kirk ross

The GOP's formula for undermining the effectiveness of government appears to be working.

... while the Legislature has increased the amount of paperwork, studies and staff time required to write new rules, it's also continued to slice away at the budgets for DENR and other agencies.

From Ross's Almanac

If you've been feeling anxious about the North Carolina coast in recent years, get ready to dial up your Prozac prescription. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. Kirk Ross has the analysis at Indy Week.

From Kirk Ross, publisher of the Carrboro Citizen

The odd waking dream in which many of us find ourselves continues unabated. On any given night, the idiot box lives up to its nickname, giving a megaphone to folks who on a regular basis compare various politicians to either Hitler, Stalin or both. Elsewhere in television-land, highly scripted “reality” shows have folks mesmerized.

The temptation is to shrug and ignore it all. But these are symptoms – clues, perhaps – of how upside-down we’ve become and how astoundingly-unchallenged a culture we’ve allowed to flourish.

Go read the rest of this inspiring column.

Paul O'Connor wrote Sunday in the Winston-Salem Journal about how "Politicians work hard to control the message", in an article about

...moves made by state officials to reduce press access and manipulate coverage.

When you click in the Printer-Friendly version of his story you get this message at the footer:

This story can be found at: http://www.carolinajournal.com/

I barely know Kirk Ross. In fact I barely know any of the people who post entries here at BlueNC. We are a virtual community tied loosely together only by an interest in North Carolina politics. In fact, when I talked to Kirk in December about how BlueNC could upgrade the quality of its content with more original reporting, I had to pump him for information so I could introduce him to our readers. This is what I wrote on New Year's Day:

Kirk has been hanging around BlueNC as “kmr” for a good long while. You haven’t seen him post much, but that’s not because he’s a slacker. Kirk is a prolific freelance writer and has other blogs, including Exile on Jones Street. When forced to account for himself last year, Kirk wrote this:

Last night, we introduced George Pence as a new front-pager at BlueNC. Today we're pleased to announce that veteran journalist Kirk Ross is also joining our ranks.

Kirk has been hanging around BlueNC as “kmr” for a good long while. You haven’t seen him post much, but that’s not because he’s a slacker. Kirk is a prolific freelance writer and has other blogs, including Exile on Jones Street. When forced to account for himself last year, Kirk wrote this:

. . . a longtime North Carolina journalist, musician and public policy enthusiast. Before striking out on his own, he served as Managing Editor and online development manager for the Independent Weekly. Prior to that he was a reporter for the Chapel Hill News covering government, higher education, politics and schools. He won the North Carolina Press Associations’ top investigative reporting award in 2002 for his work on post 9/11 immigration and labor issues.

Kirk Ross has an excellent review of the miserable state of maintence in state and local government, which has been one of my pet peeves for decades, ever since I was responsible for routine upkeep of the bridge on the USS Charleston (LKA-113), where I was the navigator.

In the Navy, they spend what must be at least a third of their time doing maintenance on equipment and facilities. It's a never-ending job and they're very disciplined about it. Which makes perfect sense given the huge upfront investments we make in ships, aircraft, weapons systems, and more.

We the People make those same kinds of investments in public infrastructure. Whether its a sewage plant, a bridge, a highway, a government building, or any piece of capital equipment, we're spending millions or billions of dollars initially - but then, when the budgets get written and allocated, we're cutting corners like crazy when it comes to maintaining our investments in good shape.

Sometimes I feel like a one-man band in my criticism of the McClatchy media monopoly that has taken over both the Charlotte Observer and the News and Observer. So it's nice to see another voice - more experienced than mine - speaking out on the sad situation.

Kirk Ross (Exile on Jones Street), has an excellent analysis of the continuing implosion of journalism in North Carolina, brought to you by the McClatchy Boys. The example he points to today is the death rattle currently being heard at the Chapel Hill News, where Ross used to work.