The candidate “has the knack of doing things and doing them noisily, clamorously; while he is in the neighborhood the public can no more look the other way than the small boy can turn his head away from a circus parade followed by a steam calliope.” Can you guess who was the target of this […]

“My books are all different,” Nicholas Sparks, the No. 1 New York Times best selling author who lives in New Bern, told a group of 500 fans at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Alumni Center last week. Except, he says, for two things. One is that there will always be a couple in love. The other is that […]

“Why do black people suffer more health problems than other groups? What do these challenges mean in their everyday lives? How do their struggles play out before a largely white medical community? How can we begin to solve these seemingly intractable problems?” Dr. Damon Tweedy raises and discusses these questions in his new book, “Black […]

I know the kind of candidate the Republicans need to beat Hillary Clinton or any other Democratic candidate in next fall’s presidential election. It is not any of those running now. That party needs somebody smart who can get along with the far right in the party without frightening the middle-of-the-road voters in the fall. […]

Just what does a North Carolina sheriff do these days? Retired District Court Judge Stanley Peele, writing about Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, says that the concept of law enforcement officers has changed from “authority, power and prestige” to one of problem solving. Peele quotes Sheriff Blackwood, “When people are in distress, when they have […]

Ron Rash, Western Carolina professor and author of five previous novels including “Serena,” captures his beloved North Carolina mountains at their best. And their worst. In his new book, “Above the Waterfall,” his main characters, though possessing overwhelmingly positive qualities, have flaws that complicate our admiration for them. For instance, there are two narrators. One, […]

Are the legislators really going home soon? Finally! Over the weekend at the UNC-Chapel Hill vs. N.C. A&T football game, House Speaker Tim Moore was all smiles as he confirmed news reports that legislative leaders had struck a budget deal that could lead to passage of a state budget this week. Getting a two-year budget […]

When would a baptism in a small church in Wilmington be so important that it gets reported in the newspapers? It happened in 1880 at Fifth Street Methodist Church and again at the same church 135 years later on August 30, 2015. Here is the report from the November 7, 1880, Wilmington Star announcing an […]

How do you find a home cooking restaurant that is both near an interstate highway and on or near the water? It is not easy. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about one of them, Holland’s Shelter Creek Restaurant near I-40 and adjoining a tributary of the Northeast Cape Fear River near Wilmington. There […]

How did Donald Trump make Mitt Romney president in 2016? That is the question some pundits could be asking each other next November when they try to figure out how the president-elect, who had taken himself out of consideration for the Republican nomination in early 2015, became a winner. What will be the answer to […]