import-piedmont-publius

N&R reports the N.C. Railroad Co. has agreed to buy 875 acres in Randolph County that could “virtually wrap up the land-buying phase” of the Greensboro-Randolph megasite: The railroad said Tuesday that it will spend about $13 million to buy the land within the 1,450-acre site in Randolph County…

N&R follows up Triad City Beat’s reporting on the Greensboro Police Department’s newly-formed civil emergency unit: Created more than a year ago, the CEU has a specific mission: to prevent or curtail violence when people take their right to free speech to the streets. ….Their mission is to…

I thought this would be bigger news—-maybe I missed it—but former controversial former Greensboro City Council member Dianne Bellamy-Small’s candidacy for the Guilford County Board of Education was mentioned matter-of-factly in today’s N&R front-pager. The lede? District 7 candidate—running unopposed—-Byron Gladden, aka “Bishop Dean”: Blame Tyler Perry,…

Kalvin Michael Smith—convicted in the brutal 1995 beating of Jill Marker at Winston-Salem’s Silk Plant Forest store—is working on yet another appeal. Court papers filed in this latest appeal reveal that the lead Forsyth County police detective used a racial epithet to describe Smith: Don Williams told his brother,…

Hard to believe that —of all things—the U.S. Department of Justice is having “budget issues.” How do we know this? It’s the excuse the department gave Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes when letting him know his office—and the Greensboro Police Department— would no longer receive forfeiture funds: Barnes said…

Greensboro’s new D-league team is branded—-the ‘Swarm.’ “It represented a different attitude,” said Seth Bennett, the Hornets’ senior vice president of marketing. “When we talked about competition and the fans and the type of energy we want in the arena. It has a lot of different applications.” The Swarm…

Twelve counties—including Guilford, Rockingham and Forsyth—-will be able to bill the state for transporting mental patients in an effort to get them proper care instead of treating such patients in hospital emergency rooms: State lawmakers in this year’s budget allocated $225,000 for a yearlong pilot project to gather data…

Couple of viewpoints—not favorable—on Sen. Phil Berger and the shutdown of Rockingham County’s Miller-Coors brewing plant. First—from Fayetteville Observer editorial page editor Tim White: And do you suppose Berger might be a little worried about what his constituents will face when they’re laid off? He should be. All those…