Charlotte and Raleigh certainly have their problems — as discussed regularly in, among other places, this very spot on the opinion page! But as someone who grew up near Charlotte and now lives near Raleigh, I will also say there’s still more going right than going wrong in our state’s two most-populous communities. Consider the...
In the introduction to “Paul Revere’s Ride” by the historian David Hackett Fischer, he notes that “The only creature less fashionable in academia than the stereotypical ‘dead white male,’ is the dead white male on horseback.” It was an almost amusing line when Fischer wrote it in the mid-1990s, but now the lack of appreciation...
Let me be clear, before I get too far into this piece, that I’m a big fan of good health. I try to eat right, I work out or run about every day, and, even at my advanced age, consider myself physically fit. I like bicycles, too, and I’m thinking about getting one. But they...
If NC cities and counties had been revaluing their property-tax base annually, the past couple of years of housing-market declines would have worsened their deficits.
RALEIGH - The freshman reading program on UNC campuses perennially evokes controversy. Freshmen are usually assigned a book to read during the summer before they start school. UNC-Chapel Hill, in particular, has stirred up storms of reaction ever since 2002, when it selected a book giving a rosy view of the Quran, less than a year after Sept. 11. So offended were some students that the program became voluntary.
RALEIGH — When Gov. Mike Easley introduced his proposed biennial budget last year, he asked the legislature to implement spending limits tied to the average growth in personal income. “The current budget model needs to be reformed,” Easley said in February 2003. “Last year, we have reduced the state operating budget for the first time in over 30 years and brought spending under control, but now it is time to take the next step. We must stop the practices of letting spending run away when the economy is strong.” But some fiscal conservatives fault Easley’s proposed cap and look to Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights as a model.
Carolina Journal associate editor Paul Chesser says that a simple headline run by The News & Observer of Raleigh, for an article about the winner of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee last week, hints at an attempt to restore some luster to public education.
