Triad Today

Thanks to Judge Beryl Howell, we now know more about what was in the FBI search warrant served on Senator Richard Burr than we knew one year ago. That’s because on August 29, Howell ordered the Justice Department to release a less-redacted version of FBI agent Brandon Merriman’s warrant which allowed the agency to seize Burr’s cellphone. And what did Agent Merriman conclude after examining Burr’s phone and reviewing other information associated with the stock trade investigation? This statement was in his report: 

“I believe probable cause exists that Senator Burr used material, non-public information regarding the impact that COVID-19 would have on the economy, and that he gained that information by virtue of his position as a member of Congress.”

So why in heaven’s name wasn’t Burr formally charged with insider trading? Because federal investigators chose to accept Burr’s lame (and multiple) explanations of his sudden wealth. Burr’s initial statement in March of 2020 was that his decision to suddenly dump stocks was based on “CNBC’s daily health and science reporting out of its Asia bureaus.” But later when the FBI questioned him, Burr changed his story. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, we now know about his revised tale from the newly unredacted search warrant.

“Senator Burr explained that he was uncomfortable with a lot of things in the market…Burr discussed the fact that there has been a long bull market and that it was due for a correction…he also said that the surge of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic party’s nomination process was a risk to the market.” 

So, I guess Richard Burr had a crystal ball that no one else had, AND he was afraid that his investments would be devalued if Bernie Sanders snagged the Democratic nomination. Or maybe he just happened to watch CNBC’s Asian-based reporters after receiving classified briefings on COVID. If you believe any of that, then I have some swamp land I’d like to sell you. A simple review of the timeline suggests that Merriman’s conclusion about Burr’s stock trades is right on the money (pardon the expression). 

In January 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci briefed Burr about the seriousness of the spreading COVID-19 virus. Then, according to Reuters, three days later Burr, as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, began receiving daily COVID updates, and on January 31, he received a series of voicemails and text messages, which the Journal reported came from “an individual whose identity remains redacted.” Four hours later Burr, his wife, and her brother began to sell off stocks. During one eleven-minute period on February 13, the Burrs engaged in a flurry of stock trades which, by some estimates, netted them over a million dollars. Many of the stocks Burr unloaded were from the hospitality industry which he knew from private briefings would likely tank in a pandemic. It is important to note that just four hours after the Burrs completed their trading, U.S. Secretary of Health Alex Azar declared a national public health emergency because of COVID.     

Burr’s suspicious stock trades should come as no surprise to us. In fact, we should have known this was coming as far back as 2012 when he was one of only two senators who voted against the Stock Act. That act makes it illegal for any member of Congress to profit financially from proprietary information. Nevertheless, violations of the Stock Act are difficult to prove, as we have learned from Burr’s pandemic plunder. Richard Burr’s propensity for meteoric wealth building is also nothing new. Based on a report from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, when Burr entered Congress in 1994 his net worth was under $190,000. But, according to OpenSecrets.org, by 2018 Burr was worth over $7.4 million dollars. That’s an increase of 3,600 percent at a time when the income of average Americans rose by less than one percent. 

Over the years there have been proposals to augment the Stock Act. Elizabeth Warren, for example, has lobbied unsuccessfully to ban legislators from even trading stocks while in office. And earlier this year, a number of Democratic congressmen and senators attempted in vain to pass legislation that would have required their colleagues to put their portfolios in a blind trust. But if guys like Burr can slither out of violating the Stock Act, then they could do the same with any subsequent laws.

I can’t help but think of Martha Stewart, who in 2001, made a stock trade based on information from her broker’s assistant that the price of ImClone shares would probably decline because its CEO was about to retire. Martha dumped her ImClone stocks in order to avoid a loss that would have amounted to $45,000. For that, Stewart was convicted of obstruction, spent five months in federal prison, was given two years of supervised release, and had to wear an ankle monitor for five months. Moreover, her transactions had no bearing on the health of millions of Americans. The recently unredacted FBI warrants on Richard Burr is a hollow victory for transparency because the soon-to-be-retired Senator wasn’t held to account for the fortune he allegedly made from insider trading. Martha Stewart must be wondering why.
 
 

Last month, President Biden announced his plan to forgive a portion of student loan debt, and offer relief for some 45 million borrowers, over one million of who reside in North Carolina. Here’s how it works: If you took out a federal student loan, and you earn less than $125,000 per year (or less than $250,000 as a married couple), you could be eligible to have 10% of your debt forgiven. If you have a student loan and also received a Pell Grant through the Department of Education, you could get up to $20,000 of your debt forgiven (note that according to the White House, nearly all Pell Grant recipients come from families who earn less than $60,000 per year). It is an admirable initiative to be sure, but one that is fraught with questions about its legality, political motives, economic viability, and fairness.

