Wow, capitalism and profit motive equals environmental despoilation and misplaced ethical values. So says Alderman Dan Coleman in a revealing and misguided screed filled with a highly filtered view of history.

Of course, unfettered laissez faire capitalism is dangerous to societal well being. The same can be said for, say, unfettered Soviet or Chinese communism. The biggest polluter on earth today is not Shell Oil in the Niger delta, it’s the Republic of China. In the last century, it was the Soviet Union and its satellite minions. Why? The central planning so dear to the heart of Alderman Coleman put production ahead of protection. There was no profit motive in the Soviet Union, yet pollution abounded.

Where has industrialization and urbanization occurred with the least pollution? It occurred in countries with market-based (aka profit-based) economies and republican governments. Why? The government leveled and raised the playing field for the potential polluters with environmental regulation demanded by the citizenry.

Alderman Coleman then goes on to equate the struggle over working conditions in the late 19th century with the struggle over unsustainable fixed benefit pensions in Wisconsin today? (Alderman Coleman conveniently forgets that those pension obligations are based on guess what, profit.) What? Is he saying that reining in pensions that reflect absurd valuations for readily available skills will cause the removal of labor laws and regulations? Nonsense. Curiously, Alderman Coleman fails to acknowledge that the most protective worker environments can be found market-based (aka profit) economies balanced with republican governments. The Soviet Union did not have a safe workplace environment for the average worker.

Most importantly, Alderman Coleman fails to suggest what force of human nature he would harness to better mankind. If not self-interest, aka profit, then what? Envy? Laziness? How does Alderman Coleman make a living? Is there no sense of self-interest in what he does to earn the means to pay his bills? Curously, the local Progressive media has never asked Alderman Coleman what he does for a living.

Quite frankly, Alderman Coleman is also dead wrong about the maligned author, Mr. Adam Smith. By pursuing self-interest, the profiteer does frequently promote societal interests more effectually than when he really intends. How? By delivering goods and services at the lowest cost for the desired quality, the standard of living rises. By taking on the risk of failure in creating new goods or services, the standard of living rises. As much as Alderman Coleman would hate to admit it, the average person living in the USA below today’s poverty line lives far better than Mr. Smith did in the 18th century.

Why is it that those who have never struggled in the world of competitive for-profit market businesses act as if their hands are being soiled by discussing profit and the benefits of well regulated market economies? Why is cronyism preferred as a regulatory tool for enhancing the delivery of goods and services?

The Pulp does find common ground with Alderman Coleman. We should look beyond simplistic nostrums, such as “profit is bad”, “profit is greed”, or “profit enslaves”. Profit is neither inherently good nor bad. It’s all about how you realized the profit and how society helped you to do so.

Normally, you can count on radical feminists at UNC to be on top of every fringe issue possible. Why sit back and be tolerant when you can lather yourself up into a froth of hypersensitive indignation? Counting on such displays of inanity is part of the entertainment value one gets by living in Orange County and paying profligates taxes.

So what’s up with the failure of UNC radical feminists? They completely missed a high and mighty opportunity to support the “Slut Walk Protest”.

What’s that? A police officer visiting York University in Toronto, Canada addressed students about public safety. The officer, obviously someone who deals with human nature in the real world, said that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

Well, the modesty gloves just had to come off and the tart armor put on. “As the city’s major protective service, the Toronto Police have perpetuated the myth and stereotype of ‘the slut’, and in doing so have failed us. With sexual assault already a significantly under-reported crime, survivors have now been given even less of a reason to go to the Police, for fear that they could be blamed.”

Really? The police officer made no statements of blame. They were merely trying to let students know that how you dress could lead to sexual assault. Of course, that doesn’t excuse the crime of sexual assault. But it does teach one about the bad parts of human nature.

However, providing guidance as to how humans can react to stimuli in a criminal manner is not a good enough excuse for radical feminists. “Being assaulted isn’t about what you wear; it’s not even about sex; but using a pejorative term to rationalize inexcusable behaviour creates an environment in which it’s okay to blame the victim.

Historically, the term ‘slut’ has carried a predominantly negative connotation. Aimed at those who are sexually promiscuous, be it for work or pleasure, it has primarily been women who have suffered under the burden of this label. And whether dished out as a serious indictment of one’s character or merely as a flippant insult, the intent behind the word is always to wound, so we’re taking it back. 'Slut' is being re-appropriated.

We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault.”

Right. So the Toronto police should stop warning affluent people about wearing their bling in a neighborhood prone to robbery. It’s oppressive wealth-shaming.

Is radical feminism dead at UNC? How could the campus Progressives miss out on supporting the Slut Walk?

If there’s one thing in abundance in Chapelboro, it’s Progressive hubris. Yes, over 300 days a year a high smug alert can be issued for the Chapelboro environs, as local Progressives exhibit their higher sense of social justice laced with copious amounts of hypocrisy.

The latest smug warnings can be seen in the arrest of 19 people for attempting to shut down a Wake County School Board (WCSB) meeting. They were arrested after screaming and creating a disruptive disturbance during a public comment period of the meeting. (This act is what is known as “dialogue” to local Progressives, shouting down your opponents.) The protesters held hands, locked arms, chanted against resegregation, and refused to leave the podium. More than a dozen officers intervened and took the protesters to a Division of Prisons inmate transfer bus.

