Well, I graduated from UNC Asheville last weekend and now it's time to look for a real job.
I guess if I find a job where I get to utilize my writing skills, I will post those stories to this blog as a kind of running online resume type thing. But until then, this is probably going to be pretty dead.
Thanks for reading.
Patrick
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
Asheville Citizen-Times "Answer Man"
I missed this one since it wasn't printed as an official "Answer Man" even though it was.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010304260014
Here's my little piece, although it might be illegal for me to put it up on my blog...oops?
Question: Several years ago the public was offered the opportunity to purchase honorary/memorial bricks to be laid in front of Pack Place. With the new park construction, they were taken up and supposedly stored. I cannot find out if/when/where they will be re-laid.
Smart-aleck answer: (Mass communication major Patrick Zarcone handles this one, and I gotta say I admire the way he's mastered smart-aleckage so quickly.) They were recently sold off in hopes of paying for the currently nonexistent bathrooms in Pack Square Park.
Real answer: When the construction workers came in, the 150 or so bricks came out.
“Those bricks are actually part of the Urban Trail collection, which is part of our public art collection here at the city, and they were pulled up during the construction of the park,” said Diane Ruggiero, cultural arts superintendent for the city of Asheville. “They will be reinstalled as part of station No. 1, which is yet to be built.”
The Urban Trail is an arts and history walking tour through downtown.
Ruggiero said they also need to see what happens with construction on the museum in Pack Place before placing the bricks. “We want to make sure if we put them out there, they're not going to get damaged.”
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010304260014
Here's my little piece, although it might be illegal for me to put it up on my blog...oops?
Question: Several years ago the public was offered the opportunity to purchase honorary/memorial bricks to be laid in front of Pack Place. With the new park construction, they were taken up and supposedly stored. I cannot find out if/when/where they will be re-laid.
Smart-aleck answer: (Mass communication major Patrick Zarcone handles this one, and I gotta say I admire the way he's mastered smart-aleckage so quickly.) They were recently sold off in hopes of paying for the currently nonexistent bathrooms in Pack Square Park.
Real answer: When the construction workers came in, the 150 or so bricks came out.
“Those bricks are actually part of the Urban Trail collection, which is part of our public art collection here at the city, and they were pulled up during the construction of the park,” said Diane Ruggiero, cultural arts superintendent for the city of Asheville. “They will be reinstalled as part of station No. 1, which is yet to be built.”
The Urban Trail is an arts and history walking tour through downtown.
Ruggiero said they also need to see what happens with construction on the museum in Pack Place before placing the bricks. “We want to make sure if we put them out there, they're not going to get damaged.”
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Symposium presenters deserved a bigger audience
Last Thursday’s undergraduate research symposium marked the end of four years of hard work and a few months’ worth of research for the students presenting at the event.
For many students who did not have presentations or poster projects for the symposium, it simply marked a day to sleep in late, sleep off a hangover, catch up on homework, play Frisbee on the Quad or sit around and watch television. And that is truly a shame.
Of course it is nice to have a random day off from all classes toward the end of the semester, but there is a reason the university cancels all classes for the day on which the symposium is held.
They cancel classes because they want students to show up to the presentations and take an interest in their fellow students’ hard work.
There were more than 170 presentations on Thursday, excluding poster projects. The presentation period went from 8:30 a.m until 5 p.m. All students at UNC Asheville had ample opportunity to attend the sessions put on by their peers.
It would not be fair to condemn all UNCA students because many did show up for the symposium, but still, many more did not.
Most of the students presenting, including the ones who put together posters, put in a lot of work for their presentations because for many, their very graduation from this university depends on the successful completion of an undergraduate research project.
It is not hard to roll out of bed and go to a 20-minute presentation, nor is it too much to ask of students.
It reflects badly not just on the students themselves, but on the university as a whole when the only people who show up for another student’s presentation are the teachers in the department and the other three or four students who are presenting in the same session.
Obviously, not every presentation is going to be entertaining or extremely interesting, but most were, and for anyone who attended the sessions, they more than likely came away having learned something.
The university does not give students the day off so they can sit around and do nothing while other students who worked their asses off for a semester or two on their project can talk about it to an empty room.
Some professors require students to go to a session or two and then complete a short writing assignment regarding the presentation. While it does sort of take away from the experience when one is required to go to an event and do an assignment, at least it gets students out there.
Most people hate doing cultural events for their humanities classes, but at the very least, it gets students out into the community and to events they otherwise would probably never attend.
If students continue to be so disinterested in the undergraduate research symposium, then maybe all students should be required by a teacher in their major to attend a symposium event or two and write about it.
It would only take about 40 minutes to see two presentations, plus another 10 to 15 to do a write-up about the symposium. and then students could go back to sitting around, playing video games or disc golf or tanning on the Quad.
It is really not too much to ask of people when considering how much work their fellow students put into their research and their presentations.
It would definitely make the presenters feel better about their hard work, and actually showing an interest in the efforts of others would reflect much more positively on the university and the student body as a whole.
For many students who did not have presentations or poster projects for the symposium, it simply marked a day to sleep in late, sleep off a hangover, catch up on homework, play Frisbee on the Quad or sit around and watch television. And that is truly a shame.
Of course it is nice to have a random day off from all classes toward the end of the semester, but there is a reason the university cancels all classes for the day on which the symposium is held.
They cancel classes because they want students to show up to the presentations and take an interest in their fellow students’ hard work.
There were more than 170 presentations on Thursday, excluding poster projects. The presentation period went from 8:30 a.m until 5 p.m. All students at UNC Asheville had ample opportunity to attend the sessions put on by their peers.
It would not be fair to condemn all UNCA students because many did show up for the symposium, but still, many more did not.
Most of the students presenting, including the ones who put together posters, put in a lot of work for their presentations because for many, their very graduation from this university depends on the successful completion of an undergraduate research project.
It is not hard to roll out of bed and go to a 20-minute presentation, nor is it too much to ask of students.
It reflects badly not just on the students themselves, but on the university as a whole when the only people who show up for another student’s presentation are the teachers in the department and the other three or four students who are presenting in the same session.
Obviously, not every presentation is going to be entertaining or extremely interesting, but most were, and for anyone who attended the sessions, they more than likely came away having learned something.
The university does not give students the day off so they can sit around and do nothing while other students who worked their asses off for a semester or two on their project can talk about it to an empty room.
Some professors require students to go to a session or two and then complete a short writing assignment regarding the presentation. While it does sort of take away from the experience when one is required to go to an event and do an assignment, at least it gets students out there.
Most people hate doing cultural events for their humanities classes, but at the very least, it gets students out into the community and to events they otherwise would probably never attend.
If students continue to be so disinterested in the undergraduate research symposium, then maybe all students should be required by a teacher in their major to attend a symposium event or two and write about it.
It would only take about 40 minutes to see two presentations, plus another 10 to 15 to do a write-up about the symposium. and then students could go back to sitting around, playing video games or disc golf or tanning on the Quad.
It is really not too much to ask of people when considering how much work their fellow students put into their research and their presentations.
It would definitely make the presenters feel better about their hard work, and actually showing an interest in the efforts of others would reflect much more positively on the university and the student body as a whole.
Commuters get the short end of the parking stick
Any commuter students who did not see the e-mail from campus officials on Saturday evening probably tried to park in lot five behind the cafeteria on Monday morning only to find out the lot was closed.
For lot five parkers, Monday morning’s sight was not something new, although it probably was not any less aggravating than any other time parking spaces are barricaded.
It is rare that any faculty or residential lots are blocked off, yet it is quite common for commuter students, who pay $70 to park on campus and make up more than 65 percent of the student population.
It is simply not fair, and it is not right.
There are not enough parking spaces for commuters as it is, and every time lots and spaces are blocked off, it just results in more tardy students, more skipped classes, more walking in the rain or snow or blistering heat and, most importantly for UNC Asheville, more parking tickets and boots on cars, which of course means more money in addition to a $70 parking pass.
For students, it just means more aggravation.
Luckily, UNCA has a relatively small campus, and students can reach most buildings within five to 15 minutes of walking, depending on the lot a student parks in and the building in which they are attending class.
Not many students will complain about the walk to class, especially compared to larger universities like UNC Chapel Hill or North Carolina State University, which have bus systems transporting students to class due to the size of their campuses.
Of course, the walk will not always be a long walk in harsh weather, but the issue is whether or not that walk is taking place five, 10 or even 15 minutes after class has already started.
Just because a student finds a space does not mean they found the space quickly, and that is what is wrong with campus parking.
Commuter students should not have to come to campus 20 minutes before their class just so they can spend 10 minutes driving around looking for a space and 10 minutes walking to class.
Obviously, not every commuter student drives their car, but for those who do not walk or ride their bike, parking is certainly an issue.
The university has at least made it look like they are trying to make things easier for commuters by running the shuttle, but that does not work with everyone’s schedule, nor does it go to all of the apartment complexes or neighborhoods where students live.
Students living in Weaverville or around Asheville have no choice but to drive and hope there is a spot open near where they have their class.
Three solutions immediately come to mind when analyzing this problem.
Solution one is to stop randomly blocking off commuter parking spaces for no reason.
Solution two is to make these large groups of people who visit campus during school hours park in a lot other than commuter parking.
There are other lots around campus where non-residential students cannot park, and if these people are coming for the faculty’s benefit, perhaps the faculty spots are the ones that need to be given up, not the parking spaces of the people paying for an education.
Solution three is the most obvious and probably the most unpopular among university officials. Either put in more parking spaces or allow commuters to park in the partly empty faculty lots that they currently get ticketed for parking in.
These solutions may not be perfect, but they are something, and something is better than nothing, and nothing is what current parking policies are accomplishing for commuter students.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/commuters-get-the-short-end-of-the-parking-stick-1.1390678
For lot five parkers, Monday morning’s sight was not something new, although it probably was not any less aggravating than any other time parking spaces are barricaded.
It is rare that any faculty or residential lots are blocked off, yet it is quite common for commuter students, who pay $70 to park on campus and make up more than 65 percent of the student population.
It is simply not fair, and it is not right.
There are not enough parking spaces for commuters as it is, and every time lots and spaces are blocked off, it just results in more tardy students, more skipped classes, more walking in the rain or snow or blistering heat and, most importantly for UNC Asheville, more parking tickets and boots on cars, which of course means more money in addition to a $70 parking pass.
For students, it just means more aggravation.
Luckily, UNCA has a relatively small campus, and students can reach most buildings within five to 15 minutes of walking, depending on the lot a student parks in and the building in which they are attending class.
Not many students will complain about the walk to class, especially compared to larger universities like UNC Chapel Hill or North Carolina State University, which have bus systems transporting students to class due to the size of their campuses.
Of course, the walk will not always be a long walk in harsh weather, but the issue is whether or not that walk is taking place five, 10 or even 15 minutes after class has already started.
Just because a student finds a space does not mean they found the space quickly, and that is what is wrong with campus parking.
Commuter students should not have to come to campus 20 minutes before their class just so they can spend 10 minutes driving around looking for a space and 10 minutes walking to class.
Obviously, not every commuter student drives their car, but for those who do not walk or ride their bike, parking is certainly an issue.
The university has at least made it look like they are trying to make things easier for commuters by running the shuttle, but that does not work with everyone’s schedule, nor does it go to all of the apartment complexes or neighborhoods where students live.
Students living in Weaverville or around Asheville have no choice but to drive and hope there is a spot open near where they have their class.
Three solutions immediately come to mind when analyzing this problem.
Solution one is to stop randomly blocking off commuter parking spaces for no reason.
Solution two is to make these large groups of people who visit campus during school hours park in a lot other than commuter parking.