FAIRNESS

First of all, is Biden’s plan fair? Right-winger Reed Rubinstein, director of oversight and investigations for the America First Legal Foundation told TIME, “This is such a slap in the face to everybody who did what they were supposed to do.” Translation? Millions of students honored the terms of their loans and worked hard to pay them back, and they are not eligible for one red cent of relief. “It’s also not fair to the untold number of Americans who never went to college,” said Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Network. Moreover, if you took out a private loan, the Biden plan won’t help you either. One could also argue that it’s not fair to all of us taxpayers who expected to be repaid with interest for every dollar we loaned these students. Speaking of taxpayers, the student loan forgiveness program has one catch: recipients of relief must count the amount of debt forgiven as personal income. That means about 27 million low-income students could be on the hook to pay taxes on $20,000 of income. It doesn’t seem fair, but it’s a harsh reality and one that was best explained in a classic scene from Leave it to Beaver.

Beaver: So Wally, you’re really gonna make $10 a day?
Wally: Sure, and they’re gonna take withholding out of it.
Beaver: What’s withholding?
Wally: That’s money they take out of your salary to run the government with.
Beaver: Gee, I didn’t know they took money away from kids to run the government.
Wally: Sure, even if you’re a little baby and you have some money, they’ll come and take it away from you.

POLITICAL MOTIVES

In 2020, Joe Biden campaigned on how we needed to help students saddled with college debt. At that time, education debt topped $1.7 trillion dollars. But while debt was high, talk was cheap. During his first week in office, the President signed a record number of executive orders about everything but, you guessed it, student debt. Biden, who had spent most of his adult life in and around the Capitol, hinted that he needed Congressional support to enact a meaningful student debt forgiveness program, so he did nothing for two years. Then suddenly a little more than two months before the midterm elections, he announced his bold plan. There’s nothing like coming to the rescue of 40 million voters to motivate a politician.

ECONOMIC VIABILITY

Not everyone is a fan of Biden’s rescue plan for students. Alfredo Ortiz commented to TIME that, “A student loan bailout will further exacerbate inflation, increase the deficit, and lead to higher taxes.”

It begs the question, should Biden’s program be put on hold until inflation is under control? The answer would seem to be yes.

LEGALITY

President Biden is relying on the 2003 HEROES Act for the legal authority to launch his student loan forgiveness program. The Act gives the Secretary of Education authority to “change student financial assistance programs during a war or national emergency.” In this case, Biden claims the pandemic and its aftermath qualify as a national emergency. But critics like Third Way’s Vice President Lanae Erickson disagree. “It’s on shaky legal ground,” he told TIME’s Brian Bennett. 

Biden’s program is supposed to start in January, but anyone expecting to receive loan relief then may be disappointed if legal challenges ensue. Nevertheless, regardless of the pitfalls, controversies, and potential delays associated with Biden’s loan forgiveness program, the White House recommends that qualified borrowers visit www.StudentAid.gov/debtrelief to apply. Or, if you’re skeptical you can visit its companion website, www.ImFromTheGovtAndImHereToHelp.com.

Lawyers and police officers are supposed to know, enforce, and obey the laws. Here in North Carolina, Attorney General Josh Stein is both the state’s top cop and top lawyer, therefore, he, more than anyone, should be held accountable if he breaks the law. Instead, Stein is now trying to slither out of prosecution by arguing that the law he broke is unconstitutional. And it’s not a brand new law that he was unaware of. It is a state law that dates back to 1931. So why is Stein just now trying to get it changed? BECAUSE HE BROKE IT! That’s why.

The saga began in 2020 when Stein was running against long-time Forsyth County district attorney Jim O’Neill. That year, one of the hot campaign issues was the backlog of unprocessed rape kits on the local and state levels. Both sides exploited the issue for political purposes, but Stein crossed the line with a TV ad that accused O’Neill’s office of having “left 1,500 rape kits sitting on the shelf,” the implication being that O’Neill’s failure to test those rape kits in a timely manner allowed rapists to roam free and rape more victims. O’Neill claimed that Stein broke a 1931 law that “makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly circulate false, derogatory reports about a candidate with the intent of hurting that candidate’s chances in the election” (source AP). Violators of the law would pay a fine and could spend up to 60 days in jail. 

Not surprisingly, a Wake County grand jury recently found that Stein should be indicted. But the very next day, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2 to 1, to override the grand jury, essentially preventing the law from being enforced until Stein’s team had time to try and prove that the law as written is unconstitutional. The panel is comprised of two Democratic judges and one Republican judge. The two Democrats sided with Stein, who is also a Democrat. So much for justice being blind. In their ruling, the two Democrat judges said that Stein’s TV ad was protected as free speech, thus his challenge to the 1931 law would likely succeed. Their decision will have the effect of running out the clock on O’Neill’s team because the statute of limitations expires next year.

In her dissenting opinion, the lone Republican judge on the panel wrote, “Stein’s campaign, the ad production company, and the woman who appeared in the ad, haven’t shown they are entitled to this extraordinary relief…the State will forever lose its opportunity to enforce the law if the grand jury proceedings are stopped.”

Clearly the dissenting judge doesn’t believe that free speech under the First Amendment protects lying and defaming, and I agree. But the sad truth is if we start enforcing the 1931 law every time a candidate lies in an ad, then the jails would be overflowing with politicians.

And so, boys and girls, the civics lesson we can all take from this story is very clear. The next time the police stop you for driving 80 mph in a 35 mph zone, just tell the judge he can’t fine you or take away your license because you and your attorneys are working to have the speed limit changed to 85 mph. Tell him Josh Stein said it’s OK.

