The Sunday after Christmas, my thoughts turned to New Year's and the promise of a new beginning. For many years, it's been my philosophy that if you're very lucky, life is not one continuous existence from birth to death, but rather a series of deaths and rebirths.

See ya later, George W. Bush. Believe it or not, Im gonna miss the old son of a gun. Granted, I opposed him on virtually every count: his belligerent foreign policy, his immoral pursuit of starving social programs for the poor by cutting taxes for the rich, his practice of appointing cronies to head critical agencies and corporate hacks to regulatory positions...

Two years ago, I made a two-anda-half hour drive to Southern Village in Chapel Hill to attend a John Edwards campaign rally. Two days earlier, Edwards had announced his candidacy for president on national television while working to help repair homes ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward.

The official unveiling of the Winston- Salem minor league baseball teams new name at the Millennium Center on Dec. 4 seemed a world away from the harsh realities facing many of Forsyth Countys residents.

Im driving across the pavement of downtown Winston-Salem with leaves of the autumn rainbow hitting my windshield. What beautiful weather for Thanksgiving. Theres this unbearable amount of rumbling growing inside my stomach. Being the holiday you would consider it to be hunger, yet its not.

Forest University. As I stepped onto the quad, I knew that this meant more to me than the quick fifty dollars advertised on Craigslist. Here was a chance to reinvent myself, a momentary second shot at college.

What will this mean for the paper you hold in your hands (or stare at on your screen)? It's a good question, since the title "creative assistant" leaves a lot to the imagination. It's not the kind of job that carries a big byline-I haven't suffered the mixed blessing of having people recognize my name in a bar more than once or twice.

The story of Ben Bests rise to Hollywood fame and fortune is one that should be told over a cold beer. One, because its hilarious and two, because thats where it all began just two friends hanging out on a hot summer day drinking cold beers and dreaming.

Its 9 a.m. on Thursday and Im staring down the respective representatives of the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, the Koury Corp., the Greensboro Housing Coalition and the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress in the conference room of the Greater Greensboro Builders Association.

Everywhere I look these days, I see democracy in action. On Oct. 16, the first day of early voting in the state, I went to the Forsyth County Government Center and was blown away by what I witnessed scores and scores of voters lined up inside the...