Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. In our first piece of 2026, we wrote about the growing opposition to data centers. The issue was still moving toward a crescendo, with much of the media and political world unaware at the time we wrote of the issue’s potency.Not anymore. In the months since, data…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. Ten years ago, the trendy fad in K-12 education – pushed by high promises from big tech companies – was to equip as many students as possible with their own digital device (or “learning platform”). Chromebooks and similar technology became ubiquitous across US public schools. Today, education…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. State lawmakers legalized online sports betting over two years ago, amid much attention and controversy. Today, we look at how the industry has performed and evolved since legalization. We’ll get right to it. *** Online sports betting is now legal in 32 states plus Washington, DC, following…
Good morning, the following essay was originally sent on Sat., July 4, 2026. This version includes links to the historical documents and additional resources referenced in the essay. As America approaches its 250th birthday, it is worth pausing over a simple question: why do we celebrate July 4, 1776, as the beginning of the United…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. Nearly two centuries ago, bricklayers and stonemasons began construction of what would become the Fayetteville Arsenal. It stored weapons and ammunition, protected by large iron gates, for only a few decades until General William T. Sherman razed it in 1865. Some remnants remain scattered about the site,…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. This November, North Carolinians will have the opportunity to amend their constitution again. They’ll decide on at least two tax-related proposals: a 3.5% cap on the state’s income tax rate, and a requirement for state lawmakers to limit property taxes imposed by local governments. After 15 years of policy choices that…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. In 1989, Financial World magazine surveyed corporate America and crowned its “CEO of the Decade.” The honor did not go to a Wall Street financier or a Silicon Valley pioneer. It went to a soft-spoken Charlotte engineer named Bill Lee, the chairman of Duke Power. Lee had joined…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. Four weeks from today will mark 250 years since the formal adoption (not the signing, as commonly believed) by the Continental Congress of “the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” Thus began a series of cataclysmic events that resulted, this year, in a celebration of the world’s…
Thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. The history-minded among us might know the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, when Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Continental Army squared off against Lord Cornwallis. Greene famously won by losing, inflicting such devastation on the British forces that they withdrew from the Carolinas. Far fewer people know what happened a…