There are other lots around campus where non-residential students cannot park, and if these people are coming for the faculty’s benefit, perhaps the faculty spots are the ones that need to be given up, not the parking spaces of the people paying for an education.
Solution three is the most obvious and probably the most unpopular among university officials. Either put in more parking spaces or allow commuters to park in the partly empty faculty lots that they currently get ticketed for parking in.
These solutions may not be perfect, but they are something, and something is better than nothing, and nothing is what current parking policies are accomplishing for commuter students.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/commuters-get-the-short-end-of-the-parking-stick-1.1390678
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Does free speech exclude questioning Glenn Beck?
The idea that radio and television political commentator Glenn Beck may actually be mentally unstable is one that many Americans have wondered for years.
But for those considered to be on Beck’s “side” when it comes to politics, it is apparently taboo to question the almighty Beck, as one local radio host found out last week.
According to local media sources, WWNC 570-AM radio host Matt Mittan was suspended after last Thursday’s show when he openly questioned Beck’s sanity on his radio program, “Take A Stand.”
Besides airing “Take A Stand” and Beck’s program, News Radio 570-AM is also Asheville’s home for such radio “talent” as Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity.
Mittan’s suspension was, quite frankly, dumb and pointless.
The station suspended Mittan from his own radio show for giving his opinion on a relevant and current issue, which is basically the point of the show. It is probably not called “Take A Stand” because it features three hours of Mittan surrendering to the powers-that-be at 570-AM.
It would be one thing if his comments were legitimately upsetting, uncalled for or hurtful. But they were not. He simply questioned the sanity of a man who may, in all actuality, be a mentally unstable human being.
For anyone who has watched Beck’s FOX News show or listened to his radio program, it is easy to see that the man has serious issues that could possibly only ever be solved by many expensive sessions with a therapist, something Beck would have no trouble affording if he so desired.
On Beck’s radio and television shows last week, he questioned whether or not Democratic Party leaders were hoping to be attacked by Tea Party protesters before the health care vote. He even went as far as to say that some Democratic lawmakers wanted to be shot and killed so as to become martyrs for health care reform.
Those statements seem like something only an insane person would say, and Mittan had every right to question Beck’s sanity.
Unfortunately, Mittan’s listeners apparently found his exercise of free speech too harsh, and they wrote and called in to complain to the station manager that Mittan was being just plain mean to Beck.
Apparently, those at 570-AM agreed with their listeners’ idea that free speech has simply gone too far when it means questioning Beck.
The whole idea that people thought questioning Beck’s sanity was too harsh is hilarious and also kind of sad. Not only has Beck repeatedly caused people to question his mental stability through his strange actions and words, the other main personalities featured on the station are just as unstable as Beck.
All of them could use a mental health checkup.
Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and Boortz are four of the biggest hatemongers and enemies of free speech that are on radio or television today. Mittan is just a guy who questioned whether or not Beck needs professional help.
The fact that people actually listen to those four radio personalities and then think that Mittan questioning Beck’s sanity crosses the line is, in itself, absolutely crazy.
The things that those four say on a daily basis are more hateful, vitriolic, divisive and wrong than probably anything Mittan has ever said in his entire life, on radio or otherwise, yet he is the one who gets complaints and receives a suspension? Go figure.
Perhaps those people should listen to Beck more carefully, as well as the other personalities, and maybe they will begin to understand what so many sane Americans have known for a long time. These guys are batshit crazy.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/does-free-speech-exclude-questioning-glenn-beck-1.1291067
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the second week in a row, my article has the most hits on The Blue Banner Web site and I've already been called an idiot and a freedom hater and there are only 5 comments!
But for those considered to be on Beck’s “side” when it comes to politics, it is apparently taboo to question the almighty Beck, as one local radio host found out last week.
According to local media sources, WWNC 570-AM radio host Matt Mittan was suspended after last Thursday’s show when he openly questioned Beck’s sanity on his radio program, “Take A Stand.”
Besides airing “Take A Stand” and Beck’s program, News Radio 570-AM is also Asheville’s home for such radio “talent” as Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity.
Mittan’s suspension was, quite frankly, dumb and pointless.
The station suspended Mittan from his own radio show for giving his opinion on a relevant and current issue, which is basically the point of the show. It is probably not called “Take A Stand” because it features three hours of Mittan surrendering to the powers-that-be at 570-AM.
It would be one thing if his comments were legitimately upsetting, uncalled for or hurtful. But they were not. He simply questioned the sanity of a man who may, in all actuality, be a mentally unstable human being.
For anyone who has watched Beck’s FOX News show or listened to his radio program, it is easy to see that the man has serious issues that could possibly only ever be solved by many expensive sessions with a therapist, something Beck would have no trouble affording if he so desired.
On Beck’s radio and television shows last week, he questioned whether or not Democratic Party leaders were hoping to be attacked by Tea Party protesters before the health care vote. He even went as far as to say that some Democratic lawmakers wanted to be shot and killed so as to become martyrs for health care reform.
Those statements seem like something only an insane person would say, and Mittan had every right to question Beck’s sanity.
Unfortunately, Mittan’s listeners apparently found his exercise of free speech too harsh, and they wrote and called in to complain to the station manager that Mittan was being just plain mean to Beck.
Apparently, those at 570-AM agreed with their listeners’ idea that free speech has simply gone too far when it means questioning Beck.
The whole idea that people thought questioning Beck’s sanity was too harsh is hilarious and also kind of sad. Not only has Beck repeatedly caused people to question his mental stability through his strange actions and words, the other main personalities featured on the station are just as unstable as Beck.
All of them could use a mental health checkup.
Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity and Boortz are four of the biggest hatemongers and enemies of free speech that are on radio or television today. Mittan is just a guy who questioned whether or not Beck needs professional help.
The fact that people actually listen to those four radio personalities and then think that Mittan questioning Beck’s sanity crosses the line is, in itself, absolutely crazy.
The things that those four say on a daily basis are more hateful, vitriolic, divisive and wrong than probably anything Mittan has ever said in his entire life, on radio or otherwise, yet he is the one who gets complaints and receives a suspension? Go figure.
Perhaps those people should listen to Beck more carefully, as well as the other personalities, and maybe they will begin to understand what so many sane Americans have known for a long time. These guys are batshit crazy.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/does-free-speech-exclude-questioning-glenn-beck-1.1291067
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the second week in a row, my article has the most hits on The Blue Banner Web site and I've already been called an idiot and a freedom hater and there are only 5 comments!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Featured in the March 29, 2010 Asheville Citizen-Times
So my public affairs journalism class is helping out John Boyle, a writer with the Asheville Citizen-Times, with his "Answer Man" column that he runs every Monday.
Essentially, people write in to Boyle with questions about things in Asheville that they've always wondered about and he answers them. His column is pretty popular and so he enlisted the help of my class. We get some of the Answer Man questions and we can choose to go out and find who to talk to and answer the questions. If we do a good enough job answering them, we get our answers printed in the Citizen-Times.
Two of my answers were printed in Monday's edition.
Since I'm pretty sure I can't legally copy and paste my snippets, I will include the link to the story (which will be dead in 7 days, I think) and the original, unedited, articles that I sent in from which the printed answers were taken.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010303290020
I will include the question asked by the reader and then the article I wrote for my class...
While both ran in Monday's edition, the above answer was from about two weeks ago. This next one I just answered this past Wednesday...
So there you have it. I've had a pretty good last two weeks. My last article about the tea party generated 7,000 more hits than any other article in the history of The Blue Banner web site and it also generated nearly 150 comments. Now this week two of my pieces are in the local paper. Not too shabby.
My next article should be up on Wednesday. It's about Glenn Beck, more or less, so that should (hopefully) generate some controversy as well.
Hopefully someone other than myself actually reads any of this...
Essentially, people write in to Boyle with questions about things in Asheville that they've always wondered about and he answers them. His column is pretty popular and so he enlisted the help of my class. We get some of the Answer Man questions and we can choose to go out and find who to talk to and answer the questions. If we do a good enough job answering them, we get our answers printed in the Citizen-Times.
Two of my answers were printed in Monday's edition.
Since I'm pretty sure I can't legally copy and paste my snippets, I will include the link to the story (which will be dead in 7 days, I think) and the original, unedited, articles that I sent in from which the printed answers were taken.
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010303290020
I will include the question asked by the reader and then the article I wrote for my class...
Question:
How much do all those commercials on WLOS cost the Humane Society? Or are they public service announcements? There’s at least one, often more, per newscast.
For WLOS news viewers, the sound of a woman’s soft singing voice and the images of abused cats and dogs are a popular sight and sound over the commercial breaks.
The Humane Society of the United States’ ad is shown sometimes two or three times during a particular newscast on ABC’s affiliate station in Asheville.
This has led some to wonder if these advertisements are considered public service announcements and perhaps aired for free by WLOS or if these ads are paid for by the HSUS, and if so, how much it costs to air them so often.
The answer, according to Courtney Youngblood, the local sales manager at WLOS, is quite simple.
“They are paid advertisements,” she said.
Youngblood wasn’t willing to divulge the cost of those particular ads, or any other commercial advertisements because they’re considered private accounts.
What she would say is that the cost of ads on WLOS depend on a few factors, the biggest of which is the audience size, other than that, commercial advertisements work much like print ads.
“(They work) just like anything else,” she said. “The rates are pretty much (congruous) with the eyeballs. The larger the audience, the larger the rate.”
Jack Connors, general manager at WLOS, concurred with what Youngblood said, but went on to give a little more insight into the process.
“It is almost always a negotiation,” he said. “There is a rate card, but it’s almost always a negotiation depending on how many other people want to be on (during) that particular program.”
Asked to give a basic rate for a given scenario (Wednesday night during the evening news), all Connors would say is that it depends on various factors.
“It varies on what quarter it is, on whether it’s early in the month or late in the month, early in the week or late in the week. It varies just based on demand.”
While it’s hard to get an idea of how much an advertisement spot costs on WLOS, the HSUS did provide some helpful information on how much they spent on advertising.
According to a spokeswoman at the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C., approximately 22 percent of the HSUS expenditures went to marketing and advertising in 2008, the last year for which statistics are available.
With $125 million in expenses, 22 percent is equivalent to $27.5 million and from that number, it’s anyone’s guess as to how much each advertisement costs in each individual market.
Although the HSUS is a nonprofit organization, that doesn’t necessarily mean that their advertisements are considered to be public service announcements, at least not when it comes to WLOS.
“We determine what is public service. It certainly isn’t anything from a business, (it would be like) something for Eblen Charities,” Connors said.
With that cleared up, all that can really be gleaned from this information is that either the HSUS likes to bid a lot of money to run commercial spots in Asheville, an area that is very animal-friendly and thus potentially more financially supportive, or the spots they’re running their ads in haven’t been in high demand on WLOS’s newscasts. It could also be a combination of the two, which might be more likely.
While both ran in Monday's edition, the above answer was from about two weeks ago. This next one I just answered this past Wednesday...
Question:
An article in the Saturday, March 6, 2010 Asheville Citizen-Times stated
that vehicle owners might be asked to chip in $7 to $27 annually to
help offset costs for Asheville Transit system. I recall that back in
the mid 1960s vehicle owners who resided in the city had to buy a city
tag to help pay for buying new buses. They then changed to buying a
city sticker, and eventually they did away with the sticker and just
charged you this "special" tax on your property tax for your vehicle.
As far as I know they are still charging it on our property taxes even
though those buses are now long gone. Now they want MORE??!!! Isn't
that double taxation? Why do only city residents have to pay this tax
when they run the buses out to the far ends of the county?
With tax day around the corner, people are wondering about a new tax for vehicle owners in the city of Asheville. Since there is already a vehicle tax in place, this has lead some to wonder if they’re being taxed twice for the same thing.
