BCN – Columns

As anyone who watches a pro or college sporting event these days knows all too well, America’s massive and growing corporate gambling industry is spreading like an invasive and herbicide-resistant weed. Slickly packaged gambling ads from businesses like DraftKings and FanDuel — corporations that once masqueraded as “fantasy sports” purveyors, but that no longer pretend to be anything other than […]

Nine months after the nation’s highest court rewrote federal rules for judicial deference, two members of North Carolina’s top court have signaled interest in tackling a similar task. Expect significant impacts for government agencies and people who believe those agencies have violated their rights. A judge exercises deference when bowing to a government agency’s interpretation of a law or regulation. […]

We’re lucky to have more female sports stars than ever. But in terms of athletic participation, American girls are still considerably less likely to play a sport than boys. Each year, boys get about 1.13 million more sports opportunities than girls.  As someone who has spent a career studying the impact of athletics on mental and physical health, I see […]

Four Republican members of the North Carolina House of Representatives — Erin Paré and Mike Schietzelt of Wake County, Donny Lambeth of Forsyth County and Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County — have just launched this year’s policy debate on teacher pay in our state. The legislation for which they are primary sponsors, House Bill 192, would allocate $1.6 billion in […]

When I was growing up, I was taught that only lazy people asked for “handouts” from the government in hard times. But I’ve learned public assistance isn’t a handout at all — it’s a service our tax dollars pay for. We purchase these promises in good times so we have something for rainy days. And, let’s face it, almost all […]

“What do you think of all the turmoil coming out of Washington?” my friend asked while we were making coffee before church.  “It’s a real mess,” I responded, not really wanting to engage in a political discussion in a house of worship.  “I never thought Trump would do so much so fast,” she concluded. I didn’t respond further. Why are […]

In the 17th century, the Netherlands experienced an economic boom when the tulip became a hot commodity for barter and spending. Rare tulip bulbs were traded for goods and services. People spent their wages on bulbs they could sell for higher prices. The rarest bulbs “traded for as much as six times the average person’s annual salary at the market’s […]

Creating the annual flu vaccine is a complicated process. Experts meet from around the globe to determine what strains circulated in the current year and which of them created the most problems and seemed to have legs.  Those meetings are important. Experts take a mountain of data and then create probabilities around what vaccine formula will work best.  That’s why […]

The national debt has been an issue in the U.S. for decades. But concern about the debt has peaked for two reasons. The first is the debt’s size, today totaling $36 trillion. As a percentage of the economy, the debt stands at 120%. The only other times the debt was above 100% of the economy were during COVID and in […]

I used to be proud of being a citizen of the United States of America. My parents were part of what has been called the “Greatest Generation.” My dad served in England in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and I was raised to be proud of the many Americans who gave their lives in defense of democracy.  […]

In its final days in office, the Biden administration finalized a rule to eliminate nearly $50 billion in medical debt from 15 million Americans’ credit reports. But the rule betrays a complete misunderstanding of health economics — and like former President Biden’s other market interventions, it may only serve to make Americans worse off. Medical debt simply isn’t the crisis […]

“What’s in a name?” wrote the Bard in his masterpiece “Romeo and Juliet.” “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare possessed extraordinary gifts. On this matter, however, don’t take his poetic flourish as a general rule. Names are not extraneous. They can matter a great deal — clarifying what is muddled, […]

Cynicism is a poor facsimile of a skeptical mind. Perhaps unwittingly, North Carolina political insiders have vacated their sense of shock at the authoritarian machinations that have become a central hallmark of Republican rule in our state.  NC Newsline editor Rob Schofield succinctly characterized this learned helplessness as a body politic gone “numb.” In the historical blink of an eye, […]

Some Democrats argue that what they need for the 2028 presidential election is a Southern moderate like Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton who won election — or like Al Gore, whose win was taken away by the courts. Is there a moderate Southern political figure who, like these three, could win the Democratic nomination and the next presidential election? And […]

Eight decades after the “Anglosphere” powers (the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) codified their World War intelligence sharing protocols in the 1946 UKUSA Agreement, the “Five Eyes” alliance — named for a  “AUS/CAN/NZ/UK/US Eyes Only” classified information designation — may finally find itself retired. In early March, the Trump administration “paused” sharing intelligence with Ukraine, also forbidding […]