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Posted by John Hammer | Feb 9, 2017 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
Tuesday night, Feb. 7, I received the word that my good friend and longtime colleague Geof Brooks had died suddenly of a heart attack. Geof was the cartoonist for The Rhinoceros Times and the Rhino Times for over 25 years. I...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 9, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
If the election of President Donald John Trump accomplishes nothing else, it appears it has given the Republicans in the Senate some backbone. The Republicans, all except two, stuck together and confirmed the nomination of Betsy...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 2, 2017 | Archives, Guilford, News, Other
The Democrats are making a valiant push for nonpartisan redistricting and it’s a clever plan. Former Superior Court Judge and former President of the University of North Carolina system Tom Ross was chosen to be in charge of the...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 2, 2017 | Archives, Guilford, News
Donald Trump, who won the 2016 presidential election, is now claiming that millions of fraudulent votes were cast in that election, which is a bizarre accusation for the winner to make. But, in fact, he is asking a question...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 2, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
A couple of recent arrests indicate that letting Nelson Johnson of the Beloved Community Center run the Greensboro City Council was probably not a good idea. Two men, who Johnson maintained were previously mistreated by the...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 2, 2017 | Archives, Shorts
The warm-up-for-Mardi Gras Rhino Times Schmoozefest will be held at 1618 Midtown on Thursday, Feb. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. As always beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served gratis to those who sign in and wear a name tag. *****...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Feb 2, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
I’m starting to really love President Donald John Trump. First off, unlike most politicians, he is actually doing what he said he would do. Trump said he was going to ban immigration from countries where people couldn’t be...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 26, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
The Greensboro City Council frequently talks about the need for more affordable housing in Greensboro and the need to provide more housing options for homeless people. It was one of the reasons the City Council said the voters...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 26, 2017 | Archives, Shorts
The inaugural Rhino Times Schmoozefest of 2017 will be held at World of Beer at 1310 Westover Terrace on Thursday, Jan. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. It may a little late to celebrate the presidential inauguration but it won’t be too late...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 26, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
The Democrats are already up in arms over President Donald John Trump’s executive orders. Live by executive orders, die by executive orders. The Democrats thought executive orders were great when President Barack Obama was...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 26, 2017 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
The City Council, at its work session last week, heard yet another report on the public information request tracking (PIRT) system. With the city budget discussion starting next month, here is a place where the city could save...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 26, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
The North Carolina General Assembly began its 2017 so-called long session – held every two years – on Wednesday, Jan. 25. The long session is when the legislature passes a two-year budget. The budget is supposed to be passed by...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 19, 2017 | Archives, Shorts
The inaugural Rhino Times Schmoozefest of 2017 will be held at the World of Beer at 1310 Westover Terrace on Thursday, Jan. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. It may a little late to celebrate the presidential inauguration but it won’t be too...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 19, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
This is the last column I’ll get to write about President Barack Hussein Obama. Next week he will be former President Barack Hussein Obama. It’s been a long eight years. I in no way supported Obama when he was running for...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 19, 2017 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
Friday, Jan. 20 is Inauguration Day – a big deal in Washington, DC, but in most of the rest of the country it’s just another workday. Kind of like the ACC Tournament days around here, where people will gravitate toward a...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 19, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
Maybe an efficiency expert could help. The Greensboro City Council met from 5:40 to 9:53 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17 in the Council Chambers and the only item that was discussed at any length was spending $300,000 for a disparity...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 12, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
The bad news is that the News & Record this year is going to close down its press on East Market Street and start printing Greensboro’s only daily newspaper at the Winston-Salem Journal. Both papers are owned by a division...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 12, 2017 | Archives, Greensboro, News
Toward the very end of the most recent City Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20, Councilmember Sharon Hightower said to Mayor Nancy Vaughan, “You have disrespected my district. I hope they turn out in droves to allow Mr. Barber...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 12, 2017 | Archives, Shorts
I think a snowstorm like the one we had last weekend is one of the things that makes living in Greensboro great. We got somewhere around 10 inches of snow and temperatures that reportedly dipped into the single digits. It was...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 12, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
Why is there a news blackout on the fact that the Fort Lauderdale airport shooter had converted to Islam and taken the Islamic name Aashiq Hammad? The news reports all indicate that he went to the airport and shot as many people...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 12, 2017 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
The power of the mainstream media is frightening. Take the whole bathroom issue in North Carolina. The vast majority of the people, including many Republicans, don’t seem to understand what happened and blame the Republicans for...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 5, 2017 | Archives, Shorts
Four days into the new year and the battle is on. Gov. Roy Cooper says he has the power to expand Medicaid coverage in the state and is going to do it without the approval of the legislature. President Pro Tem of the state...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 5, 2017 | Archives, Under the Hammer
I keep looking for the stories by the mainstream media that President-elect Donald J. Trump won’t be sworn into office on Jan. 20. It is the logical next step. At every turn in Trump’s journey to becoming president, the...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Jan 5, 2017 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
District 5 City Councilmember Tony Wilkins put the photo below on his Facebook page with the comment, “Please, someone smarter than me and knows a little bit about the history of Greensboro – tell me how we ever came up with...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 29, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
Last week the state legislature met in a special session for the express purpose of repealing House Bill 2 (HB2), better known as the bathroom bill. But the legislature adjourned after the bill to repeal HB2 failed when not a...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 29, 2016 | Archives, Greensboro, News
Looking back at 2016, it was a year of elections, secret Greensboro City Council meetings and a lot of loud raucous participation in the meetings that weren’t secret. The year began with candidates filing for a March 15 primary....
