All in Opinion

OPINION: Thanksgiving in trying times

While presidents before Abraham Lincoln often delivered Thanksgiving proclamations, he made it a national holiday in 1863. It might seem odd to some modern readers that Thanksgiving reached a pinnacle during America’s bloodiest conflict, but those that are the most in need understand. Trials, affliction, and humility remind us of our dependence on the grace of God.

OPINION: Is it time to break up marine fisheries?

It was a warm late spring afternoon in 1968 when Faye Nelson, my seventh-grade teacher, decided to take an impromptu, after lunch, field trip to the Carteret County Courthouse. It was a short walk from Beaufort Central Middle School, down Queen Street and then a right on Cedar, with 25 pre-delinquents in tow. I am not sure it was announced, or if she had a shred of parental permission, but there we were, filling the back three rows of a session of open court.

Cawthorn’s handlers got it wrong

When Carolina Journal first reported first-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s intention to abandon his current district next year to run in an adjacent one, CJ quoted Cawthorn as saying his decision was part of “a strategy to increase conservativism in North Carolina.”

G.K. Butterfield to retire from Congress

Rep. G.K. Butterfield, N.C.-1, a Democrat, has officially announced he'll retire at the end of this term in Congress. Originally from Wilson, Butterfield, 74, has served in Congress since 2004. He has been in Congress for 18 years, representing a district that runs along North Carolina's northern border with Virginia. Butterfield won his first election to Congress by more than 71% and has handily won the seat in each election since, winning by margins well into the 70's.

Our technology made us resilient

The COVID-19 crisis had enormous and destructive consequences for our health, our economy, our education systems, and the quality of our social and family lives. Now, just imagine how much worse the consequences would have been in the absence of modern information and computer technology (ICT).

Senate passes budget with 14 Democrats onboard; Cooper says he’ll sign it

Gov. Roy Cooper says he will sign the first budget from the General Assembly since he took office in 2017. The announcement came in a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 16, and before the first vote from the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. As of Wednesday morning, the Senate has passed the budget 40-8, with 14 Democrats voting in favor of it. A final Senate vote is coming Wednesday with the House slated to vote Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.

On making a column count

In this case, however, my inspiration came not from the realization that something I wrote might deserve to be trashed. I’d already had that realization decades ago after penning one of my first columns, when its subject complained to me that I’d misquoted him, misunderstood his point, and even misspelled his name. Other than that, it seems, the article was decidedly mediocre.