Imagine this hypothetical scenario: Someone wants to build a factory in your neighborhood, a change that would bring noise, pollution and heavy truck traffic. Your local government has to hold a public hearing and OK the proposal first, but that’s already happened before you even heard about it.
The debate about the future of the Affordable Care Act is surging once again. At this writing, I don’t know if Congress will make any progress this year. But I know that there is no more important issue in today’s politics, both nationally and right here in North Carolina.
During the July news doldrums, a young reporter asked how state politics have changed since I arrived in the capital.
If there is one indisputable observation to make about the state’s Republican legislative majority it is this: They are relentless in their efforts to protect their disproportional power.
The wrangling between federal judges and GOP legislators brings to mind an episode from early childhood.
Anyone who owns a Bible recording vital family dates is blessed in more than a religious sense.
While the legislature debated the state lottery years ago, a veteran lobbyist dismissed my argument that it would amount to state-sponsored gambling.
The fiscal crises in two states have liberals and conservatives chortling in glee.
Duke B. Paris, the longtime Alamance County register of deeds, liked to tell the story of when he was Gov. Kerr Scott’s campaign driver and they stopped to see a moonshiner who controlled the votes in his mountain hollow.
As a boy, I barely knew an adult who didn’t smoke.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The debate about the future of the Affordable Care Act is surging once again. At this writing, I don’t know if Congress will make any progress this year. But I know that there is no more important issue in today’s politics, both nationally and right here in North Carolina.
Wednesday, September 06, 2017
During the July news doldrums, a young reporter asked how state politics have changed since I arrived in the capital.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
If there is one indisputable observation to make about the state’s Republican legislative majority it is this: They are relentless in their efforts to protect their disproportional power.
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
The wrangling between federal judges and GOP legislators brings to mind an episode from early childhood.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Anyone who owns a Bible recording vital family dates is blessed in more than a religious sense.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
While the legislature debated the state lottery years ago, a veteran lobbyist dismissed my argument that it would amount to state-sponsored gambling.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
The fiscal crises in two states have liberals and conservatives chortling in glee.
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
Duke B. Paris, the longtime Alamance County register of deeds, liked to tell the story of when he was Gov. Kerr Scott’s campaign driver and they stopped to see a moonshiner who controlled the votes in his mountain hollow.
Wednesday, July 05, 2017
As a boy, I barely knew an adult who didn’t smoke.
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
State lawmakers said they were shocked at the findings of a five-part investigative series by The Charlotte Observer into North Carolina’s prison system -- as well they should be.
Decades from now, the most enduring and defining mark of this Republican legislature may well be charter schools.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Over the last four years, Republican legislators, fueled by veto-proof majorities in both houses, have refashioned the state’s tax code, voting laws, and its policies on education, the environment and social issues.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Imagine you’re running a match-play golf tournament.
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Some might find this column tasteless, but there is no denying that the unexpected need to replace a U.S. senator last week would have set off a political firestorm in Raleigh.
The state Senate took a chain saw to the University of North Carolina law school this month, cutting nearly a third of the state appropriation for one of the nation’s oldest law schools.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
It was unclear if the dismissive remark was aimed at me or at my column of the day before.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
The last major effort to repeal North Carolina’s anti-union right-to-work law occurred in 1949, so you can see the urgency of the legislature in moving this year to enshrine the law in the state Constitution. Can’t be too careful, you know.
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
For the past year, some of North Carolina’s leading Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, left-wingers and right-wingers, tried something different.
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
This is the story of how two North Carolina legislatures approached court reform – one with prudent professionalism and the other with seat-of-the-pants politics.
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
During the middle of the last century, there was a reform effort in North Carolina to depoliticize municipal government, removing power from the old ward bosses and making city government more businesslike.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Does size matter? Apparently, it does when it comes to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
North Carolina remains among the leaders in the South when it comes to quality of life, health, education, the economy and other important measures, according to a new in-depth 50-state survey.
I love beer, especially craft beer, and from the look of things about 5 p.m. most days so do many other North Carolinians.
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Reporters look for what is new, and that’s what the legislative press corps did that day years back when the budget was approved in just hours.
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
These are busy times for “political pretzels,” the contortionists who are party diehards.
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Visit your old neighborhood and you might find most things look the same.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
School officials say they need more money to fulfill an unfunded mandate from the legislature so, to exert political leverage on lawmakers, they’re citing the dreadful cuts they’ll have to make without a new infusion of cash.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Why have the attitudes of people in our state towards gay and transgender people changed so quickly and so dramatically?
Eric Cox, 16, of Sylva, has earned the highest advancement award the Boy Scouts of America offers to Scouts, the Eagle Scout rank.
The separation of powers principle shouldn’t be so vexing to state leaders.
In the new Republican-dominated Washington, North Carolina will have one of its most influential congressional delegations in recent memory.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The election of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper should surprise no one.
Wednesday, January 04, 2017
When historians assess Pat McCrory’s term, I don’t think he will be remembered as nearly as successful as North Carolina’s previous two Republican governors, Jim Martin and Jim Holshouser.
Lawyers know never to ask a question for which they don’t know the answer.
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
When it comes to House Bill 2, legislative Republicans are absolutely hapless.
Republican state lawmakers – disappointed with the outcome of the election – moved recently to curb the powers of Governor-elect Roy Cooper and his fellow Democrats.
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
The stars seemed aligned for Republican Pat McCrory to easily win re-election as North Carolina’s governor.
North Carolina’s most popular politician reappeared last week, almost four years after disappearing from public view.
Wednesday, December 07, 2016
At first glance, the late Sen. Jesse Helms and President-elect Donald Trump could not be more different.
The usual crowd was hanging out in the parking lot of my neighborhood firehouse in Connecticut, sometime about 1965, when Mr. Andy drove by in his new Oldsmobile 98.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
In the days before national chains, my Uncle Ted would only stop at auto-club approved motels during our annual baseball trips.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Although we can’t be certain who our next governor will be, we can be relatively certain that, for the fifth consecutive four-year term, our governor will be weak.
North Carolina Democrats may be on the verge of becoming relevant again.
Wednesday, November 09, 2016
There’s no telling where you’ll find the idea that’ll make your fortune, but mine came on day one of early voting.
By the time you read this, the election will be over. Some will be licking wounds, others celebrating.
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
When Hillary Clinton appeared with Michelle Obama last week at Wake Forest University, it followed a pattern of the Democratic presidential candidate campaigning in North Carolina’s major metropolitan areas.
A few years ago, a young friend joined us older guys for a beer at our local spot. He’d been watching a lot of Fox News and had had Rush Limbaugh on the radio that afternoon, so when the conversation moved from sports to politics, he emoted his anxieties.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Sometimes I wonder if televised debates don’t do more harm than good, confusing the public when candidates make arguments woven from issues taken out of context.
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Whether as Democrats while this was a one-party state or Republicans since the GOP’s 1972 resurgence, North Carolina conservatives have repeatedly used a reliable political tactic: Point at their opponents and holler, “Liberal! Liberal! Liberal!”
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
The leaders of North Carolina’s major universities are paid big bucks to make tough decisions, back them up and stick to them.
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