The irrepressible, flaccid ED “geniousity” that is Alderman Dan Coleman comes to the fore yet again. Mr. Jesse Kalisher, President of the Carrboro Merchants Association (CMA), resigned in response. Mr. Kalisher founded the CMA in 2008 to promote the historic Carrboro business district.

Apparently, it all started with an online post by Mr. Danny Miller, a co-founder of Mini Cassette Tees in Chapel Hill and member of the Drinking Liberally Carrboro Chapter. He started the cerebral Progressive ED discussion by calling the CMA “Walk Carrboro” map a “joke”. “To say that this is the map of what is available in Carrboro is a crying shame. It's a map of businesses that can afford to have a bad drawing of their business on a poster that is a vapid version of Universal Studios map or Disney Land map.”

Unable to resist from exhibiting his geniousity, as if wearing a thong on a Outer Banks beach, AlderDan wrote, “I've heard much appreciation for your email over the past few days. Your comments on Jesse's map reminded me of an old running gag in Mad Magazine in the 1980s: 'What advertising genius thought of this one?'”.

Mr. Kalisher openly resigned in response.

AlderDan went into damage control mode, just as he did after committing vehicular assault on a women in 2007. Of course, the truth went out the window. He claimed that his comments were directed at Mr. Miller and not at the “Walk Carrboro” map. ”I'd heard a number of people say that they appreciated Danny's e-mail, not necessarily the tone, but the points he made. I wanted to let him know that. My e-mail says nothing about my own opinion of Danny's e-mail, or the points he made, or of the tone of his e-mail.” (See CHN CMA Story.)

You read. You decide.

Once again, that party on, party hard, party guide (The Indy) proves that whatever its editorial staff knew about journalistic ethics has been lost in a haze of psychoactive smoke, alcohol, and mirrors, proving one get what one pays for. (The Indy is distributed for free.)

Back in 2006, there was the famous “dancing with bricks” incident on the Carr Mill Mall Lawn in Carrboro. Mr. Bruce Thomas frequented the lawn in lieu of holding a full time job. He twirled like a whirling dervish on the lawn, while sometimes grasping a brick in each hand. Mr. Thomas' conduct was reported to Mr. Nathan Millian, the property manager, by an anonymous source. Mr. Millian told Mr. Thomas to stop dancing on the lawn. Then all hell broke loose.

Mr. Thomas happened to be African-American. Thus, the zany Carrboro governance board (including Mayor Mark Chilton and Aldermen Dan Coleman and Randee Haven O'Donnell) caterwauled that stopping Mr. Thomas was all about racial oppression.

Pulpsters will remember the big dance-in. Town officials openly trespassed on the Carr Mill Lawn, violating the rules of use established for a piece of private property, replete with smiles and constructively raised middle digits.

Fast forward to 2010. The Indy editor, Ms. Lisa Sorg, writes a puff piece beatifying Mr. Thomas. Guess what happened to the pesky bricks that would have offered a non-racial explanation? They must have been made from transcendental clay, for they have vanished. Ms. Sorg doesn't speak of them, therefore they never existed.

Instead, Ms. Sorg drags out that sorry dance-in drum of racism to explain the un-saintly incident. “There are several theories as to why the an unknown complainant was bothered by Bruce, but a popular one is that a well-toned African-American man, wrapped in tie-dyed scarves and dancing in public, could be bad for business, although there is no evidence he drove anyone away.”

Gee, maybe someone was just scared of being accidentally smashed in the jaw if a brick broke free from Mr. Thomas’ hands?

Naw, it’s better for Ms. Sorg to filter the facts and to attack anyone who doesn’t have partying as their occupation.

As Ms. Sorg says when talking about the media, ”A lot of people don't realize the machinations that are going on and the puppeteering that takes place in the mainstream media before information gets to the consumer. I think people still need to know a lot more about who owns what, and who's controlling their information, and what the agenda is.”

The pot calling the kettle “black”. How progressive!

In most of North Carolina, the local media would consider the suing of a town by a local real estate developer denied a subdivision permit to be newsworthy. Particularly so, if the developer substantially reconstructed their project to satisfy the wants of land use planning minions of the town’s governance board. Particularly so, if hundreds objected to those forced changes at the public hearings surrounding that denial.

However, Carrboro and southern Orange County aren’t like the rest of North Carolina. Here we're fortunate just to have recently obtained one newspaper editor not in bed with advocacy journalism. We're fortunate to have an editor trying to do more than entertain a withering pool of disinterested readers who can discover better news in the Pulp. He’s Mr. Dan Way. He’s not in the pockets of local municipal boosters. He’s not in corporate debt to town leaders. (Who allowed him to be appointed?)

The case for reporting is clear. A Colleton Crossing attorney asked a local judge to suspend a court case in order for the developer to seek an alternative entrance to the environmentally sensitive development.

What court case? Apparently, the Colleton Crossing owners, the Melvilles, filed a lawsuit against the town of Carrboro. In May 2009 the Melvilles were denied a permit application for Colleton Crossing, which would be located near the end of Tally Ho Trail, by that zany crew of characters known as the Boa. The Melvilles then sued the town over that decision.

Not one local media outlet reported the filing of the case.

Maybe that's because the town of Carrboro didn't release a media statement informing its citizen of the lawsuit. Apparently there's no town policy requiring such notice be given either to the citizens or to the media. Just as there is no town policy for giving a budget line item for how much money is given to the town's outside contractor attorney. Gee, who profits from the successive spate of lawsuits Carrboro has been involved in during the last ten years? Can you say “Harris Teeter”?

Thankfully, under Mr. Way’s direction, the Herald Sun did file a story when it learned of the lawsuit through the open court request. (See Herald Sun Lawsuit Story.)

How about the other newspapers?

The Chapel Hill News, a real estate advertiser par excellence, has said nothing, despite hundreds of citizens attending public meetings on Colleton Crossing in opposition. Apparently, it’s just not as newsworthy as those heartwarming and entertaining “feel good” stories that escape your consciousness within weeks, if not days.

The Carrboro Citizen, indebted to the town of Carrboro to the tune of about $50,000 has said nothing. Apparently, it’s too busy trying to repay the loan to the party being sued, the town of Carrboro. The editor, Mr. Kirk Ross, has apparently even been queried about the lawsuit by a reader, to no avail. Not that being in debt would ever cause anyone to change their behavior to their creditor. Such preternatural behavior is so progressive.

A major part of the local living economy of Orange County is the succulent sucking sound of non-profit organizations that outnumber the for-profit businesses. Many such entities live and die by government contributions to these essentially unaccountable organizations. There is no freedom of information act that enables one to peek into these organizations.

Recently, El Centro Latino (ECL), shuttered its doors. The press duly reported the shuttering and sang the praises of the ECL work. Programs included: 1) Acceso y Apoyo - bilingual access to community services related to health care, childcare education, housing, and other critical basic needs; 2) Adult Education - provides skill-building classes in order to gain self-sufficiency skills required to achieve gainful employment including English as second Language; and 3) Busca Empleo - a one-on-one employment consultation.

While all of these programs have noble goals, Pulpsters may wonder, where’s the local government? Isn’t the role of local government in part to provide employment assistance for the unemployed and adult education classes for the undereducated?

More importantly, the local media failed to look at why ECL doors are being shuttered.

At the end of its 2007 fiscal year in June 2008, ECL reported the following financials. ECL received $131,280 in government grants. (From 2003 through 2006, ECL collected over $800,000 in grants.) Total revenues for the year were over $211,000.

