Editor's Desk - Nov. 29

Two readers contacted us to say Tim Toben's rejecting an out-of-town, think-tank job was not front-page news. 

"What was the point of this story, on the #2 spot on the front page?" asked Eleanor Howe.

Another reader, who asked not to be quoted, said he knows others who have turned down high-profile jobs in their fields. He also didn't think Toben was front-page news.

Sunday's story by associate editor Dave Hart originated with a tip that Toben's home on Pickards Mountain in Orange County was for sale for $4 million. Because Toben is one of the partners but the public face of Greenbridge, the seven- and 10-story eco-friendly condo project in downtown Chapel Hill, we checked it out.

Toben told us yes, he had taken a job as president of the New Economics Institute, a "new economics organization which supports people and the planet." Only the job was in New York and required flying back and forth. (He and wife Meg had decided not to leave North Carolina.)

Toben said he was "very, very flattered" but that after a few weeks he realized he'd made a mistake. The job did not jibe with his carbon footprint goals and required someone there in New York who could give it their all. So he gave the job up. (He is selling his house, Dave says, but will be moving into a smaller home on Pickards Mountain, part of a plan to go off the grid by 2012.) 

Dave and I discussed whether we still had a story. We decided that news about Toben was already out there and we could clarify it. Why the front page? Because names make news. Toben in many public presentations stressed the local-ness of the Greenbridge development team. It was a key selling point that persuaded the Town Council to raise the building height limit downtown (a transformation noted in Mark Dubowski's unrelated snowglobe cartoon in Sunday's Chapel Hill News.) If he were to leave so soon after the tenants moved in, it could raise questions about his stated commitment to Chapel Hill. 

Also, Toben is the chairman of the state Energy Policy Council and was the head of the chancellor's energy advisory panel that has pushed the university to reduce coal use. 

Finally, let's be honest folks. It was the weekend of Thanksgiving in the college town. Stacked up against Town Council folos and Frank the goldfish (no complaints about that front-page story), Toben looked pretty good.

At least it got people reading.

Thanks for your comments. Add your own below or send us a letter about this or any other topic to editor@nando.com

Mark 

Here's a look at today's headlines:

But first, make sure to read Jim Wise's story in today's N&O to find out the latest on the Falls Lake cleanup bill.

NEW COACH IN TOWN: Is John Rottet's photo of new coach Antonio King great or what? Read Bonitta Best's sports column to find out why the new Hillside football coach is aiming high.

BUILDING HOPES ON ANGIER: Jim Wise has been following Joseph Bushfan's project in East Durham for months. With wiring ready for inspection and insulation going up, read today's update to find out why the developer says Superlative Fine Foods, a much-needed neighborhood grocery, is in the home stretch. 

PAM AND FRANK: My View columnist Pam Spaulding was not just a fan of Angela's Ashes author Frank McCourt, she was one of his students when she was in high school in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Read how lives intersect in her essay today.

SLUMLORD?: Tenants say yes. Santosh Bhotika says no. Read Stan Chambers' report on an ACORN demonstration that ended with the community organizing group bestowing a dubious disinction on the Durham property owner.

Autumn Winters (now there's a name) tells you why the Durham County Library is a great place for teens this summer, Michelle Johnson says come get radicalized in Carrboro (a close second to Durham in its radical cred), and Julianna Rhodes has a sweet photo of interspecies communication in today's Best Shot.

Enjoy the respite from the heat, and thanks for reading,

Mark

If you're like me you read part of the paper over dinner. Here's a look at today's local headlines:

"SOUL" MAN: Ed Camp made me laugh. He sent a photo of himself for today's story on his being named the director of the ArtsCenter. "Wouldn't you like to send one where you're smiling?" I e-mailed him back. "I am smiling," he said. He may not look it, but read our story to find out more about the man everyone says is passionate about the community and eagerly looking forward to his new job.

