Stuff to chew on ahead of the Panthers West Coast kickoff:

• The NCAA is smoking crack if it thinks it can regulate live blogging of NCAA events. And of course it thinks that. The org has already pissed off one Net-savvy newspaper with the policy. Just think how it sits with the future of uncredentialled, unfiltered sports coverage.
• CMS is back to its old pre-Gorman tricks. In the past week school officials at Oakhurst Elementary refused to call 911 for an injured staff member while Mint Hill Middle had two students who had been expelled by the principal for bullying re-instated after their parents complained to the EdShed. Super bullying policy there, Pete. The victim was targeted because his father is in a wheelchair. The CMS reversal stunned the school, especially the CMPD resource officer who thought the school had rid itself of two troublemakers.
• The McClatchy buyouts, which supposedly included cranky Uptown theater critic Julie Coppens York, have dumped double-duty on movie critic Lawrence Toppman, a development the Charlotte arts community is just now beginning to understand. Toppman’s first job is to review movies, local theater is well down the list. There have been vague indications that freelancers would take up some of the slack, but this is primarily a question of newshole. Just assume that theater will get no coverage to prevent any disappointment.
• Speaking of McClatchy, something is up. CEO Gary Pruitt has resigned from four McClatchy family trusts that control about 41 percent of the company’s voting power. You might think Pruitt is on his way out given the way he has run the company into the ground. Nah. I smell some attempt to take the company private, sell it off to current executives and maybe a friendly deep pocket or two. Given the debut burden not to mention the competence of this executive team, that would be insane. Watch it happen.
• Super account of the intersection of money and power from The Charlotte Business Journal, which keeps looking into Afshin Ghazi’s comfy relations with the city of Charlotte. Particularly interesting is city attorney Mac McCarley explaining why he has not responded to an ethics complaint he received in March concerning Ghazi’s political contributions to city council members. Back in late April I asked McCarley about that complaint. In mid-May McCarley finally responded via email, “The appropriate agency with which to file a campaign contribution complaint is the State Board of Elections.” Did McCarley tell the South Park resident who filed the complaint about this? “No. Her letter to me had no inside address or phone number on it.” But now that the CBJ has written a story about the complaint, Mac will respond. Your Charlotte city attorney, ladies and gentlemen. PR first, public service a distant second.

Enough of this. Go Panthers!

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