news-record.com

I'm not a big fan of this.

A breakaway would have been fun ... until it ended badly.

At least the prisoners look healthy, if not happy.

Annual increases in the federal minimum wage may have cost 550,000 part-time jobs in 2008 and 2009, a Ball State University economist estimates in a report released Monday.

Michael J. Hicks, director of the university's Center for Business and Economic Research, notes the terrible collision of a rising minimum wage and a declining economy: "until 2008, the United States had gone for two generations with the minimum wage largely trailing the hourly compensation of unskilled-entry level workers. By the summer of 2009, the increases in the minimum wage pushed ahead of that which many employers were willing to pay for unskilled workers. As a consequence, the number of part-time workers declined by more than a half million, with teenagers comprising two-thirds of these workers."

Hicks recommends the introduction of a lower "student minimum wage," which would help teens gain employment experience and earn some money, which would be better than nothing.

(Tip to Jon Sanders at The Locker Room.)

I dropped by the election office in the old courthouse just after noon and found Katie Dorsett and Linda Shaw sitting side by side waiting to file for re-election.

Now there is a pair of veteran pols for you. Both could not be more gracious, which is part of the secret of their success in elected office.

Moments later, a young man came in to launch his first campaign for public office. He's 27-year-old Jon Hardister, a Republican running for the N.C. House of Representatives in District 57. The seat is held by Democrat Pricey Harrison.

Hardister will have his work cut out for him. Harrison has been an effective legislator and, as Mark reported Sunday, she began 2010 with a staggering $108,000 in her campaign fund.

But this promises to be a tough year for Democrats in North Carolina as it is nationally. Democrats have been in charge of state government here for quite a while, and they certainly can't claim things are going very well. So, we'll see.

Of course, Hardister has to introduce himself to voters and make the case that he's a viable alternative. He'll have to earn the trust of the people who live in his district.

On that score, he'd be well advised to learn a few things from the two (much) older candidates just ahead of him in line today, Sen. Dorsett and Commissioner Shaw.

Partisan warfare in Washington gets out of hand.

They really should have canceled that basketball game at Maryland yesterday.

Except for a few shady spots, High Point's slow-but-sure solar-powered snow-removal system finally has cleared city streets. 

Everyone who accused Senate Democrats of bribery for horse-trading over health-care reform votes now should call out Republican Sen. Richard Shelby for extortion. He's reportedly demanding federal funding for projects in Alabama and holding up some 70 administration nominations unless he gets them.

I didn't use the b word in relation to Harry Reid, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and others simply because money wasn't going into their own pockets.

Yes, wheeling and dealing with taxpayers' money isn't much better, but as long as ultimately it was being used for public, not private benefit, it didn't count as a crime in my view.

So I won't tag Shelby with the e word. He's looking out for his home state.

Still, these tactics stink to high heaven. They don't serve the greater good of the people of the United States and they don't meet the standard of conduct that ought to govern the Senate -- if anyone can remember what that standard used to be.

I don't know which 70 nominations Shelby has put on hold, but if they include North Carolina Judges Jim Wynn and Albert Diaz, waiting for final confirmation to the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, I'm doubly peeved at Shelby. Why should their progress be impeded for the sake of pork-barrel projects in Alabama? If Shelby wants money for his home state, let him file a bill and take it to the appropriations committee.

When newspapers began charging for obituaries, they unintentionally but fundamentally changed the character of what, for many of the subjects, would be the last public acknowledgment of their lives.

Changed for the better, I've come to believe.

Previously, death notices were formulaic, just-the-facts, dull.

I wasn't working here when the N&R made the shift, but at the paper where I was employed we quickly discovered the old reliable obit was going to be very different.

When customers were paying to run them, they were entitled to write them the way they wanted, not how we wanted or had always done them.

This made us cringe when obits were submitted that struck us as contrived or overly sentimental or just plain silly. What had happened to the dignity of the death notice?

But I've altered my view over time. Now when I read obituaries, I look for and often find genuine expressions of tenderness for the deceased and a sense of who this person really was and what he or she truly meant to his or her family, friends and community.

