Nov. 25, 2009
The dinner on the left by Norman Rockwell, America's most popular artist for more than 40 years, appeared on the 1943 Thanksgiving week cover of The Saturday Evening Post, the nation's most popular magazine at the time. It was Rockwell's portrayal of freedom from want, one of the Four Freedoms proclaimed by President Roosevelt prior to this country's entry into World War II.
"In universal terms," FDR said, freedom from want "means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants ─ everywhere in the world."
That remains the hope of the world today.
We wish you and your family in these difficult times a peaceful and happy Thanksgiving for the many blessings bestowed upon us in this great nation of ours.
Thousands seek free food in Wilson
In pre-dawn cold and rain Wednesday morning, thousands lined up for free Thanksgiving meals in Wilson, North Carolina, where unemployment has soared well above both the state and national averages.
The Wilson Opportunities Industrialization Center says it had to turn away about 500 people because it ran out of turkey, ham, chicken, green beans, corn, canned collars and sweet potatoes.
Joblessness in Wilson County was nearly 12% last month as opposed to 11% statewide and 10.2% nationally. County by county figures for North Carolina will be released by the state next Tuesday.
AAA: More highway travel, less by air this Thanksgiving
AAA Carolinas predicts that more North Carolinians will hit the road than airports this Thanksgiving. Automobile travel will be up more than 2 percent, it says; bus and train travel nearly 3 percent, and air travel off by almost 7 percent.
AAA Carolinas President David Parsons said a 63-cent increase in gas prices over last year won't deter vacation plans.
Body of missing fishing boat captain identified
The body that washed ashore at Pea Island over the weekend has been identified as that of Kenneth Rose, Sr., 73, captain and one of three North Carolina men aboard a 44-foot fishing boat lost at sea off Cape May, New Jersey, Nov. 11.
The two other fishermen aboard the "Sea Tractor" from Newport in Carteret County were Rose's son, Kenneth Jr., 49, and Larry Forrest, 55, whose bodies have not been found. There was no sign of any of the three, except for a raft that floated ashore, until Saturday afternoon.
A visitor collecting sea shells on the beach at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge south of Oregon Inlet discovered a body. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that "several unique scars and an identifiable gold ring" helped a state medical examiner confirm it was that of Captain Kenneth Rose.
The storm that claimed the 'Sea Tractor'
.jpg)
This aerial photograph of the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, but not the entire refuge, was taken Thursday, Nov. 12, as a monster nor'easter was blowing in. The headquarters building is now hundreds of feet closer to the ocean than when built in 1965."On this refuge, storms redistribute the sand," said biologist Dennis Stewart. "If the sand were left where the storms deposited it, the island would continue to migrate to the southwest, and the elevation would build as a result of the overwash. These barrier islands have been doing this for thousands of years." (FWS photo, Dennis Stewart)
Flood conditions linger in some areas of National Seashore
Nonetheless, the Park Service in issuing a special report on conditions at Cape Hatteras National Seashore says Thanksgiving weekend visitors will find almost all beaches and access ramps open. Three turtle nest remain closed off, two on Hatteras Island, the other on Ocracoke.
Fort Bragg turns out for Sarah
Sarah Palin took her book-signing tour to Fort Bragg Monday as thousands greeted the former Republican vice presidential candidate in a campaign-like gathering that tested military rules involving politicians.Since Department of Defense policy prohibits politicians from using military installations as a platform, she was only allowed to appear as a private citizen who was not campaigning, according to a Fort Bragg spokesman said.
Palin didn't give a speech but simply thanked soldiers individually, and signed her new book.
* See Archives, left panel, for all previous 'Alerts'
State GOP rejects closed primaries
Meeting in Raleigh last weekend, the party's Executive Committee overwhelmingly rejected a resolution that would have allowed only Republicans to choose the party’s nominees. A News & Observer political reporter saw it this way...
US Navy flyovers of Camden, Currituck increase
“(Our goal is) to keep the public informed and let them know we are vigilant in our efforts against the OLF”Currituck commissioner Gene Gregory says the increased flyovers are the Navy's way of testing residents' tolerance for jet noise to make it easier to choose the Hales Lake area of Camden for an outlying landing field.
Dare County upgrades 911 System
Cell phone callers can't remain anonymous
New technology has been added to the county's 911 phone system, a division of the Sheriff’s Office.
“The new system enables our telecommunicators to determine the location of callers using cell phones to dial 911."This technology will help us save lives,” Sheriff Rodney Midgett explained. "(It) provides a Phase II level of enhanced 911 service, which is the national standard for dispatch centers.”
The Positron Viper/Power E911 system cost $235,000 and was funded by the 911 surcharge that is assessed at the rate of 70 cents per month on landline, cellular and VOIP phone services.
Long trips ahead Friday for teams still in High School Football Playoffs
Whiteville (9-3), which traveled 6 hours one-way from Columbus County down on the South Carolina border last Friday to upset 2A Division First Flight of Kill Devil Hills, will journey to Edgecombe County to challenger Tarboro (12-1) this Friday night in Round Three of the state championship playoffs.
