Drivers in the Oxford area need to pay attention to a change in the traffic setup for the intersection of Huntsboro Road/Tabbs Creek Road and Salem Road as it was switched to a permanent four-way stop yesterday. In the past, vehicles in both directions on Huntsboro Road/Tabbs Creek Road had to stop, but traffic on Salem Road could travel through the intersection. The conversion was made following an NCDOT safety study that determined traffic volumes at the intersection and other …
North Carolina Weekend
For the week of July 21 on North Carolina Weekend, check out the work being done at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Island. Lift at glass at Deep River Brewing Company in Clayton. Enjoy the great outdoors at Gorges State Park in Sapphire. Take in a performance of From This Day Forward in Valdese. And the “House Special” samples the fare at Southern Salt Seafood Company in Morehead City. (Please note: listings are subject to …
Thursday Open Line
A substantial and recurring feature of national media reporting — on TV, in newspapers and on the web — is devoted to nutrition and health. There, doctors and public health officials express concerns about obesity, diabetes, and the quality of the diet of many Americans. However, junk food shows little sign of waning in popularity. So with unrepentant advocacy, today is National Junk Food Day. It celebrates the naughty temptations on offer, notably at the nearly quarter-million fast food outlets …
VGCC Trustees elect Wright as chair; Wester, Seifert reappointed
The Vance-Granville Community College Board of Trustees selected Danny W. Wright of Henderson as its next chair, succeeding Deborah Brown, as the board met for its bi-monthly meeting on Monday, July 18, on the college’s Main Campus. Herb Gregory of Oxford was re-elected as vice chair, while Brown, a Henderson resident, was elected secretary of the board, succeeding Dr. Doris Terry Williams. Wright first served as a trustee in 2011-2013, having been appointed by N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue, and then …
Vance County Schools School Bus Driver Training
Vance County Schools will host school bus driver training sessions Monday August 8 – Wednesday August 10, at L.B. Yancey Elementary School. Interested persons must attend the training on all three days to receive certification. We will only be training individuals to drive school buses. The training sessions will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at approximately 3 p.m. each day. Those interested in participating in the training sessions must register five days prior to the sessions with the school system’s Transportation Department, located at 226 …
VGCC to hold Medical Office Administration and Medical Coding information session
Vance-Granville Community College will offer an information session for the Medical Office Administration program on Wednesday, July 27, at noon in room 4203 (Building 4) on the college’s Main Campus in Vance County. The Medical Office Administration curriculum prepares individuals for employment in medical and other health-care related offices. Course work includes medical terminology; information systems; office management; medical coding, billing and insurance; legal and ethical issues; and formatting and word processing. Students learn administrative and support functions and develop …
Tuesday Open Line
The first 18-hole golf course in the U.S. opened this week in 1893 in Downer’s Grove, Illinois. Laid out by Charles MacDonald of the Chicago Golf Club, the course was an expansion of an existing 9-hole facility. The Chicago Golf Club soon moved to a new course in nearby Wheaton, and the Downer’s Grove course has since reverted to 9 holes. The sport arrived on these shores from Scotland, and there is evidence of golfing in the late 18th Century …
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers: Honoring Our Four-Legged Heroes
Photo of the Week This is a shot from Thursday’s markup session on the Energy and Commerce Committee — wrapping up amendments on ?HR5510?, the ?FTC? Process and Transparency Reform Act of 2016. Weekly Update This week the House Republicans voted to restore the separation of powers our founders created through the Constitution. The Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2016 is a major effort to stop the administrative overreach encouraged under the Supreme Court’s Chevron ruling. This …
Senator Richard Burr: The Senate is Working for You
The Senate was very productive this week. We passed several major pieces of legislation that address some of the serious problems that people deal with in communities across North Carolina and around the country. One of the most important pieces of legislation we passed is the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. This bill, which is on the way to the President’s desk to become law, provides resources for the treatment and prevention of prescription pain killer and heroin addiction. Opioid …
Monday Open Line
On this date 61 years ago in West Milton, New York, a species of turning swords into plowshares was created. That was when the Atomic Energy Commission sold electric power from a General Electric nuclear reactor. The buyer was the Niagara-Mohawk Power Corporation, purchasing the power for civilian distribution. Some 10,000 kilowatts were supplied from the reactor, which was a prototype for the one used in the nuclear submarine USS Seawolf. Last year, nearly 800 million kilowatt-hours were generated at …
