http://pittcountynow.com Tue, 7 Sep 2010 05:46:35 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/386/28/county-commissioner-and-hosptial-commissioners-provides-an-update-on-the-hospital.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/386/28/county-commissioner-and-hosptial-commissioners-provides-an-update-on-the-hospital.html We are about 30 days away from receiving replies to the Request for Proposals (RFP) that were sent to 14 hospital management companies. We can expect the Proposals to address the issues set out in the RFP's. The RFP asks for specifics about how the submitter intends to insure the delivery of quality health care. You can review a copy of the RFP by clicking here. The RFP is solid, but it does not address some of the important issue the Hospital board will have to address. One of those issues is s... Read More]]> Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:15:35 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/359/28/charity-comes-from-the-heart-and-not-from-laws.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/359/28/charity-comes-from-the-heart-and-not-from-laws.html Publisher's Note: Our most prolific contributor, Diane Rufino, will have her uncharacteristically short editorial published in the Greenville Daily Reflector in the next few days as a response to another opinion piece published in that same publication by Etsil S. Mason of Farmville, North Carolina. Mrs. Rufino is certainly doing her part to further President Obama's, and all Democrats', desire to countinue our "national discussion on race."

Located directly below Diane's short op-ed is Ms. M... Read More]]> Fri, 6 Aug 2010 17:06:15 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/319/28/why-don-t-we-just-retire-the-word-racism.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/319/28/why-don-t-we-just-retire-the-word-racism.html These past few weeks, I've heard all kinds of people, celebrities, groups, and even animals (ie, the New Black Panther Party) label the TEA Party as "racist." The TEA Party is the only truly patriotic group to have emerged in recent memory and it angers me to hear ridiculous claims leveled against them. If "racist" is used synonymously with "intelligent" and "patriotic," and "honorable" and "respectable," then I guess I won't mind. ... Read More]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 11:52:40 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/309/28/beaufort-county-medical-center-a-score-card.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/309/28/beaufort-county-medical-center-a-score-card.html Handing out bonuses to top employees of a business that is losing a lot of money is alarming. The report in the Sunday July 4th Washington Daily News sounds just that way.

Once the facts and business reasoning's are applied, the situation is not so exciting. I chaired the "Cost Containment Committee" that made the recommendation to the full hospital board. This is not a bonus in the way most bonuses are given. It is a performance bonus. The four individuals have to complete one full ... Read More]]> Thu, 8 Jul 2010 11:10:20 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/283/28/don-t-squander-your-gifts-or-sell-your-soul.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/283/28/don-t-squander-your-gifts-or-sell-your-soul.html My friend Chris Dresp recently started a blogsite, "Return to Honor," as a forum where she can vent her frustrations through discussion. She initiated a blog called "It Just Does Not Compute" in which asked: "When was it decided that the terms 'Conservative' or 'Republican' automatically equated to greedy, racist bigots?" She went on to describe how it was the Republican party which finally stood for the abolition of slavery (in fact the party emerged specifically to address the issue of slave... Read More]]> Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:13:15 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/273/28/give-the-people-what-they-want.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/273/28/give-the-people-what-they-want.html There is a severe lack of understanding of our free enterprise system and how it works. This is no surprise, of course, because our schools do not teach people this information. Even as an economics major, the large majority of what I have learned has come from outside of school. It is fairly obvious that our current political and economic climate is a direct result of this lack of understanding. The lives of billions of people depend on our economic system to work properly. Yet, there are so ma... Read More]]> Tue, 8 Jun 2010 11:07:39 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/261/28/the-future-of-beaufort-county-hospital.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/261/28/the-future-of-beaufort-county-hospital.html In response to the article in Sunday's (5-30-10) Washington Daily News on the future of the Beaufort County Hospital, (which we found to be well done) the Beaufort Observer asked Hood Richardson to share his thoughts at this point with our readers. Richardson is a County Commissioner and a member of the hospital board. Here is his response:

"The future of the Beaufort County hospital is of great importance to every citizen of the County. Providing the highest quality of health care at the ... Read More]]> Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:18:14 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/259/28/a-tax-increase-may-be-certain.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/259/28/a-tax-increase-may-be-certain.html Publisher's note: Some publications will not publish the thoughts and commentary of politicians while they are running for office. We, however, challenge, and encourage those same politicians to express themslves on our growing platform so that the electorate will truly know who they are voting for in the upcoming general election. Comments from our readers regarding these politicians' exposed positions on key issues important to this region are always appreciated.

The proposed budget dips ... Read More]]> Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:13:40 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/240/28/there-once-was-a-dream.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/240/28/there-once-was-a-dream.html Our prolific contributor, Diane Rufino, submitted this brief op-ed on the constitutional neglect of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to Beaufort County Now and the Greenville Daily Reflector, which succinctly makes her very cogent point on the most significant constitutional issue of this century.

On April 17th, State Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina would not challenge the constitutionality of the Health care reform bill. I'm disappointed that North Carolina... Read More]]> Fri, 7 May 2010 16:55:43 EDT http://pittcountynow.com/post/195/28/consider-this-a-welcome-to-aspiring-curmudgeons-and-other-communicators.html http://pittcountynow.com/post/195/28/consider-this-a-welcome-to-aspiring-curmudgeons-and-other-communicators.html I am accepting commentary from the public on any issue that interests you, and that you believe may interest others.

I will, however, at my sole discretion, reserve the right to not publish any article that may be of wanton slander, or just plain stupid. I do not "suffer fools galdly" here at PCN, or any of our other publications for that matter - so come with your "A game."

In the month of February, we averaged 265 unique visitors per day, and we are growing at a rate of about 15% per month,... Read More]]> Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:37:15 EDT