The 31st Annual Martin Luther King Parade scheduled for Saturday in downtown Fayetteville has been postponed because of a suspect weather forecast, according to a decision late Thursday by the Fayetteville Cumberland County Martin Luther King Committee. “We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the change,” says Stanley Ford, the committee chair. “The MLK Parade will be rescheduled for February 1 or February 8 based on availability dates. We are eagerly anticipating this spectacular parade to take place on one of the dates.” Ford said 1,000 to 1,700 people had been anticipated to attend the parade in honor and memory of the late civil rights leader.
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President Joe Biden was right in saying Wednesday we are a nation “buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation…” in his farewell address from the Resolute Desk of the Oval Office. “The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing,” he said, referencing newspapers crippled in recent years by corporate America. “Social media is giving up on fact checking.” There’s a difference, Mr. President, between professional journalists and anybody and everybody who takes to social media and will say or write anything. Biden is wrong about social media, which for the most part, never has taken the time to research and check the facts. Not all, mind you, but a fair share for sure.
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A spate of city homicides including the murder of 25-year-old Heather Williams, whose body was discovered on Jan. 10 in a wooded area near Newark Avenue and State Avenue after the young woman was last seen getting into a vehicle on Jan. 4 at her Glendale Acres home. The woman is among five homicides to date in Fayetteville, according to the Fayetteville Police Department. A celebration of Heather Marie Williams’ life, according to her obituary, is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Feb. 1 at Dominion Church.
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Pamela Megill is taking her leave as Fayetteville’s city clerk after 14 years, and that’s a huge loss for this city. “My last day with the city will be January 31,” Megill says. Take it from me, those of us who have covered the Fayetteville City Council over the years could not have done our jobs without Megill’s attention to detail. Megill previously worked as city clerk in Tyrone, Georgia, and city clerk for 13 years in Copperas Cove, Texas.
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Geraldine Dillard Griffin was remembered Tuesday as a woman of grace, a devoted wife and mother, and a lady with a deep and abiding faith in her Lord and Savior at a memorial service at Mount Gilead Baptist Church. “I am heartbroken,” daughter Cathy Dillard Schaffer said. “She always will be in my heart. But when my heart beats, her heart beats.” Those who came to know Mrs. Griffin called her Gerri and remember her as a woman with gentle ways. Geraldine Dillard Griffin was 92 when she died Jan. 10.
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Drew Ziegler, along with his wife Kalli, is one of our loyal CityView subscribers, and he liked the Jan. 12 column about Gene Ivey, 93, the longest-serving barber in Fayetteville, who recently retired. “You did it again,” Mr. Ziegler writes in an email about Ivey, who retired after 67 years, including the past 17 at Highland Village Barber Shop. “Another home run. Wonderful story on Gene Ivey.” While Ziegler wishes Ivey the best in retirement, he’s sad to see Ivey calling it a career. So are a lot of customers who sat in Ivey’s barber chairs from Haymount Hill to Russell Street to the Highland Village shop along Raeford Road.
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Prepping for a colonoscopy can be a real pain in the – well, you get my drift – with that gallon jug of GaviLyte-G Solution prior to the procedure. You’ll find yourself getting quite intimate with your bathroom toilet along the way.
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The Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation’s “Greatest Needs Gala 30 Years of Impact” is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 25 at the Ellison Auditorium in the Center for Medical Education & Neuroscience Institute at Cape Fear Medical Center. The gala includes food and dancing. Tickets are $200 each. For more information send email inquiries to foundation@capefearvalley.com, alee@capefearvalley.com or call (910) 615-1285 or (910) 615-1434.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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