In the summer of 1970, I was the public address announcer for Ernie Shore Field. It was a dream job for a high school kid who loved baseball because I got to be around and get to know all of the players on what was then the Winston-Salem Red Sox. That year the Sox won the Carolina League championship, and during every home game, I occupied a seat in the press box next to the legendary sports journalist Frank Spencer. Actually, it wasn’t much of a press box. What it was, was a small, rickety wooden shack that sat atop the stadium, and legend has it that sometime after my tenure, a strong wind blew the shack off its perch, and onto the ground below. Years later the Sox became the DASH and moved into a new stadium overlooking I-40. Ernie Shore Field, meanwhile, was renovated and became the home of Wake Forest University baseball. I mention all of this because I know a little something about why stadiums sometimes need to be upgraded, and because last week we learned that Major League Baseball (MLB) gave the DASH an ultimatum: either spend $5 million dollars to renovate Truist Field or else lose the franchise.

Keep in mind that, unlike Ernie Shore Field, which was built in the dark ages, the new DASH stadium didn’t open until 2010, so there’s no rickety press shack to replace. In fact, the twelve-year-old facility is in great shape, but MLB likes to throw its weight around these days, and given the number of minor league teams it has already closed down, the City of Winston-Salem has no choice but to comply.

So exactly what improvements is MLB demanding to be made? For one, the league wants clubhouse areas to be renovated for both home and visiting teams. The Winston-Salem Journal also reports that MLB wants improvements made to laundry and commissary areas, plus private locker rooms for female staff, coaches and umpires. They also want a second hitting and pitching tunnel that is protected from the elements, along with changes to the field, including adjusting the bullpen mounds, and a higher wall in the right field corner. No doubt the improvements will be a welcome sight to players and coaches, and they will increase the value of the stadium. But the improvements are not essential, nor will they enhance the fan experience. Speaking of fans, they’re the ones paying for the renovation, and that leads me to an insulting sticking point about this saga.

The $5 million dollars worth of upgrades to Truist stadium are being paid for through limited obligation bonds, which means the expenditure doesn’t have to be approved by voters. So much for democracy and transparency. And this isn’t the first time local taxpayers have been railroaded because of the same baseball park. Years ago, residents got stuck with paying $48 million dollars for construction of the stadium after private developers walked away from the project before it was completed. In a perfect world, the DASH stadium should have been built with private money, as was the beautiful Greensboro Grasshopper’s facility. In a perfect world, residents of Winston-Salem should have had a say about cost overruns and projected renovations from the get-go. But we don’t live in a perfect world. We live in a world where a greedy baseball league can bully, threaten, and extort our elected officials, and where residents have to pony up another cut of their meager wages, or else face having to maintain a vacated facility.

Fifty-two years ago, Winston-Salem’s minor league baseball team played in a well-worn stadium with smelly old locker rooms and no fancy area for pitchers to warm up in. And 52 years ago, I announced the proceedings from inside a rickety wooden press shack that teetered high atop the stands. Yet somehow a record number of fans attended our games, and the team brought home a championship trophy. Major League Baseball didn’t threaten us back then, and nobody worried about obligation bonds. Now as then, baseball owners depend upon cities like Winston-Salem to nurture future stars that will help keep big league coffers overflowing. In that sense, we’re more important to their bottom line than they are to ours. It’s something to think about the next time we receive an ultimatum from a bunch of rich guys.

Acting can be dangerous. Just ask Clu Gulager:

“I played the Mouse King in third grade, and this girl named Marian Bebb threw a shoe at me and killed me.”

It’s no wonder young Clu put his acting career on hold for a while. Who wouldn’t, after being killed by a flying shoe? Still, the work he did during his formative years was no picnic either, but at least it prepared him for some of the roles he would play later on.

“I was a cowboy in Oklahoma, where we raised white-face cattle. I used to have to ride the fences, and in winter it was really cold. When I saw a break in the fence, I had to get down off of my pony with some wire and fix that break. The thing I’m most proud of in my whole life is that, on my watch, not one white face got away.”

And while Clu spent most of his time doing cowboy chores, he was also influenced by his father’s many talents as a cowboy performer in Vaudeville and on Broadway. The elder Gulager was particularly known for his mastery of rope tricks, something he had in common with a famous relative.

“My father grew up in Indian Territory with his cousin Will Rogers. They were both very adept at trick roping. According to my aunt, Will would spend hours and hours down by the barn practicing with the ropes. He always wanted to improve. But my uncle once told me, ‘Your Dad was better than Will at twirling ropes!’”

Inspired by his father’s showmanship, and armed with a fierce work ethic, Clu struck out on his own, and paid his dues as a thespian by appearing on stage, as well as in a number of live television dramas. He soon signed as a contract player with Universal Studios where he appeared in everything from mystery series to crime shows. But the Oklahoma ranch hand also found himself working on TV westerns, which led to his being offered the starring role of Billy the Kid on NBC’s The Tall Man.  

“My agent and I sat in the car for about three hours deciding whether or not to wait for movies, or take The Tall Man series. I had a wife and little boy to support, so I took the TV show, and I’ve never regretted it.”

