Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Your eyes may glaze over reading about the McCrory administration’s plan to reform Medicaid. But this may pop your pupils: It adopts a key feature of Obamacare. Like the Affordable Care Act, DHHS’ new and improved Medicaid plan depends on an animal called “Accountable Care Organizations.” One health expert describes ACOs this way:…
Immigration, the newspaper says, is ‘bedeviling” Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. It’s also bedeviling Speaker John Boehner. And half the Republicans in Washington. It’s a knotty problem. Part of the politicians have decided it’s best to send every single illegal immigrant back to where they came from – but no one’s quite sure how to…
This poll result caught the eye: “Obama at 42 percent approval in NC, McCrory at 36 percent.” Yes, the Governor’s approval rating was lower than the President’s in a High Point University poll. Now, a big caveat: The poll was of all adults, not just voters. The results might be different among voters alone.…
Even Governor McCrory’s critics were ready to move on, but he won’t, for reasons that are unfathomable. Instead, he takes time out of his (we assume) busy schedule to write a letter to the Charlotte Observer about his now-famous encounter with a cook at a gourmet food store. The letter tells us a lot more than…
When you’ve got bad news, get it out. It only gets worse with age. Pat McCrory’s new-look DENR failed that test last week, at a time when people were watching closely how the administration would react to its first environmental crisis. When three million-plus gallons of untreated sewage spewed into the Haw River, DENR…
Politics 101 used to say that getting in the news was good for politicians. Not today. The new rule is: If you’re in the spotlight, you’re losing. The more you’re in the news, the lower your poll ratings. When the government shutdown dominated Page 1, Republicans plummeted in the polls. When Obamacare took…
Even Governor McCrory’s critics were ready to move on, but he won’t, for reasons that are unfathomable. Instead, he takes time out of his (we assume) busy schedule to write a letter to the Charlotte Observer about his now-famous encounter with a cook at a gourmet food store. The letter tells us a lot…
The number floated up off the page and hung shimmering in the air in front of my eyes: 580,834. Surprised, and curious, I clicked on the computer, then stared at another number that looked dreary in comparison: 345. 580,834: The number of people who have watched Clay Aiken’s video since he announced for…
The 14 men seated on the front row were in or closing in on their 10th decade on earth. Some of them were bent and wheelchair-bound. A couple were spry and alert. Several had trouble hearing, even when their names were called and their courage recounted. Seventy years ago, they were young men. Boys,…
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…