Items by Jack Betts

• 2009 not a good year for top incumbents

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 8
  In yesterday's blog I posted comments by Tom Jensen, analyst at Public Policy Polling, about Democrat Bev Perdue's bad popularity numbers and the mid-year "fumbles" that helped make her among the eight least popular governors in the country.
  
  Today Jensen has bad news for Republican Sen. Richard Burr, [...]
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  Posted: December 16, 2009, 2:23pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Charlotte lawyer defends judge on inmate releases

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  Gov. Bev Perdue has been sharply critical of a series of court rulings that may result in the release of some murderers and other inmates sentenced to life in prison back in the 1970s, but a Charlotte attorney serving as president of the N.C. Bar Association says the judges in [...]
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  Posted: December 16, 2009, 2:21pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue's 'fumbles' reflected in numbers mired in 20s

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  As anyone who pays attention to polling already knows, Public Policy Polling in Raleigh is regarded as a Democratic institution, doing a lot of work for Democrats. But they've also noticed that PPP doesn't pull punches for Democrats, either.
  
  Case in point: Gov. Bev Perdue, a Democrat and [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2009, 11:20am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Analyst: Basnight era is over

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 8
  Analyst: Basnight era is over
  
  Political analyst John Davis, who for years has gauged the business-friendly tendencies of the N.C. General Assembly, says the upcoming retirement from the legislature of Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, is one more sign how much the legislature is changing -- and becoming less business [...]
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  Posted: December 10, 2009, 9:18am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Sen. David Hoyle retiring at end of term

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 18
  State Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, has announced he will not run for reelection in 2010. In a statement from the office of Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight -- Hoyle's roommate in Raleigh -- the nine-term Democratic legislator and cochair of the powerful Senate Finance Committee said:
  
  To every' [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 2:14pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• GOP caucus proposes tax reform, spending principles

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Sunday's column on tax reform mentioned the General Assembly's Republican Joint Caucus proposal for tax and spending reforms. The proposal, outlined in a news release under the names of House Republican Leader Skip Stam of Wake, Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger of Rockingham and Joint Caucus Leader Eddie Goodall of [...]
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  Posted: December 09, 2009, 9:35am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Readers fire back on tax reform

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  Sunday's column about tax reform brought several responses, including one from a Charlotte businessman who moved here years ago because of its attractive tax atmosphere and who's about to move his information technology business elsewhere:
  
  I enjoyed your opinion article in the Observer yesterday as this topic has [...]
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  Posted: December 08, 2009, 11:08am EST
  by Jack Betts

• First snow

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 0
  
  I was up in the early hours stoking the woodstove with some twisted black locust we had cut and split last summer when I heard the rain rattling on the tin roof. The forecast had called for a rain-snow mix, and from the sound of it [...]
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  Posted: December 07, 2009, 3:20pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Lessons from an old newspaperman

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Ed Hodges' death the other day caught me by surprise. He was only 90 and I thought he was off somewhere getting ready to cover a presidential trip to Copenhagen or something. He had been covering life in North Carolina -- and for a time flying with presidents -- for' [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 1:42pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Charlotte lawyer's views on Loop financing plan

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  State Treasurer Janet Cowell's office relied in part on an opinion by Charlotte bond attorney Steve Cordell of the firm McGuire Woods that a statute allowing for design-build-finance projects such as Gov. Bev Perdue wants to use to complete the Outer Loop can't be done the way her administration plans.' [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 4:27pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• More trouble for Dems

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  N.C. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, a Democrat who plans to step down from his post by the end of the year to become Gov. Bev Perdue's chairman of the N.C. Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission, has been accused of engaging in insider trading in a business where he is [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 3:01pm EST
  by Jack Betts

• Quick change at Wake ed board

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  For those who have kept an eye on how Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools have changed since a 1999 federal court decision altered CMS' race-based school assignment policy, the recent Wake County Board of Education election resonated with the same concerns. Many Wake County parents have been unhappy with school assignment policies' [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 10:57am EST
  by Jack Betts

• Outer Loop loopiness

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  The Perdue administration's plan for financing completion of the Interstate 485 Outer Loop may be the ticket to getting that project underway and finishing it years ahead of time, but two state agencies say their reaction is a little bit different from initial reports. I asked the Department of Justice, [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 9:46am EST
  by Jack Betts

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

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  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

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  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?