According to Ken Putnam, the City of Asheville transportation department director, the answer, more or less, is yes.
“(For) a car that is registered in the city of Asheville, they pay $10 per year, $5 of it goes to the general fund for the city of Asheville and $5 of it goes to transit,” he said.
For long-time residents of Asheville, they might remember a $5 vehicle tag required by the city back in the 1960s that was used for the up-and-coming bus service.
Eventually, the city did away with parking tags and stickers and just added a $5 vehicle property tax to city residents whose cars were registered in Asheville.
That old $5 tax is now the $10 vehicle tax that has been in place for a while here in Asheville.
As for the new tax, it’s actually not that new, it does really exist and there’s not much that anyone or the city of Asheville can do about it.
“Now, the $7 one, that is something that the North Carolina Legislature put into action about a year ago,” Putnam said. “That allows the towns and the counties across the state to charge up to $7 per vehicle for every vehicle registered in their county. If they do that, all of the money has to be used for transit purposes.”
The alternative to the $7 tax is a sales tax hike, he said.
“Now there’s another part of that law that says they can also take a referendum to the people in an election year and the people can vote if they want their sales tax to go up a quarter of a percent and if they say yes, all of that money would have to go for transit,” he said.
As it stands right now, there are approximately 300,000 registered vehicles in Buncombe County, 60,000 of which are registered in the city of Asheville. That means that the Asheville Transit system is bringing in around $300,000 per year due to vehicle taxes along with $300,000 for a general fund.
“The $5 (that) goes to transit helps the transit operation, it’s being used to help operate the system on a daily basis,” Putnam said.
Using the same 60,000-vehicle figure, that would mean that the city of Asheville can bring in an extra approximately $420,000 from the $7 tax. That tax money, though, is for Buncombe County and that money goes to transit operations. Unlike the $10 city tax, all $7 goes to transit purposes for the county.
So there you have it. I've had a pretty good last two weeks. My last article about the tea party generated 7,000 more hits than any other article in the history of The Blue Banner web site and it also generated nearly 150 comments. Now this week two of my pieces are in the local paper. Not too shabby.
My next article should be up on Wednesday. It's about Glenn Beck, more or less, so that should (hopefully) generate some controversy as well.
Hopefully someone other than myself actually reads any of this...
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Tea Party protesters cross line on Capitol Hill
Hopefully now that the debate over health care reform is winding down, some small semblance of respect and civility can return to the American political process.
The chances of that happening completely are slim, but the least we can hope for is a dissolving of the racist imagery and hurtful and inappropriate words the Tea Party used in the anti-government/anti-health care protests last summer will cease to exist.
While it is great that Americans have the right to free speech, there are times when the idea of free speech gets distorted into something it is not.
Last Saturday’s protests on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the health care vote in the U.S. House exemplify this distortion vividly.
So long as those anti-health care protestors had the correct permits to protest outside the Capitol, which they seemingly did, they had every right to be there and to let their voices be heard.
What was not part of the permit they received from the city was the right to spit on members of Congress, yell racial epithets at them, call them “faggots” or physically push them as they passed by the protestors.
According to accounts from various news organizations, Capitol Hill staffers and members of Congress, all of those things happened.
On their own, those actions are despicable and unacceptable, but when one takes into consideration that Republican members of the U.S. House were actually there at the protests makings speeches, it really reaches another level of absurdity.
As if that were not enough, not a single Republican there (or not there) has yet to come out and apologize or denounce the behavior of their supporters.
The least they could do is make a private apology to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights pioneer and a man who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. Congressman Lewis was spit upon and called the N-word numerous times as he passed by the Tea Party protestors on Saturday afternoon.
So far, there is no word of a private apology.
The actions of the anti-health care protestors were just plain unacceptable.
The fact that in the year 2010 these kinds of things still happen just goes to show how little many Americans have learned from the past and how far we still have to go.
After Obama’s election, television pundits across the land started to talk about how America is now some sort of post-racial, colorblind country and just how incredible it is that a black man could be elected president.
Unfortunately, that whole “post-racial America” thing was a bunch of baloney and was never really the case.
Nothing has made this clearer than the actions of the Tea Party protestors over the past eight months or so.
Calling your president a socialist, fascist, communist, anti-American, Muslim-terrorist and Kenyan-Nazi is really nothing of which to be proud. Bringing guns to protests, yelling racial and homosexual slurs at members of Congress, and then spitting on and pushing our elected officials is nothing to go around celebrating about either.
In some parts of the media and in certain political circles, these protesters continue to be touted as some sort of “freedom-loving patriots.”
This needs to stop and they need to be called what they really are: ignorant, pathetic and embarrassing.
There is simply no place for these kinds of actions and behaviors in a civilized society.
Even in protests, a line needs to be drawn, and in the case of these most recent anti-health care reform protests, that line has been crossed and this nation is worse off for it.
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This one has received a lot of attention and a lot of nasty comments on The Blue Banner's page. Not entirely surprising. As they say, it's not journalism if somebody's not pissed off. Or at least that's what they say about editorials.
Democratic Underground also linked to my article on their message board. Some users on Twitter also tweeted links to my article, though I don't even know who any of those people are, nor do I think they were Tweeting it because they were happy about it. But still, this is all pretty cool.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/tea-party-protesters-cross-line-on-capitol-hill-1.1278938
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8007805
The chances of that happening completely are slim, but the least we can hope for is a dissolving of the racist imagery and hurtful and inappropriate words the Tea Party used in the anti-government/anti-health care protests last summer will cease to exist.
While it is great that Americans have the right to free speech, there are times when the idea of free speech gets distorted into something it is not.
Last Saturday’s protests on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on the eve of the health care vote in the U.S. House exemplify this distortion vividly.
So long as those anti-health care protestors had the correct permits to protest outside the Capitol, which they seemingly did, they had every right to be there and to let their voices be heard.
What was not part of the permit they received from the city was the right to spit on members of Congress, yell racial epithets at them, call them “faggots” or physically push them as they passed by the protestors.
According to accounts from various news organizations, Capitol Hill staffers and members of Congress, all of those things happened.
On their own, those actions are despicable and unacceptable, but when one takes into consideration that Republican members of the U.S. House were actually there at the protests makings speeches, it really reaches another level of absurdity.
As if that were not enough, not a single Republican there (or not there) has yet to come out and apologize or denounce the behavior of their supporters.
The least they could do is make a private apology to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights pioneer and a man who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. Congressman Lewis was spit upon and called the N-word numerous times as he passed by the Tea Party protestors on Saturday afternoon.
So far, there is no word of a private apology.
The actions of the anti-health care protestors were just plain unacceptable.
The fact that in the year 2010 these kinds of things still happen just goes to show how little many Americans have learned from the past and how far we still have to go.
After Obama’s election, television pundits across the land started to talk about how America is now some sort of post-racial, colorblind country and just how incredible it is that a black man could be elected president.
Unfortunately, that whole “post-racial America” thing was a bunch of baloney and was never really the case.
Nothing has made this clearer than the actions of the Tea Party protestors over the past eight months or so.
Calling your president a socialist, fascist, communist, anti-American, Muslim-terrorist and Kenyan-Nazi is really nothing of which to be proud. Bringing guns to protests, yelling racial and homosexual slurs at members of Congress, and then spitting on and pushing our elected officials is nothing to go around celebrating about either.
In some parts of the media and in certain political circles, these protesters continue to be touted as some sort of “freedom-loving patriots.”
This needs to stop and they need to be called what they really are: ignorant, pathetic and embarrassing.
There is simply no place for these kinds of actions and behaviors in a civilized society.
Even in protests, a line needs to be drawn, and in the case of these most recent anti-health care reform protests, that line has been crossed and this nation is worse off for it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one has received a lot of attention and a lot of nasty comments on The Blue Banner's page. Not entirely surprising. As they say, it's not journalism if somebody's not pissed off. Or at least that's what they say about editorials.
Democratic Underground also linked to my article on their message board. Some users on Twitter also tweeted links to my article, though I don't even know who any of those people are, nor do I think they were Tweeting it because they were happy about it. But still, this is all pretty cool.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/tea-party-protesters-cross-line-on-capitol-hill-1.1278938
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8007805
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Students should appreciate improved dining hall
Many members of The Blue Banner staff have been at UNC Asheville since 2006, which means we have seen many changes across the campus, including the quality of the food served in the dining hall.
In just three and a half years, the food at the dining hall has gone from truly atrocious to pretty delicious.
It might not be gourmet, but it definitely meets the level of the restaurants most students can actually afford to go to in Asheville.
For those students who may be new at UNCA, and think the food at the cafeteria is not too good, just imagine how bad the upperclassmen had it. It was bad.
There used to be a time when a good meal at the cafeteria meant that there were no bugs (alive or dead) in the chicken gyros, the salad was only slightly soggy and just beginning to brown, the pizza was at room temperature and only one or two hairs wound up in the sandwiches made at the sandwich station.
No longer is that the standard for a good meal in the dining hall.
Now, much of the food is hot and fresh, the salad bar is clean and the vegetables are crisp. Bugs are no longer a side dish and there are many more options for students who are vegetarian, vegan or gluten intolerant.
It is really incredible to look back on how awful the food used to be in comparison to how it is today.
That is not to say there are not some off days at the dining hall, but whereas every day used to be an off day, they are no longer the norm.
Unfortunately, for those who work at dining services, it is not the most glamorous job nor is it one which attracts frequent compliments.
That does not mean dining services employees do not deserve credit for their hard work. They certainly do.
Dining services did what many companies often fail to do, which is consider constructive criticism from customers and actively try to improve their product or service.
For years now, students have been encouraged to make suggestions to those at dining services about how to make their meals and dining hall experience a more positive one. The staff actually listened and made changes.
It is hard to believe the dining hall now is the same one that was at UNCA back in 2006. It has changed so drastically and so much for the better. Those at dining services deserve a lot of overdue credit.
It is pretty rare that anyone actually sends compliments to the chef or the staff anymore, but in this case, UNCA’s dining services deserve to be praised for their efforts.
They have actually listened to the students and have since delivered a tasty, healthy and genuinely pleasant experience. So kudos to them and keep it up.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/students-should-appreciate-improved-dining-hall-1.1270059
In just three and a half years, the food at the dining hall has gone from truly atrocious to pretty delicious.
It might not be gourmet, but it definitely meets the level of the restaurants most students can actually afford to go to in Asheville.
For those students who may be new at UNCA, and think the food at the cafeteria is not too good, just imagine how bad the upperclassmen had it. It was bad.
There used to be a time when a good meal at the cafeteria meant that there were no bugs (alive or dead) in the chicken gyros, the salad was only slightly soggy and just beginning to brown, the pizza was at room temperature and only one or two hairs wound up in the sandwiches made at the sandwich station.
No longer is that the standard for a good meal in the dining hall.
Now, much of the food is hot and fresh, the salad bar is clean and the vegetables are crisp. Bugs are no longer a side dish and there are many more options for students who are vegetarian, vegan or gluten intolerant.
It is really incredible to look back on how awful the food used to be in comparison to how it is today.
That is not to say there are not some off days at the dining hall, but whereas every day used to be an off day, they are no longer the norm.
Unfortunately, for those who work at dining services, it is not the most glamorous job nor is it one which attracts frequent compliments.
That does not mean dining services employees do not deserve credit for their hard work. They certainly do.
Dining services did what many companies often fail to do, which is consider constructive criticism from customers and actively try to improve their product or service.
For years now, students have been encouraged to make suggestions to those at dining services about how to make their meals and dining hall experience a more positive one. The staff actually listened and made changes.
It is hard to believe the dining hall now is the same one that was at UNCA back in 2006. It has changed so drastically and so much for the better. Those at dining services deserve a lot of overdue credit.
