Hagan ranks 20th in office funds returned

Politico ranked senators based on the amount of their annual authorized budgets returned in the combined fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Hagan ranked 20th out of 95 Senators in returned money. Hagan returned 14.34 percent, or $890,952, of her budget for those two fiscal years.
For more information, see the rankings online.
Hagan is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Congressional Budget Accountability Act, which ensures that unspent funds from Senate office budgets will help pay down the national debt or reduce the deficit.
Hagan said of the bill: “Our nation’s mounting federal debt demands bipartisan solutions, which is why I am cosponsoring the Congressional Budget Accountability Act to ensure our unneeded office funds are used to help pay down our national debt. It is imperative that we work together—and my office staff is trying to do its part—to find commonsense solutions to put our fiscal house in order. On my statewide Budget Listening Tour last summer, North Carolinians told me that they wanted Congress to stop the bickering and get to work on balanced, bipartisan measures to lower the deficit and to help put people back to work.”

UNC-TV's North Carolina now reports on Bowles, Simpson Duke appearance

Former White House Chief of Staff and former University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles and former U.S. Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, co-chairs of the bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, spoke in Page Auditorium at Duke University on Wednesday, Jan. 18. UNC-TV was there to record the event in its entirety, which will be used to produce two special North Carolina Now programs that will be broadcast on UNC-TV Jan. 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m.
The event, "Decision Time: Bowles, Simpson and the Federal Budget," is part of the Sanford School's Terry Sanford Distinguished Lecture series, which brings notable leaders to speak on Duke's campus.
Bowles and Simpson will discuss ideas for reining in the federal budget and restoring confidence in the economy. Philip Bennett, a Duke public policy professor and managing editor of the PBS series FRONTLINE, will moderate the discussion.
President Obama created the budget commission in February 2010 to identify policies to improve the nation's fiscal situation and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run. The commission was to propose recommendations to balance the budget by 2015 and to address the growth of entitlement spending and the gap between projected revenues and expenditures of the federal government.
The bipartisan commission included members from both parties from the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Its recommendations failed to gain sufficient support and have not been implemented. Other federal fiscal reform attempts also have failed, most recently the "super committee."
The event is part of the Sanford School's series, "Gridlock: Can our System Address America's Biggest Problems?"
UNC-TV is North Carolina's statewide public television network.

Town budget raises water/sewer rates, keeps taxes even

The Hillsborough Town Board officially entered budget season at Monday's meeting when Town Manager Eric Peterson released his budget proposal.
Highlights of the proposed budget—water rates would increase by 6 percent each year for the next three years, sewer rates would increase by 8.8 percent each year for the next five years and six positions—one which is currently filled—would be eliminated.
Property taxes would remain even at 62 cents per $100 valuation.
The proposed budget presents $13.5 million in operating expenses—$6.6 million in expenses in the general fund and $6.8 million in expenses in the water and sewer fund. This would be a 17.5 percent increase in the general fund and 9.1 increase in the water and sewer fund from fiscal year 2011.
For more information, see the Wednesday, May 11, edition of the News of Orange.
The next budget meeting is Monday, May 23, at 7 p.m. in the Town Barn. Visit the town website for the full schedule.

school board meeting tonight

The Orange County school board is having a regularly scheduled meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at the Central Office. The agenda can be found here. Superintendent Patrick Rhodes is set to lay out the district's budget situation ahead of a budget public hearing at A.L. Stanback Middle School on Monday, March 21, at 6 p.m. The school board will also be discussing SB8—which deals with charter schools—which Donna Coffey has discussed at length on her blog.

As always, I'll be live-tweeting the meeting over at @NewsofOrange. Follow along with the hashtag #ocsboe.

Obama administration seeks to keep NC teachers working

From the White House:

Obama Administration Presses to Keep North Carolina Teachers Working

WASHINGTON, D.C. – With state and local budget shortfalls threatening the jobs of hundreds of thousands of educators in North Carolina and across the country, the Obama Administration is pressing Congress to approve emergency funding to keep them on the job.

“It is crucial that we keep our teachers in the classroom,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.  “Our teachers are vital to our students’ success, our economy’s success, and our nation’s success.  We must act now to prevent teachers from being laid off and ensure that America’s students have the knowledge and skills to succeed in the 21st century.”

The economic downturn has placed massive strain on state and local budgets.  As education makes up one of the largest single items in state budgets, schools, classrooms, and teacher jobs have been targeted for significant cuts.  Such a massive loss of jobs will impact students through reductions in core class time, overcrowded classrooms, shortened school calendars, cuts to afterschool programming, fewer early childhood opportunities, and reduced access to college counselors and school nurses.

