Carolina Politics Online

School board member Kaye McGarry says she’ll ask her colleagues to approve excused absences for Charlotte-Mecklenburg students who stay home on the April 25 “National Day of Silence,” held to protest harassment of homosexuals.

The annual event, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, calls attention to name-calling and bullying of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered students. Some students observe the day by remaining mute at school; they may also put tape over their mouths, wear stickers or pass out cards explaining their silence.

So far, the “low-key” protests have been limited to three or four schools, with small numbers of students participating, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Diversity Director José Hernández-Paris.

But he said adults who are pushing a school boycott are likely to make it bigger and more controversial: “It’s one of those things that if you make a big deal out of it, it becomes a big deal.”

McGarry said she doesn’t approve of any political events in schools: “Whether it’s Christian stuff or Muslim stuff or homosexual stuff, it doesn’t matter.” She said she’ll put a motion for excused absences on the board’s April 15 agenda.

The Charlotte Observer

First off I want to point out that a career as being a Diversity Director is not a real job and that Mr. Hernández-Paris, who may very well be a wonderful and decent man, is nonetheless a drain on the wallets of Mecklenburg Taxpayers.

Now that I have that off of my chest, I agree with McGarry halfway. I don’t feel that this event belongs in the schools either because of how controversial the topic is and other than a political science class, schools are not the place for politics.

Where I disagree with McGarry is that these kids should not have to go to school. Nobody is being forced to participate in the event and I think that if you allow an exception for this one instance it opens the door to more special exceptions down the road. Who will be the next group that wants an excused absence due to something else the school participates in that offends them?

This was being talked about on Tara Servatius’s show yesterday and somebody called in and said that if they are going to give these students an excused absence they should have to write a five page paper explaining why. She said if you threw in a requirement like that you would probably have only a handful of students that would follow through. However, I don’t think it’s the student body that is offended as much as it is the parents. The students just see a free day off.

Joanie Winters announced Tuesday she is officially entering the race for the state Senate seat for District 17.

State Sen. Linda Short currently holds this seat but last year announced she would retire at the at the end of the term.

Winters intends to file as a Republican.

“I possess proven leadership abilities, a comprehensive educational background, and an inherent drive for excellence and accomplishment,” Winters said in a release. “Everyone who knows me recognizes that hard work and commitment are a part of my daily routine. I am confident I can understand and address the issues that present the challenges to the District 17 community and the state of South Carolina and effect positive results and solutions to our community.”

The News & Reporter

County leaders may finally begin taking steps to get the voters to approve the 1-cent sales tax they have been talking about for three years to pay for improvements to the county jail.

In 2006, the county was told it had three years to build a jail or face closure.

On Monday night, the council talked behind closed doors about the issue and voted to pursue a 1-cent sales tax to pay for the jail.

County Supervisor Carlisle Roddey said he is not sure what it will cost to get the jail renovated up to standards to get the state off the county’s back, but he said a capital sales project 1-cent tax is the only option the county has.

The News & Reporter

Vote yes for the tax. It’s for a legitimate government function. We need to have jails or bad people steal our cars.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina lawmakers just couldn’t swallow the idea of requiring healthy food in schools.

A legislative proposal to ban greasy pepperoni pizza from school lunch lines and Moon Pies from vending machines appears dead for the year.

A House panel voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to postpone further debate on the measure, saying local school boards should decide what students can buy.

The State

I love how the AP phrases the first sentence as if the legislature should be shamed for not supporting this authoritative bill. Yes, the legislature should be shamed for a great many reasons, but this is not one of them. Their decision to not pass this was sound. This is a local issue.

Parents are more than capable of deciding what their children should and should not eat. Let the parents work with their local school boards to make these decisions. We don’t need elected officials at the state capital raising our children for us.

I would argue that the food they are eating isn’t even as much the problem as is the lack of physical activity today. I am 31 years old. Yeah, we had Super Mario Bros. but I don’t remember kids when I was that age spending dawn till dusk behind the remote control hooked on rescuing Princess Toadstool in world 8-4. We were still fairly athletic outside, at least where I lived. Kids simply aren’t getting the exercise they need any more. Technology is making them fat.

Reyes, who runs a heating-and-air business, doesn’t dispute that these weren’t penny-ante games. He said he and his friends are serious poker players who enjoy playing for real money. But he insists that no one was paid to deal cards and that the house didn’t get a cut. He said the players included a former police officer, a dentist, medical administrators, contractors and others.

