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North Carolina politicians guard family privacy

dshelton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:07:12 -0400

Americans are learning plenty about Sarah Palin's family. The Republican vice presidential candidate gave up personal privacy when she accepted John McCain's offer to join his ticket.

Her decision to carry to term a baby with Down syndrome rather than have an abortion, and now her unmarried teenage daughter's pregnancy, are topics of conversation not only within the Palin household but in the national media and among millions of Americans. Her business is our business.

That just goes with the territory for someone who wants to become one of our nation's top leaders.

Job and politics kept Perdue bottled up

dshelton — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:07:48 -0400

Beverly Perdue is running for governor like a genie let out of a bottle.

She's full of energy, ideas and promises to grant three wishes, at least, for every North Carolinian.

Now that she's escaped the confinement of her corked-up job, there are no limits on what she says she can do.

Lieutenant governor since 2001, Perdue has strived for relevance in an office that carries few constitutional duties: preside over the state Senate and be ready in case something happens to the governor.

Speed it up in downtown High Point

dshelton — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:02:06 -0400

Leaving a wedding reception at the International Home Furnishings Club in downtown High Point Saturday night, I noticed one thing right away: You could run a car race around there and not cause a traffic problem.

There's just not much going on in High Point's central business district most of the time, not even Saturday night.

High Point's business, after all, is furniture marketing. Except during the April and October markets, and a few smaller events during the year, you've got the same solitude after dark you'd see in a beach town in January.

Ego often leads politicians into scandal

dshelton — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:03:22 -0400

The sins of a lying, cheating politician kept me turning pages of the morning newspaper last week ...

And that was before the John Edwards story broke.

I was on vacation in Michigan eagerly awaiting each day's Detroit Free Press, the source of cover-to-cover Kwame Kilpatrick coverage. The Freep may be a shadow of a once-great journalistic powerhouse, but it left no detail of the Motown mayor's meltdown unreported. After a gutsy judge ordered His Dishonor hauled off to jail, Freep writers traced every moment of the unfolding drama.

Wilkins has been council’s conscience

dshelton — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 03:00:22 -0400

A half-dozen candidates are competing to replace Ron Wilkins on the High Point City Council, but only in the sense of succeeding him. He's irreplaceable. One of a kind.

Wilkins, Ward 2 representative for a decade, is stepping down for health reasons. He's struggled with diabetes for years and now has congestive heart failure. At 52, he needs to slow his pace.

Not that he's going to disappear. How could he? He's usually the biggest, loudest guy in the room.

HPU’s rapid growth steps on some toes

dshelton — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Nationally, the press for High Point University has never been better.

"This once-sleepy institution in the hills of North Carolina has undergone a revival in the last couple of years, thanks in part to its jaw-dropping menu of student services," The Chronicle of Higher Education noted in its July 4 edition.

Last week, an Associated Press story from New York about student amenities on college campuses led with HPU.

Law should recognize fetal homicides

dshelton — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0400

In North Carolina, a murder victim has to breathe before being killed.

Hence the macabre exercise by state and military investigators earlier this year to determine whether the lungs of slain Marine Maria Lauterbach's fetus contained traces of oxygen at the time of death. If so, suspect Cesar Laurean could be charged with two murders instead of one.

The autopsy was negative. Lauterbach's unborn baby, although nearly full term, was not an individual person under the state's criminal statutes.

Doug Clark: Some people really know how to travel

dshelton — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:23:30 -0400

A state trooper's private travel diary:

This wasn't what I signed up for.

When the sergeant called me in for this assignment, he made it sound like some sort of lark.

"Officially, your job is to provide security for the first lady on her trip to Europe. Of course, she won't be in any danger. No one in Europe knows who she is. Heck, most people in the state wouldn't recognize her. And there's no reason anyone would want to do her harm, anyway."

"Then why am I going, sir?"

Unthinkable: High Point killer nears parole date

dshelton — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0400

Rob Coulthard gave his wife the final, fatal dose of arsenic on July 3, 1988 - 20 years ago tomorrow. She was a patient at Duke University Medical Center. She died there six days later.

No one suspected he'd been poisoning her since December 1987. Rob and Sandy Coulthard seemed like an ideal High Point couple - Wake Forest graduates, members of Emerywood Baptist Church, parents of two small children, the younger less than a year old. He was a furniture company's vice president for sales and marketing, and they lived in an attractive home in one of the city's nicer neighborhoods.

Doug Clark: Dole, Hagan debate to a draw, this time

mgrossman — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:56:09 -0400

I'd score Saturday's debate between Elizabeth Dole and Kay Hagan about even. Neither U.S. Senate candidate inflicted nor received much damage, but both gave clues about their best lines of attack as the campaign proceeds.

Dole, the incumbent Republican, appeared to this TV viewer as more comfortable at the podium. She smiled easily and often and managed a confident delivery most of the time. It's a talent she's developed over many years on the national stage.

Doug Clark: Let the justices teach middle schoolers

mgrossman — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:21:44 -0400

The N.C. Supreme Court should try teaching middle schoolers.

The justices, insulated in their peaceful chambers, last week denied a worker's compensation claim for a former middle school teacher whose "job was driving her crazy," in the words of her psychologist.

I've never taught in middle school, either, but my wife does. And there are days when the job drives her crazy, believe me.

In fact, I'll bet there are thousands just like her, who totter on the brink of losing it, desperately clinging to sanity until summer vacation finally arrives.

Doug Clark: Candidate challenges court's status quo

mgrossman — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:38:16 -0400

Suzanne Reynolds is running against Bob Edmunds for his seat on the N.C. Supreme Court, but she faults his performance only by association.

The whole court is falling short, she said last week.

The Wake Forest law professor is rippling the normally tranquil waters of North Carolina appellate court affairs, although she's probably not making enough of a splash yet for many voters to notice.

Reynolds, who practiced law in Greensboro before starting her Wake Forest career 26 years ago, steadfastly declines to criticize Edmunds.

When will you visit again, Bill Clinton?

mgrossman — Wed, 07 May 2008 14:11:16 -0400

End Of The Road, N.C. - "Mind if I join you?" I say to the old timer perched on a bench at the edge of the tiny town square.

He's dressed in overalls and wearing a broad-brimmed straw hat to fend off the sun. His rough hands look like they might have guided a plow in days gone by. He's working a mouthful of tobacco with dark gums and a few brown teeth, occasionally spitting juice into a Styrofoam cup that may or may not also contain coffee.

"Be my guest. No better place to enjoy all the excitement."