Up & Coming Weekly

July 27, 2021

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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4 UCW JULY 28 - AUGUST 3, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab STAFF WRITER Audrey Hogue REPORTER Jeff Thompson MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Crissy Neville COVER Cover photos courtesy Cape Fear Regional Theatre, Gilbert Theater, Sweet Tea Shakespeare and Fayetteville Dinner Theatre. With special thanks to Jonathan Hornby Productions and Tony Wooten. –––––––––––- Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200- FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Army Airfield, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2020 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN Congressman shares updates on inf lation, the border crisis and progress in the fight against GenX by REP. RICHARD HUDSON 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU JUL 29 FRI JUL 30 SAT JUL 31 SUN AUG 01 MON AUG 02 TUE AUG 03 93 74 93 72 93 73 92 73 92 73 91 72 Thunderstorms Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers Inflation is a tax on all of us. American economist omas Sowell said of infla- tion, "It is a way to take people's wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all." Inflation has increased every single month of Joe Biden's presidency. In fact, the consumer price index has increased by 5.4% in the last year, the largest jump since right before the financial crisis of 2008. What are President Biden and my Democratic colleagues going to do to curb inflation? Over the Independence Day weekend, President Biden's administration said Americans should celebrate the fact that the overall cost of barbecuing was down by 16 cents. is laughable claim was rightly criticized and completely tone deaf in the face of rising costs on every- day items. I am sure you have noticed the major increase in gas prices, which are up by 45.1%. e overall cost to travel has only gotten more expensive, with the cost of hotel stays up 16.9% and car rentals up 87.7%. In addition, the cost of milk is up by 5.6%, fruit is up by 7.3%, and household appliances are up 30%. e list goes on. According to a New York Fed survey re- leased recently, consumers can expect to see prices up by 4.8% overall in the next 12 months. Instead of working to reduce prices and spending in the face of this rising inflation, last week President Biden and Washington Democrats worked to double down on their reckless spending habits and continued to push through a $3.5 trillion partisan taxing and spending package. I believe it is critical to invest in our roads, bridges, ports and broadband. Republicans and Democrats agree on a lot of infrastructure investments. Yet, rather than working towards a common- sense solution, Democrats plan to run up a huge bill and tax you to pay for it. While many on the Left claim any tax increases will only impact corporations and the extremely wealthy, data released last week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce showed the President's tax plan will directly increase taxes on 35,000 small businesses in our state. is will impact millions of employers, employees and consumers alike. Rest assured, I am working hard to fight against this unnecessary and reck- less spending that leaves you and your families with lower wages and higher taxes. Protecting you and the economic well-being of our nation is one of my top priorities. Another one of my top priorities is working to solve President Biden's border crisis. Last week, we learned that U.S. Border Patrol encountered 188,829 illegal immigrants in June, the largest number is 21 years. Vice President Kamala Harris proclaimed progress was being made at the border, but you cannot argue with the facts. In addition to record numbers of migrants at the border, agents ap- prehended 1,000 pounds of the lethal drug fentanyl in June, more than the last three Junes combined. A new report also showed that COVID cases at the border have surged 900% — all while the Biden administration continues to transport migrants all over our country. I wonder how much the surge in COVID cases can be attributed to the thousands of im- migrants — some with COVID, some not tested — President Biden is releasing into our country every day. I have been to the border and seen this crisis myself. It is heartbreaking to see this humanitarian, national security and public health crisis continuing to get worse. Despite the challenges we face, last week I was able to accomplish several important measures for our community. e House passed the PFAS Action Act of 2021. As the Cape Fear River in our region has been impacted by the PFAS chemical GenX, I was proud to support the bill and secure two amendments that will fund water systems in our commu- nity and others impacted by GenX. Also, the Energy and Commerce Committee passed my bipartisan bill to expand vac- cine development through the FDA and NIH. Vaccines have helped us combat this pandemic and I will keep leading ef- forts to build on our progress. Our challenges are many, but by work- ing together, I am confident we can still accomplish great things for our commu- nity, state and country. REP. RICHARD HUDSON, R-N.C. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Rep. Richard Hudson

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