It is pretty rare that anyone actually sends compliments to the chef or the staff anymore, but in this case, UNCA’s dining services deserve to be praised for their efforts.
They have actually listened to the students and have since delivered a tasty, healthy and genuinely pleasant experience. So kudos to them and keep it up.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/students-should-appreciate-improved-dining-hall-1.1270059
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Low prices do not legitimize Wal-Mart expansion
In the next few months, Wal-Mart will reopen their Hendersonville Road location as a larger version of the old store, which will bring the total number of Wal-Mart Supercenters in Buncombe County to four.
Wal-Mart’s South Asheville location has been closed since Oct. 2008 and when it reopens it will be around 115,000 square feet, or about half the size of the newest Wal-Mart that opened in Weaverville.
Some are dubbing it a “mini-supercenter,” but whatever you want to call it, it’s just too much.
There are already three Wal-Mart Supercenters in Buncombe County (East Asheville off Tunnel Road, Airport Road in Arden and the newest one just outside downtown Weaverville) and reopening an old store as a new Wal-Mart Supercenter is just overkill.
The Airport Road location is only 4.5 miles, or approximately a six-minute drive, from the Hendersonville Road store. Less than five miles away from the Wal-Mart Supercenter is another Wal-Mart Supercenter. Maybe this would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and sad.
Before Wal-Mart became such a popular and widespread business, there used to be small hardware stores, corner markets, toyshops and garden supply stores all run by regular people and not a huge corporation.
Wal-Mart came in and within a couple of years, many of these family run businesses had to shut down because they couldn’t compete with the growing behemoth and their low prices.
There are plenty of Wal-Mart shoppers who probably weren’t even alive to experience what mom and pop stores were like. There are some people who don’t know any better than Wal-Mart or Target or any other big box store. To these people, it’s normal to shop at a huge, dimly lit warehouse-type store where one can buy anything from tires to celery.
Wal-Mart is a corporation that prides itself on its low prices. Now there’s nothing wrong with low prices, necessarily, but the way that Wal-Mart provides consumers with these low prices is the problem.
Wal-Mart uses globalization to its advantage and to the American workers’ disadvantage. Jobs that used to make up the fabric of America have been shipped overseas (and this is nothing new) and they’re not being replaced.
Wal-Mart gets many of their items, such as clothing, electronics and toys, for pennies from foreign sweatshops, which enables them to charge such low prices. What’s so ironic about it all is that the steelworker or textile worker who doesn’t have a job because a 14-year-old Chinese girl is now doing it for 75 cents per day, is then more or less forced to shop at Wal-Mart and buy these products so that they can maybe afford to feed and clothe their family.
Maybe the irony would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and sad.
What also helps Wal-Mart keep their prices down is the fact that they are one of the most fiercely anti-union corporations on the face of the earth. There are numerous instances across the country of people being fired for trying to unionize their department at various Wal-Mart stores.
It certainly keeps prices down when your workers have no one to fight for their right to good pay and benefits.
This newest Wal-Mart hasn’t caused much, if any, discontent in Asheville like big box stores usually do, but that’s more than likely because it’s being built on the site of an old Wal-Mart and doesn’t require the destruction of more land to build it.
Despite this new Wal-Mart Supercenter that is set to open in the next few months, there are still talks of opening even more and even bigger Wal-Mart’s in West Asheville and other parts of town. Whether or not these plans come to fruition, it’s time for people to truly start asking themselves what the cost of these low prices are. Is saving 13 cents on a box of spaghetti really worth contributing to the anti-worker, un-American corporation known as Walmart?
http://www.thebluebanner.net/low-prices-do-not-legitimize-wal-mart-expansion-1.1220407
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I really, truly, absolutely hate this article. I mean what I wrote, but I hated having to write it. It's also not very good. So be it.
Wal-Mart’s South Asheville location has been closed since Oct. 2008 and when it reopens it will be around 115,000 square feet, or about half the size of the newest Wal-Mart that opened in Weaverville.
Some are dubbing it a “mini-supercenter,” but whatever you want to call it, it’s just too much.
There are already three Wal-Mart Supercenters in Buncombe County (East Asheville off Tunnel Road, Airport Road in Arden and the newest one just outside downtown Weaverville) and reopening an old store as a new Wal-Mart Supercenter is just overkill.
The Airport Road location is only 4.5 miles, or approximately a six-minute drive, from the Hendersonville Road store. Less than five miles away from the Wal-Mart Supercenter is another Wal-Mart Supercenter. Maybe this would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and sad.
Before Wal-Mart became such a popular and widespread business, there used to be small hardware stores, corner markets, toyshops and garden supply stores all run by regular people and not a huge corporation.
Wal-Mart came in and within a couple of years, many of these family run businesses had to shut down because they couldn’t compete with the growing behemoth and their low prices.
There are plenty of Wal-Mart shoppers who probably weren’t even alive to experience what mom and pop stores were like. There are some people who don’t know any better than Wal-Mart or Target or any other big box store. To these people, it’s normal to shop at a huge, dimly lit warehouse-type store where one can buy anything from tires to celery.
Wal-Mart is a corporation that prides itself on its low prices. Now there’s nothing wrong with low prices, necessarily, but the way that Wal-Mart provides consumers with these low prices is the problem.
Wal-Mart uses globalization to its advantage and to the American workers’ disadvantage. Jobs that used to make up the fabric of America have been shipped overseas (and this is nothing new) and they’re not being replaced.
Wal-Mart gets many of their items, such as clothing, electronics and toys, for pennies from foreign sweatshops, which enables them to charge such low prices. What’s so ironic about it all is that the steelworker or textile worker who doesn’t have a job because a 14-year-old Chinese girl is now doing it for 75 cents per day, is then more or less forced to shop at Wal-Mart and buy these products so that they can maybe afford to feed and clothe their family.
Maybe the irony would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic and sad.
What also helps Wal-Mart keep their prices down is the fact that they are one of the most fiercely anti-union corporations on the face of the earth. There are numerous instances across the country of people being fired for trying to unionize their department at various Wal-Mart stores.
It certainly keeps prices down when your workers have no one to fight for their right to good pay and benefits.
This newest Wal-Mart hasn’t caused much, if any, discontent in Asheville like big box stores usually do, but that’s more than likely because it’s being built on the site of an old Wal-Mart and doesn’t require the destruction of more land to build it.
Despite this new Wal-Mart Supercenter that is set to open in the next few months, there are still talks of opening even more and even bigger Wal-Mart’s in West Asheville and other parts of town. Whether or not these plans come to fruition, it’s time for people to truly start asking themselves what the cost of these low prices are. Is saving 13 cents on a box of spaghetti really worth contributing to the anti-worker, un-American corporation known as Walmart?
http://www.thebluebanner.net/low-prices-do-not-legitimize-wal-mart-expansion-1.1220407
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I really, truly, absolutely hate this article. I mean what I wrote, but I hated having to write it. It's also not very good. So be it.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Administration waited too long for Carmichael
As reported in last week’s issue of The Blue Banner, Carmichael Hall needs nearly $27 million in renovations.
The building needing repairs should come as no surprise, but the fact it needs such expensive repairs should be looked at more closely.
The newest building on campus, the Zeis Science & Multimedia Building, cost only $24 million to build, nearly $3 million less than the repair estimate to Carmichael.
Is it even worth spending $26.7 million on repairing a campus building nearly 45 years old?
Why did the university wait until the building was 40 years old to request funds for renovation from the state?
It is not as if the building suddenly began to crumble. Administration officials had to realize that a heavily trafficked, aging building would eventually deteriorate.
It might seem drastic to suggest UNC Asheville skip Carmichael’s repairs and build an entirely new instructional building, but maybe that is something the university should consider.
The economy, while on the rebound, is not doing well enough that the state of North Carolina can justify giving UNCA $26.7 million to fix an old building. It is hard to imagine the state’s economy will be doing well enough at any point in the next few years to justify such an action.
If UNCA decided to build an entirely new building, funding from the state would probably come more easily and the university might even receive private funding like it did from Steve and Frosene Zeis, who gave the university $3 million in April 2005.
Chances are slim that many people will be willing to pony up a couple million dollars to renovate an old building on a campus that is not even that old itself.
It would be one thing if this were UNC Chapel Hill and the renovations were needed for a 200-year-old historic building on campus, but we’re talking about a 45-year-old building on an 50-year-old campus.
Those numbers do not add up to $26.7 million. What they add up to is some poor planning by the university and maybe even some wasteful spending.
UNCA received funding for all of the 44 years since Carmichael Hall was built and yet officials apparently never saw fit to use any of that to fix any issues with the building? Hard to imagine, but that appears to be the case.
The university spent a lot of money over the last few years to do an assortment of different things on campus. A new $42 million health center is being built, a $24 million science building was just completed and dorm rooms have seen renovations,.Highsmith Union now has a computer lounge for commuters and the list continues.
In fact, the university just spent $150,000 to update its Web site. While it didn’t cost $27 million, maybe that $150,000 could have fixed a couple classrooms, ceilings or windows in Carmichael Hall.
Carmichael is a place where students actually, physically go. A Web site is something intangible in cyberspace. That $150,000, though, was certainly less elusive, particularly now that it is gone.
Hopefully the economy will turn around quickly and Carmichael Hall will receive the renovations to be better than ever, but in the more likely case this does not happen, those making the decisions at UNCA need to think of better alternatives to spend the money they do receive.
We can only hope from this point on the university will exercise more foresight and not let Karpen, Owen or Zageir get to the point where they too need millions of dollars of renovations. A little money spent here and there will go a long way toward preventing this from happening again.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/administration-waited-too-long-for-carmichael-1.1173353
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Not one of my stronger articles. Credit to Campus Voice Editor Tom McLean, Editor in Chief Sam Hunt and the copy editors for making this one a little bit tighter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've just made an edit to correct a GFE, so this version is ever so slightly different than the linked version.
The building needing repairs should come as no surprise, but the fact it needs such expensive repairs should be looked at more closely.
The newest building on campus, the Zeis Science & Multimedia Building, cost only $24 million to build, nearly $3 million less than the repair estimate to Carmichael.
Is it even worth spending $26.7 million on repairing a campus building nearly 45 years old?
Why did the university wait until the building was 40 years old to request funds for renovation from the state?
It is not as if the building suddenly began to crumble. Administration officials had to realize that a heavily trafficked, aging building would eventually deteriorate.
It might seem drastic to suggest UNC Asheville skip Carmichael’s repairs and build an entirely new instructional building, but maybe that is something the university should consider.
The economy, while on the rebound, is not doing well enough that the state of North Carolina can justify giving UNCA $26.7 million to fix an old building. It is hard to imagine the state’s economy will be doing well enough at any point in the next few years to justify such an action.
If UNCA decided to build an entirely new building, funding from the state would probably come more easily and the university might even receive private funding like it did from Steve and Frosene Zeis, who gave the university $3 million in April 2005.
Chances are slim that many people will be willing to pony up a couple million dollars to renovate an old building on a campus that is not even that old itself.
It would be one thing if this were UNC Chapel Hill and the renovations were needed for a 200-year-old historic building on campus, but we’re talking about a 45-year-old building on an 50-year-old campus.
Those numbers do not add up to $26.7 million. What they add up to is some poor planning by the university and maybe even some wasteful spending.
UNCA received funding for all of the 44 years since Carmichael Hall was built and yet officials apparently never saw fit to use any of that to fix any issues with the building? Hard to imagine, but that appears to be the case.
The university spent a lot of money over the last few years to do an assortment of different things on campus. A new $42 million health center is being built, a $24 million science building was just completed and dorm rooms have seen renovations,.Highsmith Union now has a computer lounge for commuters and the list continues.
