. . . it does. That poor child.
Tell me again that we do not occasionally NEED the death penalty in North Carolina . . . and that perhaps we should use at least use firing squads instead of doctors and needles.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Randolph Hospital And The Courier-Tribune In Asheboro, North Carolina: Breaking Faith
Enjoying a little time off, I had planned to let my post on "The Christmas Cross" sit a few days.
But there was an interesting Sunday Editorial in the Greensboro N&R on the fall of Mike Easley (as you might remember, the N&R endorsed Mr. Sleaze every chance they got):
"The people of North Carolina have a right to expect lawful conduct by their elected leaders or those who seek positions of power. Easley broke faith with the public — not with wholesale corruption but in ways that revealed a sense of entitlement, a desire to make the office serve himself and his family rather than a devotion to serve the people".
Now, from my view from the cheap seats of public service, I think Easley, as an extention of the deep-blue Jim Hunt political machine, was DRENCHED in corruption . . . the Enronish kind that dresses well and dines at the Country Club.
(We in Asheboro know ALL about the wink & nod. Hey, ya think Keith Crisco can get Mike or Mary Sleazely a job at Pfeiffer too?)
I also think that the people of North Carolina have a right to expect lawful conduct by ANYONE who makes their living courtesy of the taxpayer's largess.
That would include the way-overpaid senior executives of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, North Carolina.
Not that it's a story the N&R would ever tell. Nope. They're far too beholding to the advertising dollars of the local healthcare system that once employed this guy to actually BE journalists and tell local stories.
As for the other "newspaper" serving Asheboro, We-the-wrong-People gave up on the Courier Tribune long ago.
So I'll have to pass on the tongue-in-cheek suggestions of several people over the weekend to apply for a position as one of Ray's guest-columnists.
He "broke the faith" when he sold his soul to Randolph for the tasty ordurbs.
But there was an interesting Sunday Editorial in the Greensboro N&R on the fall of Mike Easley (as you might remember, the N&R endorsed Mr. Sleaze every chance they got):
"The people of North Carolina have a right to expect lawful conduct by their elected leaders or those who seek positions of power. Easley broke faith with the public — not with wholesale corruption but in ways that revealed a sense of entitlement, a desire to make the office serve himself and his family rather than a devotion to serve the people".
Now, from my view from the cheap seats of public service, I think Easley, as an extention of the deep-blue Jim Hunt political machine, was DRENCHED in corruption . . . the Enronish kind that dresses well and dines at the Country Club.
(We in Asheboro know ALL about the wink & nod. Hey, ya think Keith Crisco can get Mike or Mary Sleazely a job at Pfeiffer too?)
I also think that the people of North Carolina have a right to expect lawful conduct by ANYONE who makes their living courtesy of the taxpayer's largess.
That would include the way-overpaid senior executives of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, North Carolina.
Not that it's a story the N&R would ever tell. Nope. They're far too beholding to the advertising dollars of the local healthcare system that once employed this guy to actually BE journalists and tell local stories.
As for the other "newspaper" serving Asheboro, We-the-wrong-People gave up on the Courier Tribune long ago.
So I'll have to pass on the tongue-in-cheek suggestions of several people over the weekend to apply for a position as one of Ray's guest-columnists.
He "broke the faith" when he sold his soul to Randolph for the tasty ordurbs.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Christmas Cross - Revisited
As a locums/independent contractor, a physician has considerably more freedom in deciding where and when he or she will work. For several years now, I've taken call on Thanksgiving in order to have Christmas off. If necessary, I'll take call on other holidays too. For Christmas is the ONLY holiday I care about being off all year long.
Because I am on-call, I don't do Black Friday. I find other things to occupy my time.
(I really, Really, REALLY wanted a set of Paula Dean cookware, but I happily paid full price on Grey Saturday to avoid everything that goes with getting the not-so-fantastic sale price.)
After a long day at the hospital on this Thanksgiving eve, I spent several hours beginning the re-work of a Christmas decoration I bought back in 2006. I finished the job on Black Friday.
It's called the Christmas Cross. It's a simple white wooden cross on a stand (mine is about 2 1/2 feet tall) - wrapped in white Christmas lights on white wire.
The Manger means NOTHING without the Cross.
It brought me great comfort in those first few Christmases without Pops. It had an amazing calming effect on me (and oddly enough, my animals - who would curl up under it) . . . and/so, when Christmas 2006 moved on to meet his 2005 brothers, I moved it to a corner of my bedroom to use in meditation and prayer.
But back in 2008, the year a black man was elected President of the United States, several left-wing blogs suddenly took issue with the Christmas Cross . . . likening displaying the lighted Cross to burning one on your front lawn - ala the KKK.
The mini-lights were "spikey", you see, and resembled flames. Anyone who did not see this had to be a "moron" . . . and a racist.
I found the premise, such as it was, offensive in the extreme and did blog-battle with "proud liberal Americans" on several of those threads . . . most notably (at least locally) engaging Joe Killian at the N&R's "Front Pew". To this day, I think Killian was grand-standing in a punkish way - anything for the statcounter at the N&R.
(When you think about it, it's very Ethan Feinsilver.)
I also posted a rebuttal on Housecalls.
The saddest thing about all this to me is that the woman who came up with this idea (a Winston-Salem native) was, by all reports, a devout Christian and had nothing but the best of intentions. She gave a portion of her profits to charity. I've searched and searched online this year, but can find no vendor selling the Cross.
In short, it appears that the faux-traumatized lefty bloggers got their way and killed her little business . . . and her dream of helping people put Christ back in Christmas . . . not-to-mention whatever good her charitable contributions were doing.
It's bothered me ever since.
Last year, I resolved to re-work my Christmas Cross - by adding blue lights (the lights on my tree are blue LED's) . . . in an effort to perhaps make it less "offensive" to those fragile beings who might suffer PTSD symptoms from Christmas lights. Alas, I started the project after the holidays, and was not able to find the lights I wanted - vendors were all sold out. I put it all aside to work on this year when the season rolled back around.
This year, in re-working the Cross, I started out with LED blue & white lights on a white wire (the LED's, ordered online, cost me a small fortune). But the lights were spaced six inches apart - which gave you more wire than lights on the Cross. And when the Cross was plugged in, you could see the thing from space. It was WAY too much.
It would blind the baby Jesus Himself.
I stripped the Cross bare again, and settled on side-by-side staggered strands of blue and white mini-lights (only 2 inches apart). It took forever to get the thing re-wrapped, but I think makes for a nice effect. It has more lights, but a much softer glow.
And somehow, quite by accident, I managed to string/connect the lights in such a fashion that if I unplug one plug, the cross goes from bright blue & white to a very luminous, ethereal blue.
I told a good friend of mine . . . a nurse who has staffed the hospital nursery where I currently work FOREVER - and who happens to be black . . . about all my contortions to re-fashion a Christmas decoration that I was DETERMINED to display less "offensive" to those who could only see the burn.
She is old enough to have seen burning crosses - or to have known/loved someone who did.
I asked her, quite earnestly, if there was something I was not getting. As corny as it sounds, she really is like a Mama-away-from-home to me. She fusses over me - and feeds me - and drags me to community events she thinks I might enjoy (and I have enjoyed them - and sometimes learned something). I knew she would tell me the truth.
Honestly, I was surprised by her answer.
First, she thought the fuss that was made by all the indignant liberals two years ago was RIDICULOUS . . . commenting that the people who were doing the loudest complaining had never experienced the mind-numbing terror that came with a real cross burning in their front yard . . . and that it "took a whole lot of hate in your heart" to see a burning cross in a Christmas decoration . . . or to attribute evil intent (or mental deficit) to those who displayed it.
And second, maybe the people who saw crosses burning in mini-lights were the ones who actually needed a little psychiatric help.
Lastly, she commented that the fact I had been bothered by the fuss . . . and had gone to so much trouble . . . revealed that my own heart was in the right place, and maybe I needed to stop worrying about what the Cross-haters think.
Because they are going to HATE no matter what.
And so I have. The Christmas Cross will be displayed from my kitchen window this year. I think it will be a nice change of pace from "the ball wars" on Dave's Mountain.
I'm actually more worried now that people might fancy me a Duke fan.
And I am a Duke fan of sorts this year . . . but that's another story . . . involving another nurse . . . and something else to be very thankful for.
12/4 Update: My thanks to Dr. Joe Guarino for linking this post.
Because I am on-call, I don't do Black Friday. I find other things to occupy my time.
(I really, Really, REALLY wanted a set of Paula Dean cookware, but I happily paid full price on Grey Saturday to avoid everything that goes with getting the not-so-fantastic sale price.)
After a long day at the hospital on this Thanksgiving eve, I spent several hours beginning the re-work of a Christmas decoration I bought back in 2006. I finished the job on Black Friday.
It's called the Christmas Cross. It's a simple white wooden cross on a stand (mine is about 2 1/2 feet tall) - wrapped in white Christmas lights on white wire.
The Manger means NOTHING without the Cross.
It brought me great comfort in those first few Christmases without Pops. It had an amazing calming effect on me (and oddly enough, my animals - who would curl up under it) . . . and/so, when Christmas 2006 moved on to meet his 2005 brothers, I moved it to a corner of my bedroom to use in meditation and prayer.
But back in 2008, the year a black man was elected President of the United States, several left-wing blogs suddenly took issue with the Christmas Cross . . . likening displaying the lighted Cross to burning one on your front lawn - ala the KKK.
The mini-lights were "spikey", you see, and resembled flames. Anyone who did not see this had to be a "moron" . . . and a racist.
I found the premise, such as it was, offensive in the extreme and did blog-battle with "proud liberal Americans" on several of those threads . . . most notably (at least locally) engaging Joe Killian at the N&R's "Front Pew". To this day, I think Killian was grand-standing in a punkish way - anything for the statcounter at the N&R.
(When you think about it, it's very Ethan Feinsilver.)
I also posted a rebuttal on Housecalls.
The saddest thing about all this to me is that the woman who came up with this idea (a Winston-Salem native) was, by all reports, a devout Christian and had nothing but the best of intentions. She gave a portion of her profits to charity. I've searched and searched online this year, but can find no vendor selling the Cross.
In short, it appears that the faux-traumatized lefty bloggers got their way and killed her little business . . . and her dream of helping people put Christ back in Christmas . . . not-to-mention whatever good her charitable contributions were doing.
It's bothered me ever since.
Last year, I resolved to re-work my Christmas Cross - by adding blue lights (the lights on my tree are blue LED's) . . . in an effort to perhaps make it less "offensive" to those fragile beings who might suffer PTSD symptoms from Christmas lights. Alas, I started the project after the holidays, and was not able to find the lights I wanted - vendors were all sold out. I put it all aside to work on this year when the season rolled back around.
This year, in re-working the Cross, I started out with LED blue & white lights on a white wire (the LED's, ordered online, cost me a small fortune). But the lights were spaced six inches apart - which gave you more wire than lights on the Cross. And when the Cross was plugged in, you could see the thing from space. It was WAY too much.
It would blind the baby Jesus Himself.
I stripped the Cross bare again, and settled on side-by-side staggered strands of blue and white mini-lights (only 2 inches apart). It took forever to get the thing re-wrapped, but I think makes for a nice effect. It has more lights, but a much softer glow.
And somehow, quite by accident, I managed to string/connect the lights in such a fashion that if I unplug one plug, the cross goes from bright blue & white to a very luminous, ethereal blue.
I told a good friend of mine . . . a nurse who has staffed the hospital nursery where I currently work FOREVER - and who happens to be black . . . about all my contortions to re-fashion a Christmas decoration that I was DETERMINED to display less "offensive" to those who could only see the burn.
She is old enough to have seen burning crosses - or to have known/loved someone who did.
I asked her, quite earnestly, if there was something I was not getting. As corny as it sounds, she really is like a Mama-away-from-home to me. She fusses over me - and feeds me - and drags me to community events she thinks I might enjoy (and I have enjoyed them - and sometimes learned something). I knew she would tell me the truth.
Honestly, I was surprised by her answer.
First, she thought the fuss that was made by all the indignant liberals two years ago was RIDICULOUS . . . commenting that the people who were doing the loudest complaining had never experienced the mind-numbing terror that came with a real cross burning in their front yard . . . and that it "took a whole lot of hate in your heart" to see a burning cross in a Christmas decoration . . . or to attribute evil intent (or mental deficit) to those who displayed it.
And second, maybe the people who saw crosses burning in mini-lights were the ones who actually needed a little psychiatric help.
Lastly, she commented that the fact I had been bothered by the fuss . . . and had gone to so much trouble . . . revealed that my own heart was in the right place, and maybe I needed to stop worrying about what the Cross-haters think.
Because they are going to HATE no matter what.
And so I have. The Christmas Cross will be displayed from my kitchen window this year. I think it will be a nice change of pace from "the ball wars" on Dave's Mountain.
