Raleigh
Good News
Things are looking up for us news hawks. These days, I have to read my favorite daily newspaper very s-l-o-w-l-y to make it last through breakfast. But as soon as I turn on my computer, I have two new websites to go to for more political fodder: M2M Politics (“Covering North Carolina Politics…
Read MoreHarbinger?
If the Republican takeover of the Wake County school board last year was a sign of what’s to come in this year’s elections, will this week’s train wreck on the board be a sign of what’s to come next year – in Raleigh and Washington? Campaigning is much easier than governing, as President Obama…
Read MoreBreaking Up Is Hard to Do
“Prom Queen!” “Calm down, now, John.” “I enjoyed our friendship – while it lasted.” It sounds like two middle-schoolers having a bad breakup. But no. It was the Wake County school board majority falling out of love. And they did it with such grace and style. So mature and professional. Such…
Read MoreCall it Religion
The school board down in Johnston County has a problem: Every time fourteen-year-old Ariana Iacono walks through the door of her school with her ‘stud’ in her pierced nose she gets suspended – but she simply won’t give up. She goes home, serves out her suspension then demurely returns to school with the stud in…
Read MoreThree for UNC
The Raleigh buzz is that three of the finalists for UNC System President are AG Roy Cooper, Greensboro super-lawyer (and Board of Governors Chair) Jim Phillips and Bill Roper of UNC Health Care. Cooper and Phillips, interestingly, are long-time friends and political allies. For Cooper, the N&O’s much-hyped series on the SBI could…
Read MoreThe Most Mysterious Politics of All
Over the years I’ve watched Southern Politics and Irish Politics (in New York) and once even had a dose of Chicago politics but none of them were as byzantine as Italian Politics in Raleigh – for a week I’ve been trying to figure out if the Italians are surrendering or if they’re about to sneak…
Read MoreCapital Buzz
So let’s talk about what Raleigh’s buzzing about this week: Is there some kind of statutory deadline in the Mike Easley case this month – that is, tomorrow? Is something coming from the U.S. Attorney? Is this investigation ever going to end? Is George Holding holding on until President Obama’s second…
Read MoreCC’d
“Controlled choice” is all the buzz now in the Wake schools debate. This has the whiff of one of those oxymoronic (with the emphasis on “moron”) political/policy phrases that sounds great but never quite works out in practice. Remember George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism”?
Read MoreInside the Press Corps
My blog about the capital press corps – and how its coverage of the Alcoa story might have been influenced by UNC-TV’s Eszter Vajda – brought this response from Scott Mooneyham of The Insider/Capitol Press Association. I think it’s worth reprinting in full. Background: I had quoted a blog by Laura Leslie about how…
Read MoreWhat Do Voters Think?
Have I missed it? Or has somebody done – and released – a poll of Wake County voters on the school debate? Most people I run into take it as a matter of faith that the board’s new direction reflects a minority opinion in the county. True, it was the election for just…
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