Officially, the Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area has a December 2009 unemployment rate of 7.7%. Unfortunately, the official rate from the state government is not broadly based to capture the real world unemployment.

What’s that? Real world unemployment covers not only the unemployed from larger private employers, but also the unemployed from smaller businesses and the unemployed self-employed. These latter categories are not fully captured in official government statistics. Real unemployment should also include forced part-time workers and so-called “discouraged” workers.

So what happens if you include all of these other unemployment factors into the mix? How high is the real world Chapelboro metro unemployment rate?

The answer is about 17%.

Here’s a chart showing the official unemployment rate (red), the broader (short term “discouraged”) Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 rate (gray), and a fully inclusive national shadow unemployment rate (blue) for the nation. The inclusive blue rate is 2.2 times the official red rate. That means a national unemployment rate of about 22%.

No, this graph is not borrowed from Al Gore as a bogus, hockey stick climate change graph.

Shading unemployment statistics, sheltering us from the truth, how progressive of our national, state, and local leaders.

In most of North Carolina, successful small business people understand that having a vibrant local non-residential tax base is a critical component to a healthy local and regional economy.

However, Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina, here small business people who question the wisdom of a commercial tax base (heavens you wouldn’t even consider industry) are rewarded by their political pals with low interest loans.

Recently Orange County Senator Ellie Kinnaird declared that she has given up trying to expand the southern Orange tax base by persuading a Costco to locate there. Having been told “no thanks” by the financial-understanding-challenged Carrboro governance board (“BOA), she accedes to their higher fiscal wisdom of shackling over ninety percent of the local property tax burden onto town residences.

After her announcement, one of the Carrboro small business geniuses challenged Ms. Kinnaird’s efforts. Mr. Brian Russell, owner of the Carrboro Creative Co-working empire uttered the following “geniousity”. “Senator Kinnaird, Can you provide research that shows residential taxes would be reduced or remain the same if the commercial tax base is increased? As a member of the local business community I’ve asked this question of several local elected officials. One commissioner pointed me to a study that says additional commercial taxes to the County would NOT significantly decrease residential taxes.

I share your concern that many people are priced out of our Towns. Plus I agree that a diverse group of businesses of all sizes helps our community. But until I see more data to back up the assertion that commercial taxes will lower our residential taxes I will remain skeptical.”

Can Mr. Russell be serious? Unfortunately, in his vernacular, “yesh”!

Mr. Russell apparently doesn’t comprehend that one of the dreaded big box stores (like Costco) is worth about $17,000,000 in assessed value. Such a property will pay the same amount of town property tax money (which goes solely into town coffers) as about 60 average Carrboro residences. Let’s not forget that, unlike 60 homes, the retailer doesn’t burden the county with school needs. Thus, the almost additional $300,000 that the retailer will pay the county in county taxes reduces the burden on existing Carrboro taxpayers. (Wait, doesn’t Mr. Russell live outside high-tax Carrboro?)

If Carrboro had but five big box retailers within its borders, then the town would receive about $500,000 in town taxes. That’s equivalent to 300 homes, or to about 3% of the town budget. Just five stores.

How does Carrboro reward Mr. Russell for his enlightened financial state? Why he is a special high-risk town debtor. He has received an only partially secured Carrboro low interest loan.

In most of North Carolina, a town would be glad to have a Costco store set up shop. Costco is seen as a responsible big box retailer by most people who don’t believe that local government should pick economic winners and losers.

However Carrboro, the blind beacon of absurdist anarchism, most definitely is not like the rest of North Carolina. In Carrboro, local government is based on rewarding your friends, enabling them to pursue new boundaries in business efficiency and customer service.

None other than Orange County State Senator Ellie Kinnaird has given up on trying to bring a Costco to Carrboro. Revealing a moment of lucidity, Ms. Kinnaird declared that “[Costco is] very well suited to the county. Bringing a big-box store like Costco would have created jobs for low-income community members.” In a capricious moment, Ms. Kinnaird showed concern for building the commercial tax base in a town copmaratively devoid of competitive commercial businesses that aren't tied into local government.

Never fear, the Carrboro rulers, the competition-strangling BOA asphyxiated any further efforts by Ms. Kinnaird. In her words, “I’m giving up. It’s a lost cause.”

