This Old State

• DOT chief 'surprised' by NC Treasurer's I-485 concerns

  Number of comments: 4
  N.C. Secretary of Transportation Gene Conti said Wednesday he was puzzled by state Treasurer Janet Cowell's statement Tuesday expressing concern about a design-build-finance program to start work on the remaining portion of I-485 around Charlotte. As reporter Mark Johnson noted, Cowell's office said the lack of a contract specifying [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:02pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• GOP keeps primaries open to unaffiliated voters

  Number of comments: 1
  State Republican leaders wisely came to their senses over the weekend and short-circuited a plan to bar unaffiliated voters from participating in Republican primaries. My colleague Rob Christensen noted in Dome that the GOP Executive Committee rejected the proposal to narrow the Republican primary only to registered Republicans. He reported [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:52am EST
  by Jack Betts

• The Parkway's many fathers -- and fans

  Number of comments: 3
  Sunday's column about the Blue Ridge Parkway and the need to boost maintenance and preserve vistas brought several responses -- including one that pointed out I should have credited Josephus Daniels rather than Jonathan Daniels as a principal player in bringing the parkway route through Western North Carolina instead of [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 9:29am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue's popularity numbers improve

  Number of comments: 6
  Gov. Bev Perdue has had a tough year in the opinion polls, with her popularity sliding about as fast as the unemployment rolls and the state budget deficit have risen. Things got so bad at one point that she shook up her communications leadership, hiring Pearse Edwards away from Washington [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 12:34pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Hunt, Rand, power and paroles

  Number of comments: 4
  Ben Niolet of the News & Observer noted in Dome the other day that Chris Hayes of the Civitas Institute had turned up an interesting factoid questioning how long Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland and the Senate's majority leader as well as rules committee chair, has contemplated taking a job on' [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 1:36pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Should veterans get a holiday on Veterans Day?

  Number of comments: 7
  It's Veterans Day, and across the land the military veteran is being honored with department store sales, parades, memorial services, thoughtful editorials, wreath-laying services, grand speeches, solemn ceremonies and a holiday -- a holiday, that is, as long as you work for a government agency. Some private and non-government employers' [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 9:53am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue's pledge on I-485

  Number of comments: 1
  Gov. Bev Perdue's announcement Monday of a new financing plan to begin construction of the last remaining portions of I-485 around Charlotte before the end of the year is an example of why folks have learned not to bet against Perdue. When she pledged back in February to start construction' [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 12:08pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• A changed landscape without Powell's cartoons

  Number of comments: 1
  Political junkies in North Carolina's eastern Piedmont woke up Thursday morning to a new reality: Dwane Powell, the News & Observer cartoonist who has interpreted state and national politics for more than three decades, caricatured blowhards and the beloved alike and left no political balloon unpunctured, has taken a voluntary' [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 9:43am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Pay to play on Wildlife Commission?

  Number of comments: 6
  The influential N.C. Wildlife Federation has asked Gov. Bev Perdue to investigate whether seats were sold on the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, a key state regulatory agency, for large campaign contributions during the Easley administration. The board of directors of the Wildlife Federation, which is credited with helping birth the [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 12:53pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Two N.C. judges nominated for federal appellate judgeships.

  Number of comments: 2
  U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan says President Obama has nominated two North Carolina judges, including one from Charlotte, for the federal appeals court that handles cases from five southeastern states. She announced Wednesday morning that N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Jim Wynn of Cary and Mecklenburg Superior Court Judge Albert Diaz [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 11:28am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Make tax rates low, base broad, expert advises

  Number of comments: 1
  A joint House-Senate Finance Committee began revisiting tax reform Tuesday in an effort to come to some consensus on whether North Carolina can restructure its revenue system. The committee, which may make recommendations to the 2010 short session of the General Assembly, began by listening to William Fox, director of [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 2:05pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Hall: Dems were not 'cleared'

  Number of comments: 4
  Hall: Dems were not 'exonerated'
  
  Bob Hall, the director of the nonprofit organization Democracy North Carolina, a watchdog over government in general and elections in particular, is one of the reasons the State Board of Elections held a series of hearings last week that wound up with the board [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 9:07am EST
  by Jack Betts