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  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?

  —This Old State

  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.

  —This Old State

  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

  —This Old State

  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'

  —This Old State

  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

• Easley on the stand

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  During Wednesday's historic State Board of Elections hearing that offered the spectacle of a former governor being grilled publicly by board members, there was a short break and Easley wandered over to where I was reading the New York Times. Before the hearing resumed I had time for one question:' [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 6:30pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Sausage-making and campaigns

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  We've all heard the old line about legislation and sausage -- that neither should be watched in the making. But for stomach-turning details, it would be hard to beat the N.C. State Board of Elections hearings in Raleigh this week. If you've tuned in to the Web streaming or watched [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 1:25pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• 'Rule One of Politics'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  They broke ground Thursday morning on the rolling land that once was a dairy farm that supplied food to Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh -- but which will soon be the home of a new research library named for former Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. It's to be quite a' [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 3:28pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• The 'statriotic' CD 'Old North State'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  
  Politics and public policy get most of the attention on This Old State, but I've got to take notice of notable contributions about the culture of the place when it arrives. And just the other day came a note about the Red Clay Rambler's latest CD [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 2:36pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Wedding present for GOP chief Tom Fetzer

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  Political analyst and consultant John Davis always has an interesting take on North Carolina politics. Davis cut his political eyeteeth in Mississippi before settling in this state, and his savvy analysis of state legislative and other races has always brimmed with insight.
  
  Davis took note the other [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 12:19pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Burr, Bowles: Once adversaries, now friends

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Dome today has a piece about the ongoing friendship and collaboration of UNC System President Erskine Bowles, a Democrat, and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican, and their economic summit at N.C. Central University in Durham.
  
  The two have become friends since their bruising 2004 campaign [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 4:44pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• A brighter outlook for Republicans

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Those looking for continuing signs of a brighter future for Republican candidates will find it in the latest work by a Democratic polling firm. Public Policy Polling in Raleigh does a lot of work for Democrats, but its findings have a lot of credibility among political observers across the spectrum [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 3:28pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Maxine (and Ben) Swalin's legacy: A symphony

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Generations of North Carolinians and newcomers alike may take it for granted that the North Carolina Symphony has always been there, and always will be -- an assumption that ignores the fact of the symphony's fragile beginnings and its fragile finances that threaten its future. But the symphony' [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 11:22am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Burr to avoid 'serious challenge' in 2010?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  The other day, PPP, a Democratic polling firm, found things were looking before for Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's re-election chances in 2010. Now a Washington Web site, The Hill, has sensed the same thing. Blogger Aaron Black says Burr could avoid a serious challenge next year. Here's his [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 12:05pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Neighborhood schools advocates win in Wake

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  Voters in Wake County sent more than a message Tuesday when they overwhelmingly voted into office three opponents of Wake County School's diversity policy and advocates for more neighborhood schools. Voters also came close to putting a fourth critic of the existing policy into office, but there may be a' [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 9:30am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Wake schools v. CMS, by the numbers

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 9
  Chris Fitzsimon, a former newsman, advisor to former House Speaker Dan Blue and now policy analyst and blogger for N.C. Policy Watch (www.ncpolicywatch.com) at the N.C. Justice Center in Raleigh, looks at some interesting numbers as voters in Wake County go to the polls today in an election that could [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 7:50am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Burr's in a 'lot better' position, PPP says

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  Earlier this year, before the numbers on Democrats' popularity went over the edge, a lot of Democrats were salivating about the prospects of knocking off Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who is up for re-election in 2010. Among their thoughts was this: If the relatively unknown Kay Hagan could bump' [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 9:39am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Education leadership and illegal immigrants

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 12
  Time was when such icons of N.C. public life and progressive politics as UNC President Emeritus Bill Friday and former Gov. Jim Hunt set a standard for Democratic politicians aspiring to higher office. In April 2005, Hunt and Friday and several legislators, including a few Republicans as well as Democrats, [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 4:27pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue has 'no unique appeal' for women voters

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  Tom Jensen has thought about Rob Christensen's article in Sunday's papers about some grumbling among women about Gov. Bev Perdue's failure to appoint more women to top posts. Here's a link.
  
