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Ensure the future of Blue Ridge Parkway
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The Blue Ridge Parkway is America’s most visited park, but it also receives the least federal funding of all parks of comparative size.
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Robert Seymour: Much that the Rev. Wright said was right
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5.16.2008 : 12:04 am
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The media has given us such unrelenting reporting of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that I hesitate to give him further exposure. Clearly, his remarks have hurt Senator Obama, and what Wright said at the National Press Club dinner did warrant the Democratic candidate’s disavowal of his former pastor.
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Gary D. Gaddy: Down Under at the Hollow Rock Club
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5.14.2008 : 5:56 pm
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As much as I hate to admit it, the tennis director at my tennis club, the Hollow Rock Racquet and Swim Club, Inc., is Australian. He's a likeable enough mate, but he is -- how shall I say this delicately? -- a little too Australian.
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Laura Glish: 5 days as a Zimbabwean millionaire
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5.13.2008 : 5:24 pm
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The first Zimbabwean government employee I met could only be described as jovial. The driver of the government-owned bus reminded me of a beard-less African Santa. His large belly shook like a bowl full of jelly while he laughed, "Visa?! Don't need visa!" as he drove out of sight.
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Brian Balfour: Who's fair share is it anyway?
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5.12.2008 : 4:53 pm
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How much tax do North Carolina corporations pay each year? Too much? Not enough? Try nothing. That's right, not a dime.
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Michelle Lewis: Come along on our road trip
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5.12.2008 : 4:01 pm
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You are invited to join my family and me this summer as we travel to South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and Alberta, Canada, on a fourth-month adventure. I'll do the driving. You can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
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Vicki Wentz: Happy Mother's Day to us all
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5.11.2008 : 7:11 pm
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I spent Mother's Day thinking about what I've learned from my mother that helped me raise my own children. Was it the importance of having a mother there when we came home from school? Or a clean, well-ordered house and home-cooked meals? Nope.
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Robert Porreca: Tax defeat won't stop commissioners
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5.9.2008 : 5:13 pm
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Orange County homeowners will soon pay for the insolence displayed by voters in denying the county commissioners a new property tax. Commissioner Barry Jacobs' comments and the editorial in The Chapel Hill Herald ["Get ready for a bigger tax bill," May 8] after the home tax was overwhelmingly defeated is that property owners are still held hostage and, to avenge the commissioner's humiliation and show us all they are still in charge, they are not afraid to stick us with another property tax increase. (And we can't do anything about it, so there!)
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Stanley Peele: How to deal with the world
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5.8.2008 : 11:38 pm
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The Rev. Bob Seymour feels almost overwhelmed by the state of the world ["It makes you feel uneasy," May 2]. And if a person of his spiritual stature feels this way, then it follows that many others are completely overwhelmed. Depressed and distraught might be a better description.
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Gary D. Gaddy: The theft rings of fame
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5.7.2008 : 5:44 pm
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UNC junior Elbert Stuckey knew his PDA was missing -- but he didn't know where it had gone or what could have happened while the thieves had it. Elbert, one of the fortunate few, got his electronic organizer back before the crooks could take what they had purloined it for: his 15 minutes of fame.
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William E. Kirk: A final word on downtown parking
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5.6.2008 : 7:04 pm
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When we last encountered Mr. C.C. Magee of Oklahoma City -- I'm referring to last week's column -- it was May 24, 1938, and he had just been awarded U.S. Patent No. 2,118,318 for his invention, named the Coin Operated Parking Meter.
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Laura Glish: Surfing the world's couches
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5.5.2008 : 11:49 pm
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In the past year, I've been on an insider's tour of Genova, Italy, sung karaoke with the runner-up of Moroccan Idol in Marrakech, and seen the latest Bollywood movie from the VIP seats with the children of the commissioner of Jodhpur, India. Am I super well-connected or so amazingly interesting that people I have never met before will bend over backward to accommodate me?
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Vicki Wentz: A-dressing the dress
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5.4.2008 : 8:51 pm
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In a recent column, John McCann bemoaned the ... uh ... slutaciousness of the clothing on young girls nowadays (You go, John!) and he wrote of the efforts of a group called Teen Essence that is teaching young girls to become young ladies, both in behavior and dress, which proves the disgusting stuff is not all there is to buy out there (again I say, You go, Teen Essence!).
