Cartoon
Opinion
Fiji for me but not for thee and other outrageous stories
Before we get to the crazy, I do want to let all the good folks down in Florida that I’m thinking of them. I know many of you are, too. As a Hurricane Katrina evacuee, I know firsthand what a big storm can do, which is decimate homes and lives. Obviously, folks throughout North Carolina...
Cartoon
Giveaways
Opinion
Jim Crow pistol permit remains a shameful blot on our state
Despite a new research paper by two Clemson University economists proving that black lynching decreased with greater firearm access, North Carolina still clings to its Jim Crow pistol permit. The state remains the only former Confederate state with the pistol permit law enacted here in 1919. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a repeal of the Jim Crow law...
Opinion
Enjoy the sunrise
Enjoy the sunrise It’s 6:32 a.m. I am sitting on our concrete patio in the community of Bettie, Down East, in Carteret County, on a mottled aluminum bench facing directly east. The distinct odor of exposed mud flat and salt marsh permeates the air, indicating the tide has passed low and is now rising. I...
Cartoon
Change
Opinion
Should today’s teens be optimistic?
The North Carolina of my childhood had an economy very different from that of the average state. Today our economy remains distinctive, though not by as much. When I started my first paid job in 1979 — teaching four-year-olds how to tap dance — manufacturing accounted for fully a third of North Carolina’s gross domestic...
Cartoon
Derailed
Opinion
Cleveland County wage dispute could strike blow against administrative state
A case involving a local government in North Carolina could help define the federal government's limits.
Opinion
With climate emissions, Americans are not the problem
Editor’s Note: This piece is adapted from a column that first appeared in the American Institute for Economic Research. IMPOVERISHING US IS NOT THE SOLUTION The Biden administration’s term of choice for the ridiculously named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is “historic.” One reason is its “climate change” promises. The monetary costs alone are enormous, which is strangely a point of...
Cartoon
Rejected
Opinion
Let’s make Medicaid expansion work
Are Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore, and Republican Senate leader Phil Berger about to strike a deal to expand North Carolina’s Medicaid program? I don’t know. The three leaders have been negotiating for months. While they broadly agree on the expansion itself, Berger’s chamber is the only one to have passed...
