SRMC gets aggressive About one in four patients treated and then discharged at Southeastern Regional Medical Center is back at the hospital within a month, a high percentage, but one that should be kept in context, meaning factors beyond the hospital’s control, especially local demographics, must be part of the conversation.
The reality is that SRMC serves an unhealthy populace, one that suffers disproportionately with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and subst...
Let’s talk about sex We doubt there is a shorter path to poverty than to have a child as a teenager. But even that can be quickened with the addition of a second or perhaps a third child.
All the statistics testify to the same future: When teenage girls become pregnant, their odds of an education and a career are greatly diminished and their children join in suffering the consequences of impending and pervasive poverty. Don’t depend on Dad because he won’t be a...
Smoke screen The knife that the Clinton administration plunged into the heart of the tobacco industry in the late 1990s still gets an occasional twist, and this week it came from a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled Tuesday that tobacco companies must pay for and publish corrective statements saying that they lied about the dangers of smoking. There was, believe it or not, a time long gone when tobacco companies not only denied that...
Just a number There is an array of reasons why Mitt Romney’s effort to pin a $16 trillion tail on Barack Obama failed, and the incumbent was rather easily elected to a second term as this nation’s 44th president.
Certainly there were willing buyers of what Obama was selling — that this nation’s problems, primarily the bad economy and the runaway federal debt, were President George W. Bush’s fault, and that he could make things right with just four more y...
District still liking Mike U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Lumberton native who wants a ninth term in Congress, is calling a recount of his race with state Sen. David Rouzer for the District 7 seat a waste of taxpayers’ money, saying the voters have spoken.
On this issue, McIntyre is wrong and Rouzer is right, because the incumbent’s apparent winning margin is well within the 1 percent threshold of all the votes cast that allow for such a recount — and another look is nee...
Major hit for the ACC It hasn’t been a good start to the holiday for traditional sports fans, particularly the many of us who look first to the Atlantic Coast Conference for our weekend fix.
On Tuesday, Maryland, one of the charter members of the ACC, announced it was leaving for Big Ten Country — and the money. In fairness to Maryland, the university’s hand was forced by a financial crisis that led it in July to drop seven of its 27 sports — men’s tennis, women...
Time for leadership The county commissioners on Monday night will see for themselves what we have been telling them for months — that the way they are paid and benefited is exorbitant, and it’s really not even close.
County Manager Ricky Harris has completed his assignment, which was to gather information on pay and benefits from comparable counties so the commissioners could compare apples to apples, and we are confident his information will match ours becaus...
What next for COMtech? A prudent strategy, whether playing chess or managing a pretend industrial park, is to know the next move before making the first one.
The county Board of Commissioners, while trying to be penny-wise appear pound-foolish as it didn’t know its next move when it decided to essentially defund COMtech, leaving what was once envisioned as the county’s economic-development star — and its disillusioned tenants — with an uncertain future. Or did th...
Election wrap There’s still some work to do at the polls, as Lumbees on Tuesday will elect a tribal chairman and seven Tribal Council representatives. All the indications are that the turnout will be pitiful, the consequence of infighting that seems to never end despite the constant “unity” cry from members of the Lumbee Tribe. We would be pleased to be wrong.
Now a final glance at Tuesday’s election.
n In Robeson County, President Obama ran strong, bu...
Bad signs It’s been just a couple days since the General Election so it’s no surprise that candidate signs still litter — and that is the correct word — our landscape. It’s an indictment of local elections that often the campaigns — and results — are more about who can erect the most signs at the busiest intersections than who has the best ideas on how to enhance the quality of life of the constituents.
We must say that we can’t recall an election wh...
Hate speech As this is being written, on Tuesday afternoon with the polls not scheduled to close locally for five more hours, we have only a strong idea of who will win the presidential election, and less than that on most of the other contested races, from governor down to Water and Soil District supervisor.
But we do know that about half the country will be upset with the presidential outcome, and a significant percentage of them will be convinced th...
Election musings Today, the Sunday before a general election, is when we typically use this space to encourage people to vote Tuesday — or not complain later about the governance they receive. But, according to information provided by the county Board of Elections, it looks as if people in Robeson County — especially black people — are turning out in heavy numbers to vote, which is a good thing, so we will use our words otherwise.
To illustrate, there were ...
Beware of voter scams Charlotte Observer
Conservatives and liberals have debated furiously whether voter ID laws some state legislatures passed this year will or could disenfranchise some voters. But there should be no argument about the disgraceful intent of a scam being reported in Florida, Virginia and here in North Carolina this month.
Residents in the three states are getting calls from scam artists telling them they can vote over the phone. The calls see...
No danger in Halloween For parents of young ones, Halloween is scarier than it has ever been. And that’s not an endorsement for the spookiest of our holidays as much as it’s a warning.
Years ago, the first option for ghosts and goblins on Halloween was to scour the neighborhood in which they live in search of their favorite candy from friendly faces, but the children knocking on the door are getting taller and no longer are they always from down the block.
More...
Killing thesilence or the first time in several years, The Robesonian did not publish a Sunday edition during October that was pink, but there has been plenty of pink elsewhere during this month, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we didn’t want it to slip away without an important reminder — one that is hopeful.
Breast cancer is no longer the killer that it once was, and early detection gives physicians an upper hand in the battle.
Only a few deca...