In fact, the university just spent $150,000 to update its Web site. While it didn’t cost $27 million, maybe that $150,000 could have fixed a couple classrooms, ceilings or windows in Carmichael Hall.
Carmichael is a place where students actually, physically go. A Web site is something intangible in cyberspace. That $150,000, though, was certainly less elusive, particularly now that it is gone.
Hopefully the economy will turn around quickly and Carmichael Hall will receive the renovations to be better than ever, but in the more likely case this does not happen, those making the decisions at UNCA need to think of better alternatives to spend the money they do receive.
We can only hope from this point on the university will exercise more foresight and not let Karpen, Owen or Zageir get to the point where they too need millions of dollars of renovations. A little money spent here and there will go a long way toward preventing this from happening again.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/administration-waited-too-long-for-carmichael-1.1173353
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not one of my stronger articles. Credit to Campus Voice Editor Tom McLean, Editor in Chief Sam Hunt and the copy editors for making this one a little bit tighter.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've just made an edit to correct a GFE, so this version is ever so slightly different than the linked version.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Public Affairs Journalism Article Two - Personality Profile: Asheville Foreclosures
By Patrick Zarcone
After being married 43 years, giving birth to four children and doting on nine grandchildren, Patricia Gulley has a lifetime worth of experiences.
That’s a good thing, too. The drama that comes along with marriage, children and grandchildren has prepared her well for what JPMorgan Chase has put her and her husband through for more than a year since their mortgage issues arose.
The Gulley’s troubles began in July 2008 when Jerry Gulley was laid off
from his job at Precision Restoration Services, an insurance restoration company based in Weaverville.
“He was terminated from his job on July 29, 2008, because of the economy,” said Patricia Gulley, 59, of Leicester. “The man had eight vans on the road and obviously they didn’t need my husband’s services after completing a $3 million job. They just let him go. No notice, no nothing, just fired him on the spot.”
Due to an injury that left her with two metal plates in her leg and unable to work, Patricia received Social Security Income disability payments from the government. When Jerry lost his job at Precision Restoration, the disability payments were their only source of income for the two months between Jerry’s firing and when he began to receive unemployment.
“When my husband lost his job, we had money to deal with for a month. I had my house payment to make, so I could see on the horizon that we were gonna be in trouble,” she said. “I called my mortgage company and told them, ‘Hey, look, we’ve lost our job and we’re gonna do the best that we can, is there some way you can help us?’”
Chase said they would be willing to help.
“They put me in touch with the homeowners assistance program, which put us under hardship forbearance, which put us then under loan modification because at that time the government was stepping in and doing loan modifications,” she said.
A loan modification, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is “a permanent change in one or more of the terms of a mortgagor's loan, (which) allows the loan to be reinstated, and results in a payment the mortgagor can afford.”
“What happened was, I sent in all the necessary financial statements, income tax papers and proof of not having a job, and I had my payment, but they said in order for us to qualify we have to be three months behind, so I made no payments,” she said. “They said, ‘don’t worry, we will add this to the end of your mortgage,’ which, oh my God, you don’t know how grateful I was (to hear that).”
Things were looking up at the time, according to Gulley.
“It took them from August through December to get all the paperwork done, to get the modification, but they lowered our interest rate from 7 to 4.5 percent and they took away the mortgage insurance. They lowered our payments and by the time they added everything in, our payments were $647,” she said. “We pay our insurance and our taxes along with our house payment, which brought our payments up to $750 and it had been $891, so that helped us a lot.”
The Gulley’s made seven payments to a specific person working with Chase Home Finance in Columbus, Ohio, and then received some startling news: the payments they’d made, more than $5,000 worth, were nowhere to be found.
They’re now receiving help from OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling in their case against Chase.
“My client received a loan modification last year and then the lender supposedly lost all their financial documents, so they were never given a loan modification by Chase,” said Grace Hines, a financial housing counselor at OnTrack. “Because of their error, and my client has proof, all the documents showing she received a loan modification, Chase has put them into a state of foreclosure. They have a hearing date and a sale date, and we’re trying to prevent all of that from happening.”
While Chase more than likely didn’t intentionally lose the documents, they also haven’t tried very hard to make things right, according to both Gulley and Hines.
“When all this got messed up, they had to trace back and find our payments, which they found over $5,000 in payments they had lost. So they did find our payments,” Gulley said. “What they said was, ‘well, we’re going to have to re-modify the loan again,’ and I said, ‘this is bullcrap, just go back like it was.’ Because all they were gonna do is tack more interest and more late fees and wait another three months or so.”
Chase Home Finance tacked on both interest and late fees for the months that they told the Gulley’s not to pay, just as the Gulley’s worried might happen.
“Chase told them not to pay because it wouldn’t help their situation anyway and when they were told by Chase not to pay their mortgage, they didn’t and now they’re being charged all these late fees,” Hines said.
On top of the late fees and interest, Chase asked the Gulley’s to re-do all of their paperwork and send it in again so that they could look at the information and decide if they were going to do another loan modification.
“Basically they’re still telling us that they're willing to stop the sale, but they can’t do it until they receive the documentation from the client, but the client has already faxed the documentation,” Hines said. “Chase is taking 10 days to receive the information, scan it into the system and get it to the bankruptcy department in order to make a decision.”
The Gulley’s sent their documentation to Chase Home Financial on Feb. 4 and called the next day to verify that the documents were received. Chase told them it would be until at least Feb. 12 before they look them over. Their court date is set for Feb. 17.
What led up to this point is mismanagement, confusion and poor communication, according to Gulley.
“They kept saying the payments will be due Nov. 1, then Dec. 1, well the last time I talked to them, ‘well it looks like it’s going to be Jan. 1.’ All these months have gone by, I have not made any payments, I do have some of the money,” she said. “I’ve even got my first August payment that was due that I couldn’t send because they said they lost our loan. Where do you send payments to somebody when they’ve lost your payments before and they can’t even find your loan, would you send them any money?”
The Gulley’s story is becoming more and more common in 2010, Hines said.
“From the (start) of this new year, I’m getting more of these from Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase customers. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but a lot of them paid their bailout money back to the government and now they’re pulling back and not honoring their modifications that they offered their clients and now we’re having to apply all over again,” she said.
This means extra work and time that’s being wasted on re-applying instead of being able to follow up on the work that has already been done, and all of it adds up to anger and frustration, Hines said.
“So everything I did with my clients last year, I’m having to do it all over again and it’s ridiculous. These people cry in my office everyday. You see grown men cry and you see grown ladies cry because of the emotional strife they’re going through is more than they can bear to handle. It’s just tough,” she said.
While dealing with the lost loan payments and having to go through the application process again, the Gulley’s also filed for bankruptcy.
“In November, we went in and we discussed our financial situation (with our attorney) and he said Chapter 7 (bankruptcy) would be what we needed to do so we went ahead and did that to get rid of the hospital bills that we could’ve never paid, there were almost like $10,000 of them, and credit card debt,” Gulley said.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to the U.S. Federal Courts, is part of the bankruptcy code that provides for "liquidation, i.e., the sale of a debtor's nonexempt property and the distribution of the proceeds to creditors.”
The bankruptcy has only added to the stress, Gulley said.
“The stress is just overwhelming,” she said. “I don’t sleep at night. I do, but I don’t, you know? It’s just hanging over our heads constantly. Are we going to have a place to live? What are we going to do?”
Right now, times are tough for the Gulley’s. They’re hoping that the loan modification issues can be worked out with Chase, and quickly since they only have so much money.
“We’re living on unemployment and when they strike the unemployment, I don’t know what we’re going to do. But we’ll make it through, we’ve made it so far and something will come along,” she said. “You know, the way these people have done us, if I wasn’t so mean and so aggressive and persistent, we probably would’ve already lost our house and it wasn’t even really our fault. I was making my payments, I was sending my payments to whom I was told to send them to and it’s just a nightmare.”
As someone who deals with mortgage lenders and their clients on a daily basis, Hines knows just how difficult the mortgage crisis has been on everyone involved, but that doesn’t make how they’re handling the crisis any more acceptable, she said.
“We know that the lenders are all inundated with a lot of applications and they’re struggling, but in the same respect, I’m just not feeling much pity for them,” Hines said.
Gulley said, in the end, persistence and courage are what separate those who keep their homes from those who don’t.
“People are afraid and fear gets into people and they give up and I’m not going to give up,” she said. “For some reason, God’s brought us this far and he’ll take us the rest of the way.”
Gulley also said having a little bit of fight in you helps as well.
“My theory is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and let me tell you, I can squeak,” she said. “I’ve had to fight for everything and it’s just a way of life. Either you’ve got to fight for it or lose everything you’ve worked for all your life.”
After being married 43 years, giving birth to four children and doting on nine grandchildren, Patricia Gulley has a lifetime worth of experiences.
That’s a good thing, too. The drama that comes along with marriage, children and grandchildren has prepared her well for what JPMorgan Chase has put her and her husband through for more than a year since their mortgage issues arose.
The Gulley’s troubles began in July 2008 when Jerry Gulley was laid off
from his job at Precision Restoration Services, an insurance restoration company based in Weaverville.
“He was terminated from his job on July 29, 2008, because of the economy,” said Patricia Gulley, 59, of Leicester. “The man had eight vans on the road and obviously they didn’t need my husband’s services after completing a $3 million job. They just let him go. No notice, no nothing, just fired him on the spot.”
Due to an injury that left her with two metal plates in her leg and unable to work, Patricia received Social Security Income disability payments from the government. When Jerry lost his job at Precision Restoration, the disability payments were their only source of income for the two months between Jerry’s firing and when he began to receive unemployment.
“When my husband lost his job, we had money to deal with for a month. I had my house payment to make, so I could see on the horizon that we were gonna be in trouble,” she said. “I called my mortgage company and told them, ‘Hey, look, we’ve lost our job and we’re gonna do the best that we can, is there some way you can help us?’”
Chase said they would be willing to help.
“They put me in touch with the homeowners assistance program, which put us under hardship forbearance, which put us then under loan modification because at that time the government was stepping in and doing loan modifications,” she said.
A loan modification, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, is “a permanent change in one or more of the terms of a mortgagor's loan, (which) allows the loan to be reinstated, and results in a payment the mortgagor can afford.”
“What happened was, I sent in all the necessary financial statements, income tax papers and proof of not having a job, and I had my payment, but they said in order for us to qualify we have to be three months behind, so I made no payments,” she said. “They said, ‘don’t worry, we will add this to the end of your mortgage,’ which, oh my God, you don’t know how grateful I was (to hear that).”
Things were looking up at the time, according to Gulley.
“It took them from August through December to get all the paperwork done, to get the modification, but they lowered our interest rate from 7 to 4.5 percent and they took away the mortgage insurance. They lowered our payments and by the time they added everything in, our payments were $647,” she said. “We pay our insurance and our taxes along with our house payment, which brought our payments up to $750 and it had been $891, so that helped us a lot.”
The Gulley’s made seven payments to a specific person working with Chase Home Finance in Columbus, Ohio, and then received some startling news: the payments they’d made, more than $5,000 worth, were nowhere to be found.
They’re now receiving help from OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling in their case against Chase.
“My client received a loan modification last year and then the lender supposedly lost all their financial documents, so they were never given a loan modification by Chase,” said Grace Hines, a financial housing counselor at OnTrack. “Because of their error, and my client has proof, all the documents showing she received a loan modification, Chase has put them into a state of foreclosure. They have a hearing date and a sale date, and we’re trying to prevent all of that from happening.”
While Chase more than likely didn’t intentionally lose the documents, they also haven’t tried very hard to make things right, according to both Gulley and Hines.