But Gulager, who studied the Stanislavski Method, was as serious about his acting as he had been about his ranching, and the shooting schedule of make-believe westerns was frustrating to the young star.

“Artists pride ourselves on taking our time to find things in the words. But that didn’t happen on TV. The networks wanted those shows yesterday, so we had to really speed along, and couldn’t even rehearse. We shot each episode of The Tall Man in two and a half days.”

The Tall Man was canceled after two seasons, but not because of hectic schedules or low ratings. Instead, Clu told me it was politics and politicians who killed Billy the Kid.

“Congress debated the fact that Billy the Kid was a killer, and that I was playing him as a hero on television, which wasn’t good for our children. So they pressured NBC to take The Tall Man off the air. Of course, Congress let ABC keep The Untouchables, and our show wasn’t one-eighth as violent as that show.” 

Soon after the cancellation of The Tall Man, Gulager signed up to play a recurring role on The Virginian until 1968, then spent the next three decades as a highly sought-after guest star for scores of TV dramas such as Murder She Wrote, Hawaii Five-O, and The Streets of San Francisco. A career highlight was landing the role of the town lothario in Peter Bogdanovich’s film, The Last Picture Show. The co-star he was supposed to seduce was a young model named Cybill Shepherd. 

“One day, Peter wanted to stand in for me during Cybill’s close-ups, and my heart sank. I thought I was just a bad actor, and that Peter didn’t want me feeding Cybill her lines. I didn’t realize Peter and Cybill had fallen in love. Much later, I was told that Peter had actually wanted to play my part, but the casting director wanted me, and Peter eventually agreed.

I first met Clu Gulager in 2013 at the Western Film Festival, and we stayed in touch periodically after that. Sadly, Clu passed away on August 5 at the age of 93. Gulager’s acting career lasted nearly 70 years, yet he managed to re-invent himself for each new generation of fans. Us old folks remember Clu for his work in Westerns while younger audiences know him for his appearances in horror films like Return of the Living Dead and Piranha 3DD, proving two things: a real artist can master any genre; and, anyone who can survive a shoe attack can survive a piranha attack. 

RIP, cowboy.

(You can view my 2013 interview with Clu by visiting my Celebrity Interviews page at www.jimlongworth.com.)

Most of us have a special place in our home where we display pictures of our family. For me that special place is a credenza that features framed photos of my wife Pam, my sister, our parents, and my two make-believe brothers, Tony Dow and Jerry Mathers.

From 1957 to 1963, Jerry and Tony played brothers Theodore and Wally Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver, a sitcom about the adventures of two siblings growing up in middle America. In later years, some revisionist media pundits would criticize the show as having painted an unrealistically positive picture of family life, but to millions of boys growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s, the Cleaver household was a great place to visit every week.

This fall, Leave it to Beaver will celebrate its 65th anniversary, and it’s also the anniversary of when Jerry and Tony’s lifelong friendship began. Jerry told me that despite their age difference, “We became friends right off the bat. Between takes, Tony would always toss football or throw baseball with me.” The two boys had also come from different backgrounds. Unlike his “brother” Jerry Mathers, who had been a child actor long before Leave it to Beaver, Tony had been a junior Olympic diving champion with absolutely no desire to be on camera. Once cast as Wally, though, Tony became one of TV’s first teenage heartthrobs. Yet despite all the fame and adulation that the show brought him, Tony remained a reluctant star with a non-existent ego.

After the show ended, both men continued acting, but Tony preferred to make his mark behind and away from the cameras, first as a director, then as a master sculptor, the latter giving him an escape from his earlier bouts of depression. Tony’s burl wood sculptures are world famous, and one of them was even displayed in the Louvre. Pam and I were fortunate enough to attend one of his one-man shows, and later visit with him and his lovely wife Lauren at their home in Topanga. We stayed in touch over the years by phone and email, and one of my favorite correspondences is a photo of Tony, Lauren, and their dog Brodie, with a note that said, “Hello Pam and Jim. We loved getting to know you and hope our paths cross again in the future.” Unfortunately, the future wasn’t as long as I had hoped it would be. During the pandemic, Tony fought off both pneumonia and liver cancer. The latter took him from us on July 27. Tony Dow was 77.

I first met Tony and Jerry back in May of 2008 when I was asked to produce and moderate A Mothers Day Salute to TV Moms for the Television Academy in North Hollywood. Barbara Billingsley, who played the boys’ mother on Leave it to Beaver, was scheduled to be on the panel with other iconic TV Moms, but she was hospitalized just prior to the event, and was unable to attend. That’s when I invited Jerry and Tony to attend on her behalf, and say a few words about what Barbara meant to them. Keep in mind that, prior to my introducing the Cleaver boys, the stage was already filled with dozens of A-list stars, including Cloris Leachman and Diahann Carroll, each of whom had received an enthusiastic welcome from the capacity crowd. But in all my years of producing and moderating special events, I’ve never witnessed a bigger standing ovation than the one that Tony and Jerry received when I brought them up on stage. I guess it wasn’t just me who had wanted to be their make-believe brother.