According to ECL, it was in the black on July 1, 2008 with about $90,000 in cash assets. The salaried employee was Mr. Ben Balderas, ECL’s executive director. He received over $48,000 in compensation, up from about $30,000 the previous year. It had an annual lease of about $22,000, or $1800 a month. Total burn rate for ECL was about $16,000 month. Thus, the cash reserve represented five months of full time burn.

One year later ECL was out of cash and shuttering its doors, with a new executive director, Mr. Victor Melendez. According to one report by the Daily Tar Heel, Mr. Melendez replaced Mr. Balderas in July 2008 so that Mr. Balderas could work directly with social services.

The local media writes the feel good story, look at what great work ECL does. It neither asks why isn’t that work being done by local government, nor does it ask, what happened to the $90,000 in cash? How progressive.

In most parts of North Carolina, insanity is recognized as endlessly performing the same inefffective act in order to solve a problem.

However, Orange County isn’t like the rest of North Carolina. Here, maintaining the local dominance of a Democratic progressive party is more important than solving problems.

The number one issue identified by candidates for the Carrboro municipal election was the tax base imbalance, residents pay 90% of the property taxes, and businesses only 10%. Although the incumbents created this financial mess, can you guess who was elected? Yes, why wouldn’t you re-elect those who created the mess as the best qualified to fix the mess?

Part of the causation for this genius is the high code of ethics practiced by the local print media, in particular, the Chapel Hill News and the Carrboro Citizen. Progressives aren't troubled by the latter having to maintain objectivity in the face of owing the town of Carrboro $50,000 for a town loan approved just before the election.

The clear violation of the code of ethics for journalism doesn't matter. There's no causal link between that loan and the failure of the Carrboro Citizen to ask any probing questions of candidates. Progessives can't be corrupted, as there has never been any corruption in Chapelboro, ever.

Let’s look at the probing and insightful questions prepared by the CHN:
1) How will you balance growth while preserving Carrboro's identity?
2) How would you ease the tax burden while maintaining town services? What would you cut if anything?
3) Do you support University Lake watershed rules or would you change them?

Now let’s compare these critically vital questions to what citizens living in Carrboro asked at a local neighborhood forum:
1) The Carrboro tax base is 90% residential. Residential taxation brings in $0.76 for every $1.00 of services while commercial taxation brings in $4.21 for every $1.00 expended. Why has this persisted?
2) Don't use the current recession as a reason. You can go up US 15-501 and cross into Durham or down US 15-501 to Chatham and see a lot of commercial growth even this past year. Every election all candidates pledge to increase the commercial tax base. Incumbents tell the voters why they should expect something different if you serve another term when you haven't done much to fix the situation in all your prior terms? Challengers, tell the voters what will you do differently?
3) No one in the neighborhood wanted to know a candidate’s opinion on foreign affairs, or legislation passed in other states, or whether we should spend money on products from a country that opposes our foreign policy. What's up with all the Carrboro town resolutions? If no one wants to know your opinion on these things, why do you insist on giving it? Don't we elect senators and congressmen to deal with national and international affairs?
4) Carrboro spent hundreds of thousands of dollars this past year on attorney's fees for an attorney that doesn’t work or live in Carrboro and isn’t a staff attorney as in Chapel Hill. Carrboro spent $550,000 spent to acquire MLK park, and made an unsecured $70,000 loan given to a local store owner on the edge of bankruptcy, who then went bankrupt How well is our money being spent?
5) How do you view the future of farmland adjacent to Carrboro and how is it affected by LUO, watershed regulations and the ETJ?
6) Regarding the ETJ, should jurisdiction be handed back to the county?
7) Recently the BOA decided to make null and void homeowners association covenants that restricted the use of clotheslines. Please address how much and to what extent government should tell individuals how they should live. To what extent should individuals and groups of individuals such as a homeowners association be free to decide for themselves how they wish to live?
8) Although recently put on the back-burner, do you support the high density development of Carolina Commons?
9) What would be lost or gained by the Carrboro community in the merger of Carrboro and Chapel Hill into one Township?

Perhaps the difference in intensity between these two groups of questions best illustrates the growing irrelevance of local newspapers.

For years Pulpsters have followed the thinly veiled antics of the News & Observer/Chapel Hill News duo in supporting local Democrats who have created our lcoal economic disaster zone, otherwise known as southern Orange County. Let’s face it, without the government socialist support machine (otherwise known as UNC) southern Orange County would be an economic wasteland.

Where else in this state can you find advocacy journalism that fails to report on the irony of the progressive “local living economy” movement? Orange County is filled with politicians who have spurned the dreaded big box retail stores and talked endlessly about creating a “local living economy”. Those are pretty tall words for a community that extracts and imports over $1,000,000,000 annually from OUTSIDE its borders.

Pulpsters may wonder what residents of the 99 other counties in North Carolina think about being lectured by Orange County progressives on the goal of retreating into an economic shell based predominantly on “local” businesses. Apparently, the meaning of “local” is flexible here in Orange County.

It should come as little surprise that the N&O has timed a hatchet job on unfavored Chapel Hill mayoral candidate Councilor Matt Czajkowski. Clearly, N&O/CHN reporters and editors have favored their candidate, fellow Councilor Mark Kleinschmidt in their selection of campaign stories in the past four months.

The N&O felt that the filing of a civil lawsuit by a shareholder over the timing of some fractional stock sales was sufficient reason to question Mr. Czajkowski’s integrity, despite the lawsuit having been dismissed without a trial.

Pulpsters know that anyone can file any lawsuit on any charge. Filing a lawsuit means NOTHING. Even settling a lawsuit mean little, for often settlements are made to get rid of nuisances. Having a lawsuit dismissed before trial, however, does mean something. It means that the judge found no merit to the lawsuit. That fact should have settled the matter as far as newsworthiness of a five year old event. However, that assumes journalistic ethics are in play.

What the N&O fails to report is, how long did it sit on this “news”. The Pulp learned of this non-story months ago, and didn’t bother to report it. Certainly, the Pulp isn’t shy about keeping you informed about real stories that matter to your well-being.

For a little context, let’s visit with the folks over at Chapel Hill Watch. The CHW reports how the CHN handled an incident involving Winnebago-lifestyle aficionado and former Councilor Bill Strom.

While running for Chapel Hill town council in 2007, the very same CHN reporter (Mr. DeConto) learned that the Orange County Child Support Collection Agency had filed suit against Mr. Strom for nonpayment of child support. Allegedly, Mr. DeConto called Mr. Strom for comment. In response, Mr. Strom “winnebagoed” over to CHN offices and threatened legal action if the story got published. CHN editor Mr. Mark Schultz showed his moxie. He caved. You were kept in the dark.

Contrast this courageous stand for journalism against a recent editorial decision by the same editor. A few weeks ago, Mr. Schultz did publish a story about lack of child support payments involving a local candidate. Why did Mr. Schultz suddenly see journalistic merit to reporting about child support issues? Perhaps it's because Mr. Schultz advocates for the incumbent Carrboro mayor, Mr. Mark Chilton. Ms. Amanda Ashley, the victim of his reporting, is a challenger to Mr. Chilton. Pulpsters are right to wonder, did Mr. Chilton feed Mr. Schultz that story, or does Mr. DeConto spend his days perusing the court docket for child support cases?

The Pulp predicts (always a dangerous move) that come Sunday, two days before the local election and with no time for a response by the public, the Chapel Hill News will feature this hatchet job on its front page.

Pulpsters should respond by asking Mr. Schultz, where’s the real story on why Mr. Strom (and his spouse, a former editor for the Indy party guide) left town so suddenly? Where did they go? Why the haste and secrecy? Why no warning to the public? Most importantly, why did Mr. DeConto sit on an email from Mr. Strom to the mother of his non-supported child discussing about him moving back to New York?