Alderman Jacquie Gist, armed with two decades of blathering experience, but zero years of business experience, declared that Costco would hurt the small businesses in Carrboro. According to Ms. Gist, big box retailers like Costco “only have loyalty to themselves”. Ms. Gist failed to explain how Costco is different from local retailer Weaver Street Market (WSM). Apparently, the abandonment of Carrboro for administrative and production facilities in Hillsborough are the acts of a more loyal local business to Ms. Gist. But then Ms. Gist during the fall elections used big box retailer Staples for some of her campaign supplies, a dreaded big box retailer not located in Carrboro, but conveniently located for Carrboro hypocrites.

Ms. Gist further demonstrated her financial perspicacity by saying that Carrboro is doing better financially thant many places that have a Costco. The reason? “Big corporations are a part of the reason the economy is the way it is”.

Not to be left out of any bad decision, vehicular assault expert Alderman Dan Coleman publicly told Ms. Kinnaird to ”take her ideas about Costco to Chapel Hill”, as Ms. Kinnaird is moving to Chapel Hill. Such respect for the woman who launched Mr. Coleman's political career in Carrboro is to be expected from Carrboro's most infamous misogynist.

Ms. Gist was backed up in her peculiar wisdom of government-business nepotism by one of her pals. Mr. Jason Baker, WSM owner services and events coordinator, argues that Costco, with a far greater logistics efficiency than WSM, somehow leaves a larger carbon footprint per delivered good than WSM. Ever the visionary, albeit one freed from empirical confirmation, Mr. Baker says that money from local businesses is better for the community as a whole.

It all boils down to controlling people’s behavior. In Mr. Baker’s words, “We don’t need to tempt people with bad choices”. (See the DTH Costco Catastrophe Story.)

Furthermore, Mr. Baker, a UNC political science major and erstwhile political pollster, neglects to explain how Costco is a “bad choice”, considering that WSM employees don’t receive the same suite of benefits as Costco employees. The average WSM employee doesn’t receive:
1) a solid health care plan;
2) a dental care plan;
3) a pharmacy program;
4) a vision program;
5) a 401(k) plan;
6) a dependent care assistance plan;
7) a personal/family/work care program;
8) a voluntary short-term disability program;
9) a life insurance plan;
10) an employee stock purchase plan;
11) a health care reimbursement account;
12) a long term care insurance; and
13) a long term disability program.
The average Costco employee does receive each of these benefits.

Did Mr. Baker also forget to mention that Costco pays a higher average wage than WSM?

The signs were everywhere. Orange County sales tax revenues, down. County building permits, down. County economic development, down, but then when in the past decade has it been really up? Yet the Commishes kept spending every penny of the FY 2009-2010 budget.

The progressive mantra in Orange County has been not to worry about living within one’s means, but to live within one’s feelings. If a county program promotes social justice, then fund it. Don’t worry about how household county tax burdens have more than doubled compared to the rate of inflation. Don’t worry about how a high tax burden dissuades private businesses from settling in Orange County. Don’t worry about spiraling pension funding costs and how the average county employee makes over 50% more than the average county privately paid employee, if one includes all benefits.

Only now the fowl price tag for the spending spree by progressive Commishes for the past decade has come home to roost. Anyone who hasn’t visited Hillsborough lately hasn’t seen where their tax dollars have been poured into the ground. There’s a new government center costing $25,000,000. Too bad it wasn’t competitively bid. Too bad commish pals walked away with substantial profits from this deal. There’s a new library costing $8,000,000. Too bad the Commishes didn’t resolve a countywide library system with all county towns BEFORE building a book palace in Hillsborough. There’s a new justice center costing… well, you get the picture.

Maybe Commish Mike Nelson knew what he was doing when he abandoned his beloved, but tax overburdened Carrboro for Hillsborough right before the big county spending spree in Hillsborough.

Orange County has a $5,700,000 budget shortfall heading into FY 2010-11. That amount represents 3.77 cents per $100 of assessed value on the county property tax rate, or about $113.10 on a $300,000 house.

