Transit bill 'doesn't include roads'

Before the House Transportation Committee approved legislation cosponsored by Rep. Becky Carney, D-Mecklenburg and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to give other counties a way to pay for transit systems such as Charlotte's, Mecklenburg Republican Rep. Ric Killian of Charlotte proposed an amendment allowing local governments to use such funds for roads.
Killian told the committee he was a strong supporter of mass transit and wanted to support the bill, but that transit funds available in Charlotte had done nothing to relieve congestion on area roads. The mass transit system, he said, "simply doesn't relieve congestion."
But other committee members urged the committee to keep the bill for transit. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Wake, told Killian he had plenty of time left in this session to offer a proposal to amend the law in another committee. And Forsyth Republican Bill McGee, one of four primary sponsors of the bill, put it bluntly: "This is a transit bill that does not include roads." The committee voted down Killian's amendment on a voice vote before approving the legislation and sending it on to the House Finance Committee.

Kay: I'll work for more N.C. judges

First-term Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., has issued a statement vowing to work for more North Carolina judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Longstanding partisan bickering among N.C. senators in the past has kept both Republicans and Democrats from being given serious consideration for the post in the U.S. Senate. It has deprived the court, and this state, of good candidates such as Democrats Jim Wynn and Rich Leonard and such Republicans as Terrence Boyle and Robert Conrad.

Here's part of what Hagan had to say:

For 15 years, North Carolina’s interests have taken a backseat to partisan bickering and obstructionism on both sides of the aisle. In November, the people of North Carolina elected me to come to Washington and put their interests first. As Senator Burr and I proceed with the recommendation of candidates to President Obama for the vacancies that currently exist on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, it is my goal to put forth candidates who are not only highly-qualified for this position, but of whom all North Carolinians, Democrat and Republican, will be proud.
I commit to you that filling the vacancies on the 4th Circuit, and giving North Carolina the representation it deserves, will be a key priority of mine over the next six years. I look forward to updating you on the process along the way, and as always, please feel free to contact my press office with any questions you might have.

I've got a call in to Sen. Burr and hope to talk with him, perhaps Thursday.

Will N.C. get more appeals judges?

Today's New York Times has a piece on how President Obama will soon start putting his stamp on the nation's federal judiciary -- and to what extent it will reflect his ideology.

Among the president's opportunities are nominating candidates to fill four vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond -- the appellate court that handles appeals from North Carolina, South Carolina and three other Southern states.

North Carolina has long been under-represented, if that's the right word, on that 4th Circuit court because of a long-standing rift among the state's two senators that began years ago when the late Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican, was in office and Democrats blocked his nominees when a Republican was in the White House and Helms blocked Democrats' nominees when a Democrat held the White House. It has been going on too long.

This would be a good time for Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., to make a concerted effort to put away political rivalries and find a rational way to get more North Carolinians on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. The feuding has blocked some good trial judges from service, including U.S. Eastern District Judge Terrence Boyle, a Republican, who got a raw deal when the Senate refused to hold a vote on his qualifications.

He, and we, deserved better.

Requiem for an old tree

It feels like the death of an old family friend, one we've visited with and admired for more than three decades.

It was an old pine pine tree, thick at its base and twisting into the sky above a Blue Ridge hillside. You can see it off in the middle distance in the photo to the left.

I've always guessed it was a white pine, but the fact is I don't know. But its gnarled trunk and huge lower limbs always captured my imagination, and for a while we thought of putting a cabin there so we could look at its rugged presence among the oak, maple, beech and locust trees that populate our part of Belcher Mountain. As part-time Virginians, we'd be obliged to give the house a name, of course, and we thought of Twisted Pine.

When they were little our children swung from big vines that draped down off a nearby oak, the one at the left of the picture, reprising the roles of Tarzan and Jane and the jungle. We built campfires in its shadow and often spent lazy evenings watching as the old pine turned to black against the evening sky as the sun sank below the ridge.