That story is up there somewhere.

One thing you can always count on come municipal election season. The local party guide, the Independent, will fawn over the people least equipped to lead local government.

Pulpsters shouldn’t be surprised to find that, yawn, the Indy has selected the candidates least experienced in providing for themselves, much less providing for taxpayers. It’s almost as if the selection process for an Indy endorsement falls upon the party pothead most likely to worship the porcelain god and most likely to lead an indolent and unproductive life.

Pulpsters can take comfort in the fact that the Indy has reliably dealt from the bottom of the deck. As described in the blistering book on the shameful sacrifice of the Duke lacrosse team on the altar of progressive cannibalism,“It’s Not About The Truth”, (a mantra for progressive causes), the Indy is not really a newspaper, and does not practice journalistic ethics.

Probably the best current example of the Indy principles of endorsement can be found in the Carrboro municipal election. The Indy editors have selected a 35 year old person who lives at home with a parent and has no discernable employment as best qualified to govern Carrboro. Must be the dreadlocks sacrificed just before the electioneering.

Pulpsters need look no further than the stellar endorsement of the Indy for now-shamed Durham district attorney Mike Nifong. Back in 2006, the Indy editors selected the now disbarred and disgraced Mr. Nifong as their choice. The ever insightful Indy editors wrote “The terrible allegations against Duke University's lacrosse team have thrown the district attorney's race into the national spotlight, but when Durham voters go to the polls on May 2 for the Democratic primary, they can vote based on years of local prosecutorial experience, not just the recent handling of one case. Incumbent Mike Nifong faces two challengers: former assistant district attorney Freda Black and defense lawyer Keith A. Bishop. No Republicans filed for the race. Any candidate who takes 40 percent of the vote would become Durham's next district attorney. We endorse Nifong.”

Subsequently, Mr. Nifong has been found guilty of heinous abuses surrounding his conduct as a prosecutor.

No more need be said about the judgment of the Indy endorsers.

It was only a matter of time. With a local municipal election in southern Orange this November, and at least one mayoral candidate questioning how to pay for the government spending in Chapel Hill and another in Carrboro, it was only a matter of time before the local media (aka “Skews & OpEdServer”) whipped out their trusty labelmakers.

In most of North Carolina, if a political candidate observes that tax spending is rising faster than resident’s income, then it’s considered a worthwhile campaign issue that’s neither “prudent”, nor “liberal”, nor “progressive”, nor “conservative”, nor “reactionary”.

But Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina. Here, talking about the cost side of money (as opposed to the spending side of money) brings out the political “sign of the cross” to ward off evil. You want to talk about affordability in housing prices, great. You’re “progressive”. You want to talk about affordability in paying the taxes for that affordable house, you’re “conservative”, and worse yet, “pro-business”.

Witness the latest labelmaking in the N&O’s treatment of the Chapel Hill mayoral race – "Chapel Hill Incumbents Face Pro-business Bloc". The bias of the report is easily seen. Mr. Matt Czajkowski is an incumbent councilman running for mayor like Mr. Mark Kleinschmidt. Even though, the story describes Mr. Czajkowski as being part of a “pro-business bloc” he’s an incumbent. So why the lead? How can Mr. Czajkowski face himself? Note how the reporter tells of an epic battle between “good” (liberal majority”) that supports environmental protection and “bad” (“business-oriented number crunchers”). It’s as if someone who lives within their means can’t be for sensible urban development or for environmental protection.

The icing on the fantasy political cake is the story’s description of those “bad people”. According to the report, there’s only “a perceived dearth of parking, security and commercial vibrancy on Franklin Street.” Gee, all the weeping and gnashing of teeth by the “liberal” incumbents for the past four years about not enough parking, panhandling, and a lackluster Franklin Street economy must have been hallucinations.

Orange Progressives' worst nightmares are spreading faster than H1N1 swine flu. A new political blog, Chapel Hill Watch, has opened for business in southern Orange. Not only is it (gasp!) an open forum (read, not censored), but people are going to that blog and expressing views not in line with the Orange Progressive ideological dogma. They also allow the infamous “anonymous blogging”.

Gad zooks! What will they allow next? Free speech???

Orange Progressive “public mental health officials” are worried. Is “Mad Matt disease" spreading? Will more candidates be elected in the November municipal elections that don’t take the prescribed “bobblehead medication”?

WRAL is reporting that former North Carolina Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards has taken a secret, definitive DNA paternity test as a part of the federal grand jury investigation into his possible misuse of campaign funds.

Sources now say that Edwards mea culpa admission could come before the end of a criminal probe into whether he used campaign funds to pay Ms. Rielle Hunter to keep quiet about their relationship. (See WRAL Edwards Admission Story.)

Pulpsters remember Mr. Edwards’ denial that he even had an affair with Ms. Hunter, much less that he fathered 18 month old daughter Francis.

The local news media remains silent.

Leave it to the Chapel Hill News to fail the math portion of the test.

In the 26 August 2009 edition, the CHN features a headline article written by Mr. Mark Schultz, the CHN Editor, entitled “Carrboro Not Replacing Herrera”. The sitting Boa decided not to fill Mr. Herrerra's seat before the November election.

The Pulp can only imagine the conundrum the Boa faced. “Do we pass over Ms. Katrina Ryan, the highest vote getter of the 2007 election, appoint our trustafarian pal and newly media-christened “Hispanic candidate” - Mr. William Samuel Slade, and take the heat? Or do we simply do nothing?”

The CHN clearly wants Mr. Slade to win. So the article talks about the ongoing Carrboro campaign and names three candidates running for three alderman seats. Of course, the two incumbents are mentioned. Of course, Mr. Slade is mentioned. In fact, the article says ”They would take their seats in early December.”

What's the problem, you say? There are not three people running for alderman in Carrboro. There are five. The outcome is only decided already in the minds of the CHN editors.

Who got left out? Ms. Sharon Cook and Mr. Tim Peck.

Who are not wanted in office by CHN editors? Ms. Sharon Cook and Mr. Tim Peck.

Who were mentioned in a July article about campaign filing, but missing from the August article? Ms. Sharon Cook and Mr. Tim Peck.

How progressive.

FYI, Pulpsters, you can write the McClatchy head honcho, Mr. Gary B. Pruitt, at The McClatchy Company, 2100 Q Street, Sacramento, CA 95816, and N&O Publisher Orage Quarles III at News & Observer, 215 South McDowell Street, P.O. Box 191, Raleigh, NC 27602.

Tell them what a great job Mr. Schultz and CHN are doing.

In most of North Carolina, an organization trying to be more than a club party guide, one trying to report on political happenings, such a powerhouse would jump all over an incumbent who tried to run over a defenseless woman volunteer at a local public school athletic event. In most of North Carolina, late child support payments aren’t in the same league as misogynistic rage and assault.

As Pulpsters are too aware, Orange County and its boosters aren’t like most of North Carolina.

It must be local municipal campaign time, for the Indy, Triangle party guide par excellence is swinging its media machete and political hack hatchets in beat to the local funk.

Even before Labor Day, the Indy is busy publishing an expose’ about a Carrboro mayoral challenger candidate, Ms. Amanda Ashley. Allegedly, Ms. Ashley has had troubles keeping up with child support payments. These troubles aren’t recent. They stem from about three years ago, but that doesn’t deter the crackerjack machete maulers over at the Indy. They must let the voters know that there’s “dirt” on Ms. Ashley. After all, the Indy has blindly backed incumbent mayor, Mr. Mark Chilton, since he ran for a Carrboro office over six years ago.