I'm actually more worried now that people might fancy me a Duke fan.
And I am a Duke fan of sorts this year . . . but that's another story . . . involving another nurse . . . and something else to be very thankful for.
12/4 Update: My thanks to Dr. Joe Guarino for linking this post.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Mike Easley And The N&O: A Case Study In The Perils Of Journalists Putting All Their Eggs In One Basket
As his newly-minted convicted-felon client slithered out the back door of the Courthouse, Joe Cheshire, lawyer to the cream of North Carolina's rotten crop, put on quite a show.
Today, the N&O's executive Editor, John Drescher, takes exception to some of Cheshire's not-so-finely-veiled swipes at the N&O (alleging that Sleazely was a victim of a rabid press . . . as opposed to his own demons - and his friends).
I posted a response:
I saw Joe Cheshire's Oscar-worthy performance after entering the GUILTY plea . . . delivered, very conveniently, as his client slipped out the back door ofthe whorehouse, excuse me, Courthouse, once again shielded from answering questions by another lawyer (the judge who threatened reporters with contempt charges if they pestered poor-put-upon-Sleazely).
My first thought was, "So much for the buck stopping at Easley's desk".
My second thought was, "I wonder if Joe is getting his normal hourly rate - because this show is spectacular!"
My third thought was, "For someone slamming the N&O, isn't it interesting that Joe isn't mentioning them by name? Could he be worried about libel?"
And my fourth thought was, "How many times did I BEG for help - in investigating and prosecuting other white-collar felons - from his client-now-a-felon? It sure explains a lot. But Mike's the "VICTIM" now?"
Here's the thing about the N&O "protesting too much" at this point in a game-that's-so-over: How many times have I/others on these boards BEGGED the N&O to spend some time investigating some of the corruption cases Mike Easley and Roy Cooper could not be bothered with (including mine)?
Cases where you do have the crimes spelled out in black and white of sworn Court documents?
The series on Easley was good reading - and there's no doubt in my mind he would not have been brought low (although hardly low enough) without the public pressure brought to bear by the N&O (and, as Agent Pierce points out, other stellar journalists).
But face it guys, THIS IS YOUR JOB. It's what newspapers are supposed to do - because you're our last/best defense. And, I'm sorry, for years, this newspaper (and others) lapped at Easley's feet like a bunch of drooling rat dogs. He could do no wrong.
And when wrong happened right under his nose, you looked the other way and wished the real victims well.
Our state government is riddled with the wink-&-nod-as-an-art-form (demonstrated by this pathetic Alford plea), and pay-to-play corruption BECAUSE our newspapers stopped doing their jobs long ago. Those of us who have been done way-beyond-dirty in real public service (the kind where you don't have all the perks and don't get rich) - and have PLEADED for the attention of some investigative journalists. . . have been spat upon and told that if we sue somebody, the N&O might take a look.
Well, I shouldn't have to sue somebody.
And instead of writing columns like this one (which gives Joe Cheshire . . . lawyer to the newly-minted-felon . . . way too much credence), maybe you-all could move on to the next story?
Because this one "IS" over. And I don't think you'll be getting that Pulitzer because there was no time to fit the crime.
Stop putting all your eggs in one basket.
We-The-People of North Carolina need some "good reporting" in other venues.
We're tired of the bold-faced lies/journalistic hypocrisy and the *&^%$#@! glass-pay-walls.
A comment (courtesy of "JPQuick") posted immediately after mine:
The value of the N&O varies in direct proportion to the quality of the invesigative reporting delivered by reporters and staff at this newspaper.
Reporting on Easley has been uncharacteristically accurate, but not very timely.
Easley represents only the most visible sign of a much greater culture of corruption that pervades North Carolina's political system.
The N&O's best shot at remaining relevant in the Internet age is to dig into stories that expose widespread fraud and graft in state government.
Mr. Drescher, do the state a favor and channel your righteous indignation into watchful righteousness in the name of a citizenry desperately in need of good government.
Amen, brother.
Meanwhile, over at the Courier Tribune, for $87/year, you can read all about "Lane and Lucy, Together at Last!"
Today, the N&O's executive Editor, John Drescher, takes exception to some of Cheshire's not-so-finely-veiled swipes at the N&O (alleging that Sleazely was a victim of a rabid press . . . as opposed to his own demons - and his friends).
I posted a response:
I saw Joe Cheshire's Oscar-worthy performance after entering the GUILTY plea . . . delivered, very conveniently, as his client slipped out the back door of
My first thought was, "So much for the buck stopping at Easley's desk".
My second thought was, "I wonder if Joe is getting his normal hourly rate - because this show is spectacular!"
My third thought was, "For someone slamming the N&O, isn't it interesting that Joe isn't mentioning them by name? Could he be worried about libel?"
And my fourth thought was, "How many times did I BEG for help - in investigating and prosecuting other white-collar felons - from his client-now-a-felon? It sure explains a lot. But Mike's the "VICTIM" now?"
Here's the thing about the N&O "protesting too much" at this point in a game-that's-so-over: How many times have I/others on these boards BEGGED the N&O to spend some time investigating some of the corruption cases Mike Easley and Roy Cooper could not be bothered with (including mine)?
Cases where you do have the crimes spelled out in black and white of sworn Court documents?
The series on Easley was good reading - and there's no doubt in my mind he would not have been brought low (although hardly low enough) without the public pressure brought to bear by the N&O (and, as Agent Pierce points out, other stellar journalists).
But face it guys, THIS IS YOUR JOB. It's what newspapers are supposed to do - because you're our last/best defense. And, I'm sorry, for years, this newspaper (and others) lapped at Easley's feet like a bunch of drooling rat dogs. He could do no wrong.
And when wrong happened right under his nose, you looked the other way and wished the real victims well.
Our state government is riddled with the wink-&-nod-as-an-art-form (demonstrated by this pathetic Alford plea), and pay-to-play corruption BECAUSE our newspapers stopped doing their jobs long ago. Those of us who have been done way-beyond-dirty in real public service (the kind where you don't have all the perks and don't get rich) - and have PLEADED for the attention of some investigative journalists. . . have been spat upon and told that if we sue somebody, the N&O might take a look.
Well, I shouldn't have to sue somebody.
And instead of writing columns like this one (which gives Joe Cheshire . . . lawyer to the newly-minted-felon . . . way too much credence), maybe you-all could move on to the next story?
Because this one "IS" over. And I don't think you'll be getting that Pulitzer because there was no time to fit the crime.
Stop putting all your eggs in one basket.
We-The-People of North Carolina need some "good reporting" in other venues.
We're tired of the bold-faced lies/journalistic hypocrisy and the *&^%$#@! glass-pay-walls.
A comment (courtesy of "JPQuick") posted immediately after mine:
The value of the N&O varies in direct proportion to the quality of the invesigative reporting delivered by reporters and staff at this newspaper.
Reporting on Easley has been uncharacteristically accurate, but not very timely.
Easley represents only the most visible sign of a much greater culture of corruption that pervades North Carolina's political system.
The N&O's best shot at remaining relevant in the Internet age is to dig into stories that expose widespread fraud and graft in state government.
Mr. Drescher, do the state a favor and channel your righteous indignation into watchful righteousness in the name of a citizenry desperately in need of good government.
Amen, brother.
Meanwhile, over at the Courier Tribune, for $87/year, you can read all about "Lane and Lucy, Together at Last!"
Friday, November 26, 2010
Mike Easley As A Cautionary Tale For Asheboro's "Right People" And Ray Criscoe's Courier Tribune
The Winston-Salem Journal has a SPOT-ON column today on the fall of Mike Easley.
Those "right people" in Asheboro, hearing only the "yeses", and hiding behind silence and their glass pay walls would do well to heed the warning in the story.
Those "right people" in Asheboro, hearing only the "yeses", and hiding behind silence and their glass pay walls would do well to heed the warning in the story.
Some Dark Facts On Black Friday About Medicine In North Carolina
Kevin MD has a post up featuring the top healthcare news of this Black Friday.
Story Number Two - from MedPage Today - cites a retrospective study done by Dr. Christopher Landrigan in Boston on iatrogenic (physician/system-caused) harm in hospitals - specifically North Carolina hospitals. The report was featured in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine:
A decade after the Institute of Medicine's report cataloging iatrogenic injury, harm resulting from medical care is still common with few signs of improvement . . .
Here's the part that got me laughing:
Landrigan and his colleagues retrospectively reviewed medical records from a random sample of 10 hospitals in North Carolina. That state was chosen because it has been highly involved in efforts to improve patient safety.
When I stopped laughing and started to seethe, I dropped a comment at Kevin's:
An observation from the trenches in the real world:
Regarding #2 – and the article’s comments about North Carolina being on the forefront of improving patient safety (sounds like a press release from the Medical Board), I had to laugh out loud.
It might be easier to get doctors to report medical mistakes and “sentinel events” and other bad doctors – if we were not professionally eviscerated (in my case by a “non-profit”) for doing it . . .
. . . AND IF, in North Carolina, we-who-have-been-eviscerated could get some substantive HELP from all those sanctimonious-regulatory-bodies-pontificating-about-patient-safety when we really need it.
Right now, in North Carolina, “non-profits” (particularly “non-profit hospitals”) suffer ZERO oversight of anything that they/their executives do . . . courtesy of a disinterested Secretary-of-State (Elaine Marshall – who just lost her bid to a U.S. Senator) and Attorney General (Roy Cooper).
It’s a black hole.
Meanwhile, just this week, our ex-Governor, Mike Easley (a man I begged for help) pled guilty to a FELONY after a two-year corruption probe.
Tell me again that North Carolina is at the forefront of anything but the manufacturing of sleaze.
Story Number 3 at Kevin's (on the safety of TSA scanners at airports) also caught my attention, simply because my brother is a commercial airline pilot.
He is working on this Thanksgiving holiday - as am I - so Big Sister called Little Brother on Thanksgiving eve. Ironically, he was at a hotel in Norfolk, just a hop, skip & jump from where I am working right now.
(With mirth in his voice): What do YOU want?
(Sweetly) "Hello Little Brother, I am concerned. How many times this month have you been felt up by a extraordinarily large man-in-black wearing latex gloves?
(Not printable.)
"Ouch. Well, Okie-dokie then. What about the unnecessary irradiation of your gonads?"
(Laughter. More unprintables.)
Happy Thanksgiving, readers. And safe travels.
Story Number Two - from MedPage Today - cites a retrospective study done by Dr. Christopher Landrigan in Boston on iatrogenic (physician/system-caused) harm in hospitals - specifically North Carolina hospitals. The report was featured in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine:
A decade after the Institute of Medicine's report cataloging iatrogenic injury, harm resulting from medical care is still common with few signs of improvement . . .
Here's the part that got me laughing:
Landrigan and his colleagues retrospectively reviewed medical records from a random sample of 10 hospitals in North Carolina. That state was chosen because it has been highly involved in efforts to improve patient safety.
When I stopped laughing and started to seethe, I dropped a comment at Kevin's:
An observation from the trenches in the real world:
Regarding #2 – and the article’s comments about North Carolina being on the forefront of improving patient safety (sounds like a press release from the Medical Board), I had to laugh out loud.
It might be easier to get doctors to report medical mistakes and “sentinel events” and other bad doctors – if we were not professionally eviscerated (in my case by a “non-profit”) for doing it . . .
. . . AND IF, in North Carolina, we-who-have-been-eviscerated could get some substantive HELP from all those sanctimonious-regulatory-bodies-pontificating-about-patient-safety when we really need it.
Right now, in North Carolina, “non-profits” (particularly “non-profit hospitals”) suffer ZERO oversight of anything that they/their executives do . . . courtesy of a disinterested Secretary-of-State (Elaine Marshall – who just lost her bid to a U.S. Senator) and Attorney General (Roy Cooper).
It’s a black hole.
Meanwhile, just this week, our ex-Governor, Mike Easley (a man I begged for help) pled guilty to a FELONY after a two-year corruption probe.
Tell me again that North Carolina is at the forefront of anything but the manufacturing of sleaze.
Story Number 3 at Kevin's (on the safety of TSA scanners at airports) also caught my attention, simply because my brother is a commercial airline pilot.
He is working on this Thanksgiving holiday - as am I - so Big Sister called Little Brother on Thanksgiving eve. Ironically, he was at a hotel in Norfolk, just a hop, skip & jump from where I am working right now.
(With mirth in his voice): What do YOU want?
(Sweetly) "Hello Little Brother, I am concerned. How many times this month have you been felt up by a extraordinarily large man-in-black wearing latex gloves?
(Not printable.)
"Ouch. Well, Okie-dokie then. What about the unnecessary irradiation of your gonads?"
(Laughter. More unprintables.)
