January 2005

If you read this morning's papers, you already know that the Durham Herald-Sun's new owners took over with a bang, firing nearly 25% of the workforce. Haven't heard to what extent those cuts affect news in general or Orange County in particular [Ray?]. On the face of it, it's hard to imagine that it bodes well for the paper's commitment to provide quality coverage for Granville, Person, Chatham, and Orange counties as well as Durham.

Also troubling is the new owner's clear concern about cost rather than quality of product. Check out the stories in both the N&O and the Herald itself for a sense of that. Paxton Media has sent 80 unhappy former employees on the streets. Not great for PR. They have done little to introduce the new owners to the community and readers nor have they explained their vision for the paper or strategy for achieving it.

Only a few days left to nominate Orange Politics for a Bloggie award! The deadline is Monday. But which category suits us best? Best Weblog About Politics, Best Topical Weblog, Best Group Weblog, Best Community Weblog, or maybe Best-Kept-Secret Weblog...?

Seriously, I would really like to spread the idea of local political blogging to other communities and this is a great way to get the word out. We have already inspired one imitator, Evergreen Politics which is a group blog about issues in Washington State.

You have to get a lot of nominations just to be judged, so please take a moment to nominate OrangePolitics.org as well as other deserving web sites. Thanks!

Please add yourself to OrangePolitics' local blogroll if you:

• live, work, or spend leisure time in Orange County;
• blog about Orange County; or
• participate in Orange County politics.

Just enter your blog's URL, your name, and a location that best represents where you live, and we'll figure out the rest. The blogroll checks every blog for updates on an hourly basis and re-sorts the list based on the most recently updated blog. Note: In order for this to work, your blog must have an RSS or Atom feed.

$dynamic_blogroll = new DynamicBlogroll();
$dynamic_blogroll->run();

This is the old list which we'll be removing entries from as we/you fill them in above.

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday, January 08, 2005

The United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights specifies a right to such basics as food, clothing and housing. But the word "water" does not appear in the document. Perhaps this is because the authors of the 1948 document could not imagine a time in which fresh drinking water would become an increasingly rare commodity, no longer freely available to all. That time is upon us.

In southern Orange County we are fortunate to have abundant fresh water provided from OWASA's reservoirs. But global trends are not encouraging and may threaten both our control over our water supply and our ability to keep it off the competitive market.

Less than one-half of 1 percent of the world's water is fresh. The rest is seawater or frozen in permanent ice masses. The UN has determined that a billion people lack access to fresh drinking water. Global water consumption is growing at twice the rate of the population.

Guest Post by Chris van Hasselt

The Carrboro-Chapel Hill Transit Forum will be held on Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. at the Carrboro Town Hall in Room 110. The forum is co-sponsored by the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board and the Chapel Hill Transportation Board.

The Transit Forum is an opportunity for citizens to share opinions and ideas on bus services in Carrboro and Chapel Hill. Representatives of Chapel Hill Transit and the Triangle Transit Authority will attend the meeting, make presentations, and meet with citizens.

Residents who are not able to attend the forum can comment and ask questions about public transportation in Carrboro and Chapel Hill via email to transitforum@ci.carrboro.nc.us or by leaving a voice mail message at 918-7311.

Carrboro Town Hall is located at 301 W. Main Street. The forum will be televised on cable channel 18. While the forum is being televised, viewers can call 918-7308 to ask questions or make comments.

Guest Post by Eric Muller, crossposted from Is That Legal?

There's much talk here in Chapel Hill about a judge's recent decision to throw out the confession of Andrew Dalzell to the murder of Deborah Leigh Key--a murder that had gone unsolved for nearly eight years.

Dalzell, who had long been a suspect in the murder, was arrested in another part of the state for obtaining property by false pretenses. Dalzell was not immediately read his Miranda rights. In preparation for the ride back to the Chapel Hill area (Carrboro, for you local folk), Carrboro police officers prepared a fake arrest warrant for the murder and left it on the seat next to Dalzell so that he could see it. They also got a piece of the District Attorney's stationery (with the D.A.'s consent) and concocted a phony letter in which the District Attorney said he was seeking the death penalty for Key's murder. An officer read Dalzell the bogus letter during the ride back to Carrboro.