Think that the Indy is “just doing its job”? Think that there’s no bias in selecting stories about Carrboro candidates?

Then let’s trip back to the last Carrboro municipal election in 2007.

Appointed Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman committed vehicular assault against a woman volunteer at a local school athletic event in a public park. He told the Carrboro police falsehoods about the incident.

He got off with a half-hearted apology after a mediation session was rushed through the local Dispute Settlement Center by none other than Mayor Chilton. The poor victim was left having to consider future implications for her husband, who worked for the city school system.

Did the Indy report on the incident as it unfolded?

No. Instead the Indy reported on Dan Coleman’s epicurean delights while attending the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) fest in Berkeley, California, home to the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. After all, it’s a party guide!

The Indy went even further.

Late in the campaign, the editors ”fully endorsed” Mr. Coleman as a candidate. Theymisled readers about the Anderson Park incident, saying ”Coleman's campaign was briefly tainted by an incident at Anderson Park in which he allegedly touched with his car a pedestrian who was holding up traffic. However, the he said-she said tempest shouldn't derail his re-election. (That said, we wish he would apologize.)”. Progressive morality in action. Can't even keep straight the fact that he was never elected at that point.


Late child payments…. Whack!

Misogynist vehicle assault…Police falsehoods…Have you tried the crustini with the masala chai latte?

With local politicians experimenting with restricting individual campaign donations and public financing for town office, Pulpsters should expect further creative and progressive uses of campaign moneys. One needs to look no further than local former presidential candidate Mr. John Edwards.

Federal investigators are sifting Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign records to see if campaign money has been diverted into love child hush money.

According to Mr. Edwards, “I am confident that no funds from my campaign were used improperly. However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true. We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter. We appreciate the diligence and professionalism of those involved and look forward to a conclusion.” (See N&O Edwards Finance Blurb.)

What’s missing from Mr. Edwards' statement? He didn’t refer to actions by the political action committees and non-profit entities that swirled around his presidential campaign.

What the local southern Orange media has failed to inform you is that as he prepared for his second presidential run, Mr. Edwards paid for advisers and burnished his image through a bevy of political action committees (such as Mr. Edwards' One America Committee, which raised almost $7,000,000 from 2002 to 2008) and other nonprofit groups. Now, those groups are among the potential targets for that federal investigation into Mr. Edwards' finances.

Mr. Edwards has belatedly admitted to having an affair with Ms. Rielle Hunter, but has continued to deny that he fathered her child, Frances Hunter, conceived around the time he was having that affair, and born in February 2008. No father is listed on the birth certificate.

Ms. Hunter was paid about $100,000 to travel and to film Mr. Edwards (up close and personal) for four months on a charity trip across Africa. However, that money came from the One America political action committee and may have transferred before he declared his candidacy officially.

Of chief concern to federal investigators is the claim by Mr. Edwards' campaign committee that Ms. Hunter was also paid $14,086.50 on April 1, 2007, through One America. Some of that money was allegedly expensed on “furniture purchase”. Part of the investigation is focused on the fact that at the time of the ~$14,000 furniture purchase, One America only had about $7932.95 in cash. Mr. Edwards’ presidential campaign was a going concern. It allegedly paid One America $14,034.61 for that furniture purchase. (See News8 Edwards Finance Story.)

The One America treasurer is none other than Ms. Jeannette Hyde, a very influential North Carolina Democratic maker of politicians, and former US Ambassador to Barbados, Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and to Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda from 1994-1997. She dispensed over $41,000 of her money for political campaigns in 2008 alone. She says she didn’t personally pay Ms. Hunter any money, although the records show One America making such payments. (See WRAL Edwards Finance Story.)

Mr. Hans von Spakovsky, a former FEC commissioner, notes there is a very strict provision in federal campaign finance law prohibiting candidates from using campaign contributions for personal use. Supposedly, if the Edwards campaign is unable to show that $14,000 in furniture was purchased for the campaign, then the former senator will be "in big trouble.”

Mr. Edwards faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if found guilty of violating federal campaign finance laws.

Of further note is the fate of an Edwards related non-profit foundation that paid for a college tuition charity in Greene County. It was shut down the same month the Hunter affair was revealed. Mr. Edwards touted that charity while on the campaign trail. ( See Washington Post Edwards Finance Story.)

Of even further note is that Ms. Hyde held a “Perdue '08 Victory Tour” fundraiser at her home in June 2008, months prior to the actual formality of an election. “Sponsor” level tickets went for $1,000, “Patron” level tickets at $2,000 and “Host” level tickets for $4,000.

Perhaps no quainter throwback to the virtues of direct democracy is the concept that the local populace should elect their local judges. After all, who knows better than one’s neighbors the timber of a person for judging others? Or so the local media would have you believe.

Of course, the truth is put to that canard every election cycle. People enter the voting booth knowing little to nothing about the candidates. Many leave the judge elections blank. Others throw a dart. A prime example as to why locals often are incapable of making an informed vote can be seen in the Young case.

On a late winter Saturday night (14 March 2009), Mr. Juan Barbee Young (41) was found mortally shot in White Cross, just a little west of Carrboro. He was sent to UNC hospital, Unfortunately, he died within hours of receiving his wounds. It was the first murder of 2009 in Orange County.

Within 24 hours, Mr. Eric Jermaine Bradshaw (30 of 8015 Sandberg Lane, Chapel Hill) was arrested for the murder. The details from the Orange Sheriff’s office spoke of an argument at 3400 Butler Road involving the victim, the alleged shooter, and a Mr. Keitha Burnett. Curiously, all were African-American. None lived at the house where the shooting occurred. (See Carrboro Citizen Murder Story.)

Less than three months later, an Orange County district court judge dismisses the murder case against Mr. Bradshaw. No explanation for the dismissal is given. The judge is not identified. (See N&O Dismissal Story.)

In a jurisdiction having a murder a day, that lackadaisical reporting might not be a big deal. However, Orange County has at worst a handful of murders a year. If one believed that locals should elect their judges out of better knowledge, then what does it say when the local media doesn’t report who let a homicide perpetrator go?

An eyewitness identified the shooter. Yet, the anonymous judge let him go. Why?

For that matter which judge let him go? Is this a drug deal gone bad? Or is it a case of self-defense?

No word on how many will vote in the next election for the anonymous judge without even knowing the curious behavior behind the Young murder case.

How the mighty have fallen.

The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), owner of the Raleigh-based News & Observer, reported that on 14 April 2009 it received a delisting notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). MNI was, for the second time since February 2009, not in compliance with the NYSE’s continued listing standard for total market capitalization and shareholders' equity - capitalization of no less than $75,000,000 over a 30 trading-day period and stockholders' equity of no less than $75,000,000.

As little as three years ago, MNI has traded as high as about $74.00. As of this writing, it trades at $0.55. The 8 April 2009 market capitalization is about $52,400,000, substantially under the $75,000,000 threshold.

MNI has 45 days from the receipt of the notice to submit a plan to the NYSE demonstrating how it intends to comply with the NYSE's continued listing standards within 18 months from the receipt of the notice.

MNI is the third largest newspaper company in the United States, with 30 daily newspapers, approximately 50 non-dailies, and direct marketing and direct mail operations. MNI newspapers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Kansas City Star, the Charlotte Observer, and N&O.

But you would never know about the extent of the fall into the abyss from the N&O publisher, Mr. Orage Quarles III.

