By John Trump , Carolina Journal News Service RALEIGH — Will Easter is a promising North Carolina musician. A career just starting to take off. I reached him on his cell phone, and he wanted to talk. A bit busy now, though, he said. Hanging drywall. “I actually t
By JOHN HOOD RALEIGH — Most North Carolina schoolchildren began this academic year trying to learn from home rather than at school. How’s it going so far? Set aside the blame game and partisan theatrics surrounding the issue, and simply ask parents and kids about their experiences. You’l
by John Hood You surely recognize the name Frederick Douglass and know the major role he played in American history after escaping his enslavement in Maryland in 1838. You may even know that the publication of his memoir — Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Sla
by John Hood Throughout his gubernatorial term, Roy Cooper has sought vastly to expand the power of his office at the expense of other statewide-elected executives, the legislative branch, local governments, and private households and businesses. Although a court did strike down on F
by John Hood RALEIGH — As a fiscal conservative, I long for the days when North Carolina had responsible governors who responded to recessionary budget gaps with fortitude and common sense. You know, governors like Bev Perdue, Mike Easley, and Jim Hunt. All three Democratic gov
by Amy Cooke If you haven’t experienced a Mark Robinson speech, you’re missing a gifted orator. Watching the Republican lieutenant governor candidate is like being transported back to an old-time revival. At a Back the Blue rally a few weeks ago, I watched him captivate the crowd with his
by John Trump Agonizing. These lockdowns, mandates, and suppressions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Logically inconsistent, clumsy in their application, and impossible to enforce. We’ve become prisoners of this virus, without imminent hope of reprieve. Potential tr
By John Hood RALEIGH — Although working from home provides a great deal of flexibility and potential benefits, professional and personal, most of us don’t want to make it our default setting — even after, or perhaps because of, being ordered to work from home this spring during the in
by John Hood Whether Democrat Yvonne Holley or Republican Mark Robinson wins the 2020 race for lieutenant governor, North Carolinians will be electing the first African-American candidate to that post. But the victor won’t be the first black North Carolinian elected to a Counci
by Jordan Roberts The COVID-19 response in America has focused on several fronts. The main goals are stopping the spread of the virus, mitigating economic damages, and creating a vaccine or discovering therapeutics. A new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hig
by John Hood Marxism is one of the most catastrophic ideas in history. Tyrants and butchers inspired by the noxious notions of Karl Marx — including such successors as Lenin, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot — are responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million of our fellow human
by Brenée Goforth History repeats itself, but with slight variations. The high-rise jeans of today’s Tik Tok teens hit different than the stiff acid-washed denim from the 1980s, but they elicit déjà vu nonetheless. Likewise, the global pandemic of today is a somewhat different monste
