Congratulations to the Carolina Tar Heels on winning the NCAA men’s basketball championship. It was an ugly game but Carolina played a great last minute.
I do wish the referees had let the teams play. Maybe they would have found some rhythm and it would have been a better game. Then again, the right team won, so I think the refs did a great job.
I’m a Dookie, but both my parents and two of my grandparents went to Carolina, so unlike some Duke fans I have no trouble pulling for Carolina as long as they’re not playing Duke. And even if you are an ABC (Anybody But Carolina) fan, you have to admit it’s good for the ACC to win another national championship.
*****
The News & Record reported that it reduced its workforce by 36 this week. I’ve heard nine people in the newsroom lost their jobs.
The question people have been asking is, how long will it be before Warren Buffett decides that he doesn’t need separate newspapers in Winston-Salem and Greensboro and moves the operation to Winston-Salem. With these layoffs it appears sooner than most people thought.
At the Tuesday night City Council meeting, the News & Record didn’t send a reporter and didn’t bother to write anything about the meeting in the Wednesday paper.
This same paper, which apparently couldn’t afford to cover local government, could afford to have a reporter repeatedly contact numerous elected officials and ask them what they thought about Beyoncé and then gave that story the prime position in the paper, taking up about three-quarters of the front page.
Strange things are happening at Greensboro’s only daily newspaper. Perhaps they have moved so many people around to fill in the gaps and, not having enough people to cover both Beyoncé and the City Council, the editors chose Beyoncé.
*****
Street Level our column by a cop out on the streets is taking a well-deserved vacation. The column will be back in two weeks.
*****
Mayor Nancy Vaughan missed the City Council meeting on March 21, and on April 4 she missed the afternoon work session and participated in most of the evening meeting by phone.
Vaughan said Wednesday that she was home but had been in the hospital for about a week with DKA, diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening disease. She said it was likely brought on by a virus and that she spent some time in intensive care.
Vaughan said Wednesday that she is much better but still feels weak when she tries to do too much. But she said that she hopes to be at the next City Council meeting.
*****
With Mayor Vaughan out, Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson has had to take over at the last two meetings.
After two meetings, Johnson said that she had no interest in being mayor again and would be glad when Vaughan was back.
Johnson did say that she is planning to run for reelection to her at-large seat. Two years ago Johnson said she was running in her last City Council race, but Tuesday, Johnson said that she had changed her mind. Johnson said that she was healthy and she loves to serve.
A lot of people talk about term limits, but the other side of that coin is that it is a great benefit to the city to have someone on the council who was first elected in 1993 and has seen it all. As I get older I find myself placing more importance on experience and less on youthful exuberance.
*****
The Rhino Times will hold its April Showers Schmoozefest on Thursday, April 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Blue Agave Mexican Bar & Grill at 3900 Battleground Ave. Those who sign in and wear a name tag are welcome to enjoy free hors d’oeuvres and beer and wine (while supplies last).
*****
In other cities, they are rezoning land for mixed-use developments, office buildings, shopping centers and housing developments. Greensboro recently rezoned land so an electronic sign could display a message more frequently.
Does anyone think this is a good use of tax money and of people’s time? Is there any benefit to having zoning regulations so stringent that they cover the frequency that an electronic billboard can switch from one message to the next?
*****
It’s funny that when a self-driving car is in an accident they pull all of that model off the road and find out what happened. Considering how many human driven cars are in accidents every day, imagine if every time there was an accident anywhere in the country by a car driven by a human if we were all required to park our cars for a day, or for that matter a minute. Nobody would ever be able to drive.
*****
I certainly didn’t support Gov. Roy Cooper when he was running and was disappointed when he was elected, but I would be totally in support of Cooper fixing one problem that former Gov. Pat McCrory created.
I get press releases and emails from the state government every day with that ridiculous new state logo that McCrory had designed. Cooper certainly has no allegiance to the new logo, and when things calm down a little, maybe after the General Assembly adjourns, it would be a great project to have the logo redesigned.
Councilmember Tony Wilkins is trying to get Greensboro’s “floppy leaf” logo redesigned. It probably has run its course.
One problem with Greensboro having a floppy leafed G as its logo is that a lot of people think it is the logo for Guilford County. It could just as easily be Guilford County as Greensboro. Maybe Greensboro’s logo should have “Greensboro” in it.
