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Columns

  • Reasearcing can be a maze

    In my nearly decade as a journalist, the Beacon is the first newspaper I’ve ever worked for that celebrated the week designated to shining light on public records.

    Last year was my first Sunshine Week and I was thrust into the mix of it without a full understanding of what it was or why we were doing it.

    I admit I was confused as to why a weekly newspaper would commit so much precious print space to explaining the process of obtaining public records. I figured if people wanted to obtain a record they would figure it out or go online.

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  • There’s nothing like beating a dead horse to celebrate Sunshine Week, First Amendment

    “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

    No finer words have since been written, and I doubt they ever will.

    There’s a reason our founding fathers made this particular amendment the First Amendment.

    It is for what American men and women have fought and died for more than 230 years.

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  • Sunset Beach seeks professional help to offset crazy island parking

    With March roaring across the 2012 calendar like a lion, and a new, warmer-weather season fast approaching (we hope), Sunset Beach has opted to get professional help and guidance for future seasonal parking on the island.

    Maybe that will help alleviate any parking zaniness, for example when beach visitors are frantically trying to find “space” in the heat of the summer rush like, say, on the Fourth of July.

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  • Far from over, GOP presidential battle important part of vetting process

    On the morning of the Michigan and Arizona Republican primaries I was making my rounds through the morning political shows, hoping to catch up on the political news of the day after being in the vacuum of a first-degree murder trial for the past week.

    While watching an a.m. show “brewed by Starbucks,” NBC Chief Political Correspondent Chuck Todd and some of his liberal lemmings were salivating, and I mean salivating, at the idea of Mitt Romney losing his home state of Michigan on Tuesday.

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  • Pound-shedding objectives weigh heavily on mind and body

    Saying you want to shape up is easy as pie.

    It’s the doing that’s not such a piece of cake.

    For starters, you pretty much have to forego all the pie, cake, brownies, and Calabash Creamery ice cream.

    Now that it’s still a brand-new year and I’m a member of the BFIT crew at the Dinah E. Gore Fitness & Aquatics Center at Brunswick Community College, I have to live up to all my previous statements, affirmations and resolutions about trimming back down and shaping back up.

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  • Four decades later

    There are unsung heroes in America who deserve recognition. It may be four decades late but finally there is a celebration of these brave men and women’s dedicated service to their country.

    On Saturday, March 31, a Vietnam Veterans Homecoming Celebration event is planned at the Charlotte Motor Speedway by the USO of North Carolina, Charlotte Motor Speedway and North Carolina Association of Broadcasters.

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  • Beacon to honor citizens, watchdogs with Sunshine Week First Amendment award

    For journalists, our March Madness has nothing to do with college basketball and everything to do with freedom of information. Well, except for sports writers. Obviously.

    For us journalists a little more on the nerdy side, our March Madness is Sunshine Week—a week in March where we dedicate pretty much everything we do to freedom of information and the public’s right to know.

    Instead of bracketology, think FOIA-tology. Too cheesy? Sometimes I just can’t help myself.

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  • POAs can be a good thing as long as they regulate themselves

    Neighborhood diversity is the spice of community living.

    Several of my neighbors, for example, regularly park assorted vehicles in and around their driveways.

    Another one is apparently operating a boat yard and dry dock out of his house.

    And lately, within earshot somewhere off U.S. 17 near beautiful downtown, unincorporated Little River, S.C., every morning I can hear the crow of a rooster greeting dawn.

    It might—and I say might—be useful to have a regulatory agency in place to properly address these and other issues.

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  • Track a dollar

    Do you know how hard it is not to spend a dollar that is in your wallet, especially when it’s the last one?

    I have been carrying around a dollar bill for at least two weeks now. When I received it back in my change at a gas station in Sunset Beach, I immediately noticed a red stamp on the dollar. It reads “Track this bill @ www.wheresgeorge.com.” The red stamp appears on both sides of the bill.

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  • Bye-bye Beverly: The schoolchildren thank you

    For the children. For their future.

    Like any good rank-and-file beauty queen, soon-to-be-retiring N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue said she wasn’t seeking re-election for the children. And their future.

    Yes, you read that correctly. Perdue isn’t seeking re-election because she cares too much about the schoolchildren and their future.

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