Mr. Quarles has an impressive background. He has been president and publisher of the N&O since January 2000, the third MNI newspaper he has led. Mr. Quarles has been named the nation's outstanding publisher by Editor and Publisher magazine in 2002 for his leadership of the N&O. For nine years, he's been a member of the Associated Press board of directors and a board member of the Newspaper Association of America, serving as chair in 2001-2002. He's a member of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute board, the Freedom Forum Board of Trustees, the Poynter Institute National Advisory Board, the American Press Institute general management advisory board and the National Association of Minority Media Executives. Locally, he serves on boards of Rex Healthcare, N.C. Museum of Art, UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication Foundation, Wake Education Partnership Board of Trustees, High Five: Regional Partnershp for High School Excellence board of directors, the Pope House Museum Foundation, and the Downtown Raleigh Alliance.

So how come someone so prestigious in the journalism business can’t level with you?

On Sunday, 29 March 2009, less than two weeks before the delisting notice for becoming a “penny stock”, the N&O published a full page letter to readers from Mr. Quarles. He wanted to reassure readers about the solvency of the N&O. “First and foremost, The N&O is a profitable enterprise that is not about to go out of business. In fact, more people depend on us now than ever in our history. Our print and online readership grew last year, and our combined audience keeps setting records.”

Let's look at the facts.

According to a publication chart posted at McClatchy Watch, N&O print circulation in 1998 was about 208,000 (Sunday) and 164,000 (daily).

Fast forward ten years. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, for the six-month period of April to September 2008, the N&O had a Sunday circulation of 206,000 and a daily circulation of 159,000. Ten years, no growth in readership while the metro area added hundreds of thousands of households. Ten years, internet explosion. Ten years, advertising implosion.

Despite these facts, Mr. Quarles says, “We’re not letting up on our public service mission, either. Newspapers play a fundamental role in maintaining and strengthening our democracy, and at The N&O, we take our watchdog role seriously…

We’re maintaining our commitment to our readers, our advertisers and our community …We have had to make some very difficult decisions. The changes to the paper’s sections and layout have been painful, but they pale in comparison to eliminating the jobs of our employees…

Meanwhile, you can count on The N&O to be in your driveway tomorrow morning, and every morning for a long time to come. We didn’t get our Old Reliable nickname by accident, you know..”

The Pulp would love to reference the letter in its entirety, but curiously, it’s nowhere to be found by a search of the N&O website.

The trend has been clear for months. Over 1,800,000 private employment jobs have been lost from December 2008 to February 2009 in the USA. Yet the Orange County cruise ship of government continues to tour as if it’s 1999. County government is THE growth industry of Orange County.

The Orange County Commishes want no job cutbacks for the county workforce, a full time employee equivalents (FTE) workforce that has grown from 673.6 FTE in FY 2001-2002 to 900.45 FTE in FY 2008-2009. That employee growth is 226.85 FTE in 7 years, or about 34% in total, about 5% per year. In response, the county manager has resigned.

(Average county employee compensation in terms of salaries and benefits for FY 2007-2008 was $44,164 ($38,643,672 in salary and benefits for 875 FTEs).)

Unspoken in the directive to the resigning county manager is the fact that the Commishes will continue to enjoy their usual salary and their free medical benefits.

The Commishes cruise on despite clear evidence months ago that county revenues are falling rapidly. Year over year December taxable sales for Orange County fell from $63,296,902 to $52,413,079 from CY 2007 to CY 2008. That’s over a 17% decrease in the base from which sales taxes are redistributed to the county during the month typically having the greatest sales tax revenues. Yet almost three months later, no county employee pay cuts have been announced. No layoffs or furloughs have occurred.

Contrast the Commishes’ response to that of their loveable apologists, the staff of the News & Observer. McClatchey, the N&O’s parent company and the third largest newspaper company in the USA, announced on 9 March 2009 that it would slash 1,600 jobs and cut salaries across the corporate empire, about 15 percent of its work force.

Moreover, the McClatchey executives understand that leadership involves doing by example. In the words of Mr. Gary Pruitt, McClatchy's chairman and chief executive officer, “We previously discussed a plan to reach a targeted level of cost savings, but given the worsening economy, we must do more. I'm sorry we have to take these actions, but we believe they are necessary.” So he is taking a 15% pay cut and no bonuses. All other executives are taking a 10% reduction. (See WRAL N&O Story.)

No word on when, if ever, the Commishes will take a pay cut.

No word on how much such a pay cut would be.

No word on when, if ever, the Commishes will give up their free medical benefits for a part-time effort at “public service”.

Nom de plumes, the use of an anonymous or false name to concel one's identity, are a hallowed American tradition in the expression of ideas. Why? Because those who can’t stand the author’s message often resort to attacking the author. If you don’t know who the author is, then who do you attack? Usually, the answer is the party publishing the message.

In most progressive communities, the concept and heritage of anonymous publishing would be embraced. One must judge the message alone on its content. One can’t engage in judgment based on the messenger if anonymity is involved. Knowledge of the author cuts both ways. For many unthinking or dogmatic progressives, who the author is decides acceptance of the message. If the author is liked, then the message can be accepted without serious thinking. If the author is disliked, then no matter how insightful the message, it can’t be accepted.

Locally, the Orange Chat newspaper blog of the News and Observer has been struggling with how to deal with posters not using their real names. One of its posters uses the nom de plume “elvisboy77”. He is a self-described “International Man of Mystery” who is “big in Japan”. In the words of Chapel Hill News editor Mark Schultz, “elvisboy77 is our most prolific commenter. He cuts through the prevailing political logic. And he occasionally offends.”

Translation, elvisboy77 doesn’t agree with most of the Orange Progressive commentators dishing out “groupthink”. He or she has crossed pens with such local political pundits as Mr. Fred Black, Mr. Marc Marcoplos, Mr. Brian Russell, and Ms. Ruby Sinreich.

Interestingly, all of these luminaries want to know, who is elvisboy77? Do they want to know in order to applaud him? No. Do they want to know so as to help him in his private endeavors? No. Do they want to know to better understand his message. No. They want to know for one purpose. They want to see if they can apply pressure for him to stop.

Chapelboro is a factory town. If elvisboy77 is a UNC employee, then how simple would it be to make him stop? If, elvisboy77 is an N&O reporter, as one reader thought, then how simple would it be to make him stop? Nom de plumes are all about freeing the author from coercion or extortion. How easy is it to get to someone through their children, who must attend a system dominated by Orange Progressives?

For Mr. Marcoplos, ”I don't understand why anonymity is being celebrated & encouraged here when there has been considerable effort to get contributors to register and to achieve more honest dialogue. … His posts most resemble stall graffiti. He is also Exhibit “A” on the type of tripe that gets posted when someone doesn't have the guts to post under their own name.”

Yes, for Mr. Marcoplos, who supported Alderman Dan Coleman in not resigning when he lied to the public about using his car to assault a woman, honest dialogue requires knowing the author. As Mr. Marcoplos said to elvisboy77 in Orange Chat, ”So elvisboy, you realize that your anonymous comments will have less effect on changing the problems you comment upon than if you took full responsibility. So the net effect is that all these people choosing anonymity becuase [sic] of fears of backlash, actually facilitate the system that wants to discourage critical feedback. So what to do? I doubt criticizing those who take responsibility for their statements, but disagree with you, is going to help - this even erodes what's left of your anonymous credibility.”

Ms. Sinreich, follows her ad hominem habits for those who don’t agree with her. She has accused elvisboy77 of being a former Pulp poster under the nom de plume of Jessie Beard. That it’s not true is of little importance. (Back in its open forum days, Ms. Beard published facts about Ms. Sinreich’s privileged upbringing, her bourgeoise rentier, trust fund poseur status, which didn’t match her Chapelboro persona of coming from humble beginnings. Ms. Sinreich vehemently objected to the publication of contrary facts.)

