During the homestretch of the 2024 election, I complained repeatedly about the absence of serious engagement by presidential and congressional candidates with the critical issue of the national debt.
Although our state’s economy has grown faster than the national average over the past decade, not everyone has fared well. Some regions and communities are struggling — a condition now worsened in parts of western North Carolina by Hurricane Helene.
When the North Carolina General Assembly voted unanimously on October 24 to appropriate another $604 million for disaster relief, Gov. Roy Cooper said it wasn’t enough.
RALEIGH — The University of North Carolina system enrolled more students this fall — about 248,000 — than ever before. But continued growth is far from ordained. Indeed, as America’s college-age population levels off and then begins to decline over the next decade, many institutions will see enrollment declines. Some will be forced by shaky finances to merge or shut down.
The devastation wreaked on North Carolina by Hurricane Helene will take weeks to assess, months to clear out, and years to repair or rebuild. Second only to the value of the lives lost will be the exorbitant fiscal and economic costs of our recovery.
As we mourn the deaths and grapple with the destruction inflicted on our state by Hurricane Helene, I submit that the storm has brought out much that is good about North Carolina — and much that is vile about social media.
RALEIGH — Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson was likely to lose the 2024 gubernatorial election to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein before the September 19 CNN piece tying him to a series of grotesque posts made more than a dozen years ago on a pornography site.
On April 30, a mob of pro-Hamas protestors defaced public property at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and yanked down, for a brief time, the American flag fluttering over a prominent part of the campus called Polk Place.
When Democrats attack pro-growth tax reform as “trickle-down economics,” I can understand their rhetorical intent. But the charge is silly on multiple levels — including the fact that every Democrat who ever serves in state or local office spends much time and effort trying to recruit business executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals to their communities.