A better alternative There were 20,000 good reasons for legislation that the General Assembly approved last week lifting the cap of 100 for charter schools in North Carolina. According to the Associated Press, 20,000 is the number of families in North Carolina who are on a waiting list to get their children enrolled into a charter school.
If 20,000 moms and dads believe a charter school is their child’s best option for a quality education, then that choice shou...
Fueling tourism The budget that Gov. Bev Perdue will either sign or veto is Exhibit A that the Republicans in the General Assembly are adamant in their campaign pledge to cut taxes. Despite enormous and growing pressure, they have decided to allow a single-cent sales tax to expire that would generate $1.3 billion during the next fiscal year — enough money and more to satisfy educational leaders in this state who are now forecasting Armageddon.
But the Hous...
Internet connection Never has New York Rep. Anthony Weiner’s last name been more unfortunate.
On Monday, Weiner, a groom for about a year, tearfully stood before a camera and after more than a week of lies and denials, said yes, it was he who sent a photo of himself wearing gray boxer shorts to a 21-year-old college student on the West Coast he had never met but had buddied up to on the Interent. Weiner, a Democrat in his seventh term as the District 9 represe...
Man with the mirror At this point, offering an opinion on John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and two-time presidential candidate, seems like piling on as he has become a punch line for late-night comedians.
There are plenty who are finding glee in Edwards’ fall because he inflicted a lot of damage during both his ascent and his descent — on doctors he sued using junk science to make his fortune, to people who believed in his message, to the poor h...
Budget crunch President Obama famously reminded Americans when he began to establish his agenda that “elections have consequences,” and if North Carolinians remain unconvinced, a Republican budget that is poised to exit the General Assembly should be the string on the pinkie.
As Obama was winning this state’s electoral votes, becoming the first Democrat to do so since Jimmy Carter in 1976, North Carolina residents were sending a different message in st...
Think smart For a Robeson County family, it was an imperfect storm of events that led a student into a high school auditorium where the murderer of his brother was dressed in street clothes, unshackled, and prepared to take the stage to tell students not to do as he had done.
There were too many people asleep at the wheel to have allowed for that to happen on April 5 at a county high school — and school officials have promised that protocol will be rev...
Harris’ audition The proposed budget that interim County Manager Ricky Harris presented the county Board of Commissioners last week eliminates 17 positions that are now vacant, but preserves that of county manager, which has been empty since Ken Windley resigned it several months ago.
The commissioners don’t seem to be in a rush to fill the position, having yet to advertise it, and are probably pleased to see its salary used for other needs. Many believe th...
Opportunity knocks No one would have been surprised had Purnell Swett arrived at The Turtle on Monday prepared to go back to work as chairman of the Lumbee Tribal Council, but he didn’t, and although the future is perpetually uncertain, the swearing in of Sharon Hunt to that position presents a huge opportunity for the tribal government — a chance to regain lost trust among its members.
The Tribal Council was nearly unanimous in its decision to accept Swett’s...
Writing’s on the wall U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre’s bid for a ninth term in Congress might not be determined at the ballot box in November 2012, but could instead be decided in the coming weeks on an easel in Raleigh.
For the first time in almost forever, Republicans control both houses of the General Assembly, and the timing for them couldn’t be better as district lines that will be used for the next decade must be drawn to align with the 2010 census. After being g...
Budget squeeze The town of Maxton on Tuesday began talking about next year’s budget, and the news — a harbinger for other local governments — isn’t good.
The town, with a tax rate of 80 cents for every $100 of property, the highest of any local government in the county, isn’t in the position to push higher taxes on residents, so layoffs appear to be the only alternative. Town Manager Vincent Long, after being told by the commissioners to dodge furloughs i...
Can more be less? If you subscribe to the theory that the validity of any election rises incrementally with each ballot cast, you will scream foul over a bill that was to be voted on in the state House today that would shorten the early voting period.
The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bert Jones of Rockingham, is the only member of the General Assembly who is not a Republican or a Democrat, but the debate will be partisan.
Critics of the bill see this as a Rep...
Not the best man
The precipitous fall and public humiliation of Purnell Swett, with his decision to resign as chairman of the Lumbee Tribal Government, is almost complete. There is still a not-so-little matter of a high school that shares his name, and the cries will get louder that a man who has twice been forced to resign public office under allegations that he mismanaged taxpayer money is not deserving of that honor.
Swett’s plunge is a head-scratche...
Toss away the rod Robeson County sits atop another list, but whether it’s a good or bad thing depends on the eye of the beholder.
According to the Associated Press, Robeson County led the state in the number of instances of students being disciplined with a paddle during the 2009-2010 school year, which was the first time that school systems were required to provide information on corporal punishment to the state. During that school year, 290 times county ed...
Turmoil at The Turtle “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
— Lord Acton
We will have plenty to say about an audit of the finances of the Lumbee tribal government when more is known, but that won’t stop us from commenting on what is already plain. Some — not all — of the members of the tribal government have more interest in enriching themselves — or their cronies — than using the housing money for what it was intended, better...
Slip sliding away? Tribal Chairman Purnell Swett in recent weeks has waved the Lumbee Tribe’s constitution when trying to swat away allegations that he overstepped his boundaries while crafting a contract for longtime buddy Rose Marie Lowry-Townsend to serve as tribal administrator.
But that defense was overturned on Friday when the four justices on the tribe’s Supreme Court ruled against Swett — and in favor of the Tribal Council — saying there were problems...
