WGHP reports City's assertions of cause for arrested man's hospitalization unchecked

To contact us Click HERE
UPDATE: (7:27 P.M.) In a fine example of a prompt and direct response, WGHP has replied that the assertion had not been substantiated beyond the police press release and they have updated their story to reflect that.

GREENSBORO, NC -- After an alleged struggle with Greensboro police that sent a man to the hospital, the police department issued a press release that attribute to unnamed "medical officials" a determination that the man had a preexisting condition that contributed to his need for hospitalization. This is how they put it:

Zenon San Martn Ramirez, 52, is in Moses Cone Hospital following surgery after EMS personnel determined he had dangerously low blood pressure when treating him for an abrasion to the face he received while resisting arrest. Upon arrival at the hospital, medical officials discovered Ramirez was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the encounter.  [Emphasis added.]

WGHP then regurgitated the assertion of a preexisting condition word-for-word:

Ramirez was taken to Moses Cone Hospital and medical officials said he was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the struggle. [Emphasis added.]

Did "medical officials" say this to WGHP? Or did a Greensboro Police Department employee write in a press release that medical officials said that and did WGHP just copy and paste third-hand unattributed information into their story without actually substantiating it? I've asked WGHP to comment and will update this post when I hear from them.

 

New council representative Wilkins' first order of business: crumble like a cookie

To contact us Click HERE
[UPDATE: Wilkins says he took down his blog on the advice of a "political consultant."]

GREENSBORO, NC -- Tony Wilkins was sworn in to City Council yesterday as a replacement for the departing district five representative Trudy Wade. Tony then promptly proceeded to delete his blog.

That's pretty craven... and dumb.

I endorsed Tony partially based on the fact that he was a blogger. When council members started to question his character during the nominating process for some of his blog posts, councilor Nancy Vaughan came to his defense and said that the fact Tony kept his blog up despite the heat showed his character.

Once he was officially ensconced though, he took it down and made fools of both of us. And it was a dumb thing to do, because his blog is archived here, so he hasn't accomplished anything other than quickly causing us to question his wisdom. Maybe I should have known better.

(Thanks to Sam Hieb for bringing our attention to the missing blog.)

Tchaikovsky's 'In Memoriam'

To contact us Click HERE
There's always something more lurking beneath the surface. There must be some reason, other than me being emotionally unstable, that I cry every time I see The Nutcracker. Those vertiginous harp cadenzas, the longing sigh of Clara's pas de deux with Hans-Peter and the brooding B minor in the cellos during the Waltz of the Flowers get me every time. But Tchaikovsky initially loathed the idea of the ballet and found it impossible to commit any musical thoughts to paper. But something radically changed and, like The Queen of Spades and the 'Pathétique' Symphony, the shadow of death hangs over the score. While it's important not to forget the surface, Tchaikovsky's soaring melodies demand further attention.

It's the basis of my article in the Review section of today's Guardian. You can read it on page 15 of the review section. Or you can click here to read it online.

PHOTOS: Two arrested protesting deportation at Sen. Hagan's office

To contact us Click HERE

Two immigration activists connected to the NC Dream Team were arrested Thursday for refusing to leave US Sen. Kay Hagan's Greensboro office. The two women were protesting the scheduled deportation of single mother Maria Juana Perez, pictured in the center (in a chair wearing a dark coat).

Perez, who lives in Greensboro, has two young daughters (also pictured) who are US citizens. She was arrested for driving without a license and has been in the country since 2000.

Over 20 supporters, including her sister (the woman in blue seated right) assembled at Hagan's office, some meeting with her staff and others holding banners outside. Perez is scheduled for deportation to Mexico on Dec. 27, two days after Christmas — which coincidentally is her birthday.

The two activists who were arrested around 6:50 pm did so as an act of civil disobedience while supporters and reporters looked on. Below, Elisa Benitez can be seen in red through the window in Hagan's office while a police officer (in yellow) talks to the other Dreamer being arrested. More coverage in the next issue of YES! Weekly, available in print and online Wednesday.

Photos and reporting by Eric Ginsburg.

Forsyth County Commission appoints Irene May to school board

To contact us Click HERE

Irene May addresses members of the Forsyth County Commission before a vote to appoint her to fill an unexpired term on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board.  

The Republican-controlled Forsyth County Commission voted by secret ballot to appoint Irene May to a seat on the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board, passing over seven other contenders, including Lori Goins Clark, who ran for a seat on the board in 2010 and serves as president of Forsyth Republican Women.

