As some of you may have noticed I am out of town for a 9-day trip to Austin, TX where I am visiting family and attending South by Southwest Interactive. I am still checking in here periodically, but don't have time for new posts.  That means it's a great time to write that blog entry you've been thinking about, you don't have to compete with many other posts to get on the front page!

Soon after I get back, we should start seeing some of the work of the five students in a UNC class on Public Affairs Reporting for New Media, who will be focusing on the upcoming Primary election in Orange County.

Meanwhile, we haven't had an open thread in a while, so... how the hell are y'all?

Dan Pollitt was a dedicated activist and leader in our community for decades. He passed away this morning after a lifetime dedicated to peace and justice. My heart goes out to his wife Senator Ellie Kinnaird and the rest of his family. But the loss is all of ours. Pollitt was a beacon, lighting the way forward from just a little ahead of the rest of us.

Here's the Independent's profile of him from 10 years ago:

Chapel Hill attorney Bill Massengill nails it: "He's the aggressive-liberal gentleman. Dan can aggressively press his ideas without offending people." Even when those ideas are quite hopelessly out of fashion--as they so very often are.

Take, for example, Pollitt's defense of free association amid Red Scare panic. Or integration in the Jim Crow South. It took the times some time to catch up with Pollitt on those two.

Right about now, the Chapel-Hill Carrboro NAACP is holding a press conference/rally at Lincoln Center, the administrative home of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System (CHCCSS).  I'm pasting their entire (long!) announcement below as it has a lot of interesting information, including a history of segregation in the school system.

I'm hoping some folks are planning on attending tonight's second meeting of the NC 54/I40 corridor study group at the Friday Center between 5 and 8PM (2-25-10).

Basically, it looks like they are going to ask folks to choose between three possible scenarios, one in which they assume less growth along the corridor and no light rail or rapid bus transit, one in which they assume  more growth along the corridor and no light rail or rapid bus transit, and one in which they assume a lot of growth along the corridor, with light rail and rapid bus transit occurring and the current park and ride lots moved adjacent to I-40. 

The Orange County Commissioners are apparently considering a proposal from the County Manager to reduce the number of citizen advisory boards and commissions. This may not be a bad idea since the county has over 70 such advisory groups.

Until last week I was a member of the Human Services Advisory Commission (HSAC) which I think is likely to be disappear - transferring its responsibilities to various existing boards, such as, the OPC mental health board, the DSS board, etc. I think eliminating HSAC will not have a detrimental effect because the advice of this group was not taken very seriously, anyway.

However, I do wonder if the elimination of some of the other boards and commissions might cause problems. 

This morning, the west end of downtown Chapel Hill was immobilized when someone called in a bomb threat against the rising Greenbridge development. I understand that some people have issues with tall buildings in Chapel Hill, although I don't especially.  But I do share the concerns that many have about the gentrification of Northside. However, the fact is that Greenbridge didn't create either of those problems, and stopping it isn't going to help solve them either.

Not sure if people saw this, but Google is planning on rolling out "ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States."  It sounds like they're doing this as a sort of proof-of-concept, in an effort to convince the FCC that a workable nationwide ultra high-speed internet access scheme is practical and affordable.  According to the Big G, they can "deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections," and they "plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people."  Here's some more information.

Carrboro was notified yesterday that their Town Hall would not be used as a one-stop early voting site in May. Apparently, the Orange County Board of Elections has decided to only have two one-stop locations for this year's primary: Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, and the Board's own office in Hillsborough. The e-mail below indicates that there will still be an early voting site in Carrboro for the Novemeber general election, but doesn't offer any explanation for the primary change.

Candidate filing for 2010 elections starts today at noon. Folks only have two and a half weeks (until February 26th) to declare their intent to run in the May primary (and presumably the November general election).  Information will be posted at the Orange County Board of Elections.

The offices that will be on the ballot this year are: County Commissioner (districts 1 & 2 and at-large), Clerk of Court, Register of Deeds, Sheriff, Orange County Board of Education, State Senate, State House, Soil Conservation District Supervisor (non-partisan, no primary).

Help me keep an eye on the BOE page, and let everyone know if anything interesting happens!