Sarah Preston Recently, a number of North Carolina mayors came together to call for the state Senate to address the gang problems facing the state. The group complained that the General Assembly has not effectively handled the problem and said they will work to see the so-called “Street Gang Prevention Act†(a bill passed by…
Category: Opinion
Letters to the Editor: 12/20/07
Immigration flip-flop I noted that in last week’s Citizen, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird singled out Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as saying, “We’re a better country than to punish children for what their parents did. We’re a better country than that.†However, by the time the Citizen went to press, Huckabee had changed his mind on…
For the Record: 12/13/07
Truth and numbers The annual high school rankings have been rolled out by the good people at U.S. News and World Report and much to the chagrin of our fellow citizens who are fond of national rankings, less than three dozen schools on the list of 1,591 were from North Carolina. That was a good…
Exile on Jones Street: 12/13/07
Blue Yodel No. 171 Randy Parton said it best the night he was told to leave his namesake theater. Speaking to a couple of reporters upon exit, Parton — brother o’ Dolly — noted that he’d fulfilled his obligations to the City Of Roanoke Rapids and then neatly summed up in a pissed-off-country-singer kind of…
Saving dollars and lives
Chris Fitzsimon State policymakers received some guidance Thursday on how they can reduce crime, save taxpayers’ money and make it more likely that troubled teenagers have a chance to turn their lives around. Reports from Action from North Carolina and the Center for Disease Control call on the state to stop automatically sending 16 and…
For the Record: 12/06/07
[Editor’s Note: In honor of December 15, Bill of Rights Day, we present to you the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights.] Preamble Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred…
Update from the mental health mess
Chris Fitzsimon When last we checked in on the disaster in North Carolina called mental health reform, things weren’t going so well. Families were struggling to find services for loved ones with mental illness, two state hospitals were scheduled to close even though admissions were up and a new hospital is already overbooked and it…
Exile on Jones Street: 12/06/07
The Guv gets it Affix blame, if you would, firmly with the campaign class — the pollsters, consultants and money folks — and shame to the candidates who listen to them. I’m talking about the reaction of our gubernatorial candidates to a ruling that allows undocumented immigrants the opportunity to a community college education in…
Exile on Jones Street: 11/29/07
By Kirk Ross Seeing Red George W. Bush may have carried the Southeast by a wide margin in 2004, but the only category he’s outdoing others in these days is in the percentage of southeasterners who say his job performance sucks. A recent Elon Poll puts it more nicely, of course, but Bush, whose job…
For the record: 11/29/07
Odoriferous harbinger? The Town of Carrboro estimates that roughly 10,000 gallons of sewage leaked into the stormwater system from an iron pipe that runs from Wendy’s to the sanitary sewer that runs down Greensboro Street. To the company’s credit, the pipe was quickly repaired and by last week another 20,000 gallons were collected by the…
The holiday spirit
Chris Fitzsimon The news is always full of heartwarming stories this time of year, somebody helping a stranger, going the extra mile to help people less fortunate. Then there’s the North Carolina “Education†Lottery, which teaches us all a much different lesson, even in this holiday season. Lottery revenues continue to fall short of initial…
Letters to the Editor: 11/29/07
Coal. It’s dirty and unsustainable: the first and foremost air polluter in the U.S. Why, then, are there plans to build an 800-megawatt coal generator in Rutherford County’s Cliffside Coal Plant? The new Duke Energy generator would use conventional, pulverized coal technology. Such technology does not allow for capture of carbon dioxide and emits a…
No Child Left Behind: Upon closer inspection
Steve Peha & Margot Carmichael Lester No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization. Those in favor of NCLB say it’s improving public education; those against say it’s ruining public education. Upon closer inspection, neither position seems right. And the fact that we have but two extremes to choose from indicates that we have closed…
A choice no one should have to make
Louisa Warren Soaring crude oil prices don’t just mean an increase at the fuel pumps; they also will result in bigger utility bills for many North Carolinians this winter. Some of us can afford to cut the bigger check and avoid draping ourselves in blankets and wool socks indoors. But for the more than 200,000…
The Oak Avenue Traffic Calming Report
By Chris Frank The citizens of south Oak Avenue have good news and bad. What’s good for some is bad for others. Or, “One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.†Closely following the “Town of Carrboro Residential Traffic Management Plan for Speed Control,†a neighborhood group of us jumped through the hoops toward the goal…