UP ON THE ROOF: Always liked the James Taylor version ("Handyman" too). ... Kidzu, the children's museum on Franklin Street, still hopes to move to the top of the Wallace Parking Deck on East Rosemary Street. So why did board chairman Jonathan Mills recently tell Mayor Foy time was running out? Read our story and find out.

RANTING REPUBLICANS I was sure we'd get some calls this morning about our coverage of the Chatham Democrats meeting last weekend. Pretty partisan rhetoric, as you'd imagine. But the only call was about our political cartoon. Just for the record, cartoons do not reflect the position of the paper, just that of the cartoonist. Read Spencie Love's story to find out what the Democratic Senate hopefuls told the party faithful.

NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER: I still miss writer Rolland Wrenn, longtime columnist. I don't know if wisdom comes with age or some people are just born with it (or both). Read Eunice Brock because she's smart, writes about important things and knows how to tell a story.   

Flo Johnston wries about the Kol Haskalah in this week's faith column. Randy Young recaps the fifth annual UNC Wellness Sprint Triathlon and Michelle Johnson says come get radicalized in Carrboro (like you'd go anyplace else).

Enjoy the respite from the heat, and thanks for reading,

Mark       

Only a close look suggests Ashley Osment might be dying.

I use that language because she does. She doesn’t spend all her time thinking about it. Only the bruises on her arms from required biopsies for her experimental cancer treatment give it away.

But don’t misunderstand, like I did when I asked Ashley how she became OK with having ovarian cancer.

“I’m not OK with it,” she shot back.

Here's a look at today's headlines:

But first, make sure to read our story in today's N&O about Julie Hatch and Jonel Hoogterp, the Durham couple hit by  a driver in Michigan last weekend. Hatch, a Chapel Hill postal worker, died in the crash. Her partner, who tended bar at Sunset Grille on Fayetteville Road, was to be taken off life support yesterday, so that her organs could be donated. A very loving couple, friends told us. And a very sad story.   

Here are today's local headlines:

WE'RE ... AVERAGE!: Not much of a battle cry. But when it comes to crime. Durham fights a battle of perception. Yes, we have areas of high poverty and violence, and we must work on them. But the Bull City sits in the middle of the pack when compared to similar cities across the Southeast, not better but not worse. Read our story.

ROOM SERVICE: Looks like some N.C.Central University students will beliving in dorms again. Read staff writer Eric Ferreri's story on why the university is again turning off campus to house some of its upperclassmen this falll.    

TATTOO YOU?: I don't think I would ever get a tattoo. Got enough marks on my body already. But many people turn to the body ink to remember those who are gone. Josh Shaffer has a fascinating look at the phenomenon with photos of memorial tattoos from Durham's DogStar Tattoo parlor. Like it or not, you cannot deny that this is art.

In today's commentary, two Duke professors give their presrcription for effective health care reform, Chase Foster tells how a case of voter-owned elections saved you money and a wildlife rehabber says there's still help available for injured and orphaned wildlife now that Piedmont Wildlife Center has closed its clinic. By the way, a new wildlife clinic opens next week. We'll be reporting on that soon.

Going to see "The Hurt Locker" today. Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading.

Mark 

Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

A LOVING COUPLE: We have a story in today's N&O. Tomorrow we talk to even more people grieving  over the loss of Chapel Hill postal worker Julie Hatch (pictured) and her partner Jonel Hoogterp. The couple were hit by a driver who crossed the center line in Michigan last weekend, where the women had gone for a family reunion. Hatch died in the crash. Hoogterp was to be taken off life support yesterday, so that her organs could be donated.

A POLITICAL MESS: The Chapel Hill Town Council will be hard pressed not to appoint the fifth-highest vote getter in this fall's elections to Bill Strom's seat. That could open the door to anyone from gadfly Will Raymond to one of the more business-friendly challengers in the eight-person field. Is that what the departing council member wanted? Impossible to say. He's still not talking.

