school representatives a lot of probing questions. The Board of Commissioners is, of course, not the Board of Education – but, on this very hot summer afternoon in a standing-

room-only meeting room on the first floor of the Old Guilford County Court House, the commissioners wanted to get deep into the weeds of school operations. They had questions about the school’s busing practices, the energy efficiency of school buildings, the school system’s management of its construction and maintenance dollars and its prioritization of projects, as well as questions about school hiring practices and many other things. For instance, when the school officials spoke of the need for more bus drivers and requested money to provide higher pay for those drivers, Guilford County Commissioner Alan Perdue said he’d heard reports of Guilford County school buses transporting one, two or three students on a route; and he said he was concerned about the cost of that apparent inefficiency. “If you’ve got enough to do that, then you’ve got too much,” Perdue told the school officials in the room. Carr said the school system has “a very robust choice program” and that students who attend a magnet school might come to a school from anywhere in Guilford County, which might mean fewer students on some buses. She said the school system was attempting to make student transportation as efficient as possible and that the schools must provide that service to students. Perdue and several other

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commissioners said they had heard of a situation where three students assaulted a female student on a bus, and, rather than those three students being suspended as one would expect, the school system had instead simply made arrangements for the attackers to be given their own bus to ride to and from school each day. Perdue said school children who assault someone shouldn’t be rewarded with a “private bus.” “They don’t get a private bus,” Carr responded. “Often when parents or folks in the community see certain things, their assumption of what’s going on – and what’s really going on in that individual situation – are not the same thing. By the same token, with privacy laws, we can’t share everything and shouldn’t.” Commissioner Hank Henning said he’d heard the same story. “It was a little bit disturbing, and I won’t go into too much detail; but, essentially, a little girl was beaten up on a bus and, instead of the three students that did it being suspended, they were given free transportation with a big long school bus to take them to and from school,” Henning said. “That’s pretty disconcerting, because, number one, they shouldn’t get a big long school bus by themselves, and, most of the time when people send their kids to charter schools, it’s because of inequities like that – when the perpetrators are rewarded with a limousine service.” “I doubt that that story is 100 percent true,” Carr reiterated. Commissioner Justin Conrad had apparently heard the same account from a different source. “I didn’t get a call from a parent; I got a call from a teacher at a school,” Conrad said. Carr replied, “Maybe there’s something very bizarre going on that I don’t know about. We have 72,000 students, so that’s possible.” Guilford County Board of Education Chairman Alan Duncan also told the commissioners that the supposed occurrence was news to him. “It’s a little odd to me that several county commissioners have gotten a call on this but none of our board has,” Duncan said. “No one on our

board, to my knowledge, has heard about that.” The commissioners conceded that stories sometimes get distorted in the retelling, but many commissioners seemed to persist in their belief that this story was at least partially true and it was a cause for concern over school practices. At the June 9 meeting, the county commissioners also asked plenty of questions about the cost of school operations, school construction expenses and building maintenance practices. In the 2015-2016 budget, Guilford County funded the capital needs of the schools to the tune of $5 million, which comes to 41 cents per square foot of building space. However, school leaders argue that, in order to keep up with costs, that number should be 90 cents per square foot, or about $11 million. That request for capital funding is on top of this year’s portion of $457 million in school bond money that voters approved in May 2008. For the past eight years, the county has been handing that money over to the schools as fast as the schools can spend it – which is not as fast as school officials anticipated they could spend it. Guilford County still has $130.2 million in unissued school bonds for school repair and new school construction. Over the last year and a half, Conrad and county administrators have researched some highly energyefficient schools in the state and elsewhere that use solar power, ultraefficient design, new efficient lighting and energy-efficient machinery and appliances, as well as other means that keep energy and operational costs to a bare minimum. Last year, Conrad asked the schools to explore that type of option and he was later perturbed that school officials didn’t seem to take the request seriously. At the June 9 work session, Conrad asked about it again. He said Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing had spoken with some officials in Hoke County, where one such very energy efficient school was in operation. “It’s my understanding that they would do it again,” Conrad said, (continued on page 13)

mitch’s mess (continued from page 4)

or his command staff because the evidence showed that Wray was having officers investigated because of allegations against them, not because of race. In keeping with the city policy of paying legal fees for city employees, the city recently paid $8,500 for Mayor Nancy Vaughan who was deposed in a lawsuit filed by Eric Robert over redevelopment funds. Vaughan decided that she wanted to hire her own attorney to represent her in the deposition and not use the city attorney or the attorney the city had hired to represent it in the case. Vaughan originally said she would pay for her attorney, but when she was told the city had a policy to cover legal expenses, she let the city pay. However, the city steadfastly refuses to pay Wray’s legal expenses even though he was sued for actions taken while police chief. It is understandable that Johnson would refuse to pay Wray’s legal expenses. Johnson was responsible for the investigations of Wray that resulted in no charges, but did result in Johnson locking Wray out of his office and forcing him to resign. The current City Council might want to reconsider Wray’s request that like every other city employee his legal fees be paid in light of the fact that Johnson was fired by the City Council. Johnson was fired 10 days after Sanders was found not guilty. So although personnel records are confidential, there is strong evidence that Mitch Johnson was fired because what he had been telling the City Council about the Greensboro Police Department was not true and that was revealed in the trial. The reason given by the city for not paying Wray’s legal fees is that the legal fees do not have to be paid if “it is determined that an officer or employee (1) acted or failed to act because of actual fraud, corruption or actual malice or (2) acted or failed to act in a wanton or oppressive manner.” “Malicious” is the word being used by the city to describe Wray’s actions and why his attorney’s fees are not being paid. The decision is left up to the city manager and Johnson originally made the decision that Wray should not be paid based on this clause. City Manager Jim Westmoreland could decide that Johnson was wrong and Wray’s actions were not fraudulent, corrupt or malicious and agree to pay the legal fees. City Councilmember Tony Wilkins

has requested that he be shown the personnel file of Wray so he can determine for himself whether or not Wray behaved with “actual malice.” Councilmember Mike Barber sent an email to his fellow councilmembers asking that they settle this case as they have done with many of the other cases that resulted from the Johnson administration. But at this point it appears a majority of the City Council want to appeal the ruling to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which will likely take over a year. If the city wins that will be the end of the case. However, if the state Supreme Court agrees with the Court of Appeals then the case goes back to Superior Court for a trial on its merits. It’s possible that this whole mess that began with investigations of the Police Department ordered by Johnson in 2005 could not be resolved until 2020. Barber in his email states, “Some have said it is simply a matter of principle, but at some point, the principle of doing what is in the best interest of all citizens and moving on, with no further cost, must be taken into account. Others have said they never settle, which applies no principle at all, and ignores all the facts.” What makes no sense at all is that over 10 years after Wray resigned and over seven years after Johnson was fired, the city is still paying attorneys to battle over their differences in court. It’s difficult to see how the taxpayers of Greensboro benefit from this long, drawn out dispute. Johnson obviously didn’t like Wray, and while he was still interim city manager launched an investigation of the Police Department. Johnson could have fired Wray or simply told him the two didn’t get along and asked him to resign; instead he chose to lock Wray out of his office. In the wake of Johnson’s tenure as manager the city was left with a police department that felt the need to hold a press conference to announce that in the future the police would respond to all reports of shootings. The Police Department has come a long way since those days and it’s time for the city to leave this behind and move on. Barber also notes in his email that the city should drop the redistricting lawsuit filed against the Guilford County Board of Elections. Considering how staked out his fellow councilmembers are on that issue, it appears to have even less chance of happening.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

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SEE AND BE SEEN WITH

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

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

Animal Services Board Has Very Small Shoes To Fill by Scott D. Yost Meet the new board – not the same as the old board. In August 2015, a huge scandal involving widespread animal mistreatment at the Guilford County Animal Shelter made it crystal clear that the United Animal Coalition board had provided virtually no oversight of the shelter or its operations. But now a brand new county-created Animal Services Advisory Board, which met for the first time on Thursday night, June 9, clearly wants to make the future better than the past when it comes to animal treatment in Guilford County. If the first meeting of the Animal Services board is any indication, that new board takes its job very seriously and intends to provide great scrutiny over animal activity in the county. At the meeting, the 10 board members were highly engaged, brimming with ideas, and the group continued to converse about animal affairs after the board’s agenda for the night had been handled. There were a wide range of highly

Speed Bump

qualified applicants for the nine citizen positions on the board, and the animal advocates that the county commissioners selected appeared to be delighted to have been chosen. Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad is the chairman of the advisory board, and he’s been working with Guilford County Deputy Manager Clarence Grier on Animal Shelter issues and other animal related matters. Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Jeff Phillips attended the June 9 meeting held in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House, and County Manager Marty Lawing was also present for some of the meeting. Though this first get together was largely procedural and a time for introductions, Conrad told the board members there’s a great deal going on right now with regard to Guilford County Animal Services and, he added, the board’s help will be much appreciated.

by Dave Coverly

The Guilford County Animal Shelter is in a state of transition in the wake of the departure of former Director Logan Rustan, who left after less than six months in that position, and the county is looking for a location for a planned new shelter. Conrad said there are many other concerns to be addressed in the coming months as well. He also thanked all the new members for their willingness to serve. In addition to Conrad, the board members are Carl Ashby, Brenda Frizzell, Tammy Graves, Donna Lawrence, Bev Levine, Olga Perkins, Crystal Roberts, Linda Stanton and Rynisha Dean. Most of those names are very well known among animal welfare advocates in Guilford County. Guilford County Clerk to the Board Robin Keller gave the group a primer on serving on a county board, and several members seemed fascinated by the fact that now anyone has a right to view their emails whenever they email each other on advisory board business. The board’s bylaws state that five members make a quorum, so the new board members were told that, if five of them were together somewhere, they wouldn’t be able to discuss business related to Guilford County Animal Services because, by law, all those meetings must be held in public with proper prior notification given to citizens. Phillips said a few words of welcome for the new members and emphasized that the agenda for meetings is established by the chairman. “All requests for an addition or deletion flow through Justin,” Phillips said. He said many people might consider that to be a “no brainer,” but he added that at times county boards have taken a great deal of leeway in how they operate. Phillips also said board members should attempt to “be sensitive” to the feelings and beliefs of others, and added that the Board of Commissioners may not always follow the recommendations of the Animal Services Advisory Board. He said that, even in that case, the commissioner still appreciate their dedication and service. He said that county advisory boards don’t get to make the final call

but they do get to advise. “We have another board struggling in that department,” Phillips said, though he didn’t name the Guilford County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. The Animal Services Advisory Board will meet on the second Thursday of each month for the remainder of the year, starting in August. Conrad said the reason for skipping July is because “Summers are tough,” given everyone’s hectic schedules and summer vacation conflicts. He added that, for the rest of this year, with the exception of July, the board should meet every month; but he pointed out that that could change after the first of the year. “I think eventually this board will move to every other month or quarterly,” Conrad said. There are two parts of Animal Services that the new board will help oversee: Guilford County Animal Control and the Animal Shelter. In the past year, the shelter has gotten all the publicity, but Grier informed the board members that the county’s Animal Control division was in relatively good shape right now. “Animal Control is probably the most stable part of the Animal Services department,” Grier said. “They didn’t need a lot of handholding, for lack of a better term. We met with them and morale was high. For the most part, Animal Control is doing a really good job.” On the shelter side, he told the new board, things weren’t quite so upbeat. Rustan has resigned, he said, and his last day was Tuesday, June 7 – two days before that Animal Services board meeting. Grier said he has assumed those responsibilities until a new director is hired. Grier said he was willing to help the new board fulfill its duties in any way he can. “I’m very passionate about what I do and if I need to be out there, I’ll be out there,” he said of the shelter. “If you need to call me, call me any time. I will get back to you.” Grier also said there had been some challenges in trying to find a new location for the next Animal (continued on page 34)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

salaries

(continued from page 7)

James, Brian Whisenant, Richard Wilson, Anita Mabe, Michael Jones, Terri Smith, Sheldon Roberts, Rodney Dubel, Kathi Canziani, Luciano Kimel, Jeffrey Wallace, Terri Wilkinson, Karen Conn, Adam Kallam, Ted Lucas, Howard Hunt, Eleazer Dickens, James Spencer, Christopher Biffle, Gerrad Clark, Jim Swails, Ronald Lentz, William Rogers, Michael Staples, Bryant Roseboro, John Parsons, Barry Perdue, Michael Meyer, Tyler Pettigrew, Grover Cheatham, Lewis

Deputy Chief Police Deputy Chief Police Mgr Accounting Mgr Street Maint Ops Asst City Attorney Mgr Solid Waste Collect Mgr Ntwrk Svcs Econ Dev/Bus Supp Mgr Admin Sr Ntwrk System Mgr Wtr Rec Cust Svcs Mgr Sr Library Svcs Phys Asst/Nurse Pract Mgr Wtr Res Oper/Admin Mgr Engineering Mgr Internal Audit Mgr Info Svcs Asst City Attorney Mgr Transp Engrng Mgr TeleComm Asst City Attorney Division Fire Chief Division Fire Chief Division Fire Chief Division Fire Chief Asst City Attorney Mgr Water Supply Supv Coliseum Maint Mgr Planning Fire Marshal Mgr Technical Svcs

$99,252 $99,252 $99,159 $98,679 $98,465 $97,343 $96,536 $95,955 $95,788 $95,576 $95,567 $95,000 $94,342 $94,058 $93,737 $91,847 $91,752 $91,234 $91,038 $90,937 $90,839 $90,418 $90,418 $90,418 $89,789 $89,722 $89,420 $88,633 $88,218 $88,097

