This is a story guaranteed to go on a reporter’s wall – and to set teeth gnashing again in Chapel Hill. The New York Times reported on the long-running battle between UNC-Chapel Hill and The News & Observer – and, specifically, investigative reporter Dan Kane. Kane comes off best, as in this passage: …
Read MoreWill Governor McCrory stand up to the rising Republican revolt against Common Core (they call it “Obamacore”)? Rushing to pander to the Tea Party, Republican legislators who once embraced the standards now denounce them. The philosophy seems to be: “Everybody should be as dumb as us.” Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch summed…
Read MoreThom Tillis is already vulnerable over the sex scandal in his office, and he will invite more scandals if he remains Speaker in the short session. Those scandals will be about legislation, campaign contributions and pay-to-play. It’s obvious why he wants to stay as Speaker: So he can raise money – either for a…
Read MoreWatching the Republican Senate debate, it would not have been surprising if all four candidates had sworn that the earth is flat. Because they went right over the edge. You saw four candidates who would pay any price, bear any burden, destroy any branch of government, defend any outlandish right to have a gun…
Read MoreUNC-Chapel Hill just can’t get out of the academic fraud tar pit. The harder the school struggles, the stickier it gets. First UNC got a new chancellor. Then a new vice chancellor for communications and public affairs, whose charge is clearly to get the school past this mess. They said all the right things,…
Read MoreDemocrats are no doubt playing in the GOP Senate primary, but some of the parallels being drawn may be exaggerated. Rob Christensen compared Democrats’ strategy against Thom Tillis to what Democrats did in Missouri in 2012 to help re-elect Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. There, Republicans nominated a Tea Party nut who promptly…
Read MoreWhen hundreds of teachers leave in the middle of the school year – in one of the nation’s best places to live and one of its best school systems – we have a crisis. But Republicans are in denial, and Democrats have a winning issue for this fall. About one out of every 15…
Read MoreHarry Reid’s new ad is hardball with a thud. Here’s Reid’s story in a nutshell: He says Thom Tillis shared an apartment with his Chief of Staff, who had an affair with a married lobbyist, and then resigned. And Tillis said he knew nothing. Then, a week later, another Tillis staffer resigned after having had…
Read MoreWhile Governor McCrory and his patrons at the John Locke Foundation were bragging about tax cuts on Tax Day, Republicans in the Legislative Building were digging an even deeper teacher-pay hole for themselves and McCrory. The N&O’s page one headline said: “Broad teacher raises unlikely.” McCrory proclaimed, “we’re leaving a little extra money in…
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