Happy Thanksgiving, readers. And safe travels.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Something Else To Be Thankful For
In the wake of Mike Sleazely's pathetic Alford plea (now he says he can't pay the bulk of the Board of Election's $100,000 fine) . . . and with the Feds now investigating the mess his administration made of North Carolina's crumbling mental health system (the situation in Asheboro being a case in point) . . . AND with Attorney General Roy Cooper now re-posturing (about a decade too late) to legislate the creation of state-level investigative grand juries to probe public corruption, friends and I conversing in various phone-calls-across-the-miles today have decided that I should be grateful for something else . . .
. . . that the lying, overpaid scumbags-in-suits who did me way-beyond-wrong at Randolph Hospital committed the one white-collar crime that does not have a statute-of-limitations.
Every time you lie-under-Oath is another felony count. Non-profiteers Morrison and Eblin make our former Governor look like a saint.
It's just a matter of time. And all the glass-pay-walls in the world are not going to help them.
. . . that the lying, overpaid scumbags-in-suits who did me way-beyond-wrong at Randolph Hospital committed the one white-collar crime that does not have a statute-of-limitations.
Every time you lie-under-Oath is another felony count. Non-profiteers Morrison and Eblin make our former Governor look like a saint.
It's just a matter of time. And all the glass-pay-walls in the world are not going to help them.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Thankful
A year ago, a young member of our extended family was diagnosed with a rare and very-difficult-to-treat subtype of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. This year, she is in remission and wearing strange outfits.
We are THANKFUL for her fashion sense and God's grace.
We are THANKFUL for her fashion sense and God's grace.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
On Mike Easley's Alford Plea: "The Two Americas" Strikes Again
Done with rounds at the hospital, I came home for the show.
I am sitting here in my apartment, far from Asheboro, watching MikeSleazely Easley (on WRAL-TV), our former Attorney General and then-two term Governor of North Carolina, plead GUILTY (actually, it's what's called an Alford plea - a mealy-mouthed deal in which the CRIMINAL enters a guilty plea but does not admit the act and asserts his/her innocence) to a felony in state Court.
Of course, being a "right person" (he's wearing a bright blue tie - with stripes), Sleazely will not be doing any time. He'll pay a $1000 fine. No community service. No probation. The Feds are walking away (of course, their case took a big blow earlier in the year).
The prosecutor and judge are putting on quite-the-show minimizing Easley's actions . . . "good lawyers" worked honorably and professionally to come to a resolution.
It really IS hard not to vomit.
As they do this, they KNOW the people of North Carolina are watching . . . and that we are very, Very, VERY angry. And their voices are cracking and trembling as they posture.
This piece-of-crap - this convicted FELON - was the Attorney General of North Carolina back in 1998 (and, as such, the North Carolina Department of Human Services' Attorney) when, while in service to the National Health Service Corps and the N.C. Office of Rural Health, I found myself under siege and my life/practice in my hometown reduced to shambles by a "non-profit" hospital in North Carolina for the horrible, awful sin of picking up a phone in the middle-of-the-night and answering a terrified nurse's call for help.
According to the North Carolina Medical Board and JCAHO and N.C./U.S. Departments of Health & Human Services and American Board of Pediatrics (the topic of an upcoming post) and American Medical Association, and EVERY other medical regulatory body under the American sun, I DID MY DUTY.
By ALL ACCOUNTS, I saved a critically-ill child's life. I defied the prior threats of Randolph Hospital executives, and reported what JCAHO would call a "sentinel event" the next day.
And for that, everything I had worked MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE to build was turned to ashes in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the arrogant, overpaid BULLIES who did me wrong kept collecting their very fat checks underwritten by the public . . . under the radar of a methodically OBLIVIOUS government . . . and protected from ANY kind of public scrutiny by a pair of in-the-tank local newspapers.
I BEGGED the NHSC and NC Office of Rural Health for help. Pleaded. Debased myself. And in the beginning, I was very, very nice. But Attorney General Mike Easley and his minions could not be bothered. It was nine months before ANYONE lifted a finger to enforce ANY part of my service agreements with the government . . . and even that took the intervention of Howard Coble . . . moreover, what little was done was far too little, far too late.
I got sued for telling the truth. The state and Federal governments turned a blind eye.
Later on, when I realized that I had been swindled at settlement by PERJURY, CONTEMPT and FRAUD . . . and having had Randolph County DA Garland Yates slam EVERY door in my face (without ANY kind of investigation) . . . not to mention Attorney Cooper Roy Cooper pretend I was not a doctor licensed-by-the-state - and never in public service . . . I found some small sliver of hope in Easley's public statements (as Governor) on ethics and fighting corruption.
So I wrote the Governor (and then-Lt. Governor Bev Perdue) . . . once again BEGGING for his help.
And once again, Mike Sleazely could not be bothered. The Governor could have changed my life with the snap of his finger. But "ethics" was only a political buzzword to be pulled out when being "the education Governor" - or bringing us the lottery - didn't keep the masses snowed.
The North Carolina justice system has NEVER been something Dr. Mary Johnson could count on. The state of North Carolina never gave a CRAP about her civil or "due process" rights (the case was just "too complicated") . . . but it has bent over backwards to accommodate poor, put-upon Mike Easley and his own "complex" case.
And the government is quite content to let Asheboro VIP's, Robert Morrison and Steve Eblin, totally skate on multiple counts of perjury.
Multiple FELONIES.
I am disgusted by what I am watching on television. No. That's not it. I'm seething. As I type this, Easley's attorney, Joe Cheshire, is sputtering and spewing and blaming the press for Mike (and Mary) Easley's troubles. It's all the evil N&O's fault.
After entering a GUILTY PLEA for his client, Cheshire has the UNMITIGATED GALL to talk about "the truth" and the lives of these fine public servants being "trashed".
(He's hitting all of Ed Cone's future talking points.)
Here's the thing, Mr. Cheshire. I may not be a lawyer. But I damned well know something about fighting corruption. I know ALL about a life spent in eternal limbo (twelve years as opposed to two) And, as a former public servant, I know something of being treated like trash - by the "leaders" of my own hometown - as they spew out of the other side of their mouths about "small town values". I also know something of resurrecting my life and career . . . after being publicly humiliated and legally eviscerated.
The BIG DIFFERENCE is that I've endured all of it for doing the right thing . . . only to be spat upon by fine, upstanding "honorables" like Mike Easley. But according to his attorney, we're supposed to WEEP for him and his family
And I can tell you, Mr. Cheshire, one thing with absolute certainty:
The TRUTH did not prevail here. This was a despicable compromise "verdict" - an easy out for all concerned. It saved the state that Mike Easley helped bankrupt untold millions in terms of prosecuting the case . . . and Mr. Easley (no "victim" by ANY stretch of the imagination) a massive attorney's fee, courtesy of your hourly rate - assuming you are charging it.
There's another thing I know for sure. "The Two Americas" is very much alive and well in North Carolina.
Wednesday Morning Update:
An offhand comment from a friend (not Buzz-of-the-Armfields) . . . and with apologies to anyone who might be "offended":
"Yeah, the North Carolina legal system and its honorable lawyers "worked" like a hot whore on a Saturday night for Mike Easley. Meanwhile, you've been locked out of the whorehouse."
I am sitting here in my apartment, far from Asheboro, watching Mike
Of course, being a "right person" (he's wearing a bright blue tie - with stripes), Sleazely will not be doing any time. He'll pay a $1000 fine. No community service. No probation. The Feds are walking away (of course, their case took a big blow earlier in the year).
The prosecutor and judge are putting on quite-the-show minimizing Easley's actions . . . "good lawyers" worked honorably and professionally to come to a resolution.
It really IS hard not to vomit.
As they do this, they KNOW the people of North Carolina are watching . . . and that we are very, Very, VERY angry. And their voices are cracking and trembling as they posture.
This piece-of-crap - this convicted FELON - was the Attorney General of North Carolina back in 1998 (and, as such, the North Carolina Department of Human Services' Attorney) when, while in service to the National Health Service Corps and the N.C. Office of Rural Health, I found myself under siege and my life/practice in my hometown reduced to shambles by a "non-profit" hospital in North Carolina for the horrible, awful sin of picking up a phone in the middle-of-the-night and answering a terrified nurse's call for help.
According to the North Carolina Medical Board and JCAHO and N.C./U.S. Departments of Health & Human Services and American Board of Pediatrics (the topic of an upcoming post) and American Medical Association, and EVERY other medical regulatory body under the American sun, I DID MY DUTY.
By ALL ACCOUNTS, I saved a critically-ill child's life. I defied the prior threats of Randolph Hospital executives, and reported what JCAHO would call a "sentinel event" the next day.
And for that, everything I had worked MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE to build was turned to ashes in a matter of days. Meanwhile, the arrogant, overpaid BULLIES who did me wrong kept collecting their very fat checks underwritten by the public . . . under the radar of a methodically OBLIVIOUS government . . . and protected from ANY kind of public scrutiny by a pair of in-the-tank local newspapers.
I BEGGED the NHSC and NC Office of Rural Health for help. Pleaded. Debased myself. And in the beginning, I was very, very nice. But Attorney General Mike Easley and his minions could not be bothered. It was nine months before ANYONE lifted a finger to enforce ANY part of my service agreements with the government . . . and even that took the intervention of Howard Coble . . . moreover, what little was done was far too little, far too late.
I got sued for telling the truth. The state and Federal governments turned a blind eye.
Later on, when I realized that I had been swindled at settlement by PERJURY, CONTEMPT and FRAUD . . . and having had Randolph County DA Garland Yates slam EVERY door in my face (without ANY kind of investigation) . . . not to mention Attorney Cooper Roy Cooper pretend I was not a doctor licensed-by-the-state - and never in public service . . . I found some small sliver of hope in Easley's public statements (as Governor) on ethics and fighting corruption.
So I wrote the Governor (and then-Lt. Governor Bev Perdue) . . . once again BEGGING for his help.
And once again, Mike Sleazely could not be bothered. The Governor could have changed my life with the snap of his finger. But "ethics" was only a political buzzword to be pulled out when being "the education Governor" - or bringing us the lottery - didn't keep the masses snowed.
The North Carolina justice system has NEVER been something Dr. Mary Johnson could count on. The state of North Carolina never gave a CRAP about her civil or "due process" rights (the case was just "too complicated") . . . but it has bent over backwards to accommodate poor, put-upon Mike Easley and his own "complex" case.
And the government is quite content to let Asheboro VIP's, Robert Morrison and Steve Eblin, totally skate on multiple counts of perjury.
Multiple FELONIES.
I am disgusted by what I am watching on television. No. That's not it. I'm seething. As I type this, Easley's attorney, Joe Cheshire, is sputtering and spewing and blaming the press for Mike (and Mary) Easley's troubles. It's all the evil N&O's fault.
After entering a GUILTY PLEA for his client, Cheshire has the UNMITIGATED GALL to talk about "the truth" and the lives of these fine public servants being "trashed".
(He's hitting all of Ed Cone's future talking points.)
Here's the thing, Mr. Cheshire. I may not be a lawyer. But I damned well know something about fighting corruption. I know ALL about a life spent in eternal limbo (twelve years as opposed to two) And, as a former public servant, I know something of being treated like trash - by the "leaders" of my own hometown - as they spew out of the other side of their mouths about "small town values". I also know something of resurrecting my life and career . . . after being publicly humiliated and legally eviscerated.
The BIG DIFFERENCE is that I've endured all of it for doing the right thing . . . only to be spat upon by fine, upstanding "honorables" like Mike Easley. But according to his attorney, we're supposed to WEEP for him and his family
And I can tell you, Mr. Cheshire, one thing with absolute certainty:
The TRUTH did not prevail here. This was a despicable compromise "verdict" - an easy out for all concerned. It saved the state that Mike Easley helped bankrupt untold millions in terms of prosecuting the case . . . and Mr. Easley (no "victim" by ANY stretch of the imagination) a massive attorney's fee, courtesy of your hourly rate - assuming you are charging it.
There's another thing I know for sure. "The Two Americas" is very much alive and well in North Carolina.
Wednesday Morning Update:
An offhand comment from a friend (not Buzz-of-the-Armfields) . . . and with apologies to anyone who might be "offended":
"Yeah, the North Carolina legal system and its honorable lawyers "worked" like a hot whore on a Saturday night for Mike Easley. Meanwhile, you've been locked out of the whorehouse."
Ray Criscoe's "Brand" Of Magic
You know, from far-Eastern North Carolina, peering over the Courier Tribune's glass pay wall, it's real nice to know that our-local-newspaper-Editor-clearly-fancying-himself-a-celebrity, Ray Criscoe and his family can enjoy all of the cultural events Asheboro has to offer.
It's so nice and up-lifting in these bad economic times that we get to hear all about that (well, not ALL about it, since I'm not going to pay $87/year for the privilege) . . . as opposed to hearing about some of this.
