Fitzsimon File

Inaugural weekend in Raleigh is shaping up to be something. . There will be dancing, speechifying, oath taking and even a talk from Andy Griffith. As usual, private donors are picking up the tab. The public relations people from the corporations say the companies are buying $10,000 tables to be part of the celebration, in other words, out of love for the state.

David “Slim” Baucom is more up front about it. The News and Observer reports that Baucom, who owns 14 strip clubs, says he bought a table at the inaugural ball to “get face time with the power brokers.”

Maybe 10,000 of the 31,000 kids on the waiting list for day care subsidies should have come up with a dollar each and bought a table, though it would have been tough to decide which ten of them got to sit at the table.

But Baucom will be right there, as will leaders of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians, who bought two tables. They want the General Assembly to allow live poker at their casinos.

Easley wants the lottery, House Speaker Jim Black keeps defending the video poker industry and the Cherokees want live poker. Sounds more like a Las Vegas weekend than an inauguration.

Speaking of Easley, he says in his latest pre-inauguration interview that North Carolina is on the verge of greatness. That might be true, but what’s left to do isn’t to pass a lottery and cut taxes. It is to address the massive human service problems in the state and do something about the 40 percent dropout rate in our high schools.

That will mean changing the conversation and confronting the folks who believe poverty is a choice, the same folks who respond to other problems like school funding and the looming teacher shortage simply by claiming the problems don’t exist.

More college students left behind. Specifics are starting to come out about how the federal cutback on Pell Grants will affect college students in North Carolina. The larger UNC campuses may be able to offset the reduction in grants with other funding.

But 2100 students at UNC-Pembroke will get $300 less next year and 55 students will lose $400. More than 1600 students at Fayetteville State University will see reductions in their aid and 75 students will no longer qualify for any help.

The state could step in and make up the difference, but lawmakers are already grumbling about UNC’s budget request for next year. Then there is that $1.2 billion shortfall.

A leap in illogic. The Beaufort County Commission recently passed a resolution asking the General Assembly to adopt a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state. During the debate, commissioners blamed Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight for stopping the amendment last session. One of the commissioners pointed out that Basnight contributed a lot of money to the campaign of newly elected Senator Julia Boseman, who is openly gay.

What does that have to do with anything? Is Senator Boseman trying to get married or is the next step not to allow gay people to serve in public office?

Report from the fringe. John Hood outdid himself this week and it was hard to pick just one example of his bizarre views. But it has to be his assertion that Smart Growth is dangerous and increases crime.

Hood cites an upcoming article in a national libertarian magazine that says this claim is common knowledge. More sidewalks and fewer cul-de-sacs mean more opportunities for criminals. Garages in the back of houses leads to more car burglaries. I am not making this up.

So remember don’t use the sidewalk and tear down that garage behind your house.

Otherwise, you are asking for it.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2005 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.