Fatcow Icon
Opinion
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 ...
full story
My_Spin_Tax_reform_requires_wisdom_and_courage0_1367959085.jpg
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...
full story
Where_our_focus_belongs0_1367959082.jpg
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...
full story
How_politics_has_changed0_1367881747.jpg
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...
full story
Celebrating_the_end_of_the_Charlotte_curse0_1367881587.jpg
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...
full story
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...
full story
Our_View_Blinded_by_the_light0_1367631567.jpg
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...
full story
The_Raleigh_Report_for_May_4_20130_1367617515.jpg
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...
full story
Health care law hurts, not heals, the economy
Among the many justifications used to try to popularize the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the first and foremost claim was that the measure would be a job creator. At the White House Health Summit in 2010, Nancy Pelosi asserted, “In its life, this bill will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately.” The fact of the matter is, President Obama’s health care law doesn’t create jobs, it kills them. As the darkening ...
full story
The longer I live I see
Dear Editor, I want to thank Dawn Kurry for writing the featured story of Wade and my yard in the Thursday, April 25, Journal. I really appreciate all The Daily Journal does as a hometown newspaper, especially for people like Wade and I that don’t have Internet or a computer. We are of the “old school,” being born during the Depression era. We are grateful for that because we were taught how to appreciate life. Our parents were God fear...
full story
Our_View_Discovering_success0_1367542324.jpg
Our View: Discovering success
For those of us in the newspaper business — including our transition to the web — success can be measured in the number of eyeballs we attract. For a venue like Rockingham Speedway, it’s the number of fannies in the seats. For Discovery Place KIDS–Rockingham, success can be measured in the number of children’s hands being kept busy by the fascinating displays and exhibits. And from the looks of ticket sales since its grand opening earlier...
full story
It’s a crying shame
Dear Editor, I read in Saturday’s Weekender about these sorry dead beat dads that refuse to pay child support. In my opinion, the judicial system should make these men be fixed so they can’t have more children that they’re not going to support anyway. I grew up in a Godly home with family first. My parents loved me and my sisters and brother. It’s a crying shame that these men take this so lightly about responsibility. I hope the peop...
full story
In the absence of argument
“People generally quarrel,” G.K. Chesterton once wryly observed, “because they cannot argue.” To the extent North Carolina politics looks increasingly quarrelsome at the moment, it is because of a breakdown of argument — of constructive debate among people of good faith who happen to disagree on public policy. Instead, traditional and online media alike are filled with venom, personal attacks, conspiracy theories, and overall boorishness. ...
full story
Tar Heel View: On loosening state’s gun laws
It is absolutely mind-boggling. At a time when public opinion poll after public opinion poll shows Americans even in the gun-happy South are in favor of stronger laws on guns, particularly on background checks, the Republicans in the North Carolina House are setting their sails against the wind, and against common sense. They’re now pushing a measure, acting as obedient servants of the gun lobby, to make it possible for people to carry guns...
full story
My Spin: What have you got to lose?
North Carolina’s official toast boldly proclaims that ours is a state where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. But we can never be that great state as long as so many of us are so unhealthy. According to the non-profit United Health Foundation North Carolina ranks 33rd in overall health, continually among the bottom third of states. One in three children is overweight or obese while 26.5 percent of white, 42.9 percent of black ...
full story
Weather
Sponsored By:

Lottery
Sponsored By:

Stocks
Sponsored By:

Gas Prices
Sponsored By:

Featured Businesses
Recipes
Sponsored By: