First the good news: North Carolina state government has more than $600 million to close any budget hole this fiscal year.
Now the bad news: Revenues are $95 million less than what lawmakers projected when they passed a $19 billion budget last summer. Adding to the problems, the state’s unemployment rate [...]
Local school districts no longer have to hunt for former students who left school without diplomas to offer them the chance at the credential.
Former students who did not graduate because they failed state competency or computer skills tests are now eligible for diplomas if they earned enough credits, Lynn Bonner [...]
Recent overpayments to hospitals by the state health plan are more evidence of the need to put the plan under new management, said the State Employees Association of North Carolina.
A preliminary audit last week showed six hospitals owe the state $2.5 million for overcharges.
"Overpayments in those amounts are [...]
The intrusion of god into public policy has long been a source of concern for me. It started early in my Navy career, at the Naval Academy to be precise, when roughly four thousand Midshipmen were rousted out of bed on Sunday mornings and marched off to church. We were [...]
Oprah closes shop on her daytime show in 2011.
All the sobbing and whimpering you hear is from all of the local TV affiliates that carry the iconic show.
[...]
N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight told the state’s congressional delegation today that North Carolina doesn’t need any more study about a Navy outlying landing field.
The Navy, he wrote, can save its money.
“I am pleased to inform you that these studies and their significant costs are [...]
Generally speaking, folks don't like taxes.
But North Carolinians seem divided on the question of tax fairness, according to a new poll by Elon University.
Almost half (48 percent) of North Carolina residents polled Nov. 16-19 say the current state tax system is either "not at all fair" or "not too [...]
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr said on the Senate floor this morning that health reform should empower Americans to make healthier choices.
In a conversation ahead of a key Senate vote Saturday about health reform, Burr criticized the bill put forward by Democrats, reports Barb Barrett. He said [...]
And the only inkling of job growth is from….government jobs. Ta-da!.
We are well on our way to permanently crushing private sector job creation in much of the country — including North Carolina.
But I’m more convinced than every that we will stay on this path unless and until 1) [...]
Rep. Wil Neumann, a Belmont Republican, plans to run for the Gaston County senate seat currently held by Sen. David Hoyle, a Democrat who lives in Dallas.
The district is Republican, but Hoyle has managed to hold the seat because of his pro-business record and ties to the [...]
Every week the Cary Watchmen (www.carywatch.com) seem to find another questionable program, this time it is the “Downtown Wayfinding Project”.The Town believes that more signs throughout the Town will lead to more visitors. One thing is for sure, it will lead to a veritable forest of roadside signs and [...]
The Cary Watchmen found another $134,000 of your tax money being spent on another 16 non-profits. Despite a mountain of debt and spiraling debt service costs, the Town of Cary approved spending of another $134,000 of your tax money for 16 more non-profits. See the list here. According to [...]
The Cary Watchmen (www.carywatch.com) propose the development of a new culture of frugality and thrift to replace the current culture focused on spending and image creation. Read our latest position paper here.
The Vance Holiday Craft Explosion will be held Sunday, November 22nd from noon-5pm in the gym at Vance Elementary. The event will be right off the lower parking lot on Clinton Avenue, but there will be plenty of parking all around.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that Buncombe County lawmaker Susan Fisher has joined Ellie Kinnaird, Pricey Harrison, and the Pitt County commissioners in calling for an investigation into anti-health reform mailers and robocalls produced by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
The elected officials are calling [...]
Joe Coletti, fiscal policy analyst for the John Locke Foundation, doesn’t mince words about North Carolina’s staggering unemployment rate — we’re now 9th in the nation — or what to do about it.
“The governor has pledged to seek every ‘recovery’ dollar she can get for the state,” Coletti added. “But [...]
Good thing those new Wells Fargo ATMs include that language, huh?
This is the clearest sign yet that WFC is just transferring its West Coast template to points East without any type of re-jiggering. ATMs with options for Hmong, Korean, and Vietnamese might make sense in California. In Waxhaw, not [...]
The year was 1994 and President Clinton’s plan to reform health care was being hotly debated. NC Blue Cross was right in the midst of it as usual when then-CEO Ken Otis penned an editorial for the Durham Herald-Sun laying out Blue’s position. It boiled down to three [...]
Does anybody have any insight into this? Sounds like Mel Watt got leaned on by Obama's boys to go along with the Big Money Protection Racket.
