Opinion

While the autumnal equinox falls on Sept. 23 this year, the unofficial end of summer comes this weekend with the Labor Day holiday.

As the General Assembly continues to grapple with formulating a 2015-16 fiscal year budget, its members are considering whether to change the way sales taxes are distributed.

To most of us, developing an exercise program means getting into and maintaining our best physical condition.

To emergency preparedness and public safety officials, developing an exercise program means establishing a routine practice schedule to prepare for out-of-the-ordinary events that threaten the health of a community.

The case of Army Pfc. Kelli Bordeaux, a combat medic stationed at Fort Bragg who was reported missing in April 2012, attracted national attention. She was last seen alive in the company of Nicholas Holbert, who had been convicted of sex crimes against a child, helped lead police to her remains two years later and is awaiting trial on murder and other charges related to her disappearance and death. Although Holbert was a known sex offender, he was not registered because he was living in the woods behind the bar where he met Bordeaux and had no permanent address.

As the Project Lazarus initiative gains ground to combat Brunswick County’s prescription drug overdose crisis, we are obliged to cite a program already working toward that end: Drug Treatment Court.

Summer weather arrived before summer itself did this year in Brunswick County with temperatures soaring and heat indexes in the triple digits. The heat itself has not been unusual, but it seems to have been more oppressive and stifling than usual despite the frequent breezes from our coastline.

In recent years, summer safety efforts have focused on rip currents. In recent weeks, it has targeted shark encounters. The risk of heat exhaustion and stroke at this time of year, however, exists regardless of whether anyone sets foot in the ocean or even on the beach.

Regardless of whether motorists like them, roundabouts  (or traffic circles) seem to be the ways of the future for busy Brunswick County intersections.
The small one at First Street on the island of Ocean Isle Beach took some getting used to once it opened several years ago. A larger version was successfully installed at the foot of the Mannon C. Gore Bridge to Sunset Beach island last summer and, despite initial trepidation, appears to function as intended.

Memorial Day affords us a chance to pause, remember and acknowledge those who have died in military service to our country. But let us also spare a thought for the veterans and active service members, as well as their families, and the sacrifices they have made.

When Shallotte native Robert Stanley founded the Beacon in 1962, he dedicated the newspaper to “the continued progress of Brunswick County.” When he died last year, friends and family said he took great pride in publicly standing on the “right side of history during civil rights struggles in the turbulent ‘60s.”

More than 50 years later, the Beacon maintains the stand Stanley took: That the Ku Klux Klan contributes nothing to the improvement of our community.