Curiously, the miasma of Orange Progressive conspiracy involves this humble publication. Apparently, the mastermind behind the Pulp is none other than elvisboy77, at least it was in the mind of Mr. Russell, Ms. Sinreich’s spouse. Thankfully, that erroneous assumption has been put to rest by none other than elvisboy77. In his or her words, “That cracks me up.”

Boosterism is alive and well in southern Orange thanks to the pirates of the cultural seas.

The latest example is the heralding by the local media that the town of Carrboro is included in a “new book” entitled “The 100 Best Art Towns in America: A Guide to Galleries, Museums, Festivals, Lodging and Dining”, (N&O Carrboro Art Title Story). Southern Orange booster pirates are climbing the rigid, towering mainmast and circling the crow’s nest in reaction to this hailing from the poop deck.

Only two problems.

First, the “new book” isn’t really new. It’s the fifth edition. There have been four previous editions. In none of those previous editions was Carrboro mentioned. In fact, the list changes significantly with each edition, spreading the joy of being pronounced a “great small art town” throughout the American main.

Second. The title doesn’t come from some prestigious committee of art experts. It doesn’t come from a renowned panel of art critics in leading art reviews. It doesn’t come from a distinguished roster of art museums.

So where did this Carrboro honor come from? Who shivered the timbers of Carrboro’s artistas? The self-proclaimed expert is Mr. John Villani, former wine and art critic for the Arizona Republic newspaper in 2003 and former communications director at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2005.

Mr. Villani has achieved that which most Americans can only dream, giving up your day job and partying across the country. He’s now a bona fide “traveling culturalist”. He travels and partakes of local cuisine, cups, and culture in small towns everywhere. He magnanimously whips out the title of “One of the 100 Best Art Towns” wherever and whenever he wants. Another example of where life imitates art.

In true pirate fashion, you are not told the local connection of Mr. Villani to Carrboro. His mother has owned a home in Carrboro for about 20 years. She’s on a town advisory committee.

Which begs the question, what took Carrboro so long to make the list?

Arghh….

The failure of the local media to reach beneath the covers of the bubbling scandal of local presidential candidate John Edwards becomes more interesting with time. As reported in the Pulp, the local media publicly snored its way through the Edwards scandal because “those people” (aka the tabloids) alleging the scandal were not of the same amaneusis class as the steno pool. (See Pulp Local Media Edwards Scandal Suppression Story.)

The story gets more curious by the moment as further details of local Orange County tax exempt, conservation easement, wealthy retreat connections dovetail into the failed Edwards presidential bid and the makeup of the man beneath the sheets, Mr. Andrew Young, Mr. Edwards’ former campaign manager.

The local media (aka quidnuncs) has also failed to tie in the Edwards campaign with local eco-environmentalist media darlings involved in the Greenbridge project.

The Meritorious Inseminator
Mr. Young (born in 1966) has proclaimed that despite the absence of his name on a birth certificate, he’s the father of the child born to Ms. Rielle Hunter, ex “Bright Lights, Big City” snowgirl and filmographer of the Edwards campaign. He also has earned the following attributions on his curriculum vitae to earn a presidential campaign manager position.

• 1983 NC Traffic offense - driving the wrong way on a one-way street (July) NCGS 20-165.1
• 1983 NC Traffic offense – reckless driving (October) NCGS 20-140(b)
• 1984 NC Traffic offense - improper passing (January) NCGS 20-150
• 1984 NC Traffic offense - speeding (May) NCGS 20-141(J1)
• 1987 FL Arrest for burglary of a structure & criminal mischief ($200 or less)
• 1988 NC Arrest for misdemeanor - aggravated assault & battery (February) NCGS14-33(a)
• 1988 NC Arrest for misdemeanor – worthless check (June) NCGS14-107
• 1989 NC Traffic offense - operating without a driver’s license NCGS 20-7(a)
• 1991 NC Traffic offense - speeding NCGS 20-141(B)(G)
• 1991 NC raffic offense – violation of registration requirements NCGS 20-111(2)
• 1994 US Federal tax lien for $10,587
• 1994 NC Traffic offense - violation of registration requirements NCGS 20-111(2) & 20-7(A)
• 1994 NC Arrest for misdemeanor – worthless check NCGS 14-107
• 1997 NC Impaired driving NCGS 20-138.1 & resisting arrest NCGS 14-223
• 1998 NC Misdemeanor for disorderly conduct NCGS 14-288.4
• 2000 NC Traffic offense - speeding 20-141(J1) & driver’s license violation 20-7(A)
• 2002 VA Traffic offense 71/55
• 2003 NC Improper equipment – speedometer NCGS 20-141(J1)
• 2006 NC Possession beer on city property
• 2007 DWI Level 5 - impaired driving 20-138.1(A); transporting open beverages 20-138.7(A1); and immediate revocation 20-16.5.

Besides these accomplishments, Mr. Young has been active in local real estate. Not only did he supply lodgings for his mistress, Ms. Hunter, in his rental home in the Governor's Club along with his wife and children, he also made intimate connections with the local eco-environment movement.

The Communal Bed
The local media has completely missed the connection between Mr. Young and one of its local darling eco-environmentalists, Mr. Timothy Toben. Although Mr. Toben has given $6500 to Mr. Edwards failed presidential campaign and has in interviews said that he “was working” on the campaign, little attention has been paid to the communal living opportunity between Messrs. Toben and Young.

Besides being busy gentrifying Chapel Hill lower income neighborhoods for high income clientele worried sick about the decreasing affordability of their help to live nearby, Mr. Toben is a founder of the Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute in Orange Grove (PMEI). (For those not familiar, the term “mountain” as used in this moniker is laughable, being merely misdescriptive of a hill or ridge of several hundred feet.)

Unlike normal Orange County citizens who have to pay for the value of their homes, Mr. Toben and company have found a legal way manipulaning tax-exempt entity provisions to enjoy high value natural beauty without paying high value taxes as most citizens do. It’s all legal and uses the tax-exempt universe to shift burdens onto ordinary homeowners. Pickard’s Mountain acreage has been put into a conservation land trust. By doing so, the tax value of the land is substantially reduced. You can’t enjoy Pickard Mountain land because it’s private property. Trespassers aren’t allowed. However, as an owner of that land, one can enjoy pristine communion with nature without paying taxes for the value of those views. One can pass on to heirs or buyers those views as well.

In the words of the Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC), a tax exempt organization dedicated to shifting property tax burdens from wealthy land owners to working class households through private conservation easements,”The Pickard’s Mountain conservation lands are all privately owned and not available for public recreation. The public does benefit tangibly, however, as Pickard’s Mountain serves as the backdrop of the scenic rural viewshed along Dairyland Road, and from the front porch of the Maple View Farm Country Store, the wildly popular ice cream shop.” (See TLC News Release.)

PMEI is self described as “a 350 acre patch of Earth in central North Carolina where a group of people are experimenting with ways of living more harmoniously with the planet.” Eleven locavores live there who are “dedicated to the healing of the Human-Earth relationship through reconnection to our source of food, nourishment, sustenance.”

Some of the residents live in canvas covered yomes (part Mongolian yurt, part dome) in a footpath village with earthen wood fired polluting ovens, reliving the glory days of 1960s hippies. Of course, that’s not where Mr. Toben lives. Rather than live in a yome with footpaths, he has a 7000 square foot “mountain retreat” with a swimming pool, and servant’s quarters above a garage for carbon loading automobiles, all valued at more than $1,600,000, not including the hundreds of acres surrounding his retreat.

