Lately, I’ve been thinking about the word balance. We refer to a well-balanced life as one with equilibrium between work, family and recreation. A well-balanced diet includes a proper mix of the food groups. In government we talk about the balance of power, indicating that the three branches…
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the word balance. We refer to a well-balanced life as one with equilibrium between work, family and recreation. A well-balanced diet includes a proper mix of the food groups. In government we talk about the balance of power, indicating that the three branches…
Although North Carolina has become a demonstrably freer place to live and work over the past 10 years, our state remains grossly out of step with the rest of America in a key respect: we unnecessarily restrict the freedom of workers to enter new occupations and the freedom of consumers to pu…
For years, the United States has been divided into two nations, with one of them smaller than, but dominant over, the other. Nowhere has this imbalance been on clearer display than in the area of gun policy. Tragedy after tragedy has transpired without government action to prevent future mas…
HB755, also known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, isn’t the most egregious legislation to ever pass our General Assembly. That crown will forever belong to HB2, the so-called bathroom bill. That one cost us conventions, new industries, nationwide embarrassment and Pat McCrory’s re-election a…
I remember when, in about 2010, Republicans began putting pictures of assault rifles in their campaign advertisements. The response from most observers amounted to “Wow, that’s crossing a line.” Now, every Republican from Lauren Boebert to Bo Hines brandishes an AR-15 at any opportunity. The…
Entrepreneur and civic leader Algenon Cash is the host of “Locked In,” a program on Greensboro radio station WTOB. I appeared on a recent episode along with former Gov. Pat McCrory, who’d just lost the Republican primary for U.S. Senate.
A couple of months ago, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to keep the system’s admissions process “test optional” through the fall of 2024. University leaders said that to do otherwise in the aftermath of COVID-19 would be unfair to students and harmful to UNC’s const…
Republicans such as Senator Phil Berger opposed Medicaid expansion so tenaciously it almost seemed to be a matter of religious conviction. As Berger himself liked to argue, most of the uninsured in North Carolina were “able-bodied men,” whom he deemed unworthy of public support. This was ver…
For the first time in at least a decade-and-a-half, union activity is crackling across the country. Workers at such firms as Amazon, Starbucks, and other, less prominent companies are asserting their right to form collective bargaining units to claim a more just share of the profits that the…
Two polls taken of North Carolina voters right after the May 17 primary showed Republican Ted Budd leading Democrat Cheri Beasley in the pivotal 2022 race for U.S. Senate. They also show it’s too soon to count Beasley out.
Each Sunday morning during spring, summer and early fall the Oriental United Methodist Church has services on the riverfront. We love sitting on the banks of the Neuse, singing the hymns of the church, hearing scriptures read, being in community and listening to uplifting messages.
The first day of class the law professor strode into the room. The first thing he did was ask for the name of a student sitting in the front row.
According to the latest estimate from fiscal analysts at the North Carolina General Assembly, our state government will take in about $6.2 billion more in General Fund revenue over the 2021-23 budget biennium than was originally projected last year.
Last week saw one of the livelier primaries North Carolina has held in recent years. But for all the uncertainty surrounding outcomes when the polls closed, most of the highest-profile races shook out without surprises. We’re heading toward November with a slate of nominees who won what they…
Pundits and politicos like to talk about “mainstream” or “main street” Republicans, as if they made up a significant percentage of today’s GOP. But make no mistake, the May 17 primary election proved beyond doubt that the Trump cult (and there’s no denying they are a cult) is firmly in contr…
Before the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, patients who preferred to obtain medical services through video chats or phone calls were unlikely to be reimbursed for those expenses. Medicare, for example, covered telehealth visits only for patients in remote rural areas and only if they journe…
By 1840, when John Motley Morehead took office as governor of North Carolina, the illiteracy rate for white North Carolinians was 26%. Based on national studies, we can infer that the illiteracy rate for enslaved Black residents could not have been lower than 95%. The state did not have a si…
To keep oneself busy means to remain occupied with something to ensure that one is not idle or bored.
When lawmakers return to Raleigh May 18 for the short session they will be greeted by good news. The fiscal research division of the legislature projects that by June 30 (the end of the state’s fiscal year) the state will collect some $4.2 billion more than was forecast in this year’s budget.