Munro, Ute Schweitzer, Matthew Williams, Stephen Sigmon, Renae Richey, Mike Averett, Steven Williams, Kristine Church, Dwayne Barnes, Shon Cranford, Joel Culler, Richard Jutte, Mary McCray, Ednasha Franks, Jonathan Williams, Elijah Davis, Jonathan Gunter, Jerry Phlegar, David Walker, Aimee Brown, Tiffany Cockburn, Johanna Thompson, Larry Graves, William Henley, Patrick Groome, Martha Adcock, Kevin Adams, Bruce Blue, Cynthia Spillman, Claudia Vann, Colleen

Mgr Business Ctr Mgr Safety & Health Mgr Forensics Svcs Police Capt Police Capt Mgr GIS & Spec Proj Mgr Business Ctr Division Fire Chief Police Capt Police Capt Police Capt Mgr Contact Ctr Sr Mgr P&R Police Capt Mgr Water Reclamation Engr Sr Ntwrk System Mgr Equip Svcs Mgr Stormwtr Mgr Sys & Apps Dev Mgr Org Dev & Trng Mgr Community Planning Police Capt Police Lt Division Fire Chief Supv Industrial Waste Svcs Supv Total Comp Mgr Public Transit Mgr Community Planning Mgr Wtr Rec Engrng Mgr Coliseum Busin Office

$88,038 $87,902 $87,605 $87,151 $87,021 $87,020 $86,684 $86,580 $86,562 $86,562 $86,562 $86,247 $85,272 $85,224 $85,101 $85,000 $84,788 $84,714 $84,704 $84,604 $84,485 $84,107 $83,595 $83,304 $83,274 $83,074 $82,904 $82,861 $82,754 $82,742

Davis, Nathaniel Police Capt McAdoo-Rogers, Pam Police Capt Mullinax, Joseph Supv Engineering Biffle, Teresa Police Capt Thompson, John Police Capt Strachan, Vanessa Admin ERP Braman, Susan Mgr Aquatic Ctr Iddyadinesh, Sagar Admin Dbase Lewis, Michael Mgr Devp Svcs Steber, James Mgr Right of Way Maint Gladieux, Sean Police Capt Johnson, Roberta Mgr Treasury Reeves, Carrie Supv Engineering Hicks, Darrell Supt Treatment Plant Nunn, Robert Supv Law & Comp Terry, Michael Police Capt Lamb, Glenn Mgr GM911 Support Svcs Carter, Stephen Mgr Transp Business Annambhotla, Nagesh Analyst Principal Jernigan, Jason Mgr Solid Waste Disposal Overman, Bruce Engineer Sr Civil Fleischmann, Phillip Mgr Community Rec Svcs Gladieux, Jill Police Lt Brown, Terrell Supv Apps Develop Gray, Donna Mgr Community Relations Moore, James Police Lt Salava, Amy Mgr Career Strategies Smith, Brad Battalion Fire Chief Kimmel, Jolyon Police Lt Danielsen, Susan Police Info Officer Johannesen, Robert Battalion Fire Chief Kirkman, Michael Mgr Planning Edwards, Daniel Battalion Fire Chief

(continued on page 12)

$82,710 $82,710 $82,464 $82,423 $82,350 $82,310 $82,034 $81,782 $81,724 $81,072 $81,062 $81,012 $80,973 $80,907 $80,552 $80,397 $80,393 $79,783 $79,620 $79,263 $78,805 $78,629 $78,513 $78,458 $78,423 $78,372 $78,296 $77,948 $77,361 $77,296 $77,256 $77,168 $76,969

12 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

salaries

(continued from page 11)

Holder, Leslie Gerald, Brent Weaver, Brandan Davis, Darrin Zimmerman, Steven Briggs, Jon Eanes, Robert Laszlo, Daniel Tuttle, Anthony Cross, Rickey Lambert, Willliam Evans, Christopher Knott, Daniel Addertion, William Van Wert, William Conway, Deniece McIntyre, Lydia Raines, John Williams, Chad Galanti, Steven Williams, Tonya Smith, Craig King, Melinda Johnson, James Lovett, Richard Boggs, James Gossett, Alex Lynch, Todd Rankin, Norman

Police Lt Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Police Lt Battalion Fire Chief Engineer Utility Design Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Supv Engineering Admin Dbase Police Lt Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Supv Engineering Engineer Sr Civil Police Lt Police Lt Mgr Planning Mgr Budget Ops Battalion Fire Chief Supv Engineering Admin ERP Mgr Env Svcs Support Battalion Fire Chief Battalion Fire Chief Deputy Fire Marshal Police Sgt

$76,962 $76,869 $76,713 $76,569 $76,562 $76,552 $76,447 $76,284 $76,284 $76,128 $76,118 $75,914 $75,897 $75,738 $75,738 $75,650 $75,642 $75,592 $75,592 $75,539 $75,460 $75,348 $75,015 $75,000 $75,000 $74,958 $74,958 $74,958 $74,910

Barwick, Allen Brown, Curtis Swilley, Kevin Taylor, Burnice Swann, Tasha Stephens, Deborah Fogleman, David Holloman, Edgar Pitts, Lisa Daniel, Mark Ortega, David Cudd, Robert Schultheis, Chris Chandler, Kevin Young, Gregory Schneier, Jennifer Wray, Christopher Patterson, Larry Brown, Terence Mardis, Stephanie Randall, Stephen Moore, Christine Haynie, Harold Inscore, Brandon Hart, Carol Bald, Robert Register, Julius Lindemeyer, Nancy Fiscus, Larry

Police Lt $74,879 Battalion Fire Chief $74,710 Supv Workforce Analytics $74,514 Mgr ND Admin $74,512 Admin Ntwrk Security $74,448 Supv Total Comp $74,417 Engineer Sr Civil $74,136 Supt Facilities Maint $74,071 Mgr Graphics Svs $74,012 Apps Developer Sr $73,933 Engineer Sr Civil $73,921 Deputy Fire Marshal $73,905 Police Lt $73,751 Police Sgt $73,548 Police Sgt $73,548 Associate City Attorney $73,539 Battalion Fire Chief $73,515 Police Lt $73,321 Police Lt $73,171 Police Lt $73,171 Energy Mgt Engineer $73,153 Mgr Emerg Comm Adm/Ops $73,045 Fire Capt $73,023 Supv Crime Analysis $72,691 Mgr Museum $72,667 Supv Engineering $72,569 Supv Plans Review $72,545 Mgr Field Ops Admin/Comm $72,223 Police Sgt $72,186

Schettino, Michael Police Sgt Lee, Yao Apps Developer Sr Sovich, Jeffrey Planner Senior Gardner, Gregory Police Lt Arkin, Dyan Planner Senior Johnson, Christopher Battalion Fire Chief Shumate, Bradley Battalion Fire Chief Williams, James Battalion Fire Chief Arnold, Gary Fire Capt Wood, Joel Fire Capt Childress, Teresa Mgr Collections Walton, Ryan Police Lt Simpson, Michael Spec Park Svcs Supt Moore, Stephanie Admin Police Fiscal Mgt Millikan, William Supt Fire Equip Maint Ingle, Guy Engineer Civil Stephenson, Gary Engineer Civil Shandor, Marie Supv Lab Carroll, Kenneth Coord Construct Projects Hayes, Todd Analyst GIS Brande, Randall Fire Capt Oakley, Clifford Fire Capt Cowhig, James Planner Senior Duncan, Philip Mgr Booking Hicks-Few, Maria Consultant II HR Smith, Patrick Supt Utilities Maint Courts, Darrell Fire Capt Freeman, Christopher Analyst GIS Wallen, Raymond Supt Treatment Plant Crotts, Susan Mgr Central Contracting Div Pyrtle, Ricky Spec Automated Sys Ctrl Golden, James Police Lt Moore, Thomas Police Lt

$72,186 $72,178 $72,173 $71,958 $71,920 $71,760 $71,760 $71,760 $71,690 $71,690 $71,681 $71,645 $71,582 $71,255 $71,121 $71,117 $70,968 $70,908 $70,814 $70,808 $70,623 $70,623 $70,593 $70,467 $70,438 $70,421 $70,358 $70,176 $70,000 $69,919 $69,914 $69,687 $69,687

(continued on page 16)

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

schools (continued from page 8)

“which really tells you all you would need to know.” Conrad added that some other counties were moving in that direction as well. Duncan said school officials had been doing things like replacing oldstyle lighting with LED bulbs, but he added that a radical new school model was a major undertaking that presents a host of concerns. “We have looked at it; we routinely look at it,” Duncan said. “I know you are actively in support of it. We haven’t quite found a place where it seems like that would work, but we’re looking at it.” Perdue asked if schools had put the proper emphasis on student needs given the shifting nature of the economy. He asked if the schools were providing more vocational training for students and offering industry certifications that will open up opportunities for them as soon as they graduate. “We have a very robust program,” Carr said of vocational training. “We can always do more.” Henning said that, given the school officials talk about the difficulty of filling positions at current pay rates, he wondered if there was not some savings due to high vacancies. “Is there a dollar amount that you guys can’t spend just because you don’t have the personnel for it?” he asked. He said he realized it sounded like a “loaded question,” but added that he didn’t intend it that way. School officials said that, despite some trouble filling vacancies, the requested funds were needed. Some commissioners have that said over the years that they suspect school officials “warehouse money,” and some of the questions they asked at the work session were related to those concerns. Phillips pointed out that there are millions of dollars left in the school’s capital fund while the current fiscal year is coming to a close. He said complaints come in all the time about school facilities, and the school board is asking the county for more capital funds, but millions of dollars are just sitting in that fund. “What I’m concerned about is that here we are in June, and there are unspent dollars,” Phillips said. “Talk to us about why that is. There seems to be a disconnect. How do 127 campuses, even during the school year, not expend those dollars for all kinds of things?”

Duncan replied that the schools do keep a “very thin fund balance” on hand in order to be prepared for unforeseen events. He said the school system, despite having some capital funds in reserve, is still “not well situated” in that regard. He said a major fire that destroyed Eastern Guilford High School 10 years ago really drove that message home to county school officials. He said that that 2006 fire and a recent fire were real life examples of why the schools had to have money on hand for a “truly unexpected event.” Duncan added that a lot of the major capital work for the school system is done when kids are out on summer break. “We are always trying to do some of these over the summer,” Duncan said. “We also don’t try to spend money just to justify a budget for the following year.” Phillips said the comments he’s been hearing from parents and students has to do with maintenance issues right now, and he expressed concerns over whether the schools were using the maintenance dollars that they do get wisely. He said he knows the school officials are “juggling a lot of pieces,” but that the Board of Commissioners wanted to know that those dollars were directed toward projects where they were needed. “I don’t know all the answers but I don’t think that’s happening in a satisfactory way,” Phillips said. Phillips said there has, for instance, been a lot of publicity about needs at Grimsley High School and Page High School yet the schools still have a lot of money in the bank. Duncan replied, “Grimsley and Page are in real need – and we have 125 other schools, and they are pointing out the need for their schools as well.” Duncan added that parents also often question why schools are working on an athletic facility rather than a classroom, when there are classrooms that need repairs. “You try to balance those,” Duncan said. On another matter, Branson wondered if the schools might meet their need for bus drivers – and reduce costs as well – by hiring teenage drivers like schools did in the olden days. “A few of us around the table remember when teenagers drove the buses,” Branson said. “I don’t think

we really had a lot more trouble with employment back then in the ’70s and ’80s. Do you have any students driving the buses?” School officials didn’t seem thrilled with the idea of having students drive the buses and they said that changes in laws and an increased age limit on commercial driver’s licenses would likely prevent a return to the days of the ’70s in that respect. At the meeting, Phillips asked if the schools had considered consolidating facilities and getting rid of some aging buildings. He said that’s something the commissioners have been doing with the county’s property over the past several years. Duncan said the school system had done a study on facility use and some viable suggestions had come from it but there had not been time to act on it. The school board chairman said one consideration before making any major moves was the desire to wait for a new superintendent, who would no doubt want to play a role in that process. Earlier this year, former Superintendent of Guilford County Schools Mo Green left that position to head up the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem. “Closing schools, as you likely know, is a very difficult issue and there’s some debate whether it’s worth the turmoil,” Duncan said. “It’s very upsetting to the community and I think for good reason.” Carr also said that the schools are waiting for a new superintendent for heading in a new major direction. She said the schools’ current strategic plan finishes out in December 2016. “Normally, we would have already been engaged with the next strategic plan process,” Carr said. Phillips thanked the school leaders for their input and cautioned them that the county’s debt spike from school bonds and other debt was going to be significant this year and in the following years. He said the board had been working hard to both pay off that increasing debt and provide services to citizens. Phillips said he realizes that the schools have pressing needs despite a large balance on the capital account. “I don’t doubt that you could spend $5 million in 30 days,” Phillips said. “In 30 minutes,” Duncan corrected, earning laughter from those in the room. Duncan added quickly as a point of clarification, “Responsibly, responsibly.”

14 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

trump

(continued from page 2) crowd wasn’t familiar with their videos and didn’t know what to expect, but once Diamond and Silk got rolling, the crowd got into it. But the people in the stands and crowded on to the floor were there to see the presumptive Republican nominee, and Trump was Trump. People have grown tired of political correctness and Trump is nothing if not politically incorrect. He doesn’t talk like a politician, he doesn’t act like a politician, and that seems to be one of the major complaints against him. He appears to say what he thinks and politicians are not supposed to do that. They are supposed to say what they have been told by the pollsters and highly paid speechwriters to say. Trump clearly doesn’t do that and so far it has worked well for him. As he noted, he received more votes in the primary than any presidential candidate in the history of the Republican Party – a feat that is more impressive when you consider that he started out running against 16 other candidates, most with far more political experience.

