Titan Cement bad for area

Public Comments Regarding Titan Cement
New Hanover County Courthouse, April 21, 2008
By Joel K. Bourne Jr.
Get involved at stoptitan.org
Mr. Chairman, Commissioners:
My name is Joel Bourne. I am a freelance journalist and editor residing in the Ogden area of New Hanover County. For the past two decades I have covered important environmental issues for a number of […]

Downtown Wilmington “Vagrants,” Ontologically Speaking

The issues brought to light in Downtown Wilmington: A vagrant’s paradise? reside in waters much deeper and murkier than a tourist’s observations can possibly shed light on (not to mention observations from one who comes to us from a city/state with one of the largest homeless populations in the world). It is no secret that […]

There’s nothing good about cancer

Our great friend and Grove Projector Betsy Ervin, the Christopher Hitchens of cancer, writing an absolutely powerful, sacred-cow-tipping piece in the Star News opinion pages a couple of days ago:

Everyone diagnosed with cancer deserves to experience the disease in his or her own way. Some choose to be upbeat, refusing even to entertain the possibility […]

Downtown Wilmington: A vagrant’s paradise?

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“We recently rented a Carolina Beach condo and enjoyed it very much. Unfortunately, when we went to the downtown Wilmington area (as we’ve done many times before) we were VERY dismayed to be aggressively approached by multiple vagrants asking for handouts of money. There were quite of few of them, mostly on the riverwalk at the bottom of Market Street, but also on the surrounding sidestreets.”

Why People Play Golf, Actually (Part 2)

Continued from Why People Play Golf, Actually (Part 1)
Reason #4:
You don’t have to be “good” to enjoy the game. And here’s something I think every golfer, regardless of skill, can agree with. Golf is like heroin… it only takes one good shot to get hooked. I’ve seen new players hack and hack for 16 holes, […]

Why People Play Golf, Actually (Part I)

As someone who plays golf as much as he possibly can, I feel called to attempt an answer as to “Why People Play Golf.” This post is, of course, in direct response to Why (I guess) people play golf, which, quite playfully, muses on the possible reasons men and women would engage in a sport/game […]

Help with the Wilmington Pedestrian Master Plan

A post from Star News blogger Stacie Green Hidek:

You have just one more week to participate in a survey to help Wilmington develop a pedestrian plan. The survey will be available online through March 17. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
For more information on the project ,visit the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning […]

Smoke-free Wilmington?

Conventional wisdom says North Carolina will be the last refuge for smokers. No way will the state institute a ban on smoking in public places like restaurants, bars and bowling alleys. Not on Tobacco Road, the land of Winston and Salem and Duke University, named for the father of tobacco industrialist James B. Duke.
But there […]

Pinks, Whites and Browns - It’s What’s for Dinner

For those not familiar with the U.S. shrimp industry, the article Ballad of Miss Dorothy begins to paint a picture of some of difficulties that many local fishermen face and the uncertain future that lies ahead for those that stick with it. True, fuel prices and equipment have whittled away fishermen’s bottom line, but […]

Commentary on health care politics

A few months ago I was watching an Oprah discussion with Michael Moore regarding his latest movie Sicco. I tend to appreciate Mr. Moore’s radical social graces but viewed his comments on health care with a degree of skepticism. I have been following the debate over “universal healthcare” within the […]