  Thing is, Perdue owes women little -- at least not based on results in 2008, Jensen [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 3:09pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Remembering two crusading newspapermen

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  Two notable newspaper executives who made a big impact on North Carolina have died in the past week. One of them was the visionary Frank Batten of Norfolk, Va., who turned his family's interest in two Norfolk newspapers to fashion the Landmark Communications group, which since the early 1960s has' [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 2:01pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• The BBQ argument isn't just East v. Piedmont

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 7
  
  
  Those of us who live in upland places such as the Piedmont may get the notion that the main argument over barbecue in North Carolina is about Eastern N.C. style -- that is, whole hog, with a dip made mostly from water and vinegar [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 3:13pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• AG Cooper joins fight against OLF in ...

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  AG Cooper joins fight against OLF in N.C.
  
  Reinforcing the adage that it's never too late to do the right thing, N.C. Attorney General Cooper, a Democrat, has backed U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican, in opposition to the Navy placing an outlying landing field in northeastern North Carolina.' [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 2:39pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• The 'Ox Meter' for Rep. Joe Wilson?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., surely became a household name across the land Wednesday night, though perhaps not in a way he'd prefer. He apologized for shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during the president's speech on health care reform in the U.S. House chamber at the Capitol.
  [...]
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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 3:10pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Russell Walker, children's advocate

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  I missed the obituary over the Labor Day weekend about the death of one of the strongest advocates for children in the General Assembly for nearly 20 years. Sen. Russell Walker, a Democrat from Asheboro in Randolph County, died Sept. 2 at Randolph Hospital and a memorial service was held [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 10:06am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Sticking it to the governor's cabinet

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  I've covered a lot of press conferences in four decades of covering N.C. politics and I don't recall another like the one Gov. Bev Perdue had Tuesday afternoon. She brought much of her cabinet and other ranking state officials to promote the importance of getting seasonal flu shots for the [...]
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  Posted: September 09, 2009, 9:33am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Lost Colonists -- Cedar Island? Robeson County?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 0
  A column about an article in the N.C. Historical Review about The Lost Colony LINK prompted some e-mail from North Carolinians who, like many of us, are fascinated about what happened to the colonists more than 400 years ago. The article, by Prof. David La Vere at UNC Wilmington, [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 11:37am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Opinion polls and political footballs

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  Public Policy Polling has more opinion poll results -- this time on which college football team will be best this year. There's no clear choice, but the top candidates, PPP says, are UNC Chapel Hill's Tar Heels and Appalachian State University's Mountaineers.
  
  Here's Tom Jensen's analysis:
  
  Public Policy [...]
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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 10:55am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Spectator sports: Racin' and politickin'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  My friend John Davis, a savvy political analyst and consultant, notes in his latest political report that Democrats are in the pole position as the 2010 political season begins Labor Day. Democrats control the legislature, the governor's office and the 10-member Council of State (though not the, as he [...]
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  Posted: September 03, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• At least one 'Bob' Hunter is running for Supreme Court

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 1
  N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Bob Hunter is announcing his plans today to run for the N.C. Supreme Court next year. Hunter, a former member of the N.C. House of Representatives, has been a member of the Court of Appeals for 11 years and ran unsuccessfully for the Supreme Court [...]
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  Posted: September 01, 2009, 10:54am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Where is N.C.'s 'Down East'?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  A recent column on the art and craft of wooden boatbuilding mentioned "Down East" North Carolina and referred to it as that part of the state on the yon side of the lower Neuse River -- and communities such as Davis, Stacy and Atlantic. (I know: Maine has its own [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 1:20pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Patricia Sullivan, chancellor extraordinaire