The den of the undefeated 2A Hertford County Bears, one of the best teams of all divisions statewide, will be tested by the 12-2 Rams of Havelock, home of the Cherry Point Marine Base in Craven County.
Next hurdle for Plymouth's surprising Vikings (1A) of Washington County, 9-4 after knocking off previously undefeated Manteo, is a trip to Duplin County for Friday night's encounter with Wallace-Rose Hill's Bulldogs (10-2) of Teachey.
Nov. 13 Report:
Trivette appointed JudgeHis wife told us that Kitty Hawk attorney Robert Trivette, a former assistant district attorney, received a phone call from the governor's office on a Friday afternoon informing him that Gov. Perdue had appointed him a District Court judge for the First Judicial District.
Trivette will fill the vacancy created when Judge J.C. Cole of Hertford was recently elevated to Superior Court.
"We are very excited!" Donna Trivette told friends. Her husband, she said, "will be sworn in before the end of the year" and assume his new position on the bench January 1st.
Local ABC store bosses profit from state monopoly on liquor sales
A father and son make more money than state commissioner
That may be an isolated case but Gov. Perdue has ordered a review of local ABC store salaries in the name of further "government transparency" ─ such as it as ─ after Wilmington's Star News reported that New Hanover County's store administrator is helping himself and his assistant, who happens to be his son, to more money than the state commission chairman and his assistant are making.
Mother Nature SpeaksIt didn't take long for environmental groups to claim the NC-12 washout on Hatteras Island as a reason the new bridge over Oregon Inlet should be longer and far more expensive than the one being planned.
They even claimed they were speaking for Mother Nature, if not the Almighty.
Not that the latest salvo from the Southern Environmental Law Center was unexpected. (The state Department of Transportion Department said earlier it has reason to believe a court suit may be coming.)
The SELC joined by four other activist groups issued a press release from Chapel Hill saying, “The state should put people’s safety first, build the safer, less-exposed ‘long bridge’ that bypasses the most rapidly eroding section of the island, and let nature take its course in the wildlife refuge.”“The recent storm is Mother Nature’s comment on NCDOT’s plan to replace Bonner Bridge at its current location."
Many people here on the Outer Banks and throughout the state teasure nature and want to preserve our environment. They also seek an accommodation between Man and Nature. (And the SELC as well.)
The Southern Environmental Law Center, and those for whom it speaks, are not seeking accommodation on the bridge issue or anything else. They want their way or no way. That's one of the reasons plans for construction of the new bridge are taking so long.
.jpg)
Hot DiggityArchaeologists at Fort Raleigh National Historic Site have dug up all sorts of clues about the first colonists of Roanoke Island in the 1580s and their Algonquin neighbors who had occupied the site long before.
During the past two years, they have found buried in the sandy loam such artifacts as lead shot and flint for muskets, 16th and 17th century ceramic flasks apparently made in France and used as early canteens, shards of Algonquin pottery, and Venetian glass beads used by the colonists for trade with the Indians.
The 2008-2009 excavations at Fort Raleigh have concluded, but a new phase will begin next spring. (National Park Service photo)
Avalon Fishing Pier Reports
Cape Hatteras Fishing Reports
Oregon Inlet Fishing Reports
Golf Courses, Conditions
N.C. Lottery Results
Things to See and Do:
* Friday, Saturday, Nov. 27-28: Hatteras Island Arts & Craft Guild Holiday Show, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Cape Hatteras Secondary School in Buxton, featuring work by the area's finest local artists, artisans, photographers and craftsmen. Free admission, lunches and snacks for sale, and a raffle to help money for local high school scholarships.
* Thursdays: Currituck County Yoga Class, classes are held twice weekly, 5:45 - 6:30 p.m. at the Cooperative Extension Building. Call 232-3007 for more information.
* Tuesdays: Bingo, Kill Devil Hills, at the Lions Club starting at 6:30 p.m.
* Wednesdays: Bingo, Kill Devil Hills, at the Colington Fire Department, 6:30 p.m., doors open at 5:30.
Currituck County
Dare County
- Animal Shelter and Adoptable Pets
- Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station
- Confederate Fortification Markers
- Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum
- Lighthouses
- N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island
- Outer Banks History Center
- Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
- Roanoke Island Festival Park
- The Lost Colony
Hyde County
Other links of particular interest:
Eastern Carolina Radio News
N.C. Beach Buggy Association
N.C. Fishing and Hunting Licenses
Ocracoke Newsletter
Outer Banks Free Press
Outer Banks Marinas
Russ's Outer Banks Journal
Southern Shores Times
Thanks for stopping by! Additional comments are welcome below. Sign up for emailed Alerts, if you wish; and please email us any news tips or photos of interest as well as your special event for listing under 'Things to See and Do.'
The Editor
.jpg)
0 comments:
Post a Comment