Good call Most folks would want to know if there were a boulder over head that was in danger of crashing down.
That is the assumption behind this county’s participation in a program called CodeRED, which is essentially a reverse 911 system. But the system can only work for you if you provide information that can be included in a countywide telephone data base.
Here’s how CodeRed works: If there is an approaching threat, perhaps a tornado, the syste...
Dropping the ball The air went out of the tire on Thursday afternoon for North Carolina economic officials when Continental Tire, a German company, announced it would build a plant in Sumter, S.C., which will benefit from up to 1,600 jobs that will be created by the $1 billion investment.
Up until the week before last, the Mid-Atlantic Logistics Center near the border of Brunswick and Columbus counties appeared poised to win the prize, but that didn’t happen...
elayed justice isn’t justice at all, not when a four-year bite of someone’s life has been taken.
Amanda Knox is a free 24-year-old today, but we wonder what might have been if not for Knox’s angelic looks that captured media attention — and a family flushed with resources that allowed them to work endlessly to demonstrate that she and her former boyfriend were not murderers.
You know the story: Knox, an American who lives in Washington st...
Code Pink We trust you have noticed that on the face at least, today’s The Robesonian looks different.
The pink has a purpose: It is to make our readers pause and consider for the moment the realities of breast cancer, and to provoke action that might save the life of a loved one.
Staff writer Ali Rockett has written two stories today on breast cancer, so we will steer you there for most of the details about the No. 1 killer of women, the technical...
The river beckons Robeson County and Lumberton have no surer friend than the Lumber River. Without it, our county would be much different, and our county seat might not be at all.
The 115-mile dark-water river, a state park, never fails Robesonians, offering us water that is vital to our sustenance, scenic beauty, and a place to get away from it all with fishing, canoeing, camping out and other recreational opportunities. The river is also a key selling poin...
Back to work Desperately in need of some good economic news, Robeson County got an extra large helping of it on Monday.
Robeson Community College was among 32 successful applicants that were selected from 200 colleges and college partnerships in the country seeking a slice of $500 million in federal grant money for job training, but it gets better. Of the nine sister community colleges selected in North Carolina to share in $18.8 million, RCC got the la...
No longer golden Despite a three-decade effort by the federal government to snuff out cigarette smoking, 20 percent of Americans — about 45 million — continue to light up. That percentage has remained steady for several years, and time will tell if the government’s next initiative — graphic warning labels that will appear on packages beginning late next year — will chip away further at that percentage.
We are pleased that fewer Americans are smoking than in...
Room for a compromise? Sometime, someway, Maxton town officials came to a conclusion that Townsend Middle School’s old gym would be theirs. And, although that has not happened, that town’s Board of Commissioners, led by Mayor Gladys Dean, doesn’t seem willing to take no for an answer — and has pledged to continue the pursuit.
Earlier this week Dean updated the town board on efforts to get ownership of the gym, including sending a letter to schools Superintendent ...
Coming to the rescue The news from the Robeson County Animal Shelter is refreshingly good — but it could be better.
As reported in staff writer Ali Rockett’s story that was published on Sunday, adoptions at the shelter are up. In fact, according to shelter officials, there was recently a three-week stretch during which no animals deemed as candidates for adoption had to be euthanized. Perhaps that explains, at least in part, the absence of angst in regard to th...
Road to somewhere If Lumberton were not pinned down as it is by major highways, then it’s economic fate might be similiar to that of Laurinburg, the Scotland County seat that once was much like Robeson County’s, but is now a shadow of its former self.
But, thanks to Hector MacLean , the former Lumberton mayor and state senator, Interstate 95, originally envisioned for farther west, was rerouted eastward in our favor, and slices through Lumberton, d...
Tribal chairwoman’s offers weak defense for not keeping district seat To the Editor,
This is in reply to Tribal Chairwoman Sharon Hunt’s weak explanation of her decision not to resign one of her positions as directed by the Lumbee Supreme Council. Clearly there was intent to have separation of powers.
The excuse used, that she will “be inactive” in her role on the Tribal Council, for not resigning was weak at best. If she is indeed inactive, why not resign? If she is truly being inactive, then she is doing ...
Banking on the future For decades the old BB&T building served as an economic engine for Lumberton and Robeson County, a place where people came to secure loans for homes and businesses, first as Southern National Bank and then, following the merger in 1995, as BB&T.
Deals that were hatched in that building were critical in growing the city of Lumberton and the county.
But the 62,000-square-foot building at 500 N. Chestnut St. was in danger of becoming an econ...
A day to remember It seems like a lifetime since 10 years ago today, when America’s path forward was savagely detoured on a Tuesday morning as we watched almost 3,000 unsuspecting people die horrific deaths in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a remote field in Pennsylvania.
In a couple of hours, America’s invincibility vanished, and we became aware that oceans are no longer an effective defense system. The threat hangs above us perpetually, fading with t...
Getting a fair start In a perfect world, young girls — and we picked that word only after careful consideration — wouldn’t be having children until they could shoulder the financial burden and provide a stable and loving home with an involved father.
But the world isn’t perfect, and neither is Robeson County, which, according to officials with the Health Department, at any single time has as many as 700 pregnant women who are depending on Medicaid. Many of them...
The ABC’s made hard Oct. 8 will mark three years since people living in and around Pembroke have had the convenience of buying bottled alcohol at a nearby ABC store. Instead, they have had to travel to stores in Maxton, Red Springs, Lumberton or elsewhere, burning expensive gasoline and wasting valuable time.
Additionally, those municipalities — and not Pembroke — stand to benefit from potential tax revenue that alcohol sales are intended to generate. That rev...