A few years ago we realized this old tree was mortal like all the rest of us. A huge limb that had grown out of the trunk perhaps six feet off the ground gave way one summer; I tried to block it up to keep it in place but it settled a little more each season. The greenery was gone from its lower limbs, but way up yonder at the top the pine needles still looked bright green, if thinner each succeeding year.

Six years ago a contractor named Buford Wood dropped by to talk about building plans. We stood in the forest looking at the majesty of the place, when Buford surprised me. "I had forgotten how pretty these woods were," he said. You've been back here before, I asked? He looked at me and said, "I grew up here. We lived in that old house down there in the field," he said, pointed to a slowly collapsing farmhouse over close to the road. "My daddy had a sawmill back here and we timbered all these woods when I was a boy. I shot my first shotgun right over there," he said, waving vaguely toward the old pine.

In winter you can still see the remnants of the logging roads Buford's daddy cut through these hills, crossing the steep slopes. Most of them are filled with mature trees, but when the leaves are down you can see where they went. When the trees bud out in May and fully revive in early June it's hard to see 100 feet sometimes. The old traces of Buford Woods' family's sawmill go away for another season or two, reappearing each Thanksgiving.

Buford died a couple of years ago. He came home from work not feeling well one evening, lay down and went away. He was a big man with a lot of admirers, and I've tried to keep his woods cleaned up, hauling away the deadfalls that were too far gone for firewood and cutting up the solid stuff for the wood stove.

In January, walking with friends though the snowy woods, I took a photograph of the old pine, huddled against the cold. I didn't know it would be the last time I'd ever see it standing.

In late February there was a big snow storm and howling winds, and another March 2, and it was a while before we got back up into the hills. I think it happened sometime during those storms. Saturday afternoon, an unusually warm day, I was hauling away broken limbs and other debris when I realized there was a hole against the sky. The old pine had snapped off just above its base. A closer look showed why: Insects had gotten into the tree, probably long ago -- carpenter ants would be my guess -- and had so weakened the tree that it's a wonder to me that it had stood all this time. There wasn't much left that would have helped the tree continue to stand.

It's on the ground now, one more old tree that fought gravity's force for a long time, and finally succumbed. The tree lies in a southeasterly direction, and from that I conclude that a strong prevailing wind from the northwest overcame its resistance.

I haven't been able to bring myself to start cleaning it up yet. I'm hoping there will be some solid pieces in its upper trunk that I might be able to save, perhaps getting a few pieces of small furniture out of its heart. But for now there are good memories about a tough old tree we once regarded as part of our natural landscape. We'll not forget.

June's fightin' words

Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson has fired back over the State Board of Education's decision today empowering newly elected chairman of the board Bill Harrison to run schools on a day-to-day basis. It's interesting especially because a few weeks ago she stood on stage in apparent support of Gov. Bev Perdue's choice of Harrison for the job as part of the governor's plan to resolve questions over school authority.

Here's what Atkinson said today in a press release:

“I congratulate Dr. Bill Harrison for being elected as chair of the State Board of Education.

The State Board of Education also approved the establishment of a chief executive officer position with the authority to manage the day-to-day operations of the Department of Public Instruction and appointed Dr. Harrison to serve in that role. I believe this action violates the Constitution of North Carolina and usurps the will of the voters who granted me the privilege to serve as State Superintendent of Public Instruction. I do not believe that the governance issue will be resolved until it is challenged in the judicial system or the Constitution is changed. I will not abdicate my constitutional and statutory responsibilities.

I remain committed to the 2.2 million voters who elected me and to the children and educators in this state.”

