A sneak peek of Raleigh’s shimmer wall … lit up

Workers were testing the LEDs that will back light the shimmer wall that adorns Raleigh’s new convention center on Monday night. They appeared to only be testing one panel, at least when I stopped. So I snapped the photo below.

The plan is to officially light up the entire waving Oak Tree on Sept. 5, when the convention center officially opens.

When fully lit, the wall can shimmer in tons of colors. They can even tailor the colors to match holidays (say green for St. Patrick’s Day) and special events (say red if the Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup).

Here’s a sneak peak of a single panel.

Can you imagine how beautiful this will look when it’s all lit up?

McClatchy’s budget woes lead News and Observer to cut 70 positions

It’s another sad day for the newspaper industry, as McClatchy Co. announced it is cutting 1,400 jobs across the company. McClatchy owns 30 daily newspapers, including Raleigh’s News & Observer. The N&O announced yesterday that it is laying off 70 people, including 16 newsroom employees.

The N&O will also trim costs by combining its Business and City & State sections, reducing the amount of editions that provide tailored news to different circulation areas and by merging its sports, political and research departments with the Charlotte Observer’s departments, the paper reported. These changes come a week after the newspaper announced that it is raising subscription rates.

The move is meant to help ease McClatchy’s budget woes, according to the company’s news release about the layoffs.

McClatchy’s cash expenses were down 10.5% in the first quarter of 2008 and FTE (full-time equivalent employees) count was down 7.5% from prior year.

The moves announced today will produce annual savings of about $70 million from staff reductions as part of a plan to reduce overall expenses by $95 million to $100 million over the next four quarters. Combined with previous expense control initiatives, the company expects to reduce non-newsprint cash expense in the low double-digit percentage range over the balance of 2008 excluding severance costs of about $30 million.

I should note that I used to work at The Island Packet, a McClatchy-owned newspaper on Hilton Head Island, SC, before accepting my job here at WNCN. The Packet, which has a small staff of hardworking reporters, also suffered two layoffs — a reporter and advertising employee. In a memo to Packet staff, the publisher wrote:

We’re operating in a time of great change and challenge for our operations, for The McClatchy Company and for the newspaper industry overall. Increased competition and a pronounced economic downturn have combined to reduce revenues dramatically, and these cuts are part of the way we must respond.

Obviously the Internet and the economy is having a dramatic effect on the ability of newspapers to make the kind of profits Wall Street likes to see. But the suits seem to forget that while newspapers need to be repurposed, they still need to produce quality content. And engaging human interest stories, investigative reporting and holding the government accountable all take staff. When you eliminate newsroom staff, duties are shifted to reporters who are already busy with their own beats, or in some cases, those duties are eliminated altogether.

A sad day indeed.

I appeared on MSNBC with Gov. Mike Easley today

So I’m sitting at my desk in the NBC17 newsroom, when body guards usher in Gov. Mike Easley. The state’s top elected official was appearing on MSNBC to speak about his choice to endorse Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

Anyway, Easley was nice enough. He thanked our staff for getting him situated in front of the camera. His body guards stood just to the right of him and looked out the window, whispered among themselves and occasionally glanced at the TV hanging above my desk to see how the interview was going.

Easley’s endorsement comes on the heels of Sen. Barack Obama’s well attended rally at the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill (reportedly, about 18,000 people showed up). Do you think Gov. Easley’s endorsement will help Clinton’s chances in North Carolina (Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling showed Clinton trailing Obama in North Carolina by 12 points as of Monday)?

Read some of the e-mails I receive …

I haven’t had a chance to weed through my e-mail for a couple of days. I’m always amazed by the press releases the station gets. So, rather than just pitching them in the trash, I thought I’d share some of the randomness with you. Maybe you’ll learn something, maybe you’ll smile, maybe you’ll never read my blog again. Let’s give it a go:

* “Indianapolis has been named the most s*xually satisified city (pardon the censoring but don’t want to get spammed) by “Men’s Health” magazine. The May issue, hitting newsstands April 22, looks at condom sales (provided by A.C. Nielsen), birth rates from the U.S. Census Bureau and sales of s-e-x toys.” That’s according to Chris Spagnuolo of the PR firm TrylonSMR.

*(This is one of the better written items we’ve received): “Even in the liberal, democrat university town bubble of the Triangle (Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durahm) area of North Caorlina, it is possible to fall into despair and/or get very stressed considering the events happening in the world these days. War, elections, drought, crime, even just the winter blues can get everyone down and forgetful of the beauty there is in that very same world. There is a place, not too far out in the country, but just enough, where Triangle residents and visitors can go to find this beauty and, if for just a weekend, experience and draw from it. This place is called Shakori Hills, and every Spring and Fall they hold there the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance.

Read the rest of this entry »

Live Blogging from Barack Obama town hall meeting

See photos from the event here.

