In a recent article titled JOBS Act State of the Union (well worth a read in full), Samuel Guzik makes the case that the SEC has given up on creating rules to implement Title III crowdfunding under the JOBS Act. Title III of the JOBS Act established a framework for investments in private offerings via “crowdfunding portals” by average investors (no “accredited investor” threshyold). Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina introduced crowdfunding legislation in 2011 that served as the basis for Title III, but by the time the proposal emerged from the messy legislative process, it was burdened with requirements relating to the involvement of FINRA intermediaries, company disclosure, financial statements, and low fundraising thresholds that soured many entrepreneurs on the utility of the proposal. The SEC proposed rules to implement Title III in October 2013 which included additional requirements that would be burdensome for small and emerging companies (such as the requirement that companies seeking to raise more than $500,000 must have two years of audited financials). As of last December, the SEC’s rule-making agenda called for final rules on equity crowdfunding by October 2015, with Mary Jo White indicating that the SEC had no “drop dead date” in mind for publishing final rules. Mr. Guznik argues that, in light of changes in the balance of power in Congress and certain clues from the agency, the SEC may abandon rules to implement Title III altogether and wait for new crowdfunding legislation that may be likely this spring, perhaps again from Representative McHenry. Mr. Guznik also presents evidence that there is growing momentum for legislation to create “venture exchanges” that would act as “a secondary market a notch below the current national markets, but with right sized corporate governance requirements and trading rules better suited to the less liquid, smaller cap companies.” If he’s right, the summer of 2015 may see new legislation on both equity crowdfunding and venture exchanges.
Bandy Center, Arts Guild celebrate Dixie Highway
Hope to draw attention, tourism to historic road
Tammy Ingram talks with John Fowler at the Creative Arts Guild Saturday about the Dixie Highway exhibit.
Posted: Sunday, April 12, 2015 9:23 pm
daltondailycitizen.com
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Posted on Apr 12, 2015
There is a chance if you’ve driven on Georgia’s byways that at some point in your travels you’ve seen a sign demarcating the Dixie Highway, now knows as U.S. Highway 41.
More than 1,300 miles of the century-old route, which winds its way through more than two dozen towns, can be found in the Peach State.
The circa-1915 road is nationally significant as the first highway to link the rural American South to the urban North.
The Dixie Highway is made up of more than 6,000 miles of interconnecting roads, forming a loop from Lake Michigan to Miami Beach. It was born out of a grassroots movement in the early 20th century, the GoodRoads Movement, to modernize the South and improve rural roads as Americans began to put greater value on individual mobility.
“It was a sophisticated web of routes that helped to end rail isolation, that provided farmers with access to new markets and new crops, that opened the South to new business opportunities and that transformed how Southerners traveled and communicated with each other,” said Tammy Ingram, an author and assistant professor of history at South Carolina’s College of Charleston.
Still, today, the historic road — part of which runs through Dalton — is largely forgotten.
But as the highway is celebrated this year by historians for its centennial anniversary, John Fowler, the director for Dalton State College’s Bandy Heritage Center, hopes the tide can begin to turn.
“This highway is important when remembering the history and culture of northwest Georgia and the state as a whole,” Fowler said. “And it could be important for Georgia and its tourism.”
To honor the Dixie Highway, and place it in the forefront of people’s minds, the Bandy Heritage Center Saturday hosted a Dixie Highway Symposium at Dalton’s Creative Arts Guild. The event was titled “Gateway to the South: A Centennial Commemoration of the Dixie Highway.”
The day-long event featured the opening of a new exhibition, which includes a collection of historic photographs and postcards exploring the Dixie Highway and the various communities, business and activities that existed along the route, as well as six speakers who discussed topics that ranged from the history of the road to its impact on the South and present-day tourism initiatives.
“We thought our role in hosting this event could be getting all of these folks — representatives for tourism initiatives, the Georgia Department of Transportation and historians — all together, and draw attention to the highway,” Fowler said.
Ingram, who has written a book about the Dixie Highway’s history, delivered the keynote address.
She told a crowd — about 20 people — that she sees plenty of similarities between people who were reluctant to pay for such a major endeavor in 1915 with those who don’t want to pay taxes to fund road improvements today.
“I think examining the story of the Dixie Highway can teach us about our modern transportation issues,” she said. “Roads became a central political issue in the South at the turn of the 20th century. Everyone could agree that we needed more and better roads. The question was how to do this. We’re still grappling with the same kinds of questions today. What we’ve learned from our experience with the Dixie Highway is that we have to pay for infrastructure. And that is a hard pill to swallow. But we can’t have roads and not pay for them.”
Ingram also said she believes people can draw inspiration from the road’s planners who had the vision to know what transportation would look like years later.
“Maybe we need to re-envision what transportation will look like in the future. There are many more cars on the road today than ever before. Certainly when our roads were built,” she said. “We could use some of that same imagination.”
Charlotte Rentz, one of the many who attended some portion of Friday’s event, said she enjoyed herself.
“I think the event was just wonderful,” she said.
Rentz drove from the southside of Atlanta to attend the symposium.
She directs a transportation museum in Hapeville, another town featured along the Dixie Highway.
“I’d like to bring the exhibit to our town,” she said.
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WWE welcomes 11 new NXT recruits to WWE Performance Center
WWE (NYSE: WWE) announced that a new, international class of 11 recruits — including former collegiate athletes, bodybuilders and talent from the independent wrestling circuit — from seven countries have started training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
The WWE Performance Center is the home of NXT, the developmental division and brand extension for WWE. With seven training rings, a world-class strength and conditioning program and cutting-edge edit and production facilities, the Performance Center will allow the new class to hone their skills through a comprehensive program that includes in-ring training, physical preparedness and character development.
“The global reach of WWE is reflected in the diversity of this class of NXT recruits,” Paul Triple H Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events Creative, said in a release. “Talent is the most important natural resource we have, and these individuals will have every opportunity to hone their skills and fulfill their dream of becoming a WWE Superstar or Diva at the WWE Performance Center.”
The new NXT class includes:
Australia:
· Cassie McIntosh (Born in Sydney, resides in Melbourne, Australia) – Trained with Pro Wrestling Alliance in Sydney since 2011. In 2012, was trained by Lance Storm, a former WWE Superstar who now runs the Storm Wrestling Academy in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Proficient in dance and acrobatics.
