It happens to all of us.  We sit down at our computer and log-on to our e-mail account and are bombarded with junk mail.  Not unlike going to the mailbox and retrieving a pile of colorful advertisements, it's annoying and time-consuming.

Employers try to derail this inefficient trend by blocking what they can with firewalls and spam software, but the reality is that the more you block, the more you risk missing a valid e-mail.

My new philosophy is to opt-out of all unwanted solicitations.  In the beginning this actually takes a great deal of time.  You have to scroll to the fine print at the very bottom of the e-mail and look for a link that says "unsubscribe" or "opt-out."  They don't make it easy in the hopes that you just won't bother.  The link then takes you to a Web site where you must enter your address and click on a series of prompts that ultimately take you off of their list.  This is supposed to be a permanent...

When I first heard the news that a little girl had been hit and killed by a car while getting off of the school bus Wednesday, I felt sick to my stomach. I have a daughter the same age, and my heart immediately went out to the grieving mother and her family. I had little time to ponder the gut-wrenching heartache, however, because I had to be on the air with the story in just about twenty-five minutes.

In the days that followed, tearful family and friends gathered at the scene of the accident to mourn little Ashley. I turned away from the images, not wanting to imagine again what it must feel like to be her mother.

Today, I felt that same heartache again when I stood in the driveway of the 83-year-old woman charged in the incident and spoke to her husband. With tears in his eyes, and sincerity in his voice, he told me that his wife was a "very nice woman" who "loved children, all children." He said he was not just saying these things because she was his...

Hundreds of people turned out for a vigil in Rocky Mount last night to honor five murdered women and three others who are missing.  The remains of a sixth person have been found, but not identified.   It appears the cases which date back to October of 2005 may be connected--most of the bodies were found in Edgecombe County near Seven Bridges Road.  

While state and local authorities have formed a task force to look into the cases, there is a feeling in the community the effort is too little too late.  Specifically, because the women are black and come from "the wrong side of the tracks" as one organizer put it, there is concern their cases have been ignored.  The victims were also connected to drug use and prostitution, which the group calling themselves M.O.M.S., Missing and Murdered Sisters, says should play no role in the amount of attention law enforcement gives the cases.

This fact was painfully clear last night at the vigil...

When the prosecutor's voice cracked as he read a letter from the mother of a 10-year-old boy killed by a drunk driver, I knew that something unusual was happening in the courtroom. 

"We are constantly reminded of our loss," Assistant District Attorney Jeff Cruden read the words from Ludy Medina Fuentes, mother to 10-year-old Jefferson, and wife to Ruben Medina who was also killed in the crash.  "I lost a beautiful son and a great husband."

Fuentes sat on the front row of the audience just behind Cruden, quietly sobbing and holding onto her young daughter, Tiffany, as she listened to her own words of sorrow read aloud.  The drunk driver, Christine Meyers, sat across the room at the defense table also quietly weeping as the depth of the pain she had caused was exposed in the candid words.

Cruden, a veteran attorney for the state who has prosecuted drunk drivers and murderers for years, stopped in mid-sentence.  It was clear by the...

This week a twenty year old man who admitted to killing someone in a drunk driving crash in 2007 butted heads with the law again.

Compared to the crime he took responsibility for in August of 2007, killing Wakefield High School student Sadiki Young, the newest allegations, stealing beer from a local grocery store, are minor.  But taken in the context of the bigger picture, they could have serious consequences.

The driver of the car in which Young was riding when he was killed, Chris Palmeri, received a suspended sentence of  sixteen to twenty months for the involuntary manslaughter charge.  He spent five months in jail and was put on probation for five years.  That probationary period started in January of 2008.  So, despite e-mails from people saying "he's served his time," he still has more than three years left on his probation.  The guidelines of any probation require the defendant to stay away from drugs and alcohol and not get...