NC House Speaker mows for vote
One of the most powerful men in the state brought his lawn mower to a woman's house and cut her grass. House Speaker Tim Moore said he did it on Sunday morning - hoping she wouldn't get back from church and see it was him who did it.
Speaker of the House Tim Moore worked up a sweat to win over one Kings Mountain constituent.
Gwendolyn Feemster, a registered Democrat, said Moore showed up to her West Gold Street home Saturday while canvassing the area with campaign fliers. They had a nice conversation on her front porch, during which she asked the Republican leader of the N.C. House and one of the most powerful men in state government what he had done for Kings Mountain.
Before Moore left, Feemster would joke with him that he could help her by cutting the grass. Illness and other factors had prevented Feemster from doing upkeep in the yard herself.
The next day, Feemster said she found out the politician was really a good neighbor.
“Sunday, when I got home from church, he was literally cutting my grass with a push mower,” Feemster said. “He showed up himself and cut my grass. He sweated, and he didn’t stop until he was finished.”
Feemster said Moore won her support. She even put his re-election sign in her yard.
Drink for your health!
But not too much.
Not drinking in middle age can increase the risk of dementia as much as drinking too much, according to a report.
The study tracked the drinking habits of 9,000 London civil servants between the ages of 35 and 55 from 1985 to 1993.
They were then monitored for, on average, another 23 years. In total there were 397 cases of dementia identified through hospital, mental health services and mortality records.
Published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) the data showed abstinence in midlife was associated with a 45% higher risk of dementia compared with people who consumed between one and 14 units of alcohol per week.
With people who drank more than 14 units a week the dementia risk increased by 17% with every additional seven units per week.
Pardon me... but I have some math to go work out...
Speaking of math, it's a bit of a problem for NC teachers
The Charlotte Observer reports thousands of Tar Heel teachers failed the math part of licensing tests, and this might be due to the new company administering the exams.
Failure rates have spiked as schools around the state struggle to find teachers for the youngest children. Education officials are now echoing what frustrated teachers have been saying: The problem may lie with the exams rather than the educators.
Teachers in Florida and Indiana have also seen mass failures when their states adopted Pearson testing, according to news reports from those states. Concern about the validity of the Pearson licensing exams is so pervasive that it was discussed at this year’s National Education Association conference, said North Carolina Association of Educators President Mark Jewell.
Pearson is the testing company that Massachusetts uses. North Carolina is reviewing whether to keep them in light of these results.
But, wait! There's more!
Congressional Democrats back out of annual softball game against Republicans.
The NYTimes hired a racist for their editorial board.
Local doctors are trying to figure out why people are getting sick. Ummmm.... are the infected looking pale? Avoiding sunlight? I'm just asking questions, here!