· Jessica McKay (Sydney, Australia) – Since 2008, has trained with Pro Wrestling Alliance in Sydney, as well as Ring of Honor.
Canada:
· Nhooph Al-Areebi (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) – Trained with Squared Circle since 2011 and was a member of the Toronto Circus School from 2008-2012. Also trained in rhythmic gymnastics. Speaks English and Arabic.
Germany:
· Axel Tischer (Dresdan, Germany) – Trained with GWF Wrestling in Berlin since 2006. Served in the German Army from 2005-2007, achieving the rank of Private First Class.
Mexico:
· Oscar Vasquez (Ciudad Juarez, Mexico) – Trained in Juarez in Lucha Libre style of wrestling. Worked with CWF Mid-Atlantic. Dual citizen of Mexico and the United States.
Serbia:
· Radomir Petkovic (Belgrade, Serbia) – European Vice Champion at the 2010 European Wrestling Championships and was a two-time bronze medalist at 2009 Mediterranean Games in Greco-Roman and Freestyle. Speaks Russian and English.
United Kingdom:
· Peter Howard (Exeter, England) – Played collegiate Rugby in the UK and was a regional Discus Champion.
United States:
· Kenneth Crawford (Chicago, Illinois/Anson County, North Carolina) – Served in the U.S. Marine Corps for four years and accumulated a perfect 300 score in the United States Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test. Holds the North Carolina South Piedmont and Anson high school records in the 200-meter run, 400 meter and 1,600 relay. Anson High School Athlete of the Year in 2007.
· Thomas Kingdon (Traverse City, Michigan) – Competed in Amateur Bodybuilding and won the Super Heavyweight Class at the 2013 NPC Central States Competition.
· Sesugh Uhaa (Atlanta, Georgia) – High School Soccer, Football and TrackField star. Began training in 2009 and worked for Dragon Gate USA.
· Levis Valenzuela Jr. (Durham, North Carolina) – Trained with CWF Mid-Atlantic in 2013. Proficient in dance and won various awards for collegiate ballroom dancing. Holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from UNC Charlotte. Grew up in the United States, lived in South Korea from 2011-2013 and speaks Spanish.
The new class will join a group of 55 men and women training at the state-of-the-art, 26,000 square-foot WWE Performance Center. The venue offers a full training experience with real time feedback from outstanding WWE coaches, trainers and doctors, giving performers the resources they need to develop their talent — athletically and creatively.
Additionally, recruits will be immersed in WWE’s Professional Development program that focuses on four key pillars of development – Life Skills, Education, Wellness, Career Success.
NXT on WWE Network
Catch NXT on WWE Network 8 p.m. EST Wednesdays and on-demand.
Visit http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwenxt for everything NXT and tour dates.
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iSolved Time Clock Offers Unmatched Accuracy due to Morpho Biometrics
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Infinisource, a leading provider of SaaS-based Human Capital Management technology solutions and services, and Morpho, a leading supplier of biometric identification and security solutions, worked in partnership to produce the market’s most advanced biometrically-enabled time clock, the companies announced today.
Infinisource’s iSolved NXG time clock is setting a bold, new standard for the collection of attendance and labor data for the small and mid-size employer. When connected to the iSolved human capital management (HCM) solution, the NXG provides all the time tracking power, precision and flexibility employers demand.
Time clocks provide a reliable and consistent method of collecting the work time of employees, and can assist with reporting data required by the Affordable Care Act, as well as local and state regulations around meals and breaks.
Infinisource launched its next generation of time clocks with the NXG series, built from the ground up to work with its iSolved HCM solution. Available with an optional biometric scanner, the NXG time clock helps eliminate buddy punching and other fraudulent behavior. When set to identification mode, each employee can simply scan a finger and go, with no additional badge required. Clocking in or out becomes quick and easy.
“As we designed the NXG series for iSolved, we chose Morpho for the time clock’s biometric finger-scanning capability,” said Todd La Fever, President of Technology at Infinisource. “The MorphoSmart CBM sensor is the most sensitive and compact fingerprint reader module on the market.”
“MorphoSmart CBM sensors provide the most accurate fingerprint technology available, which is vital for time tracking in the workplace,” added Gary Jones, Director of Biometric Access and Time Solutions. “Morpho fingerprint technology is ranked #1 for accuracy by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. In addition, Morpho’s patented optical technology and biometric algorithms are acknowledged worldwide for high quality fingerprint acquisition, exceptional matching speed and accuracy, and robustness when operating in harsh or high volume conditions.”
The iSolved NXG time clock is assembled in the United States and is delivered through the iSolved Network of Certified Partners and direct from Infinisource to businesses throughout the U.S.
Go to www.morpho.com/USA for more about advanced biometric solutions, and visit www.infinisource.com to see how the iSolved NXG time clock and iSolved are transforming the way organizations manage their most important asset — their people.
MorphoTrak, a subsidiary of Safran USA, provides biometric and identity management solutions to a broad array of markets in the U.S. including law enforcement, border control, civil identification, and facility/IT security. Reporting to Morpho, Safran’s security division, MorphoTrak is part of the world’s largest biometric company. Morpho is a leading innovator in large fingerprint identification systems, facial and iris recognition, as well as secure credentials. With 40 years’ experience, Morpho has captured more than 3 billion fingerprints and Morpho products are used by more than 450 government agencies in over 100 countries. MorphoTrak is headquartered in Anaheim, CA with major corporate facilities near Washington D.C., and Federal Way, WA.
About Infinisource, Inc.
Founded in 1986, Infinisource is a nationally recognized leader of SaaS-based Human Capital Management technology solutions and expert services. Infinisource offers iSolved (a single platform for HR, Payroll, Time and Attendance and Benefits Enrollment) as well as administration for COBRA, Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements.
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Today in History
Today is Saturday, April 25, the 115th day of 2015. There are 250 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlights in History:
On April 25, 1945, during World War II, U.S. and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe (EL’-beh) River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany’s defenses. Delegates from some 50 countries gathered in San Francisco to organize the United Nations.
On this date:
In 1507, a world map produced by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller contained the first recorded use of the term “America,” in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci (vehs-POO’-chee).
In 1792, highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine.
In 1862, during the Civil War, a Union fleet commanded by Flag Officer David G. Farragut captured the city of New Orleans.
