Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker may set the record for most mentions as a potential candidate for statewide office. But my bet is that he runs again for Mayor. Rumors this summer had him looking at Attorney General (if Roy Cooper ran for Governor, which he won’t), State Treasurer (if Richard Moore runs for Governor, which…
There is a controversy simmering around the state about government using its right to Eminent Domain to seize private property. A recent article in the News and Observer – about the Triangle Transit Authority – gives an example. Last year, the TTA took Mr. Bob Morrison’s business, ‘Bob’s Service Garage,’ in Durham because it wanted…
“Plamegate” in Washington and “Deckergate” in Raleigh make me wonder about the political power of federal prosecutors. For years, Democrats took great glee over the investigation into who outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. Especially when it looked like Karl Rove would be the ultimate victim. Just as North Carolina Republicans take great glee over the…
Raleigh Arts Commissioner Lee Tripi recently spoke out on behalf of Juame Plensa’s Plaza in the News and Observer 8-17-06. He wrote: “Decisions concerning public art should not be about what any individual likes or dislikes… “Those who see more value in hot beds of asphalt …than in having a city square with cultural significance…
With the price of gasoline soaring the state must – it has to be — be awash in gas tax revenues – so why does it seem every time I open the newspaper the headline reads “DOT Delays Road Construction”? (News and Observer, 9-6-06) It seems the DOT hardly builds roads anymore – at least…
Thatâs the cliché de jour, but I think 9/11 changed our lives in ways we canât yet see â or even imagine. Itâs not just leaving your shampoo and toothpaste out of the carry-on bag. History is an unpredictable thing. Think about Vietnam. Thirty-five years ago, nobody could have imagined how deep and searing the…
Gary, here’s some good news for your folks on the Democratic side of the aisle. Each month the Civitas Institute takes a poll; in August they asked voters who they would vote for in the elections for state legislature this fall – a Democrat or a Republican. Voters said: Republican: 36% Democrat: 40% Neither 7%…
In June the Wake County Commissioners raised property taxes. In July they endorsed raising them, again, if the School Bond passes. And in August they voted to raise them a third time. This time the Commissioners want to reassess the value of your home more often — and to keep the tax rate fixed after…
The City has asked Spanish ‘artist’ Jaume Plensa to redesign the ‘Plensa Plaza.” Mayor Meeker has his director of the City’s Urban Design Center handling the new plan. The Director says Plensa will have plenty of room and flexibility under the new guidelines (News and Observer, 9-4-06). The idea, he says, is “Fayetteville Street needs…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…
Gwyn and I just returned from a 12-day journey through 1,000 years of history in Germany…