Well folks... this is it. This is your last chance to get involved in the municipal election process. Nov. 3 is the big day - that's the first Tuesday in November, just like always.

The list of problems in the Camel City continues to grow. In the last three years, two policemen have been slain in the line of duty - in 2007 Sgt. Howard J. Plouff was gunned down outside the now-defunct Red Rooster nightclub, and just last week Sgt. Mickey Hutchens, a 27-year veteran of the force, took a fatal bullet outside a Bojangle's restaurant.

September was another beastly month for regular American working folks. A quarter million of us lost gainful employment last month, even as the Dow Jones Industrial Index crept toward 10,000.

And in this, the first year of Obamas presidency, those who profess it seem emboldened to do so without fear of reproach or censure. Only one example last week was the comment thread beneath the online version of an Oct. 8 editorial in the News & Record applauding NC A&T University for severing financial ties to a homecoming concert headlined by mercenary rapper Gucci Mane.y...

But we have some ideas, even at this early hour. If history can serve as a guide, we anticipate that perhaps 10 percent of Greensboro voters felt moved to make a choice in the primary election. The last municipal election here in 2007 drew 11,460 voters, about 7 percent of the total.

Boosters use every trick in the book to get them passed, from obfuscation, as was the case in the $12 million swim center that was couched in a parks and rec bond last year that was then deftly removed from under the purview of the Parks ...

It wouldn't have been difficult to write off Derwin Montgomery out of hand. The 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University senior is the youngest ever to run for city council in the Twin City; he has no professional political experience or even a business profile - he has not yet graduated from college.

We're crediting medieval philosopher Maimonides with the maxim: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." It was true in the 12th century and it's true today - it's the reason why the entire US legal system is predicated on the presumptive innocence of the accused.

We're crediting medieval philosopher Maimonides with the maxim: "It is better and more satisfactory to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to put a single innocent one to death." It was true in the 12th century and it's true today - it's the reason why the entire US legal system is predicated on the presumptive innocence of the accused.

If you have health insurance in North Carolina, chances are you are "covered" by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.