Let’s try something new. New for me anyway. A different path, if you will. Follow me and I’ll lead you, all the while trying to avoid the spooky, dilapidated house at the end of what used to be a road. The house is filled with sadness,…
Taxpayers could pay an extra $1.32 billion if public employees win the ability to collectively bargain, says a report by the John Locke Foundation. North Carolina has banned government employees from collective bargaining for 60 years. Repealing the prohibition would increase…
Gov. Roy Cooper’s price tag for Medicaid expansion could be off by as much as $171.3 million, a report by the John Locke Foundation says. Medicaid expansion has dominated Cooper’s fights with the Republican legislature. Cooper’s pitch comes in the form…
A comfortable chair, in a bookstore or coffee shop. Maybe just a hard, splintery bench in a park. A conversation with a stranger, or even an old friend. Someone you haven’t seen in awhile. Mostly gone, now. Not lost, really. We know where to find them. Rather, as my friend…
Maybe I’m just too dumb to get it. All that science and data. Stupid me, thinking I could think for myself. At one point in my life, not that long ago, really, I thought I was pretty smart. Well, smarter than average,…
It is hard to know things. It’s harder to know how to know things. Harder still is knowing how to know the right things. In North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper and much of the press corps have frequently repeated that he’s basing decisions about masks, bowling, schools, and anything else…
COVID-19 is a deadly virus. That’s indisputable. But information from state health experts and the governor are fraught with mixed messages and questions, which leaves people mostly confused and often afraid, one researcher says. A big problem is that, speaking for North Carolina, that…
I’ve about had it. Enough, already, with the mandates and decrees enacted to protect us from COVID-19. From each other. The inconsistent and obtuse data. The pedantic lecturing. Enough. I’m tired, and I’m not alone. I’m sure of that, evidenced by the myriad…
The coronavirus pandemic has kept North Carolina’s gyms and fitness centers closed, even as the state enters Phase One of reopening the economy. Meanwhile, gyms in neighboring states can open with safety precautions. Gov. Roy Cooper in a news conference Friday reiterated the importance…
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released “The Employment Situation — April 2020” Friday stating the seasonally adjusted national unemployment rate was 14.7%. But on page three of the report, the agency explains that due to the unique nature of the coronavirus, “the overall unemployment rate would have been almost…
