The News and Observer recently asked the School Board for copies of its e-mails – under the state’s public records law – about student reassignments to different schools. (This year 9300 students are being reassigned.) This is a routine request newspapers often make to government agencies and, initially, it was expected it would only take…
Read MoreWhen I hear the words “Blue Ribbon Study Commission,” I automatically think: Another politician is punting. That’s exactly what happened in Wake County this month. Problem is, the “Blue-Ribbon Committee on the Future of Wake County” punted the ball right back to the politicians. The News & Observer summed it up this way in a…
Read MoreThe state’s biggest contract is its $171 million Medicare contract. Two years ago, it put the contract out to bid and Secretary of Human Services, Carmen Hooker Odom, announced with great fanfare she was awarding it to Texas computer giant, ACS – and saving taxpayers millions. Two years later, Secretary Hooker Odom says she is…
Read MoreThe Democrats in the State House have been conducting their version of ‘damage control’ to dodge the political fallout from the ‘pay to play’ scandals in the House. What’s their strategy? Well, it’s to pass meaningless reforms and then to proclaim from the rooftops that they have solved the problem. When, in fact, they have…
Read MoreThe Republicans Salisbury attorney, Bill Graham, has spent a million dollars of his own money to pay for TV ads to express his opposition to the Gas Tax. And, now, he’s getting ready to spend another bundle of his own money to say he’s against illegal immigration. Graham’s potential opponents might call this buying an…
Read MoreTwo news stories from the same day: While Republicans in Congress and the Bush Administration fulminate over The New York Times’ “treason” in publishing the banking-surveillance story, Republicans in Congress criticize the administration for not telling them about the program. They wouldn’t know about it today if they hadn’t read it in the Times –…
Read MoreJohn Edwards has called for us to immediately withdraw 40,000 troops from Iraq. Not next month. Or by Christmas. Or in a year. Now. Granted we’re in a mess in Iraq. But where does bringing 40,000 troops home tomorrow leave the troops still in Iraq? Are they safer? Mr. Edwards is running for President as…
Read MoreI admire what John Kane has done at North Hills in Raleigh. He’s obviously a businessman with vision and guts. But I wonder if he knows what kind of political buzzsaw he has walked into now. Specifically, the anti-developer buzzsaw that seems to be dominating Raleigh politics. Kane has asked Raleigh and Wake County for…
Read MoreThe Mayor has increased the fees the city charges builders when they submit plans by $150,000. Sounds fine? Doesn’t affect you? You’re not a developer. Well, how expensive will the cost of doing business in Raleigh have to be before it does affect you? Those developers the Mayor uses as political foils serve people who…
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