Posted by ginny on

March 31, 2008

You know you’re a UNC fan when …

This is what your drain strainer looks like:

I spotted this on Saturday at the home of our Web presenter, Page Crawford. Her husband apparently loves UNC, but Page has successfully managed to keep other Tar Heel paraphernalia from the couple’s walls. She compromised on the strainer though.Have you seen any team decor that tops this?

Fashion Blogging: If you don’t know what chartreuse is, you’re missing out

While driving through the parking deck at Crabtree Valley Mall yesterday, I spotted 17-year-old Katelin Gragg walking into the mall. You couldn’t miss her in the dark garage because she was glowing in her chartreuse slip. But alas, I couldn’t just get out of the car to photograph her for my fashion blog, so her cute outfit slipped out of my life.

Lucky for me, I spotted her inside and she agreed to be photographed wearing this vibrant chartreuse-colored, chiffon slip over a black turtle neck sweater: “I just had to add color,” the Hickory, N.C. resident said of the slip, which she scored from Urban Outfitters.

Turns out a lot of the men in my life aren’t familiar with chartreuse. I thought the green-yellow color was well-known, but apparently not. A few weeks ago, I took my surrogate father to every shoe store in The Streets at Southpoint in search of a pair of chartreuse-colored flats. He had no idea what we were looking for until I likened it to lime green. (We found a perfect pair of Steve Maddens, BTW, but they didn’t have them in my size and I can’t find them on his Website).

Then yesterday, while at the mall with one of my guy friends, he admitted he had never heard of the color. He even asked me to spell the word, which I think threw him off even more. I made a $1 bet that the sales clerk in J. Crew would know of the color, but he didn’t. Out of four clerks in the store, two knew what I was talking about. I’m not clear on whether I won or lost that bet, but he hasn’t asked for his dollar yet.

Apparently there are a few variations of chartreuse, according to the always trusty Wikipedia, read about it here, if you’re so inclined. Or just take my word for it, chartreuse is hot and you should try adding some of it to your wardrobe this spring.

So you tell me, have you ever heard of this color?

How much to mail that Valentine?

The price of a stamp is going up again. Come spring, stamps will cost 42 cents, a penny more than their current price, the U.S. Postal Service announced today.

It’s coincidental that I hear this news today. That’s because I was sticking stamps to my Valentines this morning and thinking that 41 cents seemed like a lot of change to send these little cards a few hundred miles away. The fee increase likely won’t bother many of you because you save paper and postage by paying your bills online. But I still love good ‘ole snail mail. I write letters to my family and friends, send goofy post cards and greeting cards for various holidays.

The price of a stamp last went up in May 2007, when the feds raised the price two pennies to its current 41 cents, according to the Associated Press. Maybe the fee increases would be easier to absorb if it felt like service at the postal service was improving. BTW, the latest increase goes into effect May 12.

How much will the price of stamps have to rise to in order for you to think twice before you mail something? 50 cents? 75 cents? A dollar?

Do Children Understand the Significance of MLK Jr.?

Last year, I volunteered to work on the holiday commemorating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (it was a company holiday). I covered a couple of parades in his honor on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton, SC, for the newspaper I was working for. I wanted to take a different approach to the story that no doubt had been written year after year, so I asked marchers why they decided to participate in the parade rather than stay at home. The adults I interviewed all had good answers, explaining it’s important to remember and highlight the fight for civil rights our nation endured only four decades earlier. Some of the children, however, seemed to treat the parade as a roller rink, skating down the road in those Heelys shoes that were oh so popular then:

While adults walked briskly in marches Monday on Hilton Head Island and Bluffton to commemorate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., some children skated past them in gym shoes equipped with plastic wheels.

For the children and young adults at Monday’s marches, the civil rights movement is something they’ve only read about in history books. So it might seem fitting that some youngsters seemed more concerned about losing their balance on the heels of their trendy skate shoes, then about the struggle that allowed them to play together, regardless of race.

“I think they have a clue about the purpose,” of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, said Bluffton resident Gwenita Jenkins, whose 7-year-old niece skated through downtown Bluffton with a life-size cutout of King’s photograph tied around her neck. “But the unfortunate part is they have what they want already, so they don’t know what it’s like not to have.”

As society becomes further removed from the days when Jim Crow signs hung over drinking fountains and blacks were directed to the back of the bus, it becomes more challenging to make children appreciate the struggle for civil rights.

So as our nation celebrates the birth of the civil rights leader today, I wonder whether you think children appreciate the significance of the day.

Durham MLK Parade postponed

Forecasters are saying snowfall and/or rain is possible Saturday, and with that possibility, organizers of the Durham parade just made this announcement:

Due to the prediction of inclement weather, The 6th Annual Durham MLK Parade originally scheduled for Saturday, January 19th at 12 noon has been postponed. The new date is Saturday, February 2nd at 12 noon - “Honoring Dr. King during Black History Month.”