Is the Wake County school system undergoing "militarization" under the tenure of Superintendent Tony Tata?

That's a charge leveled in this Dec. 16 article by Jason Langberg and Lewis Pitts from the liberal Advocates for Children's Services. The article points to Tata's military career, the requirement of Junior ROTC for the new single-sex leadership academies and Wake's recent involvement in cybersecurity competitions.

The authors start by calling the Occupy Wall Street movement an "education justice movement." The piece charges that public education has "undergone a corporate coup" with the "mega-buck mafia’s buyout of public education."

Just in time for Christmas, former Squirrel Nut Zipper Tom Maxwell has released "Jacob Marley" -- a song in tune with the times in this year of Occupation. In a statement, Maxwell explains the song's origins:

I wrote "Jacob Marley" after the economy tanked and the banks got bailed out. It was a disaster -- and rip off -- of almost mythic proportions. In the song, cultural icons like Brother Rabbit (a nod to Br'er Rabbit from the "Uncle Remus" stories) and Jacob Marley (Scrooge's dead business parter and spiritual benefactor in "A Christmas Carol") appear but can't change the situation.

Maxwell calls the Occupy movement America's "last best hope" to turn the country around, adding that, "Jacob Marley may not come back again, but we can handle this one on our own." Meantime, you can download "Jacob Marley" from iTunes here; or sample a live performance of it from earlier this year here.

Should Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby prosecute the 30 people charged with disrupting school board meetings last year, seek mediation or drop the charges?

As noted in today's article, the outgoing Wake County school board called a  last-minute closed session meeting last week in which it agreed to rescind its prior authorization to seek mediation.

"We decided against mediation," said former school board chairman Ron Margiotta of the Dec. 1 meeting. "We wanted a court trial. We wanted to see them stand trial for their actions."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

A story in Thursday's paper laments the lack of protest songs coming out in response to the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street movement. But North Carolina power-pop legends the dB's fill that void with "Revolution of the Mind," a terrific fist-waver that finds the original foursome of Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, Gene Holder and Will Rigby in fine form. You can download the song and check out two very of-the-moment videos here.

"Revolution of the Mind" is a teaser for the dB's reunion album, "Falling Off the Sky," which is due out next year. That's a mere three decades after the original lineup's last album, 1982's "Repercussion."

About 110 people outside the Franklin Street post office Saturday for Occupy Chapel Hill, billed by organizers as a day of resistance and occupation.

Bill Sward of Hillsborough held a simple pole with an index-card size sign that said “99 percent.” Sward lost his cabinet maker job two years ago at age 66 when the company’s work slowed.

“The people who want there to be a point don’t get the point,” he said of the broadly anti-corporate Occupy Wall Street message. “This is about living, the quality of people’s lives. The government should be helping us live. Businesses should not determine how we live.”

Participants included young anarchists, veterans of Vietnam and other protest movements and several people who said they had lost work in the past few years.

“Someone asked me what groups are here,” said Katya Roytburd, 34, a UNC-Chapel Hill researcher and one of the organizers. “I said I honestly didn’t know. We’re just representing ourselves.”

Participants broke into small groups and planned to return later Saturday to discuss next steps.

In Durham, organizers were to meet at 3 p.m. Sunday for a People’s Assembly to consider proposals for an encampment. That meeting takes places on CCB Plaza downtown.

Look for more on local Occupy Wall Street events in tomorrow's N&O and coming Wednesday in The Chapel Hill News.