Vance-Granville Community College held its annual celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 21 in the college’s Civic Center. The theme of the event was “How can we educate, inspire, and support our community?” based on the mission statement of the college: “Vance-Granville Community College educates, inspires, and supports a diverse community of learners to achieve professional and personal success.” Serving as keynote speaker was Archie Taylor Jr. of Henderson, a retired U.S. Army colonel and …
Arrests in Shooting Incident
On Thursday, January 22, 2015, members of the Henderson Police Department Criminal Investigation Unit and the Special Operations Unit arrested two individuals for their involvement in a recent shooting incident. On January 12, 2015, Kvon Fogg, 19, 1800 Julia Avenue was transported to Maria Parham Medical Center for treatment of gunshot wounds. Fogg was shot while standing on the parking lot of the China Kitchen located on East Andrews Avenue. Patrick Lebraska McLeod, 27, 1465 Newton Dairy Road Lot 16, …
Senator Richard Burr: SOTU, Meals on Wheels, and Child Care
This week the President gave his State of the Union speech – it was filled with words about working together and bipartisanship and yet, in the two weeks leading up to the State of the Union, he threatened to veto multiple bipartisan initiatives without ever seeing legislative text. The President began the year with an opportunity to work with Congress on policies that would help restore economic prosperity to our nation but chose instead to double-down on more taxes, more …
White House Weekly Address: Middle-Class Economics
In this week’s address, the President shared his plan, outlined in his State of the Union address earlier this week, to give hardworking families the support they need to make ends meet by focusing on policies that benefit the middle class and those working to reach the middle class. Through common-sense proposals like closing loopholes that benefit the wealthy and providing tax relief to the middle class, making two years of community college free for responsible students, strengthening paid leave …
Monday Open Line
On this date 32 years ago, the infant personal computer was empowered to become something much greater than a glorified word processor with the release of the spreadsheet program Lotus 1-2-3. The popular program drew acclaim as the first PC “killer application.” Finance and accounting workers were thus freed from hunching over ledger books and switched to hunching before a computer screen. The name “1-2-3” stemmed from the product’s integration of three main capabilities — spreadsheet, charting and graphing, and …
City of Henderson City Council Meeting January 26th, 2015
Henderson City Council Short Regular Meeting and Work Session Monday 26 January 2015, 6:00 p.m. R. G. (Chick) Young, Jr. Council Chambers, Municipal Building 134 Rose Avenue Henderson, North Carolina Download the full agenda packet here: 20150126_coh_agenda_packet I. CALL TO ORDER II. ROLL CALL III. INVOCATION AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE IV. OPENING REMARKSIn order to provide for the highest standards of ethical behavior and Transparency in Governanceas well as provide for good and open government, the City Council has approved …
Rusty McMahon: Commissioners Need to Address Water Project
Editors Note – An abbreviated version of this opinion piece has also been published in The Daily Dispatch‘s paper on Saturday, 1/24/2015. Dear Commissioners, I respectfully request that you address the following issue at your upcoming Planning Retreat. You told citizens in public meetings that 5000 gallons of water would cost $35-45, with no mention whatsoever of a monthly fee if they signed up but wanted water later. Those who signed up based on your promises learned of the monthly …
Oxford Prep to Celebrate National School Choice Week with Special Event
Oxford – Oxford Preparatory School will hold a special event on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 at 9:00 AM to celebrate National School Choice Week, school leaders announced today. This event will feature a Business & Community Forum, that will include interactive discussion with students and parents. The event will be held at the school. Oxford Preparatory School is a Public Charter school serving grades 9–10, with a student enrollment of 115. Oxford Prep is one of more than 9,000 schools participating in National …
Vance County Schools – Telescope Donation
Jack Abbott of Henderson and a volunteer in Vance County Schools, has donated a telescope to the STEM Early High School. Abbott is shown in the accompanying photo with the telescope when he came to the school to make the donation. The telescope will be used extensively in scientific studies by the students at the school in grades 6-8. Principal Rey Horner, along with his staff and students, were delighted to receive the very generous donation.
