Colin Campbell

4 weeks ago | inverness-courier.co.uk | Colin Campbell

Squashed between the millions being spent on the transformation of Inverness Castle and the Bught Park is a sizeable outlay of public funding for upgrading the Northern Meeting Park. We don't know what will finally emerge at the castle or how powerful its impact will be but a lot is going on there. Changes at the Bught are visible for all to see. But I'd forgotten the Meeting Park was included in construction upheaval along the riverside until I almost ran into one of the trucks helping enable it.

4 weeks ago | wfae.org | Colin Campbell

The state Senate plans to vote this week to require more transparency around the cost of health care services, part of legislative attempts to make health care in North Carolina more affordable. The bill calls for hospitals to file quarterly reports with the cost of common procedures, which would allow patients to see which facility is the cheapest.

1 month ago | wfae.org | Colin Campbell

Credit unions are seeking to expand into rural areas through legislation moving in the state House, a move they say would improve access to banking. Credit unions in North Carolina are currently limited to serving specific groups, like state employees or people who work in a certain profession. The House bill would allow them to serve people below the federal poverty line and people who live in an area that's at least eight miles from a bank branch. Rep.

1 month ago | wfae.org | Colin Campbell

Gov. Josh Stein’s newly released budget recommendations include a plan to increase starting teacher pay above $50,000, with the goal of making it the highest in the Southeast. Stein noted in his State of the State address that Republicans in the N.C. House have already filed a similar teacher pay bill. That proposal is sponsored by Rep. Erin Paré, R-Wake, who was recently appointed to a powerful role as a co-chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

1 month ago | inverness-courier.co.uk | Colin Campbell

I asked a young relative how many pictures she had on her phone. She tapped it for a few seconds and then looked up with surprise. "Twenty eight thousand," she replied. It was a startling discovery for her but that extraordinary number probably isn't quite so remarkable these days. Some people probably have more. The act - if certainly not the art - of taking a photograph is so simple now. Taking 100 is scarcely any more difficult.