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Morning, gang.
This week we’re highlighting the work of Guilford County’s “Ready for School, Ready for Life,” program. Reporter P.R. Lockhart talked with Leslie Boney, who recently completed a series of pieces on the initiative for Public Ed Works.
The initiative aims to prepare children for kindergarten and early literacy. With more than $150 million in investment from private donors and groups like the Duke Endowment, Boney said they’re going beyond things like Smart Start, which has been in place for decades.
“In the early ‘90s, North Carolina made a substantial and ultimately notable investment in a series of early childhood interventions that were intended to make sure that every child in the state came to the first day of first grade healthy and ready to learn,” Boney told The Thread. “That investment has continued over a number of years, and I think what changed in the mid-2000s was that some people in Guilford County began to read the next generation of research about brain development.”
“And what they discovered was that the more we learned, the more it became clear that in order to make a meaningful difference, early childhood interventions needed to come much further upstream than we thought earlier,” Boney said. “In fact, they need to begin before birth.”
Read our full Q&A With Boney here.
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Gloves Off In Gov. Race
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson—a Greensboro native and the GOP nominee for governor—is no stranger to bare-knuckled political campaigning. But he’s calling a recent ad from his Democratic rival, Attorney General Josh Stein, a low blow.
Robinson has spent a lot of time lately answering questions about the businesses and nonprofits run by his wife, Yolanda Hill.
Late last month, the State Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Hill’s recently shuttered non-profit, Balanced Nutrition, owed the state more than $130,000. The department said the non-profit made inappropriate purchases and claimed expenses for food it never delivered.
Then, last week, Stein’s campaign dropped a campaign ad spotlighting problems at the family’s Greensboro-based daycare center.
“Mark Robinson and his wife operated a child care center that endangered children and was unsanitary,” Stein says in the introduction to the ad. “If this is how he cared for children, how can we trust him to care for our state?”
Last Friday, Robinson fired back with a cease-and-desist letter, saying Stein’s ad exaggerated and misstated facts.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time Stein and his campaign have been caught lying,” Robinson wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “He got himself in legal hot water in his last election for lying about his opponent. I have made it clear since day one that I am not going to allow this campaign to be thrown into the mud. I am going to stick to the everyday issues that North Carolinians care about—even if my opponent won’t.”
Stein did face a grand jury investigation over a 2020 campaign ad his opponent called libelous. That case was ultimately dismissed.
Robinson’s campaign is threatening legal action unless Stein stops running the ad. Stein’s campaign isn’t backing down.
“The ad is factually accurate, based on publicly available information,” Stein campaign manager Jeff Allen said in a statement. “And, to date, the Robinson campaign has yet to provide any new factual information to refute the ad’s claims.”
“Mark Robinson may want to hide his record from North Carolina voters, but the voters deserve to know it,” Allen said.
—Joe Killian
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What We’re Reading
A Reversal: Last week, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Fourth Circuit overturned a district court decision to dismiss the federal lawsuit against a Greensboro Police Department officer who shot and killed Nasanto Crenshaw, an unarmed Black teenager, during a traffic stop in August 2022.
Officer Matthew Sletten claimed he shot the 17-year-old as he drove his car toward him. Forensics determined several shots struck Crenshaw from the right through the passenger-side window. Triad City Beat has the story.
New Owner, New Mission: The Double Oaks Bed and Breakfast has been a key part of the Westerwood neighborhood for most of the last quarter century. Now, the historic house is entering its next chapter as a meeting place, community center, and event venue for the non-profit Down Home North Carolina.
Late last month, the group, whose mission is to “build multiracial and working-class power in small towns and rural communities across North Carolina,” paid $1.5 million for the building at 204 N. Mendenhall Street. Down Home and the Double Oaks staff will keep the bed and breakfast in operation through October as they honor existing reservations. Then it will become the Reclaim North Carolina Center.
The 6,700-square-foot house was originally built in 1909 as the Harden Thomas Martin House and has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. The Piedmont Historic Homes blog has the story.
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
Recent Greensboro Stories
The Greensboro City Council Is About To Get A Lot of New Faces
Big changes could be in store with at least four, and possibly six, current members departing next year.
Objects Can’t Lie
A Greensboro museum has been working to return artifacts taken from Japan during World War II, part of a broader movement to repatriate items taken from foreign countries.
North Carolina A&T Names Its Next Leader
The UNC System Board of Governors has named James R. Martin II, a current vice chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh, as the new leader of the country’s largest HBCU.
Around the State
10 Things To Know About Roy Cooper, Potential Pick for Vice President
North Carolina’s two-term Democratic governor is seen as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris. Here’s what you need to know about him.
UNC Frats Get Center Stage At RNC
The Trump campaign invited members of UNC fraternities who protected the flag to the Republican National Convention. Not everyone was enthused.
NCSU’s Randy Woodson Announces Retirement
The popular administrator stayed in his post nearly three times longer than most college leaders. Now the UNC System must undertake yet another chancellor search.
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