In response, the Obama Administration is pressing Congress to approve $23 billion in emergency support to preserve education jobs across the country.  This funding will keep teachers in the classroom at all levels, including post-secondary, while helping to sustain meaningful and necessary reforms underway in public education.  The President also is urging Congress to approve $1 billion to preserve early childhood education jobs to ensure that young children do not lose services critical to their learning and well-being.

According to provisional estimates by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, this funding will support the jobs of approximately 300,000 educators, including approximately 10,340 in North Carolina.

“As state lawmakers and school districts across the country are finalizing their budgets for the coming year, we must act quickly and responsibly to offer the assistance they need – to keep our teachers teaching, keep our students learning, and keep our economy growing.  Investing in education now will help tens of millions of students become more productive citizens and positively affect America’s long-term fiscal health,” Secretary Duncan said.

coming up!

IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION: • Birkhead to resign April 2. • 'Egg-citing' events and photos from the Burwell School's Easter egg hunt. • Book will stay in high schools. • Local frame shop honored. • Plus, Cameron Park girl beats school record, middle schools students learn about biotechnology at Durham Tech and this week's Educator of the Week and more!

02102010: this week's paper

Well, here's what's in this week's paper:

• FILING BEGINS FOR LOCAL RACES. Filing began Monday for 2010 races. Be sure to check out Robin's sidebar on HPD Chief Clarence Birkhead filing for the county sheriff's race.
• 12TH ANNUAL ORANGE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SUMMIT. This year's Ag Summit had some interesting speakers.
• TOWN SETS GOALS FOR BUDGET. Replacing vehicles and giving merit raises are at the top of the  Hillsborough Town Council's list.
• DTCC NAMES NEW DIRECTOR. Carlo Ribustelli began work as the Durham Tech Orange Count Campus' new director Feb. 1. He replaced Dina Logan, who resigned last year.

Don't miss our sports content, Educator of the Week and C.W. Stanford students learning about HIV/AIDS.

welcome, 2010

Who can believe it's 2010 already? It seems not too long ago, we were all waiting for something horrible to happen with Y2K. That year, like this one, changed over pretty smoothly.

As for what I'll have this week, that's a bit up in the air, but I've talked to some teachers for our feature Educator of the Week (though I might hold that until I get an Ed page back!), one who has retired after nearly 40 years, a school opening, library preview and the list goes on!

Above, there's a preview of the school's new campus' art room. Read this week's paper for more!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

what's next?

So, because of school closings in advance of today's winter weather, what I've got for this week is kind of up in the air; two of the four events/interviews I had planned have been canceled, while I'm not sure about the third and the fourth went on without a hitch.

But, I should have some school pictures, teacher recognition, Santa, chocolates and Educator of the Week.

So stay tuned!

upcoming

Man. Learning Gregg shorthand sure isn't easy, but I think it will make me a faster — and most importantly — a super accurate notetaker if/when I master it.

But, in the meantime, here's some of what I've got coming up this week:
• I talked to someone at Orange High School for the newly-restarted Educator of the Week feature. If you've got someone you think is doing great things for students, drop me a line at v.shortley (at) newsoforange.com.
• The Little School is having an open house this weekend, and I'll be there.
• Hands for Habitat is having their first community build this weekend, and I'll be there for that, too. Hopefully, the weather is better than today!
• I'll be at the BOCC meeting with the Waste Transfer Station siting on the agenda. If for some reason the date on that gets changed, I'll be at my regularly-scheduled BOE meeting instead. This will only be the second one I've missed in the 1 + years I've been here.

I've got other features and photo ops in the pipeline, but as always, let me know what's going on at the schools! Call me up at 732-2171 or send me an e-mail to v.shortley (at) newsoforange.com.

next week

As Josh mentioned, I voted yesterday at the Board of Elections. Being the 65th person to drop in a ballot was a little bit sad. I know Hillsborough's race may not necessarily be as exciting as a presidential election, but it's still important. Alright, I'll come down off my soapbox, but I do hope everyone goes out and votes.

It was nice having part of the Education Page be in colour this week; I don't think it's happened before in the year I've been here, so it was great to be able to show off some of the colourful photos I took and received. Big thanks to the Central PTSA for providing me with some really lovely photos of the fire safety presentation by Billy Nicholson, too. If you've got photos you'd like to see in the paper, by all means, e-mail them to me or drop them off at our office on King Street.

Anyway, this upcoming week is a bit up in the air for what I'll have, but here's what I'm working on:

• Halloween event photos from Friday;

• Maybe an Educator of the Week, if I can get a good enough backlog going. (On that note, if you know someone who's doing a great job in area schools, let me know!)

• A social-ish piece on a local water walking class;

• I'm going to next week's Board of Education meeting;

• And a few other things, like FEMMES, awards and a local company whose toy invention is taking off.

If you've got anything else, drop me a line at v(dot)shortley(at)newsoforange(dot)com or give me a shout at 732-2171.

what's next?

