As difficult as it is to balance government budgets these days, Haywood County is being sued for at least $2 million in damages. The general contractor in charge of courthouse renovations filed the motion which, in addition, requests arbitration to settle outstanding differences of opinion and that the county [...]
Let’s face it. Our political Heroes, whose activities include spending on self-serving projects and taxing us to pay for all of it, have—how shall I say this…overspent?
Statists tell us the problem comes from not enough “revenue,” a diversionary term for confiscation of earnings distributed in large, mostly unaccountable [...]
Hinting that she can't take the heat in this "new political environment," Sarah Palin resigns as Governor of Alaska.
' [...]ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.
Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor's Picnic at Pionner Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.
There was no immediate' [...]
I”m hanging out in Wilmington today and tomorrow. See y’all on the waves!
[...]
Governor Beverly Perdue has sent out misleading messages about “Protecting Public Education.” While this state has an unemployment rate over 11 percent and a record $4.7 billion budget deficit, she calls for more spending—“investments”—for “green energy jobs” and education.
Frantically, her message declares: “We are at a [...]
* The SBI says that 11 witnesses watched guards at a Greene County prison beat a shackled and helpless inmate. Three guards have been charged with felony assault.
* A bill meant to reform annexation now includes a provision to allow a vote of affected residents. The current [...]
Susan Stabley over at The Charlotte Business Journal provides a detailed run-down of the contractors claiming they have not been paid for work on the EpiCenter. She also quite amazingly gets Afshin Ghazi to comment after weeks of chasing him down. Ghazi relates that it is perfectly normal to [...]
The NC Senate Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and Natural Resources is set to vote on revised version of Senate Bill 1068, Permitting Wind Energy Facilities in NC, on Tuesday July 7th that will ban all wind energy projects in the NC mountains, driving away jobs, economic benefits, and clean [...]
Candidate filing for the 2009 municipal elections will begin Monday, July 6th and end at Noon on Friday, July 17th.
Filing fees (MS Excel) and more information on the municipal elections is available at the Onslow County Board of Elections website.
There are four seats (Willingham Ward 1, Sullivan [...]
Fair and balanced?
Paragraph One and Two
Imagine your power bill going up by $200 a month.
Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes said Thursday that it’s a possibility under President Barack Obama’s energy plan that narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week.
Then waaaaay down in paragraph Sixteen comes the [...]
Sen. Kay Hagan joined fellow Dems on the HELP committee in supporting a public option in health care reform. TPM has the story here.
Jame Hamser of FireDogLake has been on this story from jump street.
Betsy at BlueNC is ready to make nice.
My feeling on [...]
Disgraced politicians have limited options. When they decide to make a reappearance in public, they desperately need to go where they're guaranteed a friendly, even adulatory reception, and a minimum of booing. Which is why Richard M. Nixon in August 1979 chose the tiny (and heavily' [...] Most state agencies fall far short in providing taxpayers with access to information about their work, according to a new survey of transparency in government.
The John Locke Foundation this week unveiled nctranparency.com, an ongoing look at how state and local agencies in terms of making information available to [...]
North Carolina lottery director Tom Shaheen has been elected president of the multi-state association that runs the Powerball.
The Multi-State Lottery Association includes 32 lotteries. Shaheen will continue to run the North Carolina lottery. The multi state association establishes policies, oversees financial matters and approves new lotteries [...]
Carter Wrenn says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford easily tops any politician in North Carolina for sheer moxie.
Even John Edwards.
Wrenn, a longtime Republican political consultant, writes on his Talking About Politics blog that Sanford should get this year's Academy Award for political scandals. He recounts the whole sordid [...]
A Caswell County jury took a little less than an hour to find former Sen. Hugh Webster not guilty of embezzlement and exploitation of an elder adult Thursday afternoon.
Webster, 65, a certified public accountant of Burlington, has been on trial since Monday on charges that he [...]
An effort this week to help drum up interest in a bill to support past victims of forced sterilization in the state had an unfortunate opening line.
“Good Morning Eugenics Supporters,” read the e-mail sent from Rep. Larry Womble’s office.
Womble, a Winston-Salem Democrat, has been [...]
Ed Cone called Greensboro City Council candidate Ryan Shell’s proposal to filter porn at the public library ‘pretty thin gruel,’ yet he latches on to Shell’s idea to provide shelter for all city bus stops.
Everyone knows my views on public transportation, but I wouldn’t suggest that [...]
Entrepreneur Randy Lively is building a wireless-internet system covering the coastal strip from Morehead City to Jacksonville, Florida. As the Greater Wilmington Business Journal reports, Lively’s firm is setting up a network of repeater radios to provide the service:
Those looking for Internet connections within the range of the receivers [...]
The Fitzsimon File will be on hiatus from July 2-12. During this time please look for other NC Policy Watch commentaries such as the Weekly Briefing, Progressive Voices or Setting the [...]
OF COURSE THERE'S VIDEO: The least surprising thing that Andrew Young, former close aide to John Edwards, had to say in his book proposal: there's a sex tape. A year ago, that news might have been shocking. But a sex tape now fits comfortably along the [...]
The official story is State Highway Patrol Commander Walter J. Wilson Jr. decided to retire after a year on the job to spend more time with his family. That created the need for a successor, and Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed a lieutenant colonel, Randy Glover, to [...]
The following is the summary of the public option from Senate HELP Committee.
A Strong Public Option
The Community Health Insurance OptionA strong majority of Americans believe that a strong public option is an important component of any health reform bill that keeps costs down, expands coverage, and offers American families a [...]
The Hondurans are so concerned about potential despots, that Article 239 of their constitution states that any president who [...]
I have obtained a copy of the letter that Senators Kennedy and Dodd distributed to their colleagues on the HELP committee. It's public information, so will post the entire letter.
Dear HELP Committee Member:
No issue is more important to our constituents - or to our economy - than health [...]
Here’s a great column from Karl Rove about a family that gives me hope for this country.
[...]The City of Asheville expects to receive $509,460 for homelessness programs by way of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Now, it has to figure out where to stash the loot. It is soliciting pre-applications from potential subgrantees.
[...]The John Locke Foundation gave Asheville and Buncombe County B grades in transparency. There is, however, a great deal of difference in the way the two bodies handle information. Asheville publishes hundreds of pages of staff reports with each formal meeting agenda, which often runs three pages long. Buncombe [...]
