Column Articles

BY GREG MARKLEY OPINION — Teaching college at Fort Benning in 2013, I gave 30 soldiers an assignment: “Name your favorite of the Ten Amendments and explain why.” When essays came in a week later, I found one Sixth Amendment (criminal defendants’ rights), two Fourth...

BY STEVE FLOWERS OPINION— The 2024 Legislative Session begins next week. It will be difficult to replicate the success of last year’s regular session. The 2023 year was a premier year for any first year of a quadrennium. Indeed, it may be one of the most momentous in...

BY STACEY WALLACE OPINION — As I have probably mentioned before in this column (It’s hard to remember because, unbelievably, I have written for The Observer for almost three years), my sweet Daddy LOVED to eat Chinese food once a week. Therefore, Daddy, my sweet Mama...

BY SEAN DIETRICH OPINION — Nobody knows when it started. But it did. The first jar of pickles to appear on Aunt Bee’s grave in Siler City, North Carolina, showed up in in 1989, the year she died. Legend states that the pickles were probably homemade. Although some...