The COVID-19 crisis had enormous and destructive consequences for our health, our economy, our education systems, and the quality of our social and family lives. Now, just imagine how much worse the consequences would have been in the absence of modern information and computer technology (ICT).
Rampant inflation, supply chain issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t dampening the Christmas spirit at the international Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse.
The N.C. General Assembly will begin votes Tuesday on the newly-released 2021-23 conference budget. The 2021-22 budget plan of $25.9 billion represents a 4.3% increase over the previous plan. The fiscal 2022-23 portion of the biennial plan is $27 billion, and the state’s rainy day fund grows to $4.25 billion by the end of the biennium.
Gov. Roy Cooper says he will sign the first budget from the General Assembly since he took office in 2017. The announcement came in a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 16, and before the first vote from the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. As of Wednesday morning, the Senate has passed the budget 40-8, with 14 Democrats voting in favor of it. A final Senate vote is coming Wednesday with the House slated to vote Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.
Since opening last fall, the N.C. Housing Opportunities and Prevention of Evictions (HOPE) Program has awarded $593.7 million in rent and utility assistance, with more than $518 million already paid on behalf of families financially impacted by COVID-19. Of that amount, more than $472 million has already been sent directly to landlords statewide, providing a substantial economic boost to rental property owners that have also been affected by the pandemic.
The proposed North Carolina budget, which was released today, exempts military pensions from the state's income tax.
Meel Corp, a frozen food company, will create 24 new jobs in Granville County, Governor Roy Cooper announced today. The company will invest $5.7 million to relocate a production facility in Oxford.
In this case, however, my inspiration came not from the realization that something I wrote might deserve to be trashed. I’d already had that realization decades ago after penning one of my first columns, when its subject complained to me that I’d misquoted him, misunderstood his point, and even misspelled his name. Other than that, it seems, the article was decidedly mediocre.
Argument: If you are for the school system requiring students to be immunized against diseases, and COVID-19 is just another disease for which a reliable, safe vaccine is readily available, then you should not be against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines in schools.
The staff of the N.C. ABC met Tuesday, Nov. 9, with representatives from 34 local ABC boards across the state to talk about ways to improve the distribution of high-demand, low-supply, allocated spirituous liquor products.
While a bill that would legalize sports betting across North Carolina passed a House committee last week, odds are heavily against it passing the full General Assembly before the session ends.
Governor Roy Cooper granted a Pardon of Innocence for Montoyae Dontae Sharpe of Charlotte. Mr. Sharpe’s pardon application was thoroughly reviewed by the Office of Executive Clemency, the Office of the General Counsel and the Governor.
