General
How Politics Works in the State House
Waste management companies were well on their way to building the four largest trash dumps ever in North Carolina – mostly to hold trash from the northeast – when the State Senate passed a ‘moratorium’ to stop them dead in their tracks. The waste companies responded with a passion after. After the bill passed the…
Read MoreToll Roads
How’s this for a flim-flam? Roads that are paid for with gas taxes are supposed to be free. While roads that are paid for with tolls are, well, paid for at toll booths. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. No tolls are charged on existing roads. But it turns out the N.C. Turnpike Authority…
Read MoreCity to Subsidize Loans Downtown?
According to an article in the News and Observer (7/19/06) big retailers – like GAP or Banana Republic – are not likely to rush to open stores downtown. Why? There are not enough people living downtown to make the stores profitable. But the Downtown Raleigh Alliance – which serves as downtown Raleigh’s unofficial booster club…
Read MoreThe Ferry Cruise
The State Ports Authority just took elected officials and selected ‘VIP’s’ on a cruise on a state ferry so they could watch the tall ships sail into Beaufort harbor on July 1st. The cost to taxpayers: $28,000. (News and Observer, 7/18/06; 7/27/06) North Carolina’s Eastern Region, an economic development group funded by taxpayers, chipped in…
Read MoreThe Ferry Cruise
IHOP!
Former Republican State Representative Michael Decker says three years ago, at the IHOP in Salisbury, he made this deal with a Democratic legislator: Decker switched parties and voted for Democrat Jim Black for Speaker of the House – in return he got $50,000 and a job for his son. Later, Decker also says, he got…
Read MoreHad Enough?
Three reasons to say yes: President Bush on Tuesday, July 25: “Obviously, the violence in Baghdad is still terrible, and therefore there needs to be more troops.” The stem cell veto. Nothing here but a know-nothing sop to the Christian Right, about all the base Bush has left. Parental notification bill. How many underage girls…
Read MoreYou Can Always Go Downtown
One of our readers emailed today that Mayor Meeker apparently believes he is Mayor of Downtown Raleigh only. I can feel his pain. I sometimes feel that the only news out of the City Council revolves around downtown. (This week, the two architects on the City Council expressed their dislike for the “vocabulary” of the…
Read MoreDole-drums
National Republicans are learning what North Carolina Democrats have long known about Liddy Dole: empty suit. Senator Dole was the target of front-page griping from Republicans in The New York Times Sunday. They say her performance as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee has been lackluster at best, disastrous at worst. Sounds just like…
Read MoreEasley for President?
How long will it take for the rumors to start? Last week, Governor Easley was in Washington for two appearances: A speech to the Center for American Progress, a group trying to redefine and reposition the national Democratic Party; A press conference with Senator Hillary Clinton and the Governor of Iowa (get it – Iowa?)…
Read More