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Police Chief Rodney Monroe's four-year plan for fighting crime in Charlotte is ambitious. His strategy rests on attacking crime neighborhood by neighborhood and making people feel safe by increasing police visibility and aggressively pursuing chronic offenders.

In response to news last week that the federal government is freezing $25 million in grants to North Carolina for “deficiencies” at the state Department of Transportation, state transportation official Robert Canales said: “Just because [they] chose to use the terminology ‘deficiency' doesn't necessarily reflect that what we were doing in the past was incorrect.”

REBIC's suggestion to build sidewalks on only one side of the street should be considered in the same light as building one-lane streets!

How to send a 'Letter to the Editor' of the Observer.

2008 Citistates Report: “Charlotte is just now being born as a metropolitan community. Sure, it's always been a city. But something bigger is happening now."

I listen to WBT on the way to work. Now I can listen to it on the way home.

Thomas Jefferson once observed that the success of our experiment in democracy depends upon an informed electorate. By that measure, last month's elections show the experiment to be less than a complete success. Almost everyone had an opinion about who should be our next president, governor and legislators. But few voters knew much about the candidates to whom we entrust our third branch of government, our judges.

I like stuff as much as the next guy.

Commerce Department figures showed consumer spending dropped by 1 percent last month; the holiday shopping season is off to a sluggish start.

From Jim Cook, associate professor of psychology at UNC Charlotte:

You Write the Caption is in the middle of a Thanksgiving holiday break. We'll return with the win...

Kevin Siers