October 21, 2011

There were 2 posts published on October 21, 2011 (this is page 1 of 1).

Ron Margiotta’s attack ads

A few folks are raising a stink about Wake County School Board chairman Ron Margiotta’s recent use of school board video in his political ads. Some on the left are pointing to Margiotta’s use of the video as proof he enlisted county employees to help him in his campaign. WTVD’s Jon Camp did a story about it.

Now, I’m no fan of Ron Margiotta. He’s arrogant, grating, blunt, and I find a lot of what he says and does to be embarrassing. Still, you gotta hand it to him for thinking to use this video. Sure, it’s video of Susan Evans, his opponent in the school board race, and sure, it was taken with the county-owned video system. But that’s the point: it’s video taken by the public, for the public at an open, public meeting. The video is thus a public record and therefore available to anyone who requests it.
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Tree planting at Chavis Park


I spent yesterday morning volunteering to plant trees around Chavis Park through the city’s Neighborwoods program and a generous gift from the Siemens Corporation. About 72 volunteers made up of Siemens employees, the St. Augustine’s Lady Falcons basketball team, Parks and Rec staff, Parks board members (Scott Reston, Kimberly Siran, and me) and other volunteers spent three hours planting new trees in the hardscrabble neighborhoods surrounding the park.

The weather was brisk in the morning but as the crew got rolling with tree planting we warmed up quickly. I had a wonderful time meeting folks from Siemens and working the the Lady Falcons to help beautify Raleigh with new trees.