A theme entering previous county budgetary deliberations has been how to best strike a balance between tending to Sampson’s physical infrastructure and its human infrastructure. The “physical” is the buildings, maintenance, equipment, supplies, computers, vehicles […]
As a few of my parents friends helped load the last of our belongings onto the moving truck before leaving for Missouri in August 1985, I patiently waited for Billy Gibbons’ arrival. After only one […]
A large majority of retirees work between 25 to 30 years in public service before receiving their retirement, contributing 6 percent of their pay each month. For many public sector workers that monthly, required contribution […]
We all want North Carolina to be an attractive place to live, work, create jobs, rear families, and build communities. When we move from ends to means, the level of disagreement moves from low to […]
Five years ago, a team of scholars published an illuminating study with an astonishing map that caught the attention of many of us in North Carolina. The map raised an unsettling question: Why does the […]
“I want to hear the story about you following the dog when you were little.” It’s a story that the grandkids used to want to hear at bedtime about one of my misadventures when I […]
This past weekend, a drone affixed with high-resolution camera equipment hovered over a commercial structure fire, maneuvering around plumes of smoke to capture thermal images from below. Those heat signatures helped emergency officials narrow in […]
Congressional elections in odd-numbered years? Odd is certainly one way to describe what many North Carolinians are experiencing right now. But in some ways, the special elections of 2019 are confirming rather than breaking the […]
North Carolina is spending more than $37 million this year to subsidize the tuition that families of 9,640 students pay to private and parochial schools. Now, the Republican majorities in the state House and Senate […]
Spurred by a public health scare, Congress is considering a big-government power grab to save young adults from themselves. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is reintroducing legislation to raise the minimum age for tobacco and nicotine […]
It was total pandemonium when the final buzzer sounded announcing the completion of the last basketball game for the season against our rival high school during the senior year of my secondary education. As I […]
North Carolina appropriates less taxpayer money to state colleges and universities in real terms than it did before the onset of the Great Recession. Tuition has risen markedly and now accounts for a larger share […]
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