The Commentators

Remember all the fanfare last spring surrounding the Ephesus-Fordham redevelopment plan? How the new zoning code was going to eliminate traffic congestion, solve our flooding problems, bring us new shopping opportunities, create lots of affordable housing, improve the town’s balance sheet, help us lose weight and spice up our sex lives?

Is it possible we could experience a severe drought this Summer? There is a high probability based upon long range weather forecasts, and we should be prepared. While our water reservoirs here in Orange County are at their highest peaks, a long, hot Summer with appreciable lack of rain would quickly draw down that supply.

This is Brian Thornburg. I don’t know about you, but I love cheering for UNC.  The way our men’s and women’s basketball teams played this season was enough to make you very proud to be a Tar Heel. In fact, most UNC teams are...

This is Raleigh Mann. What are the qualifications for someone whose job it is to control a university? How about a whole bunch of universities – say, 17 of them? Some experience in higher ed administration is essential,...

This is Art Menius. I have been following with great interest the efforts by Carrboro, Orange County, and Chapel Hill to agree on a new fee structure for recycling. We have witnessed some high-level discussion on what equity...

For anybody who wants to participate in the ongoing controversy about the UNC academic and athletics scandal, run to see Playmakers stunning performance of Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. If you can’t see it, at least read it and discuss it with friends. To summarize briefly, the town doctor discovers that the recently constructed springs, the basis of an institute intended to bring health and prosperity, are contaminated, promising sickness instead of cure. Instead of welcoming this undeniable truth in a community meeting, the town leaders and the mob denounce the doctor and threaten his family as the curtain falls.

The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as ObamaCare, is facing its toughest challenge. And it comes from none other than North Carolina’s own Senator Richard Burr.

This is Raleigh Mann. Try to imagine how you would feel if an angry neighbor appeared at your front door with a gun tucked in his belt, or carrying a rifle. Pretty scary. What exactly is the point of that? I think it is this....

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE a mystery. A compelling story that slowly resolves, clue by clue, can keep you on the edge of your seat until the thrilling conclusion.

But there’s a mystery in North Carolina that isn’t compelling. It’s actually frustrating and concerning, but it IS keeping us on the edge of our seats.

He held the hand of a little girl, I assumed his daughter, as they walked down the long corridor of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. An unsophisticated freshman from North Wilkesboro opened the door of the Student Union in the fall of 1988 on his way to the Daily Tar