If you like Tivo...

You'll love this. It's called StumbleUpon, and it is a program you download onto your browser that learns your Web surfing tendencies and suggests sites to you.
Go here to download:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
Last night, I downloaded it, and it suggested some really cool earth mapping sites, some interesting sites on presidential speeches and cool baseball statistics site to me just minutes after. I have a pretty boring life...
And it seems pretty safe, since I downloaded it from a link off Microsoft's Web site. Then again, everything on the Internet seems safe, then one day you find yourself $100,000 in debt because of that "rich uncle" in Haiti you were e-mailed about...

The day my life changed

In life, there are days and instances that you just don't forget. For some, it's the day you meet the one, the day you get married, the first time your child cries or the day you are baptized.
I have yet to experience most of these, but there is one defining moment that I will never forget. It happened when I was five years old. I was standing in my dad's truckbed with my brother, wearing a Duke sweatshirt. My brother is a huge Duke fan, and growing up, as must younger brothers do, I always wanted to be just like him. So I was a Duke fan, too.
Anyway, my uncle Johnny (the biggest Carolina fan I know) walks up, said, "Boy, what are you wearing!" I didn't know what to say, but I knew in that minute that my big brother, my hero, was wrong.
Johnny jerked me back into reality that day, and pulled me from the forces of evil that is dark blue over to good. From that day on, I was and still am a Tar Heel.

I sat on the couch with him as Chris Webber called time out in 1993. I watched us recover from a 17-point deficit in the Peach Bowl on that same couch just months before, as well as countless Duke games. He took me to my first UNC football game (versus UTEP, when we sat in the bleachers and ate peanuts all game) and first basketball game (a blue-white scrimmage when I was 7.)
I wish I could say that I went to UNC because it had a great Journalism program (which it does) or that it is one of the top public schools in the country (which it is) or I was thnking ahead to my career and knew a degree from UNC would help me somewhere (I'm still waiting for that day, by the way). But no, the truth is I went to Carolina all because of that day. Because of the sports teams.
If my uncle had not made me a Carolina fan, I never would have aspired to go there and wouldn't be here writing this today. Basically, I went there so he and I could go to basketball games together, along with my dad, for free. And boy did we ever go. I went to UNC during the "8-20" as we call it, the year Jason Capel and Kris Lang almost destroyed a tradition it took Dean Smith 30 years to make, and me, daddy and Johnny went like 10 games that year together. Free tickets were very easy to come by.
Johnny and daddy moved me into every dorm room and off-campus apartment I ever had. I went to N.C. State for a semester before being accepted for transfer to Carolina, and the day I moved into the dorm Johnny wore a Carolina sweatshirt (he told me all day, "Jonboy, some things never change, and being a Carolina fan is one of them. You remember that when you are over here in all this red.")
He also taught me how to play poker on the hood of his Monte Carlo during a rain delay at a race a North Wilkesboro when I was 9. He taught me about women, and took me on what to this day is the only hunting trip I have ever been on. We didn't shoot anything. It was cold and rainy and I slept a lot.
He is like a second father to me in many ways. But today, as I write this, he is undergoing surgery to remove part of his colon because of a large tumor his doctor found on a recent exam. And I am worried.
I called him last night, wanting to know how he was feeling before the surgery. Perhaps not really wanting get to emotional, both our thoughts quickly turned to Carolina basketball and the Yankees and racing.
Women often don't get men's love of sports. It's stupid to them. But to us, it's a way to bond, much like the native Americans elders bonded with the young over the hunt. I learned more about being a man from Johnny and my dad while watching sports than anything else.
I just hope, one day soon, I'll get to watch just one more game with them at the Dean Dome.

The funniest things I've ever seen

I enjoyed reading our publisher Bill Horner's blog on things he has done once. It got me thinking about some of the funny moments in my life so far. There have truly been too many. Here are a few.

My best friend Matt doing a cartwheel
OK, so it was like 3 in the morning, and as college students will do after a night of drinking... er, soda... we got the hankering for Taco Bell. About 6 of us pile in my 4Runner for the run to the border. While waiting for our Mexican Pizzas, someone starts telling Matt (who looks like me physically, more or less) that he can't do a cartwheel. He gets mad, jumps out of the car and does one, right there in the Taco Bell parking lot at 3 a.m. It was one of those things that is so funny, no one laughed... We were more in awe of his hilarity. It was the best unintentional Chris Farley impression ever.

