Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
This headline should strike fear in us: “State government reorganizes, seeking more efficiency.” Pardon my cynicism, but I’ve seen this movie before. Every administration in Washington and every state capital promises to reinvent, reorganize and rethink government. Now, Rob Christensen reports in the N&O that North Carolina is scrambling the bureaucratic eggs again. This…
Just as the N.C. Department of Agriculture gets new responsibilities, we find out it bungled its current duties. Lynn Bonner reports in the N&O: “The state Agriculture Department failed to fine propane plants, dispensing sites and other facilities that mishandled the highly flammable gas, putting the public at risk and costing public schools…
A week ago, I thought, It’s too farfetched – Rick Santorum rising in the polls in Iowa would be like blind dumb luck or lightning striking. All year with pure steadfastness a quarter of the Republican voters have stuck by Mitt Romney though thick and thin. But they’ve been the only thing steadfast in…
Once upon a time, owning a newspaper was literally a license to print money. Then came Craigslist and EBay, there went profitable classified ads and then came the waves of layoffs and furloughs. How far a newspaper’s value has fallen is shown by the sale of 16 regional papers – including the Wilmington Star-News and…
Lisa Piercy was right when she tweeted: “There are too many bowl games.” I figured that out as I sat freezing in temperatures in the 40s and winds in the 30s at the Belk Bowl. (When I tweeted about where I was, a friend replied: “Where are you sitting: Men’s wear, shoes, jewelry???”) …
The other day in the newspaper, below an article about unemployment, there was another article headlined “NCSU chancellor gets ‘a great venue.’” Now, someone thought very carefully about the choice of that word ‘venue.’ North Carolina State University has a problem. Because building a new $3.5 million house for its chancellor in the…
Governor Perdue has been taking heat from Republicans for allegedly breaking the law by releasing federal job numbers. Which raises two questions: Since when did Republicans get so concerned about protecting federal-government information? Was it since the numbers were good for the Governor?
The President of Afghanistan’s in a fix: The U.S. Army, he says, hasn’t won the war so there’s no peace to give his people the “individual personal security” they need. Half a century ago, in four years, we crushed Hitler’s armies and occupied his country and there was peace, but, today, it appears whatever…
It’s going to be too funny if Newt Gingrich, who took negative politics to a new level in the 1990s, is undone now by negative politics. That’s karma. If his swoon continues in Iowa, the only way Iowans can pull off their quadrennial surprise is to give a victory to Ron Paul or Rick…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…