Sometimes we move more of the 1,400 letters we get each month into the publishing pool than we can possibly print, given that we have room for fewer than 280 of them each month. Our over-editing is your gain, however. Here are more than 25 letters that just got overrun by other topics before we could get them into the paper.

Jim Goodmon, CEO of Capitol Broadcasting, said this week that reporting of the student assignment issue in Wake County had been too balanced. Goodmon, a vocal supporter of Wake schools' long-standing diversity policy, said that reporters typically talked with each side of the debate and then quit reporting. He compared it to a reporter working on a story about whether the Earth is round or flat. The reporter quotes one academic saying the Earth is flat and another saying it's round. "I've done my job. Film at 11," Goodmon said. He believes deeper reporting would show that the diversity policy is the correct course to take.

Goodmon made his comments Monday at the annual Martin Luther King Triangle Interfaith Prayer breakfast. Capitol Broadcasting owns WRAL-TV and its website. He said WRAL reporters are "the best." But he said, "I'm mad at them." Goodmon did not mention The News & Observer but confirmed later that his comments included coverage of the issue in The N&O. --John Drescher

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles and Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears went on the air with Bill LuMaye Tuesday to discuss Meeker's plan to form a committee of mayors and citizens with legal or education experience to scrutinize the Wake school board's assignment plan.

Listen to the interviews here:
http://wptf.com/goout.asp?u=http://billlumaye.blogspot.com

HAPPY MONDAY: We're set for another hot week in Raleigh - temps in the mid 90s all week.

TRASHY FUN: Wake County opened its eighth park on Saturday - this one on a heaping pile of trash. The North Wake Landfill District Park in northeast Raleigh is on the site of the county's closed North Wake Landfill. The park sits on $5 million worth of garbage, and is one of the highest points in the county. Matt Ehlers had the story Saturday. Look for more in Wednesday's North Raleigh and Midtown Raleigh News sections.

WELCOME: Jason Foster joined us last week - he's the new editor of North Raleigh and Midtown Raleigh News. Jason comes from Rock Hill, S.C., where he wore various hats. He'll have a column in this week's community sections. Contact him at jason.foster@newsobserver.com.

RAIL RESERVATIONS: Raleigh restaurants and pubs fear a new high-speed rail route could deter customers. The NCDOT is evaluating two routes through Raleigh for the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, which would give passenger trains a fast new shortcut to Richmond, Va., Bruce Siceloff reports.

ROCKIN' THE RBC: Michael Buble packed the RBC Center Saturday, and played songs that represented 50 years worth of music. David Menconi had the story.

WHERE'S MEEKER?: Monday: Fair Housing Board's summer reading program at Biltmore Hills; Tuesday: Presiding over a Budget and Economic Development Committee Meeting; Wednesday: Meeting with Dominion Park Homeowners Association; Thursday: Welcoming the AME Zion Convention; Friday: Triangle Area Mayor's Meeting; Monday: Wake County Mayor's Association.

COUNCIL: No meeting this week.

COMING SOON: Read Wednesday about a sidewalk feud in west Raleigh, Wake County's new park, new elementary school sites in Raleigh and a man who walks barefoot up and down the east coast in the North Raleigh and Midtown Raleigh News.

BOMB CLAIMS RALEIGH MAN: A former Raleigh resident was the lone person killed in Sunday's bombing in Uganda, which tore through a crowd watching the World Cup finals.

KID POLITICO: Matt Ehlers had a fascinating story this weekend about a 12-year-old who's on the fast track to the governor's mansion. He knows more about state politics than this blogger, to be sure, and probably more than many elected officials.
 

The Wake County school board's drastic cuts to Project Enlightment (detailed in a Point of View here) brought out many pleas to save the program that serves at-risk children. Here are more letters about Project Enlightment (others on the Sunday Forum page Sunday) and about other school issues.

Yep. More school letters. Twenty-seven of ’em. Find others on tomorrow’s Editorial and Other Opinion pages and in Sunday Forum this Sunday.

We've gotten far more letters today on the Wake County schools situation than we can possibly print (read the latest story here). Look for others on tomorrow's Editorial and Other Opinion pages. In the meantime, here are 18.

Got several letters about today's front-page story on the Wake County schools parent survey (read it here) and school board member John Tedesco's reaction to it. Find others on tomorrow's editorial page.

See an expanded photo gallery from the dress rehearsal for "Pieces of Gold", the annual Wake County school system student talent show. ... more

An e-mail heckler styling himself as Albert Einstein sent around a blast to Wake County commissioners and school board members venting his frustration with the school system's reassignment plan. A copy came in this direction as well. Suffice it to say that the gentleman doesn't think much of any plan that has diversity of students as one of its criteria.

Kevin Hill, school board vice chairman, took it upon himself to respond. He didn't argue. Hill (who also included us on the distribution list) simply wrote,

"Dear Mr. Einstein,

"Please read the attached."

What he attached was an article from Education Week, published last June. The article is titled, "Socioeconomic Integration: It's Legal, and It Makes Sense." The authors are identified as Angela Ciolfi, attorney for the JustChildren Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, Charlottesville, Va., and James E. Ryan, a University of Virginia law professor. It's a concise piece with this point at the core: Socioeconomic integration promises "more academic benefit for less money than under alternative policies. More than 40 years of social science research shows that the socioeconomic composition of a child's school has an effect on academic performance over and above that of the socioeconomic status of the child's family." (Find the piece here.)

Socioeconomic diversity, or integration, is one of the Wake school system's goals as it prepares to shuffle several thousand students over the next three years (the need to divvy students among new schools that will be coming online also is driving the process). The school board's majority believes that keeping any school's student body from being drawn mostly from families who are poor is a way to promote academic success. The Education Week article is the sort of thing that reinforces their commitment to stay the course. Check it out. There's even a comment posted by a reader that will warm the heart of the board's critics, such as the distinguished Mr. Einstein.