In a surprising twist to an already crowded North Carolina's 4th Congressional District primary, 2008 GOP nominee, B.J. Lawson, has committed to entering the field.
In a statement released on Tuesday, he wrote:
"Recent polling data suggests 2010 will be much different than 2008. Specifically, 72% [...]
From the Vortex Cabaret website:Critical comments on a blog post prompted a Republican candidate for Congress to call out his anonymous tormentors.
Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer did a post on Tim D'Annunzio's "Machine Gun Social," a fundraiser for his bid to win the nomination to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.
' [...]Governor Perdue has instructed state agencies by executive order to meet with “five unions or organizations (that) represent workers,” according to an Associated Press article reprinted in the Wilmington Star-News (Feb. 5, 2010, p.3B).
Some of us don’t like the idea. Clearly, this government initiative is intended to [...]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: February 9, 2010
Contact: Jennifer Blue (jenniferblue@nc.rr.com)
Fayetteville attorney Mary Ann Tally filed today to run for Superior Court Judge. Tally filed for one of two seats in Cumberland County Superior Court District 12C. The seats are currently held by Judge James Ammons and Judge Lynn Johnson. [...]
President Barack Obama is seen favorably by 52 percent of North Carolina voters, according to a new poll conducted for the Civitas Institute.
The poll of 600 likely voters conducted Jan. 19-21 found that 37 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Obama while 10 percent didn't have an' [...]
Former Gov. Jim Hunt didn't mention his successor, former Gov. Mike Easley by name Monday.
He didn't really have to.
Hunt, a Democrat, was introducing current Gov. Bev Perdue, also a Democrat, at the Emerging Issues Forum. As the Charlotte Observer's Jack Betts notes, Hunt piled [...]
Well, at least he's consistent:
Marcus Williams filed as a Democrat in the US Senate race. He actually really surprised some folks and got 13% in the primary two years ago, coming within five points of the much more heralded Jim Neal. I don't think he's a serious threat to' [...]
Former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt did his best Garrison Keillor imitation this week in introducing Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
[...]I just had a chance to read the NC Insight report on Medicaid that is garnering statewide media attention. Despite my cheeky post yesterday the report does a good job at describing the challenges faced by Medicaid.
Medicaid costs are escalating along with health costs in general and squeezing the [...]
EdCone.com has a quote from a Wall Street CEO that sums up the real problem with the financial industry.
NC Sierra Club has the details of Senator Richard Burr’s refusal to regulate dangerous coal ash.
The latest hate speech from the homophobes is discussed at Pam’s House Blend.
WataugaWatch has some [...]
I’m a frequent driver of I-85, I-40 and the Durham Freeway. Based on looking into the cars who regularly drift toward my lane and/or speed up and slow down at odd times, it is clear that children pose the greatest distraction to a driver. Not cell phones – children.
Even [...]
Today the Civitas Institute begins releasing our “20 Changes for 2010: A Primer for State Reform.” Here’s a slice of the introduction:
A majority of North Carolina voters believe state government is failing them. According to Civitas Institute January 2010 polling results, 54 percent of likely voters believe that the [...]
The recently effective HB 9, “No Texting While Driving”, is not enough regulation for the city of Chapel Hill. The Chapel Hill Town Council is considering banning the use of cell phones, or any handheld devices, while driving. Council member Penny Rich told WRAL; “banning cell phone use while driving would [...]
In today’s Washington Watch column (posted here) I give a quick rundown of remarks by U.S. Sec. [...]
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham is calling for tax breaks for small businesses as a way to help stimulate the economy.
Cunningham, a lawyer and former state senator from Lexington, proposes tax credits for businesses that hire new workers, the temporary elimination of capital gains taxes on [...]
In my ongoing effort to be fair and balanced, I commend today’s N&R lead editorial calling for state government to quit running up debt:
The state has “substantially exhausted” its general fund debt capacity until 2011, a statement issued last week by State Treasurer Janet Cowell’s office said. And combined [...]
