08:47 – There was a shooting overnight at Winston-Salem State University, which is only 10 miles or so from us. One dead, one wounded, and the shooter is still at large, but there aren’t many other details available yet. It sounds like an individual crime rather than a mass shooting, but I’m sure we’ll soon know more.
The lead article in the morning paper says that Forsyth County is far behind on restaurant health inspections. Last year, the health department did less than 50% of required inspections, and the last year they did even 75% of the required inspections was 2008/2009. Neighboring and urban counties in North Carolina typically did 75% to 100% of the required inspections every year during that period. Apparently, the Forsyth County health department can’t do its job, but at least they do make excuses. No word of anyone being fired over this.
I wonder if these inspections are even needed. Given the poor performance of our county health department over the last several years, one might expect to see restaurant patrons dropping like flies, but as far as I know the incidence of food-borne illnesses is no higher here than anywhere else. It is, after all, in the interests of any food service company to avoid poisoning its customers. Any that does isn’t likely to remain in business for long, not to mention being sued.
I remember one incident that happened maybe 30 years ago. A restaurant near where we used to live, Cagney’s IIRC, poisoned quite a few of its customers, and was quickly driven out of business. And ISTR that they had recently passed a health department inspection. So what’s the point of health department inspections? The free market seems to do a better job of keeping restaurants in line than the health department does.