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.

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.

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.

Imagine you’re running a match-play golf tournament.

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.

It was unclear if the dismissive remark was aimed at me or at my column of the day before.

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.

For the past year, some of North Carolina’s leading Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, left-wingers and right-wingers, tried something different.

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.

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.

Does size matter? Apparently, it does when it comes to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.

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.

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.

These are busy times for “political pretzels,” the contortionists who are party diehards.

Visit your old neighborhood and you might find most things look the same.

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.

Why have the attitudes of people in our state towards gay and transgender people changed so quickly and so dramatically?

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.

The election of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper should surprise no one.

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.

When it comes to House Bill 2, legislative Republicans are absolutely hapless.

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.

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.

In the days before national chains, my Uncle Ted would only stop at auto-club approved motels during our annual baseball trips.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!”

The leaders of North Carolina’s major universities are paid big bucks to make tough decisions, back them up and stick to them.