Blog Title: Exile on Jones Street / a survey of governance and

Annexation

Hearings this morning on municipal annexation in the General Assembly. Sounds well attended. Municipal leaders acknowledge that there have been cases of abuse, but urge that the state not make big changes. Lots of individual getting up with stories of said abuse. Several people advocating for local annexation authority as well. This looks like a big read more..

How about a bailout for papers?

Yeek. Reuters has a story musing over the prospect of government salvation for newspapers — as if the current economic crisis has anything to do with pickle the big chains find themselves in. The economic crisis might be hastening the trip down the drain, but the die was cast for the bigs when they started buying read more..

Democracy NC: Year of the Voter

Bob Hall of Democracy NC, delivers his end of the year wrap up on ‘08. 2008 Recap: The Year of the Voter An analysis of election data by Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan organization, shows that 2008 was a banner for voter participation for North Carolinians, especially African Americans and women. Here are some of the numbers read more..

Union pork

A while back I announced in this blog that I was going to boycott ‘corporate pork,’ a move driven mostly by the reaction to the tactics used by Smithfield Foods and its working conditions at the plant in Tar Heel. Now, I’m not a huge pork eater, but even at a rate around of five pounds read more..

More newspaper tide turning

The AJC announces a circulation cut. They’re stopping delivery to 27 counties — including Cherokee, Clay and Macon in NC — and are concentrating around Atlanta. Elsewhere: I guess it’s a sign of the times that the latest trend in newspapers is renegotiating debt.

Newspapers on the block

This morning, it’s a Reuters story on the sale of the Miami Herald. Yesterday afternoon, it was the Rocky Mountain News. Yesterday morning, this E&P article on the Fitch ratings and the implications were rather sobering. But I have to admit, even as much as I’ve thought the industry is on the skids, I thought when I read more..

Robert Reich on the way out

Let’s see, how much have things changed? Robert Reich gives us a few hints. Fiscal hawks and conservative supply siders notwithstanding, a major stimulus is in order. Government is the spender of last resort, and the nation is coming close to its last resort. This state, BTW, has a bunch of bridges that need fixing and probably read more..

Sunday papers around NC

As you might guess, this week there’s an election theme to the big stories. Ashevile: WNC and Perdue Char-O: How much can Obama take on? ECity: History and challenges Gboro: You’re wrong (also: Ed’s column) Gville Reflector: Repudiation of Jim Crow N&O: Reform much? (also: The making of godless) Wilmington: She prayed every day

Masterclass

From the Times in London: The world has been fascinated and profoundly moved by this election most of all because of what America is — a nation founded on universal aspirations, and thus a mirror to humanity. For two centuries that mirror has seemed irreparably cracked by the legacy of slavery and segregation, a pernicious and read more..

The tide is in

Sorry about the light blogging. Had a paper to put out in all this. Here’s what ran on our editorial page: The Tide Is In Your vote counted. There’s proof. And not just your vote, but the actions you took to get registered, to be informed and whatever it took to put yourself in front of a read more..