Triad Today

As we do our best to celebrate this holiday season, let‘s not forget that there are people beyond our immediate circle of family and friends who are suffering, and could benefit from our love and generosity. Over the past decade, I‘ve been able to showcase scores of community organizations on my Triad Today television show, […]

I applaud President-elect Biden for moving quickly to create his own COVID task force, and for stacking it with people who actually know about and recognize science. Among other things, the task force is assessing the development of effective vaccines, and making plans for distribution and administration of same. That’s all well and good, but […]

Presidents are only human, so they make mistakes. Bill Clinton hooking up with Monica Lewinski, or Donald Trump calling neo-Nazis “very fine people.” I’m talking about John Kennedy, and how he misread history, unintentionally insulted the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was compelled to make amends. The story begins on Wednesday December 4, 1619. That’s the […]

Not too many years ago, North Carolina was considered to be a politically inconsequential state. That’s because our voting patterns were predictable, and our presidential primaries were held so late that we hardly ever figured into the nominating process. But as our population grew in both numbers and diversity, we became known as a “purple” […]

Soon after the polls closed, I emailed YES Weekly publisher Charles Womack and editor Katie Murawski to let them know I would not be turning in a column for this week’s paper. For one thing, I wanted to write about how our state performed on election day, but since military and overseas ballots won’t even […]

In May of 2018, the Broad Center, a nationally respected organization that develops and assists educators, published a report subtitled, “Big-District Superintendents Stay in Their Jobs Longer Than We Think.” That report concluded that an average school superintendent’s tenure is six years. Dr. Angela Hairston must not have received her copy of that report, because […]

Thanks to this year’s legislative exercise in gerrymandering, the newly formed 13th Congressional District now stretches across all or part of ten counties, including Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Davidson, Davie, Iredell, Lee, Person, Randolph, and Rowan. What hasn’t changed is the political make-up of the district, which, like its predecessor, remains strongly Republican. That’s why incumbent […]

A year ago, Republican incumbent Mark Walker fully expected to be running for re-election in 2020, but thanks to some very strange gerrymandering by members of his own party, the 6th District was re-drawn, and Walker had little chance of retaining his seat. That’s because Democrats far outnumber Republicans within the new boundaries, which include […]

“The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray,” so wrote Robert Burns, a Scottish poet who, in 1786 was imagining North Carolina’s 2020 race for United States Senate. The Cunningham/Tillis match-up has been highly anticipated because the eventual winner could affect the balance of power in Washington. Former state senator Cal Cunningham […]

This year, the news media has been focused on the presidential election, and understandably so. Here in North Carolina, we’ve also been bombarded with ads about candidates for the House, Senate, and state legislature. But ask most people who’s running for State Insurance Commissioner, and you’ll get a blank stare. It’s ironic because very few […]