“When all this got messed up, they had to trace back and find our payments, which they found over $5,000 in payments they had lost. So they did find our payments,” Gulley said. “What they said was, ‘well, we’re going to have to re-modify the loan again,’ and I said, ‘this is bullcrap, just go back like it was.’ Because all they were gonna do is tack more interest and more late fees and wait another three months or so.”
Chase Home Finance tacked on both interest and late fees for the months that they told the Gulley’s not to pay, just as the Gulley’s worried might happen.
“Chase told them not to pay because it wouldn’t help their situation anyway and when they were told by Chase not to pay their mortgage, they didn’t and now they’re being charged all these late fees,” Hines said.
On top of the late fees and interest, Chase asked the Gulley’s to re-do all of their paperwork and send it in again so that they could look at the information and decide if they were going to do another loan modification.
“Basically they’re still telling us that they're willing to stop the sale, but they can’t do it until they receive the documentation from the client, but the client has already faxed the documentation,” Hines said. “Chase is taking 10 days to receive the information, scan it into the system and get it to the bankruptcy department in order to make a decision.”
The Gulley’s sent their documentation to Chase Home Financial on Feb. 4 and called the next day to verify that the documents were received. Chase told them it would be until at least Feb. 12 before they look them over. Their court date is set for Feb. 17.
What led up to this point is mismanagement, confusion and poor communication, according to Gulley.
“They kept saying the payments will be due Nov. 1, then Dec. 1, well the last time I talked to them, ‘well it looks like it’s going to be Jan. 1.’ All these months have gone by, I have not made any payments, I do have some of the money,” she said. “I’ve even got my first August payment that was due that I couldn’t send because they said they lost our loan. Where do you send payments to somebody when they’ve lost your payments before and they can’t even find your loan, would you send them any money?”
The Gulley’s story is becoming more and more common in 2010, Hines said.
“From the (start) of this new year, I’m getting more of these from Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase customers. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence but a lot of them paid their bailout money back to the government and now they’re pulling back and not honoring their modifications that they offered their clients and now we’re having to apply all over again,” she said.
This means extra work and time that’s being wasted on re-applying instead of being able to follow up on the work that has already been done, and all of it adds up to anger and frustration, Hines said.
“So everything I did with my clients last year, I’m having to do it all over again and it’s ridiculous. These people cry in my office everyday. You see grown men cry and you see grown ladies cry because of the emotional strife they’re going through is more than they can bear to handle. It’s just tough,” she said.
While dealing with the lost loan payments and having to go through the application process again, the Gulley’s also filed for bankruptcy.
“In November, we went in and we discussed our financial situation (with our attorney) and he said Chapter 7 (bankruptcy) would be what we needed to do so we went ahead and did that to get rid of the hospital bills that we could’ve never paid, there were almost like $10,000 of them, and credit card debt,” Gulley said.
Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to the U.S. Federal Courts, is part of the bankruptcy code that provides for "liquidation, i.e., the sale of a debtor's nonexempt property and the distribution of the proceeds to creditors.”
The bankruptcy has only added to the stress, Gulley said.
“The stress is just overwhelming,” she said. “I don’t sleep at night. I do, but I don’t, you know? It’s just hanging over our heads constantly. Are we going to have a place to live? What are we going to do?”
Right now, times are tough for the Gulley’s. They’re hoping that the loan modification issues can be worked out with Chase, and quickly since they only have so much money.
“We’re living on unemployment and when they strike the unemployment, I don’t know what we’re going to do. But we’ll make it through, we’ve made it so far and something will come along,” she said. “You know, the way these people have done us, if I wasn’t so mean and so aggressive and persistent, we probably would’ve already lost our house and it wasn’t even really our fault. I was making my payments, I was sending my payments to whom I was told to send them to and it’s just a nightmare.”
As someone who deals with mortgage lenders and their clients on a daily basis, Hines knows just how difficult the mortgage crisis has been on everyone involved, but that doesn’t make how they’re handling the crisis any more acceptable, she said.
“We know that the lenders are all inundated with a lot of applications and they’re struggling, but in the same respect, I’m just not feeling much pity for them,” Hines said.
Gulley said, in the end, persistence and courage are what separate those who keep their homes from those who don’t.
“People are afraid and fear gets into people and they give up and I’m not going to give up,” she said. “For some reason, God’s brought us this far and he’ll take us the rest of the way.”
Gulley also said having a little bit of fight in you helps as well.
“My theory is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and let me tell you, I can squeak,” she said. “I’ve had to fight for everything and it’s just a way of life. Either you’ve got to fight for it or lose everything you’ve worked for all your life.”
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Mayor's vote clashes with community standards
Last Tuesday, the Asheville City Council voted 4-2 in favor of further examining the issues surrounding the extension of benefits to city employees in same-sex partnerships.
Although the right decision, there is very little chance city employees involved in same-sex relationships will ever receive the same benefits of married heterosexual city workers due to Mayor Terry Bellamy’s opposition to the idea.
At the council meeting, Bellamy said, “I’m not going to support the motion. I’m not going to support it now and I’m not going to support it when the information comes back.”
That is not the right attitude, and Bellamy’s refusal to even consider the idea is unacceptable, particularly for Asheville.
The only so-called benefit homosexual city employees have now is the city cannot fire employees for their sexual orientation.
City employees involved in same-sex relationships enjoy no other benefits they can share with their partners or their children.
Bellamy easily won re-election last year, most likely with the votes of several homosexual individuals. With her “no” vote, she betrayed them, regardless of whether they are city employees or not.
To suggest the families of those in homosexual relationships do not deserve the same benefits as other city employees is both an affront to the way that person lives and an affront to them as human beings.
Bellamy’s mayoral actions have otherwise been progressive and socially conscious, particularly with her focus on housing reform.
But apparently her conscience does not include all of society. Otherwise she would support the measure.
Councilman Jan Davis also voted against the motion. He said extending benefits to same-sex couples would be too costly in the current economy, and the city lacks the funding to provide the benefits.
It is hard to say whether that is true, but at least Davis makes a reasonable argument. However, it might also be an excuse for a personal agenda. Bellamy gave no reason other than to say health insurance should not be politicized.
And Bellamy is right. Health insurance should not be a political issue. However, neither should benefits for employees and their families.
A person’s sexual orientation should never be a political issue. But it is. It always has been and will continue to be because that is just the kind of nation we live in.
If the mayor does not believe health insurance is a political issue, perhaps she should turn on the television to witness just how much health insurance involves politics.
That does not make it right, but it is also reality.
It would be wonderful if the city council did not have to vote to extend benefits to homosexual city employees, and instead, benefits were given to every city employee and their families.
Unfortunately, it is a political issue and it requires people to actually stand up for what is right and act upon it.
Many consider Asheville to be a progressive oasis in a desert of a not-so-progressive area of the state. In fact, the magazine The Advocate recently named Asheville the No. 12 most gay-friendly city in America. The city also has more homosexuals per capita than most large cities in the United States.
Whether or not the mayor or anybody else in Asheville likes it, gay people play a big role in making Asheville the city it is.
It is because of the welcoming attitude Asheville has previously portrayed that so many homosexual people live and visit here.
There are currently six jurisdictions in North Carolina that provide benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships, including the cities of Durham and Greensboro and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Asheville needs to be added to that group if the city wants to continue to tout itself as gay-friendly and progressive.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/mayor-s-vote-clashes-with-community-standards-1.1162671
Although the right decision, there is very little chance city employees involved in same-sex relationships will ever receive the same benefits of married heterosexual city workers due to Mayor Terry Bellamy’s opposition to the idea.
At the council meeting, Bellamy said, “I’m not going to support the motion. I’m not going to support it now and I’m not going to support it when the information comes back.”
That is not the right attitude, and Bellamy’s refusal to even consider the idea is unacceptable, particularly for Asheville.
The only so-called benefit homosexual city employees have now is the city cannot fire employees for their sexual orientation.
City employees involved in same-sex relationships enjoy no other benefits they can share with their partners or their children.
Bellamy easily won re-election last year, most likely with the votes of several homosexual individuals. With her “no” vote, she betrayed them, regardless of whether they are city employees or not.
To suggest the families of those in homosexual relationships do not deserve the same benefits as other city employees is both an affront to the way that person lives and an affront to them as human beings.
Bellamy’s mayoral actions have otherwise been progressive and socially conscious, particularly with her focus on housing reform.
But apparently her conscience does not include all of society. Otherwise she would support the measure.
Councilman Jan Davis also voted against the motion. He said extending benefits to same-sex couples would be too costly in the current economy, and the city lacks the funding to provide the benefits.
It is hard to say whether that is true, but at least Davis makes a reasonable argument. However, it might also be an excuse for a personal agenda. Bellamy gave no reason other than to say health insurance should not be politicized.
And Bellamy is right. Health insurance should not be a political issue. However, neither should benefits for employees and their families.
A person’s sexual orientation should never be a political issue. But it is. It always has been and will continue to be because that is just the kind of nation we live in.
If the mayor does not believe health insurance is a political issue, perhaps she should turn on the television to witness just how much health insurance involves politics.
That does not make it right, but it is also reality.
It would be wonderful if the city council did not have to vote to extend benefits to homosexual city employees, and instead, benefits were given to every city employee and their families.
Unfortunately, it is a political issue and it requires people to actually stand up for what is right and act upon it.
Many consider Asheville to be a progressive oasis in a desert of a not-so-progressive area of the state. In fact, the magazine The Advocate recently named Asheville the No. 12 most gay-friendly city in America. The city also has more homosexuals per capita than most large cities in the United States.
Whether or not the mayor or anybody else in Asheville likes it, gay people play a big role in making Asheville the city it is.
It is because of the welcoming attitude Asheville has previously portrayed that so many homosexual people live and visit here.
There are currently six jurisdictions in North Carolina that provide benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships, including the cities of Durham and Greensboro and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Asheville needs to be added to that group if the city wants to continue to tout itself as gay-friendly and progressive.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/mayor-s-vote-clashes-with-community-standards-1.1162671
CBS's right-wing partisanship hurts Super Bowl
In America, it’s usually only acceptable for sports and politics to mix once a particular player decides to retire and enter the arena of politics, such as our own Heath Shuler.
CBS’s decision to run an ad titled “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life,” that conservative Christian group Focus on the Family funded, may alter the fate of Super Bowl advertising.
The ad, featuring former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, was rumored to be overtly anti-abortion in nature, but the message was apparently toned down for the final cut. Many women’s groups, including the National Organization for Women, wrote to CBS and requested the ad be pulled.
While CBS, or any broadcast network airing the Super Bowl, can decide which ads to run and which ads to keep off viewers’ television screens, the decision should include both precedent and common decency.
After Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” CBS has played it safe when it comes to supplementary Super Bowl content, including rejecting advertisements from liberal organizations.
In 2004, they rejected a MoveOn.org ad featuring children working in a factory asking the question, “Guess who’s going to pay off President Bush’s $1 trillion deficit?” They also rejected a pro-vegetarianism advertisement by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
They did not, however, reject the advertisement from the militantly anti-gay and anti-abortion group, Focus on the Family. What prompted these decisions on what advertisements are acceptable to air during America’s most watched telecast of the year?
The “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ad was much tamer than many originally thought, but it does not change the fact that the spot advertised a highly political and highly controversial organization.
Does this mean that even the Super Bowl, a historically politics-free haven, can now become the friendly confines for wildly political organizations and their more mild- mannered advertisements?
There is no place for a political agenda, and CBS made a monumental mistake by airing the ad. CBS rejected ads by both GoDaddy.com and the gay dating Web site ManCrunch.com because they “Had the potential to offend a significant number of people.”