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 7
  
  Patricia Sullivan was among the most memorable university presidents I've met in more than 40 years of covering North Carolina.PHOTO She had a rare combination of institutional vision, an uncanny common sense and, perhaps rarer yet, a warm personality that made her instant friends with students,' [...]
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  Posted: August 21, 2009, 10:52am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Why is N.C. Senate delegation so anonymous?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 8
  Time was when North Carolina probably had one of the most recognizable Senate delegations in the country. That's purely conjecture on my part, but in 1973 and 1974, North Carolina was represented in the U.S. Senate by two persons often in the news. One was U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, a [...]
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  Posted: August 19, 2009, 3:30pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Readers liked them oysters just fine, thank you

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  Sunday's column on oyster restoration efforts in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound evidently sparked good memories of oyster-eating expeditions. Here are a few:
  
  A professor of politics and public policy wrote:
  Your column reminded me of one of my favorite political stories. Robert Maestri was mayor of New [...]
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  Posted: August 18, 2009, 12:07pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue: Tax reform a 'huge must-do'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 22
  
  The day the 2009 legislative session ended, Gov. Bev Perdue said that tax reform will be a priority for her next year. Mark Binker, capital correspondent for the Greensboro News & Record, reports on his blog that Perdue regards revenue restructuring as "a huge must-do" [...]
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  Posted: August 12, 2009, 10:24am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Obama below 50% in N.C.

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 47
  President Obama's popularity in North Carolina continues to decline and now is below the 50 percent threshhold, says Public Policy Polling analyst Tom Jensen.
  
  Jensen says only 46 percent of N.C. voters approve, while 47 percent disapprove. It was up around 54 percent just four months ago.
  [...]
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  Posted: August 11, 2009, 12:39pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Like foxes on the run

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  We've seen some interesting wildlife in our neighborhood in the 32 years we've lived here in what's now called Midtown Raleigh. When first we came this neighborhood was up on the north side, but as folks have moved in, the city has become part of a sprawling metro area. Our' [...]
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  Posted: August 11, 2009, 11:57am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Yadkin River Trust bill defeated

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 10
  The Yadkin River Trust bill might momentarily have been on a fast track, but it led straight to defeat in the House last night on a 39-66 vote a little after 10 p.m. Here's text of AP's story this morning:
  
  RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue's administration' [...]
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  Posted: August 07, 2009, 8:09am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Yadkin River bill on a fast track

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 12
  My friend Joyce Fitzpatrick passes along this blogpost from Alcoa spokesman Gene Ellis about the sudden and rapid moves in the legislature to pass a Yadkin River Trust Bill to take over Alcoa Power Generating's hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. Here's the text:
  
  You never know what’s going [...]
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  Posted: August 06, 2009, 9:25am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Revised Yadkin River Trust squeaks by committee

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  On a dramatic 8-7 vote, the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee approved a revised bill that would create a Yadkin River Trust to purchase and operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric plants for which Alcoa Power Generating Inc. is seeking a new federal license. A week ago, the bill stalled [...]
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  Posted: August 05, 2009, 4:04pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Will Yadkin River Trust get another chance?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  I missed last week's session of the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee, when the panel voted against a motion on a bill to create a Yadkin River Trust that might eventually purchase and operate Alcoa Power Generating's hydroelectric plants on the Yadkin River. Alcoa is seeking a federal license [...]
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  Posted: August 04, 2009, 5:02pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• McCrory leads Perdue in new Civitas poll

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 24
  The Civitas Institute, associated with several organizations such as the John Locke Foundation funded by the family of Art Pope, has a new twist on the “Gov. Perdue's popularity keeps falling” theme. It notes in its new poll that outgoing Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory now leads Perdue by [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 10:25am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Reader: Mountaintop removal is why we need windmills

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  A reader argues that the mountaintop removal method of mining coal for power plants is one key reason why North Carolina needs commercial wind farms. I don't know of any coal mined in North Carolina by this method, but I do know that N.C. utilities buy a lot of coal' [...]
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  Posted: July 23, 2009, 8:35am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Yadkin River Trust bill and Hugo Chavez?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 9
  Alcoa Power Generating Inc. issued two new items on its blog today aimed at dampening support for a bill in the legislature to create a Yadkin River Trust to operate the hydroelectric plants on the Yadkin for which Alcoa is seeking new federal licenses. Alcoa's N.C. property manager Gene Ellis [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 6:42pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Readers recall windmill noise over Boone

