Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Ronald Reagan used to say the closest thing to eternal life on earth was a government program. I’m beginning to think the Triangle Transit Authority is may prove his point. The News and Observer reports that yesterday Senators Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr wrote the TTA that the Federal Transportation Administration had “thoroughly examined” the…
In the 70s and 80s, Brent Hackney was a familiar figure in Raleigh political circles. Yesterday, I got the bad news that he had died – at 57 – at his home in Moore County. Brent came here in the mid-70s as a capital reporter for The Greensboro News & Record. He was about the…
Five Wake County Mayors have “asked the North Carolina Turnpike Authority Tuesday to figure out how fast it could build the western and southern arcs of the Outer Loop by making them toll roads.” (News and Observer, 12-14-05) Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker was not one of them. Now it may just be Mayor Meeker is…
The Turnpike Authority apparently wants to build the last two portions of the Outer Loop as toll roads (News and Observer, 11/28/05). Here’s an alternative. Put a tollbooth in front of Mayor Meeker’s Convention Center. Then put another one in front of the Exploris Museum (which is showing the new Harry Potter movie to fulfill…
I know Gary is all for the lottery and it’s probably foolish of me to even bring it up since every poll shows 70% of voters agree with him. But there’s something about the lottery – besides the highly entertaining scandal it brought us – that is troubling. It’s this: with the lottery the politicians…
Republican State House Leader Richard Morgan says Republican Representative Ed McMahan is a skunk. (Those weren’t Richard’s exact words; he actually said McMahon “is about the most hypocritical person I know. I don’t like him. I don’t like his character. He has no business being National Committeeman or being Republican nominee for a legislative seat…
Follow this logic: A. Mayor Meeker’s law firm has received $75,000 for work on the downtown Convention Center. B. Mayor Meeker’s law firm has – for years – represented the Triangle Transit Authority. C. As Mayor, Meeker supports spending $190 million to build the Convention Center and $800 million to build the TTA’s Light Rail…
The City Council is deciding what kind of tunnel to build to connect Mayor Meeker’s $190 million (and already $12.5 million over budget) Convention Center to an underground parking deck. The choices are a “no frills” $2.5 million tunnel. Or a “spruced up” $3.4 million version. Want to guess which won? The Council voted to…
The City wants to sell 1.8 acres of land it owns downtown near Mayor Meeker’s Convention Center and Hotel. TMC Associates have already submitted a bid for the property. Duke Realty asked the City Council to extend the deadline for bids sixty days so it could bid too. The question was, would Mayor Meeker and…
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…