My dad's rhymes
My dad is a 60 year-old potter from Robbins, but he loves Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite) rhymes for some reason. He would break out in the Jungle rhyme or "Sally" out of nowhere. He said it is because he rode a Greyhound bus with Moore to New Orleans when he was popular and Dolemite did the rhymes the whole way down, which makes sense, since I can't really see my dad watching Dolemite movies.
My dad is the funniest person I know. And I know a lot of funny people.

Tommy Boy and Dumb and Dumber
Some movies are funny. Some are hilarious. And then, there are these two classics. I swear, I can recite every line of both of them, and they still crack me up. Two comedic geniuses (Jim Carrey and Farley) when they still wanted to be funny (Carrey) and were alive (Farley).

The Badger Commercials
What a treat it is to live in North Carolina right now, if for no other reason than to be able to watch these local gems from Johnson Automotive. I have a friend that works for Johnson, but he has never met the badger. I would buy a car from them, if I could afford one.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Badger+commercials

Gordon Anderson's Return of the Mack
If you haven't seen it, I can't explain it. You just have to be there.

The Republicans

So I watched last night's Republican debate, and I have a few knee-jerk reactions. (For the record, I had been a registered Republican most of my life until taking on this news role at the paper. That, coupled with my overall disdain for the direction of our country in the last six years lead me to switch my registration to unaffiliated. So now, I am shopping for a candidate, though I am not excited about voting for anyone besides John Edwards, because I think it would be awesome if the President was from my hometown!)

— Mitt Romney should not win. I know I posted last week that he was my choice for the Republican ticket, but he looked like he was trying too hard to be the frontrunner. To step back and let the others fight. Kinda like Hillary has in every Democratic debate. There's just one problem with that strategy for ol' Mitt. HE IS NOT THE FRONTRUNNER. Or, at least not enough to sit back and wait. From all I've seen, Rudy is leading this thing so far. Of course, Howard Dean was leading by a wide margin at this time in the 2004 race, so polls don't mean anything. Still, Romney is a Mormon, has flipflopped more than John Kerry and is from Massachusetts. Obviously, many Republicans in the BIble Belt would have a hard time voting for him.

— Mike Huckabee would be a solid candidate for the Republicans. I know, you're saying "Mike who?" But this Gov. of Arkansas once lost more than 100 pounds. He is humorous, likable, and seems to have his priorities, and his stump speech down pat. It's a shame he won't get a second look by a lot of GOP voters, because he may be one of the only chances to unseat Hillary. (See John Edwards.)

— Guiliani is not a traditional Republican, and therefore would not rally the base enough to pull off an upset of Hillary. Sure, that 9/11 talk does fire up the base, and boy does he love to pull it out, but the Christian Right would never support fervently a pro-choice candidate.

— Fred Thompson is a joke. A tall, jowly joke. But a joke, nonetheless. Whoever thought it was a good idea for him to run must have thought voting for the Presidency was a lot like voting for Emmys, someting I'm not so sure Thompson deserves in the first place. In every movie or TV series he has ever been in, he has played the same character, and he was still playing it on the stage last night. But his wife is hot...30 years younger than him, but hot, nonetheless.

All of this leads me to...

— John McCain as my choice. Long ago and far away, before I went to college, I was a major supporter of McCain. The year was 2000, and he was tearing through the Republican primaries. Then came South Carolina, and the shenanigans Bush pulled to get that state, and eventually the White House. I loved McCain then. Fresh out of high school, I was perhaps naive enough to believe in the "Straight talk express." Fast-forward 8 years... McCain has been throttled in the press and among voters for selling out to the Bush regime. But he is still a principled man that spent five years in a prison camp for his country. That would be a hard thing to argue for the Democrats, especially for Clinton. And he looked like it again last night. I think his selling out days may be behind him.
McCain had the best line of the night, when talking about Clinton's support for a Woodstock Museum, he said he was "tied up at the time." alluding to his time in the camp. He can do this all year long. And he was the only one on the stage that had that Presidential look. He has the charisma, respect and knowledge to go toe-to-toe with Clinton on the campaign trail and at the debates. That's something that no other Republican can say.
If the Republicans want to throw out a sacrificial lamb for Clinton to devour, they will run Guiliani, Thompson or Romney. If they want to win, they will run McCain.