County Manager Frank Clifton delivered the chicken roosting report last week. The property tax base (75% of county revenue) is flat (obvious to anyone viewing the property sales reports). County sales taxes (another 10% of revenues) remain flat with little growth expected. What a surprise, except to those following the monthly sales tax reports from the state.

No wonder former County Manager Laura Blackmon flew the coop.

The county has about 915 authorized positions, 145 of which are currently vacant, and therefore unpaid. According to Mr. Clifton, ”We will probably be recommending the elimination of a lot of positions. I don't know how many. It's a key element of our strategy for next year's budget.” However, eliminating unfilled and unpaid positions doesn’t solve a budget shortfall problem. You have to make cuts. (Pulpster know the Pulp refrain about the growth in local municipal FTE positions far outpacing the rate of population growth.)

So Mr. Clifton says he will look at cutting programs beyond the county's core mission of providing education, emergency services, solid waste disposal and other basic services. When was the last time Pulpsters heard that expression, “core mission”? The Commishes like talking about everything but the core mission. Witness the trash transfer station siting debacle over the past four years.

Unbelievably, Mr. Clifton is considering cuts in the arts, tourism or land conservation. ”Each one has a core constituency. We're sure not everybody's going to be happy.” (See CHN OC Budget Story.)

As predicted by the Pulp in October 2009, Mr. Nelson is leaving office ahead of a budget disaster, just like he did Carrboro before that.

No word on the next political venue to be blessed to receive Mr. Nelson’s Midas touch.

Recently, a report entitled “Surface Record Temperatures Policy Driven Deception?” was released by the Science and Public Policy institute. The policymaker summary included the following points:

“1. Instrumental temperature data for the pre-satellite era (1850-1980) have been so widely, systematically, and unidirectionally tampered with that it cannot be credibly asserted there has been any significant “global warming” in the 20th century.
2. All terrestrial surface-temperature databases exhibit very serious problems that render them useless for determining accurate long-term temperature trends.
3. All of the problems have skewed the data so as greatly to overstate observed warming both regionally and globally.
4. Global terrestrial temperature data are gravely compromised because more than three-quarters of the 6,000 stations that once existed are no longer reporting.
5. There has been a severe bias towards removing higher-altitude, higher-latitude, and rural stations, leading to a further serious overstatement of warming.
6. Contamination by urbanization, changes in land use, improper siting, and inadequately-calibrated instrument upgrades further overstates warming.
7. Numerous peer-reviewed papers in recent years have shown the overstatement of observed longer term warming is 30-50% from heat-island contamination alone.
8. Cherry-picking of observing sites combined with interpolation to vacant data grids may make heat-island bias greater than 50% of 20th-century warming.
9. In the oceans, data are missing and uncertainties are substantial. Comprehensive coverage has only been available since 2003, and shows no warming.
10. Satellite temperature monitoring has provided an alternative to terrestrial stations in compiling the global lower-troposphere temperature record. Their findings are increasingly diverging from the station-based constructions in a manner consistent with evidence of a warm bias in the surface temperature record.
11. NOAA and NASA, along with CRU, were the driving forces behind the systematic hyping of 20th-century 'global warming'.
12. Changes have been made to alter the historical record to mask cyclical changes that could be readily explained by natural factors like multidecadal ocean and solar changes.
13. Global terrestrial data bases are seriously flawed and can no longer be trusted to assess climate trends or VALIDATE model forecasts.
14. An inclusive external assessment is essential of the surface temperature record of CRU, GISS and NCDC 'chaired and paneled by mutually agreed to climate scientists who do not have a vested interest in the outcome of the evaluations.'
15. Reliance on the global data by both the UNIPCC and the US GCRP/CCSP also requires a full investigation and audit.”

The report points out that “Around 1990, NOAA began weeding out more than three-quarters of the climate measuring stations around the world. They may have been working under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It can be shown that they systematically and purposefully, country by country, removed higher-latitude, higher-altitude and rural locations, all of which had a tendency to be cooler.”

As noted by the report, “In a volunteer survey project, Anthony Watts and his more than 650 volunteers found that over 900 of the first 1067 stations surveyed in the 1221 station US climate network did not come close to meeting the specifications. Only about 3% met the ideal specification for siting.”