North Carolina NASCAR legend Richard Petty came out on the stage shortly after Trump and gave Trump a hug. Petty is no stranger to politics; he served as a Randolph County commissioner and made a run for North Carolina secretary of state. Petty didn’t speak, but he didn’t need to. In the Republican Party, the voters in state after state voted for Trump over tried and true politicians, demonstrating they want to try something new. By contrast, in the Democratic Party the voters chose Hillary Clinton, who has been on the national political scene for 25 years. Trump said that President Barack Obama, when speaking about the mass killing in Orlando, seemed more angry at him than at the Orlando killer. In watching Obama speak, Trump seemed to be right. Trump talked about the shooting in Orlando and said, “We can’t let this happen anymore. We can’t be led by weak, ineffective leaders.” Although Trump has been blasted in the media for his proposed ban on Muslim immigrants, he didn’t talk

about a ban on Muslim immigrants but a ban on immigrants from countries with terrorist links and where it is impossible for the US to properly vet the immigrants. He said the terrorists “hate gays, women, Jews, Christians, everybody.” And asked, “How does that kind of immigration help this country?” Trump noted that “crooked Hillary” had accepted $25 million from a country that is oppressive to gay people, oppressive to women and oppressive to everybody. Trump said that Hillary Clinton wants to increase the immigration from Syria by what he thought was 500 percent but was corrected by the media who said it was 550 percent. Trump said it would cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars to allow that type of immigration and added, “We don’t know who these people are.” The mainstream media may think that cutting back on immigration from Middle Eastern countries that sponsor terrorism is a bad idea, but the crowd didn’t. He said that Hillary Clinton “kind of, sort of used the term radical Islamic terrorist” because he goaded her into it. And he added, “We have a radical Islamic terrorist problem.”

As he usually does, Trump pointed to the media area and called them “Those dishonest people in the back.” He bragged about taking away the campaign press credentials from The Washington Post and said he didn’t see any reason why he should help them with VIP treatment when they were going to be so dishonest about him. And Trump talked about his wall. He said, “If we don’t have borders we don’t have a country.” The crowd responded with a “Build that Wall” chant. Talking about his decision to run for president, Trump said, “I didn’t want to do this, folks. I would have been very happy if Obama has been a great president, but he has been one hell of a lousy president. He has done a terrible job.” Trump knows something about negotiations and talked about how the US sends political flacks out to negotiate with the best negotiators other countries have, which is one reason we end up with such bad deals. He said the US has the best negotiators in the world and he would use them. He said he couldn’t believe that Secretary of State John Kerry never

(continued on page 26)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

UNCLE ORSON Reviews

AAF TANK MUSEUM

Uncle Orson Reviews Everything

by Orson Scott Card Those little airplane pillows have always been worse than useless. A rectangular pillow does what, exactly? If you put it behind your head, it pushes your head forward. Since the seats barely recline in economy class, that means that when you try to lie back, the pillow thwarts you. So if you’re by the window, you try to put the pillow between your head and the side of the airplane. How long does that work? Not very long before the pillow slides down or back. Your lucky if you can catch it against your shoulder to sort of prop it up for maybe a 10-minute catnap. Eventually, though, it’s going to end up in your lap – or on the floor behind your seat. More than two decades ago, I bought my first horseshoe-shaped airplane pillow. It was inflatable, so I could pack it in my carry-on, then blow it up and drape it around my neck, across my shoulders. It stayed in place. But since it was rubberized or plastic or some other airtight material, it was neither absorbent nor cool. In other words, if I actually fell asleep wearing it, my neck and cheeks dripped with sweat – and my shirt collar could have watered a houseplant. Then I had to open the valve and squeeze out as much air as possible before tucking the pillow back into my bag. Was it Brookstone or some other company that first popped up with the soft-fabric, absorbent padded neck pillow? I saw it in an airport, bought it and tried it out on the next leg of my journey. Then I threw away my old inflatable pillow. The problem now was not inflation and deflation. This pillow stayed the same size. It came in a convenient zippered plastic carrying case, which was not at all convenient, and I ended

up carrying the pillow onto planes in a canvas tote bag. Since I invariably leave on flights with only a couple of hours of sleep the night before, in-flight sleeping is a necessity, and those horseshoeshaped padded pillows saved my neck. Literally. But let’s face it. Carrying it as my “personal bag” – the equivalent of a woman’s purse, which can be brought on the plane along with a laptop bag or other carry-on – meant that I couldn’t carry anything else. So I’d jam in a couple of bottles of Hint Water that I bought once I had passed security, along with a bag of M&Ms or pretzels and maybe a book and ... very soon there wasn’t room for everything I thought I needed. A couple of weeks ago, I caught an ad on Facebook for a travel pillow that calls itself TRTL. When you read it aloud, it’s supposed to sound like “turtle.” In use, it looks like a scarf. But inside that absorbent soft scarf, there’s some structure — a somewhat flexible but mostly rigid plastic frame. The frame rests on one of your shoulders, and when you rock your head slightly to that side, it holds your head up without any effort from you. That means you can sleep with your head tilted to the side, no matter which seat you’re in. On that horrible flight from Singapore to Djakarta, where I was almost screaming with sleepiness and the flight attendant would not let me tilt my seat back even the three centimeters that was all the movement it could do, because the passenger behind me needed to eat his leisurely banquet, composed of “food,” without my seat back getting in his way, I could have used the TRTL Travel Pillow because it works even when your seat isn’t reclined. In fact it simply works. You look like you’re feeling a bit of a chill and you’ve wrapped a scarf around

your neck. But it’s as if an EMT had wrapped your neck in a plastic brace to keep you from injuring yourself. That’s how firmly you’re supported. And yet it’s comfortable enough that you can sleep. No, let me be specific: It’s comfortable enough that I can sleep. You can order the Trtl NapScarf Pillow from Brookstone.com, or the Trtl Neck Pillow from Amazon.com. Or thegrommet.com. Just Google Trtl Neck Pillow and you can even order it from various outlets in Britain. It costs $30 from Amazon or Brookstone. But if you try it, I think you’ll find that you won’t use it only on plane trips. Because if there’s any place where sleep is even more difficult than on an airplane – and yet more desirable – it’s on a car trip. Hours and hours and hours of sitting. Yet you have the same pillow problem as on planes – rectangular pillows don’t stay put, and in a car, the back seats probably don’t recline. (Not in the kind of car I can afford, (continued on page 16)

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uncle orson (continued from page 15)

anyway.) So maybe the next time you plan a family car trip to some place of nearlunar remoteness, like the West Coast or the Outer Banks or, you know, Maine, you might want to consider the price of enough TRTL neck pillows for all your passengers as one of the expenses of the trip. Especially you need one for the adult who’s going to spell you off when you get tired. Doesn’t that person need to get as rested as possible, so you can get a nice long nap with your TRTL pillow when it’s your turn to sleep? Look, this isn’t going to replace your bed pillow, ever. But when you have to try to sleep sitting up, I’ve never found a solution half as good. And while it doesn’t fold up as snug as my old inflatable pillow, it takes up way less room than the U-shaped pillows of the past couple of decades.

....

salaries

I believe that on Uncle Orson’s Weirdness Meter, the strangest movie ever made may well be The Lobster. Writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos has created a sci-fi social commentary about a society in which people are required to pair up, and if, after a reasonable amount of time, they remain alone, they will undergo an operation in which they are permanently converted into an animal of their choosing. Most people choose dogs. There are goats, donkeys, horses, birds. David (Colin Farrell) has chosen, if he fails to find a mate to replace his erstwhile wife, to be turned into a lobster. The reason seems to be that he really is a loner by disposition, and by choosing a lobster, he expects to be left alone to live a long, contented life Under the Sea. (Cue music. No, wait ... this isn’t a Disney musical.) The movie opens with a grimly determined woman driving out into the countryside, where she locates

a particular donkey and shoots it with a pistol. Apparently, divorce wasn’t enough for her, and she had managed to track down her ex. David checks into a sort of matefinding resort, where very strict rules are enforced by the hotel staff. They seem to think that the inmates need instruction and encouragement to get their mating drive on. If a couple form an attachment, they are immediately set apart from the loners; to help them develop an even stronger love, they may be supplied with a child. Their last test or training ground is a fortnight on a yacht. Everyone seems to labor under the delusion that attachments can only form between people who are alike in some significant way. For instance, there’s an attractive young woman who gets nosebleeds. The man who fancies her bashes his face into things until his nose bleeds so that she’ll think he has her same nosebleed tendency. This fakery forms the basis of a bond between them. All of these things, weird as they are, seem intended to shine a spotlight on our own society, on the

(continued from page 12)

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perpetual drive for everyone to pair up. In service of this goal, many people do attempt to deceive each other into thinking that they’re they ideal mate for their lover-of-choice. And those who fail to pair up – or simply prefer not to – are often treated as if they were not worthy of full personhood. The Lobster, for all its programmed oddness, is a love story, though it feels as though the movie is half over before we even meet David’s love interest – a woman who shares his nearsightedness (Rachel Weisz). Meanwhile, they have both become involved with a group of illegal loners, who refuse to pair up and refuse to renounce their personhood. This group is every bit as restrictive and perhaps a little more cruel than the hotel staff. By the end, it’s hard to decode just what Yorgos Lanthimos means by all this. I suspect that, despite all his intentions to make a satire on our society’s mating customs, he fell in love with David and his nearsighted beloved, so in the end, his story becomes a tale of just how far

(continued on page 22)

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Hot summer days have arrived, so here are some ideas that can help cool your house and reduce your electric bill. If you’re fortunate enough to have trees that shade your house, you already know that they help keep you house cool in summer by reducing the impact of the sun’s

(continued on page 18)

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The New York Times

crossword puzzle No. 0605 WORD SEARCH

BY TOM MCCOY / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ 20

ACROSS

1 “Shucks!” 7 They might be covered on your first day of employment 13 Only a second ago 20 Ones with good poker faces? 21 Charm City ballplayer 22 With a leg on either side of 23 Where you can find … “jacket” or “yourself”? 25 “Yay!” 26 Lentil or coconut 27 Chinese philosophy 28 Student’s saver 29 Plus 31 … “go” or “so”? 37 … “anybody” or “cooking”? 44 Dog holder 45 A.F.L.-____ 46 “Over here!” 47 “Aww”-inspiring 49 Muhammad’s birthplace 51 Lover boy 52 Like Fermat’s last theorem, eventually 53 Much appreciated 54 They decide what’s fair 55 Oteri of “S.N.L.” 56 Material in mitochondria Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 4,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

59 Acclaims 60 Issuer of IDs: Abbr. 61 Shade 62 Its material is not hard 64 ____-gritty 65 … “got” or “tell”? 69 Result of hitting the bar? 71 “The price we pay for love,” per Queen Elizabeth II 72 Goddess who gained immortality for her lover but forgot to ask for eternal youth (whoops!) 73 Flirtatious wife in “Of Mice and Men” 76 They stand up in their bed 77 Kind of gift 78 Sports-team bigwig 81 Cash register 82 Like the installments of “A Tale of Two Cities” 83 “Ver-r-ry funny!” 85 Abu ____ 86 Obliterate 87 Suspenseful sound 90 ____ Finnigan, friend of Harry Potter 91 Contraction missing aV 92 Kind of verb: Abbr. 93 … “two” or “face”? 95 … “building” or “hours”? 100 Flames that have gone out? 101 Assist in crime 102 Indian spice mix

107 Things you may dispense with? 110 Take over for 113 … “that’s” or “special”? 116 “That much is clear” 117 Pays for the meal 118 Stay cheerful despite adversity 119 Back entrance 120 Jellyfish relatives named for a mythological monster 121 Private property? DOWN

1 Woof 2 “____ your daddy?” 3 River that flows south to north 4 Sets free into the world 5 “Ta-ta!” 6 Directional abbr. 7 “____ Nox” (Mozart title meaning “good night”) 8 Greek vessel 9 Enthusiastic Spanish assent 10 Debt docs 11 Scale 12 Collection 13 Chin former 14 “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” singer, 2010 15 Women’s retro accessory 16 Offensive poster 17 Small bite 18 Part of the classic Chinese work “Shih Ching”

19 Puny 24 “Was ____ hard on them?” 30 “____ Lat” (traditional Polish song) 32 Subside 33 Opposite of -less 34 Paranormal 35 Fine point 36 Provokes 37 Persian Empire founder 38 Impends 39 ____-Loompa (Willy Wonka employee) 40 Fictional braggart 41 The “O” of B.O. 42 Setting for a watch? 43 “We’ll teach you to drink deep ____ you depart”: Hamlet 48 Et cetera 49 Certain racy magazines 50 Lift 52 “Glad that’s done!” 53 Street-fair participant 55 “Aww”-inspiring 57 Empire State sch. 58 Org. with an emergency number 61 Razz, as a speaker 63 What the pros say 65 Hesitates 66 Default avatar for a new Twitter user 67 Reconstruction, for one 68 Contraction missing aV 69 From both sides, in a way

23 26 29 37

65 69

68 72 78 83

92 96

59 64

85 90

89 94

101 111

100

102 103 104 105 106

112

107

113

114

116

117

118

119

120

121

70 Songs of praise 73 City whose name looks like it could mean “my friend” 74 Track holder? 75 A Beethoven piece was für her 76 Win every game 79 Exhilarated cry 80 ____ cabbage 81 “End of discussion”

110

84 Botanist Gray 85 “A man can be destroyed but not ____”: Hemingway 87 Age for a quinceañera 88 “… ____ quit!” 89 “The Silmarillion” creature 90 Red ____

94 Newspaper V.I.P. Baquet 96 Pollute 97 Too big for one’s britches, say? 98 Hotheadedness? 99 Disposable board 103 Let go 104 Twinkler 105 Lead-in to boy 106 Something to mourn

108 109 115

108 Red giant in Cetus 109 Cozy 110 Rend 111 “The Name of the Rose” novelist 112 “____ Meninas” (Velázquez painting) 113 Highest degree 114 ____-Wan Kenobi 115 Family docs