May will be sworn in to replace school board Chairman Donny Lambeth, who is taking a seat in the NC House. The decision on the school board seat followed a vote by acclamation to appoint Mark Baker to fill the unexpired term of Commissioner Debra Conrad, who is also taking a seat in the NC House.

A four-member bloc of the commission, including Baker, Chairman Richard Linville, Gloria Whisenhunt and Bill Whiteheart, overruled objections from the board's two Democrats and one moderate Republican, who wanted more time to vet the candidates. 

Whiteheart argued that those who had attended the Forsyth County Republican Party executive committee meeting on Dec. 18 had already had the opportunity to vet the candidates. The executive committee voted at that time to recommend David Regnery for the vacant position. Three other Republicans, including May, Goins Clark and David Singletary, had also put their names forward for consideration. 

A surprise announcement by Regnery in the Winston-Salem Journal yesterday that he was withdrawing his name from consideration set in motion a scramble to find a replacement. Louis Newton, Mark R. Johnson and Barbara Lentz, were among those who contacted commissioners expressing interest in the seat following Regnery's withdrawal. Commissioners also received an e-mail recommending Robert Barr, who also ran for school board in 2010. 

Regnery's withdrawal reportedly came while the Journal was raising questions about whether the candidate, who lives in Winston-Salem, had represented himself as a Davie County resident to obtain Class 3 weapons, a category that includes machine guns. Camel City Dispatch was the first local publication to raise questions about Regnery's background as a gun enthusiast in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre. 

The decision by the conservative Republican majority on the commission to appoint May to the seat represents a choice to select a second hard-right candidate after the party's first choice withdrew, over a moderate with name recognition among voters from past campaign experience. 

A visibly upset Goins Clark said as she left the meeting room about how the vote to install May was engineered: "You'll have to ask the conservatives."

skeuomorphs

To contact us Click HERE

In product design, the simplest thought exercise is to make additions. It’s the easiest way to make an Old Thing feel like a New Thing. The more difficult exercise is to reconsider the product in the context of now. A now which may be very different from the then in which the product was originally conceived.
-- Craig Mod, in his essay Subcompact Publishing

Skeuomorph [skyoo-uh-mawrf] — a design element of a product that imitates design elements that were functionally necessary in the original product design, but which have become ornamental in the new design.

It's hard to let go of skeuomorphs, they're cozy and familiar, and sometimes they are intentionally maintained, as Steve Jobs was apparently fond of for iPhone designs. But there are some really interesting things happening out there by people who are eschewing old things and thinking completely "in the context of now."

 The News & Record's new website design utilizes a lot of skeuomorphs. Do they enhance the user experience or are they the product of legacy thinking layered on an old thing to make it feel like a new thing? Do these leftovers from newspaper design help or a hinder the use of the site?

• A masthead 
• Columns (layout, not written pieces, although those too, perhaps).
• Sections
• A division between writers and readers
• Galleries
• Editions

I wonder what the News & Record would look like on the internet if they stopped thinking about putting the "paper" online and asked themselves what is the most interesting and valuable digital product their resources are capable of producing.

Newspaper editor on website fiasco: "My soup's cold."

To contact us Click HERE
GREENSBORO, NC --

Reviews have not been good. The paper takes a beating all week about its functionality-challenged website and in his Sunday column editor Jeff Gauger writes about cold soup. During the Amendment One debate he wrote about blue yard signs. Right before the election he wrote about grits.
-- Sam Hieb

Sam is right, since arriving from Ohio this spring, News & Record editor Jeff Gauger's hokum has been an insult to the people of Greensboro. We are a city of five institutions of higher learning, two of them historically black, of inspiring participation in the civil rights movement and of national renown for our blogging and citizens media. Quaker influences still resonate as we stake a claim to a progressiveness that separates us from most of the rest of North Carolina. Our economic history is of a city built on a triumvirate of tobacco, textiles and furniture powerhouses and the subsequent challenges of having that base disintegrate in quick order by globalization. Our present is about us keeping our heads above water while we remain ever hopeful of revitalization. That's Greensboro.

Grits, Duke blue v. Carolina blue and our soup not hot enough for his liking? Gauger sounds like he's writing to his meemaw back in Akron while passing through, not to the people of his new hometown of whom he has apparently yet to gain any significant understanding, insight or respect.

News & Record editorial dances the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™

To contact us Click HERE
GREENSBORO, NC -- Fast on the heels of complimenting the News & Record for not falling for some press release baloney, I am reminded by George Hartzman that the local daily still has a long way to go in tuning their B.S. meter.