So how does the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) weather station site in Chapel Hill stack up? Turns out, the Chapel Hill station gets a “fair” rating. What’s that? It means that there’s an error of about one degree Centigrade too high. That rating comes from having an artificial heating source within 10 meters to 30 meters. The Chapel Hill weather reporting station is located at 35.92°N, 79.1°W, at a ground level of 152 meters above sea level. That location is otherwise known as the front lawn of OWASA, as pictured above.

The good news is that Chapel Hill is not part of the 69% of the stations evaluated as reporting a greater than a two degree elevated error (in some cases over five degrees elevated). Chapel Hill is part of the 22% of the 1221 surveyed stations in the “fair” category.

One of the mantras of modern progressivism is that transparency in government is good. The more an ordinary citizen knows about their elected officials and their reasons for decisions, the quality of the decisions will be better. However, here in Orange County, transparency is clear as the Eno River after a red clay gullywasher.

No better example can be found than in Carrboro, home of palocracy and good political deals for good political friends. Last month the Pulp reported on the use of ARRA funds to build bike lanes in boonyville as opposed to Estes Road, the most heavily used dangerous road for bikers in Carrboro. Turns out that Carrboro government is throwing $1,800,000 for a Veridia bike lane to the benefit of more than an elected official, Mayor Mark Chilton.

Pulpsters can be forgiven for having missed the fact that the spouse of a former Carrboro official is now in business with Mr. Chilton. Yes, Ms. Bronwyn Merritt Dorosin, wife of former Carrboro Alderman Mark Dorosin, former owner of the bar “Hell”, is now a “broker in charge” at Community Realty, Mr. Chilton’s real estate sales business.

Pulpsters will remember that Mr. Dorosin voted to approve the eight acre, Carrboro coal camp vernacular 46 unit development, Pacifica. The Boa (including Mr. Dorosin) turned a $50,000 town sidewalk gift into a $500,000 Hanna sidewalk/street widening charade for Pacifica developers. Of course, that vote helped not only Mr. Dorosin, but also former Carrboro Alderman John Herrera. How? Both Mr. Herrera and Mr. Dorosin were employees of the Self Help Credit Union (SHCU) of Durham, North Carolina. This organization did the financing for Pacifica.

Pulpster should also remember that the Pacifica developers included not only Mr. Chilton’s “employee”, Mr. Thomas Whisnant, but also Mr. Giles Blunden. In turn, Mr. Blunden also happens to be involved in the Veridia development. (Will SHCU finance Veridia as well?)

The Pulp can’t tell you ALL of the financially interested parties in either the Pacifica development or the Veridia development. Why? Carrboro government doesn’t require financial transparency in real estate development approvals. That’s right. Only the conscience of those involved is the regulator for disclosure. Instead of requiring ALL parties getting benefit from a development to be listed (including all owners of business entities), Carrboro allows opaque, throwaway development corporations and limited liability companies to file applications without disclosing all who benefit. So much for the progressive beacon of Carrboro government.

Can you imagine why progressive Boa members don’t require complete financial transparency on real estate developments that they oversee? Perhaps they don't want you to know that Community Realty, Mr. Chilton's firm, is the premier listing company for Veridia.

Say, where is the local media on the financial transparency issue? That is when some of them aren't reviewing their loan from the town officials they are ostensibly watching. Anyone? Anyone?

For most Orange County residents, a filed police incident report is a public matter. It is not withheld from public release. However, the failed trailer park run at the presidency of Mr. John Edwards isn’t about ordinary Orange County residents.

Turns out that on 10 October 2008, Ms. Elisabeth Edwards, now estranged wife of Mr. John Edwards, reported that the no-good whoring bum (aka Mr. Edwards) came to eat dinner with their children after a sports event. Ms. Edwards told him they were dining with the babysitter, and he had no business being there. Mr. Edwards challenged her saying it was his house as well. Then Ms. Edwards claimed Mr. Edwards took her wallet, which contained $320, credit cards and a cell phone. As Mr. Edwards left the Edwards Carrboro trailer park compound, he was asked to give the wallet back. He said he didn’t have it.

That report wasn’t released to the public by Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass until February 2010, almost 15 months later. (See N&O Blog Story.) Coincidentally, “The Politician”, a “tell all” book by former Edwards campaign stooge, Mr. Andrew Young, was released just prior to that Orange County Sheriff’s release.