I mean, it's not like OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE isn't a problem in our own backyard.
I'm waiting for our ordurb-popping journalistic sell-out to style Mike Sleazely's guilty plea as some kind of well-deserved vacation.
Wednesday AM Update:
Worth-a-giggle omment from a friend who won't post it:
"I hear North Korea went all Sherman on South Korea yesterday too. But you wouldn't know it from reading the Courier Tribune!"
It's so nice and up-lifting in these bad economic times that we get to hear all about that (well, not ALL about it, since I'm not going to pay $87/year for the privilege) . . . as opposed to hearing about some of this.
I mean, it's not like OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE isn't a problem in our own backyard.
I'm waiting for our ordurb-popping journalistic sell-out to style Mike Sleazely's guilty plea as some kind of well-deserved vacation.
Wednesday AM Update:
Worth-a-giggle omment from a friend who won't post it:
"I hear North Korea went all Sherman on South Korea yesterday too. But you wouldn't know it from reading the Courier Tribune!"
Monday, November 22, 2010
On Mike Easley's Plea Deal
So. Let me get this straight. Ex-Governor Mike Sleazely's "deal" will allow him to plead GUILTY to a FELONY in state court, the Feds will cut him loose, he will get no jail time and retire with his pension?
He might lose his law license . . . but probably not . . . because his crimes probably won't "rise to the level" of offending the smug-dirtbags-in-suits running the N.C. State Bar.
HOW MANY YEARS DID I, AS A PHYSICIAN AND FORMER PUBLIC SERVANT FIRED FOR DOING MY DUTY AS DEFINED BY THE USELESS/WORTHLESS/TOOTHLESS NORTH CAROLINA MEDICAL BOARD, PLEAD FOR HELP FROM THIS LYING, THIEVING CRETIN (A FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL NO LESS) FOR HELP IN PROSECUTING OTHER LYING, THIEVING, CRETINS?
HOW MANY LETTERS DID I WRITE TO THIS CORRUPT, SCUM-SUCKING. PERPETUALLY-CONSTIPATED, PUBLIC LEACH . . . THIS PIECE OF CRAP-IN-A-BLUE-SUIT WHO TREATED ME LIKE I WAS A NOBODY?
I really can't say anymore. It's not printable.
He might lose his law license . . . but probably not . . . because his crimes probably won't "rise to the level" of offending the smug-dirtbags-in-suits running the N.C. State Bar.
HOW MANY YEARS DID I, AS A PHYSICIAN AND FORMER PUBLIC SERVANT FIRED FOR DOING MY DUTY AS DEFINED BY THE USELESS/WORTHLESS/TOOTHLESS NORTH CAROLINA MEDICAL BOARD, PLEAD FOR HELP FROM THIS LYING, THIEVING CRETIN (A FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL NO LESS) FOR HELP IN PROSECUTING OTHER LYING, THIEVING, CRETINS?
HOW MANY LETTERS DID I WRITE TO THIS CORRUPT, SCUM-SUCKING. PERPETUALLY-CONSTIPATED, PUBLIC LEACH . . . THIS PIECE OF CRAP-IN-A-BLUE-SUIT WHO TREATED ME LIKE I WAS A NOBODY?
I really can't say anymore. It's not printable.
"Trashboro" And Cancer
My spies behind the glass-pay-walls back home tell me that Randolph County Manager, Dick Wells, is all over newsprint and the airwaves again, talking up his plan to turn the east side of Asheboro into "The Big Five's" trash dump. I've said my peace before, and this morning don't feel like repeating myself.
But the story tripped a memory of a news report this time a year ago. Maybe a regional landfill IS just what Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison, needs to bump up business for the Armfiled Cancer Center. Economically speaking, I think it's called "strategic planning".
But the story tripped a memory of a news report this time a year ago. Maybe a regional landfill IS just what Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison, needs to bump up business for the Armfiled Cancer Center. Economically speaking, I think it's called "strategic planning".
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Common Ground . . . If Not A Common Cause
This was not a planned post, but was born, more-or-less, as a response to a comment left on the previous post (addressing Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison's, incomprehensible compensation package) by a local Housecalls reader going by the online moniker, "AW".
"AW" wants to bring attention to two alleged murder cases in Randolph County that he/she thinks were swept under the rug by Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates. They were too hot to handle.
While I'm sympathetic to the notion that the Asheboro's DA's office is INCAPABLE of conducting even the most rudimentary of investigations - much less a successful prosecution (be they concerning a murdered mailbox - or a cyber-stalker hurling threats into your Inbox - or two overpaid "non-profit" hosptial executives finishing their hatchet-job of your life and career in your own hometown by repeatedly lying under Oath) . . . I am not sure I want my situation or cause tied too tightly to AW's.
(As an aside, I really need to finish the story on the case of my murdered mailbox. Alas, it seems that it's the job of the Randolph County Sheriff's department - who really had this perpetrator handed to them on a silver platter - to negotiate terms on behalf of said law-breakers instead of advocate for the victims of crime.)
A someone else put it today, there's "quite a bit of mileage" between my case for perjury & fraud (as a Pediatrician and former public servant) against Randolph Hospital's senior executives and two alleged murder cases.
It's an apples and oranges thing . . . a whole very ugly, light-years-different can-of-worms that I do not want to delve too deeply into . . . if for any reason but safety's sake . . . because, I (unlike AW) blog under my own name. My blood and guts splattered on the-white-collars-of-the-right-people . . . and against the white walls of Randolph Hospital . . . are metaphoric.
And I'd like to keep it that way.
Moreover, I have my own battle to fight - anticipating, very shortly, that the stakes are going to rise in such a fashion that the Courier Tribune and News & Record are not going to be able to continue to pretend this blog doesn't exist. And any warm-cookie "brand" name that the powers-that-be come up with will be belied by what Randolph Hospital/Asheboro's "right people" did to this home-girl over a decade ago . . . simply because they thought they could - and would get away with it.
But AW and I do have some common ground. And the same themes repeat themselves over and over again in terms of the creptitude in the Asheboro DA's office that we wish to expose to light and air. I certainly concur that Randolph County has long needed someone other than the equivalent of Jabba-the-Hutt running our Courthouse and dispensing "justice".
Anyway, on the previous Housecalls' thread AW asked the following question of my good friend, Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-whose-incredibly-gullible-cousins-gave-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital-for-the-dubious-privilege-of-getting-the-family-surname-displayed-by-the-Cancer-Center's-front-door-while-lesser-being-Buzz-can't-get-the-CEO-to-fully-answer-a-simple-public-records-request:
Buzz-of-the-Armfield's . . . I've read Dr. Johnson's blog, as have many others . . . There's a lot of money being identified here that's scheduled to benefit someone. I believe from what I've read, (it) merits a thorough investigation for intentionally concealing facts from a court proceeding.
By the way, isn't that considered in the criminal justice circles as “obstruction of justice?
So, yes, this post is directed at you, Buzz, for your reply. I truly believe it's time to bring in the silent audience of Dr. Johnson's blog and have a real discussion with those who don't want things revealed in Randolph County!
Now Buzz tried to respond, but Blogger kicked out his comment as too long to post. So he e-mailed it to me to post for him. And here we are.
AW....I'm not sure just what you are getting at, but I'll try my best. See the definition below, it comes straight from Wikipedia:
Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employee's income is paid out at a date after which that income is actually earned. Examples of deferred compensation include pensions, retirement plans, and stock options. The primary benefit of most deferred compensation is the deferral of tax to the date(s) at which the employee actually receives the income.
There is nothing illegal about it, and it is a common practice.
The use of it for the chief executive of a rural hospital (and yes folks in as much as you don't want to admit it in Asheboro, you're still rural) is more of a question of ethics than legalities.
(Insert Dr. Mary Johnson's addendum that a tenfold increase in one year - from around $30,000 to almost $400,000 REALLY, REALLY SMELLS. That, and from the viewpoint of far Eastern North Carolina, the citizens of Asheboro don't know what "rural" really is.)
When I attended new employee orientation in Forsyth County, County Manager Dudley Watts told us that we're part of the "Big Five" - meaning the largest counties in NC (Forsyth ranking in at number four). The clear implication of the title is that after the "Big Five", none of the rest of North Carolina's 100 counties were of much importance.
When I attended new employee orientation in Randolph County, I was told that Randolph County was number nine in agriculture (so yeah, it's in the boondocks I'm afraid).
The President of these United States (I hear Dr. Johnson's not a big fan) earns less than Bobby Morrison, see the information from Wikipedia below:
"The President earns a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001."
One has to wonder just where all that (Bob's) money comes from?
And does Bobby Morrison deserve it?
With regard to the Armfield Cancer Center, it's a warm fuzzy idea, but not something that was really needed. If I lived in Asheboro, and were diagnosed with the "big C", I would know that there were top notch cancer facilities located an hour west (NC Baptist/Bowman Gray), and an hour east (Duke UMC and UNC Hospitals), not to mention the one thirty minutes away in Greensboro where my wife was treated (Cone Hospital), and even others such as Alamance Regional Medical Center, and First Health-Moore Regional Hospital.
All of these treatment facilities are within an easy hour drive of almost anywhere in Randolph County.
Dr. Johnson long ago convinced me that the Armfield Cancer Center was a waste, and so much a money making scheme dreamed up by the management of Randolph Hospital. There are far more pressing medical issues in Asheboro than cancer, and the money donated by my late uncle's foundation could have been put to much better use elsewhere.
But, Bobby and Stevie wanted a cancer center, so there you have it.
And everyone joined the parade when it went by. Cancer is sexy in the medical business and a sure fire way to rake in the donations.
The Armfield Cancer Center donation came about from what I suspect were local connections between my cousin Betsy Cannon Hughes and her brother Bedford Cannon, a retired attorney in Statesville (who just happens to oversee the Edward M. Armfield Foundation). Both Betsy and Bedford were the children of the late Dr. Eugene Cannon, my uncle, and childhood Pediatrician. He was, I might add, one of the finest men I've ever had the pleasure to know, even if we were related by marriage (he married my father's sister, Cornelia "Dee" Armfield).
Doctor Cannon along with the late Dr. John Cochran, and Dr. Ann Suggs, were the three practicing Pediatricians in Asheboro for many years, and treated generations of local residents. A finer group you will not find, especially in Asheboro today.
None of them made anywhere near what Bobby Morrison rakes in, and the only one them lived on the "mountain", and that was my late uncle, and only because my grandmother Armfield gave them the money to build a house and they chose Lexington Road. Dr. Cochran lived in the Greystone neighborhood, and was a one time neighbor of Dr. Johnson, while Dr. Suggs continues to reside in Greystone to this day.
I'll come clean and tell you that I wasn't always on Dr. Johnson's side. I found this blog by pure accident, and I began reading it. And, yes, like many folks, I tended to take the view that she was so much sour grapes, and that she should move on with her life and quit her bellyaching. Mikey Miller ended my career in Asheboro, and I moved on, and actually did better by leaving. But . . .
I kept reading this blog, and I began to see something else at play.
I was a banker, that's an occupation. But Mary Johnson is a doctor, and that's a profession. You don't invest the time, effort,and money to become a doctor just because you thought it might be "fun".
She came back to Asheboro because she wanted to be there. I would say that she's cut from the same bolt of cloth which Drs. Cannon, Cochran, and Suggs are, and that she truly feels compassion and caring for children, and makes a difference in this world.
My regret with regard to Dr. Johnson is that she never tended to my children, nor due to logistics, will ever tend to my grandchildren.
Running her out of Asheboro was a mistake, and only one that someone like Bobby Morrison would make, and sadly, to him it wasn't a mistake, but a cold, calculated maneuver to keep bad press from seeing the light of day.
If you still think Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy, consider this . . .
The Internet runs on search engines, Google, Yahoo, you name it. Every time Dr. Johnson puts up a post, it leaves a little more data out there for a search engine to grab on to. Her repeated remarks about Randolph Hospital & Bobby Joe Morrison, Stevie Wonder Eblin, The Curious Tribune, Garland "I-Know-Nothing" Yates, Stevie Sellout Schmidly, Harold "I-have-to-live-in-this-town" Brubaker, "Evil" Keith Crisco, and yes, that very sick newborn baby she saved (but that's the only one you know about, she won't tell you about the others) . . . well, it just makes her cause against "the Right People" a little better known to the outside world.
Go ahead, try a simple Google search and type in "Asheboro", or "Randolph Hospital", and see if you don't hit this blog.
I once told my wife that Dr. Johnson was a public relations disaster for Asheboro, only to have my wife reply that it was "the understatement of the year". What Mary Johnson is doing with this blog is very much intentional, and with purpose.
She's accused Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin of everything short of necrophilia, but somehow for some reason, they haven't done ANYTHING to shut her up . . . nor do they seem inclined to.
Lately, the "rights" have circled the wagons even tighter. As if that's gonna work.