As one of the Progressive protestors stated, ”I feel like if they took the time to listen to what people had to say … and make eye contact with the people who are actually trying to talk about what is going on, maybe they could see some change.” (See WRAL WCSB Story) Lecturing about one-sided listening, can you be more Progressive!

Three of the Progressive arrestees were from Chapelboro – Ms. Laurel Anne Ashton (age 20), of 505-C North Greensboro Road in Carrboro; Ms. Camellia Lee (age 19), of 205 Black Tie Lane in Chapel Hill; and Ms. Madeline Clair Miller (age 19), of 231 Hillcrest Circle in Chapel Hill. All are/have been UNC students.

Chapelboro? What are people from Chapelboro doing at a WCSB Meeting? The answer is simple, exhibiting their “highmightiness” and smugness.

The WCSB has a daunting challenge. Largest school district in North Carolina, the WKSB governs a school district encompassing 12 municipalities (Apex;Cary; Fuquay-Varina;Garner;Holly Springs;Knightdale;Morrisville; Raleigh;Rolesville;Wake Forest;Wendell;and Zebulon) and over 850,000 residents. The pupil population alone was over 139,000 in SY2009-2010. The 18th largest school district in the nation encompasses a district area of over 860 square miles. That’s about 46 miles from east to west and 39 miles from north to south.

Why are these facts important? The issue at hand is neighborhood schools. The vast majority of parents of all ethnicities want their children to go to neighborhood schools close by their homes.

For local Progressives, the concept of a neighborhood school has only one interpretation – “racism”. It appears beyond their comprehension that people might be more interested in the cohesion of a local school supplemented by local parent volunteers, the time/distance impact on pupil participation in after school events, and the concern/safety/hassle factor related to a pupil’s medical/dental needs. No, to local Progressives, “racism” is the only correct interpretation.

The three Chapelboro arrestees live in a Chapelboro school district that encompasses less than fifty square miles, has a school district population of about 100,000, and serves about 11,000 students. All in all, the Chapelboro school district is about one-tenth that of Wake County.

Why are these facts important? Once again, those not living in trying conditions lecture those who do. One wonders, how would these arrestees (none with children) feel if the Orange County School District, the Durham County School District, the Alamance County School District, and the Chatham County School District were combined with the Chapelboro School District?

A curious note for Pulpsters, one of the arrestees was Ms. Michelle Laws, of 3715 Shrewsbury St. (sic) in Durham. This is the same Ms. Laws who is head of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP branch, but apparently resides within the bounds of the Durham NAACP branch.

On Tuesday 4 May 2010, UNC Chancellor Thorp demonstrated the smart way to handle Progressive agitators crying for no more coal burning at UNC Chapel Hill. Give them what they want. Just use technological sleight of hand to replace what you were doing with something just as bad.

With the national director of the Sierra Club’s coal campaign ready to be played like a goob, Chancellor Holden Thorp announced that the UNC-CH would end its use of coal by 2020. “Universities must lead the transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy. Today, Carolina takes another big step in that direction. Carolina is proud to be a national leader in sustainability in American higher education. Our systems for energy efficiency, cogeneration of electricity and steam, waste recycling, green building, mass transit and water conservation are models. We are in an unusual position because our cogeneration plant has a useful life of another 30 to 40 years. It’s not going to be easy to make this transition. We have challenges in making sure biomass will work in our existing boilers and challenges on the supply side as well. But we are confident we can achieve our goal in 10 years.”

So what is the shell game being played by UNC? Actually it’s a charcoal shell game. The UNC cogeneration facility will test co-firing coal with biomass in the form of dried wood pellets later this spring and torrefied wood – basically charcoal that grinds like coal later in 2010.

Campus Progressives were beaming. After all, they had forced UNC to behave the way they wanted. Mr. Stewart Boss, coordinator for the Coal-Free UNC Campaign and co-chair for the UNC chapter of the Sierra Student Coalition said “We have been fortunate to work with a university that has been responsive, open-minded and willing to hear our story. Our universities should be at the forefront of developing clean energy technologies and preparing students to be clean energy leaders. I hope other universities will soon follow UNC’s lead in moving beyond coal.”

In February 2010, Mr. Boss (a most perfect surname for a Progressive) demonstrated with others against the use of coal. Co-demonstrator Ms. Laura Stevens said, “We want to get a commitment from the University to end the use of coal. Then we’re open to research.” Now that’s true Progressive thinking. First you set a “feels good” goal. Then you figure out how you can meet your goal. The hell with technology and economics. If you want the pony, then you’re getting the pony. (See DTH Coal Pony Story.)

Here are the sad truths. Coal does contain trace amounts of dangerous heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic. Coal does produce greenhouse gases when burned. But so does UNC’s biomass replacement fuel substituting for coal. That’s right. Coal was formed from heated compression of biomass. Charcoal, as in char-coal, (as well as other forms of biomass) contains trace amounts of mercury and arsenic. Charcoal produces the same greenhouse gases (GHG). Charcoal (or torrefied wood) produces about the same quantity of GHG per ton as coal.