Here's some stuff that's coming up for next week's paper:

• I talked with the directors of the Little School, who gave me a tour around their new campus.

• Middle schools are now engaging in clubs — one of them, with a literacy twist.

• The eco classroom is making some great progress.

• I'll be at the Board of Education meeting Monday.

• A local bus driver was nominated by a 5-year-old who rides his bus for an award.

• Something interesting from Durham Tech.

• And some photo ops from local elementary and middle schools.

That's what I've got for now. As always, let me know if anything interesting is going on in any area schools, not just the county schools.

coming up this week

Here's what I've got on my plate and what you can expect to see (more or less) in this week's paper from moi:
• The McKee CornField Maze is up and running. I'll have a feature on this perennial local favourite.
• An EcoEternity forest is opening up at Camp Chestnut Ridge. Don't know what that is? Find out next week.
• The middle schools have started organizing clubs this year, and A.L. Stanback's selection is literacy-based.
• I participated and photographer International Walk to School Day (as mentioned in a previous post).

There's a few other things I'm working on, but we'll see if they pan out for this week.

I'm also trying to resurrect the Educator of the Week feature, and I would love nominations from the public. Is there a teacher in your child's school that is especially talented? A media assistant or assistant principal that deserves recognition? What about a teacher assistant or custodian? Let me know! Drop me a line at v (dot) shortley (at) newsoforange (dot) com or give me a ring at 732-2171.

This week

So, last night I walked across the street to the Hillsborough town board candidate forum, put together by the Orange-Chatham Group of the Sierra Club, only to find 20 people huddled in front of the Old Courthouse as a light rain fell.

Apparently, the courthouse was booked for the night, but nobody in attendance — town or county officials included — had a key. They discussed new locations, including our office, but as anyone who has been here can tell you, we can't fit 20 people comfortably in our conference area. Eventually we all moved to the Town Barn, but it was an odd scene to begin a candidate forum.

The three candidates — Frances Dancy, Michael Gering and Bryant Warren, running for two seats — answered a variety of questions on sustainable development, walkability and the rural buffer, among others. It appeared they were well-prepared for the questions, and their answers indicated they pretty much agreed with one another on most major points. I'll have something small recapping it next week. I've saved my questions for one-on-one interviews in the coming weeks. Your questions are welcome as well. Comment on the blog or send me an e-mail at josh(dot)kastrinsky(at)newsoforange(dot)com.

Also coming from me this week:

• An 11th-hour vote will keep the Bradshaw Quarry Solid Waste Convenience Center open through at least December. It will cost the county $5,000 per month in non-budgeted expenses. Read more about what it means next week.

• From last week's loaded town board agenda (the density of which, in paper form, is somewhere between sheet rock and a concrete block) are several items — town employee awards, the annual citizen survey and a discussion of the town's event policy (which has been discussed before).

• I'll have something about the downtown parking study, an art program feeding supplies to the schools and county buildings on the block.

• We'll have sports coverage, most prominently of the Orange/Cedar Ridge football game (we can no longer use some variation of "Schock-er" in the headline).

• Also, find out what's in store for the final Last Fridays of the season. Hopefully, it stops raining by then.

As always, contact me at the above-listed e-mail with what's going on in the county.

what's next?

So, I've got a few things coming up this week, and this paper is shaping up to be a good one.

• I talked to a local reverend who has a prison ministry.
• The "eco" classroom group at C.W. Stanford has another meeting (hopefully, indoors!).
• A teacher at one of our elementary schools plants a garden each year; now, it's ready for harvest.
• The Board of Education meets this Monday.

And a few other odds and ends.

As always, send me your events, pictures and anything else you've got that has to do with the schools to v (dot) shortley (at) newsoforange (dot) com.

so much for the summer slump

Well, I've got a few things coming up this week, including some that may or may not materialize, depending on how people respond.

Here are some of them:

• Two elementary schools used federal stimulus funds to rehire two teachers that would have been lost to budget cuts.

• Communities in Schools is hosting a banquet Friday. I'll be there covering that event.

• Central's PTSA will be out Saturday working on what their Lowe's grant money purchased.

• There may be a follow to the OMM v. BOE case.

• The student-created drawing for the upcoming OHS Project House has been chosen.

• A local group seeks to raise money for the people of Darfur, something that's been swept aside lately in mainstream media coverage in the frenzy over Michael Jackson's funeral and, to a lesser extent, coverage of the G8 summit in Italy and continuing turmoil in Iran. (Sorry for the tangent.)

• A few other stories are in the works, depending on my ability to get in touch with people.

As always, if you know of anything going on, feel free to comment here or shoot me an e-mail at v (dot) shortley (at) newsoforange (dot) com.

What's coming

UPDATE: The discussion regarding the moratorium will actually be at the joint town board/planning board meeting on Thursday, July 16 (7 p.m., Town Barn).

