(An article I wrote for today's Carrboro Citizen.)

People who live, work and visit Carrboro love the free wireless Internet. But the Town of Carrboro’s wireless is a victim of its own success. I’ve heard from a lot of people who have problems with it and wish it worked in their homes. Fact is, the area the wireless signal covers is too small, the connection is unreliable and the bandwidth is too little. Now is the time for the Town of Carrboro to take the next step. I propose the town support the construction of fiber optic Internet connections to buildings within the downtown business district.

It's just starting to sink in that I'll never see Rebecca Clark again.  The last I saw her was just before the holidays, and she was as strong and firm and loving as always.  I'm glad that's my last memory but regret that I didn't know her better and never followed up on my intention to take her out for lunch to just talk. 

I bet that lots of you have Ms. Clark stories and wonder if you would share them...

[Note: Long-time community activist and anchor Rebecca Clark passed away this weekend. (N&O 1/6/09) -Ed.]

Some things you have to see for yourself to believe.
 
I recently took a tour of about a half dozen schools, mainly older facilities, in the Chapel Hill Carrboro school system.  Because the County Commissioners fund the school systems' budgets, it's important for me to see first hand what the parents, teachers, and school administrators are complaining about.  I took a similar tour of facilities in the Orange County School system a while back and wanted to assess the situation in the city schools.
 
Boy, am I glad I did.