What? So how will UNC going “Coal Free” help the environment? It won’t. The new biomass fuel is as carbonaceous as the old fossil fuel. It will just cost UNC more money because the biomass fuel costs more per BTU produced.

Who cares? It sure does feel good to get up in front of unquestioning news media and say that you’re going “Coal Free”.

Sadly, the more progressive the community, the more once-dynamic non-governmental organizations of yore appear to be in danger of becoming increasingly irrelelvant.

Witness the local chapter of the NAACP in Chapelboro. The local NAACP sat silent on the Eubanks Road trash transfer siting debacle for years. Although a predominately (though not entirely) working class African-American community was involved, the local NAACP chapter sat silent. It wasn’t until political challengers started asking embarrassing questions, such as “where’s the NAACP?”, that the local chapter became active.

Contrast that behavior with how the local NAACP chapter is addressing the “achievement gap” between African-American students in the city school system and all other ethnicities, excluding lower socio-economic Hispanic pupils. The city school system has poured millions of dollars and dozens of administrators into the morass of the gap, but it hasn’t been filled.

So what does the NAACP say? The local school system is laden with racist bias, even though the school board has an overrepresentation of African-American school board members with respect to the population.

In the words of Ms. Michelle Cotton Laws, president of the Chapel Hill Carrboro NAACP, yet NOT a registered voter in either Durham County or Orange County, ”The decision to expand the honors courses at the high school with no clear plan on how to hold teachers accountable for ensuring that bias selection into honors and AP courses isn't occurring, and implementing best teaching practices that prepare all children to compete at a high level is injudicious and regressive education policies. The actions and responses of the teachers, therefore, create a self-fulfilling prophecy for many students; if they are treated as if they can't perform at high levels, then guess what, many of them give up trying.” (See Herald Sun NAACP Honors Story.)

According to Ms. Laws, ”We are not against raising standards and challenging all youth to succeed and excel at high levels. What we are against, however, are policies that expand opportunities for those persons at the top with little to no genuine concern about how to bring those children at the bottom along. We support increasing standards and rigor for all children, but we strongly oppose creating and putting mechanisms in place that reproduce racial and class inequality, homogeneity in classes and tracking.”

Ms. Laws cites that fewer than 1 percent of the students enrolled in honors and AP courses in the school district are African American and Hispanic. (Ms. Laws ignores the data showing improvement in the Hispanic student performance over the past decade.)

There’s only one problem for Ms. Laws. Nothing keeps an African-American student from enrolling in an honors course whether recommended by a teacher or not. That’s right. The student and parent take the recommendation into consideration and change it if they wish. Following the joint consideration by student and parent, the parents sign off on the form. So the parents are really the ones to decide if the student will take the honors course. African-American students are free to take as many honors courses as they desire.

Ms. Laws also completely overlooks the many conscientious adult school volunteers spending their own time in the Blue Mentor and other programs so as to benefit struggling minority students.

No word on whether the goal of the local chapter of the NAACP is to get the best out of every student regardless of ethnicity or to homogenize the output of all students into a messy mass of mediocrity.

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.

In most of North Carolina if a person with ambiguous gender walks into a single sex bathroom, the reaction is “no harm, no foul”. A transgender person can quietly select by which gender they choose to be known.

However, Carrboro isn’t like most of North Carolina. Why solve a problem quietly and inexpensively if you can create a cause célèbre in the name of gender binary oppression?

Apparently, Section 14-19B of the Carrboro town code says that no person over five years of age should enter a town owned bathroom designated for the opposite sex unless performing maintenance.

Although no one has ever been cited for breaking this ordinance, Alderman Lydia Lavelle feels the pain of single sex bathrooms! All it took was a statement by an unknown transgender town resident for her to unfurl the social justice banner. Apparently, Carrboro must make unisex town-owned bathrooms available at all locations, or else it’s being socially unjust by practicing gender binary oppression.

Curiously, openly transgender mayoral candidate Ms. Amanda Ashley doesn’t feel that same pain, doesn't suffer from gender binary oppression in using town bathrooms. She isn’t concerned about the ordinance, saying, “It doesn’t make much difference to me”.

However, Ms. Lavelle remains undeterred in recognizing oppression, and won’t take it sitting down. She would rather the town investigate spending tens of thousands of dollars reconstructing bathrooms than have the governance board simply expunge the ordinance.

No word on how much money the town has spent, yet again, on its outside attorney to offer an, yet another, opinion.

The “suspension” of competitive economic forces, a state that allegedly existed in Orange County, continues to crumble as reality sets in during tough economic times.

First there was the realization by local politicians in 2008 that “retail snobbery” deprived Orange County of a balanced blend of tax revenue sources by driving retailers to the borders of the county, draining precious sales tax revenues into adjoining counties. Then in late May 2009 Weaver Street Market announced that an increase in local food retailing competitors has forced the suspension of an owner’s cooperative discount at the time of sale in favor of an annual dividend.