In 1901, New York Gov. Benjamin Barker Odell Jr. signed an automobile registration bill which imposed a 15 mph speed limit on highways.
In 1915, during World War I, Allied soldiers invaded the Gallipoli (guh-LIHP’-uh-lee) Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
In 1944, the United Negro College Fund was founded.
In 1959, the St. Lawrence Seaway opened to shipping.
In 1964, vandals sawed off the head of the “Little Mermaid” statue in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 1974, the “Carnation Revolution” took place in Portugal as a bloodless military coup toppled the Estado Novo regime.
In 1983, 10-year-old Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, received a reply from Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov to a letter she’d written expressing concern about possible nuclear war; Andropov reassured Samantha that the Soviet Union did not want war, and he invited her to visit his country, a trip Samantha made in July.
In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed in orbit from the space shuttle Discovery. (It was discovered that the telescope’s primary mirror was flawed, requiring the installation of corrective components to achieve optimal focus.) Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was inaugurated as president of Nicaragua, ending eleven years of leftist Sandinista rule.
In 1995, show business legend Ginger Rogers died in Rancho Mirage, California, at age 83.
Ten years ago: At his Texas ranch, President George W. Bush prodded Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah to help curb skyrocketing oil prices. The CIA’s top weapons hunter in Iraq, Charles Duelfer (DEHL’-fur), said in an addendum to his final report that his search for weapons of mass destruction had been “exhausted” without finding any. A packed commuter train jumped the tracks and hurtled into an apartment complex in western Japan, killing 107 people. A space capsule carrying a U.S.-Russian-Italian crew landed safely in northern Kazakhstan.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama made a pilgrimage to Billy Graham’s mountainside home, concluding his North Carolina vacation with his first meeting with the ailing evangelist who had counseled commanders in chief since Dwight Eisenhower. An al-Qaida front group in Iraq confirmed the deaths of its two top leaders a week after a raid by Iraqi and U.S. security forces on the leaders’ safe house near Tikrit (tih-KREET’), north of Baghdad. British writer Alan Sillitoe, 82, died in London.
One year ago: President Barack Obama, in a joint news conference in Seoul alongside South Korean President Park Geun-hye (goon-hay), said the U.S. stood “shoulder to shoulder” with its ally in refusing to accept a nuclearized North Korea. The United States and other nations in the Group of Seven said they’d agreed to “move swiftly” to impose additional economic sanctions on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine. In a historic vote, Northwestern University football players cast secret ballots on whether to form the nation’s first union for college athletes. (The results of the closely watched vote have yet to be released.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Al Pacino is 75. Ballroom dance judge Len Goodman (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) is 71. Rock musician Stu Cook (Creedence Clearwater Revival) is 70. Singer Bjorn Ulvaeus (BYORN ul-VAY’-us) (ABBA) is 70. Actress Talia Shire is 70. Actor Jeffrey DeMunn is 68. Rock musician Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty the Heartbreakers) is 65. Country singer-songwriter Rob Crosby is 61. Actor Hank Azaria is 51. Rock singer Andy Bell (Erasure) is 51. Rock musician Eric Avery is 50. Country musician Rory Feek (Joey + Rory) is 50. TV personality Jane Clayson is 48. Actress Renee Zellweger is 46. Actress Gina Torres is 46. Actor Jason Lee is 45. Actor Jason Wiles is 45. Actress Emily Bergl is 40. Actor Jonathan Angel is 38. Actress Marguerite Moreau is 38. Singer Jacob Underwood is 35. Actress Melonie Diaz is 31. Actress Sara Paxton is 27. Actress Allisyn Ashley Arm is 19.
Thought for Today: “It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” — Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress (1901-1992).
(Above Advance for Use Saturday, April 25)
Copyright 2015, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
High court orders new trial for boastful death row inmate
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s highest court ordered a new trial Friday for a death row inmate who once wrote, “Kill me if you can, suckers,” in a letter from prison to his hometown newspaper.
The North Carolina Supreme Court issued a 4-2 decision vacating Danny Hembree’s conviction and death sentence in 17-year-old Heather Catterton’s 2009 killing and ordering a new trial. The court agreed with Hembree’s argument that he was denied a fair trial because of several errors, including the presentation of evidence from another killing.
The 53-year-old inmate is serving a separate 26-year prison sentence for killing another woman, Randi Saldana, whose burned body was found in South Carolina in 2009. He had been accused of killing a third woman in 1992, but those charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.
The defendant admitted to smoking crack and having sex with Catterton in the hours before she died but denied during his trial that he killed her.
In Friday’s ruling, the justices found that the trial court erred by letting prosecutors present too much evidence related to Saldana’s death, call Saldana’s sister as a witness and argue in their closing arguments that Hembree lied on the stand at the behest of his attorneys. No new trial date has been set.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Paul Newby wrote that there’s overwhelming evidence of Hembree’s guilt, including an initial confession to police that he later retracted. He was joined by Chief Justice Mark Martin.
“The jury took little time, less than four hours, to reject defendant’s recantation and find him guilty,” Newby wrote.
Newby wrote that Hembree failed to show “any reasonable possibility that the jury would have reached a different result absent the alleged errors.”
An attorney for Hembree, Marilyn Ozer, said that Hembree is pleased with the decision. She expects him to be moved from death row to another prison, and he’ll get to have a contact visit soon with one of his grandchildren.
“I think the opinion makes it very clear that the prosecution was stretching to get a conviction on Heather Catterton’s murder,” Ozer said. “We’re just very pleased that the justices understood that introducing all that evidence about Saldana was not appropriate and that the forensic testimony was at best uncertain.”
More than a year after his conviction for Catterton’s death, Hembree pleaded guilty to killing Saldana as part of a separate prosecution.
Saldana’s burned body was found about two weeks after the discovery of Catterton’s remains, both in York County, South Carolina.
The grisly nature of the crimes drew attention to the case, but Hembree’s letter to The Gaston Gazette in 2012 brought even more notoriety. The newspaper published a front-page story about the letter in which he boasted of being a “gentleman of leisure” on death row, watching color TV and taking frequent naps.
Hembree wrote that his execution wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon, adding: “Kill me if you can, suckers.”
Outrage about the letter included a bill to prohibit death row inmates from watching television, but the state legislation was ultimately unsuccessful.
Clinton’s decision: The long road to a second campaign – Las Cruces Sun
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Around Christmas, Hillary Rodham Clinton set off on her annual holiday vacation at Oscar de la Renta’s beachfront estate in the Dominican Republic.
