This one is too good to resist. The Winston-Salem Journal reports the Foundation/Pork-Barrel Fund that gives away North Carolina’s tobacco settlement money (to help those in need) just gave $220,000 to the Sparta Teapot Museum. You think that’s something? Sit down. Last year the foundation gave the museum $370,000. And on top of that the…
Read MoreMy nominee for biggest winner of the week: Mark Warner of Virginia. No, he wasn’t running. But his lieutenant governor – an anti-death penalty Democrat – was. And he won. So Warner now moves to the top of the 2008 White House speculation list. He’s smart, articulate, rich and has a proven record in business…
Read More“I’m appalled,” Lottery Commission Chairman Charlie Sanders said, describing his reaction to the revelation Scientific Games, which wants to bid on a lottery contract, paid Kevin Geddings $24,500. How appalled? Not appalled enough to say that anyone – like Scientific Games – who paid a lottery commissioner $10,000 the day after he was appointed –…
Read MoreThere is a simple – but drastic – step the legislature could take to prevent the kind of controversy swirling around North Carolina’s lottery: Ban fundraising (and even entertaining) by lobbyists. South Carolina already does that. North Carolina now bans lobbyists from making campaign contributions during legislative sessions, but not between sessions. North Carolina’s legislature…
Read MoreWe’ve got a good, old-fashioned scandal brewing about the lottery. Scientific Games is one of the mega-gaming companies that run lotteries. It wants to run the North Carolina lottery and 1) it got language inserted into the Lottery Bill (by an amenable legislator ) apparently, to give it a ‘leg up’ over competitors; 2) it…
Read MoreAs Scootergate erupted in Washington, we heard a familiar mantra: “The coverup is worse than the crime.” I beg to differ. Prosecutors may find the coverup easier to prove. Politicians might find the coverup easier to use as a bludgeon on their opponents. But the crime is even worse than the coverup. The crime in…
Read MoreLess than a month after he was reelected with no real opposition, Mayor Charles Meeker is giving Republicans an issue to run against him – and other Democrats – on in the next election. Tomorrow, the City Council is going to vote on building a new Marriott Hotel downtown. Mayor Meeker wants to build that…
Read MoreSometimes, something so peculiar happens in politics you just have to stop and ask yourself, “What was that?” Well, something like that has happened in Raleigh. The Marriott Hotels want a subsidy from taxpayers – $20 million – to build a hotel downtown. At the same time a group of businessmen propose to build a…
Read MoreCarter, you got it partly right. But that’s as far as I’ll go. And I’ll resort to the oldest trick in politics: change the subject. Because the Convention Center is a done deal. (Even though these stories about cost overruns don’t help the cause.) And I’m not going to try to defend a $20 million…
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