When I was a fourth-grader in the segregated schools of Alabama, I was taught history from a textbook called “Know Alabama.” The book was written by a man named Frank Owsley, and it glorified slavery, deified Confederates and defended the Ku Klux Klan.
President Joe Biden has taken the Democrat Party to new lows. The Dems have lost 14 points in 12 months in a recent Gallop poll on who the American people want to run the country. Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’ polling numbers are at historic lows for this time in their term.
Undermining voter participation privileges partisanship over democracy, whether it’s through distorted one-party districts (gerrymandering), or voter suppression. We need to consider not only strategies that re-configure districts fairly, maybe blindly, but also alternative voting methods that increase turnout.
Millions of politicized Americans choose to believe that the COVID-19 virus originated in a Wuhan, China, laboratory to afflict America. Did China also create the delta and omicron variants for the same nefarious reason?
How did we get where we are — many of us a fractious bunch of unhappy children, following the dictates of a political party trying to lead us over the cliff to a fascist, dictatorial governing style we don’t support? How did we leave the “growth for everyone” model we followed from 1946 to 1…
According to a just published article in The Daily Advance, Pasquotank County officials may soon dramatically increase water rates — by 33% for residents and 58% for commercial customers.
Do you think felons should lose their right to vote? If so, do you think they should be able to regain that right after getting out of prison or should they have to wait until they complete any probation or parole requirement that follows prison? Or do you think a felony conviction should forever block someone from participating in elections?
In 2016, our Republican-led state legislature narrowly chose not to expand the state Supreme Court in order to nullify the results of that year’s judicial elections. Unfortunately, that is virtually the only example of legislative restraint towards the independent judiciary one can find in recent years in our state. In almost every other circumstance for the last decade, Republican legislators have sought to eviscerate the judicial review of their reactionary agenda mandated by our state constitution. The GOP has taken very literally the adage that legislators are the “supreme” branch of North Carolina government — and they would prefer to be the only branch with meaningful power.
In 2016, our Republican-led state legislature narrowly chose not to expand the state Supreme Court in order to nullify the results of that year’s judicial elections. Unfortunately, that is virtually the only example of legislative restraint towards the independent judiciary one can find in recent years in our state. In almost every other circumstance for the last decade, Republican legislators have sought to eviscerate the judicial review of their reactionary agenda mandated by our state constitution. The GOP has taken very literally the adage that legislators are the “supreme” branch of North Carolina government — and they would prefer to be the only branch with meaningful power.
It’s been a year since Joe Biden took the oath of office and became the 46th president of the United States. A lot has changed — most of it for the better.
As I ponder the state of our nation, I reflect on the civil rights movement. The 1960s were a turbulent time in our nation’s history, marred by assassinations, bombings, the Cold War, inequality, injustice, and more.
I write in response to Father Bob Hudak’s Jan. 8 letter requesting research into the “collateral damage” that occurs by inviting a data processing site such as Compute North into our community. My expertise is in the history of human trafficking, not in cryptocurrency. But a connection exists between these two “markets.”
I don't know about you, but both as a participant and a spectator, I have always looked to sports as a refuge. A refuge from what? Well, what have you got? Work, politics, public controversy, pretty much everything this column is normally about.
Bill Clinton used to say that all elections are about the future. It's true. Voters want to know what candidates will do in office — how they will fix problems — and if they can be trusted to handle the unexpected developments the future brings.
After a COVID-19 driven timeout last year, March for Life returns this year to Washington, D.C., for the 49th year, noting the anniversary of and support to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision of Jan. 22, 1973. This began the era of legal abortion in the USA.
Omicron is spreading faster than kudzu, especially among our children. Some educators and health officials are suggesting we halt in-class learning and return to virtual learning. That would be a disaster. It’s indisputable that omicron is spreading rapidly in our schools, but data suggests it doesn’t last long and isn’t as severe as was the delta variant. The threats of illness are not as great as other damages to our children.
This time last year, North Carolina was battling multiple crises along with the rest of our country. The pandemic, impacting the health of over 1.7 million North Carolinians, was at its height. Our economy was in a tailspin, with North Carolina’s unemployment rate at 5.9 percent. And after an attack on American democracy at our nation’s capital, the political divide across our country and state was more palpable than ever.
It’s hard to know which is more messed up these days — air transportation, or the Biden Administration. As another case in point, consider the clash between airlines and wireless carriers over 5G.
Last weekend a college friend of 55 years hosted two of us from our class at her home in Elizabeth City. Approaching on U.S. Highway 17 from Virginia, I was struck by the array of wind turbines outside of town stirring up energy in demonstration of a forward-looking community.
My boss at the time gave me a copy of the Friedmans’ book “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement,” which, in 1980, was number one on the U.S. best sellers list for five weeks. I highly recommend the short book because it’s easy to read and explains macro-economics in such a way that the avera…
The subject of inflation has been on many tongues in the public policy world of late — especially as Republican politicians comb every nook and cranny of the news cycle for topics with which to launch broadsides at the Biden administration.
From the moment many of us leave the womb, images of our infant selves get posted on Facebook and other social media. Once out and about, they become part of our permanent digital footprint, often soon to be joined by photos at every stage of life — crawling, first steps, puppy hugging, first day of kindergarten and so on.
It’s disappointing that the three-judge panel examining the redistricting maps drawn by the Republican-led legislature to guide North Carolina elections has decided to let them stand. This was the verdict last week following a lawsuit filed by three good-government groups, the N.C. League of Conservation Voters, the National Redistricting Foundation and the North Carolina chapter of Common Cause.
Republican Glenn Youngkin was recently sworn in as the new governor of Virginia, a state that Joe Biden won by almost half a million votes. What caused such a rapid shift in sentiment?
For all those that hate and want to destroy Donald Trump and those Republicans who refer to themselves as “never Trumpers” I say this: Ask yourselves how did we get to Trump becoming president of the United States?
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