If the race came down to McCain and Edwards, I would have a hard time choosing. But it won't.

Wait till next year!!!

As you have seen from this blog recently, while my colleagues have been busy with the Sanford muni elections, I have not written anything remotely political.
Basically, that is because I am not covering any of the races intensively yet. Gordon covers city council, so he has the insight to write about the heated Wright-Stone race. Me, well, I don't know much about either candidate, although I did attend Monday's Forum.
Oh, but 2008 will be an entirely different story! As a Cubs fan would say, just wait until next year! There will be sooooooo many political topics to write about!
First, it's a Presidential election year, so there will be much to commnt on in that realm, especially if fellow Robbins boy John Edwards wins the nomination (I'm not counting on it!) I see Hilary-Obama versus Romney-Rice. Boy, what a choice...
Statewide, Easley is term-limited, meaning we will be picking a new governor. And Liddy Dole will be running against some dude (aka whomever the Dems can get to run against her).
Oh yeah, and there will be some sacrificial lamb that will challenge Bob Etheridge, the only tobacco farmer in congress.
And oh, the local elections we'll have. Seats currently held by Commissioners Ed Paschal, Jerry Lemmond, Bob Brown and Kirk Smith will be up for grabs, as well as several seats on the board of education. We will also have the sales tax referendum on the May ballot, and may have a countywide alcohol sales referendum and a referendum on a bond to renovate Lee County High School. If we don't, those issues will likely be a focal point of both the commission and school board races.
Next year should be fun. I can't wait! Until then, you guys will have to suffer through weekend tales and car blogs. And I'll leave the politics to Gordon.

While we are on the subject...

I love cars. No, I mean, I really love cars. My dad always told me it was the curse of being an Owens. We have a sweet spot in our soul for anything on four wheels...and even some two-wheelers (my dad has an extensive collection on old bicycles for some reason.) I think it has more to do with being male...

Here are some of the cars I am excited about for 2008, and beyond. As I said earlier, I'll never be able to afford any of these...
2008

BMW 1-Series


The Germans have been talking about this one for a while now, but the cheaper, smaller 1-series has been delayed so many times it looked to be dead. Back in 1995, BMW made a 318ti, a hatchback that was supposed to usher in a line of cheaper beamers. It never happened.
I don't know, though. If I am going to buy a BMW, I would want to spend the extra $10,000 and get a nice one...

BMW M3


...LIKE THIS ONE! The M3 and the 1958 Carolina Blue Corvette have always been my dream cars. The 2008 edition only confirms that. Just looking at this thing gives me chills.

Chevy Silverado


There's not really much new about the 2008 model after a complete redesign in 2007. But as a Chevy man (I think my dad has had a Silverado in one form or another since before I was born) I have to give a nod to this one. Just look at that picture. It reminds me of two things: 1) the radio-controlled truck I had, named Black Thunder, as a kid that would go about anywhere I wanted it to; and 2) the big truck Marty McFly gets as a birthday gift in Back to the Future. Both of those, along with all my dad's trucks, set the precedent for me as a kid. Chevy trucks are engrained in me.

Nissan Rogue

Talk about extremes. But there is just something about this little thing that I like. I haven't seen one in person yet, but the ads are cool. I wouldn't buy one for myself (I already have a Honda Element that I can't get rid of) but I just like these things. Maybe I'll buy my wife one. Oh, wait. I'm not married. And I have no money...

Porsche 911

A Porsche 911 is supposedly the most perfect car built, so long as maintenance and repair is not an issue. On pure handling and speed, it supposedly does not get any better than a 911. Of course, I say supposedly, because I've only driven one in my life. It was my dad's lawyer's and I had barely turned 16, so the speed limit was my limit. Still, above is an exciting design. Porsche had gotten into a bad habit recently of making all their cars look exactly the same, from the Cayenne to the Boxster. I hate it when companies do that. My beloved BMW has a tendency of making that mistake from time to time...

