Local news columns & opinions from Raleigh, NC

News Columnists

Saunders: In Enloe water-balloon case, does punishment fit the crime?

Wasn’t there a more creative way to deal with Enloe High School students who allegedly threw water balloons than to suspend them from school?

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TRAFFIC

Road Worrier: If you blow a .05, safety board says you’re not fit to drive

Some Triangle drivers worry that a proposed new DWI standard lowering the blood-alcohol concentration from .08 to .05 would threaten the pleasures of social drinking.
JOSH SHAFFER

Shaffer: Birthday party for Momma Judd, saint to Raleigh’s homeless

For the last 17 years, Mary Judd has shared breakfast with men and women who spent the night sleeping under tarps in the woods, huddled in the back seats of cars that don’t run or tucked in the crawlspaces under rainy overpasses.
LOCAL/STATE

Drescher: Feisty Baptist editor was one of a kind

R.G. "Gene" Puckett was a verbal pugilist who enjoyed a good argument. Puckett, a man who enjoyed conflict, probably reveled in the split vote that installed him as editor of the Biblical Recorder. He was not for everybody. Nor did he want to be.
BARRY SAUNDERS

Saunders: Readers suggest visits to higher - and lower - ground

Wow, that was a new type of invitation. Naw, not that a reader told me to go to hell - as hard as that is to believe, it's happened a time or two - but that he also invited me to his church afterwards.
JOSH SHAFFER

Shaffer: Raleigh uproots 83-year-old widow

Nettie Grove shuffled to the door on her walker, still wearing her nightgown in the late afternoon, and invited me in. I had come to hear how Raleigh bought the house she rents on Carver Street and gave her 90 days to move. At age 83. After a stroke.
JOHN DRESCHER

Drescher: Berger has a bold tax plan for NC

Our state tax code is out of date. North Carolina Senate leader Phil Berger's bodacious plan will start a fierce debate about who and what should be taxed.
BARRY SAUNDERS

Saunders: Church the one place all should be welcome

Raphael Vargas wandered into Longview Baptist Church and sat in the back. His appearance – agitated, some members said – and the way he suddenly left prompted someone to call the police, who charged him with disorderly conduct at a religious service.
ROAD WORRIER

Road Worrier: More traffic, not less, since 540 tolls started

Car counts fell when a five-year-old stretch of the 540 Outer Loop lost its toll-free status in August. But many drivers decided the toll was worth it, and the numbers rebounded.
JOSH SHAFFER

Shaffer: Hungry hermit gets long lockup after illegal hunt

Jeffrey Dale Suggs went to prison for 5.5 years as a habitual felon after hunting for food with a borrowed gun that turned out to be stolen.
JOHN DRESCHER

Drescher: Egypt’s Jon Stewart gets the last laugh

An N.C. State student says the Arab world’s top television comedian has gotten the best of Egyptian President Morsi.