The following year during our visit to the Dows’ home, Pam and I were first struck by the natural beauty of their hide-away estate. It is a garden spot surrounded by the hills of Topanga Canyon, where Tony would hunt for pieces of burl wood, which he formed into bronze masterpieces at his workshop. Inside the house, we were treated to lunch and a front-row seat to one of Hollywood’s great romances, which began 42 years ago. Tony and Lauren’s love for each other was real and deep, and everlasting. The day after Tony died, Lauren told me, “It’s hard to lose your best friend.” 

Not surprisingly, during their four decades together, Tony preferred spending time at home with Lauren to the glitz of Hollywood red carpets, so I was particularly excited when he let me coax him into appearing on stage that special night in 2008. Honestly, though, I don’t think Tony appreciated what he meant to millions of people, and he seemed genuinely surprised by the grand ovation that he and Jerry received at the TV Moms event. I wasn’t surprised, though. That’s just the kind of humble guy my make-believe big brother was, and I miss him. Gee Wally, why’d you have to go and leave us so soon?

“Legacy” is an overused word. A great athlete, for example, may claim that hitting lots of home runs is his legacy. The founder of a business is said to be leaving a legacy to his children when they succeed him. Kids whose parents graduated from an Ivy League University are automatically accepted in those elite schools because they are “legacy” students. But I believe the true meaning of the word has more to do with selflessness than with entitlement. That’s why when I look in the dictionary under the word “legacy”, there’s a picture of my friend Bob Shackleford.

Bob recently stepped down as president of Randolph Community College after serving in that position for 15 years, but he has been in education for most of his life. His journey to Asheboro included earning degrees in everything from secondary education to a Ph.D. in human development, and a Master of Divinity. He has been a teacher and a military chaplain, and along the way, he’s chaired everything from United Way campaigns to Economic Development Corporations. Yet, as impressive as Bob’s resume is, his accomplishments while serving as RCC President are even more so.

He built a state-of-the-art Allied Health Center, created a computer-integrated machining institute, expanded the welding center, nurtured a world-class photography department, negotiated an agricultural exchange program with an eastern NC university, created a student emergency fund, kept an apprenticeship program thriving even during the pandemic, and he started a student assistance program that helped to break down barriers to succeeding in college. “Most of the problems we deal with students are not academic. They wrestle with life, whether it’s taking care of children or an elderly parent, or dealing with health problems like depression or substance abuse. What we can do as a College is to help them”, said Bob. 

And, helping students succeed is at the heart of Bob’s legacy, as he told me during a conversation we had on Triad Todayearlier this year.

Jim: Why did you go into the education field?

Bob: Well Jim I grew up very poor. My family and I lived in a little trailer and moved around because of my Dad’s work, and I didn’t have a prayer. I didn’t know what I wanted to be or ever could be. And my Mom told me, “If you get your education and work hard, you can be anything you want to be.” I got my education, I’ve lived my dream, and I’m passing along the gift she gave to me to other students who are where I was.

Jim: It would take us a few hours to list all your accomplishments, but let’s talk about a couple of them, starting with your role as one of the driving forces behind the development of the Guilford/Randolph mega site. That’s paying off now with the Toyota battery plant coming in. What’s the economic impact of that project?

Bob: It’s going to be profound in the whole region and the whole State. They’re investing $1.3 billion dollars. They’re going to create over 1,700 jobs, with a salary of over $65,000. In phase two, they’ll invest another couple of billion dollars, and create thousands more jobs. Overall, the impact will be new housing developments, new schools, new churches, and new communities. And when it’s all said and done with all the new supply companies coming in, it will bring in about 15,000 new jobs.

And, it’s a tribute to Bob that he was on the front end of bringing those new jobs to the region, while on the back end he’ll be providing training for the folks who need those jobs. Speaking of training, Bob has been proactive in adapting and developing courses that will prepare students to meet the needs of area industry. That commitment is evident in RCC’s new Allied Health Center which is named for Shackleford.

Jim:  Why was the new center needed and how will it benefit students?

Bob: Well, the original center was just a nursing building. But we’ve added so many health programs since then that they were scattered all over the campus. We now have a state-of-the-art, high-tech allied health center with a simulated hospital, and it’s going to create jobs that are going to stay right here in the Triad. It’s supplying the need for nurses, radiographers, all kinds of health-related jobs that are not going to be transported overseas, they’re right here, well-paying jobs right here in the community.

Jim: What’s something else you’re proud of that you were able to accomplish during your tenure as President of Randolph Community College?

Bob: A number of years ago I campaigned for a 4-cent tax referendum. In fact, I gave 55 speeches in seven weeks, and I was told by a bank executive that Randolph County wouldn’t vote for a tax increase, but we won, and it ended up bringing $24 million dollars to RCC for advanced technology, the Allied Health Center, and so much more.

Jim: Why retire now?

Bob: My family decided it was their turn, and my little granddaughter said, “The college will have other presidents, but you’re the only papa I’ll ever have.”

You can’t argue with her logic. After all, it comes from someone who appreciates a legacy.