Carrboro's downtown is interesting in that it manages to support a community-owned, cooperative grocery store right next to a large, North Carolina-based, regional grocery store. If you're an owner of the cooperative, do you shop at the large grocery store for convenience and familiarity and frequent the co-op for socializing and small cafe purchases? What would it be like if you tried to make your major grocery shopping purchases at the co-op instead? I thought I would try to find out.

I became an owner of Weaver Street Market back when I was applying for in-state status for tuition purposes. Nowadays I find myself frequently surfing the web at the cafe and listening to music on the lawn, and occasionally I'll buy fish and vegetables for a single meal. But I've never gone there to buy 2-3 weeks worth of groceries, mostly because I'm familiar with the brands I grew up with--that I know I can get at Harris Teeter.

Two local coffee shops in Carrboro and Chapel Hill have won national TOPS awards from the Specialty Coffee Association of America, based "not only serv[ing] excellent coffee, but also distinguish[ing] themselves as outstanding businesses." Both the Open Eye Café and Caffé Driade are co-owned by Carrboro resident Scott Conary and have been a part of the community for 6 and 9 years respectively.

“For us, quality comes first whether it is the product, the environment or the service,” Conary said. “We are passionate about what we do.”

Although both cafes focus on providing the same quality to customers, each has its own distinct environment.

A laid-back and comfortable space that has been a part of the town for six years, Open Eye Café is sometimes referred to by locals as “the living room of Carrboro.”

Conary, a Carrboro resident, said the cafe reflects his desire to create a coffee shop that reflects the quaintness of the town and the community's closeness.

Can anyone explain to me why I should be glad about this:

Chapel Hill-based WUNC, the area's largest National Public Radio outlet, has struck a deal with an NPR business and finance program to launch a southeastern bureau in Chapel Hill. The bureau's reporter, slated to start around May, will concentrate on North Carolina news -- especially the Triangle's big businesses.
- Chapel Hill Herald, 1/18/04

Much to my surprise I actually like this business show, Marketplace. It's a little more interesting than NPR's headline news, and it doesn't always fall into the ideological rut you might expect. I can see why WUNC, especially it's leadership, would like to have their profile enhanced by this new situation. But how does it serve the people of North Carolina?

I read in the Chapel Hill Herald this weekend that administrators in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System are starting to get a little nervous about getting our third high school open on schedule for 2007 (it was originally supposed to open in 2005, oops). With schools already overcrowded (and classes pretty big even when they're below capacity), I'm completely in favor of opening more schools.

Guest Post by George Entenman

Orange Politics folks would should be very interested in a project sponsored by the Orange County Democratic Women to get women on local boards and commissions. Read on...

Orange County Democratic Women announce an important public meeting
topic:Opportunities for women to serve on boards and commissions
guest speaker: Elaine Marshall, N.C. Secretary of State
date: Thursday, February 3, 2005
time: 7:30 pm
place:The Exchange at Meadowmont, Chapel Hill

About 5 months ago, the Orange County Democratic Women decided that it would launch a new initiative, the Boards and Commissions Project. Our goal would be to increase the number of women serving in a policy-making role in county government.

This from the Common Sense Foundation:

On Wednesday at noon, history was made in North Carolina. The General Assembly began its 2005-06 session with an out lesbian as one of its elected members for the first time.

Julia Boseman defeated a Republican incumbent in a conservative Wilmington district to earn her seat in the state Senate. She survived slurs against her sexual orientation during the campaign to win the seat.

Yet while the whole state has reason to celebrate the diversity and equality symbolized by Boseman's election, not all is well for the GLBT community in North Carolina.

Just minutes after Boseman and the rest of the legislature were sworn in, a new constitutional amendment was filed to attack gay marriage and even gay relationships.

The events of this week show both profound encouragement in the struggle for GLBT equality, as well as how many difficulties that struggle still faces.

People in our community should celebrate Boseman's victory as an outgrowth of landmark events in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the election of Joe Herzenberg to the Town Council and of Mike Nelson as Mayor.