By this Author

Allen Johnson: The inconvenient truth about Tasers and danger in our schools

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:00:00 -0500

Even as Guilford County was debating, once again, the wisdom of police officers carrying stun guns on school grounds, four teens were being arrested in Wake County on Nov. 12 for a bringing a .22 caliber revolver and a butterfly knife onto the campus of Broughton High School.

The pistol turned out to be unloaded, but a knife requires no ammunition.

Allen Johnson: Bill Burckley's scary trip to the edge and triumphant return

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:00:00 -0500

City Councilwoman Trudy Wade says she's always known political consultant Bill Burckley as a "gentleman."

C'mon, Trudy.

What you've always known is better than that.

Wade has been around long enough to know Burckley, a former council member, can be both annoying and relentless-- like a pebble in your shoe, or a mosquito in the dark.

Allen Johnson: Can UNCG and UNC-CH meet in middle on pharmacy schools?

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500

When asked about UNCG's hopes to establish a new pharmacy school by 2011, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp, a smart and impressive man, gingerly tip-toed through an answer.

"It's not my decision," Thorp said in a meeting with News & Record editorial writers last March.

Allen Johnson: Rap has nothing on some oldies when it comes to crudeness

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

If you're a Baby Boomer who has a hankering every now and then for old-school Top 40 radio, you probably know the song.

It's called "Something in the Air" and it's so smooth and mid-tempo you could practically slow dance to it at the prom.

Allen Johnson: Civil rights museum coin would be money in the bank

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

If President Barack Obama comes to Greensboro next February for the opening of the downtown International Civil Rights Center and Museum, it would be a crowning achievement for the project, which has at times struggled mightily to keep hope alive over the years.

But as Eddie Bridges sees it, why stop there?

Allen Johnson: Texting-while-driving summit hits close to home

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

The mangled remains of Mark Schulz's bicycle are in storage in the UNCG campus.

He won't ever ride it again. It is twisted beyond repair.

Allen Johnson: My conflicted views about panhandlers

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Allen Johnson: At Bennett College, 'very, very exciting times'

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Julianne Malveaux knows how to party.

If you attended the Sept. 12 "Black and White Ball" benefit for the downtown civil rights museum, you already know that.

Malveaux was the feisty woman on the dance floor with the short, neatly trimmed Afro and nimble feet.

Allen Johnson: How not to be like Joe, Serena and Kanye

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0400

As Rep. Joe Wilson, Kanye West, Serena Williams, et al., were hard at work in recent days mangling the cause of civil discourse, I got to thinking about our own struggles for reasonableness on the opinion pages.

For those of you who are familiar with the News & Record's Web site, the most consistently challenging issue has been comments on stories and letters.

Thus, we implemented a few new guidelines, including a 24-hour window for letters comments versus an unlimited one.

It was not a universally popular decision.

Allen Johnson: Back by popular demand, the book page returns

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0400

One week from today, the News & Record's book page will be back in its rightful place, as part of the Sunday Ideas section.

When we eliminated the section more than a year ago, you told us you missed it -- and you kept on telling us until ... well, what time is it right now?

You told us we are a community of readers.

You told us you not only like to read but you like reading about reading.

And you were right.

Allen Johnson: Who'd park on a railroad, guessing a train won't come?

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Sometimes all you need to solve a potentially serious problem is common sense and a pair of strategically placed stop signs.

That's how the railroad giant, Norfolk Southern, addressed the inherent danger of two active downtown railroad tracks laid uncomfortably close to two active downtown nightclubs.

Allen Johnson: Is Skip Alston the politician maturing into Skip Alston the leader?

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Not one solitary pig has either landed or taken off at PTI Airport.

But staunch Republican Steve Arnold and staunch Democrat Skip Alston are still close partners, if not best buds.

In "Star Trek," this kind of stuff only happens in alternate universes. Yet, as Alston reminded a packed house last week at the annual State of Our Community luncheon, he and his unlikely political ally are still working together, for better (they insist) or worse (say their critics).

Allen Johnson: What do you think this is, a health care forum?

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0400

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

When we created a letters blog five years ago, we envisioned a place where printed letters would go on to spirited afterlives in cyberspace -- where others could comment in real time on those letters, and where even the original letter writers could take part.

And it's still a good idea.

The letters blog quickly became the News & Record's most popular and has remained so over the years.

Allen Johnson: If birther blather clouds our heads so easily, what hope is there for health care?

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0400

A sizeable number of North Carolinians still believe Barack Obama was not born in the United States, a new survey reveals.

More Republicans question the president's citizenship than Democrats, and more white voters than black ones.

During the same week, this impassioned e-mail arrived from Charlotte: "More and more American people are seeing they have been sold a bill of false goods. There are many things people should know about who this Hope and Change figurine is besides, with certainty, where he was born."

Geez Louise.

Allen Johnson: Starfleet Academy's five-year mission begins in Greensboro

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0400

A piece of now-famous state legislation that aimed to boldly go where no bill has gone before ... is going nowhere.

