Six hundred days and counting. Gov. Roy Cooper has ruled North Carolina with a proverbial iron fist since unilaterally enacting a state of emergency March 10, 2020. The order came without following statutory mandates to consult with the North Carolina Council of State, as Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne, wrote recently for Carolina Journal. But Cooper,...
The government-imposed lockdowns of last year wrecked the global economy, and the fitness industry was among the businesses hurt most by the closures. But a new study finds the industry is “poised for incredible growth … with fitness trends undergoing a seismic shift away from gyms and towards outdoors, home fitness, and digital options.” RunRepeat,...
I’m reticent to use this space as means of airing personal grievances, and when I do my goal is toward serving the greater good, so to speak. But I want to share an experience my wife and I had in Wilmington this past weekend as an example of the hysteria created by mask rules and...
The N.C. State Fair, after a year off because of COVID, is back, and it’s spectacular. Glorious weather and, from my point of view, an almost perfect event. State Agriculture Commission Steve Troxler, fair Manager G. Kent Yelverton, and their staffs deserve tons of credit. Troxler, in canceling the fair last year, showed the type...
Excuses and blame. A familiar theme these days, a common thread. President Biden and Gov. Roy Cooper, both Democrats, have mastered the artless tack to dangerous and constitutionally dubious levels. On Afghanistan, Biden blames a string of past presidents, stopping just short of Eisenhower. On COVID, Trump is a frequent target. The same goes for...
Republicans in Congress, including those representing North Carolina, are seeking detailed answers from the Biden administration over the United States’ catastrophic exit from Afghanistan. Thousands of people — Americans, their allies, and those friendly to Americans — who wanted to leave Afghanistan amid the chaos after the Taliban takeover are still in the war-torn country....
Lawmakers held a hearing recently focused on the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control system. Their goal was to learn why ABC store shelves are empty and why bars and restaurants are scratching and scraping for typically ubiquitous brands such as Jameson’s and Titos. The ABC blames problems with the global supply chain, but that’s only part...
John Szoka, an Army veteran, was thinking about 9/11. About the attacks and the aftermath. The ghost-like figures, covered in ash, emerging from the destruction. All looking much the same. Shocked, shaken, and scared. No tags or labels. “You couldn’t tell if someone was black, white, Hispanic, rich, poor. Everybody was the same. We were...
We’re winning in Afghanistan. That was the mantra, what they told us. Never entirely true. Some of it, maybe. Many of us in the U.S. were admittedly oblivious to the realities that Taliban fighters still maintained strongholds in the mountains, that ferocious attacks on allied military bases and outposts continued. Suicide bombings, car bombings. Winning? ...
“The day the music died.” I thought about that song a lot last year. The music didn’t die then, exactly, but rather faded like that final guitar riff, the one before the band waves and turns its collective back on the crowd, who stay hoping the lights don’t come on. Not yet, they plead. One...
Spiritous liquor is still in short supply in ABC stores across the state, and supply still isn’t keeping up with demand. Republican lawmakers say things are getting even worse. Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, and other members of the N.C. House Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee spent more than two hours Wednesday, Sept. 29, trying to determine...
COVID-19 cases in North Carolina may actually be decreasing, even as media hysteria and local mask mandates rage on. Cases, based on the seven-day rolling average, says Jon Sanders, appear to be dropping, considering rates in North Carolina and neighboring states. Sanders is a senior fellow in regulatory studies and research editor at the John...