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Published: November 21, 2009
Our 'innovation center'
After touring Winston-Salem's Institute of Regenerative Medicine Monday, Gov. Bev Perdue said that "There is no place in North Carolina more important to innovation than right here."
One could argue that the governor essentially gave us the title of the state's innovation center. Now let's keep up our momentum and live up to this important distinction.
The governor realized that Winston-Salem was the ideal place to announce the creation of the state's first Invocation Council, which will nurture innovation at the academic, entrepreneurial, industrial, research and government levels to create more jobs. Allen Joines, the mayor of Winston-Salem, will serve on the council.
Dr. Anthony Atala's Institute of Regenerative Medicine is the cornerstone of the Piedmont Triad Research Park. The park, in turn, is at the forefront of efforts to transform the area's economy. Support from all facets of the community, especially the academic sector, is crucial. Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University and Forsyth Technical Community College give that support.
But in the years ahead, our schools, from kindergarten to graduate level, must be equipped to produce a qualified work force to supply the needs of high-tech companies.
Perdue said that "it is very important for kids in North Carolina to learn in a different way and think in a different way. Their lives are going to be very different from the lives of the 1990s student. The economic edge they are going to have to have to be globally competitive is wrapped around curiosity, invention and innovation."
‘Sustained inaction'
Superior Court Judge John O. "Joe" Craig is known for being a man of his word. So Yadkin County commissioners should heed his latest -- and most severe -- warning to them to finally get going on a new jail.
The current jail is in such bad condition that the state periodically shuts it down, sometimes after inmates have endured deplorable conditions. The jail is closed now while it undergoes extensive repairs. The county has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars housing its inmates in other counties.
Craig ordered commissioners to follow through on their plans to build a new jail while presiding in Yadkin three years ago. Monday night, in a rare move for a judge, he addressed the commissioners at their meeting. He put them on notice that he'll be sending them orders and subpoenas in coming weeks to compel them to explain why they haven't built a new jail, the Journal's Laura Giovanelli reported.
The land and financing for the jail are in place. Opponents of the proposed site on Hoots Road are waging a legal battle to stop it. But Craig, referring to "the sustained inaction by the board on the jail issue," noted that there is no legal order or injunction preventing the county from breaking ground.
He has set a hearing on the matter for Jan. 8. He told commissioners that he could fine, jail or remove them from office if he finds them in contempt of his order. "It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to threaten, or even consider the possibility of sanctions in this manner," he said. "No one likes to spend money on a jail project, even one that appears to be shovel-ready, but it is an obligation that all counties must bear and it's been that way since the inception of the United States of America and the founding of the state of North Carolina."
He's right. Perhaps the commissioners have finally heard him.
Cracking a cold case
The Winston-Salem Police Department's cold-case unit has filed charges in two homicide cases, but it needs help from the public to continue to be effective. It especially needs information in regard to the 2001 strangling death of an 80-year-old woman.
Annie Mae Howell Jones, described by one friend as "a good neighbor and a fine lady" was found dead inside her West 11th Street house on Feb. 3, 2001. A window had been broken out, and items from her purse were strewn around the house. Money was reported missing.
Tahita Jones, Annie Jones' granddaughter, thinks her grandmother may have been killed for money. "It was one desperate person that did this thing," she told the Journal's John Hinton. "This person didn't have the courage to rob a bank. They just killed my grandmother."
Jones said she wants the "dirt bag who did this ... brought to justice."
It's outrageous and heartbreaking that someone would kill a defenseless elderly woman. Catching her killer would bring a measure of closure to her family -- and possibly save someone else from being robbed or killed.
Anyone with information on this case should call the cold-case unit at 726-2039.
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