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Today's News

  • Coastal homeowners’ insurance rates soar compared to inland counties’ rates

    Brunswick County is one of 18 coastal counties throughout the state slated to suffer severe rate increases in homeowners’ insurance.

    But not all North Carolina counties will see a rate increase, according to a recently approved rate schedule.

    N.C. Insurance Commissioner Jim Long approved a 29.8 percent rate increase for Brunswick, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Carteret counties rather than the 69.8 percent increase originally requested for the five-county region.

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  • Orchestra leader Fred Waring helped develop the Waring blender

    Although the company is named after Fred Waring, a popular entertainer of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, Waring did not actually invent the blender. He did, however, perfect the original version and introduce this version to retailers and consumers, which ultimately became a big success.

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  • New Knock Out roses are appearing in catalogs

    Even in this era of e-mail and instant messaging, gardeners still use the cool evenings of January to peruse those gorgeous garden catalogs and make plans for the fast-approaching spring season.

    Get your name on one list and you’ll have a mailbox overflowing with catalogs of everything garden-related.

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  • New Year’s Resolutions! Are they meant to be broken this early?

    My guess is gardening resolutions for the New Year are still sounding good and achievable this early into the year. So what happens later on to those resolutions? Hopefully, they were made based on some sense of reality.

    We must learn how to cope with things beyond our control. Ground pearl and certain invasive weeds come to mind. Major weather events had us scrambling last year to keep our plants alive. You can’t always be able to correct some of these problems and the best we can do is minimize their impacts on the landscape.

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  • Tips for adopting a healthy lifestyle and making 2009 a H-A-P-P-Y N-E-W Y-E-A-R

    Do you want to develop healthy lifestyle changes for 2009? If you are interested, please join me by adopting the following tips developed by Alice Henneman, food and nutrition extension specialist, University of Nebraska:

    Health: Make health a priority this year. Health should be more than the absence of disease.

    Attitude: A positive attitude may not cure a disease; however, thinking positive can help you deal with misfortune, make the most of your situation and enjoy life more.

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  • Now is the time to plant flowering bulbs

    Winter is prime time for planting spring flowering bulbs. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and crocus bulbs will happily burst into bloom for you this spring.

    Be aware tulip bulbs rarely bloom more than one time in this part of the country. They need a long winter chill to set flowers. When planting, work some fertilizer into the soil surrounding the bulbs rather than just throwing it into the hole. The developing roots will get a more even boost this way.

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  • Redistricting options considered for Town Creek Elementary School

    BOLIVIA—The three proposed redistricting lines for Town Creek Elementary School include pre-K through fifth-grade students from Belville Elementary, Lincoln Elementary and Bolivia Elementary schools.

    The proposed population for Town Creek Elementary is in the low 500s, which will reduce Belville, Lincoln and Bolivia’s student population by more than 100, regardless of which scenario is chosen.

    Belville Elementary School’s current population is 837 students, while 676 students attend Lincoln and 653 students attend Bolivia.

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  • Benjamin Button piqued my curiousity

    I was intrigued by the movie’s title, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” My interest was further piqued by the dichotomy of opinions regarding its three and a half star rating. While some praised its story, others found the nearly three hour viewing period to be boring, slow, and generally not worth their time.

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  • Odds are bettors will not like this column

    I was watching a sports program and someone had e-mailed a question for the panelists: How many points will be scored in the BCS championship football game between Florida and Oklahoma?

    Interesting question, I thought.

    I then noticed the city of the e-mail questioner: Las Vegas. Well, now I knew the reason for the question: He wanted to get an opinion for a bet in Las Vegas on the over-and-under for points scored in the game.

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  • Waterskiing club now forming in Supply area

    Will Carter wants his children and others to enjoy a sport—waterskiing—in which he has gained international friendships.

    He took the first chilly step toward that goal when he and about 40 other water-ski enthusiasts had the first water-ski event on Carter’s private Pirate Lakes in Supply.

    Although the temperature was 40 degrees, 10 people water-skiied.

    “The wind was down and the water was great,” Carter said. “We had around 40 people show up for New Year’s Day.”

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