It is hard to imagine how an effeminate former football player who now sells lingerie online (GoDaddy.com) or two friends kissing as a third looks on in horror (ManCrunch.com) could be considered more offensive than an ad by a group whose founder, James Dobson, said part of why Sept. 11 happened was because, “God is displeased with America for its pride and arrogance, for killing 40 million unborn babies, for the universality of profanity and for other forms of immorality.”
CBS and other corporations have the right to choose which ads they air. If they feel ads featuring even the slightest homosexuality might be too offensive to their viewers, perhaps they should re-evaluate just who is watching.
As for the politicization of Super Bowl ads, there should be none.
Sports remains one of the few institutions left in this country that politics and religion has yet to poison. Unfortunately, CBS took a step towards changing that Sunday night.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/cbs-s-right-wing-partisanship-hurts-super-bowl-1.1123409
CBS’s decision to run an ad titled “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life,” that conservative Christian group Focus on the Family funded, may alter the fate of Super Bowl advertising.
The ad, featuring former University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother Pam, was rumored to be overtly anti-abortion in nature, but the message was apparently toned down for the final cut. Many women’s groups, including the National Organization for Women, wrote to CBS and requested the ad be pulled.
While CBS, or any broadcast network airing the Super Bowl, can decide which ads to run and which ads to keep off viewers’ television screens, the decision should include both precedent and common decency.
After Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” CBS has played it safe when it comes to supplementary Super Bowl content, including rejecting advertisements from liberal organizations.
In 2004, they rejected a MoveOn.org ad featuring children working in a factory asking the question, “Guess who’s going to pay off President Bush’s $1 trillion deficit?” They also rejected a pro-vegetarianism advertisement by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
They did not, however, reject the advertisement from the militantly anti-gay and anti-abortion group, Focus on the Family. What prompted these decisions on what advertisements are acceptable to air during America’s most watched telecast of the year?
The “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life” ad was much tamer than many originally thought, but it does not change the fact that the spot advertised a highly political and highly controversial organization.
Does this mean that even the Super Bowl, a historically politics-free haven, can now become the friendly confines for wildly political organizations and their more mild- mannered advertisements?
There is no place for a political agenda, and CBS made a monumental mistake by airing the ad. CBS rejected ads by both GoDaddy.com and the gay dating Web site ManCrunch.com because they “Had the potential to offend a significant number of people.”
It is hard to imagine how an effeminate former football player who now sells lingerie online (GoDaddy.com) or two friends kissing as a third looks on in horror (ManCrunch.com) could be considered more offensive than an ad by a group whose founder, James Dobson, said part of why Sept. 11 happened was because, “God is displeased with America for its pride and arrogance, for killing 40 million unborn babies, for the universality of profanity and for other forms of immorality.”
CBS and other corporations have the right to choose which ads they air. If they feel ads featuring even the slightest homosexuality might be too offensive to their viewers, perhaps they should re-evaluate just who is watching.
As for the politicization of Super Bowl ads, there should be none.
Sports remains one of the few institutions left in this country that politics and religion has yet to poison. Unfortunately, CBS took a step towards changing that Sunday night.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/cbs-s-right-wing-partisanship-hurts-super-bowl-1.1123409
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Obama administration mishandles budget
More than $768 billion will go to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, buying predator drones and building more weapons in the fiscal year 2011, according to the Obama administration’s Monday budget release.
Obama also proposed a three-year spending freeze on several domestic programs, including farm subsidies and education.
The controversial freeze would only save approximately $250 billion from 2011-13, according to administration officials, chump change when it comes to the deficit in this country.
If the president were serious about a spending freeze, he would consider stopping military expenditures for those three years, which he is not doing.
The U.S. will spend $768.2 billion on defense in 2011 alone, according to the budget release.
That is enough money to pay for pretty much any of the health care plans, whose bills are now stalled in Congress.
It would also cover the cost of green-technology construction including continental high-speed rail lines, residential solar panels and nationwide wind turbines.
Instead, the government will spend that money on continuing two disastrous wars, building more bombs, more helicopters, more planes and finding new, expensive ways to kill other people.
The U.S. spends nearly as much money on defense than the rest of the world combined, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s FY 2009 report.
World military expenditures totaled $1.473 trillion in 2008 and of that amount, the U.S. spent $711 billion, or 48 percent of the total, according to the center’s statistics.
Even though the reported figure for FY 2009 was $515.4 billion for defense spending, that number did not include nuclear weapons, combat figures or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were included in the numbers used by CACNP.
A military-spending tab ringing up at nearly $1 trillion makes talk of a domestic-spending freeze hard to digest for Americans, regardless of political persuasion.
If the administration has to halt certain expenditures, the most unnecessary should be first on the chopping block.
A rare consensus, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) agree upon a defense-spending freeze.
So as to not end on a sad and aggravating note, some positive things did make it into the budget report.
According to the FY 2011 budget, the Obama administration will repeal many of the Bush-era tax breaks for wealthy families and individuals as well as oil, coal and gas companies, resulting in more than $1 trillion designated for green-technology funding.
The budget also included an extension for middle-class tax breaks, and small businesses will receive some benefits for hiring more workers.
Other optimistic budget items included a revoke of the No Child Left Behind Act, a funding-halt for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada and an increase in Pell Grant tuition by $17 billion.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/obama-administration-mishandles-budget-1.1112216
Obama also proposed a three-year spending freeze on several domestic programs, including farm subsidies and education.
The controversial freeze would only save approximately $250 billion from 2011-13, according to administration officials, chump change when it comes to the deficit in this country.
If the president were serious about a spending freeze, he would consider stopping military expenditures for those three years, which he is not doing.
The U.S. will spend $768.2 billion on defense in 2011 alone, according to the budget release.
That is enough money to pay for pretty much any of the health care plans, whose bills are now stalled in Congress.
It would also cover the cost of green-technology construction including continental high-speed rail lines, residential solar panels and nationwide wind turbines.
Instead, the government will spend that money on continuing two disastrous wars, building more bombs, more helicopters, more planes and finding new, expensive ways to kill other people.
The U.S. spends nearly as much money on defense than the rest of the world combined, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation’s FY 2009 report.
World military expenditures totaled $1.473 trillion in 2008 and of that amount, the U.S. spent $711 billion, or 48 percent of the total, according to the center’s statistics.
Even though the reported figure for FY 2009 was $515.4 billion for defense spending, that number did not include nuclear weapons, combat figures or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were included in the numbers used by CACNP.
A military-spending tab ringing up at nearly $1 trillion makes talk of a domestic-spending freeze hard to digest for Americans, regardless of political persuasion.
If the administration has to halt certain expenditures, the most unnecessary should be first on the chopping block.
A rare consensus, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) agree upon a defense-spending freeze.
So as to not end on a sad and aggravating note, some positive things did make it into the budget report.
According to the FY 2011 budget, the Obama administration will repeal many of the Bush-era tax breaks for wealthy families and individuals as well as oil, coal and gas companies, resulting in more than $1 trillion designated for green-technology funding.
The budget also included an extension for middle-class tax breaks, and small businesses will receive some benefits for hiring more workers.
Other optimistic budget items included a revoke of the No Child Left Behind Act, a funding-halt for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site in Nevada and an increase in Pell Grant tuition by $17 billion.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/obama-administration-mishandles-budget-1.1112216
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Public Affairs Journalism Article One - Foreclosures in Asheville
By Patrick Zarcone
Of North Carolina’s 100 counties, only 13 experienced more home foreclosures than Buncombe County in 2009, according to statistics provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
There were 1,174 home foreclosures in Buncombe County from January 2009 through December 2009, a 41 percent increase from 2008, when Buncombe County saw 833 home foreclosures, according to the AOC.
“Because housing prices were rising, there were folks who would start buying houses in anticipation of them rising higher, and this actually contributed to prices rising further because it placed a demand on housing,” said Robert Tatum, associate professor of economics at UNC Asheville. “They were buying so they could turn around and sell it at a higher price,” he said. “So when housing prices finally fell, this put people in a lot of bad situations because a lot of folks had high loan-to-values.”
The state experienced a 17 percent increase in foreclosures from 2008 to 2009 for a total of 63,341.
Rising home sales and the sudden plunge the housing market took caused the current crisis, according to Tatum.
With the economy in a downturn, foreclosures have only become more common.
“The economy slowing down in and of itself caused unemployment, so that put people in another situation that would make it kind of hard for them to pay for their loans,” Tatum said. “It’s just that housing prices were rising and people didn’t think they’d actually ever fall, and it led to a lot of these consequences.”
For residents in some of North Carolina’s westernmost counties, there are at least two organizations that are ready and willing to help those who find themselves in a situation where they might lose their home.
Pisgah Legal Services has a presence in the foreclosure protection field in Buncombe County and other counties in the western part of the state.
“Pisgah Legal is a not-for-profit organization (that) offers free legal services for the low-income population here in Western North Carolina,” said Pablo Averza, a legal screener at Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville. “We serve seven counties, but our services are not limited to those seven counties because we have several programs that help more counties, almost 15 in total.”
Averza, who is working on his fourth year at Pisgah Legal, is the person who interviews nearly every person that calls Pisgah Legal for help with anything ranging from legal representation in a domestic violence case to issues with banks or lenders in home foreclosure cases.
“One of the (issues) we help with is people under distress due to the foreclosure situation, and we have a team of two attorneys here that help with those matters,” Averza said. “We have a staff of 16 attorneys and we also have a network of 300 attorneys that help us in a pro-bono fashion.”
According to literature available at their office, Pisgah Legal and their full-time staff and network of attorneys generated approximately $27 million in quantifiable benefits to their clients in 2008 on only a budget of $2.2 million, all of which came through donations from people, businesses and corporations.
The numbers for 2009 won’t be available for another few weeks, but they should be even greater than the numbers for 2008, according to Averza.
“We saw an increase of requests in all of our services last year, and I believe there was probably 20 to 25 percent (increase) than we used to receive before and in terms of foreclosures there was a big escalation,” he said.
While Pisgah Legal does represent clients in home foreclosure cases, they’re only able to represent those who have legitimate legal claims that can be defended in court. For cases without legal claims, there is another organization in Buncombe County that can help.
OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling is another local nonprofit organization that is seeing firsthand the impact the foreclosure crisis is having on Western North Carolinians.
“We’re a non-profit financial counseling agency and people come to us because they’re having difficulties and struggles in one part of their financial lives or another, so we help people get out of debt and learn to live debt free,” said Thomas Luzon, director of counseling at OnTrack.
OnTrack provides services ranging from helping with student loan defaults to improving landlord-renter relationships to foreclosure prevention. They serve the 18 westernmost counties in North Carolina and rely on grants in order to fund some of their programs.
Their foreclosure prevention services are one of their most popular and also the most in-depth that they provide.
“They come in for help because they want to keep their house. Most of the time there has been a reduction in income usually due to a job layoff in these days and they’d like to keep their house, but you know, lenders are difficult to work with,” Luzon said. “What people don’t really understand what options they may have available to them, so that’s the most intensive service that we provide.”
Providing a service is one thing, but providing a service well is something entirely different. According to the statistics provided by Luzon, OnTrack does their job well.
“In 2008, we opened 511 cases and lost four and in 2009 we opened 834 cases and lost seven,” he said.
That’s a 99.2 percent success rate for both 2008 and 2009. Continued success will be important.
“North Carolina and us are expecting (the number of foreclosures) to increase in the neighborhood of about 50 percent,” he said.
That would put the number at more than 1,200 new foreclosure cases by the end of this year.
The only problem with these foreclosure numbers is that they don’t necessarily tell the real story, Luzon said.
“When the foreclosure crisis started, the media and everything all really zeroed in on foreclosures and the thing is, that’s the aftermath, you know? The horse is already out of the barn so why worry about the door? It’s really the defaults that are the key.”
