If you are the mother or father of a high school athlete here in North Carolina, this message is primarily for you.  

In memory of Allison Widderich, an outstanding student and friend, a few of us from Eastern Alamance High wanted to write a piece commemorating her love, dedication, and many talents. Here are some sentences of those closest to her.

We’re heading into holiday season, which means lots of shopping for many of us. I enjoy buying gifts from local stores, but increasingly people shop online.

All too often in life, we don’t know when we’ll have our very last conversation with someone. 

Dear Dr. A,

It wasn’t about partisan politics, former Gov. Jim Martin said. It’s something much worse.

Dear Dr. A.,

As we celebrated our nation's independence, we must also remember those who work to keep us safe. July is Military Consumer Month, a good time to highlight the work my office does to protect our service members from scams and fraud.

My dad has hair halfway down his back, and it’s been that long since I can remember. It seems to get whiter everytime I see him, but 20 years ago it was dark brown.

It’s become a tradition. For the last few years, you can spot me at one of a few local eating establishments, nearly every week without fail, sitting across from a true man of Mebane. His name is Doug Isaac, but to me, he’s just granddad.

As the summer swimming season kicks into full gear, Safe Kids North Carolina, a statewide program housed within the North Carolina Department of Insurance and Office of State Fire Marshal, is reminding parents and caregivers about important safety tips to reduce child drownings.

With a single vote, North Carolina’s U.S. senators can help stop a trade war in its tracks, preserve American jobs and prevent government from taking an unseemly swipe at the media watchdogs that hold it accountable.

One of the responsibilities that parents take most seriously is protecting their children from injury, whether it is buckling seat belts in a car or wearing a helmet while riding a bike. And when their kids become teenagers and want to participate in sports or other activities, parents do ev…

In several states, teachers are protesting for higher salaries and more support for education, and those protests have come to North Carolina. At the same time, medical costs are an issue everywhere in the country.

The Facebook data breach opened a Pandora’s box of concerns for social media consumers. The company estimated that data firm Cambridge Analytica may have had information on about 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

The United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized country but doesn’t get better results, as measured by average life expectancy. Have you heard this claim before? Did you respond with agreement or skepticism?

North Carolina schools, which now refer more than 40 percent of all offenders in the state’s juvenile justice system, need to stop arresting and charging kids for minor, nonviolent offenses, state court and public safety leaders say.

When a player is selected in Major League Baseball’s Amatuer Draft, it is a moment of jubilance for he and his family, a testament to the work and sacrifices they made over the first 18 to 22 years of the kid’s life.

Most parents don’t let their children blame others if the child is doing something that is the child’s fault.  They tell their children to own up to their mistakes and find a way to fix them. 

It’s that time of year again where seasonal spring allergies are back with a vengeance.

Proving that great minds think alike, both Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and the Bard himself, William Shakespeare, memorably described the human tendency towards hypocrisy. “With some notable exceptions,” Friedman once observed, “businessmen favor free enterprise in general …

Each time the American people think the nation’s opioid crisis can’t get any worse – it gets worse.

Childhood bullying has become such a widespread problem that one Wisconsin community even proposed levying $1,000 fines against the parents of bullies.

The public is in a surly mood. According to a January poll by Gallup, only 38 percent of Americans said they were satisfied with how well “the U.S. system of government works.” That’s down from 68 percent saying they were satisfied at the start of the 21st century, and 53 percent as recently…

Debt continues to be a crushing burden for many Americans. From credit cards to auto loans, mortgages, student loans and medical bills, a high percentage of the nation’s households have one or more of those types of debt.

As I begin this week’s column, a little disclaimer. This article is about a year in the making, and it’s something I’ve put off writing at least three or four times in the past. But after an experience Monday morning in the parking lot of Garrett Elementary School, it’s time for me to bring …

The new federal income tax law is chock full of changes, alterations and adjustments that are keeping taxpayers, accountants and economists spending hours trying to understand it. It appears almost nothing has remained the same.

There’s a lot of talk these days about companies becoming “customer-centric.” It means putting customers at the center of the business.

Investors hear so much conflicting information and advice in the media these days that it’s perhaps easier than ever to become confused and make decisions based on emotion rather than on sound financial advice with a well-structured financial plan. 

Life in retirement, which once conjured images of golf and sunsets at the beach, took on a drearier edge in recent years as more people realize they are unprepared financially to stop working.  

Most people anticipate each new year with a determined resolve to be better than the year before in nearly every aspect of their lives. Usually, at the top of their list of priorities is losing weight, getting into better shape through more consistent exercise, replacing bad habits with good…

It’s that time of the year again. Or should I say it’s the end of the year again. Time to say goodbye to 2017 and hello to a new year full of new opportunities.

My brother and I didn’t sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.

For many, the 60 days from November 1 through January 1 begins a time of expectations fraught with a gamut of emotional, physical, and financial turmoil.

As Mebane grows in the coming years and decades, the city will be faced with a variety of ongoing challenges. Traffic and congestion being the biggest of them all. 

The first time I came to Mebane was also the first time I stepped inside of Martinho’s.

This is an editorial column looking at some new country songs and some old ones. This week we are implementing a new, binary rating system as we look at the charts from this week and charts from 20 years ago: is the song likable? Then it’s a “1.” Is the song not likable? Then it’s a “0.” If …