If it were me she'd come after, we'd have long ago met in a Courtroom . . . that is, UNLESS I had something that I didn't want to come out into the light of day . . . or might go to jail . . . or risk losing lose my accreditation . . . or my non-profit status . . . or my certificates-of-need for various high-dollar/rationed-by-the-state medical equipment.
So, yes, Ol' Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy . . . crazy like a fox. Sooner or later, she's gonna have her day. And I daresay, select City Council members will rue the day they called her "stupid" in an open Courtroom.
The problem with Asheboro is that it has so many good people who genuinely live those small-town-values . . . but somehow the "right" (translated "wrong") people run the place (they ran it right into Forbes magazine . . . albeit not in a good way).
And the good folks have to be very careful, lest they end up in Dr. Johnson's shoes.
I got wind of comments made after I had left Randolph County . . . and Dr. Johnson had blogged about me/my friends . . . that "Buzz better be careful".
Well, fortunately I don't have to be careful in Asheboro. One, I don't live there, nor would my wife let me. Second, I don't work there, so my job isn't at stake (and yes that does happen, I've heard it more than once how local employers tell their employees how to vote, or else . . . ). And honestly, the people that run things there can't really do much other than keep me from joining the Rotary, or Pinewood.
Somehow, I think I'll be okay as long as my broker keeps trying to take me to dinner at the Piedmont Club, and my cousin Jean keeps throwing those big shindigs over at the Oldtown Club. As for Rotary, I attended as a guest when my father was alive. I thought it sucked, and I learned to love the debauchery that the Greensboro Jaycees offered back in their heyday to that of sitting around with a bunch of boring business types.
Now, with all this said AW, why does Asheboro remain "business as usual"?
Think about it this way. Between the mid 1930's to 1940's, millions of people were put to death as a result of rabid national socialism in certain parts of Europe. German civilians, residing nearby the Bergen-Belsen camp liberated by the Allies had no idea (oh, they did, they just didn't want to see it) that something of that magnitude was going on around them, see the link below, and then you can understand how these things happen:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/bergenbelsen/introduction.html
Consider this quote from Edmund Burke: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
I think Buzz-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields has about covered it. Neither of us think that Randolph County has a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of its deep, dark funk until its leaders change the way they do "business" . . . and some of the mistakes of the past are addressed and resolved - albeit in a way that might not make some "right people" happy.
I also wish that more of "the good people" (Buzz Armfield is one such person - although he doesn't live in Asheboro any more) would put their names and voices behind their support and good wishes. If they did, thing might really change for the better in Asheboro.
But if you silently put up the "leaders" who drive good doctors out of town whilst stuffing their own pockets on the public's dime . . . lawyers and DA's who foster ugly cover-ups that have NOTHING to do with "small town values" . . . politicians who look the other way because they "have to live in this town" . . . mill-town-kings-who-aren't-really-kings anymore treating everyone else like dirt . . . local daily newspapers that say one thing yet do completely another . . . and city/county managers who want to turn our backyard into everyone else's trash depository . . . well, "Trashboro" is what you get . . . and "Trashboro" is what you DESERVE.
I will say to "AW" that I wish him/her the very best of luck with his/her cause, and would I encourage him/her to keep hammering if that's what he/she thinks is right. I appreciate his/her interest in mine, and welcome any help/support readers want to send my way.
Our basic goal is basically the same . . .
. . . justice for all of the people in Randolph County . . . as opposed to just "the right people".
"AW" wants to bring attention to two alleged murder cases in Randolph County that he/she thinks were swept under the rug by Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates. They were too hot to handle.
While I'm sympathetic to the notion that the Asheboro's DA's office is INCAPABLE of conducting even the most rudimentary of investigations - much less a successful prosecution (be they concerning a murdered mailbox - or a cyber-stalker hurling threats into your Inbox - or two overpaid "non-profit" hosptial executives finishing their hatchet-job of your life and career in your own hometown by repeatedly lying under Oath) . . . I am not sure I want my situation or cause tied too tightly to AW's.
(As an aside, I really need to finish the story on the case of my murdered mailbox. Alas, it seems that it's the job of the Randolph County Sheriff's department - who really had this perpetrator handed to them on a silver platter - to negotiate terms on behalf of said law-breakers instead of advocate for the victims of crime.)
A someone else put it today, there's "quite a bit of mileage" between my case for perjury & fraud (as a Pediatrician and former public servant) against Randolph Hospital's senior executives and two alleged murder cases.
It's an apples and oranges thing . . . a whole very ugly, light-years-different can-of-worms that I do not want to delve too deeply into . . . if for any reason but safety's sake . . . because, I (unlike AW) blog under my own name. My blood and guts splattered on the-white-collars-of-the-right-people . . . and against the white walls of Randolph Hospital . . . are metaphoric.
And I'd like to keep it that way.
Moreover, I have my own battle to fight - anticipating, very shortly, that the stakes are going to rise in such a fashion that the Courier Tribune and News & Record are not going to be able to continue to pretend this blog doesn't exist. And any warm-cookie "brand" name that the powers-that-be come up with will be belied by what Randolph Hospital/Asheboro's "right people" did to this home-girl over a decade ago . . . simply because they thought they could - and would get away with it.
But AW and I do have some common ground. And the same themes repeat themselves over and over again in terms of the creptitude in the Asheboro DA's office that we wish to expose to light and air. I certainly concur that Randolph County has long needed someone other than the equivalent of Jabba-the-Hutt running our Courthouse and dispensing "justice".
Anyway, on the previous Housecalls' thread AW asked the following question of my good friend, Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-whose-incredibly-gullible-cousins-gave-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital-for-the-dubious-privilege-of-getting-the-family-surname-displayed-by-the-Cancer-Center's-front-door-while-lesser-being-Buzz-can't-get-the-CEO-to-fully-answer-a-simple-public-records-request:
Buzz-of-the-Armfield's . . . I've read Dr. Johnson's blog, as have many others . . . There's a lot of money being identified here that's scheduled to benefit someone. I believe from what I've read, (it) merits a thorough investigation for intentionally concealing facts from a court proceeding.
By the way, isn't that considered in the criminal justice circles as “obstruction of justice?
So, yes, this post is directed at you, Buzz, for your reply. I truly believe it's time to bring in the silent audience of Dr. Johnson's blog and have a real discussion with those who don't want things revealed in Randolph County!
Now Buzz tried to respond, but Blogger kicked out his comment as too long to post. So he e-mailed it to me to post for him. And here we are.
AW....I'm not sure just what you are getting at, but I'll try my best. See the definition below, it comes straight from Wikipedia:
Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employee's income is paid out at a date after which that income is actually earned. Examples of deferred compensation include pensions, retirement plans, and stock options. The primary benefit of most deferred compensation is the deferral of tax to the date(s) at which the employee actually receives the income.
There is nothing illegal about it, and it is a common practice.
The use of it for the chief executive of a rural hospital (and yes folks in as much as you don't want to admit it in Asheboro, you're still rural) is more of a question of ethics than legalities.
(Insert Dr. Mary Johnson's addendum that a tenfold increase in one year - from around $30,000 to almost $400,000 REALLY, REALLY SMELLS. That, and from the viewpoint of far Eastern North Carolina, the citizens of Asheboro don't know what "rural" really is.)
When I attended new employee orientation in Forsyth County, County Manager Dudley Watts told us that we're part of the "Big Five" - meaning the largest counties in NC (Forsyth ranking in at number four). The clear implication of the title is that after the "Big Five", none of the rest of North Carolina's 100 counties were of much importance.
When I attended new employee orientation in Randolph County, I was told that Randolph County was number nine in agriculture (so yeah, it's in the boondocks I'm afraid).
The President of these United States (I hear Dr. Johnson's not a big fan) earns less than Bobby Morrison, see the information from Wikipedia below:
"The President earns a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001."
One has to wonder just where all that (Bob's) money comes from?
And does Bobby Morrison deserve it?
With regard to the Armfield Cancer Center, it's a warm fuzzy idea, but not something that was really needed. If I lived in Asheboro, and were diagnosed with the "big C", I would know that there were top notch cancer facilities located an hour west (NC Baptist/Bowman Gray), and an hour east (Duke UMC and UNC Hospitals), not to mention the one thirty minutes away in Greensboro where my wife was treated (Cone Hospital), and even others such as Alamance Regional Medical Center, and First Health-Moore Regional Hospital.
All of these treatment facilities are within an easy hour drive of almost anywhere in Randolph County.
Dr. Johnson long ago convinced me that the Armfield Cancer Center was a waste, and so much a money making scheme dreamed up by the management of Randolph Hospital. There are far more pressing medical issues in Asheboro than cancer, and the money donated by my late uncle's foundation could have been put to much better use elsewhere.
But, Bobby and Stevie wanted a cancer center, so there you have it.
And everyone joined the parade when it went by. Cancer is sexy in the medical business and a sure fire way to rake in the donations.
The Armfield Cancer Center donation came about from what I suspect were local connections between my cousin Betsy Cannon Hughes and her brother Bedford Cannon, a retired attorney in Statesville (who just happens to oversee the Edward M. Armfield Foundation). Both Betsy and Bedford were the children of the late Dr. Eugene Cannon, my uncle, and childhood Pediatrician. He was, I might add, one of the finest men I've ever had the pleasure to know, even if we were related by marriage (he married my father's sister, Cornelia "Dee" Armfield).
Doctor Cannon along with the late Dr. John Cochran, and Dr. Ann Suggs, were the three practicing Pediatricians in Asheboro for many years, and treated generations of local residents. A finer group you will not find, especially in Asheboro today.
None of them made anywhere near what Bobby Morrison rakes in, and the only one them lived on the "mountain", and that was my late uncle, and only because my grandmother Armfield gave them the money to build a house and they chose Lexington Road. Dr. Cochran lived in the Greystone neighborhood, and was a one time neighbor of Dr. Johnson, while Dr. Suggs continues to reside in Greystone to this day.
I'll come clean and tell you that I wasn't always on Dr. Johnson's side. I found this blog by pure accident, and I began reading it. And, yes, like many folks, I tended to take the view that she was so much sour grapes, and that she should move on with her life and quit her bellyaching. Mikey Miller ended my career in Asheboro, and I moved on, and actually did better by leaving. But . . .
I kept reading this blog, and I began to see something else at play.
I was a banker, that's an occupation. But Mary Johnson is a doctor, and that's a profession. You don't invest the time, effort,and money to become a doctor just because you thought it might be "fun".
She came back to Asheboro because she wanted to be there. I would say that she's cut from the same bolt of cloth which Drs. Cannon, Cochran, and Suggs are, and that she truly feels compassion and caring for children, and makes a difference in this world.
My regret with regard to Dr. Johnson is that she never tended to my children, nor due to logistics, will ever tend to my grandchildren.
Running her out of Asheboro was a mistake, and only one that someone like Bobby Morrison would make, and sadly, to him it wasn't a mistake, but a cold, calculated maneuver to keep bad press from seeing the light of day.
If you still think Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy, consider this . . .
The Internet runs on search engines, Google, Yahoo, you name it. Every time Dr. Johnson puts up a post, it leaves a little more data out there for a search engine to grab on to. Her repeated remarks about Randolph Hospital & Bobby Joe Morrison, Stevie Wonder Eblin, The Curious Tribune, Garland "I-Know-Nothing" Yates, Stevie Sellout Schmidly, Harold "I-have-to-live-in-this-town" Brubaker, "Evil" Keith Crisco, and yes, that very sick newborn baby she saved (but that's the only one you know about, she won't tell you about the others) . . . well, it just makes her cause against "the Right People" a little better known to the outside world.
Go ahead, try a simple Google search and type in "Asheboro", or "Randolph Hospital", and see if you don't hit this blog.
I once told my wife that Dr. Johnson was a public relations disaster for Asheboro, only to have my wife reply that it was "the understatement of the year". What Mary Johnson is doing with this blog is very much intentional, and with purpose.
She's accused Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin of everything short of necrophilia, but somehow for some reason, they haven't done ANYTHING to shut her up . . . nor do they seem inclined to.
Lately, the "rights" have circled the wagons even tighter. As if that's gonna work.
If it were me she'd come after, we'd have long ago met in a Courtroom . . . that is, UNLESS I had something that I didn't want to come out into the light of day . . . or might go to jail . . . or risk losing lose my accreditation . . . or my non-profit status . . . or my certificates-of-need for various high-dollar/rationed-by-the-state medical equipment.
So, yes, Ol' Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy . . . crazy like a fox. Sooner or later, she's gonna have her day. And I daresay, select City Council members will rue the day they called her "stupid" in an open Courtroom.
The problem with Asheboro is that it has so many good people who genuinely live those small-town-values . . . but somehow the "right" (translated "wrong") people run the place (they ran it right into Forbes magazine . . . albeit not in a good way).