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cool

(continued from page 17)

rays. But there are other ways to keep the summer sun from heating up your home. Installing awnings on south and westfacing windows can help reduce solar heat by up to 77 percent according to the US Department of Energy. Exterior shutters can also help reduce heat gain and loss, as well as providing a security feature. High-reflective window films can be put on the windows that get the most sun. The mirror-like film reflects the sunâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rays, helping to keep the house cool. Light-colored draperies that reflect the sun can also help when they are kept closed during the hottest part of the day. By keeping drapes, curtains and blinds closed on hot sunny days, an air conditioner doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to work as hard to keep the house cool, and that helps save money. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to keep an airconditioning unit in shape. Manufacturers recommend having them inspected and tuned up each spring. And donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t forget to change the filter. A dirty filter makes the unit work harder and use more electricity. The coils on an outdoor unit should also be kept free of dirt and grass clippings. And itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best to have an outside unit placed in a shady spot, although be sure not to block the airflow. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a good idea to check the weather stripping around doors and windows for tears and worn edges. It can deteriorate over time and lose its effectiveness. When properly sealed,

the stripping keeps the cool air in and the hot air out. Consider using a programmable thermostat, raising the houseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s temperature when at work or away. Then it can be set to lower the temperature about a half-hour before you plan to return. Fans can often be used instead of air conditioning at night, drawing in cool air from outside as well as circulating it in the home. And fans are useful whether the air conditioning is on or not. During the day, position a fan so you can feel the air moving will help you feel cooler. And for an extra chilling effect, putting a bowl of ice water in front of the fan will cool down the moving air. Ceiling fans also help circulate the air in a home. Just be sure that they are properly set for the season. In summer, the fan should be pushing the air down. The part of the blade that is angled higher should be moving forward first. This allows the back end of the blade to push the air down toward you. Some other ideas to help keep your home cooler and reduce your electric bill during the summer include turning off unneeded lights; using the clothes dryer only at night or early morning; cooking with a microwave, crockpot or outdoor grill instead of the oven or stove; replacing incandescent light bulbs with CFL and LED bulbs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; incandescent bulbs also give off heat; and reducing heat output by turning off appliances such as your computer and TV when not using them â&#x20AC;&#x201C; youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll save money too.

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The Sound of the

beep

What follows has been transcribed from the answering machine on our comment line. We edit out what is required by the laws of the state, of good taste and of good sense. The limit on phone calls is one minute and each caller may make up to two calls per week. If you have something to say, call our comment line at 763-0479 and start talking at The Sound of the Beep. In Islam, martyrs are those who die while trying to implement the path of Allah. They are given immediate atonement for all their sins with the first drop of their blood. They are free from the tribulations of the grave, and they are honored as royalty, and they get to marry 72 virgins from paradise. One of Islam’s traditions is that in paradise each man would have only one wife while the righteous would have two wives, and martyrs, they would get 72 virgins. Oh, what great joy. Apparently, all the perks were too much. So killing the innocent people is not a sin to them. What fools we have in our government taking up for these people, like Obama and Hillary, and the rest of the knuckleheads we have up there in the White House.

%%% Yeah, I went to Ragsdale graduation for Guilford County at the Coliseum Complex. Did you know it cost $20 to park there? That’s unbelievable. Apparently, we were originally told there wouldn’t be a parking fee. Pulled up to the gate and spent $20. This is no joke. They charged the car behind me, and the car behind me $20 each. We paid $60 to go to the graduation, because we had to pay $20 a car just to get in. What a mess. The Coliseum really ripped us off, didn’t they? No wonder they want to have the graduations there. They charge $20 to everybody for parking.

%%% President Obama campaigning for Hillary Clinton. Why is he doing that? Who is paying his salary to campaign for Hillary Clinton? He gets in that big old bird and flies around. How many thousands of dollars does it cost the taxpayers for that? That ain’t right. He shouldn’t be campaigning for nobody. He should be running the country, not running for Hillary Clinton. And, whatever. I just think it’s wrong. And I know this probably won’t go no further. But, anyway, just my voice. And I appreciate it. Thank you.

%%% It’s about 12:36, Friday, June 10. About 10 minutes ago I turned on to Alamance Church Road off Hope Church Road, and the police was sitting at that little store. I went on. The speed limit is 45. He come up behind me. I went 45. Then went to 55. He went up to 50. When I got to 50 he passed me like a bat out of hades. I ain’t seen him since. What gives him the right to break the law is what I want to know? I’d like for the chief of police to read this. I mean, he ought to know where his men is at at this time of day and what day it is. I’d like to know why they can do it. He had to be running 65 to 70 miles an hour in a residential zone. Thank you.

%%% I’m 81, and I follow the news religiously. I would like to have been standing in the crowd when Hillary Rodham Clinton said, wouldn’t you like to see a woman president in your lifetime? I’d like to holler out, if her name is Hillary Rodham Clinton I wouldn’t. What we want to know is, what all them 13 calls is made from Stevens over at Benghazi, and you didn’t get the message. If you didn’t get his message, maybe you’d get mine.

%%% Yes, I just got a question in regards to the person who submitted a call in regards to the bathroom law saying it really affects the poor and the black people. I’ve got a question for you, sir or madam. Where do you get this

(continued on page 22)

tax cut

(continued from page 5) market. The anticipated budget also includes $100,000 for the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance, $100,000 for the Greensboro Partnership and $100,000 for High Point Economic Development Corp. Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) would get an increase of $300,000 in 2016-2017, which would put the total amount of GTCC funding at $14.6 million, and would keep the amount of money the county gives GTCC for maintenance and repair at the same level as the 2015-2016 budget, which is $1.5 million. In the area of public safety, the new budget is expected to add two “community paramedics” positions that are being funded by Cone Health and Triad Healthcare Inc. Those workers conduct home visits and offer medical management of cases to reduce the need for follow up medical care at emergency rooms and hospitals. The budget the board is expected to approve Thursday night calls for

an increase in mental health services in the county’s two jails to the tune of $177,000, and there’s $666,000 in the budget to buy new vehicles for the county’s fleet. The budget would reduce the county’s spending on elections by $383,000 due to fewer elections in 2016-2017. The Republicans might get some support from Democratic commissioners and make passage of the budget a bipartisan act. Commissioner Kay Cashion said she was listening to what the Republicans had to say. In some cases, whether or not the board gets one of more Democratic votes might come down to final tweaks that happen before the vote on Thursday, June 16. Commissioner Ray Trapp said he was considering whether or not vote for the budget. He said he was still learning exactly what the Republicans were going to present.

22 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

uncle orson (continued from page 15)

we’ll go, or won’t go, to become or remain worthy of the one we love. I’m with him on that. I also came to care far more than I expected, and I liked this movie kind of a lot – the way I liked Adam Sandler’s turn in Punch Drunk Love. I don’t expect anybody I know to like it as much as I do. In fact, since I saw this with my wife and daughter, I happily report that my daughter was quite iffy about the film, but seemed to lean toward liking it. Whereas my wife hated, hated, hated it. I have never seen her emerge from a film we watched all the way through with quite such an adamant hatred for what she has just seen. Years ago, when I thought Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was the best movie of its year, I warned the readers of this column that this was going to be a minority taste, that many of the events would be inexplicable and that most people would probably hate the movie or at least be confused by it. Even with that warning, when my wife and I went back to see it again (this one my wife liked as much as I did), a fellow audience member, apparently a reader of this column, made it a point to say, quite loudly,

as she passed me: “This is the worst movie I’ve ever seen.” I assumed she was annoyed with me for raving about the movie. But I warned her. It’s not my fault if she didn’t heed my warning. So I’m warning you now, and please pay attention: Most people will hate this movie. But if you think satirical views of our society are interesting, even when they’re extravagantly odd, then you’ll be rewarded with some marvelous performances by many actors, especially Colin Farrell, who gained a lot of weight to play this schlub of a character. (I must confess right now that I would have to lose about 80 pounds to be as out-of-shape as Colin Farrell is in this role; his schlub body is the one I aspire to achieve.) The filming is beautifully matter-offact, and there’s a lot of pleasure in spotting various animals scattered throughout the scenery, every one of them, presumably, a person who failed to come to an arrangement with a love interest before the deadline. The movie has its rewards. It does make you think about how it is we go about forming attachments. All the awkward social rituals, like dances

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(continued from page 21) from? Because how in the world are you getting out of that it affects the poor and the black people? Actually, if we didn’t have the law, that would actually affect our children in many ways than one, because that would just open up another door for someone to come in and mess with our kids. So, think about it. That law that we have in place is actually a good law and needs to stay for the protection of not only our children but our rights to privacy as citizens. Think about it.

is in bad shape. Japan, financially terrible shape. Europe wasn’t doing too bad; and then they decided to get diverse and bringing every Muslim, and now they’re going to go broke. So, it’s going to be a rough slog, and I don’t think we can finagle our way out. Obama has taken it to almost $20 trillion. I think it was $9 trillion when he took office. So, stock up on your food. Your money isn’t going to be worth spit before long.

%%%

Yes, taxpayer here in Greensboro. If you want to know how a dishonest City Council acts, this is what you do. You get a four-year term approved. Then you give yourself a 60 percent raise. Then you’re allowed to quit your jobs. Then you fight the states to the tune of $300,000 of taxpayers’ money to keep true redistricting out so you can keep your jobs the way they are

I was listening to a show on 94.5 on Saturday morning, and the gentleman in charge of the show had some pretty sobering information. It’s about our debt. We owe over $19 trillion that we hopelessly can’t pay. All of the student loan system debt that’s over $1.4 trillion. It’s probably a trillion of that will never be paid back. And other countries, China,

and other activities, are so hopelessly inadequate to meet someone you might actually like that you begin to wonder how anybody ever falls in love at all. It makes you think. And in my case, it also made me feel. So for people with my level of tolerance for significant weirdness and intellectual pretentiousness in film, The Lobster is spot on. But if the Fast & Furious or X-Men franchises have the kinds of human relationships you’re more interested in, this movie is going to have you wishing for death if you can’t get out of the theater right now. And I’m not disrespecting Fast & Furious. I’ve never seen any of that franchise in a theater, but I’ve watched a couple of them now (most recently #6, the one with the huge airplane that luckily finds a 20-milelong runway so there’s room to do all their stunts as the plane manages a 15-minute touch-and-go passenger pickup) and I really liked them. So it’s not that I have some kind of rarefied taste in films. I like regular movies as well as weird ones. The Lobster is weird. I warned you. It’s playing at the Red Cinemas. Make sure to catch it soon, because I doubt it will be in the theater for long. And when it makes it onto cable TV, I don’t expect it to go into heavy rotation there, either. Wherever it goes, it’s going to be a minority taste.

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(continued on page 24)

Owen Gleiberman, for many years the lead film critic for Entertainment Weekly, has written a memoir of how movie-watching has formed one of the main threads of his life. I found his book, Movie Freak: My Life Watching Movies, to be compulsively readable. Gleiberman is astonishingly candid, and seems not to have pulled any punches in his writing about his friends, rivals, bosses, co-workers and foes in the world of film criticism. Now, I’m a reviewer, but unlike Gleiberman, my income does not depend on whether an editor likes my reviews. I’m not paid for writing for the Rhino, and while our fearless editors do not simply print whatever I turn in, if they fired me I wouldn’t have either a financial or an identity crisis. In fact, by Gleiberman’s standards, I’m a mere dilettante at best, not even up to the level of a Yelp reviewer, because they have to be concise and I do not. Of course, by the end of his memoir, as Entertainment Weekly parts company with Gleiberman, he reports the pleasure he gets from the freeform extravagance that’s possible when discussing films on

the web. So ... maybe he wouldn’t despise the kind of thing I do. Yeah, he would. Because, even though I’ve paid close attention to movies since I was little, I had almost an opposite take on everything. Gleiberman first fell in love with crappy horror movies on late-night television, back in the pre-streaming, pre-cable, pre-DVD, pre-VCR days when you watched what was on and that was that. A lot of his youth and college life was spent poring over the scheduled showings at campus and art-house cinemas. You could yearn to see a particular film by a particular director, yet have to wait years before it happened to play somewhere. I, too, saw movies that same way – but my list of movies does not overlap with his youthful list at any point. That’s because I’ve always hated horror movies. I hate bad horror movies because they’re bad, and because they’re horror movies. I hate good horror movies because I hate to be frightened by made-up stories and the better the horror movie, the more it scares me. I have loved only two horror movies – three if you count Brian de Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise, which I see as a musical comedy. The two are Poltergeist and Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, but in the years since Poltergeist I have managed to avoid almost all horror movies and the more I hear about the “great” ones, the less inclined I am to ever, ever see them. Meanwhile, where his parents gave him carte blanche and even took him to movies that my parents would never have considered letting me see, my movie-going was mostly guided by my mom’s love for Jeannette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy operettas. I can sing every song in Naughty Marietta, my mother’s favorite, right along with the actors. And since I can act better than Nelson Eddy even with my mouth numb from a root canal (so can you; so can everybody), these movies made me feel as if movie acting might be within my reach. It is not. It never was. I’m glad I didn’t break my heart trying. But when your experience of movies growing up almost always involves either singing or a lot of period costumes, you’re not going to grow up with a taste for the “cool” and “innovative” in film. By the time I started reviewing movies regularly, I already had a rule: If I wouldn’t go see a particular movie if I weren’t a reviewer, I’m not going to go see it just so I can review it. Gleiberman, on the other hand, was insatiable. Even if he thought he was going to hate a movie, he had to (continued on page 27)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