A fellow nature communer is Mr. Young. He and his wife are among the lucky few to own a parcel of land on Pickard Mountain. He bought it from Mr. Toben in 2005.

The Sleeping Dogs
Here's the official excuse from the N&O's John Drescher, missing the basic fact that even the hair stylists in Chapel Hill knew what was going on with Mr. Edwards.

No word on the excuse for the eco-environmentalist connection being likewise ignored.

”Looking back, our coverage of John Edwards' extramarital affair was on the mark, given what we knew and when we knew it.

In October, The National Enquirer, citing an anonymous source, said former U.S. Sen. Edwards had an affair with an unnamed former campaign worker.

Asked about the report while campaigning for president, Edwards denied the allegations.

Several blogs identified the woman as Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker who had worked for the Edwards campaign. Hunter released a statement denying an affair with Edwards.

We reported the denials in a seven-paragraph story on newsobserver.com.

We did not publish that report in the print paper. Reasonable people can disagree about whether we should have.

We report many items online that never make it into print. The report was sketchy, apparently from a single anonymous source. It did not name the woman and was disputed by Edwards and Hunter. We decided it didn't make the cut for the print paper.

Still, we treated the Enquirer report seriously. Working with our colleagues at The Charlotte Observer, we quickly sent a reporter to New York, where Hunter then lived, to report on the allegations. We also worked the story from here.

We learned biographical information about Hunter but were unable to interview Hunter or to confirm the affair. So we did not publish a story.

In December, The Enquirer reported that Hunter was pregnant and had moved to a gated community in Chapel Hill. It also reported that Andrew Young, an Edwards aide, and Hunter said Young was the father.

We continued reporting and learned some information about Young. But we still were unable to establish that Edwards had an affair with Hunter, and we did not publish a story. Then a few weeks ago, The Enquirer reported that Edwards had met with Hunter in a room at a Beverly Hills hotel and that after the meeting, Enquirer reporters had confronted him in the hotel. Curiously, The Enquirer did not publish a photo of its reporters confronting Edwards.

But there was evidence of a confrontation.

We sent an N&O reporter to California to confirm the confrontation and to interview Young and Hunter, who were living separately in Santa Barbara. We were unable to confirm the confrontation or to interview Hunter or Young. At one point, our Lorenzo Perez was chased out of Young's neighborhood by sheriff's deputies.

We wanted to give Edwards a chance to respond to the allegations, but we could not reach him. That wasn't unusual. We've had a poor relationship with Edwards and his top staffers for years.

Among other things, they were unhappy about our stories about his new house outside Chapel Hill, his expensive haircuts and his change in political philosophy from one presidential campaign to another.

Something was wrong.

Finally, The Observer's Lisa Zagaroli cornered Edwards on July 30 after he gave a speech in Washington and tried to dodge reporters. Edwards declined comment.

That was news. We'd given Edwards a chance to set the record straight, and he declined to do so. In addition, he had done all that he could to avoid reporters, exiting though a side area used by kitchen staff. Clearly, something was wrong.

Edwards dropped out of the presidential race in January. However, he kept a high public profile, traveling the country, making speeches. Edwards was a strong candidate to play a role in a possible Barack Obama administration. In my eyes, that made his personal conduct still relevant to our readers.

On July 31, we published an item in our Under the Dome political column in the print edition about Edwards declining comment. The next day we published a short story inside the paper.”

The Men in Black may have had it right. The best sources for investigative journalism in the USA have been reduced to the tabloids.

In October 2007, the National Enquirer, a subject of ridicule for professors at the UNC School of Journalism, reported a story about local presidential candidate John Edwards. Mr. Edwards was campaigning on the “One America, Not Two Americas” theme. According to the Enquirer, Mr. Edwards was engaging in in-depth communication with a Ms. Rielle Hunter (aka Lisa Druck) who was filming Mr. Edward’s campaign up close and personal. As put by one on-line pundit, “Those dirty, nasty sleazemongers at the National Enquirer just keep ruining journalism by reporting easily verifiable facts that some people find unpleasant.”

In as small a community as Carrboro, the facts surrounding these charges should have been as easy to uncover as the expanding silhouette of Ms. Hunter. Ms. Hunter occupied a rental home in the Governor’s Club paid for by a longtime Edwards supporter and contributor during the pregnancy. Yet, not one local paper conducted an investigation other than to accept an expected “I never had sex with that woman” denial on a smiling face value.

Two weeks ago, the tabloid posted a story online chronicling how Edwards had visited the Ms. Hunter, and “their child” 21 July 2008 at a Beverly Hills hotel and that the paper's reporters confronted him afterward. (The birth certificate doesn’t list a biological father.)

Now, the News and Observer is forced to make it the lead story months after it matters for Mr. Edwards’ campaign. Why? It seems that Mr. Edwards may be denied the opportunity to speak at the Democratic national convention. The N and O reports that “several prominent Democrats are saying Edwards must publicly address anonymously sourced National Enquirer stories that claim he had an affair with a campaign worker and fathered her baby.” Missing from the story is what the N and O did or did not do for the past ten months in its “reporting” of that story since it broke in October 2007.

According to Gary Pearce, the Democratic strategist who ran Edwards' 1998 Senate race, ”It's a very damaging thing. He absolutely does have to [resolve it]. If it's not true, he has to issue a stronger denial, The big media has tried to be responsible and handle this with kid gloves, but it's clearly getting ready to bust out. If it's not true, he's got to stand up and say, 'This is not true. That is not my child and I'm going to take legal action against the people who are spreading these lies.' It's not enough to say, 'That's tabloid trash.'”

Mr. Pearce doesn’t attempt to justify the kid glove treatment.

No word from Mr. Edwards about his personal “Two Makes Three Americans” program.

See N&O Edwards Love Child Story.

A number of Pulp articles recently have shown how local Orange County municipal finance has been based on maintaining a pace of residential growth to hide true costs to citizens of the demand created by that growth. From the use of non-recurring capital revenue tap fees as operating revenues to offset operating expenses by OWASA (Pulp OWASA 25% Fee Increase Story) to the failure of county commishes to implement fully burdened impact fees for new residence housing units (Pulp Transfer Tax Story) to the hiring of high maintenance, full time employees (Pulp Art Czar Story) to the use of debt to shelter the true cost of municipal spending (Pulp Carrboro Debt Story) to good old-fashioned wasteful municipal spending, (again see Pulp Carrboro Debt Story), local Orange County municipal policies have been dependent upon, if not addicted to growth.

But the ever-obedient and reliable lapdog, the local media seeks to avert your attention by blaming local government financial problems on “the national economy”. To the steno pool, you don’t get fat because you can’t control how many cookies you eat, it’s the bakery that made the cookies that’s responsible. Instead of using this opportunity to educate Orange County citizens about how local government finance is dependent upon growth, the usual suspects of anyone-but-those-in-charge is rolled out and in by the local media watchdogs.

See Herald Sun OWASA Rate Increase Story or Herald Sun School Increase Story.

Like an obedient lap dog with its master, a prime skill for the local media is to “roll with it baby”.

An excellent example can be found in how the local media is covering the commishes (See Phictionary) decision to select a transfer tax only on the May 2008 ballot (instead of offering a ballot containing both the sales tax and the transfer tax as a “popularity contest”” on the November 2008 ballot). (See Hot Orange Story.)

