President Obama’s visit to the Triangle today is a taste of what’s to come: a presidential race that turns on jobs and North Carolina. (I told one TV reporter he’s in for a good year: “You’ll have a lot to cover, and your station will sell a lot of ads.” It will be a…
Read MoreIt’s the biggest contract in state government. The $265 million Medicaid claims processing contract. And it’s awarded by Secretary Lanier Cansler’s department. For years the contract was managed by EDS Corporation, but during Cansler’s first stint at DHHS (when Mike Easley was Governor) the contract was awarded to another corporation – ACS Corporation. Which…
Read MoreHere’s what I gleaned from two days of catching up with the news of the past two weeks: John Edwards got indicted. And promptly dug himself a deeper hole by jumping in front of the cameras. The aptly named Anthony Weiner imploded online. Newt Gingrich imploded at sea. (“Imploded” may be to 2012…
Read MoreProbably nobody ever cares what you did on your vacation. But here it is anyway. We spent a week in Paris and saw most everything, including Notre Dame, the Louvre, Shakespeare & Co. bookstore, the Marais, the French military museum (I didn’t know it was DeGaulle who won the war!), big crowds at the…
Read MoreLobbyist turned Cabinet Secretary (and No-Bid-Contract-Awarder) Lanier Cansler has landed himself back in court. Sued for the third time. What’s got Cansler in a mess this time is his predilection for nursing homes – he seems to be about the only person in North Carolina who thinks it’s better to put an elderly person…
Read MoreThe Democrat head of the State Board of Education has gotten himself worked up into such a state about the Republican budget and the Republicans ruining public schools he’s one step from either bursting an artery or starting a riot. To hear him tell it Governor Perdue’s budget will bring light to education and…
Read MoreTalk about a fellow coming up a day late and a dollar short. Sunday there was a picture in the newspaper of John Edwards standing beside his ‘P.R. specialist’ in front of the courthouse where he’d just been indicted. Unfortunately for Edwards restoring his dented image is beyond the arts of the cleverest…
Read MoreSpeaker Thom Tillis slipped up and left a microphone on during a ‘behind closed doors’ Republican Caucus, so every word he said was beamed straight into the press room at the General Assembly where reporters listened agog to the leaders in the legislature making high-level policy. Policy #1 – On redistricting, House Republican Leader…
Read MoreThe country’s in a muddle and here’s how we got in this mess: The Wall Street Masters of the Universe cross-pollinated with the Washington Politicians and gave birth to the ‘Housing Bubble’ – which burst. As the economy sank the Politicians loudly blamed Wall Street but since, they said, the country couldn’t survive with…
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