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 12
  Some readers of Sunday's column on the possibility of building industrial wind turbines in the Western N.C. mountains reminded me of what happened a generation ago when an experimental windmill was erected in Watauga County on Howard’s Knob overlooking the town of Boone. That device made a racket that eventually [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 9:43am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Speaker relents; Yadkin River bill up in committee next week

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  House Speaker Joe Hackney has given the go-ahead to Rep. Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, to hold another committee meeting on the proposed Yadkin River Trust bill. Hackney last week asked Tarleton to cancel this week's meeting, at which Chairman Tarleton planned for his House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee to vote [...]
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  Posted: July 22, 2009, 9:38am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Catching up on the Alcoa controversy

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  Here's a lonnnnngggg blogpost catching up on some developments in the legislature and elsewhere regarding Alcoa's quest for another federal license to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric projects.
  
  Gene Ellis, Alcoa property manager for its North Carolina operations, posted the following on his blog after appearances before the House [...]
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  Posted: July 21, 2009, 11:13am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Former Supreme Court justice beats the Guv

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  For Bob Orr, Courtroom 5A in the Wake County Courthouse was a happy place to be at midday on Friday. It was there that Orr, a former associate justice of the N.C. Supreme Court and now the executive director and senior counsel of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, won [...]
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  Posted: July 20, 2009, 10:53am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Judge: School governance 'unconstitutional'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 8
  Judge Robert Hobgood ruled Friday that Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson's authority to run the state schools bureaucracy cannot be transferred to an executive officer answerable to the State Board of Education without a Constitutional amendment approved by the state's voters. The current governance arrangement, he ruled, is unconstitutional.
  [...]
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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 12:47pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Hackney puts brakes on Yadkin River Trust bill

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  Here's an interesting development on a Senate-passed bill that has pretty broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly to create a Yadkin River Trust that might one day own and operate the hydroelectric dams for which Alcoa Power Generating Inc. is seeking another 50-year license to operate: House Speaker Joe [...]
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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 10:50am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Ticking off the judge

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  Wake County school board member Ray Margiotta didn't think much of the deal when former House Speaker Jim Black, serving a five-year-plus sentence in federal prison, was allowed to pay off half of a $1 million fine with the transfer of some land he used to own in Matthews. Margiotta' [...]
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  Posted: July 16, 2009, 2:56pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Wind farms on Ocracoke? Nope

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 11
  The state Senate has suspended debate on a bill to control the permitting of industrial wind farms, apparently over a dispute between competing environmental concerns in Western North Carolina. Some environmentalists, and others, want to be able to put commercial wind turbines on mountain ridges, where they'll get the best' [...]
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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 5:47pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue: Regulate utilities' coal-ash ponds

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  Gov. Bev Perdue is calling for legislature to regulate power companies' coal ash, the leftover waste from coal-fired power plants. Utility companies have opposed more regulation of coal ash ponds, though more recently they have embraced the idea of some regulation, following public reaction after last winter's breach of a' [...]
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  Posted: July 14, 2009, 4:22pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Readers weigh in on Perdue tax proposals

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 7
  Readers of Sunday's column on the state budget shortfall noticed that a url link to Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed tax changes wasn't working, so here's a link.
  
  
  
  Look on the third page for the 37 tax changes she suggested the legislature consider. Meanwhile, readers weighed' [...]
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  Posted: July 13, 2009, 11:14am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• U.S. Attorney for the Easley District of N.C.?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., has made recommendations for new U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern, Middle and Western districts of North Carolina. Barbara Barrett has the story here. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., has made recommendations for new U.S. Attorneys for the Eastern, Middle and Western districts of North Carolina. Washington Correspondent [...]
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  Posted: July 10, 2009, 1:20pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Best places to stand in North Carolina?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 9
  My colleague Mary Newsom has pointed readers to the fun in coming up with a list of best places to stand in Charlotte.
  