It was a somber and serious time for Clinton. De la Renta, whose relationship with the former first lady had blossomed from dress designer to close friend, had recently died and Clinton wanted to be there to support his widow. She was also wrestling with a final decision on whether to run for president. She arrived at the island compound armed with a binder stuffed with 500 pages of policy memos and analysis.
Clinton had spent nearly two years tiptoeing around a decision that much of the political world assumed was a done deal, a calculated next act in what critics saw as the Clintons’ master plan.
FILE – In this Oct. 25, 2014, file photo, former Secretary of State of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, stands with Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., on the stage during a campaign rally in Charlotte, N.C. In the summer of 2014, Democratic officials told Clinton that if she had any interest in being the party?s 2016 nominee, she needed to hit the campaign trail in the lead-up to the midterms.(AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File) (Chuck Burton/AP)
Clinton’s intensely loyal friends and advisers bristle at the suggestion that a second White House run was inevitable. When she left the State Department in early 2013 and returned to private life for the first time in more than two decades, Clinton told people she just wanted to “walk, sleep and eat.” She was more focused on renting office space and figuring out where to receive her mail than on superPAC fundraising and courting Iowa powerbrokers, allies said.
Her decision to run again would be slow, almost painstakingly deliberate, a reflection of Clinton’s methodical and cautious nature. She put off much of the process until last fall, around the midterm elections. Only then did she delve deeply into consultations with dozens of policy and political experts, analysis of countless memos, and a reexamination of what went wrong in her failed 2008 campaign.
By the time Clinton arrived in the Dominican Republic, she had largely settled on running a second campaign, but wanted to make the final determination with her husband, Bill. When she returned to New York in the new year, there was no formal meeting with staff or email to friends to announce her candidacy. Clinton simply started telling advisers to move forward with hiring and find a campaign headquarters.
Clinton formally launched her campaign in an online video Sunday. That will be followed by a series of small events in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire. The announcement cements her status as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, back within sight of an elusive ambition and a history-making turn as the nation’s first female commander in chief.
Already one of the world’s most analyzed figures, the 67-year-old will be subjected to months more scrutiny of her wealth, her appearance and health, and her personal relationships.
This account of how Clinton decided to run for president a second time is based on interviews with nearly 20 people who spent significant time with her as she recovered from her stunning loss to President Barack Obama in 2008, served as secretary of state, and contemplated another White House run. Some requested anonymity in order to speak candidly about their private conversations with Clinton.
———
The 2008 defeat was devastating for Clinton, a slow motion train wreck she appeared powerless to stop.
After finally conceding to Obama, Clinton fell back into the relatively powerless role of junior senator from New York. In an institution where influence is gained through seniority, she ranked 70th out of 100.
Clinton appeared willing to at least consider carving out a career — and a legacy — in the Senate. She studied John Kerry’s approach when he returned to Capitol Hill after losing the 2004 presidential election. She and her advisers discussed other senators she admired, including Dianne Feinstein, the longtime California Democrat. Feinstein was on the powerful appropriations committee, so they weighed whether Clinton should seek a spot on the committee, too.
Clinton escaped the Senate through an unlikely opportunity. Obama, her former rival, asked her to join his administration as secretary of state.
Clinton confidantes view her four years at the helm of the State Department as her golden era — a chance for one of the country’s most polarizing figures to jump off the political treadmill. She set a record for international travel and prioritized issues she had long been passionate about, including global health and boosting opportunities for women and girls. The deeper she delved into policy, the higher her approval rating went.
A telltale sign that Clinton was in her comfort zone: she was willing to throw her famously scrutinized hair up in a ponytail in front of the cameras.
“She was her own person,” said Lisa Caputo, a former senior adviser to Clinton. “It was the pragmatist Hillary, nose to the grindstone.”
Talk of another presidential campaign still followed Clinton everywhere she went, but she repeatedly ruled it out. In 2011, she said her plan was to make secretary of state her “last public position,” then “probably go back to advocacy work, particularly on behalf of women and children, and probably around the world.”
A former aide described Clinton’s attitude at that point more bluntly: “It was not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no.'”
———
After Clinton’s long-planned departure from the State Department in early 2013, enticing opportunities started flowing in.
Prominent universities, including Harvard, Columbia and Yale, offered wide-ranging academic and policy posts. The Ford Foundation, which bills itself as a global social change organization, approached her. George Soros, the billionaire liberal philanthropist, wanted Clinton to run his foundation. Major companies dangled spots on corporate boards.
None of the opportunities felt like the right fit. Some risked complicating the potential presidential campaign Clinton was now quietly willing to discuss.
“Hell no” had turned into a definite maybe.
Throughout the spring, Clinton reconnected with her vast network of friends in New York, California and her hometown in Illinois. They hadn’t seen much of her while she crossed the globe as a diplomat and now they were telling her to run again.
“I said, ‘You don’t need to do this for you,’ ” said Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a longtime friend and Clinton financial backer. “But, you must do it because the country needs you.”
Clinton had also started to pay more attention to a fledgling political organization encouraging her to run. The Ready for Hillary group had initially been a source of frustration for her advisers, who dismissed it as a JV operation that was putting too much pressure on Clinton far too quickly.
The group had the look of a campaign-in-waiting. A bus plastered with Clinton’s picture was rolling through towns in Iowa and New Hampshire. Democratic senators showed up at events to announce endorsements, particularly those who had spurned her for Obama during her first campaign.
Soon, the Clinton team’s view of Ready for Hillary would shift from annoyance to acceptance. The energy the organization was harnessing reminded them of the kind of grassroots movements they jealously watched mobilize around Obama in 2008.
Even around those closest to her, Clinton offered few indications of how seriously she was considering another run. Friends read the tea leaves much like the public.
An announcement that she now supported gay marriage seemed to indicate she wanted to run. But her decision to accept speaking fees of more than $200,000 per appearance didn’t look like the mark of a politician who would soon be seeking the votes of financially strapped Americans.
Clinton had long ago moved on from her bruising defeat. A former aide compared her ability to close the door on professional failures to her ability to stay in her marriage amid her husband’s public infidelities. But her devoted staff still bore the scars of the last go-around and some were adamantly opposed to another run.
