When the scandal broke five years ago – after a ‘tweet’ by a tackle on the football team – the wise men at UNC faced a choice: Fess-up or cover-up. They covered-up. And eight media organizations sued because they wouldn’t make public records available to the press. Three months later, skating on thinner and thinner…
Read MoreGood Lord – in three new polls Donald Trump is in second place in the Republican primary for President. Trump trails only Bush in New Hampshire; only Walker in Iowa; and only Bush nationally (Bush 19%; Trump 12%). Imagine standing in Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio or Rand Paul’s shoes: You’ve sweated and strained and sacrificed…
Read MoreThat’s the anguished question Chief Justice John Roberts asked in his dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage. He wrote: “…the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari…
Read MoreFour separate reports – two done for the State Medicaid Department, one done for federal Medicare, and one by the non-profit Community Care of North Carolina filed with State Medicaid – all said CCNC saved taxpayers millions of dollars by reducing Medicaid costs. So what did the Old Bull Mooses in the Senate do? They…
Read MoreThe rhubarb had a keystone cops air but what started it was deadly enough: A combination of a bully and power. By nature he wasn’t particularly unkind and, in the past, he hadn’t enjoyed bullying but he had the power and he’d used it before to punish Congressmen who’d crossed him and he’d gotten away…
Read MoreAs even Southern Republicans retreat from the Confederate flag, and as the inevitable counter-reaction begins, I’m reminded of a battle over the battle flag almost 40 years ago. It was in 1977, the first year of Governor Hunt’s first term. One fine spring day, as we arrived at the Capitol in Raleigh, we were startled…
Read MoreHis father was a carpenter and his mother a five foot blonde with hair down to her ankles and they’d divorced three years before he was born. His father remarried, abused his second wife, and divorced again when he was fourteen. After the second divorce he dropped out of school in the 9th grade, drank…
Read MoreHe’d been doing business for thirty years and if what he’d been doing wasn’t illegal like selling moonshine it also wasn’t quite the same as being President of the local bank or owner of the corner drug store: When someone got into a bind he’d pay them cold hard cash on the barrel head for…
Read MoreWe love to “have a national conversation” at times like this. We talk about race and hate. We talk about the church and faith. We talk about the Confederate flag. We talk about politicians talking about the Confederate flag. We talk about gun control – or not. We talk about mental illness. We talk about…
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