Henderson / Vance 2016 Night Out Against Crime August 2, 2016
In cooperation with the National Night Out Against Crime the Henderson/Vance Night Out Against Crime Committee and the Henderson Police Department will be hosting the Henderson/Vance Night Out Against Crime on Breckenridge Street in downtown Henderson on August 2, 2016. The event is scheduled from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM with set-up beginning at 3:00 PM. The introduction of National Night Out, “America’s Night Out Against Crime”, in 1984 began an effort to promote involvement in crime prevention activities, police-community …
Andrew Markoch Named New Principal at Northern Vance High School
Andrew Markoch has been named as the new principal at Northern Vance High School. The Vance County Board of Education officially appointed Markoch to his new position during a special meeting Wednesday night. Markoch will join Vance County Schools after serving as an assistant principal at Wake Forest High School in Wake Forest and the principal of the school’s Ninth Grade Center. He has been an administrator at the school since July of 2003. Markoch, who lives in Rolesville, is …
Fourteen graduate from EMT-Paramedic training at VGCC
Vance-Granville Community College honored 11 men and three women who completed the college’s year-long Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic program on July 13. The graduates included Michael Hunter Robbins of Bunn; Catherine Garner of Creedmoor; Fuller Caton, Herbert Hill Davis, James Hughes, Cassidy Ivey, William Jenkins, Tyler McDaniel and Courtney Moss, all of Henderson; David Drumheller of Mebane; Jonathan Kraemer of Raleigh; Harvey Grim of Roxboro; Joseph Farlow of Timberlake; and C.J. Phillips of Youngsville. Vivian Loyd, a Registered Nurse and Paramedic …
State Board of Education Extends Proof of Concept Study
State Board of Education members recently approved the extension of the Department of Public Instruction’s Proof of Concept Study into the 2016-17 school year. State Superintendent June Atkinson said she was pleased Board members extended the study. “Teachers want interim assessments so that they may address their students’ academic needs when it will have the most impact,” Atkinson said. “Students participating in the study scored higher than those who were not in the study, which reflects the positive benefits to …
New Simulation and Game Development courses offered by VGCC
New Simulation and Game Development courses will be offered at Vance-Granville Community College during the fall semester, which begins Aug. 15, after the college’s Board of Trustees added a two-year degree track in the growing information technology career field. VGCC previously only offered first-year courses toward a similar degree, but now the full degree is available. The new second-year courses on the fall schedule include: Simulation/Game Audio/Video (SGD 164), which teaches students how to produce and edit audio and video …
Butterfield, Bennet, Rubio, McCaul, Duffy, Van Hollen Introduce RACE for Children Act to Boost Pediatric Cancer Research
Thursday, Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC-01) joined U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), along with Representatives Michael T. McCaul (R-TX-10), Sean Duffy (R-WI-07), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD-08), to introduce the RACE for Children Act (the Research to Accelerate Cures and Equity for Children Act) to support the development of novel and promising cancer drugs for children. The bipartisan bill would update the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) to reflect the latest advances in cancer drugs. PREA …
Friday / Weekend Open Lines
Friday, July 15th. Motorists in Oklahoma City were confronted with America’s first parking meter this month in 1935. It was located on the corner of First Street and Robinson Avenue, and while local drivers could avoid that single space, they couldn’t escape for long. That meter was just the first of many to sprout up in Oklahoma City and across the nation, as millions of ticketed motorists will attest. While municipalities sought to rotate street parking spots among more drivers, …
North Carolina Weekend
For the week of July 14 on North Carolina Weekend, visit the Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville. Tempt your taste buds at Queen’s Feast – Charlotte Restaurant Week. Pop in to the Straightaway Cafe and Pub in Black Mountain. Explore a performance of Unto These Hills in Cherokee. And relax at Shutters at the Banks in Kill Devil Hills. (Please note: listings are subject to change.) North Carolina Weekend is underwritten by Visit North Carolina. In addition, UNC-TV has …
Thursday Open Line
Income taxes first came to America 154 years ago this month, when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill levying a 3 percent tax on incomes between $600 and $10,000, and 5 percent for greater incomes. The tax was rescinded in 1872. The income tax all of us know today dates to 1913, when the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. About 147 million individual income tax returns are submitted annually, reporting tax revenues totaling over $1.6 trillion. There are …