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Where our focus belongs
More than 1,700 bills have been introduced in the NC House and Senate this year. I must tell you I feel that is excessive mainly because many of them do not address the issues I feel are most important to our state. In my view, we need to be primarily focused on our economy, job creation, education, and policies to make North Carolina state government more efficient and responsible in providing services to our citizens. Although the NC Sena...
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How politics has changed
When two senators recently got into a spat over whether the Boston Marathon bombings were being politicized, the news was everywhere within minutes. Reams of commentary quickly followed. This is political reality today, and when people ask me how politics has changed since I first ran for Congress in 1964, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. A debate on Capitol Hill back then might or might not have made the news, but even if it did, d...
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Celebrating the end of the Charlotte curse
What is one thing we can do for Charlotte now that former Mayor Pat McCrory has been elected governor of North Carolina and his successor, Anthony Foxx, has been nominated for U.S Secretary of Transportation? We can stop referring to the Charlotte mayor’s job as a dead end or curse for politicians aspiring to statewide or national office. It might take some getting used to. The previous three Charlotte mayors who tried for statewide off...
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Voting is a right not a privilege
Dear Editor, The Voter ID bill is simply an anti-Democracy tactic to suppress the God-given Constitutional right to vote in America. Representative Ken Goodman’s vote in favor of this bill is a monumental disappointment to those of us who subscribe to the doctrine of basic fairness. Voting is a right not a privilege. Flying on a plane or buying a beer may require an ID but that is a privilege and not a right. Our democracy makes us unique...
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Our View: Blinded by the light
Among all of the unnecessary bills bouncing about in Raleigh, and the time-wasting legislation jawed about among the General Assembly, there is a modest bit of proposed legislation we believe makes perfect sense. From one of our sister newspapers, The Robesonian, comes word of a state senator looking out for our safety on the roads in NC. The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that makes it a crime to install and use vehicle headlight...
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The Raleigh Report for May 4, 2013
This week, House legislators dealt with an array of high profile legislation including immigration, NC Pre-K eligibility, Asheville’s water system and renewable energy. On Wednesday, a bill offering undocumented residents driving privileges and creating Arizona-style detainment methods was approved by the House judiciary committee. The measure would allow immigrants to pursue a restricted driver’s license and authorize police to detain indivi...
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Health care law hurts, not heals, the economy
Among the many justifications used to try to popularize the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the first and foremost claim was that the measure would be a job creator. At the White House Health Summit in 2010, Nancy Pelosi asserted, “In its life, this bill will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” The fact of the matter is, President Obama’s health care law doesn’t create jobs, it kills them. As the darkening ...
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The longer I live I see
Dear Editor, I want to thank Dawn Kurry for writing the featured story of Wade and my yard in the Thursday, April 25, Journal. I really appreciate all The Daily Journal does as a hometown newspaper, especially for people like Wade and I that don’t have Internet or a computer. We are of the “old school,” being born during the Depression era. We are grateful for that because we were taught how to appreciate life. Our parents were God fear...
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Our View: Discovering success
For those of us in the newspaper business — including our transition to the web — success can be measured in the number of eyeballs we attract. For a venue like Rockingham Speedway, it’s the number of fannies in the seats. For Discovery Place KIDS–Rockingham, success can be measured in the number of children’s hands being kept busy by the fascinating displays and exhibits. And from the looks of ticket sales since its grand opening earlier...
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It’s a crying shame
Dear Editor, I read in Saturday’s Weekender about these sorry dead beat dads that refuse to pay child support. In my opinion, the judicial system should make these men be fixed so they can’t have more children that they’re not going to support anyway. I grew up in a Godly home with family first. My parents loved me and my sisters and brother. It’s a crying shame that these men take this so lightly about responsibility. I hope the peop...
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In the absence of argument
“People generally quarrel,” G.K. Chesterton once wryly observed, “because they cannot argue.” To the extent North Carolina politics looks increasingly quarrelsome at the moment, it is because of a breakdown of argument — of constructive debate among people of good faith who happen to disagree on public policy. Instead, traditional and online media alike are filled with venom, personal attacks, conspiracy theories, and overall boorishness. ...
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Tar Heel View: On loosening state’s gun laws
It is absolutely mind-boggling. At a time when public opinion poll after public opinion poll shows Americans even in the gun-happy South are in favor of stronger laws on guns, particularly on background checks, the Republicans in the North Carolina House are setting their sails against the wind, and against common sense. They’re now pushing a measure, acting as obedient servants of the gun lobby, to make it possible for people to carry guns...
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My Spin: What have you got to lose?
North Carolina’s official toast boldly proclaims that ours is a state where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. But we can never be that great state as long as so many of us are so unhealthy. According to the non-profit United Health Foundation North Carolina ranks 33rd in overall health, continually among the bottom third of states. One in three children is overweight or obese while 26.5 percent of white, 42.9 percent of black ...
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For the sake of our children
As the General Assembly considers Governor McCrory’s budget and we move closer to their goal of a budget finalized in June, it would seem our state and our community colleges are at a tipping point. Should we follow the Governor’s plan, with its combination of budget cuts and new funding resulting in a net reduction of $10 million? Or should we begin to reinvest in our colleges, our students, our businesses and our future? On April 8, Dr. S...
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Keep our grandfather’s fire burning
“Everybody in North Carolina should have heard that speech.” Someone had just heard Tom Lambeth’s recent remarks to the North Caroliniana Society, which was presenting him with its annual award for service to our state. Lambeth, longtime former executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, used the occasion to talk about some of the people and some of the stories that help define North Carolina and its history for him. Lambeth...
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