April 2004 archives

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Friday, April 30, 2004

An issue: Senate candidates focus on outlying landing field

The Washington County outlying landing field for Navy Super Hornet aircraft has become a subject of increased attention by U.S. Senate candidates Richard Burr and Erskine Bowles. That is good since one of them will be going to the Senate...

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Religion: Kerry’s contradictions with the Catholic Church

One of the most interesting aspects of John Kerry’s candidacy for president is his religion. Kerry is a member and practitioner of the Roman Catholic faith. The last time a Catholic was nominated by one of the two major parties...

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Bad policy: Don’t single out a few for a special state tax

“To me, it’s a no-brainer,” said Mort Congleton of a scheme to extract more tax money from pet owners. It’s a no-brainer, all right. Anyone who supports it is using no brain. That, of course, is not what Mort Congleton...

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Bold move: Mount Olive College’s initiative merits support

What stands out about the history of Mount Olive College is boldness. It was a bold idea to begin with, hatched by a few preachers and laymen of the small Original Free Will Baptist denomination, to start a church-sponsored college....

Monday, April 26, 2004

Good vote: Flowers put the county ahead of his political party

Congratulations to Wayne County Commissioner Arnold Flowers. He voted right when the board elected Jack Best to fill the term of Ken Gerrard, who resigned as a commissioner. Flowers and two other members of the board are Republicans. Best and...

Saturday, April 24, 2004

‘Northbrook’ residents are reacting admirably

Seldom is the Goldsboro City Council faced with a decision as sensitive as the one it faced Monday night. Despite vigorous opposition, the council voted 5-2 to move ahead with the annexation into the city of about 400 homes in...

Friday, April 23, 2004

Kids voting: Officials take registration books to the high schools

Like those in Garrison Keillor’s hometown of Lake Wobegon, all of Wayne County’s children are above average. Still, they are children. When they are one day older than 17, they can vote, which is a mistake. The voting age was...

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Smug: Navy seems confident of outcome on landing field

A special committee appointed by Gov. Mike Easley to study the issue of locating a Navy Outlying Landing Field has not yet completed its deliberations. Public bodies and private environmental groups have filed actions to prevent the project. Those bodies...

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

The spotlight: A singular journey from a tobacco patch

The boy covered with sticky tobacco gum, bending his back and picking leaves in sweltering heat, wouldn’t finish college. But one day he would lead a successful campaign for the United Way of Wayne County. His father died when he...

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Bin Laden: He has not finished killing Americans

A recorded message from Osama bin Laden reiterated something that most Americans already knew: We will never have peace and security in this country as long as he is at large. In the tape, bin Laden offered a truce to...

Monday, April 19, 2004

Wayne’s needs: Current project might be opportunity for action

A series of conferences is under way to create a vision for Wayne County. All of the county’s governing boards are asked to participate, and most of them are doing so. It is a good thing for the boards to...

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Life and death: What keeps us straight as we go down the road?

It’s a tired old cliché: “It could have been worse.” Sometimes we are awed to think what power it might have been that kept it from being worse. Atlas Price had such an experience on a recent Saturday. Price lives...

Friday, April 16, 2004

Lobbyists: They can provide important services

A council created by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has recommended some stringent public accounting of expenditures and favors that lobbyists or their clients make in behalf of legislators. This would include picking up the tab for meals or entertainment,...

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Sentencing: Habitual-felon law should be changed

It is well known that the taxpayers are paying an astronomical cost for the war on drugs. We usually think of that money being spent on the streets — police fighting drug dealers and users. But there is another significant...

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

All benefit: Clean Water Trust demands priority

Probably many among the rank and file are not even aware of the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund. Or of its vital role in ensuring the viable future of the state’s economy and its natural resources. The two...

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Annexing: Council should let residents know they are heard

It should not be surprising for a city to consider annexing a neighborhood along its borders when the neighborhood is as well developed as the one that Goldsboro officials now want to take in. That area, along Salem Church Road...

Monday, April 12, 2004

Get together: School problems should be discussed face to face

The time has come for members of Wayne County’s Big Three boards — the county commissioners, the Goldsboro City Council and the Board of Education — to get together and hash out this business about the schools. It might be...

Saturday, April 10, 2004

He is risen

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from...

Friday, April 9, 2004

Good Friday: Time for reflecting, not passing of judgment

Seldom does a Good Friday approach with as much attention to the crucifixion of Jesus as in 2004. It began on Ash Wednesday with the release of the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” Actually, it began even earlier with...

Thursday, April 8, 2004

Litigation epidemic: Policy holders pay for those lawsuits

Walter Olsen, Yale graduate, author, lecturer and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, spoke recently at a seminar at Hillsdale College in Michigan. The subject was the relentless escalation of litigation in the United States. The average cost of liability...

Wednesday, April 7, 2004

Spring: Big changes in a little time

Have you ever seen such an abrupt change in the way the outdoors looks and feels? Only a few weeks ago, it seems, hard winter was still upon us with all of its accoutrements — ice, frost, cold that stung...

Tuesday, April 6, 2004

Decision coming: There is much to consider about the school proposal

Wayne County is facing a decision of enormous consequences. The voters probably will decide whether to embrace the Board of Education’s $82 million school-building proposal. The plan is on the desks of the county commissioners now. They will seek funding...

Monday, April 5, 2004

Outsourcing: It’s best to leave corporations alone

All that folderol about companies “outsourcing” jobs — having them done in countries where labor is cheaper — is nothing but a combination of short-sightedness and political sophistry. As has been mentioned in this space before, there is “insourcing,”...

Saturday, April 3, 2004

School makes news pages as well as sports pages

Duke University has gained national attention in ways other than assembling an excellent basketball team. Duke has once again made the Final Four in the field of scholastic silliness. The Collegiate Network gave Duke fourth place in this year’s Campus...

Friday, April 2, 2004

Silence: Kennedy won’t discuss court-rigging suggestion

Someone in Sen. Ted Kennedy’s office has recommended that the senator yield to a request that would have rigged court cases. The senator is determined to conceal the truth about it — perhaps because he went along with the recommendation....

Thursday, April 1, 2004

Accountabilty: Millions are lost on ‘good causes’

The road to the poor house is paved with contributions and “investments” in behalf of good causes. This is not to suggest that as individuals, organizations and governments we should turn our backs on the needs around us. But we...