Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
What is terrifying about government appointed ‘Task Forces’ – like the one just appointed by the Wake County Commissioners – is they’re like legislators. Almost. They can only propose to spend money. They can’t actually spend it. This new ‘Task Force’ is supposed to come up with solutions to all – or almost all –…
I actually read part of Richard Moore’s little speech to the NCCBI in the Winston-Salem Journal. It turns out he’s not quite the towering populist I thought when I read Gary’s blog. There are a lot of good arguments that can be made for increasing the minimum wage. Here’s what Mr. Moore told the NCCBI…
I read on the Blue NC blog that “State Treasurer (and likely gubernatorial candidate) Richard Moore is calling for a $1 increase in North Carolina’s minimum wage.” Click here to read the article: The website post says Moore: “made the call at a meeting of the North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry, a pro-business…
I missed it if it ran in the paper, but I understand that the City Council last night appointed Paul Anderson and Charles Walker to the Planning Commission – by eight votes and five votes respectively. That suggests the anti-growth faction of the Council remains a minority – at least through last night. But it’s…
Raleigh city politics are getting more party-centered. Not that thereâs anything wrong with that. But Raleigh Democrats may be heading in a direction that is plenty wrong. An important test will come next Tuesday. The City Council is scheduled to appoint two new members of the Planning Commission then. The appointments have become the battleground…
Gary, you’re pretty kind to those Howard Dean Democrats who’re trying to take over The Planning Commission – even when you’re disagreeing with them. It says a lot about these folks that they are now flying under the flag of ‘Smart Growth Democrats’ and not Deaniacs (rhymes with maniacs) anymore. Who are these folks? They…
The other night – a few days before President Bush’s speech on Iraq – I spoke to a group of Republicans; a man there stood up and said, ‘I’m a navy veteran, I was in Vietnam. And what I don’t understand is why the politicians can’t just get out of the way and let the…
We may not have a bird flu epidemic in America yet, but it looks like there is an outbreak of mea culpas in Raleigh and Washington lately. This week Speaker Jim Black apologized for mistakes in judgment. His statement didnât solve all his problems, but it gave him some badly needed political breathing room. But…
Mayor Meeker now wants the City to help build a grocery store downtown. The City Council has voted to loan $300,000 to a real estate company to build an upscale ‘Fresh Market’ type grocery store downtown (News and Observer, 12-08-05). Now, as far as I can tell there have been several hundred grocery stores built…
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…