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Susan Gladin: Look deep and you'll even find beauty in decay
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5.3.2008 : 7:56 pm
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The new brick walkway that leads to our front door is now scruffy with grass. Delicate tendrils of fescue are so powerful that they are lifting some of the bricks from the spots they were tamped into last year. Out in my writing studio, termites have nearly devoured one corner of the little room that Peter built onto our garage. We have pictures of the room as a construction site, taken one winter when our daughters were in elementary school. It wasn't that long ago.
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Ben Lloyd: Tax works well -- in land of coconuts
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5.2.2008 : 4:21 pm
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Tuesday Orange County residents will vote on a Land Transfer Tax. This tax came to light in the fall of 2007 when then-Commissioner Chairman Moses Carey, in support of such a tax, was quoted as saying it was already in six counties and was "working well."
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It makes you feel uneasy
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5.1.2008 : 6:27 pm
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Nearly every day when I read the newspaper, I feel almost overwhelmed by the constant coverage of bad news. Everything from climate change to recession, from a deadlocked Congress to a housing market meltdown, from rising gasoline prices to a resurgence of violence in Iraq. It makes the future look so threatening that you wonder if it will ever look promising again.
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Parking meters all about turnover
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4.29.2008 : 6:31 pm
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First sketched on paper in 1932, field-tested on the street in 1935 and patented in 1938, at 70 years of age it has yet failed to gain anyone's love and respect. It is the parking meter. The last time we viewed this little machine with anything less than disdain was at the beginning of "Cool Hand Luke," as we watched a young Paul Newman, with a pipe-cutter and a belly full of beer, cut some meters off their posts.
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Transfer tax not needed
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4.29.2008 : 6:31 pm
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After 19 consecutive years of raising our taxes, the Orange County Commissioners will be making it an even 20 by imposing on property owners a new home/land transfer tax. To add insult to the injury of this proposed tax, the commissioners plan to spend $100,000 to educate us about this new tax.
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Seeing the world differently
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4.28.2008 : 6:22 pm
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"Autism" was a word I never heard growing up in Princeton, New Jersey. I didn't hear it in college or law school either. It wasn't until "Rain Man" came out in 1988 (a year after I graduated from law school) that I even knew something like autism existed. And I must tell you that I didn't go to see "Rain Man" because I was interested in learning about people whose minds work differently than mine. I went to see it because it starred my life-long crush (yes, Tom Cruise).
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By Richard H. Brodhead and James Moeser
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4.26.2008 : 8:17 pm
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A little more than a year ago, on April 16, a gunman took the lives of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech. Our nation looked on in horror, and those of us who lead universities prayed that such senseless killings would not strike our campuses again.
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Ben Lloyd: Nothing more than another property tax
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4.25.2008 : 4:27 pm
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On May 6, Orange County residents will vote on a Land Transfer Tax. This tax came to light in the fall of 2007 at which time Commissioner Moses Carey, in support of such a tax, was quoted as saying that it was already in six counties and was "working well."
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Bhutan -- Shangri La?
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4.24.2008 : 4:34 pm
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Yesterday, I was trying to back out of a parking space. On each side of me were large SUVs, so I could not see either to the left or right. In that parking area, one third of the vehicles were large SUVs. How have we got to the point when people would believe they need such large vehicles?
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What is the nature of parking?
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4.22.2008 : 6:06 pm
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It was the beauty of trees, not of parking lots, that inspired Joyce Kilmer to gift us with his metered praise. The choice surprises no one.
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Early treatment helps kids with autism
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4.21.2008 : 6:43 pm
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In an essay called "Rx For Battle Fatigue," Ellen Notbohm writes, "Running the marathon that is raising a child with autism is almost certain to make you tired. There's the tired that is laced with fear and loneliness. And then there is the tired that says, I gave it a good effort and look how far I got!" April, which is Autism Awareness Month, provides ample opportunities to learn about and support the individuals and families who live with this disability.
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Timothy Keim: We must act to protect our water resources
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5.10.2008 : 3:42 pm
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While there is no doubt that modern water sanitation practices have nearly eliminated cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other waterborne diseases, it is equally without doubt that a significant number of the chemical by-products of these practices are highly toxic, carcinogenic and known to cause mutations of mammalian genes. The best-known local examples are trihalomethanes, which are caused by mixing the disinfectant, chlorine, with organic compounds that occur naturally in the Haw River, the source for Pittsboro's drinking water.
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