Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Nervous in Raleigh
Downtown Raleigh is a nervous place this week. Especially the Legislative Building. Rumors abound: FBI agents are interviewing legislators. Legislators are secretly testifying before the federal grand jury investigating Speaker Black. Indictments are coming down. Stay tuned. Click to Read & Post Comments
A Blue Ribbon Punt Reaction
Was my blog about the Blue Ribbon Committee on the Future of Wake County (“A Blue Ribbon Punt”) too harsh? One reader says no: “What a laugh. The “Blue Ribbon” panel was designed to deflect blame from the big spenders. The scandal in this whole charade is the failure of anyone to mention or factor…
The Fall Elections
Republican prospects in the elections this fall are looking pretty glum. The President’s popularity has fallen, even some Republicans are having doubts about the war in Iraq, and about the only voters who agree with President Bush on immigration reform are people who will never vote for him – or any other Republican. The Democrats’…
Raising Kane
One of our readers offered an interesting perspective on the issue of whether the city should agree to help finance a new North Hills parking deck with developer John Kane: “Downtown they have taken real tax dollars and spent it on a hotel plus committing a future source of revenue to pay for the Convention…
Raleigh Spending on a Roll
Local government spending in Raleigh and Wake County is mushrooming. The City Council wants to spend more. The County Commissioners want to spend more. The School Board wants to spend more. The County Commissioners’ Blue Ribbon Task Force wants to spend more. And they all want to borrow and raise taxes to pay for it.…
“That’s Just Pretend Ethics”
Prospects for ethics reform and cleaning up the ‘pay to play’ scandals took a blow in the State Senate last week. Senator David Hoyle told the Senate committee considering reform bills that “the issue is too complicated to take up this late in the session” (The News and Observer, 7-13-06). Other senators said the financial…
Toll Roads and Polls
The North Carolina Turnpike Authority’s mission is to build toll roads. Its problem is people feel, with all the gas taxes they’re paying, they shouldn’t have to pay tolls, too. So the Authority has taken a poll – or more concisely it conducted a focus group – to figure out how to convince voters to…
School Board
The News and Observer recently asked the School Board for copies of its e-mails – under the state’s public records law – about student reassignments to different schools. (This year 9300 students are being reassigned.) This is a routine request newspapers often make to government agencies and, initially, it was expected it would only take…
A Blue Ribbon Punt
When I hear the words “Blue Ribbon Study Commission,” I automatically think: Another politician is punting. That’s exactly what happened in Wake County this month. Problem is, the “Blue-Ribbon Committee on the Future of Wake County” punted the ball right back to the politicians. The News & Observer summed it up this way in a…