In a recent Pennsylvania rally, President Trump said that the US steel industry was “thriving” under his presidency.

A couple of weeks ago I literally came within a heartbeat of dying. As I was performing my normal workout in the gym, my heart apparently stopped.

State House Speaker Tim Moore used his gavel earlier this month to give North Carolina Republicans a big legislative win. He also gave Gov. Roy Cooper a club to wield against Republicans.

Four hundred years ago a ship arrived at Point Comfort, in the British colony of Virginia, here in the “New World.” Its cargo contained 20 to 30 enslaved Africans, people who had been forcibly separated from their families and carried to this country, where they would become the nucleus of o…

Editor’s Note: Jerry and Kathy Constantino have spent more than 11 years making an impact with their therapy dogs at First Health Moore Regional Hospital, First Health Hospice and Palliative Care House, nursing homes and schools in Moore County. For a number of years they have also volunteer…

Churches are, and always have been, the backbone of rural North Carolina. Places of hope, fellowship, spiritual comfort, they are also often heartbeats of a community, providing food, clothing and other direct aid to their neighbors.

Visit about any civic club in our fair state, including your weekly ones in Moore County, and chances are during the meeting you’ll find folks holding a 50-50 raffle or another fun game to raise money for a good cause.

Thank you … for holding the door for me. Thank you … for removing your golf cap upon entering the restaurant. Thank you … for slowing and allowing me ample opportunity to enter the Traffic Circle. Thank you … for not despoiling our roadways by throwing trash from the window of your car. Than…

I was raised in a military family in Pinehurst. My parents were both loving, and they were both conservative. They took me to church, and I memorized the 10 Commandments.

Would you support legislation to outlaw tobacco products?

I’m going to give you some words from a song and, chances are, you’re going to recognize it and it’s going to stick in your head for a while. Here goes: “Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” You know the rest.

Democracy has no flawless solutions, no foolproof guarantees of perfect fairness. It’s messy. But what unites us as a state and nation is a shared conviction that despite those imperfections, we have an obligation to constantly improve our nearly 250-year grand experiment in self-governance.

Imagine a small ATM in an old Food Mart just south of Carthage. Besides working people, senior citizens and those on disability stop by to withdraw limited amounts of their hard-earned cash to pay for overpriced medicines, cold Gatorade and hot fried chicken. This Food Mart stands in for a l…

You are unique, mentally, of course, but physically, too. Your face, fingerprints, voice, irises — even your heartbeat — can establish your identity, but none as well as your face. Neither federal privacy laws nor the nation’s surveillance laws provide specific protections for facial images.…

Every four years, in every presidential race, Democrats have a war between moderates and liberals. Most every time, a moderate wins.

There is a massive national debt but do we really care about it?

BY GOVS. JAMES MARTIN, JAMES HUNT JR., MICHAEL EASLEY

In a recent column in The Pilot, Robert Levy used Malcolm X to expose the hypocrisy of white liberalism. Levy shared the quote, “The white liberal is the worst enemy to America and to the black man.”

I have been a small business owner in Moore County for 30 years and have been co-owner of Southern Pines Equine Associates for the past 25 years.

As chairman of the Moore County Democratic Party, I cannot remain silent and witness State Rep. Jamie Boles, in his July 31 column, providing inaccurate information about the budget standoff in Raleigh.

Warning: America is going straight to the dogs. Propelling this downward spiral is Americans’ love for dogs. Consumer Affairs reported a survey of 2,000 pet owners where 63 percent said, if they had to choose, they’d choose their pet over a significant other. One guy explained that “dogs don…

Normally I try to stay away from politics in this column, but today I may come close.

As we enter the fourth week of the new fiscal year, the budget standoff continues. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the budget because it did not expand Medicaid. This action blocked critical funding for projects all over the state, specifically several million dollars that would go directly to Moore …

I’d like to take a survey: How many of you have trouble negotiating your technology of choice, specifically personal computers and smartphones, or should I say not-so-smart phones?

Tariffs kill jobs and raise prices for consumers. This was a lead story in a recent edition of Forbes magazine, never a left-leaning liberal source. And while this truism is well-known among economists and in the business community, it’s a lesson often lost on politicians, including the pres…

If you are like me, you’re concerned about all the rawest of rhetoric emanating from Washington and our leaders there. It has infected everything.

Homelessness in America is baked-in. Income inequality, entrenched racial bias and “not-in-my-neighborhood” sentiment ensure that homelessness will remain as solvable as war in Afghanistan.

The United Way of Moore County recently sent notices to 17 local nonprofit organizations representing 18 programs that they would be receiving grants this year.

July is usually the peak time when families get in their cars and hit the road. I remember the first time my family took a long-distance car trip.

On July 4, we celebrated America’s Independence from Great Britain, right? Wrong. Well, right, we do celebrate on July 4; but wrong, we should celebrate on July 2.

There is only one living species of alligator in the United States, alligator mississippiensis.

The Supreme Court held last week that federal judges have no authority to correct partisan gerrymandering. In a 5-to-4 decision, the court decision allows politicians to keep drawing electoral districts that entrench their power by manipulating voters into contrived areas determined solely b…

Two mega-firms — the third- and fourth-largest cellular communications companies— want to merge. Is it a good idea? Is it permissible?

Close your eyes. Play like you’re hearing a sonorous, authoritative voice say, “In the future there will be no need for tedious meal preparation. Housewives will not have boring house-cleaning duties. Traffic jams will be a thing of the past.”

Fifty years ago this month I reported for duty aboard the USS Sutter County (LST1150), a ship that would be my home for the better part of the next two years.

On Dec. 8, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress and the American people about an incident that had shocked the nation. “Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked…

A good case can be made that people in love and contemplating marriage are nuts.

In its May 12, 2019 editorial “Time to Change Charter Funding,” The Pilot endorses a Moore County Board of Education proposal to the county Board of Commissioners to create a separate fund to cover “the per-pupil cost for all (public) charter students who never attended Moore County Schools.”

Let’s say you want an epitaph to hedge against nothingness. Why not have a serious conversation with yourself about becoming a tattoo? You do know you can become a “memorial tattoo,” right?

Until I looked it up, I had no idea who Roe and Wade were, but their names are on top of the news.

Editor’s note: This is the third of three columns dedicated to education funding in Moore County.

Reprinted with permission by The News & Observer of Raleigh

There is no manual provided on the day of your birth on How to Navigate Life: The Pathway to Living. Life is not one size fits all; each experience is as different as each person.

The words “socialism” and “socialist” are thrown about loosely in the news today, and as such will probably increase steadily through the next election.

An estimated 80 percent of adult Americans own a smartphone. I don’t. I have a two-year degree in computer technology and a computer network engineer certification.

On a beautiful day last week, our community was struck by tragedy. It was the last day of class at my alma mater, UNC Charlotte. Seniors were preparing for graduation, and underclassmen were anticipating the summer break when suddenly gunshots rang out.

Most wars have names — the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the World Wars, the Gulf War, even the Cold War. But there is a war that has been going on throughout history and has been the justification of every war ever fought. It’s the real war between the people and the oligarchs.

Her T-shirt announced, “I’m giving up religion!” As she turned around, the text on the back explained, “Now I’m on a true search for God.”

Last May, local voters gifted the families of Moore County with three new elementary schools. This was a dream unimaginable only a few years ago.