BEYOND
2009 Camaro Convertible

You got a sneak peak of this bad boy in Transformers, but just look at this thing. The mix of retro styiling and modern cues is amazing. Plus, it's good to see the Chevy muscle car back. The convertible version is slated for a late 2009 release, and I swear if I hit the lottery by then I will be the first in line. This thing is bad...

2012 Corvette

Every year a new corvette comes out, it is always the car design event of the year, and I am sure that the 2012 release of the C7 (Seventh version of the Corvette) will no different. I am not really ready for a change yet though. I think Chevy hit it out of the park with the current design, though I guess in five years that will be old news, too. Plus, I think Chevy learned a lot from its mistake with the C4 (The 1980's vette, which lingered way too far into the 1990's causing the brand to lose a lot of fans to the Dodge Viper and it's breathren).
My excitement is muted, however, by the fact that the only 'vette I'll ever afford is a Chevette.

2008 Honda Accord

I just said something to our photographer, Brooke Wolfe, that I never thought I would say. I'm surfing the latest car styles on the internet, when I came across the new Honda Accord. I said out loud, "That new Honda Accord is hot!" Either I am getting old, or the Accord is getting much cooler. I think I am just getting old.



But it is a nice looking car. It looks a lot like the new Acura sedans, which make sense because Honda makes Acura. Still, I'd rather have a BMW 3-series.

Who am I kidding? I am going to be driving my current car until the wheels fall off or I die. And since it is a Honda, I'll probably die first...

Why do Latinos come to North Carolina?

The following story ran in Thursday's Herald. I have added a few facts and figures that, because of space constraints, were edited out.
--------------------------------
Hispanics in North Carolina
- In a state with one of the fastest growing Latino populations in the country, Lee County alone has seen a dramatic increase in that segment in the last three decades. In the 1980 census, Lee County had 300 Latino residents, or about .82 percent of its total population of 36,718. By 1990, there were 800 Latinos in Lee County, or about 1.9 percent of the 41,374 residents. And in 2000, the county had 5,715 Latino residents, 11 percent of the total population of 49,040.
- Don Kovasckitz of Lee County Strategic Services estimates that as of Wednesday, there were 12,163 Latinos in Lee County, or about 20 percent of the total population. His estimates come from rolls in the Lee County public school system and other sources, and includes both legal and undocumented residents.
- According to the U.S. Census, North Carolina had the fastest growing population of Hispanics in the U.S. during the 1990s — 394 percent — representing over 300,000 new residents. By 2006, the percentage of the state's population that defined themselves as Hispanic had grown to 6.4 percent, or around 566,000 residents.
- More than half of these new residents live along the state's urban crescent, the stretch from Charlotte to Raleigh along the Interstate 85 corridor, or around the state's major military bases such as Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune — areas that have experienced much of the state' employment growth in the past decade.
- The median age of Latinos in the state is around 25 years old, more than 10 years younger than that of the non-Hispanic residents.
- The number of Latino births in North Carolina increased seven-fold from 1990 to 2000, and more than 12 percent of the state's Hispanic population is under the age of five, more than double that of the non-Hispanic population.

By JONATHAN OWENS
owens@sanfordherald.com

SANFORD — There’s a rumor that somewhere along the U.S.-Mexican border stands a sign that points illegal immigrants directly to North Carolina.
Even if it’s not true, today’s Mexican immigrants don’t need directions to know where to go once they reach the United States. Simply put, many go where they can find work, and for several decades now that has been the Southeast — North Carolina in particular.
In recent decades, there has been a noticeable shift in Latino immigration patterns from border states such as California and Texas toward the southern part of the country, where low-skilled jobs in construction and agriculture are plentiful and promise immigrants a prosperous life unimaginable in their home countries.
Though Latino immigration to the Tar Heel State has origins in the 1970s and 1980s, the current trend saw its roots in the 1990s. The reasons for this influx are varied, but most follow the trend of the state’s overall economic growth.
Nolo Martinez, who was appointed by both Gov. Jim Hunt and Gov. Mike Easley to head up the state’s bureau of Hispanic Affairs, said Wednesday that “family reunification and economic opportunities are the most important reasons why Hispanics come to this state.”
Further, he said, it is somewhat of a cycle, wherein Latinos find jobs, then recruit other Latinos to work for that employer, which results in more and more immigration to the state.
“Higher demands from employers to expand operations required more workers doing heavy labor under difficult conditions at low pay,” he said. “Latinos are great recruiters of additional labor force. They help the bottom line of business in expansion. Good, low-pay workers that can also support each other.”

