Media

I don't know how many of you read the News of Orange. I drop into their web site about once a week, which how often it's updated. They have reader polls to which I am strangely addicted. If they are at all accurate, then it certainly validates what folks say about the northern part of the county being way more convervative than Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

For example, this week's questions is "Do you favor the death penalty?" and the response so far is pretty much YES:
Yes 51.9%
Sometimes 11.5%
No 32.7%
Unsure 3.8%

Total Votes: 52

Do you think this is an accurate reflection of the county? If not, perhaps you should take the poll.

Kudos to the Daily Tarheel for running an article today in both English and Spanish. Unfortunately the Spanish version is online-only which is probably not the best way to reach all those Latino workers on campus, who might actually be interested in the subject matter: one woman's story how she became an immigrant and eventually a citizen.

Attending Carrboro's swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday reminded me how important John Herrerra's (re)election is to the Latino community. The event was attended by visible state-wide leaders like Matty Lazo-Chadderton (Director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs in the N.C. Senate's Office of the President Pro Tempore) and I spent at least a third of my evening practicing my rusty Spanish. It was a great feeling to know what a good example a small town like Carrboro can be to the rest of the state. And also a reminder that yo necesito practicar hablando español!

Thank goodness the Daily Tarheel is even covering the Community Leadership Council. This is a group of mostly self-appointed community "leaders" who are getting more information about critical issues like UNC's development plans than the Town of Chapel Hill gets. I didn't see this meeting reported on in other outlets, but I don't get paid for this so maybe it slipped under my radar.

Unfortunately, either this recent CLC meeting was incoherent, or the DTH is just filtering their reportage in terms they think students will understand: beer. I read the article a few times and I couldn't figure out what hapenned at the meeting, but I didn't fail to note at least five beer analogies in the story.

Forget being like Mike. Chapel Hill leaders want to be like beer.