Breaking News

Our View

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming

It’s not every day that we get to announce that some of our staff members have received state-level awards, as is the case in today’s front-page story. As such, we wanted to take a few minutes to deliver a heartfelt thank-you — to you: the person reading this right now. Whether you’re a print subscriber who’s been with us for the long haul or who recently joined up, whether you read us with a digital subscription, or heck, even if you just pick us up and skim through while in a coffeeshop or waiting room throughout the region: THANK YOU. It is your engagement and ...

Piper Fly-In a chance to remember — and dream

Perhaps it’s the weather — which thusfar has been an endless roil of grey and rain more reminiscent of November’s annual dirge than the cheery skies typical of May and June — but we are feeling a bit reflective this year for the annual Sentimental Journey Piper Fly-In. And it seems like we aren’t the only ones. While we didn’t have a print edition yesterday due to the Juneteenth federal holiday, we still prepared some content for our website and to be posted on our social media. One of those stories — which is also in today’s print edition — was about the “one of ...

Students are our future

With area graduations coming to a close, students will be heading off on their next journey — whether it be going straight into the workforce, heading off to a college or trade school, or perhaps joining the military. The students graduating today will be tomorrow’s doctors, scientists, journalists and tradesmen. The choices they make today will shape our nation’s future. Some local students are already making history, such as the work being done by recent Bucktail High School graduates Mattisyn Mason and Martin Lewis. Along with other students from the school’s Ecology ...

The merits of fiscal responsibility, and the costs of upkeep

Did you read the story on page B8 in Friday’s edition? It was about EPA regulations and the costs associated with the potential repeal of these regulations. We’d understand if you didn’t — it was over 2,000 words and fairly crunchy. If you did read it, you get a gold star! If you didn’t, here’s an excerpt that we wanted to call particular attention to (apologies for the length): “In 17 of the 20 rules with explicit cost-benefit analyses, AP found that estimated benefits are larger than the costs — and sometimes far larger. For example, Biden’s proposed power plant ...

The sickness of America’s nascent conformity

It feels as though a great flattening has come upon us, from several angles. Tuesday’s edition of The Express featured a pair of dueling columns on the op-ed page, with syndicated Rich Lowry taking a business-oriented pro-artificial intelligence stance and a column by professor Wolfgang Messner from The Conversation taking a more philosophical stance in which he argued, among other things, that AI would lead to an embrace of mediocrity. Over the last months, we have run a range of both articles and columns featuring various takes on AI and news of its continuing development — ...

Choose joy and humanity this Pride month, not partisan politicking

The month of June is upon us once again, bringing with it the dual arrays of LGBTQ pride and the various voices of those opposed. This year, no flags will be flown in Triangle Park and no crosswalks will be painted rainbow downtown. There will still be a Pride celebration at the end of the month, but all things considered, it’ll be more muted than usual this year. Some people will be happy about that. Others, less so. An AP story published in Friday’s paper, on page A7, summarized new Pew research data that outlines the current state of public acceptance toward the queer ...