George points to this claim from an unsigned (how quaint) editorial at the News & Record regarding funding for a proposed performing arts center in Greensboro:

"They have private pledges totaling $20 million."

That has come nowhere near being substantiated to any thinking person's satisfaction. It is an undocumented assertion.

In fact, the task force pushing the project has refused to identify any donors or otherwise provide any substantiation to their claims that they have $20 million to contribute to this project — as reported in the News & Record.

The anonymous writer(s?) of the editorial are trying to lead Greensboro in a whirl of the Ol' Greensboro Okee Doke™ and we're not going to dance along, thank you.

WGHP reports City's assertions of cause for arrested man's hospitalization unchecked

To contact us Click HERE
UPDATE: (7:27 P.M.) In a fine example of a prompt and direct response, WGHP has replied that the assertion had not been substantiated beyond the police press release and they have updated their story to reflect that.

GREENSBORO, NC -- After an alleged struggle with Greensboro police that sent a man to the hospital, the police department issued a press release that attribute to unnamed "medical officials" a determination that the man had a preexisting condition that contributed to his need for hospitalization. This is how they put it:

Zenon San Martn Ramirez, 52, is in Moses Cone Hospital following surgery after EMS personnel determined he had dangerously low blood pressure when treating him for an abrasion to the face he received while resisting arrest. Upon arrival at the hospital, medical officials discovered Ramirez was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the encounter.  [Emphasis added.]

WGHP then regurgitated the assertion of a preexisting condition word-for-word:

Ramirez was taken to Moses Cone Hospital and medical officials said he was suffering from a pre-existing [sic] medical condition that may have been aggravated by the struggle. [Emphasis added.]

Did "medical officials" say this to WGHP? Or did a Greensboro Police Department employee write in a press release that medical officials said that and did WGHP just copy and paste third-hand unattributed information into their story without actually substantiating it? I've asked WGHP to comment and will update this post when I hear from them.

 

New council representative Wilkins' first order of business: crumble like a cookie

To contact us Click HERE
[UPDATE: Wilkins says he took down his blog on the advice of a "political consultant."]

GREENSBORO, NC -- Tony Wilkins was sworn in to City Council yesterday as a replacement for the departing district five representative Trudy Wade. Tony then promptly proceeded to delete his blog.

That's pretty craven... and dumb.

I endorsed Tony partially based on the fact that he was a blogger. When council members started to question his character during the nominating process for some of his blog posts, councilor Nancy Vaughan came to his defense and said that the fact Tony kept his blog up despite the heat showed his character.

Once he was officially ensconced though, he took it down and made fools of both of us. And it was a dumb thing to do, because his blog is archived here, so he hasn't accomplished anything other than quickly causing us to question his wisdom. Maybe I should have known better.

(Thanks to Sam Hieb for bringing our attention to the missing blog.)

New council representative Wilkins' first order of business: crumble like a cookie

To contact us Click HERE
[UPDATE: Wilkins says he took down his blog on the advice of a "political consultant."]

GREENSBORO, NC -- Tony Wilkins was sworn in to City Council yesterday as a replacement for the departing district five representative Trudy Wade. Tony then promptly proceeded to delete his blog.

That's pretty craven... and dumb.

I endorsed Tony partially based on the fact that he was a blogger. When council members started to question his character during the nominating process for some of his blog posts, councilor Nancy Vaughan came to his defense and said that the fact Tony kept his blog up despite the heat showed his character.

Once he was officially ensconced though, he took it down and made fools of both of us. And it was a dumb thing to do, because his blog is archived here, so he hasn't accomplished anything other than quickly causing us to question his wisdom. Maybe I should have known better.

(Thanks to Sam Hieb for bringing our attention to the missing blog.)

Citizens will ask Winston-Salem City Council for resolution against Citizens United

To contact us Click HERE

Citizens organized by Occupy Winston-Salem and Democracy North Carolina plan to go before Winston-Salem City Council tonight and to request a resolution in opposition to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision.

The Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that the government cannot restrict campaign finance expenditures by groups operating independent of candidate committees. The decision gave rise to so-called "super PACs," which can spend unlimited amounts of money airing negative ads attacking the opponent of the candidate the committee wants to help elect.

The Greensboro City Council passed a resolution in support of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United in October. The cities of Raleigh, Durham, Asheville and Greensville, along with seven other municipalities had already approved similar resolutions at the time.

