The following is a statement from Speaker Joe Hackney on the House budget. Just months before the start of this decade, Hurricane Floyd slowly pushed through eastern North Carolina. The storm pulled heavy rains along with it, but at first appeared to be nothing more than another relatively anonymous hurricane. The truth proved to be…
Category: Opinion
The real cause of high Medicaid costs
 By Adam Searing North Carolina Medicaid is the state health program that covers almost one million children from very low-income families. It also covers another 600,000 people, but only if they fit into very specific categories such as lower-income pregnant women, parents in poverty, very low-income elderly folks and poor people with serious disabilities. In…
Exile on Jones Street
By Kirk Ross After a long weekend of negotiation between my conscience and my palate, I’ve finalized an internal agreement to give up corporate pork. I know, I know, it seems impossible given the general pervasiveness of wonderful barbecue — not to mention that we are at the dawn of another grilling season. But based…
Reform not privatization
Thank you for reporting on the situtation with the Caring Family Network consolidation of services in Orange County. This is a disturbing development, and you did a service to the general public by bringing this to our attention. I think it’s important to add a few key points to your coverage, however.
Why we should support our hometown newspaper
Jock Lauterer By Jock Lauterer Look, I’ll be straight up with y’all: this ain’t spin. While I have no financial capital invested in this paper, I do have a vested interest in the well-being of The Carrboro Citizen. Because I was present at the moment of conception and birth, if you will, I consider myself…
Fire station on the Holly tree site
Holly tree that is located at Carrboro’s future fire station site is estimated to be 200 years old. Photo by Ken Moore By Ken Moore Please Note: In my enthusiasm last week for “hugging†that 200-year-old Persimmon tree on the university campus, I failed to credit Betsy Green Moyer, photographer and co-editor of Paul Green’s…
For the Record
Editor’s note: Following are remarks by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright from Sunday’s university commencement at Kenan Stadium, which was attended by some 28,000 people. The University Registrar has estimated 5,481 expected graduates: 3,039 bachelor’s, 1,314 master’s, 397 doctoral and 731 professional degrees and certificates. Among those receiving honorary degrees were Albright, two-time Nobel…
Carrboro Faces Budgetary Challenges
By Dan Coleman One of the most important aspects of the job of the aldermen is the annual review of the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget document is 260 pages (find it on the message board page at www.townofcarrboro.org), providing line-item detail for every department. As The Citizen reported on May…
Exile on Jones Street
By Kirk Ross Number crunching Word out of the State Ethics Commission offices this week that unlike Ivory Snow, 99 and 44/100ths won’t do. “I’m accepting 100 percent, it’s just a matter of when that happens,†Kathleen Edwards, assistant director and compliance chief for the commission said this week when asked how many of the…
What is a land-transfer tax and why does Orange County need it?
By Moses Carey, Jr. A topic of much discussion in the current 2007 General Assembly session and here in Orange County has been a possible land-transfer tax for all 100 North Carolina counties. But what is a land-transfer tax? A land-transfer tax is a tax that would be paid when a property owner sells a…
School budget crunch is serious
 By Neil Pedersen The 2007-08 operating budget is the fifteenth budget that I have prepared, and promises to be the most challenging of all. There are no surprises or expenditures that we did not anticipate. Our fund balance is healthy. The proposed increase in our budget is not out of line with budgets in the…
NBA Playoffs: Always Tar Heel rich
By Frank Heath Sports Columnist It can be difficult for fans of college basketball — especially around these parts, where the natural rivalries are so entrenched — to warm up to pro hoops and the NBA. But when the playoffs are in swing, as now, some among us can’t help but try. Of course it…
For the Record
Be safe This time of year, you hear the words teenager, excessive speed and alcohol mixed together in news stories all too much. School is almost out. It’s party season, and all the lectures, all the peer support and every effort to ask, plead and demand that our sons and daughters make responsible choices are…
Grading N.C.’s incentive policies
 By William Schweke Twenty years ago, North Carolina was not a player in the controversial national competition between states sometimes referred to as “the corporate incentives game.†Today, it’s a “leader†(at least in the eyes of the site location profession) and has set new precedents for how much a job is “worth†with its…
Stop chasing rabbits
By Al McSurely A favorite last-ditch tactic of the Big Lie is to send out high-ranking officials as rabbits to deflect attention and indictments from their sponsors. Our high-paid, blow-dried TV talking heads are suckers for this ploy. Chattering away, like they did when Cheney/Bush lied us into Iraq, the millionaire talking heads appear clueless…