Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Governor Perdue & Staff are wrapped up in an unnecessary kerfluffle over where she was Saturday when deadly tornados struck North Carolina. It turns out she was in Kentucky, maybe – or maybe not – at a horse race. Which led one TAPster to look past the political flap to the economic possibilities of…
A TAPster calls attention to a bill before the General Assembly titled “Upgrade Security Services-Government Complex” and observes: “It calls for x-ray machines and metal detectors for state buildings downtown. It calls for EMTs on staff. This is all sounds really good. But it allows up to 1 million dollars to cover the walkway…
I was out of town this weekend and had difficulty following news about the tornados and their aftermath. But that was nothing compared to the difficulty untangling the PR disaster surrounding Governor Perdue’s whereabouts Saturday. An obliging TAPster summed it up this way: “Governor Perdue should fire her entire communications team after their…
Republicans have opened the doors of opportunity for Governor Perdue. And missed a golden opportunity for themselves. Perdue can now say – according to State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison – that the Republican budget cuts would make North Carolina LAST in the nation in per-pupil education funding. We can’t even say…
For the last ten years – girding their loins for this year’s redistricting battle – over in the State Legislature Republicans have been telling anyone who’ll listen that the Democrats should set up an ‘Independent Commission’ to draw new House and Senate districts. What they had in mind was simple: They didn’t want Democrats to…
Some 500+ of Bill Friday’s closest personal friends attended a luncheon in Chapel Hill honoring him for 40 years of hosting “North Carolina People.” (Warning: Shameless self-promotion ahead! I’m on his show tonight and Sunday, talking about my Jim Hunt biography.) Friday has conducted these gentle, relaxed interviews with probably 2,000 North Carolinians…
In theory state law says the maximum contribution you or I or anyone else can give a State House or Senate candidate is $4,000 per election – but it turns out legislators left a loophole in the law. Say a group – like the Medical Society – gives Senator Louis Pate $4,000. Then…
Has it occurred to anybody in the Republican Party that U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan is driving them off a cliff? Think back one year ago. Republicans could smell victory in November. Why? Because President Obama and the Democratic Congress had given them the perfect punching bag: sweeping, comprehensive health care reform. Best of…
Craig Phillips, who died Tuesday, was a good and progressive Superintendent of Public Instruction. But I feel compelled to correct one small thing in the N&O’s story about him. The story said Phillips “put reading aides in state elementary school classrooms as part of his Primary Reading Program.” No. The Primary Reading Program…
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…