According to Sheriff Pendergrass, an NC state statute allows incident reports to be kept confidential temporarily in cases where the documents’ release could endanger the victim’s physical or mental well-being. However, Sheriff Pendergrass gave no evidence as to why he believed there was any such endangerment for a national figure such as Ms. Edwards, and why the need persisted for 15 months.

In most of North Carolina, library systems are countywide, paid for by all county residents, open to all county residents.

However, things aren’t usually normal in Orange County. Here we have little political fiefdoms, each intent on spending your money like drunken sailors on shore leave.

Currently there are two separate library systems in Orange County. One is a county system (OCPL) that is available to all county residents. The main OCPL facility is a brand spanking new, 23,500 square feet, two story building at 137 W. Margaret Lane in Hillsborough with a small branch in Carrboro.

The new $8,000,000 facility was built at a time of great economic hardship. Official policy is to excuse the timing of such expenditures as being beneficial to economically stressed taxpayers. In the words of the North Carolina’s state librarian, Ms. Mary Boone, “We're all worried about the economy and our future well-being. During economic downturns, usage of public libraries always increases. That is very much the case this time; we're seeing a dramatic increase, and nationally library usage is at an all-time high.” (See CHN Hillsborough Library Story.)

The other system is the Chapel Hill public library (CHPL), the most per capita used library in the state. However, only 60% of the CHPL service is by Chapel Hill Residents. A large percentage of the CHPL service goes to benefit adjacent Carrboro residents. That burden is forcing Chapel Hill government to consider raising taxes by about $30.00 annually in order to pay for operating costs. Although Orange County provides money to Chapel Hill for the CHPL operations, it’s only about 11% of the CHPL operating budget while the outside Chapel HIll demand is 40% of the services.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton doesn't like being asked to pay for services used by his residents. When asked about meeting with Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Mr. Chilton said, “I suppose we have to, although I do not look forward to it. I am no way – no how – never going to vote to put Carrboro into the same dysfunctional relationsip with either the County or Chapel Hill that the two of them already have with each other.” Mayor Chilton, an expert in dysfunctional relationships, prefers to create his own.

According to Mr. Chilton, Carrboro can't afford to pay for using Chapel Hill's library. Acording to Mr. Chilton, Chapel Hill and Orange County should open a branch on Franklin Street, “putting library services in walking distance of much of the population, including low-income people of color who might have difficulty getting to libraries farther out.” (See CHN Library Story.) Curiously, Mr. Chilton is unaware that low income people of color can take a free bus ride from their neighborhoods to the library which is a distance of about two miles. Apparently, the race card is still a trump card in Chapelboro.

Mr. Chilton conveniently forgets to mention that he has been seeking a $2,700,000 OCPL branch in Carrboro, to be located all of about two miles away from the CHPL facility. (See Chilton Coleman Guest Column.) This branch palace will bear additional operating costs to the county.

Meanwhile, Chapel Hill Councilor Lauren Easthom isn't happy. “I suppose it is dysfunctional that we’ve been paying for Carrboro’s use of the library all these years. Where’s Carrboro in the picture? Why is it always our burden?” (See Herald Sun CHPL Story.)

No word on whether or not Alderman Dan Coleman will offer to screen Carrboro residents using the CHPL facility - ”Are you from Carrboro?”

Sordid is as sordid does.

So it should come as no surprise to Pulpsters that the John Edwards - Rielle Hunter affair is driving even further into the trailer park. Virtue challenged Ms. Hunter is suing Mr. Andrew Young (the Edwards aide who lied about fathering little Frances) for some trailer park trash – sex tapes starring videographer Hunter.

Mr. Young says he has an alleged sex tape depicting the former senator and his then-mistress Rielle Hunter. Mr. Young says the tape in question clearly shows Mr. Edwards right in the middle of a ”sexual encounter” with a visibly pregnant woman wearing a thumb ring similar to one that Ms. Hunter frequently wears. ”[My wife and I] just fell on the floor. We were agape. It was disappointing to see the person you had such hopes and dreams for be so careless.”

