North Carolina, under the Beverly Perdue administration, wants to encourage illegal immigration as a component of our tourism industry.

This of course will not be the Democrat take on the interpretation of the Governor’s response to the Beaufort County Commissioners’ request that the Governor remove Spanish from the state website, but most reasonable folks do understand that providing easier access to Spanish speaking people will encourage those folks to use our overburdened state services, and moreover, hearten their cousins, many illegal immigrants, to cross our borders for a taxpayer funded better way of life. The Governor explained this as tourism in her brief response to Beaufort County, stating, “Furthermore tour... Read More

We dodged the bullet. The first ice storm in more than a decade has subsided and we still have our electric power. Thank God for large favors.

As I walked across the frozen concoction that lay suspended like a crunchy platform of high tensile ice, I contemplated how we narrowly avoided losing the electricity that powers our daily lives. My new found hypothesis: The wind blew just hard enough (but not too hard) to blow just enough of the ice (which was getting very heavy), so that the vast majority of the weakest limbs did not break. The rain that was freezing on all of the limbs all day had let up significantly in the evening, and combined with the perfect wind conditions, the power lines prevailed - we kept our power as the mercury... Read More

P.S. Jones Middle School Principal Dale Cole believes he can help Hispanic children have a more rewarding learning experience while in his care during school hours. I met with Mr. Cole in the cafeteria in the middle school where a group of about 60 Hispanic parents, and some children, met with school personal and volunteers to discuss ways to better serve their educational process. I had learned of these gatherings to effect a better success in the education of Hispanic children from my hairdresser, Nidia Martinez. She is a great proponent of these gatherings, believing that Hispanic community can become closer knit thereby keeping a keen eye on their children’s progress, and, just as important, staying out of trouble.

Pr... Read More

I had just made my way topside onto the weather deck of a sixty-five foot harbor tug. It was a blustery, chilly, late-March day. My shipmates and I rigged the ship for sea as my Commanding Officer stormed fore to aft, barking orders and cursing at us. I could feel the deck vibrating beneath my boots as the ship’s diesel engine began to rumble. I grabbed hold of the vessel’s forward mooring line, called out to the pier to disconnect all lines and heaved around as ordered. The ship’s whistle let out a booming, prolonged blast, reverberating throughout the harbor as it steamed away from its berth. I was underway on my maiden voyage aboard my first assigned unit, United States Coast Guard Cutter Chock. Our mission: Trav... Read More

In the Holiday Spirit the Cowboy Way ...

The worn wooden stage at the head of the Turnage Theater was aglitter and aglow with the bright, but tacky Christmas lights adorning some of the many stage props of the night’s entertainment, Riders in the Sky. The fabricated cactus that stood behind Joey the Cowpolka King and Too Slim was strung with the glittering lights, the synthesized campfire glow had its place in front of the singing foursome, with a large Woody action figure (from the Disney animated film Toy Story) aglow in the synthetic light of the fabricated campfire, and stage right, there was the boney skull of a steer atop a box named Too Jaws.

Riders in the Sky, from left to right: Joey the Cowpolka King, Woody Paul, Ranger... Read More

A Callous Re-examination of One’s Existence Unlocks a Sense of Hope

Nevertheless, it was a hard, bumpy ride down the winding, uncertain road of life for former Professional Musician Ben Singer, played by a maturing Mathew Broderick. The former Ferris Bueller has certainly grown some 23 years hence into a surly pessimist, a self-promoted outcast, who would rather live in a downcast world that one of imagination and beauty.

Ben Singer works as a proofreader for the writers of a network television program, but hates his job. He finds it mundane and yet he continues for the payment to procure sustenance. The only two people that he allows in his life, for various reason, is his daughter, Sandra played by Jodelle Ferland, and Leon... Read More

Republican Greg Dority, a man who well understands the organized madness of a full frontal campaign, takes the battle on the road to North Carolina's 4th Congressional District to vie for the seat currently held by Reprsentative David Price. Greg Dority has run well, while running consistently hard, for the 1st District Congressional Seat in 2002 against Incumbent Frank Balance, and later against the disgraced Democrat's replacement G.K. Butterfield in 2004. Dority has long taken this Quixotic ambition to its immutable end, losing in the the heavily Democrat, and predominately African - American district, but running a good, hard race - far outdistancing poll numbers that the demographics would suggest as a competent challenge.

Greg Do... Read More

Walt Disney Adventures: Part I, Animal Kingdom

Whether one loads up the family into the minivan and heads down Interstate 95, or they pile into the SUV and head down Interstate 75 to the sunshine state of Florida, what they have in common is that they're heading south ... deep south: where the air is hot, the men well fed and the women are better looking. Where the hordes often congregate is Central Florida, and there are advantages. Advantages such as: Interstate 75 and Interstate 95 converge at Orlando, the accommodations are plentiful, and there is much to do for energetic folks.

In and around the Orlando area, there is a plethora of theme parks; most notable among them are Sea World, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, and D... Read More

At Beaufort County Now, we will publish any submission by candidates that are in the News Release format, irrespective of political party or ideology, providing that there is sufficient relevance to the people of our region.

Washington, NC - February 8, 2010: Ashley Woolard, who announced his candidacy for US House on October 8, 2009 will formally file for Congress from the 1st Congressional District at the Beaufort County Board of Elections on Wednesday February 10, 2010 at 2:00 pm. He will be accompanied by family, friends, and campaign volunteers. Woolard and his wife Jessica live in Washington with their two children, Payton 6, and Parker 3. "Unless we change the course of our government, the country we leave to our children and ... Read More

My wife and I are on a mission to change the way we eat and, consequently, the way we live. The bad habits we developed over the years have gotten us to a point where a dramatic and radical reversal of direction became necessary. To successfully move in that new direction, we needed to honestly acknowledge the harsh reality that the way we were doing things was not working. We also needed to confront the internal and external issues that prevented us from making those changes before now; we needed to be brutally honest about who we had become and how that needed to change. In short, we needed a paradigm shift.

That sort of “tough love” approach to our own personal situation got me thinking about where we are at in this countr... Read More

N. C. curriculum goes national, in not such a good way

Last week we published an article that was an outgrowth of the December County Commissioner meeting at which Commissioner Hood Richardson raised the issue of whether our students are learning what they need to be learning about American History.

That discussion originated in Hood's concern about a $250,000 grant the Beaufort County Schools has had for three years to teach 25 history teachers from Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrrell and Washington counties. The grant was intended to help history teachers be better prepared to teach history. But we learned that the grant did not cover the Founding Period of our nation.

Then we learned that of the 54 objectives in the current U. S. History Sta... Read More