Issues
Sinking the Megaport
The proposed international port at Southport is headed for Davy Jones Locker. The money was cut from the budget, and Congressman Mike McIntyre came out in opposition. A wise reader – and veteran Raleigh hand – believes there a lesson here: how to royally screw up a public-policy initiative. His take: …
Read More15,833
Back in 2003 two enterprising ladies from the mountains (from the Hamlet of Sparta) went into the business of providing care to Medicaid patients. Seven years later a judge in the mountains put them out of business and sent them to jail for four years – because the two ladies had hoo-dooed Secretary Lanier Cansler’s…
Read MoreOff the Hook
The Department of Health and Human Services has to be my favorite part of state government – it’s the perfect blend of bungling, chicanery and politics all built on a foundation of good intentions. Over the past year Secretary Lanier Cansler – who’s sort of a combination of Fagan and Houdini – has been…
Read MoreRenaming Enloe
The Powers That Be on the WakeCounty school board are once again demonstrating their fatal flaw: They pick needless fights. What is the sense of this fight over changing the name of EnloeHigh School? Clearly, it’s payback – and spite. If Margiotta and Tedesco were bigger men – and real leaders –…
Read MoreThe Penniless Primary
Campaign-finance reformers take heed: the Democratic U.S. Senate primary is what politics would look like without money. Unexciting, uninspiring and virtually invisible. Plus, virtually no voters. A campaign without TV ads is essentially a campaign that doesn’t exist. Yes, I know the importance of online communications. But TV is still the most powerful…
Read MoreEmoter-in-Chief
What’s with this mania about whether President Obama has shown enough anger over the BP oil spill? Is this the legacy of Bill Clinton, who so famously felt our pain? Or that old actor Ronald Reagan, who could muster a catch in the throat and a flash of anger at the drop of…
Read MoreBev at War
I would have missed this one but for Seth Effron’s Quick Clips: “Perdue declares ‘war’ against school resegregation”(The Wilmington Journal). The Journal reported: Declaring that the state was ”in a war,” Governor Beverly Perdue told members of the NC Legislative Black Caucus last weekend that she, as a citizen, fully supported the efforts…
Read MoreDoes He or Doesn’t He?
Here’s a mystery: Bill Randall says he has an MBA from National Louis University, but National Louis University says he doesn’t. Bernie Reeves’ friend, who runs a company that recruits and screens executives for businesses, contacted National Louis University (in Illinois) to verify Randall’s MBA degree. The college instructed him to contact the National Student…
Read MoreGolden Oldie
Cal Cunningham may be a young gun, but he’s firing an old Democratic bullet: Social Security. Cunningham’s campaign is battering Elaine Marshall because she “suggested raising the current retirement age of 67 to receive full Social Security benefits.” Cunningham sent an email this week proclaiming, “I went on the record to commit to…
Read MoreCansler’s Deposition
Last summer, for reasons that aren’t quite clear, Secretary Lanier Cansler and his Deputy Secretaries, Assistant Secretaries and aides trooped over to the General Assembly and told legislators they had a report that absolutely, conclusively, without a doubt proved 45% of the Medicaid patients who were receiving in home care were chiselers. Of course,…
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