So Ms. Hunter got a restraining order right here in the Orange County courts. On January 28, 2010, she filed a motion against Mr. Young in a North Carolina court. It seeks the return of photos and videos, including one she says she made in 2006 while working in depth for Mr. Edwards. According to a sworn affidavit by the always truthful Ms. Hunter, ”In or about September 2006, using my video camera, I authored a personal video recording that depicted matters of a very private and personal nature. In 2006, I was also having an intimate relationship with Edwards.”

There seems to be conflicting stories about how the tape got into Mr. Young's hands. According to Ms. Hunter, the tape was in a ”hat box” in her rental home. It was taken from her without her knowledge or consent to ”generate publicity”.

According to Mr. Young, he and his wife Cheri found the tape in ”a box of trash filled with crinkled paper and tapes” left behind by Ms. Hunter. Meanwhile, a police report has surfaced that reveals Edwards' marriage was crumbling just months after he admitted the affair with Hunter in August 2008. (See NY Daily News Tape Story.)

Mr. Young full understands the way justice is dispensed in progressive Orange County courts. ”We may lose the battle only because we don't have the money or power that John and Elizabeth do. “We also don't have friends in the judicial system like they do. But we do know the truth and we have the determination to get it out.” (See People Tape Story.)

No word when someone will wake up the local media to report this incredibly newsworthy national story happening in Orange County.

As the state of North Carolina grapples with the worst loss of employment since recordkeeping started over 30 years ago, in most of North Carolina elected officials are trying to hold on to diminishing state revenues from the taxation of employment. But then most of North Carolina does not believe in socialistic anarchism that reduces government to line-of–sight tribalism.

Leave it to Chapelboro to promote the latest socialistic anarchistic fad – crop mobbing. What’s that? According to the crop mobbers, it’s “a group of young, landless, and wannabe farmers who come together to build and empower communities by working side by side. Crop mob is also a group of experienced farmers and gardeners willing to share their knowledge with their peers and the next generation of agrarians. The membership is dynamic, changing and growing with each new mob event.”

Crop mobbers lament the passing of endless hours of backbreaking, menial work on farms that virtually enslaved small farmers to the soil. They believe that farmers were not independent producers. They believe that farming was a community-wide activity in which families rotated working for their neighbors for free. They obviously have not studied the famous literary works of rural American writers from a century ago.

In the words of the farm owner, Mr. Bobby Tucker, heir apparent and co-manager of Tucker Family Farm LLC headquartered in a brick McMansion in suburban Charlotte, he could spend decades trying to perfect a sustainable farm. ”It's a lifestyle. It's a political statement. It's trying to reconnect with your food.” (See N&O Food Touching Story.)

Crop mobbers believe that because no money changes hands that they are exempt from state and federal law regarding employment and the taxation of labor services. They are wrong.

It should come as no surprise to Pulpsters that Carrboro Alderman Sammy Slade is in the middle of the crop mobbers. The N&O featured an article on crop mobbing with a photograph of none other than Mr. Slade working on the Okfuskee farm in Chatham County. Mr. Slade, a self-described carpenter with no visible business, doesn’t explain how the failure to pay taxes on the crop mobbing labor will help the state in its current economic crisis. Neither does “the Obama of Carrboro” explain why he supports tax evasion practices.

Juxtapose Mr. Slade’s crop mobbing with the announcement that the state owes $1,400,000,000 from the current high unemployment rate of almost 12%, the highest ever recorded. The state has been borrowing as much as $20,000,000 from the federal government. That’s per day.

According to Mr. David Clegg, deputy chairman and chief operating officer of the N.C. Employment Security Commission, the total will rise to at least $2,000,000,000 by the end of 2010. For purposes of comparison, the state budget for the current fiscal year is $19,000,000,000. ”It's way beyond precedent”. During the last recession, the state borrowed less than $300,000,000 for its unemployment insurance trust fund. Only five states have borrowed more than North Carolina. (See N&O Unemployment Cost Story.)

Perhaps Mr. Slade doesn’t know that the only source of money for the unemployment insurance fund, other than federal government loans, is the unemployment insurance tax paid by private employers in the state. Farmers don’t pay such taxes for crop mobber labor. Crop mobbers are as oblivous of these taxes as they are of their displacement of immigrant agricultural labor, Mr. Slade's “people”.