Defaults, in terms of foreclosures and in the simplest terms, are when a person is behind on their mortgage payments to the bank or the lender. Defaults, as a statistic, can be a good indicator of what’s to come in terms of the number of foreclosures ahead, Luzon said.
“According to the Mortgage Bankers Association in January the number of people who were 60 days late on their mortgage was double that of January of ’09,” Luzon said. “That’s always the precursor.”
Another important and overlooked aspect of home foreclosures is the impact it has on the community as a whole when it comes to home equity.
“You could own your home free and clear and say to yourself, ‘you know, I really feel bad about the foreclosure crisis but I own my house free and clear, so I’m immune to it, I don’t have to worry about,’” he said. “But if I live across the street from you and I get foreclosed on, that affects you.”
Because so many people don’t understand their mortgages or how foreclosures work, people don’t respond as they should when they do actually get foreclosed.
“The one thing on the part of people where they’re hurting themselves when it comes to the foreclosure crisis is they wait too long to come see us,” Luzon said.
Foreclosure prevention is such an important issue that OnTrack actually provides a service for those who aren’t even in default yet, he said.
“We do a lot of outreach and we even have a service called pre-mortgage default, and that’s for people who are current on their mortgage but are afraid they might become delinquent in a month or two, and that’s when we like to get them. That’s the best time to get them.”
“But there’s a lot more options in the beginning than there are at the end,” he added.
Of North Carolina’s 100 counties, only 13 experienced more home foreclosures than Buncombe County in 2009, according to statistics provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
There were 1,174 home foreclosures in Buncombe County from January 2009 through December 2009, a 41 percent increase from 2008, when Buncombe County saw 833 home foreclosures, according to the AOC.
“Because housing prices were rising, there were folks who would start buying houses in anticipation of them rising higher, and this actually contributed to prices rising further because it placed a demand on housing,” said Robert Tatum, associate professor of economics at UNC Asheville. “They were buying so they could turn around and sell it at a higher price,” he said. “So when housing prices finally fell, this put people in a lot of bad situations because a lot of folks had high loan-to-values.”
The state experienced a 17 percent increase in foreclosures from 2008 to 2009 for a total of 63,341.
Rising home sales and the sudden plunge the housing market took caused the current crisis, according to Tatum.
With the economy in a downturn, foreclosures have only become more common.
“The economy slowing down in and of itself caused unemployment, so that put people in another situation that would make it kind of hard for them to pay for their loans,” Tatum said. “It’s just that housing prices were rising and people didn’t think they’d actually ever fall, and it led to a lot of these consequences.”
For residents in some of North Carolina’s westernmost counties, there are at least two organizations that are ready and willing to help those who find themselves in a situation where they might lose their home.
Pisgah Legal Services has a presence in the foreclosure protection field in Buncombe County and other counties in the western part of the state.
“Pisgah Legal is a not-for-profit organization (that) offers free legal services for the low-income population here in Western North Carolina,” said Pablo Averza, a legal screener at Pisgah Legal Services in Asheville. “We serve seven counties, but our services are not limited to those seven counties because we have several programs that help more counties, almost 15 in total.”
Averza, who is working on his fourth year at Pisgah Legal, is the person who interviews nearly every person that calls Pisgah Legal for help with anything ranging from legal representation in a domestic violence case to issues with banks or lenders in home foreclosure cases.
“One of the (issues) we help with is people under distress due to the foreclosure situation, and we have a team of two attorneys here that help with those matters,” Averza said. “We have a staff of 16 attorneys and we also have a network of 300 attorneys that help us in a pro-bono fashion.”
According to literature available at their office, Pisgah Legal and their full-time staff and network of attorneys generated approximately $27 million in quantifiable benefits to their clients in 2008 on only a budget of $2.2 million, all of which came through donations from people, businesses and corporations.
The numbers for 2009 won’t be available for another few weeks, but they should be even greater than the numbers for 2008, according to Averza.
“We saw an increase of requests in all of our services last year, and I believe there was probably 20 to 25 percent (increase) than we used to receive before and in terms of foreclosures there was a big escalation,” he said.
While Pisgah Legal does represent clients in home foreclosure cases, they’re only able to represent those who have legitimate legal claims that can be defended in court. For cases without legal claims, there is another organization in Buncombe County that can help.
OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling is another local nonprofit organization that is seeing firsthand the impact the foreclosure crisis is having on Western North Carolinians.
“We’re a non-profit financial counseling agency and people come to us because they’re having difficulties and struggles in one part of their financial lives or another, so we help people get out of debt and learn to live debt free,” said Thomas Luzon, director of counseling at OnTrack.
OnTrack provides services ranging from helping with student loan defaults to improving landlord-renter relationships to foreclosure prevention. They serve the 18 westernmost counties in North Carolina and rely on grants in order to fund some of their programs.
Their foreclosure prevention services are one of their most popular and also the most in-depth that they provide.
“They come in for help because they want to keep their house. Most of the time there has been a reduction in income usually due to a job layoff in these days and they’d like to keep their house, but you know, lenders are difficult to work with,” Luzon said. “What people don’t really understand what options they may have available to them, so that’s the most intensive service that we provide.”
Providing a service is one thing, but providing a service well is something entirely different. According to the statistics provided by Luzon, OnTrack does their job well.
“In 2008, we opened 511 cases and lost four and in 2009 we opened 834 cases and lost seven,” he said.
That’s a 99.2 percent success rate for both 2008 and 2009. Continued success will be important.
“North Carolina and us are expecting (the number of foreclosures) to increase in the neighborhood of about 50 percent,” he said.
That would put the number at more than 1,200 new foreclosure cases by the end of this year.
The only problem with these foreclosure numbers is that they don’t necessarily tell the real story, Luzon said.
“When the foreclosure crisis started, the media and everything all really zeroed in on foreclosures and the thing is, that’s the aftermath, you know? The horse is already out of the barn so why worry about the door? It’s really the defaults that are the key.”
Defaults, in terms of foreclosures and in the simplest terms, are when a person is behind on their mortgage payments to the bank or the lender. Defaults, as a statistic, can be a good indicator of what’s to come in terms of the number of foreclosures ahead, Luzon said.
“According to the Mortgage Bankers Association in January the number of people who were 60 days late on their mortgage was double that of January of ’09,” Luzon said. “That’s always the precursor.”
Another important and overlooked aspect of home foreclosures is the impact it has on the community as a whole when it comes to home equity.
“You could own your home free and clear and say to yourself, ‘you know, I really feel bad about the foreclosure crisis but I own my house free and clear, so I’m immune to it, I don’t have to worry about,’” he said. “But if I live across the street from you and I get foreclosed on, that affects you.”
Because so many people don’t understand their mortgages or how foreclosures work, people don’t respond as they should when they do actually get foreclosed.
“The one thing on the part of people where they’re hurting themselves when it comes to the foreclosure crisis is they wait too long to come see us,” Luzon said.
Foreclosure prevention is such an important issue that OnTrack actually provides a service for those who aren’t even in default yet, he said.
“We do a lot of outreach and we even have a service called pre-mortgage default, and that’s for people who are current on their mortgage but are afraid they might become delinquent in a month or two, and that’s when we like to get them. That’s the best time to get them.”
“But there’s a lot more options in the beginning than there are at the end,” he added.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
New senator halts health care reform
Last Tuesday marked the end of an era with the election of Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate seat, which was once held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.
Brown, a Republican, is the first to be elected to the Senate from the state of Massachusetts since 1972, when Edward Brooke defeated John Droney. Brooke was defeated by Paul Tsongas in 1976, and the state has only elected Democratic senators since then, until last week.
While it is certainly a big story that Brown will be the state’s first Republican senator in 34 years, the bigger story is what his election means for the rest of the country and why.
Implications of his election will be more far-reaching for the rest of the country than for the state of Massachusetts, which essentially already has universal health coverage. Any health care reform on a federal level will have little or no impact on most residents in the state.
While it’s true that Brown is the 41st Republican vote against health care, 41 votes are required to block the passage of a bill in the Senate. The Democrats’ lack of tenacity on the issue is the sole reason nothing has been accomplished as of yet, regardless of a 41st vote.
In a democratic sense, there is absolutely no excuse why the election of Brown should be seen as anything other than an anomaly and completely inconsequential.
Unfortunately, votes count for more than debate and his election will, of course, make a big difference in what happens with health care reform in this country. The only reason for this is because the Democrats do not have the nerve to do what is necessary to provide the American people with a not-for-profit, universal health care model like the rest of the Western world.
In order to provide all Americans with health care, it will take a far more progressive bill, one even more progressive than H.R. 3200 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it will take a reconciliation vote in the Senate, which disallows the potential for a filibuster and only requires 51 votes for passage. Only certain parts of the bill are eligible for a reconciliation vote.
Brown is not the man who should be carrying the torch for health care reform, because he is a man who does not believe in it and will not vote for it. Instead of rallying together and figuring out a way to carry on the Kennedy legacy, Democrats in the Senate will more than likely make even more concessions in order to get vote No. 60 from Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) or Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Sadly, Kennedy’s death not only marked the death of a political legend, but the death of any meaningful change to the current system of health care in this country.
To put the problem in the simplest terms possible, the Democrats don’t have the gumption to get anything done, and the Republicans do not care to make any changes to the current for-profit system.
Because of this, the entire country will continue to suffer the consequences of the pathetic excuse for a health care system that we currently live with in this country.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/new-senator-halts-health-care-reform-1.1089231
Brown, a Republican, is the first to be elected to the Senate from the state of Massachusetts since 1972, when Edward Brooke defeated John Droney. Brooke was defeated by Paul Tsongas in 1976, and the state has only elected Democratic senators since then, until last week.
While it is certainly a big story that Brown will be the state’s first Republican senator in 34 years, the bigger story is what his election means for the rest of the country and why.
Implications of his election will be more far-reaching for the rest of the country than for the state of Massachusetts, which essentially already has universal health coverage. Any health care reform on a federal level will have little or no impact on most residents in the state.
While it’s true that Brown is the 41st Republican vote against health care, 41 votes are required to block the passage of a bill in the Senate. The Democrats’ lack of tenacity on the issue is the sole reason nothing has been accomplished as of yet, regardless of a 41st vote.
In a democratic sense, there is absolutely no excuse why the election of Brown should be seen as anything other than an anomaly and completely inconsequential.
Unfortunately, votes count for more than debate and his election will, of course, make a big difference in what happens with health care reform in this country. The only reason for this is because the Democrats do not have the nerve to do what is necessary to provide the American people with a not-for-profit, universal health care model like the rest of the Western world.
In order to provide all Americans with health care, it will take a far more progressive bill, one even more progressive than H.R. 3200 in the U.S. House of Representatives, and it will take a reconciliation vote in the Senate, which disallows the potential for a filibuster and only requires 51 votes for passage. Only certain parts of the bill are eligible for a reconciliation vote.
Brown is not the man who should be carrying the torch for health care reform, because he is a man who does not believe in it and will not vote for it. Instead of rallying together and figuring out a way to carry on the Kennedy legacy, Democrats in the Senate will more than likely make even more concessions in order to get vote No. 60 from Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) or Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).
Sadly, Kennedy’s death not only marked the death of a political legend, but the death of any meaningful change to the current system of health care in this country.
To put the problem in the simplest terms possible, the Democrats don’t have the gumption to get anything done, and the Republicans do not care to make any changes to the current for-profit system.
Because of this, the entire country will continue to suffer the consequences of the pathetic excuse for a health care system that we currently live with in this country.
http://www.thebluebanner.net/new-senator-halts-health-care-reform-1.1089231
Thursday, January 14, 2010
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