Which raises the question, when does a cooperative become a corporation?

Cooperation Is The Key
To answer that question, let’s look at cooperatives, in general, and the progression of cooperative behavior by the Weave, in particular.

One of the bulwarks of progressive economics is the promotion of cooperatives over corporations. Buying from a cooperative, that’s good. Buying from a corporation, that’s bad.

The favorite cooperative business of Orange County is the “Weave”. Originally created over twenty years ago, using a Carrboro revolving loan, the “Weave” promoted itself simply as a “community market”. There was no use of the term “food cooperative” or “co-op”. Weave users were encouraged to purchase voting stock in the “Weave” in order to get some reduced food prices.

Starting in the late 1990s, the Weave shifted into political gear, abandoning its promotion as a local, community-driven business, and turning, instead, towards the promotion of a politicized cooperative business, one even equipped with an affordable housing arm, the Weaver Cooperative Housing Association. The Weave could justify not paying a living wage to “employee/owners” because subsidized housing became part of its political agenda.

As a full blown, politically-connected, and politically driven food cooperative, every member had the same participation and voting power as another member, regardless of how much one consumed. The difference was that the more you shopped at the Weave, the more you saved money in the form of a member rebate or discount.

According to the International Cooperative Alliance, there are seven basic principles to a cooperative.

First Principle: Voluntary and Open Membership
Cooperatives are voluntary organizations, open to all persons able to use their services and willing to accept the responsibility of membership, without gender, social, racial, political, or religious discrimination.

Second Principle: Democratic Member Control
Cooperatives are democratic organizations controlled by their members, who actively participate in setting their policies and making decisions. Men and women serving as elected representatives are accountable to the membership. In primary cooperatives members have equal voting rights (one member, one vote) and cooperatives at other levels are organized in a democratic manner.

Third Principle: Member Economic Participation
Members contribute equitable to, and democratically control, the capital of the cooperative. At least part of that capital is usually the common property of the cooperative. They usually receive limited compensation, if any, on capital subscribed as a condition of membership. Members allocate surpluses for any or all of the following purposes: developing the cooperative, possible by setting up reserves, part of which at least would be indivisible, benefiting members in proportion to their transactions with the cooperative, and supporting other activities approved by the membership.

Fourth Principle: Autonomy and Independence
Cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members. If they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments, or raise capital from external sources, they do so on terms that ensure democratic control by their members and maintain their cooperative autonomy.

Fifth Principle: Education, Training, and Information
Cooperatives provide education and training for their members, elected representatives, managers, and employees so they can contribute effectively to the development of their cooperatives. They inform the general public - particularly young people and opinion leaders - about the nature and benefits of cooperation.

Sixth Principle: Cooperation Among Cooperatives
Cooperatives serve their members most effectively and strengthen the cooperative movement by working together through local, national, regional and international structures.

Seventh Principle: Concern For The Community
While focusing on member needs, cooperatives work for the sustainable development of their communities through polices accepted by their members.

To quote Alderman Dan Coleman in his CY 2000 Green Party Iowan days, “The ‘co-op’ in today’s food co-ops no longer refers to a way in which people come together to work cooperatively to meet their needs outside of the dominant corporate system. Today, ‘co-op’ describes a form of investment little different from that of any other corporation. You purchase your share, which entitles you to vote for directors. The only difference is that co-op shareholders get slightly lower prices at the store and a dividend based on patronage rather than profits.”

Ownership With Reservations
A Weave owner gives equity money to the Weave and receive a single share in the cooperative in return. That share only gives the owner the right to vote for Board representatives, nothing more. Unlike in a corporation, you can't buy more voting power by providing more equity.

Also unlike in a corporation, the Weave Board can exclude you from becoming an owner. (So much for the First ICA Principle of “Voluntary and Open Membership”.) According to Weave by-laws, an owner must “[support] the purposes of the cooperative as expressed in the Articles of Incorporation, these By-laws, and the policies of the cooperative.” The Weave Board has the absolute discretion to reject any application for ownership.

Giving equity money to the Weave to become an “owner” does NOT give you any rights in the general property owned by the Weave. You have the right to receive your equity back should you wish to give up your ownership. You have no right to any appreciation of Weave equity during the time you were an owner.

You have the right to elect an owner-representative to the Weave board of directors (Board). You don’t have a right to question that board at open owner meetings.

Unlike in most publicly-traded corporations, the general manager of the Weave (Mr. Ruffin Slater since its inception) is guaranteed a position on the Board.

According to the Weave, it has adopted the Carver Policy Governance model for conducting business. Under this model, board dissent is eliminated. Once a vote is taken, “the board speaks with one voice”. Moreover, a Carver board is goal oriented without details. The board sets a goal. If the management reaches that goal, there is no need to discuss the means used. The touted result is little paperwork for the board to review, much like with a Bernie Madoff investment company.

Weave Finances
The annual report of the Weave is a bare bones affair that provides little, if any, guidance to an owner/member as to the operating efficiency of the Weave.

