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Revenge of the Nerds

Allen Johnson — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 00:21:11 +0000

I was absolutely tickled the other day by Tampa Bay Times media critic Eric Deggans’ playful reflections on being a “blerd” — as in “black nerd” — on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”

Times stats guru questions Maryland's value to Big Ten

Allen Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:03:06 +0000

According to New York Times uber-stats geek Nate Silver, the ACC’s loss may not be that much of a gain for the Big Ten.

UNC's Kupec brought home the bacon

Allen Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:10:38 +0000

More storm clouds in Blue Heaven.

The Orange County district attorney says UNC-Chapel Hill should seek outside investigative help in its review of the questionable trips and travel expenses of its former head fundraiser, Matt Kupec.

McCrory and Christie

Allen Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:27:02 +0000

Interesting dispatch this morning via The News & Observer and The New York Times:

Gov.-elect Pat McCrory and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie shared a tender moment last week at the Republican Governors conference in Las Vegas, according to a story in The New York Times.

Casting squall

Allen Johnson — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:38:59 +0000

Two Hollywood casting picks have created a stir in some corners.

Stubborn signage

Allen Johnson — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 01:08:01 +0000

We’ve editorialized before in this space about people mutilating or stealing campaign signs in other people’s yards — which is childish, pointless and illegal.

Now we wonder about the yard signs that remain up even though the election came and went nearly two weeks ago. Some are for Romney, others for Obama.

Saner heads may prevail after all?

Allen Johnson — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:34:32 +0000

It has been encouraging to hear Republicans balk at some of the excuses proffered for their party’s loss in the presidential election.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was pointed in a rebuttal to Mitt Romney’s ill-considered “gifts” comments, which recalls his “47 percent” remarks — for which he apologized but now seems to be un-apologizing.

CIA chief was not exactly Web-savvy

Allen Johnson — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:21:35 +0000

A letter in today's New York Times raises a fair question.

Writes Wallace Greene of Fair Lawn, N.J.:

What does it say about the state of our national security when our chief spook cannot even take the most elementary precautions to prevent his personal dalliances from becoming public?

A mean, silly season

Allen Johnson — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:09:37 +0000

As if all the recent secession silliness weren't bad enough, now we have this.

Now would be a good time for cooler, bipartisan heads to step forward and lead.

There still are some, right?

The mayor's shaky finances

Allen Johnson — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 01:16:28 +0000

Will Robbie Perkins’ personal financial woes prevent him from being an effective mayor?

Not necessarily.

The veteran city councilman and real estate developer faces foreclosure on the five-bedroom home he owns with his estranged wife.

Fox's Murdoch suggests softer line on immigration

Allen Johnson — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:38:53 +0000

Here’s an interesting reaction to Tuesday’s election results:

Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Fox News’ parent company, News Corp., tweeted today: “Republicans have to ignore nativists, embrace Hispanics, welcome best Asian and European graduates.”

How did Obama do this?

Allen Johnson — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 06:14:39 +0000

With so many polls of “likely voters” forecasting a tossup, I was surprised to see the presidential race called for Obama before the wee hours on Wednesday morning.

We’ll know more once the results are analyzed, but I’m guessing part of the president’s strength was unlikely voters — African Americans, Latinos and, again, young people.

Breaking down our endorsements

Allen Johnson — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 00:45:33 +0000

Our endorsements are recapped in today’s paper.

Not counting nonpartisan races, here is how they break down, from governor to county commissioner:

Republicans: 9
Democrats: 9

The News & Record endorses as if it were an unaffiliated voter. In each race we considered the best candidate, not the party.

A reminder: No presidential endorsement

Allen Johnson — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 16:48:42 +0000

Many of you have asked when the News & Record’s presidential endorsement will appear in the paper.

It won’t.

Some of you apparently have forgotten, but the News & Record ended its policy of making presidential endorsements in 2007. Hence, we did not endorse in the 2008 election between Barack Obama and John McCain. And we won’t be endorsing this year.

Plain ugly

Allen Johnson — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:26:53 +0000

Defacing and stealing campaign signs is ignorant enough.

Trying to convince some people that they should vote on Wednesday rather than Tuesday or that they can vote by phone is cynical and underhanded.

But the effigies hung last week at a Goldsboro voting site is just plain ugly.

A&T homecoming traffic: Police say they’ll do better

Allen Johnson — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:32:44 +0000

I earlier posted about some complaints involving traffic management last week during N.C. A&T’s homecoming.

In an effort to ease bottlenecks, police closed some streets to all but the residents who lived there or hotel guests who could present a room key as proof.

Their intentions were good: to ease the inconvenience for visitors and local citizens alike.

We’re No. 1

Allen Johnson — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 17:33:08 +0000

This flies in the face of quite a few of the GOP talking points, but Site Selection Magazine has again named North Carolina tops in the nation for its business climate.

From a news release:

On Billy Jones' grocery store idea ...

Allen Johnson — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:12:56 +0000

Blogger Billy Jones made an intriguing proposal during Monday night’s east Greensboro economic summit that might help solve the area’s lack of grocery stores.

Jones suggests that the city’s day center for the homeless, the Interactive Resource Center, could operate a nonprofit grocery store in the Bessemer Shopping Center.

Police overkill during homecoming?

Allen Johnson — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:19:37 +0000

I don’t know the police’s side of the story yet, but it appears that the department’s traffic management strategy for N.C. A&T’s homecoming weekend may have been excessive and poorly executed.

More Star Wars movies? I got a bad feeling about this.

Allen Johnson — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:06:04 +0000

Meanwhile, on the business and entertainment pages ...

... Disney has bought Lucasfilm for more than $4 billion and plans to revive the “Star Wars” movie franchise.

Uh, that may or may not be such a good idea.

Economic summit: Meatier than I expected

Allen Johnson — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 04:48:17 +0000

Monday night's East Greensboro Economic Summit, called by Mayor Robbie Perkins at Dudley High School, sounded almost all of the right notes.

It attracted a good turnout, and a diverse one as well.

It's Aggie party time already

Allen Johnson — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 20:00:27 +0000

The bumper-to-bumper downtown traffic began to choke South Elm Street today before lunch.

Oh yeah. It’s A&T’s homecoming.

I don’t know if I’ve seen so many pairs of high heels and so many dresses and skirts made of so little material in my life.

The restaurants and clubs have absolutely got to love this.

The east Greensboro economic summit

Allen Johnson — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 15:24:54 +0000

I hope there’s a big turnout Monday night for the east Greensboro economic summit at Dudley High School (6-8 p.m.).

This is a good chance for the community to have a constructive dialogue about jobs and economic development in the one of the neediest parts of the city.

Keys in a key state

Allen Johnson — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:26:47 +0000

Greensboro is one of two stops in the state today for Grammy-winner Alicia Keys on the stump for President Obama.

Keys will appear at N.C. A&T's student union this afternoon at 2 to rally Obama supporters to vote early.

Then she heads to Raleigh.

Jesse Jackson also plans an appearance at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum.

No more election letters, please

Allen Johnson — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:16:10 +0000

Judging from the raft of endorsement letters that poured in over the weekend, many of you didn’t get the memo: The deadline for letters related to the Nov. 6 election was Oct. 17 at noon.

We ran numerous warnings about the deadline regularly on the letters page leading up to last Wednesday. Sorry you missed it.