And the good folks have to be very careful, lest they end up in Dr. Johnson's shoes.
I got wind of comments made after I had left Randolph County . . . and Dr. Johnson had blogged about me/my friends . . . that "Buzz better be careful".
Well, fortunately I don't have to be careful in Asheboro. One, I don't live there, nor would my wife let me. Second, I don't work there, so my job isn't at stake (and yes that does happen, I've heard it more than once how local employers tell their employees how to vote, or else . . . ). And honestly, the people that run things there can't really do much other than keep me from joining the Rotary, or Pinewood.
Somehow, I think I'll be okay as long as my broker keeps trying to take me to dinner at the Piedmont Club, and my cousin Jean keeps throwing those big shindigs over at the Oldtown Club. As for Rotary, I attended as a guest when my father was alive. I thought it sucked, and I learned to love the debauchery that the Greensboro Jaycees offered back in their heyday to that of sitting around with a bunch of boring business types.
Now, with all this said AW, why does Asheboro remain "business as usual"?
Think about it this way. Between the mid 1930's to 1940's, millions of people were put to death as a result of rabid national socialism in certain parts of Europe. German civilians, residing nearby the Bergen-Belsen camp liberated by the Allies had no idea (oh, they did, they just didn't want to see it) that something of that magnitude was going on around them, see the link below, and then you can understand how these things happen:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/bergenbelsen/introduction.html
Consider this quote from Edmund Burke: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
I think Buzz-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields has about covered it. Neither of us think that Randolph County has a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of its deep, dark funk until its leaders change the way they do "business" . . . and some of the mistakes of the past are addressed and resolved - albeit in a way that might not make some "right people" happy.
I also wish that more of "the good people" (Buzz Armfield is one such person - although he doesn't live in Asheboro any more) would put their names and voices behind their support and good wishes. If they did, thing might really change for the better in Asheboro.
But if you silently put up the "leaders" who drive good doctors out of town whilst stuffing their own pockets on the public's dime . . . lawyers and DA's who foster ugly cover-ups that have NOTHING to do with "small town values" . . . politicians who look the other way because they "have to live in this town" . . . mill-town-kings-who-aren't-really-kings anymore treating everyone else like dirt . . . local daily newspapers that say one thing yet do completely another . . . and city/county managers who want to turn our backyard into everyone else's trash depository . . . well, "Trashboro" is what you get . . . and "Trashboro" is what you DESERVE.
I will say to "AW" that I wish him/her the very best of luck with his/her cause, and would I encourage him/her to keep hammering if that's what he/she thinks is right. I appreciate his/her interest in mine, and welcome any help/support readers want to send my way.
Our basic goal is basically the same . . .
. . . justice for all of the people in Randolph County . . . as opposed to just "the right people".
Friday, November 19, 2010
Idle Thougts on Bob Morrison's Compensation Package As "Non-Profit" Randolph Hospital's CEO
In the wake of this Housecalls post on Wednesday, I felt like sharing some idle thoughts.
Buzz Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-one-million-dollars-to-get-their-family-name-modestly-displayed-beside-the-front-door-of-Randolph-Hospital's-cancer-center and I were chatting by phone last night. The Courier's incomprehensible contortions to pry more money out of a woefully-uninformed public to get only-the-news-the-right-people-want-you-to-know quickly shifted to Bob Morrison's even more incomprehensible compensation package as CEO of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital.
"How much did you say Bob's deferred compensation/benefits jumped in 2008?", Buzz asked me.
The answer to that question (which can be found in the IRS 990's that Bob likes to withhold from prying eyes - even to the point of lying repeatedly under Oath) is over tenfold . . . from $29,133 in 2007 to $333,482 in 2008 (and that doesn't include $48,643 in "bonus" compensation or $30,432 in "nontaxable benefits" ).
Friends back home have told me that some of Asheboro right-honorable hot-shots have made the offhand comment in casual-conversations-for-no-one-in-particular-to-hear that poor disgruntled ex-employee, Dr. Mary, obviously don't understand what "deferred benefits" are.
Bob's not getting that money right now, you see.
Those people are MORONS. I understand very well that it's money underwritten by the long kept-in-the-dark-by-Bob's-good-friends-at-the-Courier masses . . . money that Morrison is going to wrap in his parachute when he retires . . . with every tax-advantage-under-the-sun-he-can-employ attached.
What I don't UNDERSTAND is HOW any local businessman with a conscience or a brain can just look at those numbers and just shrug them off . . . and not say ANYTHING against them!?!
I mean, what the HELL is going on in Asheboro?
(Of course, we ARE talking about prominent honorables like FNB "steward"-turned-University-President, Mike Miller, and "public servant" Keith Crisco. We-The-People can eat cake.)
My cryptic comment to Buzz was that if Morrison's retirement accounts did lose anything in the 2008 market meltdown, it's all most likely been replaced in just one year by our "non-profit" hospital board's largess.
And nobody - especially not our truth-seeking (NOT), now pay-per-view newspaper, is asking any questions.
And I'm wondering, if the Feds can chase down $150,000 embezzled from a Charlotte "non-profit" by its CEO . . .
. . . WHY IN GOD'S NAME AREN'T THEY LOOKING AT WHAT IS GOING ON AT RANDOLPH HOSPITAL?
Because it smells like a festering sore on fat/murderous Henry the 8th's leg.
It stinks . . . it smells ya? You understand?
Buzz Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-who-gave-one-million-dollars-to-get-their-family-name-modestly-displayed-beside-the-front-door-of-Randolph-Hospital's-cancer-center and I were chatting by phone last night. The Courier's incomprehensible contortions to pry more money out of a woefully-uninformed public to get only-the-news-the-right-people-want-you-to-know quickly shifted to Bob Morrison's even more incomprehensible compensation package as CEO of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital.
"How much did you say Bob's deferred compensation/benefits jumped in 2008?", Buzz asked me.
The answer to that question (which can be found in the IRS 990's that Bob likes to withhold from prying eyes - even to the point of lying repeatedly under Oath) is over tenfold . . . from $29,133 in 2007 to $333,482 in 2008 (and that doesn't include $48,643 in "bonus" compensation or $30,432 in "nontaxable benefits" ).
Friends back home have told me that some of Asheboro right-honorable hot-shots have made the offhand comment in casual-conversations-for-no-one-in-particular-to-hear that poor disgruntled ex-employee, Dr. Mary, obviously don't understand what "deferred benefits" are.
Bob's not getting that money right now, you see.
Those people are MORONS. I understand very well that it's money underwritten by the long kept-in-the-dark-by-Bob's-good-friends-at-the-Courier masses . . . money that Morrison is going to wrap in his parachute when he retires . . . with every tax-advantage-under-the-sun-he-can-employ attached.
What I don't UNDERSTAND is HOW any local businessman with a conscience or a brain can just look at those numbers and just shrug them off . . . and not say ANYTHING against them!?!
I mean, what the HELL is going on in Asheboro?
(Of course, we ARE talking about prominent honorables like FNB "steward"-turned-University-President, Mike Miller, and "public servant" Keith Crisco. We-The-People can eat cake.)
My cryptic comment to Buzz was that if Morrison's retirement accounts did lose anything in the 2008 market meltdown, it's all most likely been replaced in just one year by our "non-profit" hospital board's largess.
And nobody - especially not our truth-seeking (NOT), now pay-per-view newspaper, is asking any questions.
And I'm wondering, if the Feds can chase down $150,000 embezzled from a Charlotte "non-profit" by its CEO . . .
. . . WHY IN GOD'S NAME AREN'T THEY LOOKING AT WHAT IS GOING ON AT RANDOLPH HOSPITAL?
Because it smells like a festering sore on fat/murderous Henry the 8th's leg.
It stinks . . . it smells ya? You understand?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Stephens Media Group: Bad Daddy
As a follow-up to Housecalls posts . . . on the incomprehensible decision the Courier Tribune has made to slam shut doors it only very recently opened . . . as well as its rather pathetic history of only covering the news the right people of Asheboro wanted covered (the reason I'm here in the blogosphere busting a lot of chops that wouldn't have been busted if someone with a conscience/soul/guts had made Randolph Hospital play fair) . . . here's another take on the shake-up at the top of Stephens Media and its flagship, the Las Vegas Review Journal.
The more I read about the shenanigans of the Courier's big, bad Daddy, the more I understand why decent/responsible fair journalism in Randolph County has long been a lost cause.
The more I read about the shenanigans of the Courier's big, bad Daddy, the more I understand why decent/responsible fair journalism in Randolph County has long been a lost cause.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Prosecuting "Non-Profit" Executives In North Carolina For Felonies Is Apparently Not Too Much To Ask
I had originally planned for my Monday, November 15 post - on the slimy goings-on at Pravda the Courier Tribune, and the shake-up at the top of it's "parent company" (the Stephens Media Group) to stay front and center on Housecalls for a few days.
But I simply could not resist posting when I saw this blip from the Charlotte Observer - on the former CEO of a "non-profit" mental health agency being indicted for embezzlement.
And I thought I would use the story to re-emphasize the reason that this blog exists . . . and the reason I am still in this ether (despite a whole lot more GARBAGE courtesy of our local justice system) and have no plans to leave.
I WANT THE IRS/FEDS AND/OR THE NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO INDICT RANDOLPH HOSPITAL CEO & $700,000+/YEAR MAN, ROBERT MORRISON, AND HIS LEFT-HAND MAN, STEVEN EBLIN, FOR MULTIPLE COUNTS OF PERJURY.
The problem there is that Randolph County, DA, Garland Yates has not even ALLOWED me to swear out a complaint . . . nor (in the alternative, since it's clearly "too hot" for him to handle) has our stalwart DA referred the case (way, Way, WAY over his pay grade) to the North Carolina Attorney General's office for the attention it deserves. Nope. Since April 2003, his office has simply pretended I do not exist. In a "reverse Nifong", Garland's ONLY concern has been covering the greedy, lying butts of some of Asheboro's most prominent "right people" - as they feed at the trough of the public dime.
This is America in 2010.
I ALSO WANT THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA (HELLO "MISTA SPEAKA" BRUBAKER) TO PUT SOME MUSCLE BEHIND THE N.C. MEDICAL BOARD'S/JCAHO'S TOOTHLESS, MEALY-MOUTHED PLATITUDES ON MEDICAL ETHICS, AND ENACT REAL REFORM LEGISLATION THAT ACTUALLY PROTECTS MEDICAL WHISTLE-BLOWERS IN THIS STATE FROM THE KIND OF BRUTAL RETALIATION THAT I AND MY MY FAMILY HAVE ENDURED FOR ALL OF TWELVE YEARS . . . BECAUSE ONE-NIGHT-IN-THE-MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT I DID WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO FOR A VERY SICK NEWBORN BABY.
In other words, until (as my Daddy used to say) someone gets off their dead ass and onto their dying feet and does the job they're charged to do, I'm SO not getting over it.
And I'm not moving on.
But I simply could not resist posting when I saw this blip from the Charlotte Observer - on the former CEO of a "non-profit" mental health agency being indicted for embezzlement.
And I thought I would use the story to re-emphasize the reason that this blog exists . . . and the reason I am still in this ether (despite a whole lot more GARBAGE courtesy of our local justice system) and have no plans to leave.
I WANT THE IRS/FEDS AND/OR THE NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL TO INDICT RANDOLPH HOSPITAL CEO & $700,000+/YEAR MAN, ROBERT MORRISON, AND HIS LEFT-HAND MAN, STEVEN EBLIN, FOR MULTIPLE COUNTS OF PERJURY.
The problem there is that Randolph County, DA, Garland Yates has not even ALLOWED me to swear out a complaint . . . nor (in the alternative, since it's clearly "too hot" for him to handle) has our stalwart DA referred the case (way, Way, WAY over his pay grade) to the North Carolina Attorney General's office for the attention it deserves. Nope. Since April 2003, his office has simply pretended I do not exist. In a "reverse Nifong", Garland's ONLY concern has been covering the greedy, lying butts of some of Asheboro's most prominent "right people" - as they feed at the trough of the public dime.
This is America in 2010.
I ALSO WANT THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA (HELLO "MISTA SPEAKA" BRUBAKER) TO PUT SOME MUSCLE BEHIND THE N.C. MEDICAL BOARD'S/JCAHO'S TOOTHLESS, MEALY-MOUTHED PLATITUDES ON MEDICAL ETHICS, AND ENACT REAL REFORM LEGISLATION THAT ACTUALLY PROTECTS MEDICAL WHISTLE-BLOWERS IN THIS STATE FROM THE KIND OF BRUTAL RETALIATION THAT I AND MY MY FAMILY HAVE ENDURED FOR ALL OF TWELVE YEARS . . . BECAUSE ONE-NIGHT-IN-THE-MIDDLE-OF-THE-NIGHT I DID WHAT I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO FOR A VERY SICK NEWBORN BABY.
