Issues

A friend of mine who has done well as a lobbyist in Washington told me this story about the unintended consequences of campaign-finance reform.   Congress decided that the integrity our democracy is threatened by lobbyists buying meals – even a cup of coffee and a sandwich – for members.   So a lobbyist now…

There ought to be a play in the theatre of the absurd about Wall Street: After making trillions in bad loans, and then getting bailed out by taxpayers, the banks and finance companies are staring into the abyss again: This time because foreclosures have ground to a standstill.   And the reason (Wall Street is…

The economy’s in the tank, the deficits soared past a trillion dollars, and the economy’s so shaky all that’s saving the government from bankruptcy is the Chinese loaning us money.   Listening to the news it sounds like half the country’s being foreclosed on and half is out of work – but, while the rest…

So here’s what has happened:  Secretary Lanier Cansler promised legislators he could cut the Medicaid Home Care $50 million (because, he said, the 45% of the patients were cheats) – if they’d let him give out a no bid contract to one of his former clients.   But it turned out only 3% of the…

The Rest Home lobby must have one of the most powerful – or lucky – lobbies in North Carolina.   A few years ago, Congress passed a bill to give states the flexibility to care for elderly Medicaid patients in their homes instead of in Rest Homes and almost every state jumped at the opportunity…

Back in 1934 for reasons no one has explained the Veterans of Foreign Wars decided to build a sole wooden cross – as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I – in the Mohave Desert, where hardly a soul would see it.   The cross stood peacefully atop Sunrise Rock for six…