For now. At least.

Filed by state Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, the bill would have provided seed money for a Starfleet Academy Complex at N.C. A&T.

Yup, you heard right. A Starfleet Academy.

Lampooned in a Web video that became a YouTube hit, the bill has attracted national attention. But it failed to launch in the state House, and is nowhere to be found in the just-passed $19 billion state budget.

Allen Johnson: I am not a criminal; I am taking a walk

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0400

As I write these words it is still several hours before President Obama, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley sit down for beers on the grounds of the White House.

Rarely has a gathering of three guys for brewskies at a backyard picnic table attracted so much attention. (Did I really need to know that the president prefers Bud Light?)

Allen Johnson: Clothesline bill whisked away in a gust of hot air

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0400

There's no shortage of dirty laundry in Raleigh.

Just don't go looking for any clotheslines.

Consider the case of Pricey Harrison, who dared to push a perfectly innocent piece of legislation in favor of drying our clothing and linen the old-fashioned way.

Even as she was about to see another of her bills that would regulate coal ash ponds in the state near passage -- after being given absolutely no chance to survive -- Harrison's clothesline bill, alas, had no such luck.

You'd have thunk she spit on the flag.

Allen Johnson: Questions worth asking the candidates

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Some people are calling for more sharply defined ethical rules for local elected officials.

And they calling for them, from of all places, Raleigh, which has not exactly been a paragon of ethical virtue in recent years.

A former governor and first lady are under investigation and an assortment of former lawmakers and state officials have gone to jail, so whatever law should emerge from this legislation should have added, in parentheses, to its title, "Do as we say, not as we do."

Allen Johnson: A tale of two campuses

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0400

What is it they say about timing?

It was purely coincidental that Guilford College President Kent Chabotar was scheduled to visit the News & Record last week for a conversation with reporters and editorial writers.

That meeting had been set up weeks in advance.

No one could know that it would happen one day before a colleague and good friend of Chabotar's, Greensboro College President Craven Williams, suddenly would walk away from the job.

Allen Johnson: A Friday night out downtown is like no other

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Make no bones about it, I’m in the tank for downtown Greensboro.

Nowhere else is as fluid and funky and intrinsically unpredictable.

You don’t plan downtown. It happens.

What you see there is what you get, and from night to night you never quite know what that’ll be:

Former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry Frye salsa dancing at Center City Park.

A sidewalk brass band in ties and church suits playing gospel tunes.

A local businessman hawking downtown tours on Segways.

Allen Johnson: Why minor league baseball is best served privately

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0400

Following the recent rains in Winston-Salem, there wasn't much joy in Mudville. Just mud.

The latest bad news: The owner of the city's minor league team was strapped for cash and needed help from the city to complete a stalled new downtown baseball stadium.

That's in addition to $12 million the city already had committed in taxpayer money to the project.

Allen Johnson: What Billy Nutt and others have given to Greensboro

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0400

It was particularly hurtful to learn that Billy Nutt had been replaced as CEO of Greensboro's struggling United Guaranty Corp.

In times like these, companies will do what they have to do to stay alive.

United Guaranty is a part of embattled insurance giant AIG, and we all know its travails from national headlines. United lost $2.5 billion in 2008 as the subprime mortgage meltdown ripped gashes in the nation's insurance and investment industries.

Allen Johnson: White Street Landfill issue isn't about race; it's about lousy planning

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:00:00 -0400

As someone who spent his formative years in a city neighborhood called Woodmere Park, I still remember the aroma of the air over there on a still, hot summer day.

We were betwixt and between two local institutions that were seldom seen but often sniffed: the North Buffalo Creek Sewage Treatment Plant to the west and the White Street Landfill to the east.

The smell wafting from the two had an odd, spoiled-cheese quality to it that said, "Today is not a good day to cook out."

Allen Johnson: Here's hoping new smoking ban helps protect smokers from themselves

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:00:00 -0400

If you got 'em, snuff 'em.

North Carolina lawmakers have finally agreed to a statewide ban on smoking in most bars and restaurants and Gov. Perdue cheerfully signed the legislation into law last week.

This is a big deal in the land of the golden leaf and was until recently about as likely around here as a blizzard in July.

Tobacco has meant a lot to this state. It still does.

But it is inherently dangerous, not only to smokers, but to those unlucky enough to be near them.

Allen Johnson: Dell receives a gentle greeting in Winston-Salem

"Allen Johnson ()" — Sun, 17 May 2009 03:00:00 -0400

No offense to our good neighbors to the west.

But who's in charge in Winston-Salem anyway: the City Council or Dell?

If that seems a harsh assessment, you should have seen council members' abject eagerness to sing the computer maker's praises at Monday's long-awaited Finance Committee meeting in Winston.

Dell executives were supposed to be there to explain to the council and the public why they had been so reluctant to release employment figures that were critical to meeting state, county and city incentives guidelines.

I'm not sure they needed to come.