It’s not surprising that hooligans in Chapel Hill tore down the statue of Silent Sam, but the question that needs to be answered is, who told the police to stand down and not protect the statue.

There were police in the area, but reportedly they did nothing to stop the mob from toppling the statue. Police do not normally allow vandalism and destruction of public property in their presence, but these officers did.

It seems unlikely that it was a decision made by the police officers at the scene. So who told them not to interfere with the mob while they destroyed property that is owned by all the people of the state?

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Our condolences to former Greensboro City Manager Jim Westmoreland on the death of his wife, Lisa. Jim retired as city manager in April. Lisa had been battling breast cancer for 13 years and died at home on August 10. A memorial service was held Friday, August 17 at Greensboro Country Park. It was a beautiful setting and seemed entirely fitting.

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The Greensboro City Council met for over four hours on Tuesday and two items that were not mentioned were the fact that VF had announcing it was moving its corporate headquarters out of Greensboro and the Wyndham Championship PGA golf tournament, which has been played in Greensboro under various names since 1938.

Councilmembers generally give a shout out for every birthday party and picnic they attend, but Tuesday nobody thought to mention the Wyndham.

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Monday, the city ripped a big hole in Friendly Avenue right across from the alley that leads to the parking lot for the World Headquarters of the Rhino Times. Friendly was reduced to one lane for the waterline repair, which meant we couldn’t get out of our parking lot without assistance. And although being blocked in is annoying, the city employees were extremely helpful in getting us out. And while it was a little more difficult to get back in, they were helpful with that also.

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My faithful companion and I have a problem. She doesn’t like to go out in the rain and I don’t like to walk without her. She dislikes the rain so much that sometimes I think she may pop, but so far I have been able to coax her out just long enough, but not a second longer.

It seems like for the past month, every time we get ready to go for a walk it starts raining, which means we don’t go. Since we agree that it would be wrong to eat less just because it’s raining, the result is we are both gaining weight. If it ever stops raining we’re going to have to go on some long hikes to make up for all of our couch time.

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How bad is losing VF? The Denver Business Journal has an article about how VF moving to Denver with 800 employees is going to tighten an already tight market for prime office space. The article estimates VF will need 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of space and might not be able to find it all in one place.