  And here's a Web site that invites readers to vote on the 100 best places to stand in the United States.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: July 08, 2009, 2:37pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Sustainable energy? Get wind of this

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  What started out as a bill to give the Department of Environment and Natural Resources the authority to issue permits for large electricity-producing wind turbines -- and preventing their location on ridgetops blocking views in Western North Carolina -- wound up as a much different bill in the Senate Agriculture, [...]
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  Posted: July 07, 2009, 3:32pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Yadkin River Trust bill up for hearing Tuesday

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  A state House committee has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow on a Senate-passed bill that would create a Yadkin River Trust to operate the hydroelectric plans now owned and operated by Alcoa Power Generating Inc. The hearing before the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee on Senate Bill 967 will [...]
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  Posted: July 06, 2009, 3:18pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Head of Water Rights Committee resigns

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  The head of the N.C. Water Rights Committee, Raleigh City Council member Nancy McFarlane, has resigned. It apparently was related to the committee head's reluctance to answer questions recently when Carolina Journal inquired about the group, which opposes a new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for Alcoa Power Generating Inc. [...]
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  Posted: July 02, 2009, 12:02pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Perdue names Republican to judgeship

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Gov. Bev Perdue has appointed Eric Levinson to the Superior Court bench in Mecklenburg County. It's an interesting appointment because Perdue is a Democrat and Levinson is a Republican who has served before as a judge prior to going to Afghanistan two years ago for the Bush Administration Justice Department [...]
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  Posted: June 30, 2009, 1:43pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Corruption hotline, anyone?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Former State Auditor Les Merritt may be out of office but he's not out of the corruption hotline business. Merritt, who lost his seat in the 2008 election, announced Monday that he and former FBI agent Frank Perry are setting up an ethics foundation to, among other things, hear complaints [...]
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  Posted: June 29, 2009, 4:04pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Hunt most popular gov; Easley the least

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 10
  Comes word from Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen that former Gov. Mike Easley, under fire for all sorts of things that happened on his watch, is the least popular of former N.C. governors in a new poll. Current Gov. Bev Perdue isn't far behind. http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2009/06/nc-voters-high-on-hunt-down-on-easley.html Jim Hunt, meanwhile, was found' [...]
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  Posted: June 18, 2009, 10:58am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• The lady in red wants more revenue

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  The state Capitol was filled with folks wearing red shirts, red blouses and red jackets -- including the governor -- Wednesday morning at a rally to generate support for raising more state tax revenues. Gov. Bev Perdue -- a self-described "old teacher" -- spoke of her seventh grade teacher back [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 1:36pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Stanly County lawyers weigh back in

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 8
  Stanly County has replied to Alcoa's filing last week that argued there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates.
  
  Stanly County says Alcoa wasn't telling the full story, and asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to' [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 12:09pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Parsing the N.C. Water Rights Committee

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  A longtime Observer reader recently asked me what I knew about the N.C. Water Rights Committee, which represents the views of citizens who oppose the request of Alcoa Power Generating Inc. for a renewal of its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license to operate hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. Alcoa [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 10:11am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Lottery: 'Where does the money go?'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 20
  One reader had a sharp reaction to my Sunday column asking "What were they thinking?" She wanted to know: "Where does the money go?"
  
  The column was about former Gov. Mike Easley and his arranging a job for his wife at N.C. State University, a process that has [...]
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  Posted: June 15, 2009, 4:07pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Alcoa: No reason to delay Yadkin permit

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has filed a statement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on why there's no reason to delay granting another permit to operate the Yadkin River hydroelectric generating units it operates. Here's a link.
  
  Alcoa says “The present effort to block the issuance of [...]
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  Posted: June 12, 2009, 2:43pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Lawmakers once met six days a week, sort of

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  While the House contemplated an unusual Friday session this week to consider its version of the state budget and a $784 million package of tax hikes, it reminded me that earlier legislatures were routinely in session on Fridays, though those sessions often were short. The current schedule for the House [...]
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  Posted: June 11, 2009, 8:38am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Should businesses cut more roadside trees?