A lot of folks seemed shocked when Vernon Robinson announced that he was organizing a gun raffle for the Forsyth Republican party. The Winston-Salem Journal criticized the local GOP for being “tone deaf” to the recent massacres in Texas and Illinois. In fact, according to Forsyth Democratic party chair Kevin Farmer, two of the assault-style rifles being raffled “appear to be” models used in the Highland Park massacre. Yet true to form, Vernon fired back, saying, “People like gun raffles and it is a great way to raise money. The only people who are upset about gun raffles are people who are hostile to guns and gun owners.”

If Vernon’s use of the word “people” sounds familiar as a misdirection from facts and reality, that’s because it is. A certain Republican president used to and still does attribute unsupported statements to “people say”. I’m a gun owner, so I obviously don’t hate gun owners. However, I oppose this particular raffle because it comes at a time when we shouldn’t be promoting the use of semi-automatic weapons. Still, if you know anything about Vernon Robinson, then nothing about his gun raffle should surprise you.

After serving two terms on Winston-Salem City Council, Vernon became a perennial also-ran for just about every other office on the state and local level. He was also known for his political grandstanding, like the time he placed a one-ton granite replica of the Ten Commandments at the front door of City Hall in an effort to show that God’s laws should be on full display at government buildings. To hell with the separation of church and state.

Vernon would say and do just about anything to get attention and to promote himself, ostensibly as a viable candidate for whatever elected position he sought at the time. He was a rare commodity: an ultra-conservative African-American Republican. In fact, he referred to himself as “The Black Jesse Helms”. He was also Trump before Trump was Trump. And that brings me to the election of 2004.

That year, George Bush was running for re-election and Rep. Richard Burr announced that he was giving up his congressional seat in order to run for the Senate. Burr’s announcement brought no less than eight GOP stalwarts out of the woodwork and into the race to represent the 5th district. The field included Ed Broyhill, Nathan Tabor, state Senator Virginia Foxx, and Robinson. Thanks to Vernon’s high profile, he came in first place in the July primary, but couldn’t muster the 40% he needed to avoid a run-off with Foxx, who finished second. The run-off was scheduled for August 10, so I invited both candidates to appear together on Triad Today the weekend prior to the election. 

During their joint appearance, Vernon was typically animated and bombastic, at one point accusing Virginia of “telling whoppers”. But the whopper meter spiked when I called out Vernon for repeatedly bragging about his military combat experience. “What war did you serve in Vernon?” I asked. “The Cold War”, he replied. I continued to press him for specifics about his actual combat experience until he finally admitted that he had none. As I said before, Vernon was Trump before Trump was Trump. Foxx went on to win the run-off, and Vernon later blamed me for his loss.

Had Robinson defeated Foxx in 2004, he would have been North Carolina’s first radical right-wing Congressman in modern times, and by January 6, 2021, he probably would have been up on the stage with Trump, urging the crowd (some of whom were armed) to march to the Capitol. Instead, he is a private citizen grabbing headlines any way he can, this time by using guns to raise money for the Republican party.  

You can call Vernon Robinson anything you like, but don’t make the mistake of thinking he is tone deaf. The fact is, when it comes to what the Republican base and its election-deniers are saying, Vernon hears them loud and clear.

Both of my parents were fortunate to have been under hospice care before they passed away, so I can testify first-hand that the folks who provide patients with serious illness and end-of-life-care will someday occupy a special place in heaven. That’s especially true for the team at Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care.

Mountain Valley Hospice, headquartered in Mt. Airy, serves an 18 county area in North Carolina and Virginia with offices and facilities located throughout the region. In addition to providing in-home care, they operate in-patient hospice homes in Dobson and Yadkinville.

Mountain Valley also offers special programs such as We Honor Veterans, and Camp Kids Path to help children deal with the loss of a loved one. They even offer a Pet Peace of Mind program, and, of course, they provide support for families of hospice patients.

This weekend, members of the Mountain Valley team will appear on Triad Today to talk about everything from access to care, to the importance of volunteers. The program was taped earlier, and will air this Saturday and Sunday. 

While some hospice agencies in North Carolina are for profit, Mountain Valley is non profit, so we began the show with a discussion about what that means to patients and their families.

“Our goal is to make sure that every patient who is hospice eligible can gain access to care,” said Stephanie Tilley, Senior director of Growth & Access. “Many folks are surprised to learn that only about 50% of patients who meet the eligibility for Medicare actually utilize the Medicare benefits.”

But even those who don’t meet Medicare criteria are never turned away.

“We take care of those who can’t afford to take care of themselves, those who have no insurance, no financial means. Our mission is to serve every patient, every family, every time,” said Tracey Dobson, President and CEO of Mountain Valley Hospice.

In order to provide charitable care for some patients, Mountain Valley Hospice relies on donations, and occasionally hosts fundraising events.

“Proceeds from these events go to support our patient services and community programs.  It’s what enables us to not have to turn anyone away due to an inability to pay,” said Sara Tavery, Senior director of Philanthropy and Volunteers.

The Mountain Valley Hospice team includes doctors, nurses, chaplains, and a large support staff. But that team of caring professionals is also complimented by an army of volunteers who help serve the needs of patients and their families. 

“Volunteers are truly the heart of hospice. We are so fortunate to have a great group of volunteers. They are vital to helping us carry out our mission, and to provide compassionate care to our patients,” Tavery said.