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 29, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
It seems like about a week ago that we were putting out issue number one for this year, and here we are with issue number 52. Time flies when your having fun, so we must be having a blast. Happy New Year to all our readers, and...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 29, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
President Barack Hussein Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have never gotten along. In his first term, Obama walked out of a discussion with Netanyahu at the White House, went upstairs and had dinner with his...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 22, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
I spent Wednesday afternoon trying to figure out what was going on in Raleigh. Even after the legislature adjourned from its special session and I found out what happened, I’m not sure it makes sense. The state legislature did...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 22, 2016 | Archives, Greensboro, News
It was a sad but fitting end to the last Greensboro City Council meeting of 2016. The meeting Tuesday, Dec. 20 in the Council Chambers devolved into chaos at the end as Councilmember Sharon Hightower went on what appeared to be...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 22, 2016 | Archives, Greensboro, News
Former Greensboro City Councilmember and former state Sen. Don Vaughan had one of those weekends where you’d like to ask for a do-over. Vaughan, the estranged husband of Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, held a birthday party for...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 22, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
As a gift to our readers, we have an extra special Christmas edition this week. In keeping with a long Christmas tradition, we are running “The Gifts You Never Got,” a column written by my father, Dick Hammer, who died in 2004...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 22, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
If the mainstream media want to write about fake news, they need to write about the fake news they have been printing for weeks about how the Donald Trump electors were not going to vote for Trump and he wouldn’t be elected...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 15, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
The Greensboro City Council Economic Development Committee meeting Tuesday, Dec. 13 was like some avant-garde play where the actors switch roles at the end of each scene. Zack Matheny was there in the Plaza Level Conference Room...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 15, 2016 | Archives, Greensboro, News
The International Civil Rights Center and Museum refilled a lawsuit against the News & Record for libel and unfair and deceptive trade practices on Nov. 30. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Sit-In Movement Inc., Hurley...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 15, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
When I heard the state legislature was going into special session this week, I assumed that they would at least discuss adding two justices to the state Supreme Court. Republican Justice Bob Edmunds lost his reelection bid to...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 15, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
The mainstream media have had their world turned upside down. Just imagine for a moment. On Nov. 8, everyone associated with the mainstream media, down to the cooks and bottle washers, knew that at the end of the day their...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 8, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
Gov. Pat McCrory finally conceded the election on Monday, Dec. 5, congratulating North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on being elected the 75th governor of North Carolina. But the big question that remains is how did a...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 8, 2016 | Archives, Greensboro, News
If you wonder why Greensboro has the highest tax rate of any comparable city in the state, the answer could be found at the Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Two items on the short agenda go a long way to...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 8, 2016 | Archives, Guilford, News
America is about to get a new president who’s promising big changes in how government is run, and there’s already a shakeup underway in Washington, DC. But the laws, regulations, policies and procedures that come out of...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 8, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
I just read another one of those awful stories about a woman who is being treated for breast cancer being abused by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. Because of my job, I get searched all the time. Which...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 8, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
All you Trump deniers out there should step back for just a moment and think about the person the American people have elected president. Forget how much you hate the guy and how you knew all along that he could never become...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 1, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
If anyone was wondering if President-elect Donald Trump was going to stop being Donald Trump and become simply another cog in the great establishment wheel, his nominee for secretary of education should have ended that...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Dec 1, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
The first weekend in December is a big night in downtown Greensboro and a busy weekend for Downtown Greensboro Inc. Friday, Dec. 2 is the Festival of Lights from 6 to 9 p.m., when the streets of downtown Greensboro are filled...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 24, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
Above is a photo of corruption in Greensboro. Maybe in Greensboro we should be proud that this is the level of corruption that we have in municipal government, but it is still corruption, even if it is small. Why is a parking...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 24, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
The recent decision by the Greensboro City Council not to allow the development of land on Lake Brandt Road just south of the marina, in the grand scheme of things, is not a game changer. It was going to involve an investment of...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 24, 2016 | Archives, Shorts
Thanksgiving is a true American holiday. I discovered this while trying to explain it to someone new to the country. It isn’t a religious holiday, a saint’s day or anything like that. It doesn’t mark the day some big treaty was...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 24, 2016 | Archives, Under the Hammer
I can’t imagine what the Hillary Clinton supporters are going to do when Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2017. They are in such denial about the election that they aren’t making sense. It never occurred to...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 17, 2016 | Archives, Weekly Hammer
The liberal media – which completely missed the election and had declared Hillary Clinton the winner even before the voting started – is now trying to save face by saying that the polls were not that far off, that Hillary...
Read MorePosted by John Hammer | Nov 17, 2016 | Greensboro, News, Other
State Rep. Jon Hardister won reelection to his third term last week, and this week he’s in another race. This time for a state House leadership position. Hardister, who represents District 59 in Greensboro, is running for House...
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