For 2008, the Weave “achieved strong sales growth in our existing stores in the first half of the year, but sales growth declined in the second half of the year due to increased competition. Our new Hillsborough store opened at the end of the fiscal year and posted sales above budget for its first few weeks. Besides declining sales in our existing stores, our financial performance was negatively affected by dramatically higher food prices which squeezed our margins. For the year, we achieve an operating profit of $76,000 [on revenues of $21,875,554 and “community loans” equity of $1,324,750], only about a quarter of the operating profit of the previous year. Combined with one-time start-up expenses of $485,000 for the Food House and Hillsborough store, this produced a net loss of $330,000 for the fiscal year ending in June.” (See the Weave 2008 Annual Report.)

Mr. Slater’s message doesn’t state that the Weave lost $330,651 in “Net Income” for 2008. Neither does it highlight that on those total sales of $21,875,554, members received only $582,798 (2.7%) in discounts, indicating that a substantial portion of Weave sales are to non-owners.

The annual report also doesn’t go into the practice of the Weave borrowing money form other food cooperatives. In February 2009, the Weave borrowed $25,000 in an unsecured loan from the Middlebury, Vermont based Middlebury Natural Foods Cooperative (MNFC). The MNFC placed the $25,000 in a certificate of deposit at the Self Help Credit Union of Durham. (Alderman John Hererra is senior vice president of Latino/Hispanic affairs for $292 million asset organization.) Why isn’t the MNFC isn’t returning that money to its owner members? Good question, the Pulp doesn’t have that answer.

Of course, the next question is, why are ten other food cooperatives loaning money to the Weave as well? Are the community loans of $1,324,750 owner/member food cooperative money that could be returned to respective food cooperative owners throughout the country?

Hillsborough Who?
The above-mentioned expansion to Hillsborough occurred in 2007. It was significant in that although the town of Carrboro provided money to start the Weave, the administrative offices and food preparation facilities would leave Carrboro, another example of Carrboro ED in action. According to Mr. Slater, Carrboro has little flexible commercial space available with loading docks. “There was very little commercial property. The retail spaces are just not set up for unloading trucks.” Another example of progressive land use planning for businesses. (See Carrboro Citizen Hillsborough Weave Story.)

What wasn’t highlighted by the local media were the underlying finances regarding that Hillsborough move.

The Weave moved into new Gateway Center facilities built by Mr. George A. Horton III under his Telesis Construction Management LLC business entity. Part of that complex, pre-construction was the old Southern States Cooperative property. That property didn’t pass from Southern States to Telesis. Back in 2002, it was sold to Hillsborough Community LLC. A gain of $225,000 on a purchase price of $625,000 was made in the 2007 sale by Hillsborough Community LLC to Telesis.

Who’s Hillsborough Community LLC? There’s little public record as exactly who owns this business at what time. However, the record does show that it’s located now at 439 Dimmocks Hill Road. That’s the administrative office address for the Weave. It should come as no surprise then that the registered agent for Hillsborough Community is none other than Mr. Slater, the Weave General Manager.

There’s also no public record as to the relationship between the Weave and Hillsborough Community LLC. Thus, the Pulp can’t tell you who pocketed the $225,000 gain.

Dividends, Not Discounts?
The move to Hillsborough may have been the “bridge too far” move for the Weave. Costs have increased. Hillsborough has a competitive food retailing market, including the mega-retailer, Wal-Mart.

Starting 26 June 2009, the Weave will cease giving its owners a 5% discount on cash register purchases. Instead, they will get a “patronage dividend” at the end of the fiscal year that accounts for all owner purchases. One hitch, that dividend will be finances permitting. The reason given for the change is that the Weave has been losing about $65,000 per month recently due to increased competition and increased costs. Sales are down about 12% compared to last year in the Carrboro and Southern Village locations.

Cooperative Or Corporation?
Which begs the question, if owners are receiving a dividend annually, if that dividend is subject to profit margins and not just dependent on owner usage, then isn’t that the hallmark of a for-profit corporation?

In the nation, the incidence of teen pregnancies/births and births to single mothers of all ages is on the rise. But that’s not true in Orange County.

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) issued a report recently detailing the birth trends nationally. According to the NCHS, the birth rate for US teens increased again in 2007, rising by about 1% to 42.5 births per 1000 females. Between 2005 and 2007 the teen birth rate rose about 5%. By ethnicity or race, the birth rate for Hispanic teenagers increased in 2007 to 17.3 per 1000, up 2% from 2006, while the rate for non-Hispanic whites and for black teens increased, respectively from 26.6 per 1000 to 27.2 and from 63.7 per 1000 to 64.3.

Moreover, the birth rate to unmarried females increased to “historic levels” nationally in 2007. The proportion of births to unmarried women rose about 4% in 2007, up 26% since 2002. About 39.7% of all births in 2007 were to single mothers. Teens actually declined as a percentage of single mother births. (See NCHS report.)

Locally, Orange County is following the single mother rise to historic levels, but bucking the national trend on teen pregnancies.

Teen pregnancies per 1000 females in OC have decreased from 20.6 per 1000 (2006) to 19.8 (2007). Moreover, they have dramatically decreased from 1997 (31.6 per 1000). Kudos are in order for public health officials and public schools, as well as to many parents, churches, and other civic organizations.

