Havelock Scoop

That cavernous, vacant shell of a commercial air depot in Kinston — the Global TransPark — is getting its first large tenant. Spirit Aerosystems plans to bring a $600 million plant to the park, creating 1,100 jobs for locals, according to the Free Press.

Craven County businesspeople are giddy about the project, the Sun Journal reported today. We could see some economic benefits from the GTP’s success here — which is ostensibly why our county commissioners have helped prop up this turkey for 15 years. But, even if a fraction of Spirit’s cash comes to Craven, the lion’s share is staying in Lenoir.

I’m all for regionalism, but I don’t believe Craven County taxpayers should be forced to invest in this Lenoir County boondoggle. Craven has its own airport and industrial park — shouldn’t we be competing with Kinston for big business instead of helping a city 33 miles away sweeten the pot and lure the highrollers?

I hope Kinston does prosper, but not at the expense of New Bern and Craven County. Let’s boost our own economy before we give our western neighbor a leg up.

Havelock voters want to send Barack Obama to the White House, Beverly Perdue to the governor’s mansion and Walter Jones to the Capitol, according to unofficial results from tonight’s primary.

Obama beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by more than 100 votes in Havelock’s two precincts, and New Bern native Perdue spanked Richard Moore by a wide margin. Despite a groundswell of conservative support, Republican challenger Joe McLaughlin was edged out by the incumbent Jones.

News services already are projecting that Obama will win North Carolina’s Democratic primary. Check the Havelock News online for late-breaking results tonight — Ken and I will be in the office until we have all the Havelock-area numbers.

Did you vote? Did your candidate win? Leave a comment and let us know what you thought about this year’s primary races.

The Sunshine State is already ridiculed for its inability to count ballots. Now, Florida could develop a reputation for roadway censorship.

State lawmakers are considering a ban on replica bull testicles on car and truck trailer hitches, according to this AP story. Some lawmakers say the accessory is obscene, and an amendment to a highway safety bill would allow police to give out $60 tickets for displaying the plastic hitch covers.

Tastelessness shouldn’t be illegal. I hope the Legislature doesn’t have the ba — er, the guts — to pass this asinine amendment.

West Craven High will be the first county high school to make its students wear uniforms if the school board approves the request as expected Thursday evening.

A request from the school administration to adopt a uniform policy is included on the Craven County Board of Education’s consent agenda, Chairman Carr Ipock said today. Consent agenda items are usually approved in a single vote with little discussion.

I’ve always opposed student uniforms in public schools because they stifle expression and creativity. It was heartening, however, to see that this compulsory conformity was confined to elementary and middle schools. Now, the same rules that apply to children will be foisted on young adults with driver’s licenses and jobs.

But, to quote comic and social commentator George Carlin, “it’s not a new idea.”

“I first saw it in old newsreels from the 1930s,” Carlin said in his act. “But it was hard to understand because the narration was in German.”

UPDATE (April 21, 10:05 a.m.) — The school board postponed its vote on the West Craven uniform policy Thursday, according to the Sun Journal’s coverage. Uniforms have not (yet?) been adopted for the 2008-09 school year.

The optimal duration for sexual intercourse is 3 to 13 minutes, according to a study that will be published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine next month. Click here to read the Associated Press story.

The 2005 survey of 1,500 couples concluded that 1 to 2 minutes of lovemaking wasn’t enough, but satisfactory sex takes anywhere between 3 and 13 minutes — not including foreplay — for the average couple.

Readers of Romenesko’s Obscure Store & Reading Room, the blog where I first saw this study, suggest that mainstream advertising is playing to our perceived inadequacies and giving people the misconception that good sex has to last for hours. What sayeth Havelock Scoop readers?

Hood Richardson, a Beaufort County commissioner who mounted an unsuccessful run for the N.C. General Assembly in 2006, has pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge that resulted from his 2006 arrest for passing out campaign fliers during a high school football game, the Beaufort Observer reported.

A school board policy that prevents politicking on school grounds will now be enforced fairly, according to the story, but Richardson passed on a tremendous opportunity to fight for freedom of speech.

Political speech is among the most protected under the Constitution, and it doesn’t seem to me that there’s a First Amendment exemption for Friday night football. The Beaufort County ban on schoolhouse campaigning is wrongheaded and should be overturned.

Richardson had an opportunity to make that point in court recently. He didn’t.

A Pennsylvania middle-school student has been punished for wearing a “Volunteer Homeland Security” T-shirt because it bears the image of a gun, according to the Associated Press.

The AP also reports this week that a Maryland school has banned T-shirts, bumper stickers and images of the Confederate battle flag after at least two students were suspended in a vaguely worded “outbreak of racial hostility.”

Does two students’ suspension really qualify as an “outbreak?” Shame on the AP for its imprecise and likely exaggerated description. An outright ban on a popular symbol after just two kids were suspended sounds a lot like overreaction to me.

Schools are only allowed to interfere with student speech when such speech or expression creates a “substantial and material disruption” of the educational process, the Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

I wholeheartedly doubt the Tinker standard has been met in either school. If I’m right, then both administrations are guilty of unconstitutional censorship.

Consider this quote from Justice Abe Fortas in the Tinker case: “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights…at the schoolhouse gate.”

Music to my ears.

A Furniture Fair store in New Bern is threatening to sue a customer over fliers she’s passing out in a protest against the business, the Sun Journal reported today.

Tessie Adams is picketing the store because it refused to exchange furniture she said is warped and overworn, according to the story. The store has offered her a full refund, but is requiring her to return the furniture at her expense.

She’s not satisfied, so she decided to protest Furniture Fair by holding a picket sign and handing out fliers outside the Neuse Boulevard store. The company’s lawyer has written her a snotty cease-and-desist letter, claiming the fliers contain “false and damaging” information.

Because I haven’t seen the fliers, I can’t tell you whether the information is false, but I doubt sincerely that an angry customer’s constitutionally protected expression of opinion is legally actionable. This has a strong whiff of Goliath flexing his muscles to shut David up.

If Furniture Fair takes this dissatisfied customer to court, I’d boycott the store and encourage everyone I know to do the same. Whether or not the fliers are false, the road to resolution for this dispute shouldn’t run through a courtroom.

Today’s edition of the Havelock News features three stories on city transportation issues.

Residents of the North Harlowe and Cherry Branch communities got some good news, as the state Department of Transportation announced that a 13-mile stretch of N.C. 101 will be widened and resurfaced within the next year.

Traffic patterns have shifted since the recent removal of the Ketner Boulevard traffic signal, and at least one resident is so steamed that he or she posted a protest sign — which city officials quickly removed.

Havelock Scoop reader Andrew Callaway has applauded whomever’s responsible and offered to display the sign in front of his business.

Finally, a story details Havelock’s bid for a vote on the Super 70 Corridor Commission. The city currently pays $5,000 per year in membership fees, but doesn’t have a voice in the highway enhancement group’s decisions.

Time to fill out those brackets and pick the winners. Who will it be — UNC, Duke, Syracuse, Nebraska?

Try Comcast, US Airways, Bank of America or the Recording Industry Association of America.

Consumer rights blog The Consumerist is holding its second annual Worst Company in America contest. You can visit the site and vote for the worst business in daily match-ups (the first clash: Menu Foods vs. Comcast).

Which company elevates bad customer service to an art form? Make your choice, and feel free to share how you voted here on the Havelock Scoop.