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Rep. Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe Co.)

It was six months ago that Hurricane Helene devastated much of western North Carolina with record-breaking rainfall and flooding. Since that time, federal, state and local officials have worked in determined — often heroic — fashion to help communities recover.
Today, however, the situation is best described as mixed. As NC Newsline learned in a conversation with Buncombe County State Representative Lindsey Prather, while much of the region is back up and running, the situation varies widely from place to place. While most roads are clear and many homes and businesses back...

Journalist Sara Murphy (Courtesy photo)

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina six months ago was, in many communities, enormous. Few aspects of normal life escaped being upended, and one very important such area was child care.

As journalist Sara Murphy detailed in a recent report published by NC Newsline and the national news site, the Hechinger Report, six months after the storm, many young children and their families are still struggling with the disaster’s consequences. At least 55 early child care centers were damaged in the storm, and several rem...

Duke University Sanford School Emeritus Professor of Public Policy Phil Cook (Photo: Sanford School of Public Policy)

Across the United States, gun violence continues to be an ever-more-serious national plague. According to the latest mortality data from the CDC, firearm-related deaths among children and teenagers in the United States have soared by 50% since 2019. In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among American youth for the third year in a row.

So what impact is this having on the attitudes of average Americans? A new report published in the Proceedings of the National A...

Students line up as they return to school in Durham County. (File photo)

It’s been two decades since state legislators bowed to tourism industry lobbyists and passed a law forbidding local school districts from starting the traditional calendar school year prior to the last week of August.

It was a familiar case of industry campaign cash trumping recommendations of education experts and the wellbeing of children.

In the years since, local school districts — anxious to take advantage of completing their first semester prior to the Christmas break — have repeatedly tried to buck...

Photo: Micah Drew/ Daily Montanan

Consider the following situation. You’re a middle-aged transgender man who transitioned decades ago. You’re balding, have a beard, and would never in a million years be confused for a woman.

Unfortunately, and bizarrely, however, this makes some North Carolina Republican state legislators uncomfortable, so they want to force you to use women’s restrooms.

Seriously. That’s what they’re seeking to do in a recently introduced Senate bill that would reprise the disastrous HB 2 debacle from a decade ago.

Under the bill, among...

Rep. Keith Kidwell (Screengrab NCGA video)

The job of governing a state of 10 million people with a 60 billion dollar annual budget is big and serious business that requires elected leaders to read, think, learn, listen and work with people of widely differing views.

Unfortunately, this basic premise of elementary school civics seems to have escaped Republican state Representative Keith Kidwell.

Kidwell — a veteran lawmaker who chairs three committees and ought to know how to behave like a grownup– nonetheless posted an image to his Fac...

Starlink was widely used in western North Carolina during the early days after Hurricane Helene. (Photo of storm debris by Getty Images)

It was six months ago this week that Hurricane Helene devastated much of western North Carolina. By now, you’d think elected leaders would have long since devoted all of the resources at their disposal toward emergency relief and getting the basics of life in the mountains back up and running.

Unfortunately, while state lawmakers did approve a new recovery package last week, they continue — quite inexplicably — to ignore several basic and wel...

Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC 2) reads to children at Wanda’s Little Hands, an early childhood education center. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline)

Among the many ways in which the ham-handed policies of President Trump and Elon Musk are making life more difficult for millions of average Americans, the attacks on early childhood education are among the worst.

Access to affordable child care is already a huge problem for American families — especially since the demise of COVID-era subsidies. The situation in North Carolina has grown so dire that even anti-tax crusaders in the state busin...

Photo: Environmental Defense Fund

The challenge posed by carbon emissions that drive climate change is one of the most important issues facing humanity. If ever a matter required everyone’s best efforts and collaboration — elected officials, regulators, providers, consumers — this is it.

Unfortunately, many important Republican legislative leaders in Raleigh disagree. They’re sponsoring a bill this year that was written in secret and repeals a painstakingly negotiated law which requires Duke Energy to cut carbon emissions by 2030. As usual, the excuse for the bill is cost. Proponents say the bill will save ratepayers money. As NC Ne...

Prof. Mike Walden (Photo: NC State University)

Over the past few decades, one of North Carolina’s best known and most prolific economists has been Prof. Mike Walden. Walden, the Reynolds Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at NC State University, is an outspoken champion of free markets and a longtime regular contributor to the pages of the conservative John Locke Foundation.

As with a lot of traditional economic conservatives, however, Walden is not necessarily a cheerleader for the roller-coaster economic policies that President Trump has pursued since his return to off...