Martin Lancaster’s last act may be his best. Lancaster is retiring next year as president of North Carolina’s community college system. He used to be a legislator and a congressman before he lost to Walter Jones in the 1994 landslide. But this is his finest hour. Lancaster is another rare politician who has the guts…
Read MoreIn their defense, Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue could be right: It may be political suicide to support letting illegal immigrants get educated at North Carolina’s community colleges. After all, even the sainted Terry Sanford lied in 1960. To beat segregationist Beverly Lake, Sanford had to say he supported desegregated schools. And, to her credit,…
Read MoreA couple of weeks ago the Democrats in Congress decided to make it illegal to fire Agador (you’d have to have seen The Birdcage). Because he’s gay. So in what seems like an amazingly short time we’ve gone from the a society that frowned on homosexuality to Congress saying it’s protected by the Constitution. But…
Read MoreThe Democrats in Congress have gotten themselves into a bit of a tangle over gay rights. The House passed a bill to make discrimination against gays in the workplace illegal – but there’s a twist that left some of their allies unhappy. Legendary Democratic Congressman John Lewis, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in…
Read MoreThere’s an unusual thing happening on the City Council: Two of Mayor Meeker’s cronies, Councilmen Thomas Crowder and Russell Stephenson, are up in arms about people tearing down old houses to build new ones. Now, you wouldn’t think that would be troubling. It’s one way old neighborhoods evolve. It improves property values (having a big…
Read MoreHere’s a heck of a thing: The Community Colleges are overcrowded, there’s a shortage of funds and classrooms, and the head of the Community College system has just ordered all fifty-eight campuses to admit illegal immigrants. Why? Well, the Community Colleges’ Lawyer has discovered a 1997 ruling by then Attorney General (now-Governor) Mike Easley that…
Read MoreAfter one recent Democratic presidential debate, a couple of people told me they were impressed by Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd. One even liked Dennis Kucinich. (Clearly, some counseling is in order there.) Too bad you can’t vote for any of them. Or anybody else, for that matter. Because of the way our nominating system…
Read MoreIâm going to start a âheated upâ watch. âHeated upâ is the most overused lead in political news coverage. Itâs a cliché reporters resort to all too often when candidates attack. So Iâm going to call out any uses of âheated upâ I see in political coverage. The latest sinner is an excellent reporter, Mark…
Read MoreMark Binker, the Raleigh correspondent for The News & Record of Greensboro, has a good blog. He recently engaged in an exchange with GOP Governor-wanna-be Bob Orr over who should be responsible for education. Binker wrote: “Orr had said that responsibility for education should rest with the governor. And in my snarky way, I asked…
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