Opinion (138)
COLUMN: A year of run-on sentences and taking out the garbage
Written by Joe Weaver
It's beginning to be that time of the year when all the big news outlets parade out their flashy year-end reviews. You know, the one that fills up about five whole minutes of a half-hour news broadcast in that dead time after the sports segment where they usually put in a video of a raccoon playing jai alai or some feel-good story about an old lady who knits lingerie for seniors.
LETTER: Health Department warns against non-permitted food servers
Written by Letter to the Editor Contributor
To the editor:
With a recent increase in non-permitted foodservice establishments in the county, Richmond County Health Department would like to provide information as how to legally operate a foodservice establishment such as a pop-up, catering event, or delivered meals in North Carolina.
First, contact Richmond County Health Department Environmental Health Section at 910-997-8320 to obtain an application for the type of foodservice establishment desired to operate. Prior to beginning construction, renovation or operation of any facility that sells potentially hazardous foods, you must obtain approval from the Health Department.
To further explain, if a person prepares and sells potentially hazardous foods such as milk and milk products, meat, fish, poultry, cheese, raw seed sprouts, melons and a number of vegetable products, they will need to submit an application to the Health Department for prior approval. The application is a process which includes explaining where the food was purchased, how and where it will be prepared and cooked, and how and where the food will be served. These questions are important to public health and safety.
Once the applicant meets all of the criteria required for the type of permit they are applying, approval will be granted for a foodservice establishment.
Although a person may have other licenses or certifications, they are not permitted or legally selling food in North Carolina without a valid permit from the Health Department. Therefore, be safe and know what you are eating has been inspected for your health and safety.
For more information, contact Holly Haire, director of environment and general services at 910-997-8320.
Richmond County Health Department
OUR OPINION: Two UNC schools earn applause for free speech stand
Written by Richmond Observer/Wilson Times
In an age where halls of higher learning play host to political correctness on steroids, it’s nice to see the University of North Carolina System leading the way to protect freedom of speech.
COLUMN: Lame-duck shutdown theater time: Pride goeth before a wall?
Written by Thomas L. Knapp
U.S. President Donald Trump says he'd be "proud" to take the blame or credit for a fake government shutdown. At issue: Whether or not a stopgap federal spending deal forces American taxpayers to fund his border wall fetish (he previously promised us Mexico would pick up the check).
COLUMN: In the wake of scandal, North Carolina could become a model for election integrity
Written by Thomas Mills
Election fraud has been happening in counties around the state for years but law enforcement generally ignored it, according to an article in the News & Observer. Most of it took place in rural counties and centered around local elections, even if some of it bled over into the state and federal ones. State and local law enforcement officials were more interested in bigger fish like council of state members, U.S. Senators and legislators than sewer and water authorities or even county commission races.
In the January 1953 edition of the magazine If: Worlds of Science Fiction, a fan of the genre from Texas, Marilyn Venable, made her debut as an author. “Time Enough at Last,” Venable’s story of a bookish man who survives a nuclear holocaust, made such an impression that Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling chose it as the first story not written by himself to be adapted for the initial season of his pioneering television series.
It is the time of year that brings a fond remembrance for folks of my generation and those from the generations slightly before. When we were younger, we were not blessed with the internet. We had no Amazon or eBay from which to compile our list of Christmas wants and wishes. My brother and I would fight to see who could pick out what we wanted from Santa Claus. We would wrestle that great book from each others hands and go page by page, methodically creating our Christmas list. The book I am talking about is the Sears Christmas Wish Book.
COLUMN: Harvard study shows the dangers of early school enrollment
Written by Kerry McDonald
Every parent knows the difference a year makes in the development and maturity of a young child. A one-year-old is barely walking while a two-year-old gleefully sprints away from you. A four-year-old is always moving, always imagining, always asking why, while a five-year-old may start to sit and listen for longer stretches.
COLUMN: To a nation of snowflakes, Christmas has become yet another trigger word
Written by John W. Whitehead
To a nation of snowflakes, Christmas has become yet another trigger word.
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COLUMN: GOP's new definition of election projection
Written by Thomas Mills
Watching Republicans yell “But the Democrats!” on Twitter in response to the election fraud in the 9th Congressional District race has been very entertaining. It’s also given new meaning to the term "election projection." The twitter warrior who goes by the handle Sister Toldjah has been “documenting” the history of election misconduct in Bladen County, always pointing to Democrats’ culpability in the process. Raleigh Attorney Brent Woodcox who serves as special counsel to the Republicans in the General Assembly has been desperately trying to point fingers at Roy Cooper’s 2016 campaign.
In response to the toppling in August of the Confederate Monument at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chancellor Carol Folt and other UNC leaders have proposed a controversial solution: a new $5.3 million building on campus that will cost $800,000 a year to operate.
Some are outraged that Silent Sam will be returning to UNC at all, as one of the exhibits in the new University History and Education Center. Others, inclined to defend the state’s Civil War heritage, dislike the idea of relocating the monument to a less-traveled corner of the campus. And taxpayers across the political spectrum are aghast at the multi-million-dollar cost.
COLUMN: Why I am grateful to George Herbert Walker Bush
Written by Thomas L. Knapp
Unless you live under a rock (and probably even if you do), you've noticed the death of George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States, on Nov. 30, at age 94.
You've probably also suffered through multiple personal remembrances of the man and his presidency — some positive, some negative, some mixed. Mine, which you may read below if you're not already worn out on the topic, is of the latter variety.
COLUMN: The ACLU is quietly abandoning civil liberties
Written by Brittany Hunter
Since 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union has generally upheld its mission to “defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States."
Of all the protections guaranteed in the Constitution, the right to due process is among the most sacred. It is this right that protects each of us from being held legally accountable should we be arbitrarily accused of a crime.
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