Or at least that’s the take-away from a POLITICO analysis of RNC expenditures under Chairman Michael Steele, which showed spending on everything from chartered private planes and limos to flowers and fancy food shooting through the roof. Hire top-dollar, celeb chef Wolfgang Puck to cater the annual Christmas party? Why not. Move the committee’s annual […]
As usual, Jeff Taylor over at The Meck Deck is ahead of the curve, this time breaking the story about a cool, new local website. It usually takes the uptown paper of record at least a few days to catch up with MeckDeck. Clock’s ticking.
It’s not uncommon for school districts to reward teachers with monetary bonuses for producing positive results in the classroom. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, they might want to consider providing hazard pay. During the most recently completed school year CMS logged a record-setting 169 reported incidents of assault on school personnel, along with myriad other types of […]
As sidewalks go, the city’s retrofit of one that borders a small stretch of Park Road is causing more anguish than the step-on-a-crack, break-your-mother’s-back jingle. First there’s the price, which tops out at a whopping $665,000 for about two blocks of sidewalk along Park Road, between Sunset and Poindexter drives. “The City of Charlotte is […]
A new twist that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools implemented for the 2008-09 school year triggered a sharp decrease in long-term out-of-school suspensions, which tumbled to only 48 from 1,055 the previous year. Short-term out-of-school suspensions, by comparison, increased significantly, totaling 36,211 for the 2008-09 school year, a jump of 5,726. Officials with CMS’ Alternative Education/Safe Schools Department […]
In Iran, they shoot you in the street. In China, they confiscate your computer and toss you in prison. In Charlotte, it’s less extreme but no less insidious. As part of a push to marginalize public dissent during meetings, the city council is apparently tweaking the rules for, ironically, its Citizens’ Forum. At least it […]
It’s pretty obvious from this account of last weekend’s powwow on job creation what local business leaders think needs to be done to kick start the economy: Reduce government bloat and bureaucratic red tape that thwarts private industry and reduce taxes to put more revenue into the hands of businesses to help drive the economy […]
Eyebrows were raised last December when the C.D. Spangler Foundation gave Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman a quarter-million-dollar gift, with the money to be used for Gorman’s “personal growth and development,” or as he saw fit to help the district. Maybe Gorman should use some of the loot to pay for flying lessons. The skill […]
A year ago this week, President Barack Obama put his stamp of approval on the massive $787-billion stimulus bill. To date, about the only thing it’s managed to stimulate is itself, with an official cost estimate ballooning to $862 billion. Meanwhile, some 3 million Americans have lost their jobs and the national unemployment rate, which […]
Superintendent Peter Gorman has his eyes on that pack of gum in your pocket, or maybe that bottle of Yoo-hoo on your desk, and the schools chief has already launched lobbying efforts to wrest them from you. Gorman didn’t come out and directly say as much when he unveiled a series of dire budget forecasts […]
