Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
It seemed peculiar: After former Speaker Jim Black had the State House pay one of his political appointees $80,000 to write a ‘history’ of the State House, he refused to make it public. Compared to the other House scandals – Lottery Commissioner Kevin Geddings’ trial, allegations of bribes, illegal lobbying – the ‘curious affair of…
The 2004 election demonstrated the power of the Internet. It’s now the YouTube campaign. The first victim was former Senator George Allen of Virginia. Here’s a hit on John McCain that’s now circulating: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioy90nF2anI By the way, thanks to my son James for the link. At 17, he’s my link to YouTube politics. Click Here…
Re John and Elizabeth Edwards’ new home: The only thing they’re guilty of is over-answering. In situations like this, the less said, the better. Remember the first rule of getting out of a hole: Put down the shovel. It’s his money, he earned it and he can spend it like he wants. Click Here to…
Looking out the window as he gave his state of the city address, Mayor Meeker noted the four cranes hovering over his $221 million convention center, his $20 million downtown hotel and his $40 million underground parking lot. (News and Observer; 1-23-07). Then the Mayor proposed building a 28 mile adventure trail along the banks…
In his State of the Union Speech, President Bush laid out his vision of the war on terrorism, saying Islamic Radicalism is an ideology – much like Communism and Nazism were ideologies in their times, opposing everything we stand for and determined to destroy us. Democratic Senator Jim Webb, in his rebuttal, did not differ…
The right-wing, anti-school crowd lost in November when the Wake County school bonds won, but they’re taking aim again. One of our readers emailed: “Looks to me like the County Commissioners are trying to take over the school board – a Billion dollar school bond with 4 school board seats on the same ballot.” Bingo,…
I consider myself an expert on strengthening executive offices, though some cynics might call it power-grabbing. I learned from the master: working with Governor Hunt when he passed succession in 1977 (before that, Governors could serve only one term) and veto in 1996. So maybe Raleigh needs a stronger mayor. But Charles Meeker’s campaign for…
A study by a local government agency in Raleigh reports that over a 15 year period (1991-2005) Wake County paid “about $186 million” a year in transportation taxes – while the DOT only spent “$132 million per year” to build roads here. In other words DOT took $54 million a year in highway taxes –…
Some pollsters have a gift for reading hundreds of pages of statistics and finding a nugget of truth. Others have a different talent: Flexibility. They can poll one day and say with absolute conviction the public is, for instance, adamantly against President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq. Then a month later, they…
“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph,…
Because of just 2 votes, North Carolina politics will be consumed – and the General Assembly…