A new meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins University shows that government-mandated lockdowns in America and Europe during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic only reduced the death rate by 0.2%, on average. Researchers concluded that lockdowns “have had little to no public health effects” while imposing “enormous economic and social costs” and should be “rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.”
With tax season quickly approaching, North Carolina families are encouraged to file their federal income taxes to ensure they access their full, expanded Child Tax Credit, as well as other federal benefits. Many families received about half of their tax credit payments in monthly payments in 2021 but will receive the rest of the money they are owed by filing their federal income taxes this year.
A few weeks back, I scribbled a fillip on the far-left wanderings of librarianship in general and the American Library Association in specific. For those who have always positioned libraries among mom, apple pie, and country, this may have raised an eyebrow, if not a hackle. The exordium was not meant to anger but to exhort regarding books like “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
The N.C. Supreme Court has rejected state congressional and legislative election maps with a party-line 4-3 vote. The court's four Democratic justices agreed to strike down maps drawn by a Republican-led legislature.
Several weeks ago, I wrote a column pointing out that Republican-led states outpaced Democratic-led states in population growth last year. Indeed, some blue-tinted places such as California, New York, and Illinois had a net outflow of residents while red-tinted places such as Florida, Texas, and our own state of North Carolina had a net inflow.
Athletes from around the world packed their gear, and dreams of Gold, to head out to the historic Olympic games. Meanwhile, just miles from the flickering Olympic torch, religious minorities were being corralled into concentration camps while the host country was capitalizing on the games to push their propaganda of a modern, strong nation.
A New Bern-based eye surgeon continues his campaign against North Carolina's certificate-of-need restrictions. A newly filed brief at the N.C. Court of Appeals aims to help keep that campaign alive.
A failure of duty caused by lack of planning, coordination, and communication left hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of allies in Afghanistan after a botched withdrawal from the country in August 2021, a new Senate report says.
Wastewater monitoring data from North Carolina are now part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national COVID Data Tracker (CDT) website. North Carolina was one of the first eight jurisdictions in the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System and is one of 13 jurisdictions currently participating in the NWSS and reporting wastewater data in the CDT.