Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
There will be more pain, more tears, more heartbreak as the trial goes on. But Jamie Kirk Hahn’s voice in the courtroom reminded us what was lost that awful April evening two years ago. A witness who had talked to her by phone about a campaign billing problem described her as “genuine and honest.”…
A TAPster who spent many years as a private-sector economic developer offers this: The myopic, confused and naïve approach of North Carolina Republicans to the state’s business recruitment efforts continues to baffle experts who toil daily to bring good jobs here. Our Republicans are opposed to incentives as “corporate welfare,” and they don’t…
This is about as good a tale of conniving as I’ve heard: I can’t remember why but forty years ago back in 1976 the state legislature moved our Presidential primary up from May to March – then the unexpected struck and Ronald Reagan whipped Gerald Ford. It was the first time Reagan won a…
It rang a little jarring to open the newspaper and read, Stam Introduces First Bill of New Session – To Limit Eminent Domain. No doubt Representative Skip Stam was right but it was a little like watching a knight errant tilting at a windmill – because, after all, Eminent Domain isn’t one of the…
The Reverend William Barber got up to pray at a memorial service for three Muslim students killed in Chapel Hill and, right in the middle of his prayer, pointed his finger straight at Reverend Franklin Graham and said Graham lit the fuse to the powder keg that led to the murders. Barber’s thinking went…
The saga of Tony (Thriller) Tata continues. You can just hear that guy who does the movie trailers: “By day, he’s the powerful commander of DOT. At night, he’s A.J. Tata, mild-mannered novelist.” Tata’s two roles collided last week when icy roads caused thousands of accidents back home while Thriller was in Chicago flogging…
The local school board has a new training program to teach teachers that all cultures are equal and to move away from the ‘belief any culture is superior to another’ – which sounds fine except the concept of cultural equality rests on a kind of moral relativism that leads to odd places. Take ISIS.…
Back when ex-Sen. Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat, he’d joke: “There are two things I’ve never understood: electricity and Republicans.” Evidently, he figured out Republicans, because he became one. But some of us still struggle. Three cases in point: First: Republicans fought Obamacare because they said millions of Americans would lose their health insurance.…
A loyal TAPster outraged by Thom (No Clean Hands) Tillis contributes today’s blog: Just when we thought it couldn’t get any colder last week, Senator Thom Tillis embarrassed North Carolina again, voting against Loretta Lynch’s nomination as US attorney general. Lynch is the daughter of a Baptist minister from Greensboro who opened his church to protesters…
Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education”…
North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…