In other words, until (as my Daddy used to say) someone gets off their dead ass and onto their dying feet and does the job they're charged to do, I'm SO not getting over it.
And I'm not moving on.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tonight, Godspeed To The Bird
It a chilly and rainy, windy night here in Eastern North Carolina. A dear, dear friend & nursing colleague of mine suffered a freakish, very serious injury this morning, underwent emergency surgery, and, as we speak, is being flown to one of North Carolina's finer, bluer tertiary institutions.
I am very grateful for my friends and colleagues here . . . who have treated me with great kindness and far more consideration/respect than those in my own "hometown" ever did. This woman is a tiny fiesty angel who always makes me laugh. Please pray for my friend and her family.
I am very grateful for my friends and colleagues here . . . who have treated me with great kindness and far more consideration/respect than those in my own "hometown" ever did. This woman is a tiny fiesty angel who always makes me laugh. Please pray for my friend and her family.
Monday, November 15, 2010
A Shake-Up At The Top Of Stephens Media (And A 2007 Letter To Courier Tribune, Editor, Ray Criscoe, That Would Indicate More Shake-ups Are Needed Closer To Home)
I've been hammering the local journalists pretty hard over the last few weeks.
As regular readers know, the Courier Tribune's website (under the stalwart leadership of Asheboro's own last-bastion-of-local-journalistic-integrity-&-credibility, Ray Criscoe) will become a paid site as of 5 PM today.
I think it's appropriate to commemorate the day by taking another look at this September 19th Housecalls' post . . . and the story of Pat & Mike Bradshaw, proprietors of Peachtree Street Produce . . . and their battle with the City of Asheboro over its preferential treatment/taxpayer-funded support of the local Farmer's market.
Their story mirrors my own twelve-year battle with "non-profit" Randolph Hospital - whose every evil deed to (1) cover up some Cone-owned medical badness and (2) snuff out private Pediatric competition was subsidized by the public's dime . . . all the while with Ray Criscoe & company determinedly looking the other way.
This "newspaper" houses a bunch of Michelangelos in terms of the lie-of-omission.
I had hoped that with a new publisher (Diane Winemueller), who did not have her head buried up "the right people's" recto-sigmoid colons, that "journalism" in Asheboro would finally change.
And for a time, it actually appeared that the Stephens Media Group, the Courier's "parent company" (whose self-professed area of journalistic expertise is providing "hyper-local" news coverage in small towns), had gotten the message. The Courier's website (a long-neglected disaster of Titanic proportions) was steadily improving, and stories were even, for a time, opened up to comments.
Opening up to comments was especially important, as Asheboro (light-years behind surrounding areas - and competitors - in terms of the online presence & savvy of its citizens), was finally starting to see ordinary people (with and without pseudonyms) talk back to the powers-that-be . . .
. . . which, when you get right down to it, is the primary function and mission of the press (aka "fourth estate") in this country . . . and that is to be the ordinary citizen's voice . . . to "represent" us in a way no elected official can or does anymore . . . to speak truth to power . . . and to be our last, best defense against tyranny.
But now, as Ray puts up the glass pay-walls at his newspaper (after an uber-lame attempt to label his critics "cyber-bullies"), the doors have once again slammed shut.
Of course, when a door shuts on the Internet, many Windows open elsewhere (hey, I think I just made a pun!).
I think that what Ray is doing . . . and especially the fact that he's doing it now - after giving Asheboro a tiny taste of what a real newspaper could be . . . is a colossal mistake for his newspaper and our town . . . a town that Forbes Magazine declared to be on life-support back in 2008.
The powers-that-be at the Stephens Media Group have long known there were big problems with the newspaper in Asheboro, but FOR YEARS chose to do nothing about them. David Renfro (husband to Bonnie Renfro, over at the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation) was simply a mouthpiece for the mill-town elite and corporate order in Asheboro. Circulation dwindled as disgusted readers stopped writing checks for the privilegd of being fed most-favored press releases and re-hashed AP reports.
And the town literally all-but-died . . . courtesy of all of the bigshots with their MBA's.
(Mike Miller's "stewardship" of First National Bank/Community One . . . and his subsequent appointment as President of Pfeiffer University is a prime example. If we had a newspaper that was worth a damn . . . a newspaper that really listened to the people . . . a newspaper that had the cahones to tell Keith Crisco, N.C. Commerce Secretary and public servant, that maybe it would have been MORE appropriate for him to silently sit this one out - instead of bending-over-backwards to afford Miller a very soft landing he most certainly does NOT deserve - while his shareholders and customers back in Asheboro weep.)
It's interesting to note that, as of Friday, there was a big shake-up at the highest echelons of the Stephens Media Group, again, the Courier Tribune's "parent company".
Indeed, the Courier is the only paper owned & operated by Stephens Media in North Carolina. As far as I can tell (since I am banned), they've not reported the shake-up on their own website.
As reported by the Las Vegas Sun, Sherman Frederick was replaced as the CEO of the media conglomerate (and stepped down from his position as publisher of the the group's flagship paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal).
Meanwhile, Bob Brown, an ad executive, replaced Frederick as CEO of Stephens Media.
In other words, a "journalist" (I used the term loosely given my own experience with the Courier Tribune) was replaced with a businessman.
I'm thinking that this development does not bode well for we hyper-local readers, UNLESS the businessman realizes that it's good business and better journalism to stop sucking up to the big advertisers (the Courier's business model for almost twenty years) and start investigating and telling everyone's stories again.
All the advertisers in the world don't make a hill-of-beans-of-difference unless people are buying your product.
And, as I reminded the Greensboro News & Record's John Robinson just yesterday, in order to buy your product, they have to TRUST your product.
Which brings me back to Ray Criscoe and the Courier Tribune.
I think it's very appropriate on this monumental day for Ray's newspaper and parent company, to post a copy of a 2007 letter sent directly to him by Pat & Mike Bradshaw's Greensboro attorney . . . questioning the actions of Courier Tribune reporter, Chip Womick, during a February 2006 Asheboro City Council meeting.
Those actions mirror the same problems I've encountered in getting my own story covered . . . like no one from the hometown daily showing up to cover protests I staged in front of the hospital back in 2004 . . . and like JD Walker putting down her pen when I subsequently appeared before the Asheboro City Council (Item #25) and PLEADED for their help in holding a "non-profit" hospital accountable for its amoral/unethical/illegal misdeeds . . . only to see them give the hospital a half-million dollars of the people's money a very short time later in order to help fund a cancer center we didn't really need here.
My Father spoke at that meeting as well. But the subject of my family's experience on the butt-end of "small town values" will be held back as the subject for an upcoming BLISTERING post on Asheboro's notions of "Home and Heart".
I gave at the office of Randolph Medical Associates.
Today we will look at the lawyer's letter - which stands on its own and speaks volumes about what the Courier has tried to pass off as journalism for so long.
(Please be advised that in transcribing the letter on this blog, I have added some commas and caps here and there . . . played with some syntax - mostly for purposed of clarification . . . and corrected the spelling of Ray's last name . . . which was mis-spelled by the lawyer, but the letter is otherwise copied word for word):
March 23, 2007
Office of the Editor
Courier Tribune
500 Sunset Avenue
Asheboro, North Carolina
Attention: Mr. Criscoe
Re: City Council Meeting
February 9, 2006
Editorial Independence
Dear Mr. Criscoe,
Please be advised that I represent Ms. Patrician Bradshaw, who owns a business at and near the Farmer's Market located in Asheboro, North Carolina. I am enclosing herein, for your review, a copy of the transcript generated by the City Council on February 9th, 2006 at it's 7:00 o'clock meeting. You will note that (in) Item Seven (7) of the agenda for that meeting, Mrs. Bradshaw was called upon and had sought permission to address the Council concerning rules and regulations and the operation of the Farmer's Market. You will note in the transcript of the meeting that she did, in fact, do that, and did so very forcefully. You will also note that there was quite a bit of off-the-record commentary about her character. We find this to be very disturbing that a Council, supposedly elected by the people and sworn to represent all, can manifest itself from alliance such that the presentations of well-meaning citizens are subject to ridicule and are not given the serious consideration that they so rightfully deserve.
Perhaps even more disturbing that, however, are comments that are set forth at the very end of the transcript concerning your reporter, Chip Womick. The comments there would indicate that Mr. Womick was somehow manipulated so as not to be available when certain segments or commentary or certain presentations were made to the board/Council which apparently the board/Council would prefer not to go beyond the chambers of the Council itself. I would think that this would raise a very disturbing set of issues for the Courier Tribune in that it would clearly appear that the Tribune - and certainly at least its reporters, who are charged with being independent and covering the public interest by covering the City Council, are now being manipulated such that one would have to question their objectivity and certainly would have to questions whether or not they are being given full access to all information which the public has a right to know.
Further, there are implications that Mr. Womick was somehow hired by a member or members of the Council to cause him to be required to be some place at or about the same time his job with The Courier would have had him covering the city's business.
As a representative of a citizen of Asheboro, I am very much concerned about this. We wish to have this matter looked into further by you, and we would be anxious to see what explanation the Council and/or Mr. Womick can offer for the strange set of circumstances that occurred on the evening of February, 9th 2006. Your immediate and ongoing attention to this matter is appreciated, and this is also a matter we think would interest other newspapers around this area which also have representatives/reporters covering Council meetings. We look forward to hearing from you on this matter at your earliest convenience. Thank you.
Very Truly Yours,
Kenneth M. Johnson
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Now, when it comes to the Bradshaw's case against the city, I haven't read anything but thinly-veiled hatchet jobs in Mr. Criscoe's Courier Tribune. What We-The-People haven't gotten is ANY KIND of plausible explanation as to what was going on at that meeting in 2006 . . . and what can be heard on the City's own tape-recordings.
WHY did Chip Womick walk out of that meeting at PRECISELY the time Pat Bradshaw stood up to speak? Was he really "hired" to walk out by a member of the City Council (a Council which included N.C. Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco) or the City Manager? And if Womick was bought off (as the chatter on the tape clearly indicates), WHY is he still employed by a newspaper that professes to be a tower of journalistic integrity and credibility?
Indeed, WHY is Ray Criscoe, the man who got this letter yet never answered the questions, still employed?
Putting up a glass pay wall now turns out to be a variation on a long-running theme. It's bad enough when you have to pay-to-be-heard. But now Asheboro's citizens have to pay to know only what Ray wants them to know.
I feel the Bradshaw's pain. For in addition to J.D. Walker's sudden hand spasm during the Council meeting where I presented my case in 2004, way back in 1999 - when I (as a physician formerly in public service) sued Randolph Hospital's wholly-owned "controlled affiliate" . . . my family and I were told that my lawsuit was "unworthy" of newspaper coverage because my issues with the hospital amounted to a lowly "employment matter".
Yeah. Right.
It was "only" an employment matter where A HOMEGROWN PEDIATRICIAN IN STATE & FEDERAL SERVICE WAS FIRED FOR STANDING UP TO THREATS AND DOING HER JOB/THE RIGHT THING BY A PATIENT - AND THEN BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON A SENTINEL EVENT!!!
EVERY STATE & FEDERAL MEDICAL REGULATORY BODY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY UNDER THE SUN HAS PLAYED DEAD!?!
But there's nothing to see there. Move on along.
(The lame excuse actually sounds a lot like Blogsboro's deep-blue and oh-so-progressive Cones and We101 Wizards and Polinksys . . . not-to-mention our local Cyber-stalkers-defended-by-City-Council-members telling me that my story, in this era of healthcare "reform" driven by clueless politicians, is "irrelevant" . . . or I am somehow "crazy" for spitting in small-town corruption's eye.)
It's funny how the Courier's story suddenly CHANGED when Randolph Hospital SLAPP-sued me for "libel" the following year. That lawsuit was reported as front-page news and the "news" was that I was a liar. David Renfro was ALL about covering Randolph Hospital's tail.
But when the news was that Randolph Hospital had to run screaming from the Courtroom a year after that . . . the news that I had been VINDICATED was once again relegated to a second-page "short-take".
And the news that, as a good-Pediatrician-run-out-of-town-for-doing-the-right-thing-by-a-very-sick-newborn-baby, I was SWINDLED at that 2001 settlement by over-paid, over-rated, non-profit executives who very boldly walked into a Court proceeding and negotiated a deal on a pack of LIES . . . and who have so far not been held accountable by ANYONE (in other words, their rubber-stamp Board of Directors, JCAHO, the Medical Board, the state of North Carolina, or the IRS) . . . has not been reported at all.
After getting professionally & personally eviscerated for doing my job the right way . . . for doing EXACTLY what all of those smug, self-righteous Polinksys and Cones and Smith-Jrs. and Martins and Bells and Schmidlys and Criscoes and Robinsons would have expected if the very sick baby had been their child . . . it would be really swell to see people who have snickered and spit and turned their backs started getting their comeuppance for doing their job the wrong way.
