Store seeks volunteers
I am reaching out in hopes to find a few of you who have a heart to serve and give back.
We are looking for faithful volunteers to help at the Hurlburt-Johnson Friendship House homeless shelter Reseller thrift store on U.S. 64 West. We are a Christian-based establishment, filled with love and kindness to all.
As a volunteer, you will receive a 15% discount off anything in the store, as well as be met with a fridge full of food/drink free to you in our break room. If you like to encourage, uplift and pray with others, this is the absolute perfect volunteer opportunity for you. Even if you are the shy, quiet type, we have a spot in our “sorting room.”
For any questions or desires to serve, please feel free to call me at 828-541-1687. We would love to add you to our team.
Cynthia Hull, Murphy
Balanced tax policy needed
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence and robotics promises transformative economic gains, but also threatens widespread job displacement and a surge in income inequality. As machines increasingly replace human labor, an ever-larger share of national income will flow to the owners of these technologies rather than to workers. This growing divide calls for urgent tax reform – specifically, equalizing long-term capital gains tax rates with ordinary income tax rates to protect economic fairness.
Currently, long-term capital gains are taxed at significantly lower rates (maximum 20%) than ordinary income (maximum 37%) a questionable policy once defended by appeals to investment risk and inflation. Yet in an era when automated systems that replace humans can generate enormous, relatively low risk returns for capital owners, those justifications no longer hold. Preferential treatment for capital income now primarily benefits the wealthiest asset holders, accelerating their wealth accumulation while millions of displaced workers lose both stable earnings and wealth.
Equalizing long-term capital gains rates would also help offset declining payroll tax revenues as automation reduces employment. Programs such as Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance are funded largely by taxes on labor income. As fewer people work and contribute, the burden of maintaining these social safety nets should shift more fairly toward the capital owners who increasingly profit from the job losses caused by automation.
In addition, a more balanced tax policy would curb excessive wealth concentration and encourage the productive use of capital. Equal treatment of income from labor and investment would direct capital toward ventures that genuinely expand economic opportunity, rather than toward speculative activities driven mainly by tax advantages. Importantly, this change would not punish productive investment; it would simply ensure that investment decisions reflect real economic potential and cost instead of tax arbitrage.
In short, the transformative potential of AI demands equally transformative tax policy. Aligning capital and labor tax rates would help reduce inequality, preserve the social contract and ensure that the prosperity of the AI era is broadly shared – not concentrated in the hands of a few.
Jan Lukens, Unaka
Electrification of America
Those looking for a great career with an average of $80,000-$100,000 a year, look no further. Trade school awaits.
Electricians are high in demand due the extensive growth with the national push for grid upgrades, new industrial facilities like semi-conductor plants, and the continued construction of institutional and residential buildings.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 9% growth each year through 2034, with thousands of openings for electricians, including those to replace retiring workers.
Projects to upgrade the national electric grid, build new data centers and expand electric vehicle charging stations will require a large number of skilled electricians.
Young to older, men or women, this is a great opportunity to seize a good paying career.
A little history: The inventor of electricity is Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, born on July 10, 1856, in Croatia (then the Austrian Empire).
Nikola Tesla was an engineer who contributed to discovering the alternating current as the world’s primary electrical system. Tesla also made breakthroughs in the transmission and application of electricity developing technologies, like wireless telegraphy, fluorescent lights and a remote controlled boat. He died on Jan. 7, 1943, at age 86, in New York City.
Shelley Dietrich, Murphy
Iryna’s Law now official
This is a giant leap forward in making our streets safer, and this will change repeat offenders’ ability to get out of jail and re-offend. It will also force the courts to deal with repeat offenders faster, but it doesn’t solve the problem.
There needs to be a prison built in Jackson or Macon counties. North Carolina had 62 prisons in the state, but 30 closed because they cannot hire enough officers to work there to keep them open. So there are only 32 left, and the nearest to us is in Asheville.
The entire structure of the justice system needs an overhaul, repeat and violent offenders don’t go to jail because sentencing laws tie the judges hands, the District Attorney’s Office is understaffed and unable to deal with the caseload – and even if we fix the first two, there are no prison cells to put them in because the state won’t pay prison guards a competitive wage. The system is a complete and near total failure of justice in our state. We’ve created a revolving door at our court house, while the lawyers, bail bondsmen and courts are making money off the system all the while it totally fails to protect the law-abiding taxpaying citizens of this state.
If we want our cities and town to be safer, this situation has to change! I’ve preached this to every politician who would lend me an ear, but it needs a bigger voice, like the effort that just got this bill passed into law.
Mark Kephart, Murphy