Otterblog

We launched a new political blog today (or maybe late yesterday). It’s called Trail Mix, and it’s written by James Romoser, our Raleigh bureau chief. James is scary smart, and a great observer and analyzer. There are a zillion political blogs out there. We hope ours will be distinguished by its quality of content, not just the sheer quantity of links being dumped onto a site. I hope you will check it out and let James know what you think.

James is in Iowa right now, which is one of my favorite places in this whole big country of ours. It’s big skies and the cliffs along the Mississippi and river towns and corn and campaigning as far as the eye can see. I told James to eat cheeseburger chowder soup wherever he can find it out there, but he wasn’t having any of it. I think it’s one of the great midwestern dishes.

Personnel files: If you read the story today about the conviction of Robert Watson, you’ll note that we have asked for the school system to release his personnel file to the public. Generally speaking, personnel files are not public, but the law allows school officials to release these records in limited circumstances. We think the public-policy issues here are important