Congressman Chuck Edwards’ decision to withdraw from November’s congressional election came as no surprise after the House Ethics committee called for his censure. Folks in the mountainous 11th Congressional District must be wondering what it is going to take to elect a traditional, morally sound, responsible North Carolinian. Madison Cawthorn won the seat in the 2020 election but it didn’t take long for voters to realize their mistake. His antics alienated even his own party: trying to...

Can you remember the name of the last whole book you read? How long ago was it? If you can’t remember you aren’t alone. An American Time Use Survey of 236,000 by The National Endowment for the Arts revealed that only 38 percent read a novel or short story in 2024. And the proportion of Americans who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023. My love of reading began in childhood. I remember my mother reading to me. She was a prodigious reader...