Cheryl Mills, a deeply loyal adviser to both Hillary and Bill, was among the most vocal and told anyone who asked that she thought her friend was “crazy” for even considering a campaign.
Among the fears of Mills and others? Clinton could lose again.
“This is it for her,” one former adviser said. “Whatever happens, that’s what she’ll be known for.”
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In 2014, Democratic officials told Clinton that if she was even thinking about running for president, she needed to be on the campaign trail in the midterms. Vulnerable candidates saw Obama as politically toxic, but were clamoring to appear alongside the woman they wanted as the party’s next leader.
Clinton’s initial foray back into the political arena was bumpy at best.
Some of the shine had started to come off Clinton as she promoted the memoir she had written about her State Department years. She stumbled in an early interview by declaring that she and her husband, who quickly amassed millions after his presidency, were “dead broke” when they left the White House. In a separate interview, she appeared to criticize Obama for declaring that his foreign policy doctrine was to avoid doing “stupid stuff.” She scrambled to apologize to the president.
Her first campaign appearances were flat. In Iowa, the state where she was vanquished by Obama in the 2008 primary, she awkwardly declared, “I’m baaack!” before launching into a pro forma recitation of Democratic talking points.
Clinton and her aides knew it hadn’t gone well. She lacked a clear message, one she could ultimately turn into a rationale for her own candidacy.
Two weeks later, her daughter, Chelsea, gave birth to a girl, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.
It was a jubilant moment for Clinton, who had long hoped for a grandchild. It was also politically clarifying. Suddenly Clinton saw a way to tie the policy issues she had long worked on with her motivation for potentially seeking the White House.
Clinton personally wrote much of the new speech for her next public rally, an October event for Pennsylvania Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf. Unlike her stale appearance in Iowa, her remarks were fiery, both sharply political and personal.
“You should not have to be the grandchild of a president to get a good education, to get good health care,” Clinton said. “Let’s make sure we give every child in Pennsylvania the same chance that I’m determined to give my granddaughter.”
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By the time the midterms were over, Clinton had traveled to 18 states and headlined 45 events for 26 candidates. More than half lost.
Clinton had expected the results to be bad, but not this bad.
Democrats had run scared, she concluded. The party had done little to defend its accomplishments on the economy and health care, and done even less to argue what Democrats wanted to do in the future.
As her party grappled with the sweeping defeats, Clinton plunged into discussions about her own potential campaign. Part of what she weighed was how to run a modern, technologically sophisticated campaign, an implicit acknowledgment of her 2008 operation’s failings.
Among those she consulted with were veterans of Obama’s White House runs: former campaign manager David Plouffe, ground game guru Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, and digital director Teddy Goff.
At the same time, Clinton convened long economic discussions that centered on income inequality and the widening achievement gap. Foreign policy experts gave her their diagnosis of pressing problems in the Middle East and with Russia. Clinton took hand-written notes and stockpiled multi-page memos.
“She wanted to be satisfied that she had a set of policies and ideas that could really make a difference for people and she had a theory of change to get them done,” said John Podesta, her new campaign’s chairman. “She went pretty deep.”
The political data Clinton consumed underscored the demographic advantages the Democratic Party has built up among Hispanics, African-Americans and women. Clinton might even be able pick off one or two percent more of the white vote and women than Obama.
What resonated with Clinton more than the policy papers and the polling were appeals to her sense of duty, a hallmark of her Methodist upbringing in the Midwest. She was by far the most qualified Democrat to run, supporters argued. If she didn’t run, what other Democrat could win?
“If a young Bill Clinton was out there today and she saw that and believed in that person’s ideas, character and competence, I am absolutely convinced she would not run,” de Rothschild said.
There was plenty that gave Clinton pause. She grimaced at the thought of giving up her privacy again. She worried about putting Chelsea, husband Marc and their baby in the spotlight. She felt bad that her candidacy would crowd out Vice President Joe Biden, a longtime friend who was also toying with a White House run.
Clinton was also mindful of chatter that she could be challenged from her party’s liberal left flank. She set up a meeting with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose anti-Wall Street positions were galvanizing progressives and stoking talk that she could launch her own 2016 campaign. The meeting was as much an opportunity for Clinton to gauge the mood of progressives as it was a chance to size up the seriousness of Warren’s repeated denials of a White House run.
A less talked-about concern was health, both hers and her husband’s. The former president had undergone quadruple bypass surgery and had to make drastic lifestyle changes. Hillary Clinton would be 69 years old on Election Day, tying Ronald Reagan as the oldest American to be elected president if she won.
Clinton had been paying attention to her health — eating better, working out with a personal trainer, telling friends she would pace herself more if she ran another campaign. But there were sure to be lingering questions about the concussion and blood clot she suffered in her final weeks at the State Department.
By December, most of Clinton’s anxieties had been resolved. Her private deliberations over the holidays would put to rest her internal debate.
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The oft-repeated mantra of Clinton’s growing campaign team is that this time will be different.
Many of the problematic senior advisers who stoked division and drama in her first campaign have been left behind. She has poached liberally from the younger generation of operatives who have worked for Obama. Despite having no serious primary challenge, she is running from the cloak of inevitability that helped drag down her last campaign and is planning to run aggressively in places like Iowa and New Hampshire.
But many of the potential pitfalls and risks Clinton weighed for months haven’t gone away.
Revelations that she used a personal email and private server throughout her time at the State Department revived questions of secrecy and questionable ethics that have long dogged her and her husband. Her slow and defensive public response ran counter to aides’ claims that they better understood the fast-paced media landscape and would be less defensive with the press.
The matter also reinvigorated Republican lawmakers’ investigations into the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, while Clinton was secretary of state. She’ll likely have to testify before Congress in the coming weeks.
Friends fret over whether Clinton will let voters see the warm and funny woman they say they know, the one who is the first to call when a family member dies, the one who loves to gossip and play matchmaker for young staffers. More than two decades in the national spotlight have left her guarded and deeply protective of her privacy, a wildly famous figure who remains a mystery.
“On the one hand, they love the fact that she’s a celebrity politician. On the other hand they’re like, “she’s not like me, she’s not real,'” Minyon Moore, a longtime political adviser to the Clintons, said of voters. “Hopefully people will get to know the real Hillary Clinton who cares deeply about our country without pretense.”
Between nature walks with Clinton during a recent visit to northern California, her friend Susie Tompkins Buell asked her whether she was ready to put her life back under the microscope.
