Earlier this year, nearly a quarter of the 583 N.C. pharmacists surveyed by NARAL Pro-Choice N.C. Foundation did not know the difference between emergency contraception, or the “morning-after pill,” and the abortion pill. Emergency contraceptiona concentrated dose of birth control pills that helps prevent pregnancy and does not cause an abortionhas been available without a prescription to adults since August 2006. But many of the randomly selected pharmacists don’t stock the drug and couldn’t provide accurate information about its use. Only one knew that the morning-after pill works up to 120 hours after unprotected sex. Forty percent did not have it in stock, and 30 percent of those refused to order it. Some even said they would only provide the pill with a prescription. When asked about the time frame to take the medication and its side effects, one pharmacist asked the surveyor if she could read and write and suggested she “go to any drugstore in Chapel Hill and read the box.” Too many pharmacists are letting their beliefs get in the way of their jobs.
There are a lot of reasons why Dennis Rogers, who retired last week after 31 years as a metro columnist at The N&O, is a herofor being a guru of BBQ, a hardened thespian, a chronicler of daily life Down East and, more often than not, a beautiful writer. But he’s a hero to us for being one of the last of a dying breeda hard-knocks kid who came to UNC-Chapel Hill and stayed here to tell the stories and make a difference in the place he called home. Rogers banged out two or three columns a week over four decades, helping the rest of us understand the world he loved. Best of luck, Dennis. We already miss you.
The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Libba Evans allowed Gov. Mike Easley’s press office to rewrite sections of a history book about North Carolina’s governors last year, according to a story in The News & Observer. Evans, an Easley appointee, let Easley’s staff delete information about the governor’s unsuccessful U.S. Senate race and add a sentence about patriotism, among other changes. One historian said that the entry about Easley “sounds like a campaign press release.”
