Raleigh
Gary On the Air
If you’re up at 7 a.m. Sunday and desperate for entertainment, listen to Don Curtis and me on “Carolina Newsmakers” on WPTF. We about covered the waterfront on politics: redistricting, money, Governor Perdue and the legislature, 2012, etc. The show will also be available at www.carolinanewsmakers.com.
Read MoreTeeing Up Faith
A group of golfers and non-golfers were talking this week about Webb Simpson’s comments after winning his first PGA event. Not what he said about his putting or a crucial drive or a big save. But the first words out of his mouth when David Feherty stuck a microphone in his face on the…
Read MoreHuh?
The email from David Parker, state Democratic Party chairman, promised a rip-roaring attack on Republican leaders: “Tillis, McCrory and Berger: Turning Back The Clock On NC Schools.” Then came the first line: “Last week, Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly decided to challenge a court ruling on pre-kindergarten access could lead to an…
Read MoreA Good Book
Yesterday was a day the locust ate – everything that could go wrong did and there were no simple solutions. If it could go wrong it did. A television ad jumped the tracks, a website derailed, a mailing imploded. Three train wrecks in three hours. Then, that night, when I got home instead of having…
Read MoreTata’s Surprise
When I read this morning about Tony Tata’s school-assignment plan, I recalled what one supporter of the diversity policy told me after meeting Tata earlier this year: “I don’t think this school board knows what they’ve got.” Tata seemed much more progressive than the board’s Republican majority. Perhaps the majority was seduced – and…
Read MoreGovernors’ Papers
The Department of Cultural Resources put on a nice lovefest for the presentation of Governor Hunt’s fourth volume of papers Tuesday. Governor Perdue was in excellent form, and the Southeast Raleigh High School vocal ensemble was outstanding. (One bit of news was missing from Under the Dome’s account: Governor Hunt said he had talked…
Read MoreSecret Sharers
Two recent stories make the “what were they thinking?” list. First, the leaders of Peace College kept secret a plan to take the historic school coed, then sprung it as a done deal. Did they really expect that to go down well? Then the N.C. Department of Commerce told PCS Phosphate to…
Read MoreRx for Raleigh
Tom Fetzer must feel like the baseball scout who discovered Derek Jeter. Randall Williams looks like a consultant’s dream candidate for mayor of Raleigh. He’s an ob-gyn who’s done humanitarian work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. He’s a fresh face and a fiscal conservative. He has no political baggage (or, judging from the N&O…
Read MoreDavid vs Goliath
Folks used to say, You can’t fight City Hall, but these days City Hall down in Stanly County is having a tough time battling a multi-national corporation. Back in the 1950’s the federal government granted Alcoa a ‘license’ that gave it control of part of the Yadkin River for the next 50 years. Alcoa…
Read MoreRaleigh, DC?
Is Raleigh becoming a local copy of Washington’s bitter partisanship and polarization? Long-time lobbyists say they’ve never before seen the level of anger, acrimony and arrogance that marked the Republicans’ first session. Some blame the Republicans’ determination to get everything all at once – and get back at anybody who stands in their…
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