From our good friends over at the NC Institute for Constitutional Law. More taxpayer giveaways:
$107,170 in tax incentives grants was approved on Monday, February 1, by the Statesville City Council for an unnamed furniture company to expand its local operations.
~ Jim McNally, Statesville Record & [...]
The absolutely best part of this story is that MARTA officials were told — repeatedly — that running a Yellow Line through the middle of a local Asian-American community was a bad idea.
And they did it anyway.
[...]Poof. From a $38m. loan down to $12.4m. Guess the lenders needed to book some tax losses.
But taxpayers are still on the hook for supplying several million more of that total. A look at the revenue tells us why:
There were 73,190 visitors in July 2009, compared with [...]
Royal Peasantry Boutique downtown is moving from 70 College to 80 Lexington next to Octupus Garden. 15-20 percent off!I have a hard time finding the story in the News & Observer’s article, “Two businessmen invested big in schools race”. It sounds like another tired “money buys election” story. I guess the N&O couldn’t bring itself to comment on three of the four school board races last fall where the losers actually outspent the winners. In the [...]
A judge has overturned the City of Greensboro’s annexation of the unincorporated McLeansville community.
Assistant City Manager Denise Turner said “Greensboro has spent about $450,000 providing items such as new street signs and trash cans and public safety services for the subdivisions — a figure that does not include the [...]
More convoluted logic from defenders of the public education monopoly, which leaves huge numbers of kids largely unprepared to pursue their dreams and become productive and successful. JLF’s Terry Stoops has the story over in The Locker Room.
[...]As California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger begs for you and me to help bail out his state’s outrageous, decades-long spending habit that’s led to a $20 billion deficit, we find out there’s no end to government bureaurcrats’ irresponsible actions.
Even as the state grappled with a budget crisis last year, [...]
Chris Fitzsimon reminds us today that no matter how much money the Puppetmaster spends to put on his show, the serious work of governing is for adults, not three-year-olds.
Pope and Luddy may be able to buy an election but their money can't change reality. The more' [...]The Technician reports on concerns from NC State professor Holly Brewer about changes to the K-12 history curriculum being considered by the state. Brewer and three others were outside the Emerging Issues Forum yesterday to draw attention to the issue. A Saturday protest may be in the works. See [...]
The man who "made" Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain, has drawn a Republican primary this year from one J.D. Hayworth, who hates (in no particular order), Barack Obama, immigrants, and John McCain.
WINNER TAKE ALL: The 2010 political season formally opened Monday, with the next nine months potentially having an outsized influence on Tar Heel politics for the next decade.
Of all the elections that will be held — from the marquee U.S. Senate race to courthouse contests — none will [...]
That didn’t take very long.
The plan fact is that the 2030 transit plan is totally unworkable now, despite all the official denials.
Bonus Observation: What happened to the 100,000 workers in Uptown for five corridors of rail to make sense, per Ron Tober circa 2006?
[...]
A weekend AP story about migration from state to state mentioned North Carolina a few times as a destination, but there’s more information in the IRS data the AP examined that is interesting.
North Carolina gained almost 41,000 households from 2007-2008 with more people moving here from [...]
Interesting little nuggets contained in The Charlotte Business Journal’s exploration of big unpaid tax bills among Charlotte’s big time developers. As we began tracking last month, the almost $600K tax bill for the EpiCentre is the largest bill still not paid. Here’s what owner Afshin Ghazi told CBJ [...]
WHQR covers Rep. Mike McIntyre’s two recent votes against spending bills advanced by the Democratic majority in Congress:
Congressman Mike McIntyre was the only Democrat in the North Carolina delegation to vote against the “Pay As You Go” legislation aimed at curbing federal spending. It requires any new spending to [...]
The Jacksonville Daily News zeroes in on the latest disclosures of wrongdoing by the Easley administration:
In this country, everyone has the right to private communication, even the governor of this great state. But there is a limit on what the governor can discuss with the expectation of complete privacy, [...]
The Saints’ Super Bowl victory over the Colts drew more viewers than any other TV program in history, topping the 1983 final episode of MASH.
Interesting that on such an occasion the baseball analogies start popping up. The AP blurb in today’s N&R print edition said MASH’s [...]