“She just throws her head back and her hands up and rolls her eyes,” Buell said. “She’s really prepared for this, for the onslaught. She’s going into this with her eyes wide open.”
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Julie Pace is the White House correspondent for The Associated Press.
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Follow Pace on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jpaceDC/
USS North Carolina needs repairs, calls for all hands on deck
The USS North Carolina battleship memorial launched a public campaign Thursday to finish raising $17 million to repair the ship’s rotting hull and make visitor improvements.
The battleship already has raised $10.7 million of the money it needs for the work, which will include replacing sections of the steel hull, adding a walkway around the ship and a new trail on the island adjacent to it, said Heather Loftin, promotions director for the popular tourist attraction on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington.
“We’re moving forward,” Loftin said, applying for permits to begin the work as soon as the money is in hand.
The USS North Carolina, the most decorated battleship to serve in World War II, is on “permanent loan” to the state and is managed by a state commission. But its daily operations are paid for through ticket and gift shop sales, special events, corporate and private donations, and investments.
The legislature occasionally allocates money for specific projects at the memorial. Last year, lawmakers gave $3.5 million toward the hull repair work.
Companies and individuals across the state contributed the rest of what has been raised so far, Loftin said. The State Employees Credit Union gave $3 million, and BBT and Wells Fargo also have donated.
Now, the Friends of the Battleship North Carolina is asking the public to participate in what it calls the Generations Campaign. Donors can give in several ways: by texting the word “Battleship” to 41444; visiting battleshipnc.com and clicking the “donate” button; mailing a check to the Friends of the Battleship North Carolina with a note on the memo line; or visiting the battleship and hand-delivering a gift.
The work is a continuation of repairs to the hull started in 2011. That year, $2.1 million was spent to fix damage on the starboard, or right, side of the ship’s bow and to build a temporary cofferdam to hold back the river.
This project will include construction of a permanent cofferdam – a watertight enclosure – that will encircle the ship so that any future hull repairs will be easier.
According to histories of the ship and its journey to Wilmington, the USS North Carolina was built in the New York Navy Yard and launched in June 1940. It spent 40 months in the Pacific, traveling 307,000 miles and participating in every major offensive engagement in that theater, earning 15 battle stars and getting credit for taking down 24 enemy planes and one enemy cargo ship. Though the Japanese claimed several times to have sunk the battleship, it was only seriously damaged once, by a torpedo Sept. 15, 1942. Five crewmen were killed.
It was taken back to the New York Naval Yard in October 1946 to be decommissioned.
By 1958, “The Showboat,” whose arrival had cheered bereft sailors when it steamed into Pearl Harbor after the Japanese attack there, was considered obsolete. The Navy announced it would scrap the ship along with several others and sell the steel.
A Wilmington television station ad executive named James Craig is credited with launching the effort that stopped the ship’s planned demise. Craig, a veteran, enlisted the help of his American Legion post and recruited then-Gov. Luther Hodges and incoming Gov. Terry Sanford. He also enlisted the aid of Hugh Morton, then a young Wilmington businessman, who saw a great tourism opportunity in the ship.
It was said to be Morton’s idea to offer free tickets to board the battleship to any school student who raised even a dime toward the cost of towing it to North Carolina and mooring it across the Cape Fear River from downtown Wilmington. More than 700,000 students participated, many of them filling milk cartons with coins.
Tucked into its slip on Oct. 2, 1961, the 728-foot-long ship now sits in about 26 feet of mud. Loftin said researchers believe the part of the hull sitting in the mud is quite sound, but the metal that has been exposed to wind and the rise and fall of the tide is now wafer-thin in places and in danger of giving way.
To extricate the ship from the mud and haul it to the nearest shipyard in South Carolina or Virginia would cost at least $35 million, and there’s no guarantee it would survive the trip.
Repairing it in place will cost half that. It also provides the opportunity to add a walkway, to be built atop the cofferdam, from which its 200,000 annual visitors can view the ship and watch the work.
Loftin said plans also include adding an expedition trail on Eagles Island, the spit of land where the ship is berthed.
Quillin: 919-829-8989
Hans Mateboer: Holland America Line’s ‘Captain for all Seasons’
CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 11, 2015 – Pop quiz: What do people who create greeting cards, write children’s books and captain a 65,000-ton cruise ship have in common? If you happen to be Hans Mateboer, the answer is “Quite a lot,” since all these apparently disparate interests reside in the same eclectic individual.
Born in the Netherlands, Capt. Hans Mateboer now calls Charlotte, N.C., his home for the approximately six months out of the year when he is not at sea. But don’t let his six-month-on, six-month-off schedule fool you. Literally a man for all seasons, he is truly a modern “Renaissance man.”
Mateboer launched his career on cargo vessels before becoming captain of the Rotterdam on the Holland America Line. In between, he worked as a safety/navigation officer and a staff captain and was also a primary consultant to the Disney conglomerate during the development that company’s now-popular Disney Cruise Line.
He worked for Disney for a total of six years, two of which took place before the line had even placed its first cruise ship in service. During that period, he was responsible for assisting the company with the set-up and design of the line.
After his time at Disney, Mateboer returned to Holland America, where his sailing schedule has him on duty for approximately three months and off duty for three months. During his “off” months, however, he is still required to take refresher courses to keep abreast of innovations in the cruise industry.
While most people think of cruising as glamorous, he says the day-to-day operation of a ship is more like running a diverse business. He is on the ship’s bridge for every arrival and departure as well as during special events and emergencies. Otherwise his primary tasks are keeping his crew happy and doing public relations with passengers.
Perhaps surprisingly, the multi-talented captain also serves as the “designated doctor” aboard his ship. That’s because the vessel’s medical staff actually works under the captain’s supervision. Equally surprising: an independent survey recently rated Holland America’s medical services the best of any cruise line.
So how exactly did writing children’s books and creating greeting cards come into Mateboer’s life?
As is true with almost any sea captain, Mateboer is a citizen of the world, meaning he has been just about everywhere during his travels. Consequently, chit-chat and shop talk do not interest him as much as satisfying his natural curiosity.
“I like to talk to interesting people,” he says. With admirable modesty, he does not imagine himself in that category. “I have talked with the owner of an airline and a Nobel Prize winner, and I am always thinking of things to do.”
