Category: Open Lines

This evening holds an eventful meeting session with the Henderson City Council, the Vance County Board of Commissioners and the Vance County Board of Education all holding sessions. Over the weekend, Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC) made the following statement regarding the President’s speech to a joint session of Congress: “I believe that the President is on the right track, and I am pleased with his proposal to make crucial investments in education and infrastructure; investments that must not be …

The big news around the blotter on Thursday was regarding the GOP debate Wednesday night, including the front runners for the 2012 presidential election.  The surprise to many are the polls afterwards of who ‘won’ the debate.   Congressman Ron Paul easily bested Romney, Perry and others by compiling enough ‘win’ votes of more than all the others combined, with 55.1% of voters voting for Paul, and the rest distributed to Romney 15.3%, Perry 12.9%, Huntsman 6.4%, Gingrich 4.3%, Cain …

How is your quality of live in Vance County?  Wednesday, organization ThriveNC boasted of a testimonial video from John Ratliff, president and COO of Quintiles, who points out how from universities to the arts to sports, the quality of life in North Carolina is great. How do you feel Vance Countie’s ‘quality of live’ compares with the rest of North Carolina? Discuss and more on the Thursday Open Line!

Tuesday, residents and businesses along the Ruin Creek Road area, near the hospital and YMCA were called to warn of a possible impending tornado, causing people to take refuge in their buiding, and some to go out picture hunting.  If you have any stories or pictures to share please post here or you can email your pictures to submit@homeinhenderson.com In state news, according to an article in Asheville, Gov. Bev Perdue’s office has told the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians …

Obama’s Weekly Address: Time to Act on the Transportation Bill. President Obama calls on Congress to pass a clean extension of the transportation bill to keep America moving and avoid costing nearly one million workers their jobs. Labor Day is a celebration of workers contributions to society.  However, these days there aren’t many workers celebrating.  In his Labor Day speech at an AFL-CIO event in Detroit, President Barack Obama said congressional Republicans must put their country ahead of their party …

We’d like to thank the great turn out that visited downtown Henderson last night for the Holiday Band.  I can attest that Garnett Street was full of cars parked to attend the free concert, the last of the Meet Me In The Street series for 2011.  We’ll get some pictures up soon. What plans do you have for the long Labor Day weekend?

North Carolina public schools have lost 16,677.9 positions and laid off 6,096.7 people since the 2008-09 school year in response to state budget cuts, according to the most recent data reported by local school districts and released this week by the NC Department of Public Instruction. It is also important to note, that over that same period of teacher and educator job cuts, North Carolina public school enrollment has grown. In 2012, education leaders say that they expect additional educator …

If you’re making plans this week, please put on your schedule to visit Downtown Henderson tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon from 5:30 to 8:30 for a free live concert event, Meet Me In the Street.  Featured band is The Holiday Band. Today, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness is holding a Listening and Action Session with local businesses and stakeholders in Portland, Oregon.  Council members will take questions and comments from people around the country submitted on the White House LinkedIn group …

President Obama remembers the lives lost to Hurricane Irene, and reminds Americans that this is still a dangerous storm and response and recovery efforts will be an ongoing operation.

We hope everyone is safe and not too much damage from the hurricane this weekend.  We fared quite well on Saturday, all morning our power was in and out, but when it was out it only lasted a few seconds.  The yard ended up covered with leaves and small branches, but other than that nothing to report.  Still, many lost power, our neighbor lost power for about 10 hours.  Reminder that out here in the country, neighbor means about a …

Batten down the hatches, Vance County could see 40mph winds this weekend, and rain at around 1-2 inches.  For tips on how to prepare for a hurricane, here’s a fairly good article. Click here for an updated look at the storm track. As of this writing, according to the United Pullers of the Carolina’s website,  the Friday night tractor pull at the Vance County Fairgrounds are still on.  There is not a mention of Saturdays though as of yet. In …

As I start this open line monologue everyday, I always stress over what to put here.  I can spend hours browsing the days news stories to come up with something seeming halfway interesting that might generate some conversation.  Tonight, I decided to see how many visitors we have from the coastal area, and to say something witty like “To the 12 or so visitors we have for some reason on the coast this weekend, be aware that there is an …

Of course, the big news yesterday was the earthquake that was clearly felt in Henderson, NC. The train tracks are directly behind the Dataforge / Home in Henderson offices and come by several times a day. The train loves to blow its insanely loud horn at the most opportune times, like right when I’m on the phone with a customer. It also shakes our old building quite noticeably. Tuesday, as the train horn had just been heard passing by a …

North Carolina has launched the State Employees Career Transition Center, at 313 Chapanoke Road in Raleigh. The center offers career counseling, resume-writing and interviewing skills development and classes that focus on starting your own business or exploring a new career.   “In the past, when a state employee was laid off by one department, they were usually able to find a job in another department,” Coleman says. “But this is a new day in state government, and what worked in the …

Presidents Weekly Address: Putting Country Ahead of Party. From a farm in the Midwest, President Obama talks about the determination and integrity of the American people and calls on Congress to put aside their differences to grow the economy. Tonight, the Henderson City Council will meet at 6pm for regular meeting and work session. For agenda details please check our full post here.  Unfortunately our regular reporter will not be able to make it to the meeting.

President Obama ended his three day tour of the Midwest at a town hall meeting on a farm in rural Illinois, where he took questions that ranged from enhanced protection for law enforcement officers to the shrinking size of local county fairs. The President’s last day was filled with opportunities to enjoy the rural landscape and attractions of his home state, and included stops at the Whiteside County Fair and a Galesburg High School football practice, in addition to an earlier …

An 89-year-old Raleigh man accused of voter fraud said he was trying to prove a point by casting two ballots.   Leland Duane Lewis voted in early voting on only the front of the ballot, then returned during regular voting and voted only the back of the ballot.  Lewis said he told volunteers at the polling place what happened on Election Day, but he wasn’t charged with a crime until Wednesday.  Lewis was released from the Wake County jail on Wednesday …

Alaina Giordano, the North Carolina mother with stage 4 breast cancer has lost the battle for her childrens custody.   Her two children are moving to Chicago to live with their father while she continues her cancer treatment in Durham.  In the court ruling, Durham District Court Judge Nancy Gordon stated that she denied Giordano primary custody because she was unemployed, “the course of her disease is unknown” and “children who have a parent with cancer need more contact with …

Monday morning, President Obama visited Cannon Falls, Minnesota to kick off his economic bus tour.  The President is traveling around the Midwest to stress the vital role rural America plays in ensuring the growth of our economy, the affordability of our food, the independence of our energy supply, and the strength of our communities. Cannon Falls, Minnesota, 35 miles south of Minneapolis and St. Paul, is the first stop in a three day tour across America’s heartland. President Obama took questions from small business …

Presidents Weekly Address: Putting the American People First.  While members of Congress are at home in their districts, President Obama asks Americans that agree that it’s time to put country before party and pass stalled bills to help grow our economy to let them know. In national politics, the Ames Iowa Straw Poll is in the news, with Bachmann, Paul and Pawlenty in the 1,2 and 3 positions.  However, Pawlenty on Sunday announced his decision to drop out of the …