YOST Column

Yost Column

Tips For New N&R Editor by Scott D. Yost Well, the News & Record has just announced that it’s getting a brand new publisher and executive editor – Daniel P. Finnegan – who will take over the reigns of that paper on Tuesday, July 5, the day after this nation’s Independence Day. Finnegan, 53, has been working as a big-wig for the Richmond TimesDispatch, where he’s been for nearly three decades, so I imagine he doesn’t know much about the News & Record or about Greensboro yet. And, as a long-time member of the local media here in Guilford County, I wanted to take this opportunity to greet our new rival and congratulate him on his impressive new position; and I also wanted to say that we here at the Rhino Times are extremely pleased to see some new blood at the helm of the newspaper that represents our loyal liberal opposition. So, Mr. Finnegan, consider this an open letter from someone who’s simply interested in helping in any way he can. First and foremost, the main thing we want to say is this: Welcome! We sincerely hope you enjoy life here in our humble little city. I’m sure you are aware that you are taking on a very important job. Being the head of a highly revered and beloved publication dedicated to the community with a long track record of shedding light on the truth is an extremely important position, and I feel certain that the same goes for being the head of the News & Record. In addition to welcoming you to our community, I also want to be as helpful as I can. Now, I know you’re coming down here from Virginia, an entirely different state, and you probably know as much about the News & Record as I know about the Richmond paper – which is (A) that it is a newspaper, and (B) it is in Richmond. But, as someone who was born and raised in this great city, and as a loyal N&R reader for my entire life, I’d

like to let you know a little bit about your newspaper and also offer you some encouragement – and maybe a suggestion or two on what to change and what to keep the same. Here you go; no need to thank me… Keep breaking the truly important news. There have been so many great informative news and investigative pieces in the N&R over the past year that it’s very hard to single out any one story, but, in the spirit of helping guide you in your new job, here are a few recent hard-hitting N&R pieces that made a particular impression on me, and ones I hope you’ll do more of: • “Passenger urinates on N.C.bound jet” • “Team looks for Bigfoot in Uwharrie” • “Goat lady is thriving in artisanal cheese biz”

Mr. Finnegan, I think I can safely say that, under your tutelage, the paper will prosper as long as you continue to do more informative pieces like these. Don’t just rest on the laurels of those who came before. Instead, try to really dive in and … Continue to dig deeper. For instance, I think it would be interesting to have a follow up article on the jet story and let us know whether they got that jet cleaned up OK. Ditto, for the Uwharrie bigfoot article. Did they find bigfoot or not? I, for one, would be very interested in knowing that. And

what about the goat lady? Is the goat lady still thriving in the artisanal cheese biz? For goodness’ sakes, don’t leave us hanging. Keep your finger on the “pulse” of the community and the nation. Here’s one story that the N&R ran not long ago: “Poll: Americans angry at federal government.” I read that and I was utterly fascinated. It turns out that, though you would never know it from what you see going on around you, people in this country are upset with the way it’s being run. If not for the excellent N&R article, how would we ever find out things like that? Or, here’s another recent N&R piece I found very helpful: “Researchers say politicians not only

ones who lie.” That landmark piece was a real eye-opener for me, and, after being informed by the N&R that people outside of politics lie too, I even made a promise to myself that I would get something in writing from the place on the internet where I bought my Chilean ostrich farm last year. Your article got me thinking that $362,000 is a lot to put into any

business (no matter how hot a trend is), without at least getting something in writing or at least having a phone number for my business partners in Chuquicamata. Never, ever lose the paper’s laser focus on the thing your readers most want to read about: Rockingham County. There’s a reason the Greensboro News & Record dropped the word “Greensboro” from its name years ago. Sure, shame and embarrassment was no doubt one factor in that decision, but another, bigger one, was the revelation that occurred to the News & Record leadership, that the thing people in Greensboro really want to read about is Rockingham County. There’s nothing the people of Guilford County want to know more about than Rockingham County. We would much rather read about a murder that happened in Rockingham County five years ago than about five murders that happened in Guilford County one day ago. Listen, every single day Greensboro residents are bombarded by news about Greensboro, from local radio to Fox 8 News to News 2 to friends’ Facebook posts – so it’s a really nice change of pace to pick up the N&R and see how our better halves are living on the other side of the county line, where not only is the grass greener but the events are just simply more interesting to read about. Be sure to check things out before you make them into a cover story. Listen, everyone makes mistakes, but you need to try to avoid

(continued on page 24)

24 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

yost

(continued from page 23) the really big ones. The biggest mistake I’ve caught in the N&R this year also, unfortunately, happened to be a giant cover story for the entertainment insert that included lots of pictures to boot. In early April, the N&R erroneously reported that legendary singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen would be appearing at the Greensboro Coliseum. However, the story turned

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out to be fallacious: There was no Springsteen concert. I think the N&R story might have meant to say that Dolly Parton – who actually did perform at the Coliseum – was giving a concert. Like Springsteen, Parton also plays guitar and writes a lot of her own songs, but that’s still kind of a big mistake. The N&R might not think there’s much difference between the two performers, but trust me, there is

(continued from page 22) right now. Then you pass a budget that only includes the areas which benefits the at-large, and the east, and two other districts – pardon me, not east, two other districts, and you’re there. So, any voters out there when the next election comes around, just vote the whole bunch out. Let’s get a whole new bunch in there. All nine of them. The mayor, all the City Council people, everybody, because they’re all the same – crooked.

%%% It’s Sunday morning, and I’m watching about the shooting in Florida. And they think it is a terrorist attack. This message is for my Democrat friends that went as high as the fifth grade and can spell cat and rat on their own with no prompting. All the generals in Iraq tried to get Barack Hussein Obama to leave some contingency force there to keep down ISIS from coming in just like they did. George Bush said something would come in worse than what we already had. He would not leave them, because the election was coming up. Remember, he said I’m going to fundamentally going to transform the US. He’s done it – for the worst.

%%% Concerning this 20-year-old that raped this incapacitated young lady, he should have got 20 years for the rape and another 20 for her being incapacitated. That’s the worse kind of rape that you could possibly commit except against a child. I recall back in the ’70s when I was still 17 they tried to give me life plus 15 years to try to cop a simple feel. And they weren’t worried about how my future was going to come out. I think this 20-year-old ought to go serve his time. Thank you.

%%% If habitual liar Hillary Clinton isn’t indicted for her laundry list of transgressions, I will lose what little respect I currently have left for the so-called judicial system in this country.

%%% As the World War II generation phases out, I think there are less and less Americans who believe in old-school ways. The baby boomers seem to be stuck in the middle with a slight fear of the future and the unknown. Meanwhile, the younger generation has no problem taking risks and chances. They have a way of looking forward to what comes next. Personally, when it comes to the future of America, I pray and I let my conscious be my guide. Southern Guilford County.

%%% I saw or heard recently where Gene Simmons was bashed recently for his remarks about Prince’s death. The truth is, Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Kurt Cobain, Bon Scott, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and the list goes on, it is true. When you can’t handle fame, you’ll die from the results of alcohol, drugs and the like. It is a shame.

%%% One of the directors of Obamacare said that people in America are stupid, and he is right. More Islamic attacks have occurred under Hussein Obama than any other president: California, Texas, Boston, Chattanooga and now Orlando. And yet Obama will not call this terrorism. We have an Islamic president, Valerie Jarrett, his top aid is Islamic and the head of the CIA is Islamic. You people are fools. Vote Democrat and keep the killing going. (continued on page 28)

a real distinction to be made there. Double-check spelling. In the past, your predecessors haven’t always done a great job spellchecking and that’s something to watch under your watch. Every publication drops the ball from time to time in that regard, but a couple of years ago, the day after Warren Buffett bought the N&R, the paper misspelled the new owners name. They used one “t” on the end, like the “buffet” they have at Cici’s Pizza. Misspelling your new owners name on the front page is probably not the way to make a great first impression on your new boss on the first day. You know, Buffett or buffet? Billionaire boss who holds all your futures in his hand? Or the all-you-can-eat line at the food trough at the Golden Corral – what’s the difference? Trust me, the two things are as different as Bruce Springsteen and Dolly Parton. Like your predecessors, take a stand even when it’s highly controversial. A few years ago after a couple of local citizens’ close calls with bears, the N&R ran a very hardhitting editorial titled, “Bears don’t belong in residential neighborhoods,” in which the paper made its case that it was not good to have bears roaming throughout residential neighborhoods. The paper took a strong stance and showed no fear of stepping on the toes of all the people in favor of having bears in residential neighborhoods, nor did the paper worry about angering their readers who are bears or who are married to one. Keep the great advice coming. “Pecans put the crunch in fish” was one of many great pieces in the N&R recently, as was “Cherry juice still is a gout remedy.” I checked your article’s claims out and in fact the pecans did put plenty of crunch in my fish, and, thanks to cherry juice, my gout is a thing of the past. Keep the grits flowing. I know that your predecessor became very well known for writing about grits over and over again, and you probably want to keep doing that. I’m not saying you shouldn’t express your own views on grits – but I would really try something new. For instance, you could become known as the editor who focuses on, say, country ham, rather than grits, since

grits is already taken. We here at the Rhino feel confident that just as other Finnegans have made their name with wakes, rainbows and pubs, you can also make your name writing about some sort of signature specialty without relying on grits. It doesn’t have to be country ham; that’s just one idea. The best place to find features is in left field. This is something your predecessor knew well. One great feature was on “Olympic inspired gear for dogs.” I can honestly say that, before I read that fascinating article, I had never even once considered getting Olympic-styled gear for my dog, and I feel confident that’s not just because of the fact that I don’t have a dog. Trust me, doing stories like that, and doing things like running two full pages of crayon artwork from local first graders, is not an attempt to create low-cost “filler” pages necessitated by one round after another of staff cuts of actual reporters doing actual reporting of local news. No, instead it’s due to a deep and genuine desire of the N&R to make a profound connection with the community of local pet owners, parents and other citizens. It’s definitely that and not the other thing I said earlier. So, anyway, I could go on and on about how great the paper you are taking over is, but my main point is this: Keep up the great work! As my grits-eating Aunt Mable used to say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

salaries

(continued from page 16)

Thompson-Horton, V. Cole, John Boswell, William Cheek, Wendy Martin, Alfred Miles, Richard Rankin, Terry Smithey, Edwin Harvey, Andrew Alston, Richard Atkins, David Barham, William Barnes, Angela Bell, Adam Briles, Rodney Brown, Ashley Ellis, Alan Flowers, Steven Flynt, Justin Harris II, Milford Johnson, Kenneth Krawczynski, Wayne Mardis, Anthony Miller, Thomas Morton, Stacy Pate, Holly Pilcher, Brian Richardson, Stephen Sears, Regan

Supv WIA Case Mgmt Supv Library Svcs Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Super Electr Process Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt

$63,814 $63,788 $63,664 $63,664 $63,664 $63,664 $63,664 $63,664 $63,568 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,560

Sigmon, Eric Slone, John White, William Tranter, Kelly Raynard, Edward Bain, Daniel Church, Jeremy Collins, Randall Delancey, Harold Dixon, John Harvey, Jamie Jones, Bryan Pless, Allen Randleman, Korey Randolph, John Roberson, Alton Robinson, Alvin Schmitt, Mark Smith, Don Suddarth, Thomas Wall, Derek Williams, Joseph Miller, Tamra Cates, Kathryn McKinney, Craig Hyatt, Sonya Porter, Kimberly Brendle, David Davis, Kyle

Police Sgt Police Sgt Police Sgt Supv Crime Scene Invest Spec Env Comp Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Coord Youth Svcs Coord City Beautiful Planner Engineer Civil Supt Recreation Police Corp Police Corp

$63,560 $63,560 $63,560 $63,448 $63,109 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,103 $63,096 $63,048 $63,036 $62,959 $62,918 $62,752 $62,752

Matthews, Michael Police Corp Deel, David Admin Departmntl Safety Steed, Kevin Supv Field Ops Gilley, Wade Analyst Financial Goodman, John Admin Departmental Safety Baker, Daniel Mgr Coliseum Ops Hubbert, Robert Chemist Brady, Steve Supv Equip Svcs Jackson, Charles Special Programs Supt Brown, Tommy Fire Capt Carlson, Michael Fire Capt Douglas, Andre Fire Capt Goff, Forrest Fire Capt Joyce, Jimmy Fire Capt Perkins, Robert Fire Capt Young, Ronald Fire Capt Martin, Jason Analyst Budget & Mgmt Allred, Matthew Police Sgt Anderson, Demorrise Police Sgt Ferrell, Graham Police Sgt Nix, Philip Police Sgt Price II, Anthony Police Sgt Symmes, William Police Sgt Todd, Ryan Police Sgt Tuck, Christopher Police Sgt Wilson, Lonnie Police Sgt Wimbish, Anthony Police Sgt Turner, Andrea Spec Budget Dbase Galbreath, Johnny Supt Botanical Gardens Brown, Kelsey Super Custodial Hall Williams, Peggy Spec Comm (continued from page 30)

$62,752 $62,732 $62,661 $62,575 $62,542 $62,533 $62,459 $62,354 $62,292 $62,183 $62,183 $62,183 $62,183 $62,183 $62,183 $62,183 $62,166 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,047 $62,018 $61,803 $61,782 $61,658

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26 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

