The race for state superintendent will determine who will support and advocate for the state’s 2,500 public schools and lead the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). This election cycle, it also a race in which experience in public education is pitted against an outsider to the system.  

To the Editor:

Former President Donald Trump is known to be an admirer of autocratic rulers, particularly President Xi Jinping of China. According to CNN, when Trump heard that Xi was about to be gifted a constitutional amendment that would eliminate term limits for the president, Trump was reported to have said “He’s now president for life, and he’s great.

As fiscal year 2024-2025 begins, North Carolina’s county governments are receiving their third installment of the Opioid Settlement Fund. This year, Swain County received $236,111. 

I was raised in a rural, conservative-leaning county with two working parents and six busy kids. My mother was a nurse and public heath educator and my father worked in insurance and real estate before serving three terms as our Republican State House representative and later as a lawyer and court judge.

A lawsuit filed against Kituwah LLC that was initially dismissed is heading back to court after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last month that the tribally owned corporation waived its sovereign immunity.

Several months ago, I was having lunch with a friend and the topic of politics came up, specifically how bitterly polarized and angry the country has become in the last ten years. 

Maggie Valley is gonna Maggie Valley.

It comes with the territory. To win a seat on that town’s board of aldermen one has to endure some contentious moments, likely over a residential development or (gasp) a park. 

North Carolina’s Medicaid program will  expand on December 1  to offer fully subsidized health plans to virtually every legal resident whose household income is at or below 138% of the federal poverty line.

To the Editor:

The passage of SB 749 in the North Carolina House of Representatives on Sept. 19, 2023, a bill ironically called “No Partisan Advantage in Elections” removes the selection of local county election boards from the counties and gives that authority to the General Assembly in Raleigh, which at the present time is controlled by the Republican party.

What’s behind Republican leaders’ insistent push to legalize multiple forms of gambling – from online sports betting to casinos and video poker kiosks — despite resistance from caucus members, core Republican voters, pastors and sheriffs? What happened to concerns about crime, addiction and victimizing the poor?