At 6:30 every weekday morning, my neighbor Mary lets Brandy out of the house. The golden retriever races across the lawn and skids to a halt at the end of her 50-foot rope, where she proceeds to yap and snarl at every passerby. Lying in bed, I pull the pillow over my ears, to no […]
John Manuel
Posted inNews
Campus combat
I read recently in the newspaper that three Duke students were charged with assault with a deadly weapon for hitting two classmates in the face with water balloons. One of the victims was wearing contact lenses and suffered cuts and bruises around the eye. I hope she recovers and I understand her anger at her […]
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The Six Cent Killer
It was a simple change in tax law–the elimination of a sales-tax exemption granted to free-circulation newspapers in North Carolina. The N.C. Department of Revenue claims it was done in the interest of fairness. Legislators claim they were largely unaware of its presence within a larger tax bill they passed at the end of the […]
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Where Did the Trees Go?
It’s the kind of landscape that tugs at the heartstrings–rolling meadows of fescue and broomsage, dairy cows standing like chess pieces amid alternating bands of shadow and winter light. Farmhouses huddle beneath domes of ancient oaks. And over the hillsides and down in the swales, forests spread in thick profusion, hiding within their protective veil […]
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Assessing the Impact
What can be done about clear-cutting? We’re about to see what will perhaps be the best opportunity to impact clear-cutting, and other forest practices in North Carolina, for years to come. In 1998, Gov. Jim Hunt responded to citizens’ demands that something be done to assess the impact of the growing number of chip mills […]