Donald Trump Rally at the Coliseum

Photos by John Hammer

trump (continued from page 14) walked out of the Iran negotiations. He said that if Kerry had known what he was doing then the US would not have ended up with such a bad deal, where Iran got everything it wanted. Trump talked about the fact that Hillary Clinton supported the war in Iraq while he had been against

it. He said, “I was against the war in Iraq from the beginning.” He added that, at the time, he said that if the military in Iraq were defeated it would completely destabilize the Middle East and that is exactly what happened. Trump was critical of Obama for

giving the date of the pull out from Iraq and said, “Who the hell would ever say the date?” He also said that he advised the US to keep the oil and now ISIS has the oil and the revenue from selling the oil. Trump said that the US had probably spent $4 trillion in the Middle East and has nothing to show for it, but that the infrastructure in the US has suffered because the money has gone to the Middle East. He said he would bring wealth back to the nation, that real wages

hadn’t increased in the US in 18 years and he would bring back jobs. Trump said, “I know what happened to North Carolina after NAFTA was signed. Who signed NAFTA? Bill Clinton.” When protestors were thrown out, Trump made a point of telling the police to be nice to them and “be gentle.” The crowd started a “USA” chant, but there were only a couple of times when protestors were removed. Trump noted that the political (continued on next page)

uncle orson (continued from page 22)

go see it, not because he was going to be paid for writing about it, but because he couldn’t bear not to know about every possible kind of movie. The result is that Movie Freak is full of short commentaries on a lot of movies, and I can honestly tell you that every movie that Gleiberman hates, I can see his point of view. I like some of them anyway, but everything he says against them is true. I just don’t care. However, when it comes to the movies Gleiberman is really enthusiastic about, I can happily tell you that there is not one that I would be willing to go to, because life is short and I don’t need that nonsense in my memory. Movie Freak is not just about movies. It’s also a memoir of Gleiberman’s life – his strange

relationship with his parents, his friends or lack of friends at different stages of his life, his long and strange relationship with noted reviewer Pauline Kael. Here are three quotes from Kael that give you an idea of things Gleiberman may have learned from her. First, a quote he repeats a couple of times: “In the arts, the critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising.” Then, a quote that Gleiberman clearly lived by, and I do not: “Movies are so rarely great art that if we cannot appreciate great trash we have very little reason to be interested in them.” And finally, a quote from Kael about the art and practice of film criticism: “A mistake in judgment isn’t

trump (continued from previous page) pundits, in particular Charles Krauthammer, talked about how early in the primary season he couldn’t get more than 50 percent of the vote. He said there were 17 candidates running. “How the hell do you get 50 percent?” Trump said. “Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have broken 50 percent.” He also noted that in New York, where people know him, he got 62 percent of the vote running against two opponents. Trump said that when the campaign started and he had to do the debates, “I didn’t know anything about debates.” He said he had been busy running his company, not worrying about debates, but he won every single debate according to every single poll. Trump also showed that he is paying attention to some of what is written about him because he said, “I am the messenger. I don’t even want to say leader of this group. What I am is the messenger and we’ve got a movement going.” He described Hillary Clinton as, “Totally unfit and totally unqualified to be president.” He said, “If Hillary Clinton becomes president, I don’t know if our country will ever come back.” And if she becomes president, “You can forget about your guns.” He said, “Hillary Clinton effectively

wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take away your guns.” Judging from the crowd’s response, there were more than a few gun owners in the audience. Trump said, “We have a country that we love, but we have a country that has gone astray.” As one might expect, Trump said, “We cannot continue to be politically correct; it’s devastating and it’s embarrassing.” As with any good speaker, writing about what he said doesn’t do justice to his speech because he was responding to the crowd. He went off in different directions but always came back to his central themes that the US has to do better on trade, has to build a wall to protect the borders and has to defeat ISIS. He said repeatedly that if he is president, the US will have better relations with foreign countries because now they think we’re stupid because of the trade deals that we make and because we refuse to use our military the way it should be used. Trump has a reputation for being popular only with working-class Republicans, and it’s hard to judge a crowd when you’re in the midst of it, but before Trump spoke I was talking with a Muslim who was there to hear Trump in person, and the part of the crowd I saw was diverse.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

fatal, but too much anxiety about judgment is.” In other words, if you’re afraid of making a mistake, you’ll never write good criticism; and if you write good criticism, getting it wrong now and then doesn’t make you a failure as a critic. Gleiberman’s candor about his own personal habits is, um, kind of extreme. I didn’t want to know quite that much about many of his personal decisions and habits. Yet he writes well, and his very candor about distasteful things makes me trust him a bit more about the things he’s proud of. If you care about the quality of films, as I do, then I think you’ll probably enjoy Gleiberman’s memoir whether you agree with his judgments or not. I often don’t, yet I found his reasons for liking films I hate (and vice-versa) were very illuminating, and invited me to examine my own standards of judging, not just film, but everything. Here’s where I think the biggest philosophical difference between Gleiberman and me comes out: Gleiberman loves film. He loves the whole experience of it, the good and the bad. He repeatedly says that he went into the theater hoping

for transformation every time. He was searching for meaning in life, all the more because his parents provided very little guidance in that department. It is very telling, however, that near the end of the book, when he finally falls in love and ceases his fourmonth-per-love serial monogamy, when he and his wife have a couple of daughters, he no longer feels quite the same hope and hunger when he goes to the movies. And that’s because he actually has meaning in his life that no movie is likely to compare to. He has found love and purpose in his family. (And thus we will not hear of Gleiberman turning into a lobster or a donkey anytime soon.) I have never gone into the movies expecting them to provide me with meaning and purpose, because I’ve never lacked for either in my life and never, never imagined that anyone in Hollywood knew anything that I didn’t already know much better than I. Gleiberman goes to movies for the movieness of them. I go to movies for the stories. If the story is empty or foolish or stupid or malicious, then I don’t really care how

(continued on page 28)

28 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

Children’s Home Society’s Beach Music

Photos by Sandy Groover

beep (continued from page 24)

%%% I just went to the Dolly Parton concert this past Friday night at the Greensboro Coliseum. It was a good concert. Dolly did a good job. But I had two complaints. One is I felt like I got ripped off for $20 for the parking – $10 is reasonable; $20 is excessive for parking. The second thing is, I think every concert I’ve ever been to at the Coliseum in the last 10

years has had big-screen TVs where you could see the performer. I was sitting in the upper deck and had I not had binoculars, it would have been a very unpleasant experience. But there were no big screens at all. There, again, that’s the Coliseum’s fault, just like the $20 ripoff for parking. The next time the Coliseum has events, and they’re not sold out, rather than blame HB2, look in the mirror, because they’re causing part

of the problem themselves with low attendance. If they had better service and a lower, more reasonable parking fee, I think they would have better attendance at events. Just FYI.

%%% I didn’t think I would be calling y’all twice in one day, but that thing in Orlando, all them people dead and injured. And the FBI knew who he was, and they interviewed him two or three times. And I swear. Under Obama they have got dumb as a bag of rocks, or a box of doorknobs.

%%%

Obama is allowing thousands of Islamics to come into this country. They’re also crossing from Mexico and South America. Also, Obama and the Democrats are responsible for all of these deaths that are happening. Be sure and vote for Hillary, and you’ll see this continue.

%%% With all the missing emails, the lies and the deaths in Benghazi, how dare she preach about national security and honesty? Clinton’s history includes abused women, impeachment, foreign money,

(continued on next page)

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

uncle orson (continued from page 27)

“well” it’s made. It’s not that Gleiberman doesn’t care about the content of movies. It’s that his judgment depends more on the artistry of the films than on the stories they tell. So he gives his perfunctory recognition that Citizen Kane is the greatest movie, ya-da ya-da. But I don’t. Because all I see in Citizen Kane is the relentless vanity of an empty blowhard – not Kane, but Orson Welles – whose “artistry” is so heavy-handed I’m not sure but what he thought of moviemaking as

blacksmithery, with his message the hammer and his anvil the audience. I will forgive some ineptness in the art of filmmaking for a story that I care about and believe in. But if I hate every character and every word they say, I walk out and never look back. I neither know nor care how Pulp Fiction ended, because the only happy ending for that movie, after the 30 minutes I saw, would be for every character in it to be smashed and instantly killed by the tank that crunched its way up the freeway in Fast & Furious 6.

beep (continued from previous page) disregard for State Department security rules. Is Hillary really competent to be commander in chief? Can she be trusted to protect this nation and defend our Constitution?

%%% I work at DSS and the managers here need to be looked at by Ms. Skeens instead of just sitting in their seats and doing nothing all day. They need to be looked at what they’re doing. They need to have an agenda to produce of what they do. It’s specifically the office support supervisors.

%%% I just got back this afternoon from the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia. Today as I speak is Monday, June 6, and it’s the 72nd Anniversary of The Longest Day, 24 hours that saved the world. It was an honor to shake hands with some of the sadly, very few World War II veterans that were in attendance. I was grateful to briefly talk to some of these wonderful men and equally grateful that king Obama didn’t show his face there today. All of the World War II veterans I had the privilege to talk to today felt the same way.

%%% What’s up? I’m calling to comment about the person saying about the scam that the Kernersville police is doing. It’s really not a scam. By law you have to merge over for any type of emergency vehicle even if they are the only vehicle on the side of the road. So, really,

it’s not only Kernersville PD. It’s Greensboro, High Point, Guilford County sheriff, Highway Patrol. Any fire department or EMS on the side of the road. And you never know, the officer might be outside of his car. So that’s why we have to move over. Even if it’s just one police car without someone pulled over.

%%% When is America going to wake up? There is no need for the public school system and the college or university system any more as we know it. A student can get their reasonably accredited high school diploma, a reasonably accredited bachelor’s degree and a reasonably accredited master’s degree all online without going to the school systems. Now, granted, they might not learn the latest new designer drugs. They might not be taught all the liberal trashy values, and they might not end up having an abortion or two, but they can still get the basic education. There’s no need for the school system as we know it.

%%% Iseen a politician so disingenuous as Hillary Clinton. And I don’t think the nation can take another four to eight years of a Clinton administration especially when she’s dragging along the little horndog that she’s supposedly married to. And the great Oz, I mean the great Obama, is behind the curtain pulling the strings. I just hope and pray that the American people will wake (continued on page 30)

I have despised the promos for every Quentin Tarantino film because they all seem to be intellectually pretentious and violently childish. I’ve given Scorsese a few more chances because of Taxi Driver and because in his rare interviews he’s not such a vain and empty-headed donkey as Tarantino. Gleiberman admires both directors for their artistry – and boasts a little about being real-life friends with Tarantino. All I can see is that Tarantino and Scorsese make appalling, obvious, ineffective artistic choices. But let’s give Gleiberman his due: He is willing to admit that in Marisa Tomei’s Broadway revival of Wait Until Dark, Tarantino’s acting as Harry Roat Jr., sucked with great suction (my choice of words, not his). And when Gleiberman became good friends with Ben Affleck, he admits that this may have led to his shaving perhaps 10 percent off of his criticisms of Affleck’s performances in some roles. Because, you know, good friends are hard to find and no matter what people might claim, everybody suffers from harsh criticism, especially when it comes from a friend. It’s barely worth mentioning Gleiberman’s fawning relationship with the worst living film director, Oliver Stone. Gleiberman admires him for his artistry, so he doesn’t need to fudge on reviews of his friend. I loathe Oliver Stone because every time he deals with facts, he lies, lies, lies to promote his point of view. In other words, Gleiberman loves the filmitude, and I loathe the storiness of Oliver Stone’s movies. One of the things I found most endearing about Movie Freak was that Gleiberman read it for the audiobook himself. He’s a very

good reader, but what I found most charming was how many words he mispronounced, thereby revealing that even though they were part of his writing vocabulary, he learned these words by reading them. Most amusingly, he used the word “comely” in reference to an attractive woman at least three separate times. And each time, he pronounced it to rhyme with homely, as if the word were “comb-ly.” In America, “homely” and “comely” are opposites (in Britain, “homely” has warm, friendly and attractive connotations), and I think it’s charming that Gleiberman made them rhyme in his head. But they do not rhyme. If Gleiberman’s book had shown him to be a vain, pretentious git, then such revelations of ignorance would have come as delightful pinpricks in his vanity. Instead, because his book is the opposite of pretentious, and he reveals himself to be made of too, too solid flesh, his mispronunciations are endearing. Thus I forgive him for being completely clueless about Lord of the Rings, the book. His criticisms of Lord of the Rings, the movies, are spot on. Look, not everybody wants to read the memoirs of a film critic. I can assure you that if I ever wrote a book about My Life Watching Movies, you’d have to be desperate for reading material to waste even a moment reading it. But Gleiberman’s life is interesting, as are his views of film. His book helped me understand why, though I so often disagree with him, I have still found all his reviews worth reading. And a would-be film critic – or, for that matter, a would-be screenwriter – would be hard-pressed to find a better school than Gleiberman’s observations about film as art and movies as a business.

30 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

salaries

(continued from page 25) $61,448 $61,435 $61,349 $60,915 $60,715 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703

Holt, Rodney Hoover, Kenneth Hutchins, Ricky Jones, Andrew Kenan, Myron Kennedy, Patrick Key, Carol Key, Kevin Kilpatrick, Scott Kincaid, Brian Leonard, Derrick Lewis, David Lilly, Kenneth McCoy, Antwan Meekins, Hayes Midkiff, James Montgomery, Samuel Morgan, William Nolen, Spencer Ozment, Roger Page, Michael Patterson, Matthew Pegram, William Preston, Kevin Price-Erwin, Erin Price, Justin Pritchett, Carl Reid, Matthew Richardson, John Rumple, Paul Russell, Gerald Scarbrough, Timothy

Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Asst Fire Marshal Fire Capt Asst Fire Marshal Fire Capt Asst Fire Marshal Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt Fire Capt

beep (continued from page 29) up and crush Hillary’s attempt to do this country harm. I feel she has no business in the White House. She is a crook. It’s been proven time and time again.