The Butler High grad adorns the cover of the 2010 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
This is her first time on the cover after four years of being featured in the iconic issue of the mag.
Must be that spring is not too far off. Or something.
What [...]
I was supposed to begin the long-delayed series of PTSD stories I’ve been planning, but before we begin, I need to tell y’all about something that just happened in my house.
For us it wasn’t a matter of life or death, but it is the kind of story that explains, perfectly, [...]
It was a good feeling to finally make the past several months of campaigning official by filing today for the NC Senate, Dist. 15, at the Wake County Board of Elections.
The Republicans were there in force, but I had Democratic Party company after a while. At this point, I am [...]
The Haywood County Commissioners suspended payments to the fairgrounds as a budget cutting measure last year. Now, the fairgrounds doesn’t have enough money to pay off its loans. The commissioners didn’t think they could afford to take another $40,000 out of their budget to help. However, they think the federal [...]
There is a huge demand for entrepreneurs to go into the business of providing cheap, unlicensed daycare for children under two-years old.
[...]From the files of "You've-Got-a-Lot-of-Nerve, Just-Who-The-Heck-Do-You-Think-You-Are?", State Rep. Bill Owens (D-Pasquotank) recently asked the administration of Elizabeth City State University to change its name.
Business North Carolina reported in their February 2010 issue that Owens assumed that such a [...]
Asheville City Council will be considering giving gay domestic partners of city workers benefits. It is argued that men and women living together, but not married, do not deserve the domestic partner benefits because they can get married.
Smart Growth guru Richard Florida has argued that gays bring wealth and [...]
Fascinating.
As we warned back in August, the new owners of The Park condo project have little incentive to finish off the project as condos. In fact, what has emerged now is a hybrid condo-hotel offering. Which requires a rezoning.
[...]Former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, has been catching a lot of flak in the lame stream media these last few days for her use of her own hand as a place to write notes. Frankly, your blogger thinks this is just plain silly.
Who hasn't had to [...]
photo of TEDxAsheville 2009 by Jason Sandford of the almighty Ashvegas blogThe largest women's college in the Southeast has done the "unthinkable' and made this blogger a very happy woman!
Meredith College, has dropped a conservative's least popular major, Women's studies. Located on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, the college added the major during your blogger's study there [...]
This is the coolest scientific article I've read in months, sent along by one of our BlueNC community members.
There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information. This appears' [...]
This morning, Tom Fetzer, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, called for the resignation of two major figures in Governor Beverly Perdue's administration.
During her campaign, Perdue promised to transform state government and make it transparent. Clearly, that hasn't happened [...]
What happens when Republicans run things? Squandered resources. Chaos for parents. Imminent tax increases. All hell breaks loose.
Hat tip to Progressive Pulse.
[...]
Updating the debate over the proposed Clarence E. Lighner Public Safety Center since our Indy story 12 days ago. That the proposal’s rollout was bungled is now a given; but the question remains, who bungled it? Was it City Manager Russell Allen’s fault? Or [...]
We first brought you news of the hiring of a “Part-Time Pier Construction Observer” over the summer. This temporary employee has an 11-month contract (July 23, 2009 – June 23, 2010), working 20 hours per week at an hourly rate of $44.03 (roughly $38,000 total). Main duties of this State-funded position [...]
The owners of a nursing home whose recent bankruptcy filing let them avoid paying a lawsuit judgment gave thousands of dollars to political candidates over the past 18 years.
John and Janice Weeks gave nearly $30,000 to candidates from both parties starting as far back as 1992.
[...]
This is really getting pretty ridiculous. Last year during the budget debate, state Republican (sorry, Republic) Party chair Tom Fetzer was going around the state complaining about the state’s inadequate education system even as he was calling for more tax cuts and draconian budget reductions. [...]
This is really getting pretty ridiculous. Last year during the budget debate, state Republican (sorry, Republic) Party chair Tom Fetzer was going around the state complaining about the state’s inadequate education system even as he was calling for more tax cuts and draconian budget reductions. [...]