The Winston-Salem City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. Those who wish to speak should show up 15 minutes early.

PHOTOS: Two arrested protesting deportation at Sen. Hagan's office

To contact us Click HERE

Two immigration activists connected to the NC Dream Team were arrested Thursday for refusing to leave US Sen. Kay Hagan's Greensboro office. The two women were protesting the scheduled deportation of single mother Maria Juana Perez, pictured in the center (in a chair wearing a dark coat).

Perez, who lives in Greensboro, has two young daughters (also pictured) who are US citizens. She was arrested for driving without a license and has been in the country since 2000.

Over 20 supporters, including her sister (the woman in blue seated right) assembled at Hagan's office, some meeting with her staff and others holding banners outside. Perez is scheduled for deportation to Mexico on Dec. 27, two days after Christmas — which coincidentally is her birthday.

The two activists who were arrested around 6:50 pm did so as an act of civil disobedience while supporters and reporters looked on. Below, Elisa Benitez can be seen in red through the window in Hagan's office while a police officer (in yellow) talks to the other Dreamer being arrested. More coverage in the next issue of YES! Weekly, available in print and online Wednesday.

Photos and reporting by Eric Ginsburg.

Perdue signs pardon of innocence for Wilmington 10

To contact us Click HERE

Gov. Bev Perdue has signed a pardon of innocence for members of the Wilmington 10.

Perdue's full statement on the pardon follows:

“I have spent a great deal of time over the past seven months reviewing the pardon of innocence requests of the persons collectively known as the Wilmington Ten. This topic evokes strong opinions from many North Carolinians as it hearkens back to a very difficult time in our state’s past, a period of racial tensions and violence that represents a dark chapter in North Carolina’s history. These cases generate a great deal of emotion from people who lived through these traumatic events.

"In evaluating these petitions for clemency, it is important to separate fact from rumor and innuendo. I have decided to grant these pardons because the more facts I have learned about the Wilmington Ten, the more appalled I have become about the manner in which their convictions were obtained.

"In 1980, a federal appeals court overturned the convictions in a written decision that highlighted the gross improprieties that occurred during the trial. The federal court determined as a matter of law that numerous instances of prosecutorial misconduct and other constitutional violations took place. Among other things, the court ruled that with regard to the testimony of the prosecution’s key witness — upon whose credibility the case depended entirely — 'the conclusion is inescapable that [he] perjured himself” and that “this fact was bound to be known to the prosecutor....' The court also declared that it was undisputed that key documents had repeatedly been withheld from defense lawyers. It also found numerous errors by the trial judge that had the effect of unconstitutionally prejudicing the defendants’ ability to receive a fair trial.

"Since the trial ended, the prosecution’s key witness and two supporting witnesses all independently recanted their testimony incriminating the defendants. Furthermore, last month, new evidence was made available to me in the form of handwritten notes from the prosecutor who picked the jury at trial. These notes show with disturbing clarity the dominant role that racism played in jury selection. The notes reveal that certain white jurors believed to be Ku Klux Klan members were described by the prosecutor as 'good' and that at least one African-American juror was noted to be an 'Uncle Tom type.'

"This conduct is disgraceful. It is utterly incompatible with basic notions of fairness and with every ideal that North Carolina holds dear. The legitimacy of our criminal justice system hinges on it operating in a fair and equitable manner with justice being dispensed based on innocence or guilt — not based on race or other forms of prejudice. That did not happen here. Instead, these convictions were tainted by naked racism and represent an ugly stain on North Carolina’s criminal justice system that cannot be allowed to stand any longer.

"Justice demands that this stain finally be removed. The process in which this case was tried was fundamentally flawed. Therefore, as governor, I am issuing these pardons of innocence to right this longstanding wrong.”

Tchaikovsky's 'In Memoriam'

To contact us Click HERE
There's always something more lurking beneath the surface. There must be some reason, other than me being emotionally unstable, that I cry every time I see The Nutcracker. Those vertiginous harp cadenzas, the longing sigh of Clara's pas de deux with Hans-Peter and the brooding B minor in the cellos during the Waltz of the Flowers get me every time. But Tchaikovsky initially loathed the idea of the ballet and found it impossible to commit any musical thoughts to paper. But something radically changed and, like The Queen of Spades and the 'Pathétique' Symphony, the shadow of death hangs over the score. While it's important not to forget the surface, Tchaikovsky's soaring melodies demand further attention.

It's the basis of my article in the Review section of today's Guardian. You can read it on page 15 of the review section. Or you can click here to read it online.