Recruiting immigrants
The Hispanic Liaison of Chatham County has been around for 20 years, and Director Iliana Dubester has witnessed the population boom firsthand in Siler City, which is about 40 percent Latino now.
She said Latinos are coming here first and foremost for jobs.
“This is not a traditional immigration state like Texas or California,” Dubester said. “Much like the rest of the Southeast and the heartland, Latinos are coming here for work. They wouldn’t have come here if there weren’t jobs, if there weren’t open doors.”
Dubester, who is Brazilian, said many Latinos have found out about North Carolina through active recruitment in Mexico. She said people are actively recruiting skilled and unskilled workers south of the border, promising them better pay and bonuses for people who bring more people with them.
She adds that despite the recruitment, illegal immigrants aren’t “taking jobs away” from Americans.
“To say they’re taking jobs away, then to look at our unemployment figures, it doesn’t match,” she said.
Dubester said she doesn’t promote illegal immigration, but she doesn’t approve of the way illegal immigrants are treated once they’re working in the U.S.
“There’s been a failure of congress to pass immigration reform,” she said. “Being undocumented is much more risky than it used to be. In order to deport the 12 million people who are in this country illegally, though, you’d have to deport 1,000 people a day for the next 30 years. Instead, we’re at a point where we’re driving the underprivileged down even further. If people here are fearful of contact with police departments, then crime goes unreported. People aren’t cooperating.
“This is happening all over the state. We’re not wanted, we’re hated and we’re hunted here,” she added. “The state is sending a mixed message — we’ll give you work, but you have to live in the shadows.”

Higher birth rates
Another reason for the increase in Latinos in North Carolina can also be attributed to high birth rates. According to the CDC, North Carolina had the highest fertility rates in the nation for Mexican mothers (the largest segment of Latino immigrants) in 2000, with 181 births per 1,000 Mexican women ages 15 to 44 in this state, amounting to about 16,000 births.
Carolyn Spivey, executive director of the Coalition for Families in Lee County, a non-profit that deals directly with teen pregnancy prevention, said the instances of Latino teen pregnancy is significantly higher than that of non-Latinos. She attributes that fact more to cultural differences than anything else, including an aversion to birth control methods, although she could not say whether there was a religious basis for it.
“Typically, Latinos get married and have children at a much younger age in their native countries,” she said. “It is more accepted not to graduate high school.”
She said with acculturation, that rate usually slows. First generation immigrants, she said, are much more likely to get pregnant earlier than those whose families have been in the country for more than one generation.
Lee County Director of Public Health Mike Hanes agreed with that assessment.
“There is much more cultural influence to start a family early,” he said. “It’s not out of the norm for early pregnancies to happen here, because they bring their culture here.”

Economics drive immigration
Hanes said, though, that immigration into the area is a much larger reason for the population boom than birth rates. He pointed to the vast disparity between wages in Mexico and the United States, which is higher that between any other neighboring countries in the world.
“I’d say that economics are the first, second and third reasons for the Hispanic population increase,” he said.
Martinez said he doesn’t see an end in sight to the stream of immigrants coming to this state to find work and a better life. As long as the state grows, its Latino population will likely grow as well.
“Immigration is America,” Martinez said. “North Carolina needs to continue to invest on immigration and less on isolation. You can outsource high-tech jobs, but workers from India cannot mow your lawn or do other low-skill work that we Americans choose not to do. “

My tummy hurts..

Never eat the Speedy Gonzales at San Felipe before noon...I'm just saying.

A weekend down east

So basically, I gave up a chance to see my beloved Tar Heels pull off a win over Miami this weekend to take in my first football game at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville with my realtor/good friend/biggest Pirate I know - Jeff Stallings. Here are a few observations from a weekend of beer, football and, well, beer.

