Health Care
NCCARE360
Physical health is not the only part of an individual’s overall health. Nor is community health a measure of the overall physical healthiness of a community. Social science research has…
Social services
Education
Should schools provide support services to students?
Denise Superville’s Education Week article, In Some Cities, Closing Achievement Gaps Is Not for Schools to Fix Alone, examines the role of schools in providing social services to students. She…
Liberty
Turning a Corner?
Last night, the Buncombe County Commissioners heard from forty-eight organizations (I only counted forty-seven.) requesting a total of $7 million for various projects. For awhile, I felt I was drowning.…
Liberty
More on Innovation & Contribution
John Kloeckner wrote a piece for the Mountain Xpress, and I agree with at least 80 percent of it. He is homeless, and he argues, as I do, that available…
Liberty
The Path to Prosperity
I realize hyperbole hurts arguments, but yesterday I was thinking about the worn-out definition of insanity misattributed to Einstein. Well, I know from experience one way to prove you’re crazy…
Liberty
I Want a Boy This Year, and Girl Twins in 2018
Here is one more curiosity from the Buncombe County Commissioners’ retreat. This year, staff did a great job of compiling mandated county services, which constitute 92 percent of their budget.…
Liberty
Growing Capacity, Aye!
Assistant Buncombe County Manager Mandy Stone recently requested an extra $119,925 to help the Health and Human Services Department do its part to get the state out of the deep…
Liberty
Defining Wellness in Terms of Productivity and Contribution
The Buncombe County Commissioners presumably won’t be ironing out their subsidies to welfare organizations until March, but the list of requests was posted with the retreat agenda. Were I in…
Liberty
Something Somewhere Has to Break
Also at Tuesday’s Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting was an impassioned request by a frazzled Assistant County Manager for Health and Human Services Mandy Stone. She had to come to the…
Liberty
What Will They Navigate Next?
The Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting stretched long again. Added to the printed agenda was an award given by the Local Government Federal Credit Union in conjunction with county commissioners across…
Liberty
Second Naive Suggestion
Bob Bourke of Macon New Beginnings led a public meeting on the subject of, as the Macon County newspaper puts it, “how to solve the homeless population.” Of course, anybody…
Liberty
Bureaucrats Oughtn’t Be Choosers for Others
A homeless shelter in Macon County has been cited for being out of code. Father Lowell Monteith thought it would be nice to give people a warm and dry place…