Governor Perdue is scheduled to decide shortly on approving a bill that will increase the speed limit fine in a school zone from $25.00 to $250.00. If she signs, the bill would become law August 25, 2011.
In small world news, an Arkansas newspaper briefly interviewed a Henderson resident as he was passing through about his thoughts on the capture of Osama. “Mike Behar, 50, of Henderson, N.C., who was flying to Little Rock from Chicago for business, said the past 10 years had been a nightmare as bin Laden eluded the United States. “It’s been a long time coming,” Behar said. “He had something to do with a lot of people dying. I wouldn’t want to be him right now … if he’s meeting his maker.” Behar said he didn’t know whether it was better to take the terrorist dead or alive. “I don’t know what the right answer is,” Behar said.”
Open your fingers…
How sad it is that HiH is a shell of its former self. The old HiH was one of the media outlets in the county. There was a time when the editor and owner of HiH made every effort to attend the public meetings with video camera in hand. Then along came the little man and his law suit. A year later to the day HiH changed hands and gone was the one media voice not controlled by “the boys.” We no longer have a way of seeing the shenanigans of our local elected officials. How sad.
If you think this is controlled by ‘the boys’ you are greatly mistaken. I can only provide the place, it’s up to you guys to take advantage of it.
It is a shame to see people not take advantage of the new forum. I find it strange how many won’t register an account, even an anonymous one like we use. We actually like it like this because you know each person’s “name” is unique.
Minusing out Ira’s about 15 accounts, there’s just shy of 150 registered accounts here now and more added every day. According to my statistics since April 10, the day the new site went live, we have just over 4,000 unique visitors to the site. There is obviously a tremendous amount of interest in the news here and visitors are anxious to read everyone elses’s thoughts on issues. The problem is most just lurk and hope someone else will start some conversation. But if people are scared to comment here because they’re afraid I’m going to track them down and haunt them or something that’s just not possible. If that is not the reason, do let me know what your concern is.
If you’re that concerned, register with a new email address you’ve just made up. A gentleman came into my office to get a verified account last week I think it was and offered to tell me his alternate account on here if I was curious. I refused to hear it. Because I don’t care, I don’t want to know. I want you to enjoy coming here and discussing issues and not worrying about if I know who you are.
I’m trying to put some conversation starters up, but it sure is lonely talking to myself. The Daily Dispatch has videos of city council meetings as well. From what I can tell by their archives they started videoing when HiH stopped. You are free to discuss anything about the city council meetings here in our open lines. That’s why they’re called open lines. We will video the meetings as well when I am satisfied with our equipment situation. If I’m going to do something I’m going to do it right. And right now, if I used the equipment I have it would not make for a good video.
This weekend I plan to run a promotion to help attract more commenters. More on that later. The other thing that is hurting is the great weather we’re having. People are outside, not cozying up to the warm computer. When I ran the internet services before, there was a markedly huge difference in online usage of our lines during the spring time and summer weather. Then as school started to get back in session we could clearly see the usage rise again and come winter our lines would spill over to the overflow system.
Phil, the old HiH was a media source not just a rabble of bloggers. The old HiH attended the city and county and school meetings with video camera in hand. We or any of the bloggers here would not be allowed to walk into a public meeting with video camera in hand to record the meeting. That is reserved for the media. Besides being part of the declining industry the “local paper” is controlled by a corporation based in Kentucky. The old HiH provided complete coverage of city, county, and school board meetings something the local paper did not and does not do. That is one of the features missing from new HiH.
I don’t want to reveal exactly what I’ve been doing behind the scenes, but lets just say that coverage of the meetings will occur again. I don’t want to give specifics because I don’t know for sure yet for the timeframe. The reporter HiH had before is currently not available for maybe a few more weeks longer. Someone else who wrote opinion letters is currently not available until after June. I have advertised for a writer position to cover the meetings, however only one person has replied that is kind of local and not in Raleigh or Durham. Anyway, please just be patient with us and realize it’s a logistics thing and not a because the boys are telling us not to.