- ECU has a lot of women. OK, so for three years now, Jeff has been telling me how many more women are in Greenville than Chapel Hill. I always scoffed at this notion, though. Come on. UNC has a 70-30 female to male ratio. Of course, I never really got to take advantage of that, since I had a girlfriend all through college (Yes, I was that guy, although without that girlfriend I probably would not have graduated... so I guess God knows what he's doing after all).
But Jeff was right. There are way too many girls in Greenville. Of course, now, at 27, I am too old to take advantage. I am now the old creepy guy at the game to them. My timing is impeccable.

- ECU has a kickass team entrance. Again, Jeff has been touting this for years, and he was right about this one, too. It was awesome. A pirate comes out of a ship. There are cannons. It's exciting.

- The Pirates know how to tailgate. So all Saturday Jeff was telling me how disappointed he was in the tailgating crowd, but it was much better than anything I ever saw at Chapel Hill. I love Carolina, but we do have a bit of a wine and cheese crowd. Maybe it has something to do with us being a basketball school. It's hard to tailgate in 20 degree weather. But that may be changing with Butch in charge.

- Some ECU fans have a bit of an inferiority complex...Whenever someone asked me where I went to school and I said Carolina (and it happened a lot, probably because I was one of the only people in a sea of purple and gold with a light blue shirt on), they would automatically launch into a diatribe about how badly Carolina treats ECU. And every complaint would have a "Y'all", as in "Y'all didn't wants us to have a Medical school" or "Y'all tried to keep us from getting a dental school" or "Y'all don't want us in the ACC" or "Y'all didn't want to play us" or "We kicked y'all's asses this year."
For the record, I have never made a single decision on the academic or athletic pursuits of either college. And I didn't take a single down in that game earlier this year where we lost by 3 points...Hardly an ass-kicking.
Finally, one fan asked me how I liked my visit in Greenville, with a smirk as if to say it was 10 times better than anything in Chapel Hill. My response? "Y'all got a nice little school down here" with an equally condescending smirk. He didn't like that.

- I am still a Tar Heel.. I would trade all the cannons and girls in Greenville for the sight of a beautiful, pristine Carolina blue Saturday in Kenan Stadium, with the Bell Tower looking over you as the Tar Heels blast out of the tunnel with Hell's Bells playing.

- And the town of Greenville has got nothing on Chapel Hill. When I die, I hope they bury me in Chapel Hill, under one of those big poplars in Polk Place. God I miss that place. It's the closest to heaven that I'll ever be.

- I'm getting too old for this. When I say I miss that place, I mean Chapel Hill, not college. College was fun, but it had it's time and place. And though I am not allergic to a good time, I wouldn't go back for the world.
It's weird, but in high school and college, I ate, drank and slept Carolina athletics. Now, I still pay attention and want us to win. But I don't have that same fire anymore. I have new stuff to worry about. I love Roy Williams, but he ain't going to pay my car payment for me.
Growing up sucks. Or does it?

I had a good time in Greenville, though. It was a great game, and I even bought a t-shirt, along with one for my roommate (an ECU alum) to repay him for a run-in he had with a redneck this weekend on my behalf. And thanks to Jeff for taking me down there.

A mysterious benefactor???

Near the end of a long and very productive Lee County Commissioners meeting Monday morning (at least stories will be in tomorrow's paper from it,) Board Chairman Bob Brown alerted his fellow commissioners that the county may have found a "rich uncle" so to speak, eager to help out at least one of the county's 24 departments.

It seems Brown and County Manager John Crumpton were contacted last week by the law firm of Helms, Mulliss and Wicker, who said one of the firms clients, who wished to remain anonymous, plans to donate a significant amount of real property to a county park which the land joins soon. The law firm asked the board to confirm its interest in the property through a vote, which the commission did, even though they don't knwo where it is.

Actually, Crumpton and Brown know who plans to donate the land, and where it is. But they are not talking, because the benefactor hopes to remain anonymous through the process.
Which leads me to speculate a little as to the location. The only clues Crumpton would give is that the property would connect several tracts of land the park currently owns and that it would significantly reduce traffic and safety concerns there...Hmm...

My guess is SanLee Park...Or maybe O.T. Sloan...Or it could be at Dalrymple...

I give. I guess we'll have to wait until Oct. 15 at 3 p.m., the commission's next meeting, to learn more...