Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Last year, the state received $10.5 billion in ‘Stimulus Funds’ from the Obama administration – a staggering number equal to one-half the state budget. This year, the state faces a $2.7 billion dollar budget deficit. Does that sound a bit like fiscal mismanagement? The state gets a $10 billion windfall from Washington last…
Read MoreTony Tata obviously learned something about politics in the military, as well as good offensive strategy. When he started as Wake schools superintendent, he disarmed critics by meeting with them. Now he has proposed a budget that is austere, but avoids classroom cuts. In other words, the same political strategy as Governor Perdue.…
Read MoreWell, the legislative freight train called ‘Legal Reform’ has barreled out of the State Senate and over into the State House: The other day a passer-by spotted a parade of lobbyists (from Insurance Companies, the Medical Society, the Hospital Association, the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Chamber of Commerce) sauntering into Speaker Thom Tillis’ office beaming…
Read MoreSpeaker Thom Tillis’ quote rang familiar: “You are looking at people who are members of a party that will lead this state for a decade, if not a generation. I’m not sure the Democrats can ever take it back,” he told the Nash County Republican Convention last week, according to the Rocky Mount Telegram.…
Read MoreIn thirty years in politics I’ve only seen a handful of problems with no solutions. None at all. For example once during Steve Forbes first Presidential campaign we got trapped in a corner in Iowa – and there was no way out. None. But, then, as usually happens in politics the tides shifted and…
Read MoreUPS – The Governor’s up for somehow convincing House and Senate Republican leaders to attack her for juggling the state’s books to send out $300 million in tax refunds. The Republicans are up for raiding (or trying to raid because they failed) the Governor’s Golden Leaf pork-barrel fund to use the money to pay…
Read MoreI don’t understand exactly what ‘collective bargaining’ means but if it means what it sounds like – a group of workers banding together to increase their power when they bargain for better pay – it seems they have a right to do that. At the same time, looking at what is happening in Wisconsin…
Read MoreA Democratic reader wonders why Republicans have gone soft on deadbeats. Ronald Reagan excoriated “welfare queens.” The Tea Party denounced freeloaders who sponge off hard-working taxpayers. Republican Governors pick loud fights with public-employee “leeches” who get big salaries and generous benefits, courtesy of the taxpayers. The reader asks: What about people who don’t…
Read MoreEmails, it turns out, like lemmings have a remarkable capacity to reproduce – one breeds ten which breeds an avalanche of messages pouring into inboxes. Back in the old days you wrote a letter to one person; today with the click of a button you can send an email to thirty people, and people…
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With a better General Assembly, Josh Stein could join Jim Hunt and Terry Sanford on North…
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Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful newspaper: The News & Observer. Everybody…
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The shouting, sign-waving and cane-wielding by congressional Democrats at the State of the Union isn’t a…
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