Unhappy Valley Of all the possible exits for Joe Paterno as the head football coach at Penn State University, the one that came about last week could never have been envisioned.
Paterno, the architect of perhaps the most-envied college football program in the country for the last half century, was fired, not because of what he had done — how could that have happened? — but because of what he left undone: Paterno, 84 years old, steps offstage sullied beyon...
The power of knowing If closing your eyes and wishing it away were effective, Robeson County wouldn’t have a crime problem, as that tactic has surely been tried by all of us. But we have more than our share of crime — and the reputation that comes with it.
Crime can be a deal-breaker when new industry and professional people consider this county as a potential home. Sometimes our temperate climate, available land, eager work force, major east-west and north-sou...
omorrow is Veterans Day , a day that was set aside by Congress and signed into law by President Eisenhower “to honor veterans on the 11th day of November of each year … a day dedicated to world peace.” It is particularly important on that day that we pause to honor our veterans as this nation is fighting two wars, one in Iraq where victory has been declared and another in Afghanistan where an ending of any kind remains too distant to contempl...
Duty calls on Tuesday On Tuesday, Robeson County residents who live in municipalities will head to the polls to elect the people who will decide property tax rates, how tax dollars will be spent, zoning disputes, what streets will be paved first and countless other issues that affect their everyday lives.
But elections officials predict that one out of five eligible voters will bother to take the time to cast a ballot, which shifts a lot of power to those who do...
Temporarily grounded This past weekend’s Mid-Atlantic Fly-In and Sport Aviation Convention never reached full flight, inviting criticism of the decision to move the event to the fall from its previous date in May.
But in this instance, we aren’t sure that even hindsight is 20/20.
The event, which was held for a ninth time, has soared higher than ever expected since it debuted in 2003 as part of the centennial celebration of the Wright brothers’ initial flight...
No butts for Obama Here are few addictions that are tougher to tame than smoking cigarettes, but add the pressure that comes with living in the White House, commanding our military, and dealing with a 9 percent unemployment rate, and … well, what is difficult bumps up against impossible.
But the news is that Barack Obama has finally licked the habit he picked up when he was little more than a child and, according to his doctors, was found to be in excellent h...
Dropping the Soccer ball During a stop in Lumberton last week, Thom Tillis, the speaker of the state House and a Republican, brought some believability to the conversation about how North Carolina kicked away Project Soccer, the code name for a German tire manufacturer that considered bringing up to 1,600 jobs to this state that would have been in reach of Robeson County residents.
No, Tillis said, the state’s failure can’t be linked to politics as has been widely ...
Broken trust The $98,093 penalty that the Lumbee Tribal Government must pay for misusing money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is less than 1 percent of the $14 million and change the tribe received in federal housing during 2010.
From that vantage point, the government’s misuse of housing money might not add up to a big deal. But if you are an eligible member of the tribe with a leaking roof that hasn’t been repaired because t...
Mapping the future The Unified Robeson County Branch of the NAACP in a recent letter to the Lumber River Council of Governments implies that the county Board of Commissioners is trying to pull a fast one when it comes to drawing new districts from which commissioners are elected.
Actually, the NAACP chapter is suggesting the county is moving the opposite of fast — and is purposely dragging its feet on redistricting, and that is being done with the intent off ...
Killing the silence Prostate cancer, for reasons that are never adequately explained, has never managed to get the attention its deadliness deserves.
September was Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and it probably passed without you even knowing it. Today’s Page 1A of The Robesonian isn’t pink. And warnings about the dangers of prostate cancer aren’t sprinkled here and there during a broadcast of an NFL football game.
So we, as part of the media, will accept ...
Hard call for United Way The United Way of Robeson County has one of those can’t-win decisions. No matter what it decides regarding funding for the troubled Southeastern Family Violence Center, there will be second opinions.
And the timing isn’t the best, coming on the heels of the United Way campaign launch.
Sometime soon the United Way’s board will decide whether or not to continue, eliminate or reduce funding to the Southeastern Family Violence Center, which h...
Police misfire File this one under Unintended Consequences.
A Fayetteville man was shot more than once on Monday by a Fayetteville policeman, apparently during a struggle that followed a traffic stop. The 45-year-old man is expected to recover, so the story will be something short of tragic, but it still raises questions that demand answers, as is the case anytime a lawman fires a weapon.
Early reports are the shooting victim was not armed himself, but ...
A place to play When Lumberton residents overwhelmingly voted no in November 2005 to general obligation bonds as a financing method to pay for the lion’s share of the Northeast Park, we interpreted the vote not as a repudiation of the park itself, but a concern that its $8 million price-tag could mean higher property taxes.
With this nation’s recession approaching a third birthday, those worries have been validated. Times are difficult, maybe not for all...
We aren’t prepared to carry their flag, but if we’re giving out the grades, six Red Springs students who took a concern before Board of Education on Tuesday night would get an A-plus in Civics.
The students — seniors D’niqua Murphy and Drayvon Fairley, juniors Brenicia McNeill and Stefone Muinsiow, and sophomores Briona McRae and Rocio Decina — complained to the school board during the public comment period about the transfer of counselor R...
Good call Most folks would want to know if there were a boulder over head that was in danger of crashing down.
That is the assumption behind this county’s participation in a program called CodeRED, which is essentially a reverse 911 system. But the system can only work for you if you provide information that can be included in a countywide telephone data base.
Here’s how CodeRed works: If there is an approaching threat, perhaps a tornado, the syste...
