As several provisions of the reconciliation bill Congress passed last year come into effect, the North Carolina General Assembly may have to appropriate as much as $659 million a year to maintain the …
I know I am dating myself, but when I was in high school in the 1960s, one of my favorite songs was “The Beat Goes On” by Sonny and Cher. It was a song about change, which was appropriate for the …
We are living through a period of open lawlessness at the highest levels of government. Executive orders are issued to sidestep Congress. Federal law enforcement is deployed as a tool …
Nearly a decade ago, the phrase "you'll own nothing and you'll be happy" entered the public conversation via a World Economic Forum essay by Ida Auken ("Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no …
I admit that I am not a career academic. But I have taught at the university level for many years, and leadership classes for decades. I can’t imagine any scenario in which sharing my course …
Does one vote really make a difference in an election? With mail-in voting starting this month for North Carolina’s 2026 Primary, a new report answers that question with a decisive …
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) had created a 23-member select committee to evaluate potential reforms of the state’s property-tax system. That is a fine idea, a sensible …
Every election cycle, we are warned that democracy itself hangs in the balance. The focus is almost always on institutions: ballots, offices, courts, procedures. All of those matter. But they are not …
OPINION: On Jan. 7, gang members — gathered in Minneapolis for the purpose of abducting immigrants and cowing the state's population — menaced motorist Renee Nicole Good, then murdered her when …
There is, of course, nothing new about the spectacle of everyday people being forced to endure great suffering because of the whims, foibles, fears and egos of powerful rulers and politicians. From …
Zohran Mamdani's promise to bring "the resurgent flame of hope" to "the January chill" as mayor of a literally frozen New York City during his Jan. 1 inaugural address got the cold shoulder from …
Well, that about wraps it up for 2025. As I write this, the old year only has four days left to produce any delightful — or nasty — surprises before giving way to the new one. I can't say 2025 …
Think tank is a funny term for a serious enterprise. For more than a century — the first one was the Brookings Institution, founded in 1916 — think tanks have played important roles in American …
On Dec. 18, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order — titled "Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research" — which directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to …
North Carolina is one of America’s most contested electoral battlegrounds. It has been for generations. It is also home to one of the most successful state Democratic parties in American history. …
For generations, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” has been treated as a playful reminder to children to be good because someone, somewhere, is watching. Today, it reads less like a joke …
Running a food bank is incredibly challenging work — financially, physically, emotionally — during even the best of times. And that’s because food banks are engaged in what is essentially …
On Dec. 14, "film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and political activist" (per Wikipedia) Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Reiner, were murdered at their home, allegedly by their son. …
Amazon's planned $10 billion data center investment in Richmond County will create at least 500 jobs and support thousands more through construction and our supply chain. But what excites me most is …
In 1984, the first year I was eligible to vote, North Carolina had 11 congressional districts. Most were hotly contested by the majority-party Democrats and up-and-coming Republicans. (Yes, it was a …