I’m Back

Start the presses. I’m blogging again. I took a break in August 2021 to work on a book about my life and my experiences in politics and newspapers. I’ve written 200+ pages, and there’s more to come. One day I’ll get around to publishing it. Some parts will have to wait until I’m gone. For…

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Last Respects

Thirty-five years ago, the morning George Crile – a producer at 60 Minutes who later wrote the book Charlie Wilson’s War – called I thought, An interview with 60 Minutes – what’s the difference between that and sticking your head in a lion’s mouth? I said: ‘I reckon you know the chances of Tom Ellis…

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Dan versus Roy: Every Lost Second

Dan Forest is a good, decent man and he’s the most conservative candidate on the ballot for statewide office this fall but he’s running against an incumbent Governor who has a fine-tuned political machine with its eyes locked on beating Dan Forest. We’re a swing state and, before the coronavirus epidemic upended the world, Roy…

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Infected

The newspaper, strapped for cash, heard about a ‘Rally Against Racism’ in a small town an hour’s drive away and thought, Click bait. After the rally a headline popped up on the newspaper’s website: ‘We cannot live in fear’: Activist condemns racism, gun violence at rally in Hillsborough – and every time someone clicked to…

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Resetting Raleigh

Mayor Nancy McFarlane’s decision not to run again means Raleigh politics will get a reset this year. It promises to be rough and wrenching. Again, as last time, we’ll have racial polarization. Again, as for the last 50 years, we’ll have Neighborhoods vs. Developers. And, this time, we may have a generational divide. Call it…

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Thank you, Nancy

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane, and her family, clearly need and deserve a break from the petty, polarized politics of the City Council. The question now is whether Raleigh will get the new mayor it needs and deserves. McFarlane has been a great mayor for a great city. Her 12 years on the Council, including eight…

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Andrew Payne

I’ve had the good fortune in life to meet some extraordinary people. I never met anyone quite like Andrew Payne. Andrew, who was only 40, died last week. Friends said the cause was an aortic aneurysm. A heart issue would be fitting, because he had one of the biggest hearts you can imagine. WRAL said…

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Shedding Stars

Maybe The News & Observer can cut its way to survival, but the hemorrhage of great journalistic talent is disheartening to readers and probably demoralizing to the newsroom. The latest losses include familiar reporters and a photographer and lesser-known editors who have kept the place together and the quality high against all odds: Jane Stancill,…

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Wacky

The first story I read said Democrats in Congress struck ‘so help me God’ from a key House Committee oath. The second story told how a legislator ended a prayer in the State House by saying, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ’ – and asked, Will more diverse members change who they pray to? A…

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Greed and Fake News

The headline – School system will reduce lunch menus due to shutdown – evoked images of hungry children; I clicked and read: Vance County Schools’ reduced lunch menu will be one main dish, bread, two vegetables, one fruit and milk. What had been ‘reduced?’ There’d be no ice cream, no more bottled water and canned…

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