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Opinion
Rep. Hudson
This Week in Washington for May 11, 2013
As I travel throughout North Carolina’s communities, I hear regularly from families who are struggling to balance the ever-increasing demands of work with the desire to care for and be with their family. This got me thinking about the reasons folks start their own business, and I believe one of the biggest motivating factors is the desire to have some control over their own lives. Part of the vision that my House Republican colleagues and I a...
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I do not understand
Dear Editor, My sister and I gave our dog a bath and then took her for a walk on Martin Street. As we were walking, a dog that appeared to be a German Shepard came viciously barking and jumping at us and our dog. We didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have our cells because we were using water and left them at home. When we finally made it home I called a number and a lady forwarded me to the animal control but I did not get an answer so ...
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Our View: From seed to sky
I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree … A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair … Writer Joyce Kilmer recognized the tremendous value of trees when he penned those famous lines so long ago. We need the trees. To feed us. To cool us. To provide us shelter. To ground us and bind us. To hold the fragile soil strong, and be a haven for our critters and squirrels. Our relationship with th...
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Yet you still voted for him
Dear Editor, Now you people knew before the last vote how ignorant this man was. Yet you chose to to re-elect him. We all saw how this green energy mess failed. It was all about our money in certain people’s pockets because of politics. This man has never operated so much as a snow-ball stand. Why do you think you have been paying such a high price for everything that is moved by transportation? Why do you wonder why your money goes now...
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The picture is of the Philadelphia Convention with George Washington presiding.
Notes on Quotes: Almost losing our Bill of Rights
“A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.” — Thomas Jefferson, U. S. President, 1801- 1809 As the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention recessed in 1787, the delegates were reasonably confident that their work on a strong national constitutional form of government with separation of powers and checks and balances would be easily rat...
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Tar Heel View: On a healthier state
North Carolina can boast exceptional resources devoted to the maintenance and improvement of health, including those like East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine here in Pitt County. Yet, despite such facilities and organizations working toward that common goal, the state lags behind much of the country in overall general health, consistently ranking in the bottom third by most measures. Now state officials, led by a former assi...
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Each year we look forward to this time
Dear Editor, On behalf of the Richmond County Adult Corrections, we would like to take this opportunity to thank several businesses for helping make lunch a success at this year’s Special Olympics at Richmond Senior High School. Each year as our contribution, we enjoy serving hamburgers, hot dogs, and the fixings to the kids and adults of Special Olympics. This would not have been possible this year without the Food Lions of Rockingham an...
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A smiling member of the community
Dear Editor, The obituary column in the Weekender noted that a well-known man in Richmond County died. Jerry Hilton “Punky” Martin Jr. died at age 41. Even in his later years confined to a wheelchair, Punky was always a smiling member of the community. He is best known for traveling around the county raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Many generous people in the county rallied around him to be sure he had a house ...
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My Spin: Tax reform requires wisdom and courage
For weeks we’ve heard the legislature will present details of a significant tax reform package. Lawmakers agree they want to lower personal and corporate income tax rates while expanding the tax base to include a wider range of sales and service taxes, but the devil is in tax reform details. Our current tax codes, first passed in 1939, have been modified, amended and expanded so many times they are overly complicated, sometimes contradictor...
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Where our focus belongs
More than 1,700 bills have been introduced in the NC House and Senate this year. I must tell you I feel that is excessive mainly because many of them do not address the issues I feel are most important to our state. In my view, we need to be primarily focused on our economy, job creation, education, and policies to make North Carolina state government more efficient and responsible in providing services to our citizens. Although the NC Sena...
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How politics has changed
When two senators recently got into a spat over whether the Boston Marathon bombings were being politicized, the news was everywhere within minutes. Reams of commentary quickly followed. This is political reality today, and when people ask me how politics has changed since I first ran for Congress in 1964, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. A debate on Capitol Hill back then might or might not have made the news, but even if it did, d...
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Celebrating the end of the Charlotte curse
What is one thing we can do for Charlotte now that former Mayor Pat McCrory has been elected governor of North Carolina and his successor, Anthony Foxx, has been nominated for U.S Secretary of Transportation? We can stop referring to the Charlotte mayor’s job as a dead end or curse for politicians aspiring to statewide or national office. It might take some getting used to. The previous three Charlotte mayors who tried for statewide off...
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Voting is a right not a privilege
Dear Editor, The Voter ID bill is simply an anti-Democracy tactic to suppress the God-given Constitutional right to vote in America. Representative Ken Goodman’s vote in favor of this bill is a monumental disappointment to those of us who subscribe to the doctrine of basic fairness. Voting is a right not a privilege. Flying on a plane or buying a beer may require an ID but that is a privilege and not a right. Our democracy makes us unique...
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Our View: Blinded by the light
Among all of the unnecessary bills bouncing about in Raleigh, and the time-wasting legislation jawed about among the General Assembly, there is a modest bit of proposed legislation we believe makes perfect sense. From one of our sister newspapers, The Robesonian, comes word of a state senator looking out for our safety on the roads in NC. The state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that makes it a crime to install and use vehicle headlight...
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The Raleigh Report for May 4, 2013
This week, House legislators dealt with an array of high profile legislation including immigration, NC Pre-K eligibility, Asheville’s water system and renewable energy. On Wednesday, a bill offering undocumented residents driving privileges and creating Arizona-style detainment methods was approved by the House judiciary committee. The measure would allow immigrants to pursue a restricted driver’s license and authorize police to detain indivi...
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