%%% When voting, why on the ballot are the candidates party affiliation, example Republican, Democrat, Independent not listed next to the respective name? How do I know I’m not voting for someone whose party politics I do not agree with, someone I would not vote for if I knew their party affiliation, especially when it comes to judges, because their politics do creep into their judicial decisions, and a good example of that is the Supreme Court? Even 99 percent of the TV ads and newspaper ads do not say what party these people are affiliated with. To me this is sneaky tactics. It is not fair to the voters. As a voter I have a right to know what party the candidate I am voting for belongs to and is

$60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703

$60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,703 $60,694 $60,681 $60,558 $60,533 $60,533 $60,533 $60,533 $60,533 $60,529 $60,384 $60,384 $60,384 $60,384 $60,364 $60,339 $60,268 $60,154 $60,065 $60,065 $60,065 $60,065 $60,019

Hyper-Sudoku affiliated with, because we really do have enough liberals running the country and ruining it.

%%% Someone needs to find out what’s happening at the Jamestown post office. I go over there about twice a week and every few times I’m there, there is someone at the desk applying for a passport. These people do not speak English. They look like they have not even had time to get western clothing, and my question is, how can a new immigrant coming to this country obtain a US passport? This seems to be standard operating procedure at Jamestown post office. Can somebody, please, check this out?

%%% Yes, this is concerning the 60 percent raise the City Council voted themselves. I think we should pass a law that no elected officials can vote their selves a raise. And, also,

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The New York Times

McNellis, Matthew Mgr Coliseum Parking Frazier, John Police Officer III Booth, Thomas Admin Ntwrk Systems Grassi, Robin Spec Mstr Emerg Comm Brown, Ja’Tia Analyst ERP Business Alton, Jeffrey Fire Capt Bishop IV, George Fire Capt Braswell, William Fire Capt Brown, Nicholas Fire Capt Brownell, Michael Fire Capt Caviness, Robert Fire Capt Chamberlain, Jason Fire Capt Chambers II, Kenneth Fire Capt Chrismon, Jeffrey Fire Capt Cockman Sr, Kenneth Fire Capt Coker, William Fire Capt Coley, Bobby Fire Capt Collins, Brian Fire Capt Combs, Michael Fire Capt Couturier, Walter Fire Capt Doggett, Kenneth Fire Capt Eaton, Jeffrey Fire Capt Faulk, Daniel Fire Capt Fields, Matthew Fire Capt Fields, Timothy Fire Capt Fuller, Steven Fire Capt Garoutte, Terry Fire Capt Gilbert, Duane Asst Fire Marshal Gonzalez, Joseph Fire Capt Hicks, Christian Fire Capt Hill, Jonathan Fire Capt Hobbs, Kyle Fire Capt

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www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

Letters CALLING OUT EVIL DEAR EDITOR,

Another young Muslim mass murderer strikes innocent people. Is his belief system irrelevant, as President Obama would have us believe? Gosh, I don’t know. How many Zoroastrians have committed mass murder against westerners recently? Or Buddhists? Or Hindus? Or Sikhs? Or Jews? For that matter, how many Muslims have been murdered by fellow Muslims lately? So much for the religion of peace. What kind of people gratuitously murder other people who have done them no harm? Evil people. When Hitler engaged in mass murder of certain people identified by their religion, there was universal and outraged condemnation, as there ought to be. Now that Muslim murderers ask for a verse from the Koran before beheading you, is this any different? A Christian or Jew will face the sword – a fellow Muslim will be freed. Barack Hussein Obama, alias Barry Dunham, alias Barry Soetoro, wants you to believe that this is all just gun violence. He will not let this crisis go to waste in his quest to disarm the American people and render them defenseless. The French people have already been disarmed. It allowed other Muslim terrorists to kill 139 innocent people in nightclubs in Paris last November. And the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando was a “gun free zone.” How did that work out for you, gentlemen?

Austin Morris

TERRORISM IS HATE DEAR EDITOR,

The bodies had not yet been removed from the Pulse club and the liberals were running over one another to get to the microphones to scream for more gun control. I believe they will find he had purchased the weapons legally, especially because he was a registered security officer with a form of special license for carrying a firearm. Then there is the scare words, “automatic weapon.” Again I believe they will find it was a stock AR type

LETTERS To The Editor

TO THE EDITOR rifle, which is semi-automatic. The other scare words used were “assault rifle.” Any rifle used to attack another person can and is an assault rifle. Any weapon used to attack another person is an “assault weapon.” I don’t care what it is. You can also count on dear leader and his regime to try to spin this as a “hate crime” instead of what it was, a terrorist attack. He will try to hold up the statements of this cowardly animal’s father about him being upset at two men kissing. Anything to avoid having to use the words he chokes on every time, that being terror attack. And even though this gutless swine was an American by birth with Afghan parents, this will put dear leader’s relocation program square in the crosshairs, give the hildebeast heartburn and Trump a boost. Action such as this should make everyone look long and hard at the upcoming election. Watch and listen to what the candidates say, not just about this but the subject of gun control. Hillary Clinton has already signaled that she is looking at what she can do, and a major part of that will be the selection of a Supreme Court judge if she gets elected. Remember that of the eight judges on the bench, four lean conservative and four are liberal. The person selected will swing it one way or the other. And for those that would argue that has no bearing because the Supreme Court justices are only supposed to interpret the law, not make it, all I can say is, what’s it like living in fantasyland? What they are supposed to do and what they actually do is a matter of record, if you can take the time away from TMZ to look it up. One last thought. Gun free zone signs should be replaced with uncontested hunting zone signs. Just saying. Go Galt and go vote.

Alan Marshall

TRAGIC BUT NECESSARY DEAR EDITOR,

Sept. 2, 2016 marks the 71st anniversary of the end of World War II. Gen. MacArthur signed the unconditional surrender document on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay with the words, “this ends these proceedings.” The nuclear explosions occurred August 6 and August 9. Emperor

Hirohito, the divine authority, had gone on national Japanese radio and told his nation to end the war. His war cabinet had vowed to fight for the home islands to the end. Sixty key cities had been fire bombed by our B-29s, with Tokyo taking over 100,000 casualties on one raid. The US would land the initial invasion troops November 1945. The Japanese were amassing a huge long-term defense with millions of suicide banzai style. They had over 5,000 kamikaze plans ready. Their atrocities across Asia were endless, including over 40 percent of our POWs dead, the rest emaciated. Estimates were we would take over a million casualties, they would take over five million. To this day, Japan has never apologized for initiating WWII with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, and the horror they created throughout Asia. Germany, long ago,

offered lasting amends for deeds they inflicted on so many. So, unquestionably, tragic as it was, Hiroshima/Nagasaki caused the end of World War II, and to this day no subsequent nuclear use anywhere.

Tom Ward

MEDIA DISTORTION DEAR EDITOR,

“Sleazy” is a good word to describe how our mainstream media disguise their power by how newsworthy events are reported. While it can be good, better or best, it usually turns our to be bad, worse or worst. For example, their versions of “run away Audis” were never accurate examples of what actually happened. The better term for this type of reporting is sleazy, and this election year has

(continued on page 33)

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under

(continued from page 35)

Boehner was never willing to walk away from the table and Obama responds to beggars the way most of us do, he ignores them. Maybe the fact that Boehner and Obama are both smokers in a nonsmoking world gave them a sense of brotherhood, which didn’t work out well for Republicans. But whatever the reason, Boehner had become too closely aligned with Obama to continue as the head of the opposition party. Now Ryan, it appears, is everything Boehner was except a smoker. Ryan cannot continue to not support Trump. Perhaps Ryan is holding out some hope that Trump won’t be the Republican nominee, and it is certainly possible. It isn’t likely considering the number of delegates that are pledged to Trump, but in politics anything can happen. Once the Republican convention is over and Trump is no longer

the presumptive nominee but the nominee, what is Ryan going to do? Will he refuse to support Trump unless Trump agrees with Ryan on every jot and tittle of policy? Nobody is asking Ryan to like Trump, but he either has to support Trump or Hillary Clinton. As the highest ranking Republican elected official he can’t remain on the fence. The longer he remains half committed the longer he helps Hillary Clinton get elected. Fortunately, so far Trump hasn’t listened to the advice of the mainstream Republicans, who are experts at losing winnable elections. If Trump ever starts taking the advice of the likes of Ryan and Sen. John McCain, he will lose to Hillary Clinton – a person a good half of the country can’t stand. McCain won the Republican

beep (continued from page 30) I think when the voters go to vote on the council next time they should vote out all the incumbents. I don’t care how long they’ve been in there or how good they are. They should be voted out and put somebody else in there. They don’t need that money. If they want to vote themselves a raise, let them get their behind out here and work for it like I did. I worked all my life to get what I’ve got. And them suckers sit up there and vote themselves raises. Good for them. I’ll say hoorah and wave a flag for them.

%%% I’d like to thank the Democrats and the Independents that voted for Barack Hussein Obama. I just went to my doctor’s office today. And that’s the second doctor that I had that’s leaving the practice. I made a comment to one of my friends that’s a Democrat, one that hoped for Obamacare to come in, that we would see our real doctors be leaving their offices and finding other work. And that’s what’s taking place. I know of seven doctors that are leaving: surgeons, pulmonary doctors, personal doctors, all of these people are leaving. You know who you’re going to be left with?

You’re going to be left with second- or third-string doctors that are coming in, foreign doctors that are coming in. You don’t know their education level.

%%% I just saw on the news where President Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president. So, I guess that that means he has decided that he’s going to stop the FBI from prosecuting or charging her for all of her violations of the law. So another injustice is in the works. I think Hillary needs to go to prison for the rest of her life. And I think Alcatraz would be a nice retirement home for wayward politicians.

%%% Well, once again they’ve nailed it to the people on Social Security and disability. This is Steely Dan Fan Man. First, it was the extra tax on auto repairs, which already this year has eaten me up. I’ve already put $2,000 or 3,000 in my vehicles, maybe more than that. Some of that was tax. And now I’m going to have to pay $60 a year for my vehicles instead of $20. And that’s just really nailing the heck out of it if I even get a Social Security raise next year. That represents a little bit more than two months of raises. Where do they get off? And

nomination by running around the country and saying whatever he wanted, no matter how politically incorrect it was. People loved it and voted for him in the primaries. He won the Republican nomination and didn’t say anything else that hadn’t been vetted by a dozen or more campaign experts. The result was that he didn’t say anything mildly interesting for the next three months and lost a presidential campaign to someone with no experience, but who was for “Hope” and “Change.” Obama ran a brilliant campaign and McCain ran like he was trying to lose. Then you have Mitt Romney and Ryan. When Romney was running, about half the country would have voted for anyone other than Obama. All Romney had to do was convince a few of those undecided voters, who probably spend two hours in the grocery store trying to decide between 1 percent and 2 percent milk, to vote for him. But to win people’s votes you have to give them some reason to vote for you. Romney

then, on top of that, now the City Council gives themselves exorbitant raises that they don’t deserve. Where do they get off? I’ve just about had it. I think I’m on my way out. All right.

%%% This is for Eric Robert, rich guy on South Elm Street. The way for him to ingratiate himself with the downtowners and the old guard is to come up with a way to clean out the beggars downtown with some sort of law that would just completely ban it. And, believe me, you’ll have a lot of the old boy network on his side including me if you could actually clean them all out. Now they even sit down while they’re panhandling. OK? Hey, get up and run with it.

%%% I cannot believe that the City Council voted themselves a 60 percent raise when the senior citizens sitting out here had their raise taken away from them from Obama for three years. Most of them are supposed to sit out there and live off of $700 and some a month. Don’t they ever think that we’d like to have a little more? Why can’t we get our raises? As Obama wanted to double his salary. He can’t live off of $400,000 and some a year. Senior citizens are still supposed to live off of $700 a month. We’d like things, too. We like good food, but I’m sure the City Council has more food bought for them than they buy for themselves. I think it’s a common dirty shame

refused to attack Obama, and when CNN’s Candy Crowley inserted herself in the presidential debate to defend Obama, Romney showed the American people he wasn’t even willing to stand up for himself. He managed to lose a race that was his to lose. If this is the kind of campaign that Ryan and others in the Republican leadership want Trump to run, we have to hope that Trump continues to ignore them. The idea of Trump coming out to the podium and reading some long boring policy statement that no one outside of Washington gives a hoot about is horrifying because it would mean four years of Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has more explaining to do. The most recent filings of the Clinton Foundation show that it received almost $18 million from foreign governments while she was secretary of state. She was supposed to have an agreement with the White

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myself. It’s like they say, birds of a feather flock together.

%%% I noticed that Councilmember Yvonne Johnson voted no against adding road repairs to the upcoming city bond. Apparent, Ms. Johnson has not driven down Martin Luther King Drive in quite some time.

%%% Isn’t this the most absurd thing you’ve ever seen? The newspaper, magazines, TVs, all celebrating a guy that was a draft dodger. He always said he was the greatest, but we never knew what was. Muslim. And all the hullabaloo they’re making over a guy that’s celebrated for beating up and bloodying other people. Where have we come to. As a friend of mine says, it reminds him boxing today of the Coliseum back in Rome where all we are hollering for is blood. And here we celebrate, what was it, 12 pages in the paper the other day? Absurd. All for a draft dodger who is not worthy of anything. Thank you. Love your paper.

%%% Hammer, seriously, get a new picture. Put on the old turtleneck and sport coat. Go up on one of them buildings that’s got a western exposure about sundown. Have somebody take your picture. Use that one.

%%%

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under (continued from previous page) House that the Clinton Foundation wouldn’t accept donations from foreign governments while she was serving as secretary of state. But then again she wasn’t supposed to use her own homebrew email server for State Department business either. One portion of the FBI investigation of her use of her own email server reportedly has to do with the Clinton Foundation and looking for evidence of a quid pro quo. It seems like it would certainly put pressure on Hillary Clinton to give a foreign government special consideration if they had donated millions to the Clinton Foundation. It might be difficult to prove that she did, but there is a strong appearance of impropriety if the reports are accurate and the Clinton Foundation did accept nearly $18 million from foreign governments while she was secretary of state. If the White House had not been concerned about just such an appearance of impropriety, it would not have asked her to agree to have the Clinton Foundation turn down foreign donations while she was secretary of state. There did appear to be a revolving door for employees between the State Department when Hillary Clinton was secretary and the Clinton Foundation.

