Shame of the NCAA

I agree with Tom Sorensen’s piece in the Oct. 27 News & Observer that college athletes should be paid. Paying student-athletes seems like the right thing to do. After all, how is a student-athlete’s work at his or her sport any different from that of a work-study student, except the work-study student gets paid? But […]

Political signs: Refresher course

Nancy and I went out Wednesday to put up political signs for our preferred candidates. We also righted signs for other candidates we would not vote for that had fallen over. Putting up signs is always hard work, a lot of walking, dodging cars when crossing streets and making sure the signs we put up […]

Two-faced

The hypocrisy can pile up only so far before it starts impeding progress. Take this In-the-Pockets-of-Developers misdirection on Tuesday at the election forum co-sponsored by Neighbors for Responsible Growth: The moderator ominously asked Matt Czajkowski, Jon DeHart and Laney Dale whether they had taken campaign contributions from developers. As if this were the McCarthy hearings […]

Hate crimes

Is there any reason the U.S. House and Senate Republican leadership’s treatment of President Obama should not be considered a hate crime? The good ol’ white boys who control the GOP in Washington have done their best to thwart Obama at every turn during the president’s term. And they have declared their primary focus to […]

Attention to detail

After Nancy wondered whether Town Council member Donna Bell, who has missed the past couple of meetings, might be lured back to the chamber by some free food provided by food trucks, a local blogger lashed out. The blogger criticized Nancy for noting Bell’s repeated absence and for wondering why some council members’ absences are […]

Fire the right ones

Chapel Hill leaders know where the Kerry Bigelow-Clyde Clark case is going. You could see it at the hearings, as the two men’s former supervisor, Lance Norris, fumbled his way through conflicting and contradictory statements to the Personnel Appeals Committee charged with making a recommendation to the town. You could see it as Tiffanee Sneed, […]

The honorable thing to do

When the hearing for fired town worker Clyde Clark opens tonight at 7 at the Chapel Hill Public Library, it’s important that residents stand up for this man and support him against what is looking more and more like a grave injustice. Clark and his former co-worker, Kerry Bigelow, were fired by the town in […]

A dandy place for a shelter

As I looked over the Planning Board Shelter Committee’s summary of recommended guidelines for where to put prospective shelters for the homeless, I had a rare moment of insight: Why not move the shelter for the homeless to University Mall instead of the library? Keep the library where it is and put the shelter in […]

Wall Street of the mind

The folks with J&D Tree Pros out of Apex have begun cranking up their chain saws and taking down the trees and shrubs at Municipal Lot 5. Half the property has been cordoned off with yellow tape, sort of like a crime scene, to set it off from the other half, where parking is still […]

Consistently inconsistent

This Town Council sure is hard to figure out. Council members seemed poised to endorse a bicycle path/pedestrian walkway along Old Chapel Hill/Durham Road last night. Town transportation planner David Bonk said the time was right to start the project. The Blue Cross Blue Shield representative expressed concerns, since the project would shave three-quarters of […]