Unfortunately, the good news on lowering rates for teen pregnancies is not mirrored by the birth rate to single mothers. For single mother pregnancies the overall proportion of the total births for 2007 is 40%, 34% for “whites” and 56% for “minorities”, the subclassifications used by state officials.

(See NCHS Data.)

In most American towns the guerrilla warfare between cats and birds is a part of nature’s landscape. Not so in southern Orange, where pet owners must control every action of their pets, denying them fulfillment of their natural instincts.

Recently the town of Chapel Hill received a petition from a resident (Ms. Anne Johnson) to change the town’s existing dog leash ordinance to include cats. (Surprisingly, the town of Cary, North Carolina is ahead of Chapel Hill in having a cat leash ordinance.) The Chapel Hill Town Council chose to reject a cat leash ordinance at this time. However, the town staff reminded everyone that under existing Chapel Hill town ordinances, a cat owner must contain their cat to their own property, which amounts to a de facto cat leash ordinance.

In response to the town’s actions, anarchist and local media political analyst Ms. Ruby Sinreich, who says she “swore off pets 20 years ago”, declares that “[b]y domesticating animals, humans have thrown things out of whack.” Admitting that she still has cats as pets, she further opines,” I guess I will just have to live with the guilt because I can't give up my cats or their happiness. Add it to the list of compromises we make to live in this society.”

Local Orange Progressives eagerly awaited the next delphic pronouncement from Ms. Sinreich after her call last year for the eradication of capitalism. After pronouncing domesticated animals to be environmentally “whacky”, one can only guess what the Oracle of Bourgeoise Rentiers will say next.

(See Daily Tar Heel Cat Herding Story.)

Pulpsters know that Mr. Barack Obama will handily win the presidential election in southern Orange, easily trouncing his competitor, Mr. John McCain. After all, southern Orange County is the land of tolerance, understanding, compassion, and progressivism. So what are Pulpsters to make of the report that a UNC professor of statistics, Mr. Andrew S. Noble, of the affluent Oak Crest subdivision and an ardent Obama supporter, has been unable to instill in his nine year old son the notion that he shouldn't steal a neighbor’s McCain yard sign?

Mr. Noble's outrage is reserved not for his son's actions in trying to steal the sign (captured on video, sign stealing video, which requires an FLV player to watch), but is reserved for the audacity of his next-door neighbor in attaching an electrical pet fence device to the sign to try to prevent yet another theft.

Mr. Shawn Turschak is registered as unaffiliated, not as GOP. As the lucky neighbor of the ever-tolerant Mr. Noble, he already has had two sets of McCain-Palin signs stolen from his yard within hours of being planted. (Pulpsters should know that according to the local media, signs aren't “stolen”. They simply “disappear”.)

In response, Mr. Turschak, an electrical engineer, ran wires from his house and hooked the signs into an electric pet fence power source, a device that shocks, but does not injure even a small pet. For insurance, he mounted a surveillance video camera in a nearby tree and wired it to a digital recorder. He even included signs warning of an electric fence. The next day, on 28 October 2008 in broad daylight, the camera recorded Mr. Noble’s son in action. (Pulpsters should know that Mr. Noble lives on a four acre estate next to his neighbor's three acre estate, so the sign in question is not an irresistable temptation.)

After hearing that his son was zapped while trespassing on a neighbor’s lawn with the intent to switch the McCain sign with an Obama sign, Mr. Noble reacted in a tolerant, compassionate, and understanding fashion. He beat on his neighbor’s door and, when opened, chastised Mr. Turschak’s 13 year old daughter for “electrocuting” his son. (Mr. Noble didn’t explain how his son got the Obama sign.) In a truly noble gesture, Mr. Noble called the police on his neighbors.

Pulpsters can watch the video, witnessing the brtual horror of the “electrocution”, and see if they believe Mr. Noble’s explanation that his son just wanted to see how the sign was put together. That explanation was given before Mr. Noble saw the video.

Maintaining the progressive sense of tolerance for different thinking and opposing views, the thieving boy’s mother, Ms. Johanna Gisladottir, said, “she and many neighbors thought it was community property. They were troubled, she said, that someone had apparently claimed the corner on behalf of the Republican Party.” (See the N&O Tolerance Story.)

The new excuse given by Ms. Gisladottir is that her son was inspired to switch the sign after listening to a discussion she had with a neighbor of the correct political thinking. Unfortunately, that tolerant speech is not available. In her words, ”I don't know what his intention was when he ran out, or I would not have allowed him to leave. I honestly don't think he had a concrete plan.”

By Wednesday afternoon, while the Turschak family was at a daughter's soccer game, two McCain signs were stolen from their yard by a tolerant, compassionate, understanding, but “angry-looking woman” striding up in broad daylight.

No word on whether or not the new theft was “like son, like mother”.

No word on the statistics of a sign being stolen from the same yard within twenty four hours.

