Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Two politicians, a Republican, Mike Decker, and a Democrat, Jim Black, sat down at an IHOP in Salisbury. Black was there to convince Decker to switch parties and give him a key vote he needed to hold onto the House Speakership – and Decker was listening. And, in all likelihood both men probably suspected, one…
The same week former State Rep. Michael Decker pled guilty to taking a $50,000 bribe to switch parties and vote for Democrat Jim Black for Speaker of the House – Governor Easley signed the legislature’s new ethics bill into law. Easley said this bill “is a powerful first step at establishing clear ethical standards…” (The…
Joe Lieberman’s supporters suggested it was wrong for Ned Lamont to even challenge a sitting Senator. Bad for the party, they said. Lamont’s supporters said they had every right to challenge an incumbent. They said a cause was at stake. And that’s what democracy is all about. They were right. Now, some Lamont supporters suggest…
If nothing else, North Hills developer John Kane has put Mayor Meeker over a political barrel. Mr. Kane has asked the City Council to agree to provide $75 million in public financing to help him build a parking deck at North Hills. Mayor Meeker, apparently, doesn’t want to do that. But he has a problem.…
Mayor Meeker’s spending a billion dollars on renovations downtown, building convention centers and parking decks, subsidizing hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, and turning Fayetteville Street…back into a street. What will be the result when he’s done? Well, based on a story in the News and Observer, it looks like the Mayor may be creating a pretty exclusive…
I’m sure Carter will be fulminating here soon about the proposed public art in downtown Raleigh. After all, he got Tom Fetzer elected mayor in 1993 partly by attacking the Time+Light Tower on Capital Boulevard. Think what he could do with this. But I have a different question: Why is City Manager Russell Allen suddenly…
Last night, I turned on the television to see what was happening in Joe Lieberman’s Senate race in Connecticut. What I ran into was a pair of talking heads: A Republican and a Democrat. The Republican said: Lieberman’s defeat proves the Democrats support terrorism. And the Democrat retorted: The war in Iraq has nothing to…
Waste management companies were well on their way to building the four largest trash dumps ever in North Carolina – mostly to hold trash from the northeast – when the State Senate passed a ‘moratorium’ to stop them dead in their tracks. The waste companies responded with a passion after. After the bill passed the…
How’s this for a flim-flam? Roads that are paid for with gas taxes are supposed to be free. While roads that are paid for with tolls are, well, paid for at toll booths. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. No tolls are charged on existing roads. But it turns out the N.C. Turnpike Authority…
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…