Much interesting reading in yesterday’s N&R. Still —as you can imagine — I noticed a few things.

*Yesterday’s front pager ponder whether or not the Triad benefited from President Obama’s federal stimulus program. In my opinion, the article tries to make the case that it did, although the closing quote pretty much says it all:

So far, state officials attribute about 25,000 jobs to various stimulus projects across North Carolina, said Jason Jolley, senior research director for the Carolina Center for Competitive Communities at UNC-Chapel Hill.

“That is a lot of jobs,” Jolley said. “But if you think about what happened at the start of the recession, we lost 300,000 jobs.”

*Interesting editorial on Greensboro’s proposed ‘participatory budgeting.’ I’m all for it, especially after reading Scott Rasmussen’s book The People’s Money.

But here’s what jumped out at me:

There are obvious advantages to this concept. Residents would have an impact on spending that directly affects them and would gain greater insight into the realities of the budgeting process. When detached from such hard truths, some citizens tend to expect the unattainable: better services, fewer potholes, more police officers and firefighters — and lower taxes.

To the contrary —- conservatives believe providing core services and lower taxes are most definitely attainable.

*N&R columnist Jeri Rowe follows up on Stephen ‘Toady’ Neal, the schizophrenic homeless man reunited with his family after Rowe first wrote about him on Christmas Day.

I certainly hope Toady gets the help he needs, for his sake and the sake of his family, who are busy juggling their own lives. But what jumped at me was how everyone seems perplexed by the bureaucratic maze that is gov’t assistance. Looks like it’s going to take two months for a psychiatrist to make an official diagnosis, and another six months to a year to begin receiving benefits.

I realize Toady is an extreme case, and there are many others like him. Still, With this in mind, it baffles me that there is a movement toward greater gov’t involvement in health care.