Across the county, innocent people – including children and teenagers – are getting shot for ringing the wrong doorbell or turning into the wrong driveway. A reader asks: “Who in the world would want to do Meals on Wheels, sell Girl Scout cookies or knock on doors to campaign?” Don’t ask me to do any…
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Our dysfunctional American family is picking a leader again, and we’re all tore up. My side of the family thinks Grandpa Joe has done a grand job. He fixed up the house nicely. He handles the dangerous neighbors on the next block with a firm, steady hand. We worry he’s a bit shaky at 80,…
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A long time ago a boisterous politician told a mean lie in the middle of a campaign; sitting in a lawyer’s office I learned politicians have a 1st Amendment right to lie – suing him would fail. So I was surprised Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for repeating Trump’s lie that voting machines stole votes…
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The legislature’s expansion of private-school vouchers fulfills a nearly 70-year-old dream of North Carolina’s far-right. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregated schools unconstitutional in 1954, ultra-conservatives here have wanted to replace integrated public schools with all-white private schools. Leading the charge back then were avowed segregationists I. Beverly Lake (pictured) and Tom Ellis.…
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Opening a book I started reading: Brilliant, handsome, orphan, poor, Alexander Hamilton left St. Croix, landed in New York at fifteen, married a wealthy man’s daughter, joined the army in 1775, pursued glory, didn’t find it until he led a night charge in the last battle at Yorktown. George Washington made him Secretary of the…
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Near the end of a Zoom meeting this week with Anderson Clayton and other new leaders of the state Democratic Party (and about 100 other people), I messaged the group: “AC, y’all are the best thing to happen to the party in a long time.” Clayton, the new party chair, and vice chairs Jonah Garson…
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Nearly 4,000 children and teens are killed by guns every year in America. 15,000 more are shot and injured, according to Everytown Research & Policy. Guns are the leading cause of death for children and teens. In 2021–2022, there were 193 incidents of gunfire at preschools and K–12 schools. Over the last two decades, more…
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Politics is funny: Trump picked candidates, Trumpsters lost last election, Trump dropped in polls, DeSantis surged up, led Trump. Trump branded DeSantis ‘Ron DeSanctimonious,’ a ‘RINO,’ said ‘Romney lost. Ron reminds me of Mitt’ – DeSantis sat silent. Watching two boxers in a ring, one punching, one not, voters studied DeSantis surprised – he didn’t…
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Vicious partisanship. A vitriolic press. Fistfights, skirmishes and violent clashes. Foreign interference in domestic politics. A crackdown on immigrants. States defying federal law. A bitterly contested election. An unpopular one-term President ousted. That was the United States from 1792-1800. Our nation was small and weak then, a precarious vessel tossed about on stormy seas, steered…
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Happy, naming cabinet members, on his way back to the White House, Trump says he sees…
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Because he grew up in Chapel Hill and went to Ivy League colleges, Josh Stein sometimes…
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He married, divorced, married again, divorced again, married his second wife again (his third marriage), divorced…
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