The Blog

North Carolina has the (sad) distinction of having one of the worst-funded public education systems in the nation, and the NC General Assembly appears committed to keep it that way. Legislative leaders are not only extending the education budget cuts, they also want to divert taxpayer dollars from public to private schools. An analysis by NC [...]

More media outlets and bloggers are looking beyond the initial uproar over the IRS’s reprehensible targeting of 501(c)(4) applications from groups on one end of the political spectrum. The targeting is bad enough, but the scandal behind the scandal is the refusal of the IRS to challenge the biggest abusers of the c-4 tax-exempt privilege [...]

The movement against the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling continues to gain strength across the nation. Twelve states have already introduced resolutions at the state level calling on Congress to overturn the controversial decision, and there are efforts underway to make Wisconsin number thirteen. Similar efforts are underway here in N.C. To date,  fourteen [...]

Legislators who claim they are champions of free enterprise and competition are ready to use the power of Big Government to thwart the marketing plans of a California company that makes electric cars.  The company wants to bypass North Carolina auto dealers by selling its cars to customers through the Internet or company-owned stores. That’s seen [...]

If you haven’t seen this already, here’s a rundown of the wonderful things happening in North Carolina that the billionaire Koch brothers hope to replicate in other states. Not that they’ve given up on controlling the US Senate, White House, several major newspapers, energy policy . . . the list goes on. But their current [...]

The NC General Assembly is seeking increased control over local governments through bills that would prevent mayors and city councils from deciding what’s best for their communities. An article on Bloomberg’s Businessweek.com highlights two bills, one that would take way Asheville’s ability to manage their own water supplies, and one that would take management of [...]

Piles of money from pro-Democratic sources could not overcome the deeply conservative make-up of the Congressional district that on Tuesday elected tarnished former SC Gov. Mark Sanford over Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Groups backing Busch spent nearly $1 million on mostly negative broadcast ads, about five times the spending by outside groups supporting Sanford. Busch also [...]