Only in southern Orange County would the victims of the Great Financial Crash of 2008 be characterized not as those local taxpayers who played by the rules and didn’t overleverage their housing on “liar” loans. Nor would the victims be characterized as those local banks that didn’t seek unsustainable rates of returns by buying “subprime” junk mortgages. The victims aren't even those local remaining for-profit businesses starved of credit and facing bankruptcy in order to pay local taxes. No, here in Orange County the victims of the Great Financial Crash of 2008 are local tax exempt organizations (aka non-profits).

Yes, in Orange County those organizations that for years haven't had to pay taxes are being punished because they can’t get any more tax relief than they already have. That Orange progressive logic bears repeating. Because local non-profits pay no taxes, they can’t get tax relief from the federal government like for-profit organizations. Thus, local non-profits are being discriminated against by the federal government.

In the words of Mr. Jon Wilner, executive director of the Carrboro Arts Center, a local non-profit, “Most of what I read in the newspapers or hear on television refers to tax breaks or tax incentives to help small businesses. Nonprofits do not pay taxes. Never have. So what is the government’s plan to help the thousands of nonprofit organizations survive the mess they have gotten us into?”

“What nonprofit mess”, you might ask?

According to Mr. Wilner, any time you feel less wealthy as in a financial downturn, you most likely will give less to organizations such as the Arts Center despite the important work they do which no government or for profit business could do. (Apparently Orange County entertainers are unware of the existence of Broadway and commercial for profit theaters.) Anything that causes a drop in Arts Center donations and reduces the untaxed revenues of the literally thousands of other local nonprofits here in Orange County is the fault of government.

No word on whether or not the Arts Center will sell its multi- million dollar property in the middle of the under construction 300 Main Street project in order to weather the financial storm.

No word on whether or not the Arts Center is willing to pay even half of the taxes a for-profit entertainment business would pay in order to get federal tax relief or incentives?

It’s gardening time again. Time for the Orange County locavores (see Phictionary) to come out in force, trying to induce guilt in those who don’t purchase or grow all of their food locally. (see Pulp Locavore Story.)

Unfortunately, a recently published study reveals the hysteria surrounding the locavore movement. (See Environ. Sci. Technol., 42 (10), 3508–3513, 2008.) In an article entitled ”Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States”, authors Christopher L. Weber and H. Scott Matthews report that “despite significant recent public concern and media attention to the environmental impacts of food, few studies in the United States have systematically compared the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with food production against long-distance distribution, aka “food-miles”.”

The authors did such a study and found out the following. Although food is transported long distances in general (1640 km delivery and 6760 km life-cycle supply chain on average) the food associated GHG emissions are dominated by the production phase, contributing 83% of the average U.S. household’s 8.1 tons of annual CO2 emissions footprint for food consumption. Most importantly, final food delivery from producer to consumer contributes only 4% of food GHG. For the average consumer getting the equivalent of 14% of your week’s calories from chicken, fish, or vegetables instead of red meat and diary will more than make up for “locavoring”.

No word on whether or not local locavores will pile into their hybrid cars to drive to Washington DC in protest and to testify before Congress.

No better demonstration can be given of how the local steno pool (local press and other media) works than the failure to report on restraints of annexation abuses practiced by the town of Carrboro in 2006 . The abuses have been well chronicled in the Pulp. Carrboro made a forced (involuntary) annexation of about 400 homes that violated seven aspects of the law (all missed by 2007 elected Carrboro Alderman Lydia Lavelle who lives in the annexed area and was in favor of the annexation as performed).

Annexation illegalities included:
1) Annexation was through a vacant half mile, non-urban area;
2) Annexation was without upgrading inadequate water pressure to the annexxed area;
3) Annexation was without providing road annexation much less road maintenance;
4) Annexation was without providing access to bond improvements (sidewalks);
5) Annexation was without providing adequate public safety protection (fire, police, and EMS) with a promised completed second fire substation not even under construction;
6) Annexation provided no value to annexed citizens; and
7) Annexation unduly burdened, without notification, the existing municipal citizens by not calculating all municiapl costs to bring all annexed citizens up to par in service levels.

Despite the embarrassment surrounding the annexation and a subsequent attempt to deannex some of the area annexed (through a petition to State Representative Bill Faison), the steno pool slept through the House Select Committee decision. No local paper presented the outcome of the committee vote with any weight or explanation.

After holding a series of public hearings across the state, a special House select committee on annexation moratorium voted Wednesday April 24th to recommend that a temporary moratorium be placed on all involuntary and satellite municipal annexations. If adopted after the General Assembly goes into its short session on May 13, the moratorium would be in place until June 30, 2009. The proposed moratorium was approved 10-2 by the committee. One of the two dissenters was UNC law professor and former Carrboro alderman Judith Wegener.

Amazingly, Professor Wegner told the house select committee that another blue ribbon committee paid for by your state taxes (with her also as a member of that committee, of course) is needed to study state annexation laws, water resource availability, and the role of counties. Although there have been some abuses, Professor Wegner felt that a three month legislative session was enough time to form the blue ribbon committee and to address any problems. She was more concerned about enabling municipalities to “face” major growth armed with annexation statutory weaponry.

The annexation moratorium still faces long odds before being implemented. The all powerful city and town lobbying group, the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM), whose efforts are paid for by city and town taxes without voter approval of NCLM policies. The NCLM says that forced annexation is needed to maintain strong growth and economic vitality for many of the state's municipalities., an admission that many municipalities live beyond their means.

Chairman Goforth disagreed with the appraisal of the NCLM, ”So many cities are doing a good job with annexation in a calm, timely fashion, but so many are abusing the people of North Carolina.”

Several state representative committee members suggested that the annexation laws be changed to give more public input for annexation. The incredibly non-progressive idea of allowing people who own land slated for incorporation to receive more reliable service installation schedules, members said, and have an easier time getting city taxes deferred or refunded if timetables aren't met threatens existing NCLM autonomy to treat citizens as economic wage slaves.

House Speaker, developer, and bourgeoisie rentier Joe Hackney is against the idea of a moratorium.

USDA Chief Economist Joseph Glauber reported that consumer food prices should rise 3.0% to 4.0% this year after a 4.0% gain in 2007 (U.S. Agriculture Department's annual outlook conference). (That estimate was issued before reports of $4.00 per gallon gasoline were reported.) A portion of that increase will come from increasing wheat prices.

World wheat production reached a record 628.6 million tons in 2004-05 and remained large at 621.5 million tons in 2005-06. Production dropped to 593.2 million tons in 2006-07 and reached only 603.6 million tons in 2007-08 due to the drought in Australia. According to the USDA , global wheat inventories are expected to fall to 110.4 million tons by May 31, the lowest since 1978 and down 12 percent from the same time last year. Wheat was the fourth-biggest U.S. crop in 2007, valued at $13.7 billion, behind corn, soybeans and hay. Major wheat growing countries include not only USA, Canada, and Australia, but also China, France, India (largest in planted area), and Russia.

Recent projections by the International Food Policy research Institute (IFPRI) indicate that, by 2020, two-thirds of the world’s wheat consumption will occur in developing countries, where wheat imports are estimated to double by 2020. Worldwide wheat demand is calculated to rise by 40% from 1993 to 2020, reaching 775 million tons.

No word on whether or not local locavores will seek locally grown grain production on red clay.

No word on whether or not the Sierra Club will address global carrying capacity.

In a toe tapping tale, the Indian Creek Nature Trail along nearby Jordan Lake is being closed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The reason – “advanced sexual acts”. “According to a state spokesperson, “It's not a family friendly atmosphere any more.”

Undercover wildlife officers have rammed home more than thirty citations all along the secretive trail, in what’s become a painful situation to address. State officials don’t expect the wild life to stop, saying ”We do not have the resources to focus enough manpower to address the problem.”

No word from local political analysts on the discriminatory nature of this latest state action supporting “breeders” and against the anarchistic right to engage in rampant public lewdness.

No word if the Carrboro Greenway Commission will offer an alternative site for the advanced sexual anarchists.

In related business news, Johnson & Johnson stock and Church & Dwight stock traded down slightly on Friday.

See N&O Wild Life Story.

What, Squeeze The Pulp’s very own Cosmo Flamer ahead of the curve? That’s right!

Cosmo flamed on, as only he can with his endless supply of propane, in early January in response to an N&O article touting that buying local is always the environmentally friendly choice. He pointed out that this is “always true” in a facts optional world aka the world of southern Orange.

The N&O in a Lifestyles article (not meaty news, of course, that’s reserved for Carrboro families that live without air conditioning on the pledge of reducing greenhouse gases, until of course, it gets really hot, as it is prone to do here, often in the summer, then on comes the A/C) present an alternative view of locavoring.

Journalist Sarah Murray, a frequent Financial Times contributor, actually has the gall (not meant as an ethnic slur) to state that sometimes food grown in the prime area of production for that foodstuff, grown in bulk, transported in bulk by more efficient means than roads can be the environmentally friendly choice. She cites a British study that concluded fewer greenhouse gases were emitted by importing Spanish tomatoes than by growing tomatoes in heated greenhouses in Britain.

Well Cosmo quotes a New Zealand study showing that lamb grown on pastures halfway around the world can be delivered to England with less greenhouse gas emissions than lamb grown locally. That’s right. English lamb produces 35 percent more emissions per kilogram of milk solid than New Zealand and 31 percent more emissions per hectare than New Zealand - even including transportation from New Zealand to Britain and the carbon dioxide generated in that process.

See Cosmo Locavore Flame.

See N&O Locavore Story.

Local media has begun openly promoting the “Eat Local” lifestyle, but on a facts limited basis.

The eating habits of a Carrboro family are being reported in a new N&O series. The series (to date) provides no factual background or comparison for the complete environmental impact of “local” food eaten by the family versus non-local food. The arbitrary cut-off point for “local” seems to be food grown or raised in North Carolina, even though food from the Danville area is closer than food from Columbus County.

The couple has a autocommuter lifestyle. The husband is estimated to commute about 85 miles per week to RTP. The wife may telecommute to Apex, it isn't clear.

The argument is made (without explanation) that a potato grown in Idaho necessarily uses more fuel to arrive on one's plate in Orange County than one grown in North Carolina.

(Portions originally reported in the N&O. See N&O Eat local story.)