Page 16 - Mark Pless News Today

Equal Rights Amendment introduced in General Assembly More than 40 years after it first took up the matter, the North Carolina General Assembly may consider finally ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment first passed by Congress in the early 1970s.  “The Equal Rights Amendment symbolizes the unpacking of equality. We’re in this space right now where we’re talking about equality and what it means to be an inclusive society,” said Dr. Ameena Zia, a Mills River-based social impact...

State report calls for greater police transparency A task force founded by Gov. Roy Cooper in the wake of violent protests after the police killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd last summer makes dozens of recommendations to strengthen and support North Carolina’s law enforcement community, including several that would lead to greater transparency by law enforcement agencies.  “It’s high time that North Carolina’s open government laws move out of the basement and into the ...

  Sen. Kevin Corbin Violence and looting by anyone, for any political cause, is wrong and illegal.  The riot yesterday as well as the riots that have taken place over the past few months have been well documented by television stations as well as dozens of cell phone recordings. These people should be easily identified and held accountable for damages and charges like breaking and entering.  The time has long passed for the microphone to be passed to those who want civility and honest conver...

Last week, as elected members of the House of Representatives and the Senate gathered in their respective chambers to certify electoral votes, Western North Carolina’s newly-elected Republican congressman began to notice that something wasn’t quite right.  Indistinct radio chatter. Restlessness from elected officials. Tension among law enforcement officers. Doors locking. Representatives donning gas masks. Staffers crouching on the floor behind bulletproof seats.  “Wow, this is real,”...

A promise to keep on keepin’ on How does one best express gratitude? That thought kept coming up as I sat down to write a column for this week’s paper. After the rush of a holiday season that was so different, I found myself in our quiet mountain house on an unseasonably warm and sunny day pondering the year to come with more than a little excitement. This is going to be another memorable year, and I can’t wait to push forward. But how do I thank those who helped get me to this ...

They say hindsight is 2020 and that is definitely true as we’re all eager to put this disaster of a year in the dumpster and light it on fire.  While many of us remember way back in January feeling like 2020 would be our year — we just couldn’t predict it would be our year of high unemployment, isolation, fear, sickness and uncertainties.  All we can hope for now is that 2021 will bring an end to this pandemic and that we’ve all learned some hard lessons we can take along with us in ...

To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: North Carolina is just beginning to see the impact the Thanksgiving holiday may have had on the states coronavirus numbers. In a press conference Tuesday, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said that she believes the numbers the state has seen thus far are just the beginning. It is likely the increase in COVID-19 cases reported over the last week reflect those that went to Thanksgiving gat...

It took just one round of voting for the Haywood County Republican Party to select Jennifer Best as the next county commissioner. The Canton cattle producer and Farm Bureau insurance salesperson came in a close third in the 2020 GOP commissioner primary, and handily distinguished herself in a field of seven candidates vying to replace outgoing Commissioner Mark Pless. “It’s been 15 long months,” Best said, noting even after she failed to become the GOP nominee this spring, indivi...