It was during one of those periods of introspection that Mateboer decided to try his hand at writing children’s books. Not only did he succeed in this completely different line of work; he has sold more than 85,000 copies of his books.
Geared toward older children who are beginning to read with greater attention to detail, Mateboer’s first book, “The Captain’s Log,” was published in softcover 2004. It vividly describes many of his own experiences at sea and provides interesting and detailed information about life aboard a busy cruise ship.
“Peter the Cruise Ship,” published in 2007, was the first of a series of books designed with younger children in mind, much in the spirit of W. Awdry’s “Thomas the Train” books. Later Mateboer added “Peter the Cruise Ship and the Pirates” and “To Alaska (Peter the Cruise Ship)” to his growing list of titles. Each hardcover edition in this series is a slick, high-quality publication filled with colorful, cheerful illustrations.
Mateboer’s books are available on board the Rotterdam, of course, where the captain will gladly autograph his work. They can also be ordered through Amazon and Barnes Noble.
Though writing has always been a part of Mateboer’s life, he also decided to immerse himself in another project by creating a line of sea-themed greeting cards. For the moment, there are two series of three cards each, which can be found on his website.
The first series features maps of the Virgin Islands, the Fiji Islands and the Greek Islands, all destinations on Holland America itineraries. The second group contains three watercolor renditions of life aboard a cruise ship.
Like most Europeans, especially the Dutch, Mateboer is fluent in three languages: Dutch, English and German. Says the captain, “I can also get by in French, Italian, Spanish and Danish.” Say no more.
As for the cruises themselves, Mateboer observes that longer cruises generally attract an older clientele since they face fewer time restrictions and have more disposable income.
He prefers the Eastern Mediterranean for cruising because ports there are smaller, less crowded and easier to negotiate with his massive ship.
As if his other interests were not enough, Mateboer also owns and rents out four high-end log homes adjacent to West Virginia’s Pipestem Resort State Park. Here you can enjoy a variety of activities including hiking, archery and theater.
The captain’s philosophy has always been this: “At the end of life I want to look back and say I did different things.” That certainly goes without saying.
To meet the captain in person, all you need to do is book a cruise aboard the Rotterdam when he is on duty. Indeed, Capt. Mateboer is truly one cruise ship captain who never fails to “write” his ship.
Contact Bob at Google+
About the Author: Bob Taylor is a veteran writer who has traveled throughout the world. Taylor was an award winning television producer/reporter/anchor before focusing on writing about international events, people and cultures around the globe.
He is founder of The Magellan Travel Club (www.MagellanTravelClub.com)
His goal is to visit 100 countries or more during his lifetime.
Read more of Travels with Peabod and Bob Taylor at Communities Digital News
Reporter Paul Post takes a trip to Andy Griffith’s Mayberry
Siamese twins were Mount Airy’s first world-famous celebrities
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. Eng and Chang Bunker settled in Mount Airy after gaining worldwide fame by exhibiting their unique physical characteristics as conjoined “Siamese” twins.
They were born in 1811 near present-day Bangkok, Thailand, numbers five and six in a family of nine children, and kept hidden by their parents who were afraid they might be mistreated or even killed. Later, however, they wound up traveling as ambassadors with the king of Siam, who was impressed by the boys’ intelligence, despite their unusual physical condition.
“When they were 18 years old they had been discovered by a sea merchant from the Boston area who made arrangements with their mother to bring them to America, to go around in circus-like attractions,” said Melvin Miles, a local history buff.
But they were taken advantage of by the sea merchant’s wife who exhibited the brothers seven days a week, keeping most of the money for herself. At 21, they took off on their own and hired a kindly manager whom they had met along the way during their previous engagements.
“He agreed to work for so much per month,” Miles said. “They got to keep the rest of the money. From there they started doing tours all over the world for at least 10 years.”
How does Miles know all this?
“Their travel manager, Charles Harris, was my great-great-grandfather,” he said, smiling. “So I’ve got a connection.”
During a trip to New York, the twins met a doctor from North Carolina who was fascinated with and took a liking to them. After accepting an invitation to visit North Carolina on vacation, the brothers fell in love with the area and decided to make it their home.
Before long, they also fell in love with two sisters, Sara and Adelaide, whom they met at their manager’s North Carolina wedding.
“It was an outdoor wedding where people brought stringed instruments and covered dishes,” Miles said. “The twins got up enough nerve to walk up to the sisters and Eng said, ‘My brother wants to get married. Do you all know anybody available?’ That was the icebreaker for their whole future.”
Over time, the couples had 21 children the brothers became highly successful farmers with more than 1,500 acres of land. They were all one big happy family until the sisters stopped getting along.
To resolve their conundrum, the brothers built a second house and spent three nights with one family, followed by three nights with the other.
“They did that without any exception until they died at 63 years old on Jan. 17, 1874,” Miles said. “They died within 45 minutes of each other.”
The first, Chang, died of pneumonia. Eng couldn’t survive because of the way their systems were intertwined.
Afraid of profiteering grave robbers, the wives had the brothers buried beneath the house in a double coffin. Eventually, after the wives died, Eng and Chang’s eldest sons decided they should be moved to a public cemetery, where they were taken by horse drawn wagon.
“As soon as the horse took its first step a white dove appeared out of the heavens and lighted atop the twins’ coffin and set there all the way to the cemetery,” Miles said. “This is documented. It continued to set there over the grave until they started to lower the coffins and then it vanished.”
The cemetery is next to White Plains Baptist Church, just outside Mount Airy.
The Bunkers’ life story is exhibited in a special wing of the Andy Griffith Museum whose director, Tanya Jones, is Eng’s great-great-granddaughter.
On the last weekend of July, many of Eng and Chang’s 1,500 descendants hold a large private reunion in Mount Airy each year.
One of them is Mount Airy native Adelaide Alexander “Alex” Sink, Chang’s great-granddaughter, the state of Florida’s former chief financial officer who lost the 2010 governor’s race by one percent of the vote.
Another descendant was president of the Union Pacific Railroad and Chang’s grandson, U.S. Air Force Major General Vance Haynes (1895-1966), was an aide to President Woodrow Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference after World War I, and became a highly-decorated aviator known for his daring and expert flying ability during World War II.
“This reunion has gotten so big the past two years,” Miles said. “The ambassador from Thailand to the United States and most of his office staff from Washington come down for the reunion and they invite other people from Thailand, sharing the two cultures.”