In an unprecedented defeat for the Federal Reserve, an amendment to audit the multi-trillion dollar institution was approved by the House Finance Committee with [...]
Please, somebody tell me what the kids did wrong here:
Officials at Reidsville Middle School suspended two students last week after their parents brought them fast food for lunch, violating a policy that prohibits outside food.
On Thursday, Charles Finney brought his daughter food from McDonald’s for lunch. That night, Brittney, [...]
Sen. Kay Hagan has said the whole time that she would only support a healthcare bill that didn’t increase the deficit and —ta-da!—– the Senate produces a bill that won’t increase the deficit. So naturally Hagan supports it.
If that’s true, Charles Krauthammer says he’ll eat his hat. At [...]
Governor Beverly Perdue seems to be trying to have it both ways on the provisions in the State Health Plan that subject state employees to random mouth swabs to verify they are not smoking and charging workers more if their weight is deemed out of line.
My prior post on Julia Boseman’s impending retirement from the state senate reminded me to look over the Civitas Institute’s handy North Carolina Partisan Index, which uses prior votes for federal and state offices to determine the partisan lean in each of the state’s 120 House and 50 [...]
If creating commissions with long fancy titles were solving the greenhouse gas problems, North Carolina might lead the nation.
At last count, at least three boards are charged with identifying ways the state can reduce carbon emissions and thrive in the emerging green economy.
When one of those panels—the Legislative Global Climate [...]
I’ve mentioned this bit of political scuttlebutt in these parts before, but now it’s official: New Hanover’s Julia Boseman will retire from the state senate at the end of her current term, creating an open seat for the 2010 election cycle in one of North Carolina’s most competitive [...]
With the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee trying to recruit former state Sen. Cal Cunningham into the race, Elaine Marshall has issued a poll memorandum arguing why she would be a strong opponent of Republican Sen. Richard Burr next year.
The memo by her pollster, [...]
The N.C. Republican Party's top legislative leaders asked party officials not to block independents from voting in the Republican primary.
Republican candidates have to form a coalition with independents to win races in the state, wrote Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger, of Eden, House Republican [...]
Facepalm.
That’s the Gray Lady folks, suddenly figuring out that high unemployment rates just might — might mind you — have something to do with the “new wave of foreclosures” out there. We’ve been trying to point this connection out, especially with regard to the housing market in Charlotte, for [...]
Voters are slightly more likely to vote for Republican legislative candidates, according to a recent poll.
The GOP has independents to thank, since they said they would vote Republican by a wide margin, according to the survey by Public Policy Polling.
Voters said they would vote Republican in state legislative races [...]
GOING CHILLY: Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin didn't appreciate having to share a campaign bus with U.S. Sen. Richard Burr when she was stumping the state. Palin is scheduled to appear at Ft. Bragg next week to promote her book, which could make for an [...]
NO GOOD TIMES: Gov. Bev Perdue says group of prisoners who could soon be released have to stay. (N&O)
TOLL FREE: Wake County wants to know why they have to pay tolls and Charlotte doesn't. (N&O)
COURTHOUSE ENVIRONMENT: A state environmental regulator was called to the courthouse [...]
The Swain County Commissioners declared their county a Recovery Zone. County Manager Kevin King wanted the declaration so the county could be eligible for a $1.9 million interest-free loan from the $12 trillion national debt. The loan would pay for job creation. Said King:
We don’t know right now if [...]
Our favorite irascible media tyrant is in the news once again, and once again it’s time for me to bring you a story of doing one thing while wishing for another.
In a November 6th interview, Sky News Australia’s David Speers spent about 35 minutes with the CEO of NewsCorp, Rupert [...]
Furthermore, the Charlotte Observer is reporting that Democrat Party leaders in the Eighth Congressional District have had their phones ringing off the hook from angry party faithful pissed off over Kissell’s decision to vote no. There are already talks of primary challenges, which if successful would probably [...]
I realize that budgets are tight all across America and all but I need someone to explain to me why taxes can't be raised on the rich, and only the rich for once, instead of cutting education funding. North Carolina has been run by Democrats for as long as I' [...]
A recent testy editorial about bureaucratic rules related to the proposed Titan America Carolinas Cement plant acknowledges the frustration business people and other citizens’ experience with government rules and restrictions. Usually, Star-News editorialists quietly tolerate or support government functions and ignore the insidiously destructive conditions they often impose [...]
