Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Inside Scoop asks what ever happened to the $137 million in bond money approved for a bunch of projects in 2000 by Greensboro voters...and he links to a list of answers, and promises to give details on specifc projects as requested. A brief recap: "Two new libraries: Check. Carolyn Allen Park: Check. Greensboro Sportsplex: Check. Zoo at the Natural Science Center: Ehh, not so much." 4:30:23 PM    comment []

John Robinson: "Help us bulid the site." 4:23:53 PM    comment []

Jay Rosen has collected some reflections from BloJoCredsters here, here, and here. 4:22:47 PM    comment []

Longtime blogger Rick Klau is running for local office in Illinois. 12:43:50 PM    comment []

A suggestion on where to look for leadership in creating an ACC Hall of Fame in Greensboro, from my February 2, 2003 column: "Jefferson-Pilot, a local company with significant broadcasting and advertising ties to the league, which can provide funds for the project and influence with the ACC. This is JP's chance to...provid(e) critical corporate leadership for its hometown - while leveraging its own well-established marketing strategy." 12:41:08 PM    comment []

More info on Greensboro-based National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, which claims to be in over 285 school districts and over 1,000 high schools nationwide. Yes, blue states, too. They publish very little about the actual curriculum, and don't include much info on the books and videos they sell at what they themselves label a "ministry"-- just short blurbs like this one for a video "demonstrating that the current 'seperation of church and state' is something never intended by the Founding Fathers." They are closely associated with the American Family Association, a hard-line power in the culture war, and encourage you to "visit and support" other sites "supportive of our cause," including links to creationist sites. They are prone to ahistorical statements, such as this one: "The Bible was the foundation and blueprint for our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, educational system, and our entire history until the last 20 to 30 years." They offer themselves in explicit contrast to "politically correct world religions courses" which "tend to promote faiths such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism" and don't teach "a true Bible curriculum." This stuff can land school districts in court. Anyone got a full copy of the curriculum, study guides, etc? Is this being offered at a high school near you? 12:32:02 PM    comment []

Another paid-for pundit on the Bush administration gravy train. Maggie Gallagher wrote in support of a Bush pro-marriage proposal in the National Review Online and elsewhere, but didn't mention that she had signed a $21,500 contract with HHS to cheerlead for the administration's marriage agenda. Gallagher says she forgot about the deal, but no working journalist is going to buy that story. As Constantine von Hoffman writes to Romenesko, "I can't remember the last time I signed a contract for $21k and forgot about it." 10:54:51 AM    comment []

Hoggard says the N&R is changing the way it offers online news -- and in the comments, John Robinson concurs. A popular meme at BloJoCred -- that newspapers should understand themselves as online publishers with print editions -- is adapting to a real-world environment. 10:44:01 AM    comment []

David Wharton reports on the 2004 March for Life in DC. With photos. A nice piece of first-person journalism. 10:29:14 AM    comment []

Big lies: an NYT editorial observer piece by Adam Cohen on "The Difference Between Politically Incorrect and Historically Wrong," which examines a popular book called The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. Civil Rights laws, Civil War, Marshall Plan, Social Security -- all bad things according to this new tome. Cohen: "It is tempting to dismiss the book as fringe scholarship, not worth worrying about, but the numbers say otherwise. It is being snapped up on college campuses and, helped along by plugs from Fox News and other conservative media, it recently soared to No. 8 on the New York Times paperback best-seller list." I thought it was the left that was supposed to have trouble with the concept of objective truth? 7:17:50 AM    comment []

North Carolina moves closer to requiring paper trail for electronic voting. Good. 7:12:39 AM    comment []