The commishes have slobbered effusively for years over getting their hands on a local transfer tax, a tax biased against homeowners and favoring landlords aka “bourgeoise rentiers” (See Phictionary). (Rental units changing occupants will not be taxed, unlike houses sold). The poll conducted by Herzog for the commishes found that if those polled HAD to choose between a sales tax and a transfer tax because one or the other must be imposed, voters polled would prefer a sales tax (47%) over a transfer tax (42%)(as reported by the county in its documents). Moreover, the poll reveals that far more people oppose a transfer tax (53%) versus a sales tax (32%).

On this news item, rolling over for the commishes presents a problem. How do you avoid reporting the selection of a second voter choice (local transfer tax) over a first voter choice (local sales tax)? The solution is simple. Just report that there's no second choice. There’s merely a dead heat within the margin of error (4%). The stenographers say what they’re told by the best pollster your money can buy, at four times the cost of another unsolicited local pollster.

No question is asked by the stenographers as to whether or not 47% minus 42% is 5%, a number which falls outside the “margin of error” bucket and into the “statistically significant” bucket. More importantly, no question is asked as to the significance of the negative feeling against a local transfer tax (53% oppose) versus that for a local sales tax (32%).

No question is asked of the commishes why the less attended May 2008 primary election is being used to evidence voter intent, as opposed to the better attended November 2008 general election, an election in which significantly more people will vote for the next president of the United States.

No word on whether or not the UNC School of Journalism will accept a large grant to change its name to the “School of Obedience”.

In related business news, stock of Del Monte Foods, owner of the Milk Bone brand, rose in light trading.

See Carrboro Citizen Tax Survey Story.

Showing concern for the current drought gripping the greater southern Orange region, the Pulitzer Prize winning, party guide staff of the local bar-reviewing, concert-peddling, personal dating services periodical known as the “Independent” notes your failure to respond adequately to the demand created by their political friends.

In a stunning journalistic tour de force, the Independent manages in a multi-page article to avoid any substantive discussion of the effect of rampant local development on water demand. Likewise, there is no such discussion regarding any local politician or official having any responsibility for that state of development.

So who’s to blame? Ordinary citizens are. You are. If only you didn’t waste water, then local development can continue apace.

No word from the Independent on why every local southern Orange politician receiving a “party hardy” endorsement from the Independent was, and is, silent on Orange County carrying capacity and water resources in the last local municipal elections.

See Independent Dirty Water Story.

Yet another N&O article on the Eubanks Road trash transfer station has managed not only to avoid referring to the USDOJ/EPA complaint against all local Orange County Governments (county, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro), but also to avoid mentioning the citizen group that opposes the moves of these governments and the county commissioners, namely, CEER.

In the spirit of brotherly love, the Pulp will assist the N&O in its obvious “senior moment”. The citizen group is called CEER. That’s C-E-E-R. It stands for Coalition to End Environmental Racism. That’s C-o-a-l-i-t-i-o-n t-o E-n-d E-n-v-i-r-o-n-m-e-n-t-a-l R-a-c-i-s-m. Don't mention it.

No word on why the N&O failed to mention that the intrepid county commissioners decided that the site choice will be made not just in November, but in November AFTER the general election. A minor point in Orange County where democracy is celebrated in the breach, and the elections are over in the Democratic primary.

See N&O Sanitized Trash Transfer Story.

In a sympathetic “puff piece” presentation of the plight of lonchera operators in Carrboro by reporter Meiling Arounnarath, the N&O manages to publish an article about Carrboro's anarchistic food purveyors (Pulp reference Carrboro Mayor Finds Solution to ED Mobile Eatery Problem, Just Don't Enforce Local Public Health Laws) without a single mention of the food safety risks presented by town government acceptance of uninspected loncheras not tied to a licensed and inspected commissary.

Likewise, the N&O is completely silent about the non-payment of taxes by loncheras, mirroring the concern for public safety and non-residential tax revenues exhibited by tax-exempt expert, pollo asado eater, and Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton.

No word on whether or not Carrboro will be accepting non-payment of town property taxes for those non-recognized ethnics just trying to take care of their families.

See N&O Taco Friendly Story

January 2008

In a wonderfully misinformed 24 October 2007 editorial entitled “Keep Carrboro Weird”, the Pulitzer Prize winning party guide staff of the bar-reviewing, concert-peddling, personal dating services periodical known as the “Independent” endorsed candidates for the Fall 2007 Carrboro municipal election.

Two alderman candidates were accused of doubtful sincerity in advocating against the Eubanks Road trash transfer station approved by the Orange County commissioners, a charge allgedly circulated amongst local media stenographers by then Mayor-elect Chilton. One of those candidates has responded to the Independent. Ms. Sharon Cook sets the record straight.

“In the Indy's recent local election coverage the editorial staff published the following statement, ‘Cook, who has served on the planning board, and Ryan oppose the county's proposed, controversial waste-transfer station on Rogers Road, ostensibly on behalf of a nearby African-American neighborhood. However, it is hard to tell if their advocacy is genuine, as the neighborhood and the landfill have co-existed for many years and Cook and Ryan have only recently complained.’ With a little research, the Indy editorial staff would have found ample evidence that Katrina and I were committed to the Rogers Road-Eubanks community long before election season. For example, I advocated for uniting both sides of Rogers Road into one community during Carrboro's annexation public hearing in November 2004 and in local media guest columns. In October 2006, Ms. Ryan and I petitioned the BOA to add the neighborhood to the town's sidewalk construction plans. And in January 2007, immediately after the community was informed about plans to build a new waste facility, we began working with our neighbors to reverse the decision to site a waste transfer station along Eubanks Road. Documentation of our advocacy is easily accessible from Board of Aldermen and Orange County Commissioners minutes, and local newspaper coverage. And for the record, I continue to serve on the Town's planning board. The Independent's editorial staff has the right to publish their opinion. However, with that right comes the responsibility for researching and basing those opinions upon documented facts. Your false characterization of Mike Kelley, Katrina Ryan and me should give all of the Indy's readers concern for the accuracy of the facts used to support this paper's endorsements. With the May primary campaigns already beginning, I hope your readers will hold you to a higher standard of coverage.”

Curiously, none of the Carrboro municipal candidates endorsed by the Independent bothered to attend any public meetings or hearings regarding the approval of the trash transfer station by their political friends, much less speak out against the move. None have done so since the election.

In the 3 February 2008 edition of the local real estate advertiser (the Chapel Hill News) local media darling, former Chapel Hill Planning Board member, Orange Politics blog censor, “dances with bricks” anarchist, Mayor Chilton backer, wannabe affordable housing bourgeoisie rentier, and trustafarian disciple Ruby Sinrech was anointed as a local political analyst. Ms. Sinreich was involved in a roundtable discussion of Mr. Edwards’ recent decision to withdraw from the 2008 Democratic presidential race.

Ms. Sinreich pronounced that Mr. Edwards was unable to “break through” the national media decision that the race belonged to Mr. Obama or Ms. Clinton. She was silent on her inability to use her vaunted local media and political skills to help Mr. Edwards with such a breakthrough, matching her noticeable silence in not asking Mr. Edwards to speak out about the Rogers Road environmental injustice problems of all the local candidates she has backed for almost a decade. Tax-exempt and non-profit business owner, Ms. Sinreich goes on to say that she supports Mr. Edwards’ agenda to fight poverty, noting “I don’t think [poverty is] going to be eliminated until capitalism is eradicated”.

No word on Ms. Sinreich’s plans to visit Mr. Edwards with a copy of the USDOJ/EPA environmental injustice complaint against the Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Orange County governments.

No comment from fellow anarchist Alderman Dan Coleman on how capitalism will be ended in Carrboro.

See Ms. Sinreich's scintillating discussion of Mr. Edwards’ announcement of his campaign Sinreich youtube video.

See Chapel Hill News Analyst Story