Thanks, Mr. District Attorney, for putting our minds at ease. The folks who run the Wake County courthouse may be begging and borrowing for office supplies, but Colon Willoughby says they won't be stealing.

All viewers of the PBS series "Antiques Roadshow" have had the same dream: You show up with a painting or a pot or a ukulele and one of the breathless Roadshow appraisers goes over your merchandise (previously housed in the attic) and says, "Well, for purposes of a retail sale, I would value this at $1 million."

If there's anything scarier to Americans amid this horrid economy than the prospect of losing a job, it's the other shoe that often drops at the same time -- losing health insurance.

A century already? N.C. Central University began its institutional life with a chartering 100 years ago, a fact that was noted in campus celebrations June 30. It was back then the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua for the Colored Race.

There will be a full moon rising this week, sometimes known as the thunder moon, or moon of the yellow fly. Why not call this the buggy moon?

And the spirit survives.

I read with interest and great sadness your June 6 article that described the surge in unwanted cats and kittens being taken to area shelters. Sadly, our state has the dubious distinction of euthanizing more shelter animals than any state.

The controversy over Mary Easley's jobs at N.C. State University raised the curtain on some standard operating practices of big-time university administration that, when the spotlight shines on them, don't play well with the public.

The recent legislation providing the Food and Drug Administration oversight to regulate tobacco products is long overdue.

We have all heard about the high cost of drugs, the companies that make these drugs and the high profits they get. Some of this is true, but remember a lot of R&D goes into these drugs.

I read Ellen Goodman's sad tale about her unfortunate friend whose cardiologist could spend only 15 minutes answering her questions about a heart procedure; he said he had another patient (column, June 21).

Health care is being referred to as a ticking time bomb that needs to be fixed and we will figure out how to pay for it after we fix it. What are we thinking?

Since the start of 2008, 26,000 jobs have been eliminated at metro newspapers in the U.S. Papers in Denver, Seattle and elsewhere have ceased operations.

Goodman:This is probably not the best time to air any reservations about the American passion for independence. After all, we don't have fireworks for Dependence Day. We don't hold parades to celebrate Interdependence Day. We don't get a holiday for Connections.

This year, we have been granted government-subsidized converter boxes -- two $40 coupons per household! -- for our televisions. These coupons ensure, I suppose, that the un-cabled don't drop off the advertisers' grid.

Ford:It was as sure as shootin' that when I wrote a column a few months ago about letters prison inmates had sent to me and my department here at The N&O, those letters would proliferate.

Krauthammer:The Supreme Court's ruling on the Ricci case -- that white firemen suffered illegal discrimination when a promotional test on which they did well was thrown out because not enough blacks did well -- will have no effect on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

Point of View:Legislators in Raleigh are struggling to piece together a budget for a state with a lot less income to spend. Cuts for vital programs are definite.