Even the Irish ban smoking in bars

The House Health Committee has approved and sent to another committee a bill to ban smoking in workplaces in North Carolina, including restaurants. A similar but somewhat narrower bill failed in 2005 and 2007, but it appears to have a bit of momentum this year. A column about this bill, and outgoing State Health Director Leah Devlin's 22-year campaign against the adverse effects of second-handsmoke, brought the following response from one reader:

Your op-ed article in [Sunday's] Observer was right on and I congratulate the dogged courage of Dr. Leah Devlin up to the end of her career with the state.
The issue of second-hand smoke has been covered by a ‘smokescreen’ (pun intended!) of property rights. There is no other toxin in our society that can be trumped so easily. As a matter of fact, the level of toxins in the air of an average bar or restaurant that permits smoking would ordinarily evoke the ‘Haz-Met’ team to evacuate the building, surround it with yellow tape and Wolf Blitzer would be circling overhead in the CNN helicopter.
Not only in this economy, but even in times of abundance, the employees and customers of smoking establishments are subjected to toxic air that can eventually cause serious illness and even death. These are not choices that need to be made. Employees, especially, do not have easy options to find another job.
Thank goodness, it appears that the NC House is coming into the 21st century with an attitude of protection of the citizens and visitors of our state. Already large cities like NYC and Chicago, and even the whole country of Ireland ban smoking in restaurants and bars.
To those who still question the propriety of this type of legislation, be sure to realize that a inordinate proportion of your health care insurance dollars are used for smoking related illnesses. And, if you are not a smoker, you are paying for those who do or have.
Thanks again for your ed.
Richard B. Reiling, M.D., FACS
Medical Director
Presbyterian Cancer Center.

Charlotte giving lags behind state

Did you know charitable giving in the Charlotte area lags behind the overall giving rate in North Carolina?
Did you know that Wake County is growing so much faster than Mecklenburg that it is projected to be larger by 2020 -- and both will gain seats in the next legislature?
Did you know the Piedmont Crescent now extends from Greenville to Shelby?

Those were among the facts tossed out Sunday by Prof. Ferrel Guillory at the 2009 N.C. Editorial Writers Conference at UNC Chapel Hill. I've been going to those conferences for more than a quarter-century; this one was the first I can recall that was shortened by a late-winter snow storm, but during a discussion of urban matters Guillory, a former newsman who teaches journalism and runs the Program in Public Life at UNC-CH, talked about an array of findings that he and his outfit turned up in their research on how North Carolina has changed.

*One that caught my eye was a finding from a report he had done on charitable giving trends in urban areas. Using IRS data from 2005 examining adjusted gross income and amounts contributed by those who itemized contributions, he found that givers in the Charlotte metropolitan region give 4 percent of their adjusted gross income. That's more than givers in the Triangle donate (3.7 percent), but less than givers in the Triad region (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem) give (4.74 percent) and less than all N.C. donors give (4.38 percent of income).
On the other hand, measured in the size of contributions, Charlotte donors give more ($4,336) than average N.C. donors ($4,230) and Triangle area donors ($4,131), but still less than Triad donors ($4,438).


*Another that got my attention was North Carolina's growth rate. Nothing really new here. We've long known that census numbers project that Wake would someday pass Mecklenburg in population. In fact, it may not have happened as fast as once projected, but current numbers project that Wake will have 1.13 million people in 2020 while Mecklenburg will have 1.1 million.

That's a lot of folks, but North Carolina has grown enormously, having already absorbed a population the current size of South Carolina since 1970 (we were about 5 million then, an estimated 9 million or so now) and projections are that we'll grow to 12.5 million by 2030.

*The significant population growth will manifest itself in big changes in political representation in Raleigh, with the largest urban areas gaining seats. Guillory said Wake and Mecklenburg will each likely gain one more Senate seat and two more House seats after the next reapportionment, following the 2010 census.

*The Piedmont Crescent long was defined as that heavily populated area curving from Raleigh through Greensboro and Winston-Salem down to Charlotte and Gastonia. Current numbers show that the Piedmont Crescent has grown wider and longer -- stretching as far east as Pitt County, where Greenville has grown dramatically -- and as far west as Cleveland County.