The May Rhino Times Schmoozefest is Thursday, May 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Greensboro Convention & Visitors Bureau at 2411 W. Gate City Blvd. Free snacks, beer and wine will be provided to all business professionals who sign in and wear a name tag while supplies last.
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Driving back from High Point last week on Bryan Boulevard, just after the Old Oak Ridge Road exit, I came up on two Greensboro police cars – one in each lane with their blue lights flashing. At first I thought they were stopped, but then I realized they weren’t stopped, they were traveling side by side, blocking traffic, going 2 mph. I know it was 2 mph because the slowest my car will go without braking is 3 mph. I followed them for about 15 or 20 minutes and then they sped up to normal highway speeds. By that time there were quite a few cars behind us.
I tried to find out the reason for the slowdown and to the best of my knowledge the Greensboro police cars were working for the North Carolina Department of Transportation and holding up traffic so it could move equipment or do something involving construction. I never saw what it was. I have been in traffic slow downs on the highway, but never that slow for that long. It’s hard to pay attention at 2 mph, but I had a great fear of slowly bumping into the back of the police car with its lights flashing, and I wondered how you would explain that to a judge.
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I saw someone riding a Segway down Friendly Avenue this week. I remember when the Segway was first introduced in 2001 and, according to the hype, we were all going to be riding Segways in a few years. It was going to revolutionize personal transportation. Other than parking enforcement personnel who ride an extremely modified Segway with three wheels, I see them rarely enough that it is noteworthy.
Before this week, I can’t remember the last time I saw someone other than parking enforcement riding one.
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Wendell Carter’s mom is right, college athletes in the money making sports get a raw deal. The lowest first year salary in the NBA is over $1.3 million. Even at an expensive private university like Duke, the total cost of attending for one year is in the $70,000 to $80,000 range – not even 10 percent of the salary of a professional basketball player.
The colleges and universities where these players are more or less forced to play by the current rules, which don’t allow players younger than 19 to play in the NBA, make millions of dollars on the backs of these athletes. They also make millions of dollars on athletes that never have the chance to play in the NBA or the NFL. Particularly in football, a lot of players suffer serious and career ending injuries playing in college for nothing more than what a really successful student gets in scholarship money, and that successful student is not required to spend hours and hours practicing and playing a sport.
It seems that these major sport athletes are working for the colleges and universities and they should be compensated with something more than a scholarship.
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Perhaps because I’m involved every day with politics, I think far more people care about the state of our government than actually do.
The idea that about 89 percent of the registered voters would decide to sit out an election where the sheriff, county commissioners, school board members, state representatives, congressmen and the district attorney were all on the ballot is a sad reflection on a self-governing people.
Of course, to be fair to those who stayed home, it was just a primary, and for many Republicans like myself the only race on the ballot was the sheriff’s race. Everyone figured that Sheriff BJ Barnes would win the Republican primary, and he did. But even considering that it is such a privilege to get to elect the people who govern us, it’s hard for me to understand how people can decide to sit out any election.
And if your candidate of choice doesn’t make it through the primary, then they aren’t on the ballot for the general election. Everyone was predicting a low voter turnout because there were no statewide races on the ballot, but imagine, 11 percent of the voters made the decision for everybody else.
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I don’t think it gets picked up by the cameras or I would have heard about it from one of the many people who watch the live broadcast of City Council meetings, but evidently with no fanfare News & Record reporter Margaret Moffett and I have become city employees. I say this because on the front of the press table where we sit at City Council meetings there is now a sign that reads “City Staff.” I can hardly wait for my first paycheck.
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The City Council on Tuesday night took back six economic incentive grants from companies. The city actually didn’t take back anything because economic incentives aren’t paid out until the company meets the requirements set forth in the incentive contract. But it is good to be reminded that when the City Council votes for an economic incentive grant, the company doesn’t get a check. The requirements have to be met and the incentive usually involves a tax rebate, meaning if they meet the requirements they don’t have to pay as much in taxes as they would otherwise.
The action by the City Council simply recognized that either the time had expired for the requirements to be met or that the company had decided not to meet the requirements and forego the incentive package.
Assistant City Manager Barbara Harris was asked how often the city checked up on the companies and she said every month.
