Uh, maybe this is what’s wrong with journalism today

I ran across a story about a journalism student at Missouri who was arrested for assaulting a professor in a computer lab. Seems the student, Jay Dee Bush, brought a drink to the lab, which is a no-no. The prof asked him to remove it, and when he wouldn’t she picked it up and threw it away. Things got testy and Bush pushed the prof.

Meanwhile another student in the lab, one David Teeghman, intervened to try to help the prof, but Bush turned on Teeghman and choked him while other students pulled Bush off Teeghman. OK. No big deal. A little skirmish and then Teeghman gets back to work, right? Uh, no (emphasis added):

Teeghman was shaken up over the incident. He said he walked back to his apartment crying and called his parents, who then reported the incident to MU police.

This is a journalism student, folks. When he graduates he might have to be confronting crooked politicians, or violent union members staking out a state capitol. How well is he going to do that when he wells up and cries because he got in a bit of a tussle with a jerk in class?

I blame the lefty, non-confrontational, passive-aggressive parenting of the past 30 years. Kids have been taught to tattle to the teacher the first time anyone gets in their way. And when something does go wrong, they can’t handle the adversity. If I’m a city editor out there wondering who my next new reporter will be, I would be hoping with all my heart that it’s not this guy.

Did Oregon’s teachers take a cue from Wake County’s?

In Oregon, the McMinnville Area of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Committee sent out an e-mail to businesses and residents urging that the school board and teachers work to come to an agreement on a contract with the teachers union. The statement is pretty unremarkable and can only be described as moderate.

It was read at a school board meeting by Leslie “LV” VanBlaricom, a member of the chamber’s board of directors, who was representing the chamber at a public hearing. Shortly after VanBlaricom played her role as spokesman for the chamber, here’s how the teacher’s union and VanBlaricom’s employer, who is tight with the union, reacted:

In response to the chamber intervention, some individual members of the union contacted VanBlaricom’s employer. A delegation of them asked to meet with VanBlaricom at the credit union late last week, but was told VanBlaricom no longer worked there, according to the union’s Facebook page.

This is the same tactic used by the Wake County teachers and their left-wing agitators to retaliate against outspoken board member John Tedesco:

Tedesco acknowledged his employer, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Triangle, has been getting pressure from supporters of the diversity policy who’ve questioned whether he should continue working for the non-profit. He said Big Brothers has not asked him to resign despite the lobbying from outside the group.

Rumors have been swirling that Tedesco was being targeted by those who argue his opposition to the diversity policy is at odds with his employer’s work helping at-risk children, most of whom are poor and minorities. Big Brothers doesn’t have an official position on the diversity policy.

In Tedesco’s case, since he didn’t want any harm to come to Big Brothers and Big Sisters throught withheld donations, he quit the organization for which he worked as development director. For that selfless act, he has been rewarded with home foreclosure proceedings. Thanks, lefties.

Did the McMinnville Education Association learn of the Alynskyite tactic from the whiner teachers, reporters, TV talk show hosts and local TV station owners? Was that their inspiration? If so, it seems they learn well, even if they can’t teach very well.

The Upside of Losing?

NC State researchers have concluded something fascinating about the incidence of traffic fatalities after sporting events.

The researchers found that traffic fatalities increased significantly after close games, and that games which were rated as nail-biters were far more likely to result in traffic fatalities than blow-outs.  Each increase in the closeness rating was associated with a 21 percent increase in fatal accidents at the game site. To go from a blow-out to a nail-biter resulted in a 133 percent increase in observed fatal accidents.

Furthermore, researchers found that the increase in fatalities occurred only in places where there were winners – the site of the competition and the hometown of the winning team. “This pattern of results is important in that it suggests that the cause of the relationship might be associated with competition-induced testosterone,” Wood says.

Cary’s Mayor Rightly Cautious About Pressure From Police Group

Last year I wrote about concerns over a U.S. Senate bill (S3194) that would have overruled North Carolina’s law that prohibits public sector collective bargaining, giving public safety employees the right to collectively bargain with local governments. If enacted, the bill would have given taxpayers a serious kick in the pants.

S. 3194 is an expensive, unfunded mandate, according to Ellis Hankins of the League of Municipalities. “It’s going to result in the same services being delivered at a much higher cost,” Hankins said. Like the county commissioners’ group, the league views collective bargaining and S. 3194 as a major threat that would create an adversarial relationship between employee and employer and lead to collective bargaining with other public employees.

Fast forward to today’s Cary News story about the N.C. Police Benovelent Association’s apparent pressure on Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht to meet with the group and bring forward its concerns and issues to the full council. The mayor is rightly steering clear of this.

Disagreement over the policy has tinged Weinbrecht’s relationship with the local and state chapters of the Police Benevolent Association, which says it represents the interests of a majority of Cary police officers.

“They basically told me that it’s time to start representing their interest or they’re not interested in supporting me in future elections,” said Weinbrecht, who wrote last week about the issue on his blog.

Midgette said the group hadn’t made so direct a threat. But he said Weinbrecht’s refusal to bring the group’s concerns to council hurts his chances at winning an endorsement from the PBA.

One Step Closer to Eliminating Local Tax Hike Option on Land/Home Sales

The N.C. House gave final approval to a bill that would repeal the 2007 legislation that gave counties the option to put on the ballot a tax hike on the sale of homes land.

Voters have rejected the tax hike every time it has appeared on the ballot. The repeal bill now goes to the Senate.