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.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1462311
4 UCW MARCH 23 -29, 2022 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Emily Sussman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com PRODUCTION MANAGER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITERS Alyson Hansen Ashley Shirley MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Pitt Dickey, Thomas Kelsey, Kathleen Ramsey, Dr. Shanessa Fenner COVER –––––––––––- 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. 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU MAR 24 FRI MAR 25 SAT MAR 26 SUN MAR 27 MON MAR 28 TUE MAR 29 71 55 66 45 67 43 67 44 69 46 72 49 Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Sunny Thunderstorms Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers PUBLISHER'S PEN ere are two new attractions at the zoo where we display all the crit- ters and culprits in North Carolina state and local politics. e two latest arrivals to our political zoo are the Fayetteville Observer (FO)/Opinion Editor Myron Pitts and the Public Policy Polling (PPP). e Fayetteville Observer recently asked the few readers they have left what their thoughts were on Gov. Roy Cooper's surprise endorsement of former Democratic City Councilmember Val Applewhite over current District 19 Sen. Kirk deViere. e Public Policy Polling (PPP) joins the FO/Pitts for hastily rushing out a survey show- ing Applewhite with a substantial double-digit lead over deViere in the Senate District 19 Democratic Party primary. It's all happening at the zoo! e FO has seldom asked a ques- tion to which they didn't already have the answer; their response is usually already set and ready to go to press. Some of their news coverage and editorial writings are so outland- ish that Gannett (owner of FO) has begun putting disclaimers on their editorials: "OPINION. is piece expresses the views of its author(s), separate from those of this publication." What? How can this be when the newspaper publication itself em- ploys the writer? It may be that de- clining FO revenue, loss of subscrip- tions and reader pushback could have warranted and precipitated Gannett's action. CYA. Next, to earn their spot at the zoo, the PPP is a Democratic organiza- tion operating out of Raleigh. PPP has used questions, in this writer's opinion, designed to sway and influ- ence public opinion. e recent poll produced by PPP for Applewhite's campaign deserves an "F" and has been deemed "very much worthless" by a local political commentator. Cooper and his celebrated-fifteen- minutes-of-fame endorsement of Applewhite have unnerved and embarrassed his party. Even promi- nent members of the Democratic Party are asking, "… What was he thinking?" Cooper has exposed just how nasty, retaliatory, impulsive and mindless the Democratic Party is when someone doesn't tow the Democratic line. On May 17, the Democratic pri- mary will be the ultimate answer to whether Cooper impacted the elec- tion outcome beyond demeaning the integrity of North Carolina politics in general. Even though District 19 is a three-way race between Apple- white, deViere, and retired Judge Ed Donaldson, all eyes will be on Applewhite and deViere. No one can predict the outcome at this point. However, we know this: As a former Councilmember, Applewhite's vexed and argumentative personality did little for the City of Fayetteville citi- zens and even less for her communi- ty and constituents. And, she indeed did nothing to bring $413 million to Fayetteville and Cumberland County to enhance our quality of life. We urge our readers to become "election intelligent." Know the can- didates and what they stand for, and vote in every election. ank you for reading Up & Com- ing Weekly. OPINION. is piece expresses the views of its author, not separate from those of the publisher. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Part II: Who's who in the zoo — Tell us what you think? by BILL BOWMAN Photo courtesy of Pexels.