As I mentioned a week or so back on this blog, there's no shortage of things to keep us busy. Here's an abbreviated list of what I expect to have for next week's paper:

• Orange football coach Dickie Schock's departure from the high school leaves them without a football coach, just as schedules are coming out. We'll try to have more about who will fill the position.

• I'll have a feature story on what is going on down at the West End business district, which is yet another chapter in the potential rise of West Hillsborough as a future "Downtown West." No, that's not the name of a new development.

• The Hillsborough Police Department has shifted some of its community-based resources back into patrol. We'll have some insight as to what this means for residents.

• The Jason and Jessie Jam III, an event honoring the late Jason and Jessica Evans, takes place in a few weeks. Learn more about how their parents are working year-round to raise funds for the community.

• We'll have a brief artist feature or two at local galleries.

• Monday's town board meeting agenda isn't up yet, but the word is the potential development moratorium could cause some friction with the local business community. Read the second section of this story for a little more information.

• I'll be taking pictures at 3-4 events on Saturday.

• Someone else might file for office. If so, we'll have more on that. Otherwise, there will be an empty town board seat.

Oh, and Vanessa has 5-6 things, too.

Side note: Please vote in our poll on the left side of the main page at www.newsoforange.com. I'm really curious how people feel about solving the budget gap. Right now, votes are pretty much split down the middle.

What's coming

Usually we start to hit a slower few weeks after the budget is passed and before schools are back in session. That does not seem as likely this year, though we do hope to share some interesting feature stories in the next few months. We just have so many ongoing stories — things we have been trying to keep tabs on but don't really have set dates attached to them — that our plates are largely full.

To wit, we'll have updates next week on the UNC hospital plans (we have more details), Fairview Park (a bid to build starting later this summer came in lower than many people expected, meaning more at the park) and the Elizabeth Brady Road bypass proposal (now going on 40 years old). The Brady Road story mght wait a week, because we also have more on the waste transfer station site search, both town and county board happenings, information on some neat camps and oh, yeah, that Hog Day thing.

That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what I'll be looking into over the next few weeks: Some things you won't be seeing because of budget cutbacks, some things that will change in the next fiscal year and a few development/revitalization efforts on which I will, for now, withhold information.

Suffice it to say, there is a lot to explore this summer. If I'm missing anything from my "story radar" in northern Orange County — Vanessa has her own list, too — let me know.

Tonight's county budget meeting

The Orange County Commissioners will meet again tonight to settle on an FY10 budget (Complete agenda here). On tap are some final decisions on issues dominating previous meetings, including libraries and the Carrboro High School arts wing.
Based on comments at previous meetings, commissioners intend to keep all library branches open but to limit the number of hours the Hillsborough branch remains open (54 hours per week). According to tonight's background material, the cost of keeping all of the branches open under this plan is $1,567,542, almost $437,000 more than was originally recommended. Tonight, commissioners and staff will discuss a funding plan to cover increased costs.
Commissioners also committed to building the high school arts wing, though no money needs to budgeted in the upcoming fiscal year.
Also, solid waste convenience center hours will be discussed, as will various collection schedules. We'll have more tomorrow, and of course, more in next week's paper.

Mistake in print and next week

Last week, I mindlessly inserted "Cedar Ridge" into a breakout box on track state qualifiers where there should not have been one. This week, trying to finish the paper to run out the door to a town budget meeting (I was the audience; who's jealous?), I made some page edits that actually cut off one line of a photo caption and kept an incorrect spelling. The story? It was about track.

I have nothing against the track programs, however consecutive sloppy edits might make it look so. Please consider this a mea culpa.

This week
Now that the Web site is up (mostly, because we can't get the PDF to change over), it's officially next week, in which last week's positives and negatives are pretty much a moot point. Here's some things I know of so far:

• The residents in the Colonial Park Water Association will be able to have connections to town water subsidized. Last fall, we reported on well contaminations in the community, and I'll have a follow-up next week.

• The public hearing on the town budget is at 7 p.m. Thursday, and I'll have a story next week with budget facts and figures. There are some gems in the 400-page document, but I'll try not to bore you too much. Once I can confirm this, I'll let you know about the town paying copyright fees for music it doesn't actually use (board members actually brought this up Tuesday night).
UPDATE: The town has budgeted $625 for copyright contracts with ASCAP and BMI fees, something town staff said many towns in the state are advised to do to prevent a lawsuit. This covers any songs played at town events, in town offices or over the phones when people are holding on town services. What songs would you like to hear playing, if the town is already paying for them?

• I'll be taking pictures at Last Friday, and hopefully we'll be able to publish contest winners and goings-on in next week's edition. Our papers (at least my copy) are a little darker than I would have hoped they'd be.

There will be more ... Thanks for reading.