And then there is more email trouble. Now emails marked classified have been found among those on Hillary Clinton’s server. This was her fallback position. She started out with no classified documents and then fell back to no documents marked classified. Now they have emails that not only contained classified information but were marked classified. Maybe someday Hillary Clinton will hold another press conference and answer some questions about how documents marked classified got on the her email server. Or perhaps the Russians will release the emails from her server that they have. Then there is the issue of a Saudi Arabian prince claiming that the Saudis have provided 20 percent of the funding for the Clinton campaign. Foreign nationals are not allowed to make campaign donations. But it wouldn’t be the first time the Clintons accepted campaign donations from foreign sources. In 1996, the presidential campaign, Bill Clinton and the Democratic Party were investigated for accepting money from Chinese nationals. Millions of dollars had to be returned.

letters

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given us adequate examples of a word that may forever be etched into what we might assume to be intentional distortions of facts. Maybe this is a good thing because it will require an individual effort by us to re-examine everything we hear or read.

Ray Hylton

GIVING IT TO HILLARY DEAR EDITOR,

The leaders of the Republican Party are in one simple word, jokes. The leaders we have in Ryan and Romney are like that old song: clowns to the left of me, jokers to my right and the people stuck in the middle. The Republican Party is handing over the election to Clinton with all this fighting within the party. The truth is Romney and Ryan are losers and could not even win their own states in 2012, if

I recall. The losers could not even beat Obama with all his problems. Obama still took the election like he was just going for a walk, so Romney and Ryan can simply just take a long walk on a short pier. The Republican Party is broken and it’s sad, and come November we will have the first women president. The Republican Party is simply finished and the ones to blame are, oddly enough, Republicans. The election will be interesting – to see how Gary Johnson does. He will pull Republican votes away, which in turn helps Clinton. What a party. And for the record, I voted for Johnson in 2012 because Romney and Ryan are losers.

Sal Leone

Send to letters@rhinotimes.com or P.O. Box 9023, Greensboro 27429

But no wrongdoing on the part of the campaigns was ever proven. Of course, when your president and people who work for you are conducting the investigation, sometimes things work our in your favor. I have no idea if Mateen was gay or not. But the fact that he made a number of visits to the gay club where he killed 49 people before the night of the shooting does not indicate to me he’s gay. It indicates to me that this was a carefully planned attack. If your goal is to kill people and die a martyr, you don’t want to walk into the club fully armed on a night 10 people are inside. To me, saying that since he visited the place a number of times means he must be gay is the equivalent of saying a bank robber who visits a bank a number of times before robbing it is interested in banking. The fact that he was able to kill 49 people is in itself a good indication that it was a well-thought-out attack, not something he did on the spur of the moment but something he had been planning for months. OK, lets accept as a given that the climate change fanatics are right and giving up our aerosol cans, Freon for air-conditioning and reliable and cheap coal-fired power plants in the US isn’t enough to overcome the massive amounts of pollution being produced by China and India. So, despite crippling our own economy, we can’t stop humans from burning things and putting more carbon dioxide into the air – and that actually is changing the climate of the earth. So man is responsible for the earth getting warmer despite the fact that it has been warming since the last ice age over 10,000 years ago.

And, when the warming started, a few campfires was all man was contributing to the carbon footprint. But we are going to accept all of that and the fact that global warming is going to cause the oceans to rise by inches, feet or yards. It still doesn’t mean that Manhattan is going to be underwater. It might mean that parts of Manhattan will be below sea level, but unless humans lose their ability to build walls, it won’t make much difference. Look at the Netherlands. Right now, vast portions of that country are below sea level, but the people who live there aren’t swimming to work and their houses don’t have three feet of water in the living room because for centuries the Dutch have built walls, pumped the seawater out and reclaimed land from the ocean. Certainly with all the resources of the US we could built a wall to protect Manhattan and other lowlying coastal areas from the rising seas. I know that right now walls have a bad name in the US because Donald Trump wants to build one on the border with Mexico, so we are constantly told that walls don’t work. But the reality is that walls do work. They can be built to keep people out and they can be built to keep the sea out. It is technology that has been available, not for centuries but for millennia. It isn’t difficult. The Dutch even used wind energy to operate some of their pumps, and we could do the same. This is not rocket science, although we have a lot of rocket scientists who could probably design a lightweight high tech wall that would stand for centuries. Saying that coastal areas will be under water is nothing but a scare tactic, and if the global warming crowd can’t come up with a better reason to cripple our economy, then they should be ignored, even if they are right about man causing the earth to warm.

34 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com

animal

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Shelter. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has started proceedings to put the shelter on county-owned property in the City of Greensboro next to the Guilford County Agricultural Center on Burlington Road. However, that move is meeting resistance from some Greensboro city councilmembers – most notably the two who represent east Greensboro. Some city councilmembers see a shelter as a negative for the surrounding community. Conrad said at the June 9 Animal Services Advisory Board meeting that there’s a good deal of land for a shelter there and it’s a good site for a new shelter, but he stressed that nothing has been written in stone at this point. Grier and Conrad said the most pressing concern is finding a new Animal Services director. Grier said Guilford County has advertised the job widely. “So far we’ve received 16 applications and, of those 16, there are five strong candidates – and I mean really, really strong candidates,” he said. “I was really pleased with that.” According to Grier, the shelter

is currently overcrowded, but staff is working on getting rescue organizations to take some animals off its hands. He added that morale is relatively high but employees are understandably anxious about the prospects of working under a new director. Grier said the employees at the Animal Shelter have gone through two major transitions in less than 10 months. Conrad said that hiring the right new shelter director is of the utmost importance. “This person needs some credibility because of where we are right now,” Conrad said. “We understand there are some questions out there – some angst – and rightfully so. So the person that we bring in, we need to say, ‘Hey, this individual has proven themselves.’ If we have to steal somebody from another county, that’s fine. If you know someone that might be a good fit, please encourage them to apply.” Board members at the June 9 meeting had a lot of questions about the public records laws they were now subject to, the duties and powers of

the board, the shelter’s operations and other aspects of Animal Services. Grier said he was on the phone earlier that day trying to find spots in rescue groups for shelter animals. He added that he was also attempting to fill many positions now vacant at the shelter and he wanted the board members to get the word out. “We desperately need vet tech workers, three or four of those,” Grier said, adding that the shelter also needs to hire cleaners and other staff. The shelter currently has seven vacant positions of various types. In response to a question from a board member about reaching out to colleges and universities with animalrelated programs to find some help, Grier said he’d spoken with NC A&T State University, but not with the veterinary school at NC State. He also said that, in the meantime, the Animal Shelter is working with rescue groups and community partners such as the Humane Society to find homes for the animals as well as to help the animals get the care they need. Graves, the founder and president of the Haley Graves Foundation,

which assists struggling animal rescue organizations, said area rescue groups are also very full right now. “People are calling us too,” she said of Haley Graves. “We’re treading water also.” Ashby spoke on the need for educating citizens about having pets spayed or neutered. “This is a social issue as much as it is an animal issue,” Ashby said. Conrad said Guilford County has been very proactive since the Animal Shelter scandal last summer, and he added that the first order of business was for the county to find a new shelter director. He said someone had pointed out to him one thing that no doubt makes that job more attractive to prospects despite the giant scandal. “There’s nowhere to go but up,” Conrad said.

www.rhinotimes.com | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | RHINO TIMES

under theHAMMER

by John Hammer

President Barack Hussein Obama was quick to turn the tragedy in Orlando into a case for stronger gun control. He asked for a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, one of the dumber laws about guns ever passed. The assault weapons ban made guns illegal based on the way they look, not how they operate. With a few changes in appearance, guns that were made illegal by the assault weapons ban became legal. No change was required in the way they operate. By the way, the rifle that Omar Mateen used to kill 49 people in Orlando was not an AR-15 as has widely been reported. Mateen used a Sig Sauer MCX, which doesn’t look like an AR-15 and has a different operating system. It appears that the mainstream media have a vendetta against the AR-15, or else they don’t have any reporters who know anything about guns. He also used a 9mm Glock, one of the most popular pistols with law enforcement. The question of gun control is not whether criminals and terrorists like Mateen will have guns, because they will have guns regardless of the law. What more gun control will do is keep lawabiding citizens from having guns. If a person is planning on killing as many people as possible, whether or not the gun he or she is killing them with is legally owned is not an issue. That person knows that at the end of the killing spree they will almost certainly be dead, and if by some chance they aren’t dead then they will spend the rest of their lives in prison. Whether they did the killing with a gun they legally owned or one they stole or bought illegally is hardly a consideration. Imagine for a moment that Obama had been president on Dec. 7, 1941, and he called the attack on Pearl Harbor an attack of terror and hate but refused to identify the Japanese as responsible. The fact that the planes had Japanese markings and the Japanese claimed credit for it didn’t prove to him that it was a Japanese attack, but in his mind

it was a hateful act of violence. It would be a different world today. Radical Islamic terrorism is responsible for the attack in Orlando despite what Obama won’t say. Obama says that saying the words “radical Islamic terrorism” won’t change anything. But he’s wrong. Words have meanings and naming things does make a difference. Humans are problem solvers, but to solve a problem first we need to identify the problem. If you have water on your living room floor and you are unwilling to admit that the water is there because the roof leaks, you are going to continue to have water on the floor every time it rains until you admit the problem is not leaky pipes or broken vases but a leaky roof. As long as Obama refuses to admit that the mass killings here and abroad are caused by radial Islamic terrorism, he can’t solve the problem. But then according to Obama the problem is a lack of gun control. The problem is not a lack of gun control. If anything it is too much gun control. These attacks have a few things in common, and one of them is that crowds in gun free zones are attacked. Another feature in common is that ISIS knows it could orchestrate attacks in every city in America and there will be no retribution by Obama. We are not going to attack ISIS simply because ISIS is attacking us because our leaders refuse to admit that ISIS is responsible for the attacks. We certainly have the military power to wipe ISIS out. According to news reports, Russia is having a lot more success in Syria than the US because Russian planes actually drop bombs and fire weapons. Evidently, if there is any chance of civilian or quasi-civilian casualties, American planes simply fly around, use up a lot of fuel and land back at the base. It doesn’t make sense for the US to only use its weapons when there are ISIS soldiers marching around with signs big enough to be visible from the air that read, “ISIS Soldiers,” or whatever the current requirement is. Obama refused to attack the oil-producing infrastructure of ISIS because it might cause environmental damage. Bombs by their very nature cause environmental damage, unless you don’t use them, which is what Obama chose. Obama famously called ISIS a

jayvee team before it took over large areas of Syria and Iraq, including Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Now, two years later, he has been unable to defeat a jayvee team when he is the commander in chief of the most powerful varsity team in the world. There is something seriously wrong with his strategy. Or, to be more precise, it appears that the US has no strategy. What is the current US strategy in the Middle East? Maybe we don’t know because Obama believes that words aren’t important and what is strategy if not a bunch of words strung together describing what you intend to do. It would appear the current strategy is to incrementally increase US troops in the Middle East, but not send enough troops to be effective. The US will continue to bomb certain targets in Iraq and Syria but not anything that will cause environmental damage or might harm someone who is not a soldier with a weapon in hand. History is fascinating and I would love to be able to read what historians are going to write about the beginning of the 21st century. It appears that 2016 is going to be a pivotal year, but only time will tell. We have a presidential election coming up that pits two polar opposite views of the American economy and America’s place in the world against each other. The Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton, say the economy is good and America’s standing in the world couldn’t be better. The Republicans say the economy is in bad shape and America has become the laughing stock of the world because we allow smaller, weaker countries and terrorist entities to walk all over us. The Democrats believe the Constitution is outdated and needs to be rewritten by the courts. The Republicans believe we need to continue to follow the Constitution, which has brought us where we are today. Internationally coming up this month is the vote on whether the European Union continues to exist or not. The vote is by Great Britain, and if they vote to leave that’s the beginning of the end for the EU. Or perhaps the middle of the end – the beginning of the end might have been the decision on immigration policies.

There is a simple solution to the shootings in Orlando and San Bernardino, and it does involve gun control. But the liberals are wrong about the need for more gun control – if we want to stop the mass killings we need more law-abiding citizens to carry guns, not fewer. According to police reports, about 350 people were crowded on to the dance floor at Pulse when the radical Islamic terrorist, Mateen, started shouting “Allahu Akbar” and shooting people. So there were 350 unarmed people in the room. He could shoot people at will and he did. If a person is the only one in the room with a gun, he or she is in control. You can’t fight a gun with fists, knives, bottles or chairs and hope to win. The police can’t be everywhere. In this case, Mateen had been investigated twice by the FBI but they found no reason to continue to investigate him or place him under surveillance. They didn’t find sufficient evidence that he had broken any laws or was a threat. Reports indicate to him he appeared to be an angry young man who liked to mouth off but was not a dangerous threat. It would appear that if Americans want to be safe then either we have to agree to live in a police state or be willing to take care of ourselves. Increasing gun control laws will make the current situation worse not better. It will make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves and provide terrorists like Mateen more opportunities to go into crowded areas knowing that they will be the only person who is armed. It appeared that Paul Ryan was a good choice for speaker. Speaker John Boehner had sold his soul too many times for the conservatives to continue to support him. Boehner gave the appearance of not having an agenda other than getting bills passed. Since Obama has a rigid agenda and cared nothing about getting anything passed other than exactly what he wanted, it was never a fair fight. As they say in the world of negotiations: If you not willing to walk away from the table, you’re not negotiating, you’re just begging. (continued on page 32)

36 RHINO TIMES | Thursday, June 16, 2016 | www.rhinotimes.com