This newspaper does not play fair. The Courier Tribune might as well be printed in Communist Russia before the walls fell. Our hometown branch of the Stephens Media Group has NO integrity and ZERO credibility.
And I'm sorry, citizens of Asheboro. This is NOT justice. And it's for damned sure not journalism.
With apologies to my sainted Mother (I am trying, Mama), IT IS BULLSH*T!!!
My question to Diane Winnemuller and the "new & improved" Stephens Media Group - with all of its new leaders - is, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
As regular readers know, the Courier Tribune's website (under the stalwart leadership of Asheboro's own last-bastion-of-local-journalistic-integrity-&-credibility, Ray Criscoe) will become a paid site as of 5 PM today.
I think it's appropriate to commemorate the day by taking another look at this September 19th Housecalls' post . . . and the story of Pat & Mike Bradshaw, proprietors of Peachtree Street Produce . . . and their battle with the City of Asheboro over its preferential treatment/taxpayer-funded support of the local Farmer's market.
Their story mirrors my own twelve-year battle with "non-profit" Randolph Hospital - whose every evil deed to (1) cover up some Cone-owned medical badness and (2) snuff out private Pediatric competition was subsidized by the public's dime . . . all the while with Ray Criscoe & company determinedly looking the other way.
This "newspaper" houses a bunch of Michelangelos in terms of the lie-of-omission.
I had hoped that with a new publisher (Diane Winemueller), who did not have her head buried up "the right people's" recto-sigmoid colons, that "journalism" in Asheboro would finally change.
And for a time, it actually appeared that the Stephens Media Group, the Courier's "parent company" (whose self-professed area of journalistic expertise is providing "hyper-local" news coverage in small towns), had gotten the message. The Courier's website (a long-neglected disaster of Titanic proportions) was steadily improving, and stories were even, for a time, opened up to comments.
Opening up to comments was especially important, as Asheboro (light-years behind surrounding areas - and competitors - in terms of the online presence & savvy of its citizens), was finally starting to see ordinary people (with and without pseudonyms) talk back to the powers-that-be . . .
. . . which, when you get right down to it, is the primary function and mission of the press (aka "fourth estate") in this country . . . and that is to be the ordinary citizen's voice . . . to "represent" us in a way no elected official can or does anymore . . . to speak truth to power . . . and to be our last, best defense against tyranny.
But now, as Ray puts up the glass pay-walls at his newspaper (after an uber-lame attempt to label his critics "cyber-bullies"), the doors have once again slammed shut.
Of course, when a door shuts on the Internet, many Windows open elsewhere (hey, I think I just made a pun!).
I think that what Ray is doing . . . and especially the fact that he's doing it now - after giving Asheboro a tiny taste of what a real newspaper could be . . . is a colossal mistake for his newspaper and our town . . . a town that Forbes Magazine declared to be on life-support back in 2008.
The powers-that-be at the Stephens Media Group have long known there were big problems with the newspaper in Asheboro, but FOR YEARS chose to do nothing about them. David Renfro (husband to Bonnie Renfro, over at the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation) was simply a mouthpiece for the mill-town elite and corporate order in Asheboro. Circulation dwindled as disgusted readers stopped writing checks for the privilegd of being fed most-favored press releases and re-hashed AP reports.
And the town literally all-but-died . . . courtesy of all of the bigshots with their MBA's.
(Mike Miller's "stewardship" of First National Bank/Community One . . . and his subsequent appointment as President of Pfeiffer University is a prime example. If we had a newspaper that was worth a damn . . . a newspaper that really listened to the people . . . a newspaper that had the cahones to tell Keith Crisco, N.C. Commerce Secretary and public servant, that maybe it would have been MORE appropriate for him to silently sit this one out - instead of bending-over-backwards to afford Miller a very soft landing he most certainly does NOT deserve - while his shareholders and customers back in Asheboro weep.)
It's interesting to note that, as of Friday, there was a big shake-up at the highest echelons of the Stephens Media Group, again, the Courier Tribune's "parent company".
Indeed, the Courier is the only paper owned & operated by Stephens Media in North Carolina. As far as I can tell (since I am banned), they've not reported the shake-up on their own website.
As reported by the Las Vegas Sun, Sherman Frederick was replaced as the CEO of the media conglomerate (and stepped down from his position as publisher of the the group's flagship paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal).
Meanwhile, Bob Brown, an ad executive, replaced Frederick as CEO of Stephens Media.
In other words, a "journalist" (I used the term loosely given my own experience with the Courier Tribune) was replaced with a businessman.
I'm thinking that this development does not bode well for we hyper-local readers, UNLESS the businessman realizes that it's good business and better journalism to stop sucking up to the big advertisers (the Courier's business model for almost twenty years) and start investigating and telling everyone's stories again.
All the advertisers in the world don't make a hill-of-beans-of-difference unless people are buying your product.
And, as I reminded the Greensboro News & Record's John Robinson just yesterday, in order to buy your product, they have to TRUST your product.
Which brings me back to Ray Criscoe and the Courier Tribune.
I think it's very appropriate on this monumental day for Ray's newspaper and parent company, to post a copy of a 2007 letter sent directly to him by Pat & Mike Bradshaw's Greensboro attorney . . . questioning the actions of Courier Tribune reporter, Chip Womick, during a February 2006 Asheboro City Council meeting.
Those actions mirror the same problems I've encountered in getting my own story covered . . . like no one from the hometown daily showing up to cover protests I staged in front of the hospital back in 2004 . . . and like JD Walker putting down her pen when I subsequently appeared before the Asheboro City Council (Item #25) and PLEADED for their help in holding a "non-profit" hospital accountable for its amoral/unethical/illegal misdeeds . . . only to see them give the hospital a half-million dollars of the people's money a very short time later in order to help fund a cancer center we didn't really need here.
My Father spoke at that meeting as well. But the subject of my family's experience on the butt-end of "small town values" will be held back as the subject for an upcoming BLISTERING post on Asheboro's notions of "Home and Heart".
I gave at the office of Randolph Medical Associates.
Today we will look at the lawyer's letter - which stands on its own and speaks volumes about what the Courier has tried to pass off as journalism for so long.
(Please be advised that in transcribing the letter on this blog, I have added some commas and caps here and there . . . played with some syntax - mostly for purposed of clarification . . . and corrected the spelling of Ray's last name . . . which was mis-spelled by the lawyer, but the letter is otherwise copied word for word):
March 23, 2007
Office of the Editor
Courier Tribune
500 Sunset Avenue
Asheboro, North Carolina
Attention: Mr. Criscoe
Re: City Council Meeting
February 9, 2006
Editorial Independence
Dear Mr. Criscoe,
Please be advised that I represent Ms. Patrician Bradshaw, who owns a business at and near the Farmer's Market located in Asheboro, North Carolina. I am enclosing herein, for your review, a copy of the transcript generated by the City Council on February 9th, 2006 at it's 7:00 o'clock meeting. You will note that (in) Item Seven (7) of the agenda for that meeting, Mrs. Bradshaw was called upon and had sought permission to address the Council concerning rules and regulations and the operation of the Farmer's Market. You will note in the transcript of the meeting that she did, in fact, do that, and did so very forcefully. You will also note that there was quite a bit of off-the-record commentary about her character. We find this to be very disturbing that a Council, supposedly elected by the people and sworn to represent all, can manifest itself from alliance such that the presentations of well-meaning citizens are subject to ridicule and are not given the serious consideration that they so rightfully deserve.
Perhaps even more disturbing that, however, are comments that are set forth at the very end of the transcript concerning your reporter, Chip Womick. The comments there would indicate that Mr. Womick was somehow manipulated so as not to be available when certain segments or commentary or certain presentations were made to the board/Council which apparently the board/Council would prefer not to go beyond the chambers of the Council itself. I would think that this would raise a very disturbing set of issues for the Courier Tribune in that it would clearly appear that the Tribune - and certainly at least its reporters, who are charged with being independent and covering the public interest by covering the City Council, are now being manipulated such that one would have to question their objectivity and certainly would have to questions whether or not they are being given full access to all information which the public has a right to know.
Further, there are implications that Mr. Womick was somehow hired by a member or members of the Council to cause him to be required to be some place at or about the same time his job with The Courier would have had him covering the city's business.
As a representative of a citizen of Asheboro, I am very much concerned about this. We wish to have this matter looked into further by you, and we would be anxious to see what explanation the Council and/or Mr. Womick can offer for the strange set of circumstances that occurred on the evening of February, 9th 2006. Your immediate and ongoing attention to this matter is appreciated, and this is also a matter we think would interest other newspapers around this area which also have representatives/reporters covering Council meetings. We look forward to hearing from you on this matter at your earliest convenience. Thank you.
Very Truly Yours,
Kenneth M. Johnson
Attorney and Counselor at Law
Now, when it comes to the Bradshaw's case against the city, I haven't read anything but thinly-veiled hatchet jobs in Mr. Criscoe's Courier Tribune. What We-The-People haven't gotten is ANY KIND of plausible explanation as to what was going on at that meeting in 2006 . . . and what can be heard on the City's own tape-recordings.
WHY did Chip Womick walk out of that meeting at PRECISELY the time Pat Bradshaw stood up to speak? Was he really "hired" to walk out by a member of the City Council (a Council which included N.C. Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco) or the City Manager? And if Womick was bought off (as the chatter on the tape clearly indicates), WHY is he still employed by a newspaper that professes to be a tower of journalistic integrity and credibility?
Indeed, WHY is Ray Criscoe, the man who got this letter yet never answered the questions, still employed?
Putting up a glass pay wall now turns out to be a variation on a long-running theme. It's bad enough when you have to pay-to-be-heard. But now Asheboro's citizens have to pay to know only what Ray wants them to know.
I feel the Bradshaw's pain. For in addition to J.D. Walker's sudden hand spasm during the Council meeting where I presented my case in 2004, way back in 1999 - when I (as a physician formerly in public service) sued Randolph Hospital's wholly-owned "controlled affiliate" . . . my family and I were told that my lawsuit was "unworthy" of newspaper coverage because my issues with the hospital amounted to a lowly "employment matter".
Yeah. Right.
It was "only" an employment matter where A HOMEGROWN PEDIATRICIAN IN STATE & FEDERAL SERVICE WAS FIRED FOR STANDING UP TO THREATS AND DOING HER JOB/THE RIGHT THING BY A PATIENT - AND THEN BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON A SENTINEL EVENT!!!
EVERY STATE & FEDERAL MEDICAL REGULATORY BODY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY UNDER THE SUN HAS PLAYED DEAD!?!
But there's nothing to see there. Move on along.
(The lame excuse actually sounds a lot like Blogsboro's deep-blue and oh-so-progressive Cones and We101 Wizards and Polinksys . . . not-to-mention our local Cyber-stalkers-defended-by-City-Council-members telling me that my story, in this era of healthcare "reform" driven by clueless politicians, is "irrelevant" . . . or I am somehow "crazy" for spitting in small-town corruption's eye.)
It's funny how the Courier's story suddenly CHANGED when Randolph Hospital SLAPP-sued me for "libel" the following year. That lawsuit was reported as front-page news and the "news" was that I was a liar. David Renfro was ALL about covering Randolph Hospital's tail.
But when the news was that Randolph Hospital had to run screaming from the Courtroom a year after that . . . the news that I had been VINDICATED was once again relegated to a second-page "short-take".
And the news that, as a good-Pediatrician-run-out-of-town-for-doing-the-right-thing-by-a-very-sick-newborn-baby, I was SWINDLED at that 2001 settlement by over-paid, over-rated, non-profit executives who very boldly walked into a Court proceeding and negotiated a deal on a pack of LIES . . . and who have so far not been held accountable by ANYONE (in other words, their rubber-stamp Board of Directors, JCAHO, the Medical Board, the state of North Carolina, or the IRS) . . . has not been reported at all.
After getting professionally & personally eviscerated for doing my job the right way . . . for doing EXACTLY what all of those smug, self-righteous Polinksys and Cones and Smith-Jrs. and Martins and Bells and Schmidlys and Criscoes and Robinsons would have expected if the very sick baby had been their child . . . it would be really swell to see people who have snickered and spit and turned their backs started getting their comeuppance for doing their job the wrong way.
This newspaper does not play fair. The Courier Tribune might as well be printed in Communist Russia before the walls fell. Our hometown branch of the Stephens Media Group has NO integrity and ZERO credibility.
And I'm sorry, citizens of Asheboro. This is NOT justice. And it's for damned sure not journalism.
With apologies to my sainted Mother (I am trying, Mama), IT IS BULLSH*T!!!
My question to Diane Winnemuller and the "new & improved" Stephens Media Group - with all of its new leaders - is, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT?
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