Like my parents, most patients receive hospice care in their own home./p>

“Nursing care is available 24/7 for patients in their own home. We have CNAs who can help with bathing and dressing patients. Our chaplains  offer spiritual support, and then we have social workers who help manage resources for our patients,” said Jenna Campbell, Chief Clinical Operations Officer.

Mountain Valley also operates two, state-of-the-art in-patient hospice homes for when at-home care is no longer practical.

“It’s when we can no longer manage the patient’s symptoms at home, so we need to take it a step up, and have the provider more involved at the bedside,” said Campbell.

But regardless of whether care is provided at home or in a hospice home, the goal is the same, as Chief Medical director Dr. Glenn Golazewski explained.

“It’s important to keep hospice patients comfortable, and that’s what folks want when they’re dealing with end stage illnesses.”

You can watch our Triad Today salute to hospice this Saturday at 7:30am on abc45, and on Sunday at 11am on MY48.

For more information about hospice care, visit MtnValleyHospice.org or to schedule an appointment, call 888-789-2922.

Ask a thousand people in the Triad to identify the current location of Atlantic Coast Conference headquarters, and most all of them would say, “the Greensboro Coliseum”. In fact, the ACC’s offices are nestled away at luxurious Grandover Resort. The man who runs the conference and works at Grandover is Jim Phillips, who is neither from Greensboro, nor has a history with the ACC. He is a Chicago native who went to school at Tennessee and Arizona State, and worked at Northwestern. Not surprisingly for someone with no ties to this area nor to our basketball traditions, Phillips, upon taking over the ACC last February, hired a Texas-based real estate advisory firm to help him decide where the conference headquarters should be located. Since then, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Guilford Board of Commissioners Chairman Skip Alston have been bending over backwards to offer Phillips perks and reasons why he should keep the ACC HQ in the Gate City rather than move to Charlotte, Orlando or some other locale. The latest lure was an offer to re-name the Greensboro Coliseum the “ACC Coliseum”. Meanwhile state lawmakers have allocated $15 million dollars to spend on keeping ACC offices in North Carolina.

Phillips has not given an exact date for making a decision on where the ACC HQ will be this time next year, but for all the stellar efforts being made by our local and state officials, it may be time to take a step back and really think about what we’re fighting for. Keeping the ACC offices in Greensboro and renaming the Coliseum has absolutely nothing to do with ACC basketball and the revenues that its men’s tournament produces for the host city. Sure it has been rumored that if Phillips stays put, we could count on the ACC tournament being played in Greensboro three times over the next 15 years, but what kind of a bone is that to throw at a community that has nurtured ACC basketball for nearly 70 years? Moreover, if the ACC moves to Charlotte, then why should Triad-area tax dollars be spent to relocate an existing business to a competing city? It’s a dilemma that the Greensboro News & Record pointed out in a recent editorial, saying if the state’s $15 million package is spent on moving Phillips and his 50 employees to Charlotte, it would be like, “robbing Peter to pay Paul.” Speaking on behalf of Peter, let me say that Paul shouldn’t get a dime of my money. The Queen City has already robbed the Triad of just about every major banking and healthcare headquarters, and taking the ACC from us would be the last straw.

The ACC and I were both born at the same time, and I have been a fan ever since, so obviously I’d like to see the conference offices remain in Greensboro. But I am also conflicted because it is beneath our local elected officials to keep begging a guy from Chicago to go to our local prom, especially when he’s not paying for the date. So, Mr. Phillips, if you want to stay, we’d love to have you, and if you want to leave, then Godspeed and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. It’s time to either pass the ball or shoot.

Earlier this month, just as Congress was about to convene hearings on how former President Donald Trump planned and attempted a coup, another president was proudly announcing that a Trump ally would lead his university’s new law school. That proud president is High Point University’s Nido Qubein, and his pick to take the reins of a new law school is none other than former State Supreme Court Chief justice Mark Martin. Qubein’s announcement couldn’t have been more poorly timed, and his choice of Martin couldn’t have been more inappropriate, because Martin was allegedly actively involved in helping Trump overturn a legal election and subvert the Constitution.

Both the Washington Post and New York Times stand by their stories that Martin joined the seditious Trump bandwagon early on, first by co-authoring legal briefs to help five states spread the Big Lie and seek to overturn the 2020 election, then by allegedly advising Trump himself that Vice President Pence could refuse to certify Biden electors when Congress convened on January 6.

The Charlotte Observer spoke with several legal experts who said that Martin’s actions on Trump’s behalf “undermined faith in the country’s elections, weakened its constitutional democracy, and set the stage for the January 6 mob assault on the Capitol.”

And Duke law professor Jim Coleman told the Virginian Pilot, “I think it’s quite damaging to have a former chief justice of the NC Supreme Court being associated with these positions. It calls into question how he (Martin) and perhaps others approach the law – not based on principle, but based on the result you want to achieve politically.”

The Virginian Pilot also spoke with Norm Eisen, an expert on law and ethics at the Brookings Institution, and Eisen’s rebuke of Martin was even more severe. Said Eisen, “ All the lawyers who whipped up Trump’s followers into a frenzy based on the completely baseless belief that the election had been stolen, must bear a share of the responsibility for what happened on January 6.”