– Paul Post
Reporter Paul Post shares details of his visit to Andy Griffith’s hometown.
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. Melvin Miles peels out in his sheriff’s squad car, siren blaring, and bad guys don’t even bat an eyelash.
To Miles, driving around in a black-and-white 1964 Ford Galaxy 500 is all in a day’s fun.
A retired school teacher, he’s one of the many people dedicated to keeping native son Andy Griffith’s legacy alive, and Mount Airy’s reputation as the inspiration for Mayberry RFD, the fictional town in Griffith’s popular 1960s-era television show.
All 249 episodes, from 1960-68, were filmed in Hollywood.
However, a half-century later, people still flock to Mount Airy by the hundreds each day, trying to recapture qualities the Andy Griffith Show depicts of a calmer, simpler way of life
“It’s a giant step back in time,” Miles said. “I think that’s why we get so many tourists. They’re still searching for that.”
A walk down Main Street is like taking a stroll down memory lane.
Griffith patterned many characters after real-life folks including Russell Hiatt, now 91, who gave the actor haircuts. In the “Andy Griffith Show,” of course, he’s Floyd the Barber.
His shop’s walls are covered with photos of famous celebrities and everyday people that have stopped in through the years.
Opey’s Candy Store, the famous Snappy Lunch (its signature pork chop sandwiches are out of this world) and the historic Earle Theater, where live bluegrass broadcasts are held, are also must-see destinations. Each Saturday morning, a dozen or so men and women get together upstairs in the Earle for a bluegrass jam session.
Lots of pickin’ and a grinnin’ and fun memory makin’.
Griffith’s rise to stardom began with a third-grade talent show.
“He and one of his little friends were going to sing,” Miles said. “When they opened the curtain, his friend turned chicken and would not come on stage. Andy came out anyway and bellowed out: ‘Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet.’ It brought the house down. He said he felt so great at that moment, he knew right then he wanted to become a performer, and he never lost sight of the dream.”
The school itself is long gone, but its auditorium is now a playhouse, adjacent to the Andy Griffith Museum, which tells the complete story of his entertainment career, highlighted by including many authentic artifacts – his musical instruments, movie clips, apparel and television props. Of course, it’s the rural small-town comedy and well-cast actors (Don Knotts, “Barney Fife;” Frances Bavier, “Aunt Bea;” Ron Howard, “Opey”) that made the show so popular.
“The humor and writing is timeless,” said Neal Brower, author of the book “Mayberry 101: Behind the Scenes of a TV Classic.”
“It still makes you laugh,” he said. “It hasn’t gone out of style. I could watch it again and again.”
There’s no absolute proof, but Griffith might have taken the name Mayberry from a tiny Virginia town located about 20 miles away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, an area his mother came from.
Mount Pilot, a town neighboring Mayberry on television, is based on an actual town called Pilot Mountain, N.C. – home to Pilot Mountain State Park. A drive or hike to the top of this precipice affords breathtaking panoramic views of the surrounding region.
Griffith is by far Mount Airy’s most famous product, but not its only celebrated persona by any means. Country singer Donna Fargo, who hails from Mount Airy, had seven number one hits in the 1970s including “Funny Face” and “The Happiest Girl in the Whole USA.”
However, a pair of immigrants from Asia started putting Mount Airy on the map as far back as the mid-19th century. Eng and Chang Bunker settled in Mount Airy after traveling the world on exhibit as conjoined “Siamese” twins. (See sidebar.)
Their life story is told in full at a wing of the Andy Griffith Museum and they are buried a short distance away in the White Plains Baptist Church cemetery.
The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, another must-see attraction, has four floors chock-full of fascinating information about this pristine part of northwest North Carolina. Exhibits about the area’s natural history, Native American cultures, early settlers and rural economic development bring history to life.
In addition to well-known personalities, Mount Airy also has a unique geologic distinction as home to the world’s largest open-face granite quarry, one so large that astronauts in space use it as a reference point when circling the globe.
“They’ve been mining for 123 years,” Miles said. “More than 95 percent of the street-side curbs in Washington, D.C. have come from this quarry, plus buildings and statues in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. In this state you will hardly go to any county where you will not find a church or courthouse made from our granite. Geologists estimate that stone to be over a mile deep. They will never ever deplete this supply.”
One of Miles’ favorite stops when giving tours is Griffith’s homeplace, the house he grew up in at 711 East Haymore St.
The enterprising owner of Mount Airy’s Hampton Inn purchased the house, which is now available to overnight guests, the same as a bed-and-breakfast. It’s a quaint, modest home in a quiet middle-class neighborhood.
To Griffith, who moved there during the Great Depression, it must have seemed like a palace.
“Before that he and his parents lived with different people,” Miles said. “Andy grew up very, very poor.”
He also wasn’t skilled in sports, so other kids quite often made fun of him.
Griffith’s closest friend, from grade school and for the rest of his life, was schoolmate Emmett Forest, to whom he gave many artifacts and collectibles from the Andy Griffith Show, which are now in the museum.
On rare occasions when Griffith came back to Mount Airy, he didn’t like public attention.
“He would come in for two or three days and stay with Emmett and never leave his place,” Miles said.
However, Griffith obviously had a strong appreciation and affection for his roots, as depicted by Sheriff Andy Taylor and his many Mayberry friends and acquaintances.
He also left a considerable amount from his estate to fund and promote bluegrass music in Mount Airy, which helped pave his path to stardom. “If you have a child, they can get free banjo, fiddle, guitar and stand-up bass lessons,” Miles said. “If you can’t afford the instrument the arts council gives it from Andy’s money.”
There will never be another Andy Griffith, but he’s making it possible for a whole new generation of young people to make their mark in the world of music and entertainment.
It’s this kind of concern, caring and compassion – traits not always found in large urban centers – that makes Mount Airy a welcome destination for people from all walks of life.
During the last weekend in September each year, Mount Airy hosts a large townwide festival called Mayberry Days with more than 25,000 people on hand. Highlights include a large Saturday parade with old black-and-white sheriff’s cars from all over the country, Barney Fife impersonators and lots of live music.
Some Andy Griffith Show cast members including 89-year-old Betty Lynn, who played Barney Fife’s sweetheart, Thelma Lou, also take part.
To Brower, the most important reason for visiting Mount Airy is simple.
“It seems like a familiar friend, a familiar place to go,” he said.