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Monday: Snow day (again?)
posted at 2009-03-02 21:05 | Last modified 2009-03-03 10:08
Wilhelm’s Snow Day
Tom Gillespie at the NC Zoo took this picture of resident polar bear Wilhelm enjoying the snow. Wilhelm’s been taken off exhibit due to health problems, but his keepers let him outside today to enjoy the late-season snowfall. How can you look at this without smiling?
Still, it’s a bittersweet smile. Wilhelm is seriously ill. He was rescued from a roadside zoo traveling circus in Puerto Rico in 2002, when he was 16. Gillespie says the keepers and vets at the NC Zoo have done everything they possibly can for him, but they can’t undo the cumulative effects of years of neglect, mistreatment, and malnutrition. The 24-year-old bear suffers from arthritis, skin infections, and a host of other health problems that make it uncertain whether he’ll live to see another winter.
Like all of Wilhelm's fans, I’m crossing my fingers. And gripe as I might about early March snow in NC, there’s a big part of me that’s just happy he got to play in the white stuff one more time.
Bad news on the way?
Governor Bev Perdue said today she’s close to announcing her list of cuts for this budget and her recommendations for the next biennium. Meantime, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp posted his list of proposed cuts. While specific position names have been redacted, I suspect most of the affected employees can figure it out. In his message to the university today, Thorp stressed that the list is only theoretical for now. But given the state’s slumping revenues, it’s hard to imagine how the university system will escape with anything less than a 7% cut.
Give it back, then
BOA CEO Ken Lewis told the Financial Times today he “regrets” accepting (so much) federal assistance in acquiring Merrill Lynch, a move he referred to as “a tactical mistake.” Lewis says he’ll stay on long enough to pay the money back. More at Bloomberg.
You can’t help but wonder to what extent his regret arose from today's news that his salary package is being cut by 60%. How will Lewis scrape by on a measly $9.6M? Stay tuned to find out.
Tomorrow’s rally
NC4Marriage holds an anti-gay marriage rally out back on the mall at 11am. According to the most recent voter issues rankings I could find (PPP, 9/08), 9% of all respondents chose “moral and family values” as their top issue, compared to 64% who picked “the economy and jobs.” The latter probably hasn’t lost any ground since Sept., and traditional marriage isn’t under any NC court challenge at the moment, so I find myself wondering what the point is. GOP legislative leaders apparently don’t get it, either: the topic they’ve chosen for tomorrow morning’s weekly press conference is Medicaid fraud, not gay marriage.
Comments? Drop me a line.