B-A-A-NISHING THE WEEDS: And you knew we couldn't resist this week's story about the goats brought over from Durham to eat poison ivy at Anderson Community Park. What? We didn't have any  home-grown ruminants to do the job? Are goats even ruminants? But seriously find out why the Goat Patrol was the way to go.

Blair Polllock talks with local herbal healers in the My View column (you never know what you're gonna get with Blair; it's one of the reasons he's one of our longest-running writers). We have  your letters on Bill Strom's resignation, the closing of the Piedmont Wildlife Center, on the bomb threat at Greenbridge. And Chase Foster weighs in on voter-owned elections -- not Chapel Hill's.

Going to see "The Hurt Locker" this afternoon. Have a good weekend, and thanks for reading.

Mark 

Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

MARKET BANS DOGS: The Durham Farmers' Market will ban dogs from the Foster Street pavillion area starting August 15. Market manager Erin Kauffman says they've been getting complaints about aggressive dogs and -- yikes -- "dogs relieving themselves on the products."

THEY'RE GGGRREAT! : The Durham police and sheriff's departments, that is, for providing summer camp experiences to Durham youth each year. Read why some kids are saying it's a summer they'll never forget.

BACK TO THE GARDEN: Elizabeth Shestak knows her food. In this month's Morsel column she writes about Eden, Adam and Sara Smith's new restaurant in the Wachovia Building on Shannon Road.

The woman spoke in a hushed voice, as if someone might be listening. She said she worked for Durham's Operation Breakthrough and that employees there were worried about losing their jobs.

She didn’t make it into tomorrow's story.

The problem was the woman would not give us her name. I get that. She was worried about her job. But that wasn’t a good enough reason to quote her anonymously.

The Durham News and The News & Observer have a policy that in almost all cases prohibits the use of anonymous sources. It’s a good policy, even if it sometimes keeps us from telling all sides of a story.

We ran up against it last week.

Here's a look at tomorrow's headlines:

RETIRED NOT REHIRED: Allie Stamler hoped she could save her former teacher job's when she wrote a letter to Superintendent Neil Pedersen. But the school district really didn't have a choice when it let go Allie's teacher and three other retired educators who had returned to the classroom under special legislation. Read Alicia Banks' story.

YOU SAY TOMATO: Did you know a tomato is actually a fruit? OK, so maybe you blog readers did. But I bet you didn't know the Carrboro Farmer's Market can feature up to 65 varities over the course of the season. Read Alicia's story on the market's annual Tomato Festival (and check out my pictures!).

Remember the Orange Tax Revolt?

Hundreds of people crowded meetings months ago to protest Orange County's revaluation. They said the new assessments were too high for a recession and would lead to higher property taxes. 

Some 5,000 taxpayers appealed, four times what the county had seen in prior revals. Many assessments were lowered, but overall, the county said the assessments were accurate. The new values fell in line with what area homes were actually selling for.

Last week I sat down with Mark Zimmerman, a Realtor and columnist for the Chapel Hill News. Mark believes we will see a resurgence of Tax Revolt in September when the county mails out property tax bills. Why? Because, as we've reported, revenue neutral -- a term by which the county says it will generate the same amount of tax revenue as the year before revaluation -- doesn't mean revenue neutral.

As we reported even the county commissioners were stunned to learn real property tax bills will rise under the revenue neutral rate to make up for declines in other taxable property. The average property owner will see a $159 increase in his or her county tax bill. But Mark has done additional research for a column running Sunday that shows just how much tax bills are increasing throughout the county.

Since Mark is a Realtor, I asked him what motivated him. I mean, higher property values mean higher commissions, right? 

"I think [revenue neutral] is a Trojan horse that allowed them to raise [tax] rates without having to say they effectively did so," he said. "People are going to get their tax bills, and I think people are going to fall off their chairs."

As much as Realtors trading in high end properties might benefit, Zimmerman said he does not want to see Chapel Hill become a Greenwich, Conn. 

"There are people who are not going to be able to live here who made this a place people want to live in."

Read Mark's column Sunday in The Chapel Hill News.