Every week we read another news story about access to our coastal islands. Last year Hurricane Sandy and two other storms pushed water across Highway 12, cutting the road to shreds one more time. The channel across Hatteras...
“We could use your help in the Republican Party. We need more moderate voices.” One of my longtime friends was tempting me, noting that his political party was in charge now. If I wanted to participate in the new...
Is there really “Life after Life”? People asking me that question are not talking about survival of the soul. They are teasing me about my excitement about popular writer Jill McCorkle’s first novel in 17 years. The book was...
If Reynolds Price has not died two years ago he would have celebrated his 80th birthday last month. Why am I thinking about Price today? I noticed that next Wednesday morning one of UNC-TV’s cable-only channels is re-airing a...
Ready or not, spring is here and it is time for a seasonal update on new books important to North Carolinians. This month’s most important literary news is the release of “Life After Life,” popular author Jill McCorkle’s first...
Are you tired of the partisan divisiveness that is poisoning the political environment of our state and nation? Do you wish that the politicians from the two parties would work together more often on issues of common concern? Me...
Mention on-line education around some of my friends and you will get an emotional reaction. Some senior university faculty members teach classes filled with several hundred students and they worry that famous on-line lecturers...
Portsmouth where? Maine? Virginia? Like many North Carolinians, my friend had not heard of Portsmouth, North Carolina. He was resisting my push to visit Portsmouth in connection with a planned trip to Ocracoke Island to...
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” So said Mark Twain after hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal. And many of the more than 1,000 people who attended the Emerging Issues Forum last...