An obituary today was one of those, so much so that it moved me to write this. It informs readers of the death of Jacob Alexander Berrier, age 2. Here's a portion of it:

"Jacob was born in Greensboro on September 23, 2007 to Justin and Kristen Berrier. After a two and a half year fight with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, our angel has been called home. Jacob was a true blessing in our lives and will be forever in our hearts. Although his time on earth was short, he was an inspiration to many people and brought joy to everyone he met. Through him, we found strength, meaning, purpose and love. Jacob's gift is the impact he made to our lives and so many others and he will be missed greatly, but celebrated everyday."

I am sorry I didn't know Jacob or his family personally, but I learned a lot about them from these few sentences. Justin and Kristen Berrier have experienced a terrible loss, but rather than express bitterness they chose to acknowledge all they gained by caring for their beloved son. To find meaning in such sad circumstances is truly an uplifting statement of faith and devotion.

I would like to extend my sympathy to Jacob's family and thank them for sharing these words, which in an earlier time might have been edited out of a just-the-facts obituary.

There is only a quartet of Big Four games on the overinflated ACC football schedule this year, down from five in 2009:

Duke at Wake Forest, Sept. 11

N.C. State at Wake Forest, Nov. 13

N.C. State at North Carolina, Nov. 20

North Carolina at Duke, Nov. 27

Wake doesn't play Carolina. Duke doesn't play State.

Instead, Duke plays "historic rivals" Boston College and Miami. Carolina gets to travel to Miami instead of to Winston-Salem. State hosts Boston College but not Duke. And Wake also gets to tangle with BC Eagles but not Tar Heels.

Disappointing. Breaking traditional rivalries is not only bad for fans but for the schools. Wouldn't Carolina bring more fans to Groves Stadium than Boston College? How about Wallace Wade Stadium half-filled with red-clad fans for a State-Duke game? How many BC followers are going to visit Durham for that matchup? And then there's the difference in travel costs between a drive down Tobacco Road and a flight to Miami.

For this traditionalist, these schedules have a couple of big holes.

It's looking like a great day to be in the tow truck business. Lots of cars spun out and stuck in ditches this morning.

Still some drivers going way too fast.

Is it going to get worse or better as the day goes on? If worse, I'll wish I got to stay home with my wife, the schoolteacher.

I'm not jealous, by the way. I wouldn't want her out driving in this mess.

Here's another reason not to feel the least bit sorry for Mike Easley's troubles, reported today in the N&O's Under the Dome blog:

"The orders to delete e-mails were first made public in March 2008 by Debbie Crane, a former public information officer for the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

"Easley ordered that Crane be fired following a series of stories in The N&O about his administration's mismanagement of the state's mental health system, Michael Biesecker reports.

"In response, Deputy Press Secretary Seth Effron, acting as Easley's spokesman, denied any e-mails were deleted and called Crane 'dishonest, untruthful and insubordinate.'

"In her deposition taken last week, Communications Director Sherri Johnson said Effron's disparaging comments about Crane were actually dictated by Easley.

"'The governor dictated it word for word and ordered that it be sent out. And Seth was the one who had to — to give it out,' Johnson said. 'Seth was the vehicle, but the governor is the one who — he was the mouthpiece, but he was...not the speaker.'

"Crane told Dome Wednesday she felt vindicated by testimony from Press Secretary Renee Hoffman, who said she was ordered to tell public information officers to delete e-mail messages.

"'Being called a liar by Mike Easley is a badge of honor,' she said."

Good for you, Debbie Crane.

It's unconscionable that the governor of the state would direct such a vicious and false attack on an honest state employee.

Some bad traits have emerged in the portrait of Mike Easley, but this shows something new: meanness.

"A Scottish member of parliament wil be in DC today lobbying lawmakers to drop the U.S. ban on imported haggis," The Hill reports.

I've had haggis. It's best consumed with strong drink. In Scotland, in fact, the more strong drink and the less haggis, the better.

But there's no reason why Americans shouldn't have the opportunity to try it for themselves.

Enter the Haggis, by the way, is the name of a rip-roaring good Canadian fiddle-pipes band, which is coming to Charlotte, Raleigh and Asheville in April.