Martin’s defenders say that because of attorney/client privilege, he can’t comment on his involvement with, or his advice about Trump’s attempted coup. Hogwash. Every first-year law school student knows that there is a “Crime-Fraud Exception” to privilege, which states that the exception can apply if the client is trying to further a crime, or is in the process of committing a crime. We now know from the Congressional hearings that Trump was fully advised by his own people that his subversive schemes were illegal, yet he continued to pursue a seven-point plan to overturn the election. For Martin to play any role in helping to advance Trump’s plan doesn’t make him a counselor, it makes him an accomplice.

But perhaps the most disturbing thing about Martin’s involvement in advancing the Big Lie, is just how close Trump came to staging a successful coup, and doing permanent damage to our democracy. Just imagine what kind of country this would be if Mike Pence had decided to follow Martin’s alleged advice, and reject Biden’s electors on January 6.  I shudder to think.

HPU’s law school can’t open without first gaining approval from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and, given all we know about Martin’s alleged involvement with Trump’s attempted coup, SACS should hold off on approving Qubein’s new law school until more information is forthcoming. After all, it wouldn’t be appropriate for someone to teach students about laws that he allegedly broke.

The Forsyth County Republican Men’s Club and Conservative Women of Forsyth County recently threatened to stage a protest during Bookmarks Drag Queen Story Time event, in which “Anna Yacht” was scheduled to read to children ages 3 to 7. Ken Raymond, chairman of the Forsyth Republican party explained the rationale behind such protests, telling the Winston-Salem Journal’s Katelyn Oglesby, “Drag Queen Story Time is a tactic of militant gay leftists trying to separate children from their parents in order to indoctrinate them.”

Before I attempt to unpack Mr. Raymond’s theory, it might be helpful to understand that people of all ages, both conservative and liberal, have, for centuries, been entertained by men dressed up as women. In Shakespeare’s time, for example, only men were allowed to perform on stage, so when rowdy Globe Theatre audiences saw a “woman” enter from the wings, they knew that “she” was actually an actor dressed as a woman. It is also believed that the term “drag” derived from how Globe actors had to drag their long dresses across the stage. Later, even as women were allowed to perform on stage, many male comedians made a living by wearing women’s clothing. In fact, those early vaudeville comics inspired the first King of television, Milton Berle, whose most popular character was that of a flamboyant female singer. Such cross-dressing performances continued as a staple of TV and motion picture comedies, with superstars like Cary Grant, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon making audiences howl over their gender-bending antics. In the latter half of the 20th century, Divine was the poster “girl” for the drag queen movement, and in recent years, RuPaul has turned drag into a media phenomenon and helped to spur widespread interest in local drag queen events. Those include storytelling activities at public libraries and public schools, and that brings me back to the Bookmarks protest.

First, I don’t agree that “militant gay leftists” are trying to separate children from their parents, at least not at Bookmarks. After all, there aren’t too many kids ages 3 to 7 who can drive themselves to a Drag Queen Story Time event. Moms and Dads who see such events as family-friendly, willingly allow their children to be exposed to the messages of tolerance being taught by drag queens. But that doesn’t seem to matter to legislators in Texas, Florida, and Arizona, who have recently introduced bills to prevent minors from attending drag events of any kind, which they describe as “inappropriate sexual content” for the children present. Nevertheless, it should be up to the parent to determine what is and isn’t appropriate content for his or her child, and in that regard, the aforementioned proposed laws seem to discount parental rights. However, just as some parents fight against state laws that censor content, others have the right to do the opposite, that is, to fight for the right to protect their child from certain content. And that brings me to Drag Queen Story Time events at public schools.

Between January and May of this year, New York City public school officials have paid the Drag Story Hour company over $200,000 to conduct 49 reading sessions at 34 different schools, most of them at the elementary level, and all of them without parental consent.

Some NYC residents are concerned over the amount of taxpayer dollars being spent for Drag Queen events, while parents are livid over having no advance warning or input about the events themselves. The tipping point seemed to be a reading session back in April at a school in Manhattan in which “Harmonica Sunbeam” encouraged kids to choose their pronouns and invent drag names for themselves. Speaking with the New York Post, City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino said: 

“We are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the pockets of hardworking New York taxpayers to fund a program teaching little children about their gender fluidity? Not on my watch.”

There are also complaints from parents about more than just content and messaging, mainly involving scantily clad folks at Pride events in which drag queens happened to participate. Those associations have served to conflate various concerns and controversies surrounding story time activities, and fuel the rhetoric about the “militant gay leftist” agenda. Forsyth GOP Chairman Ken Raymond referred to Drag Queen Story Time as “perversion”, and based that on his having watched a video in which children were allowed to put dollar bills down the G-strings of drag queens. And recently a London library had to apologize when a drag queen showed up at a summer reading event wearing a “Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkey” costume.

Obviously, drag queens should never wear obscene costumes around little children, nor should they encourage kids to engage in well-meaning, gender-related learning activities without first obtaining parental permission. Aside from that, parents who wish to bring their offspring to a story time event should be allowed to do so without interference from legislators or political protesters.