Retired editorial page editor and writer for the Asheville Citizen-Times.

As North Carolina closes out a consequential 2025, the state moves into 2026 navigating a complex convergence of political, social, economic, and institutional pressures. Beneath the surface of a growing economy and vibrant communities lies a deeper story: one of systems under strain, households navigating rising costs, and an electorate confronting trust-shaking challenges.   The year’s events reveal a state at a pivotal moment, where policy decisions made now will reverbera

Presidents have called in National Guard troops for domestic missions at least ten times since World War II, starting in 1794, when Western Pennsylvanians’ protests on federal liquor taxes prompted Secretary of War Henry Knox to ask governors of Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for troops. The Trump administration’s dispatch of troops to the Democratic cities of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Memphis have, for now, been stopped by lawsuits over sending Gua