Peper said the game that night was unusually large, but the amount of the money involved has been exaggerated. Half of the $40,000 seized that night came from Reyes’ personal safe in his bedroom. Other money was taken from the wallets of the players, he said. “Forty-thousand dollars was not the amount of money that was in play.”

Reyes’ wife, Dawn, said she and her husband never imagined that hosting a card game could one day lead to gun-toting policemen in ski masks barging through the door. Dawn Reyes said officers placed her and her babysitter on the floor, cuffed them with plastic ties and then sat her beside her 5-year-old daughter. She was eventually let go without being charged.

“Why was I treated like someone busted at a crack house?” she asked. “Overkill is the word that comes to mind.”

A visitor that night, 35-year-old Qui Ho, had similar complaints. He and his brother, Quang Ho, went to the home at Reyes’ invitation. Both brothers own nail salons called Regal Nails. It was their first visit to the home and they were interested in seeing some poker.

They were watching a basketball game on television when deputies burst through the door. The brothers thought it was a robbery. Quang Ho was pushed to the ground and hurt his back slightly. They were cuffed with plastic ties that scratched their wrists, and they saw others roughed up as well, Qui Ho said.

The Post and Courier

America, the land of the free? After reading this that ought to tell you what a load of bullshit that is. What were these people doing that was so wrong? Who were they hurting? Were they roughing guys up in the back alley? Were sending dead fishes wrapped in brown paper through the mail? No, they are guilty of getting together with a bunch of people in the neighborhood and playing a game. But, what really threw gasoline on the fire was they decided to throw in some friendly wagers and for that the Charleston Police Department sent in the cavalry.

Now Sheriff Cannon is correct; it is still against the law whether it should be or not and he is tasked with enforcing it. Fine, but does that mean they have to bust in guns a blazin’ like they just nailed Bugsy Siegel?

Why is this even illegal you might ask? Well, there are two reasons for that in my opinion. One, this is South Carolina and we are at the edge of the bible belt and gambling in the eyes of many of the devout Southern Baptists in these parts is the act of the devil. If you don’t like that then pack up and live somewhere else. I don’t know how long dice games have been illegal here. The article says 200 years. That may just be an exaggeration or it could be accurate, but the bottom line it’s one of those old blue laws that probably should be repealed.

The second reason is that the government doesn’t like the competition. They don’t like the fact that these people were getting together on their own and spending their money and Columbia wasn’t getting its piece of it? That’s the biggie, really. Gambling is full of sin and vice until the bureaucrats can cash in on it and those greedy bastards get 50% of the take they can use to buy votes with.

The requested vehicle fee increase would boost the annual levy for registering a car or truck in Durham from $10 to $15. The move would raise an estimated $750,000 for the bus system, which officials would like to expand.

Council interest in raising the fee surfaced last month when administrators reminded members that it’s time to renew a 2004 bargain with the General Assembly that allowed officials to increase the fee to $10.

The fee could roll back to $5 unless legislators extend the deal. The idea of raising it to $15 is new and could prompt fresh bargaining with the members of Durham’s General Assembly delegation.

The Herald Sun

Why are the people who are providing their own transportation footing the bill for people that aren’t? Shouldn’t the riders of DATA support the system they use? In the very least they could have done what Fayetteville did and thrown in an increase in bus fare instead of putting it all on the backs of automobile owners.

Car owners and bus riders will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for improving Fayetteville’s transit system.

At a Monday work session, a majority of the City Council members agreed to raise bus fares for the general ridership to $1.50 and to double the $5-per-vehicle tax now levied on city taxpayers.

The current bus fare is $1.

The council also agreed Monday to raise the $1.50 fare for picking up disabled people at their homes by appointment to $2.50 per trip.

The fare and tax increases combined will generate about $675,000 more each year for the much-maligned Fayetteville Area System of Transit.

The Fayetteville Observer

Raleigh | Just last month, Thomas Wright was the eight-term representative of N.C. House District 18. On Monday, he was a convicted felon, sentenced to six to eight years in prison.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Henry Hight handed down Wright’s sentence a couple of hours after jurors found him guilty on three of the four felony fraud charges he faced.

The jury convicted him of obtaining property by false pretenses by defrauding a bank to lend him $150,000.

The Wilmington Star

And so the sorry saga ends.  It would seem that justice has prevailed.  Wright’s lawyer is still making a fool out of himself, but I wouldn’t expect anything less.