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  
  Alan White of Charlotte read Wednesday's editorial about a proposal by billboard companies and other businesses to allow more cutting of vegetation and trees in the public right of way, and was reminded of a scene he saw while driving down U.S. 74 near Rockingham about' [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 10:44am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Sam Ervin, Watergate and the N.C. State upheaval

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  When N.C. State Chancellor Jim Oblinger resigned Monday following a series of revelations about his role in the hiring of former N.C. First Lady Mary Easley, one thing many people found difficult to believe was that he could not remember that role until he saw the e-mails he had sent [...]
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  Posted: June 09, 2009, 11:20am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Bowles: N.C. State e-mails 'made me sick'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 20
  UNC President Erskine Bowles was not around when former First Lady Mary Easley was first hired to run a speakers program at N.C. State University. And when she was given new duties and a dandy compensation package of $170,000 a year, he didn't like the way it was handled and' [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 6:00pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Former UNCC Chancellor Woodward to fill in at N.C. State

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 11
  Former UNC Charlotte Chancellor Jim Woodward of Charlotte has been tapped to serve as interim chancellor at N.C. State, where he once taught, while the university searches for a replacement for former N.C. State Chancellor Jim Oblinger. Oblinger resigned this morning.
  
  UNC President Erskine Bowles said, "I am extremely" [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 11:12am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• S.C., N.C. out of unemployment funds

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 44
  The investigative Web site Pro Publica (propublica.org) notes that South Carolina and North Carolina are among 14 states nationally whose unemployment funds have run out of money because they didn't put enough money aside to keep it going in a pinch or because they paid out too much in claims.' [...]
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  Posted: June 04, 2009, 4:51pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• DOT board praises former member

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 4
  When Kinston businessman and N.C. Board of Transportation member Cameron McRae resigned from the DOT board last month after disclosure that neither he nor former Gov. Mike Easley had disclosed flights he had provided Easley while still governor, some DOT officials evidently were unhappy with the treatment McRae got and [...]
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  Posted: June 04, 2009, 2:20pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• A lone voice for tax hike for schools

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 7
  State schools CEO William Harrison is providing some leadership where other key state officials are remaining quiet. In an interview with reporter Lynn Bonner of the News & Observer, Harrison called on state legislators to raise taxes and keep schools and other state agencies from the worst of [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 8:58am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Hard to imagine Allred 'fading away'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 5
  D.G. Martin, the former Charlotte lawyer, political candidate and later lobbyist for the UNC sytem, has a few kind words for former state Rep. Cary Allred. He resigned effective Monday afternoon following complaints filed by fellow Republican legislators about a bad evening Allred had April 27. (Allred said he had [...]
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  Posted: June 01, 2009, 3:15pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Jim Stephenson: A good man in a tough business

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 7
  This has been a hard week for North Carolinians who love the coastal region -- and those who work hard at preserving what is best there. Earlier this week David Stick, noted author, historian and coastal conservationist, died at age 89. He had a rich and full life and a [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 3:52pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Stay should halt Alcoa license process, Stanly County says

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 2
  Opponents of Alcoa Power Generating Inc. have hailed a state administrative law judge's decision blocking at least temporarily the issuance of a state water quality permit that Alcoa needs to proceed with its request for a renewal of a 50-year license to operate hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. Alcoa' [...]
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  Posted: May 28, 2009, 9:11am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Judge blocks Alcoa's water quality permit

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 3
  An administrative law judge in Raleigh has at least temporarily blocked a state permit that Alcoa Power Generating Inc. needs in its quest for a renewal of its federal license to continue operating its hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. Gov. Bev Perdue has intervened in that process and last [...]
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  Posted: May 27, 2009, 4:13pm EDT
  by Jack Betts

• On the death of David Stick

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 6
  It would be nearly another half century before I met David Stick, but when I was a boy and first got my hands on his "Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast," I gobbled up every word he wrote, every description of the rugged inlets and treacherous [...]
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  Posted: May 27, 2009, 10:13am EDT
  by Jack Betts

• Readers fire back on 'What happened in Raleigh?'

  —This Old State

  Number of comments: 9
  In a Sunday column I asked readers whether they thought the 1977 gubernatorial success amendment had anything to do with the problems of late with public corruption in Raleigh, and to send me a note. A lot of them held Democrats responsible -- they were, after all, in power when [...]
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  Posted: May 26, 2009, 6:45am EDT
  by Jack Betts