Union Bank partners with VGCC to present golf tournament
Union Bank is partnering with the Vance-Granville Community College Endowment Fund to present the college’s annual golf tournament in 2015. “We are so appreciative of Union Bank’s role in the four counties served by our college, and it pleases us that the bank is partnering with us to help our students secure scholarships,” said Eddie Ferguson, director of the Endowment Fund. “This is our first presenting sponsor in the 31-year history of our tournament. Union Bank has been a supporter …
Vance County Schools – College Advisors at SVHS and NVHS
The addition of college advisors to the staffs at Southern Vance and Northern Vance high schools is proving to be very beneficial to students. Through a grant program with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the schools each have a college advisor who works with students and their parents in helping them to prepare for college. During National College Application Week in late November, Austin Dixon, college advisor at Southern Vance, and Vincent Baxter, college advisor at Northern …
Friday / Weekend Open Lines
An innovation in product packaging — and a staple of TV advertising — is having its 80th anniversary tomorrow. The first canned beer went on sale in 1935 as a marketing test in Richmond, Virginia, by the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company of Newark, New Jersey. Experiments with putting beer in cans had taken place as early as 1909 but the technology of the time couldn’t stop the beer from interacting negatively with the metal of the can. Prohibition delayed further …
Sleepy Hollow leaving for Atlanta if renewed
According to the Wilmington Star-News. Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Dana Walden said if it’s renewed for a third season, Sleepy Hollow will move production from Wilmington following the demise of the North Carolina film tax credit program. “We’ve explored other places to produce that show and I will tell you it came down to Atlanta and Vancouver and it looks like we’ll head to Atlanta,” she said following a news conference at the Television Critics Association winter 2015 …
Researchers hopeful N.C. site is that of Lost Colony
A clue discovered just a few years ago on a centuries-old map has led researchers back to a North Carolina site in hopes of discovering whether the men, women and children of North Carolina’s “Lost Colony” settled there. In 2012, researchers with the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum announced they had found a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from Roanoke Island in the late 16th century. The clue was on …
DPAC among top five theatres in U.S.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Durham Performing Arts Center (DPAC) has placed in the top five theaters in the U.S., as tracked by multiple industry-leading trade magazines. In their year-end published attendance rankings, Pollstar, Billboard and Venues Today all placed DPAC among the top five venues in the U.S. among reporting venues of its size and type. DPAC’s 2014 calendar year featured 199 events, which drew more than 412,000 guests and saw a record 93 sellouts.
NCDA&CS to host farmer meeting with Harris Teeter in Raleigh February 20th 2015
RALEIGH – The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will host a meeting Feb. 20 for N.C. farmers interested in selling fresh produce and greenery to Harris Teeter. The meeting will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Martin Building at the State Fairgrounds. “This meeting will offer local growers a chance to meet with major retailers one-on-one in a way they may not otherwise get,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “It is one of the …
Local Adopt-A-Highway Groups Recognized
Members of outstanding local N.C. Adopt-A-Highway Program groups are shown in the accompanying photo after they were presented certificates of recognition during the Vance County Board of Commissioners’ meeting on January 5. A total of 17 Adopt-A-Highway groups were recognized at the meeting for their efforts in keeping their designated roadside areas in Vance County clean of litter and debris. Archie Taylor, chairman of the Vance County Board of Commissioners, presented the certificates. The Vance County Appearance Commission joined the …
VGCC schedules Portrait Painting art class
Vance-Granville Community College will offer an Art class focused on Portrait Painting on Wednesdays from 1:45 p.m. until 4:45 p.m., Feb. 5 through April 8. Classes will be held in room 5230 (Building 5) on the college’s main campus in Vance County. Instructor Leslie Johnson of Oxford said that new students are sometimes reluctant to try portrait painting. “But when they work at it and find they can do it, they find it rewarding and don’t want to stop,” she …
Thursday Open Line
Many sumptuous foods get their day — or month — in the sun by way of some commemoration. But January celebrates a very basic, traditional dish. This is Oatmeal Month, recognizing the long-term favorite for its up-to-date health characteristics — low fat, no sodium, and the ability to help lower the risk of heart disease. Oatmeal also fits today’s time pressures, since a bowl can be made in seconds in the microwave. And, of course, oatmeal cookies are among the …
White House: President Obama’s 2015 State of the Union
Those were a few of President Obama’s final words as he finished delivering his sixth State of the Union address moments ago. He spoke not just about where we are as nation, but where we’re going. This is a speech you don’t want to miss — so if you didn’t see it live, make sure you watch the full enhanced version now.