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We commend you for taking the extra effort
Dear Editor, It is with great pleasure that I write this letter to you expressing our gratitude and appreciation for your generous support and participation in our Scholarship Golf Tournament. We commend you for taking the extra effort to ensure that the children of our community have a chance to receive higher education. Through your generous efforts we were able to award $6,000 in assistance to twelve local high school and college stude...
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Along These Lines: Be careful what you sew
I’ve slept easy the past year, knowing that 93-year-old Sharlotte Hydorn and her menacing sewing machine are both off the streets. One year ago, she was sentenced to five years supervised probation after she failed to file federal tax returns. And for that, we can all thank the twelve, brave FBI agents, who stormed Ms. Hydorn’s La Mesa, Calif., home in late 2011, and confiscated her appliance. One can only imagine how the shakedown played...
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Tar Heel View: Don’t close gun records to public
It’s not enough that North Carolina lawmakers are poised to loosen the state’s gun laws allowing weapons on college campuses, in parks and greenways, and in bars with liquor-drinking patrons. They’re also on course to keep secret gun permit information - making it impossible for watchdog groups to hold accountable those who issue such permits. The absurdity of allowing guns on college campuses, in bars and in parks has raised eyebrows acros...
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Smart Start not only makes a difference, but also excels
Dear Editor, A study ranking Richmond County one of the state’s unhealthiest counties includes adult obesity, low high school graduation, unemployment and children in poverty as health factors where Richmond fails. These are areas where Smart Start not only makes a difference, but also excels! Despite yearly cuts in funding, Smart Start programming, implemented through Richmond County Partnership for Children, addresses these issues throu...
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Sen. McLaurin
Priorities will include education, new jobs
The NC Senate budget has been released this week. We will have discussions and deliberations in our committees on the state budget proposal as put forth by the Senate leadership and will likely have floor debate on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. After the Senate approves a budget, it will be sent to the House of Representatives for their consideration. My priorities will be education, job creation, a fair and balanced tax reform plan, a...
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Campbell
My Spin: Human trafficking in North Carolina
Sometimes it feels that just one more problem will overwhelm us, but there is one that needs immediate exposure and urgent attention: the growing problem of human trafficking, defined as the illegal trade of humans for purposes of reproductive slavery, sexual exploitation, forced labor or other modern-day forms of slavery. Trafficking has become one of the fastest growing and most lucrative crimes, estimated to generate 32 billion dollars per...
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With your support
Dear Editor, On behalf of the Hamlet Depot and Museums, I would like to thank you and your staff for the article and the Community Calendar listing of National Train Day. With your support, we were able to tell the community about National Train Day, attracting around 500 participants! Your support is truly appreciated. Miranda Chavis Hamlet Depot and Museums Manager
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Hamilton
The Invisible Lawmakers
Want to know what’s causing a lot of people in Washington to work long hours right now? Here’s a hint: it’s not immigration reform or gun control or, for that matter, any other legislation coming down the pike. Instead, it’s a pair of three-year-old laws. Health care reform and the Wall Street reform act known as “Dodd-Frank” both became law in 2010. Most people consider these old news, but they’re not. Because after a bill becomes law is w...
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Remembering the Merritts of Merritt’s Store
If you mention Merritt’s Store anywhere around Chapel Hill, most often you will hear something like, “Oh yes. Best BLTs I’ve ever tasted.” And it is true. A bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich at Merritt’s Store, together with sweet iced tea flavored with the fresh mint growing in a box beside the store, is one of the great taste treats in my world, right up there with the peach cobbler at Stamey’s Barbecue in Greensboro or a small chopped b...
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This Week in Washington for May 18, 2013
We’ve all heard the phrase, “elections have consequences.” Recent news about the IRS singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny is a “consequence” I never hoped to see. When I first learned the IRS had targeted conservative groups during the most recent election, I was outraged by the reports indicating a nonpartisan government agency was actually engaging in political activities and using taxpayer-funded resources. Perhaps the mos...
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Tar Heel View: On state tax reform efforts
North Carolina developed its current system of taxation during the revenue reforms of the Great Depression, seeking to keep state government afloat at a time of widespread hardship. It depended — and still depends — on a relatively high income tax rate and was designed to reflect an economic system driven by agriculture and manufacturing, textiles and furniture. Such a structure does not reflect an “ideas” economy or one that produces more ...
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Rep. Pierce
A flurry of legislation
The General Assembly has experienced a flurry of legislation as lawmakers introduce as many bills as possible before crossover — the deadline in which legislation that doesn’t raise or spend money must clear the House or Senate chambers by Thursday night (May 9) to be considered for the remaining two-year session. So far, the House has voted in favor of legislation such as prohibiting law enforcement officers from destroying fully-operating f...
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Clusters of blossoms
Dear Editor, In most places the Dandelion is considered a noxious weed. Richmond County, however, seems to honor the “weed,” and rightly so. Taraxacum Officinale, as it is technically known, is a beneficial herb used many places as food and medicine. It is not native to North America having originated in Eurasia 30 million years ago. In spring in Richmond County, yards, roadsides and fields are aglow with the small yellow blooms. No...
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Our View: In the driver’s seat — a big responsibility
Traffic crashes are the No. 1 killer of teens in America. Along with reading, writing and arithmetic, it’s important to teach our children about safety behind the wheel. It may start with a tricycle in the driveway, or a Big Wheel on the sidewalk, but before you know it our kids have grown enough to earn a real drivers license, and the chance to operate a real motor vehicle — that’s about 4,000 pounds of plastic and metal, capable of spee...
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NC activists need Teachable Tuesdays
The North Carolina chapter of the NAACP is spearheading a weekly series of protests at the state legislature called “Moral Mondays” directed against Republican-supported bills such as tax reform and voter ID. Might I respectfully suggest that the participants agree to a weekly series of instructional sessions about free speech in a constitutional republic? Let’s call them “Teachable Tuesdays.” The need for remedial education on the principl...
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