Friday, October 29, 2004

"The Elon University Board of Trustees voted Oct. 29 to establish a school of law, with the program headquartered in downtown Greensboro, N.C....The inaugural class of about 100 students will enroll in fall 2006, with a projected total enrollment of about 300 students by fall 2008."(news release) Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding. We have a winner. Hoo-wa. Which reminds me of a strange comment about downtown Greensboro by Orson Scott Card in the Rhino. He writes that "a big ugly stadium is going to guarantee the continuing death of what shreds of life our downtown still has." It's not the best-written sentence in Card's oeuvre, and it contains an aesthetic judgement about the as-yet-uncompleted stadum that may not prove out when it's done, but the really odd thing is that it's several years out of date in terms of the life of downtown Greensboro. Downtown is rocking. I guess Card could argue that the stadium is going to kill the revival or slow the momentum, although I don't think that will be true, either. But to talk about the "continuing death" of downtown Greensboro in late 2004 is just bizarre. 4:21:32 PM    comment []

The current edition of the Rhino Times is Greensboro's alt-weekly at its best, page after page of detailed local politics with a pronounced conservative point of view. John Hammer knows his stuff, and his endorsement articles are informative even when he's endorsing the wrong candidate. What a shame it's not online until after the election. The Rhino is GSO's most-bloglike print publication, but like the BizJournal it hasn't figured out the local web business. (Not that I have, although I'm working on some ideas. At least the N&R is trying -- JR's blog just hit double digits in comments on a single post, there's something going on over there... ) Anyway, I thought Hammer's non-endorsement endorsement of Pricey Harrison was interesting. He spent the first part of the article saying nice things about Pricey and bad things about the campaign run by Joanne Bowie, and then gave Bowie a less than lukewarm nod based on his disagreement with Pricey's environmentalist agenda. Kremlinology, Rhino style: several pro-Harrison letters were headlined "Pricey this" or "Pricey that" -- a subtle bit of brand-building that I don't think the Rhino would do for just anyone...and the interminable county commissioner article was headlined "Winstead" each time it jumped from page to page... Also, Scott Card was on the money about Jim Capo -- a smart guy who does not seem serious about winning. The ads from a group called the Conservative Values PAC were confusing and lame (the one against Barber) and offensive and stupid. The ad showing Jeff Thigpen as a puppet of Skip Alston doesn't even make sense in this context, unless viewed while wearing a Billy Yow t-shirt; Thigpen, who was endorsed by the Rhino, says his opponent is close to the nasty PAC. Oh yeah, on the subject of ads in the Rhino -- Willy, you still haven't billed me for those EdCone.com ads I bought. 11:12:57 AM    comment []

I'm not a big Eminem fan, and I scoffed at lefty sites pimping his new anti-war song and video...but it is pretty powerful stuff. Makes you want to grab a torch and a pitchfork, or at least a black hoodie. Watch it here. 8:09:44 AM    comment []

This must drive the Rhino Times crowd crazy: more great news for downtown Greensboro, and Jim Melvin a hero in the tale. N&R: "Elon University [has raised] $10 million to build a law school in downtown Greensboro. The lead fund-raiser for the project, Jim Melvin, president of the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, said that 22 local foundations, corporations and individuals contributed to the project...The money clears the path for Elon's board of trustees to vote on the project when it meets today. Elon's spokesman, Dan Anderson, had said earlier that money would be the only obstacle to prevent the project from moving forward, aside from technical issues with the proposed site for the school. The school will hold a news conference at 2:15 p.m. today to discuss the status of the project." 8:07:20 AM    comment []

Lawrence Lessig will run the blogs and law session at next week's Stanford BloggerCon. Again, the problem out there will be being in several places at once. 8:01:22 AM    comment []

How good a state senator is Greensboro's own Kay Hagan? Even the more-conservative-than-he-admits Gate Keeper endorses her. 7:58:26 AM    comment []

Hey, Tony Moschetti -- here are some numbers for your next letter to the N&R: 100,000 estimated civilian dead in Iraq. UPDATE: A skeptical report in liberal-leaning Slate suggests that the numbers in the Lancet are credible only when compared to Moschetti's: "It's a useless study; something went terribly wrong with the sampling." 7:56:51 AM    comment []

Yesterday I gave you a snapshot of Erskine Bowles' breakneck schedule in the last days of the Senate campaign...Blog 4 Burr shows that Richard Burr is running hard, too, including a stop in GSO on Saturday evening. 7:52:28 AM    comment []

The BizJournal has done a great job of staying out in front of the Dell-to-the-Triad story, including a report in early August that the big computer maker had narrowed its focus to our region. Now it's official, with Dell and the State making it clear that a new plant is very likely to be built around here. Hey, Dell, Greensboro is nice. Real nice. You should come to Greensboro. Meanwhile, the excellent Business Journal of the Triad continues to suffocate itself with an outdated online strategy that does nothing to market the product. The paper publishes on Friday, but only posts its content on the web on Monday, thus snuffing any buzz it might generate and burying its own scoops. The News & Record has largely ceded regular business coverage in this market, and the BizJournal fills the gap well, but the powers that run the paper from corporate headquarters have a print-era marketing strategy that makes me fear for its future. 7:48:53 AM    comment []