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Three Questions

Posted: Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Face it, most people are still celebrating and there just isn’t much buzz on the streets. So let’s turn the tables and ask for your response to three questions.

1. Who do you think was the Newsmaker of 2008? Our panel gave their responses last week and nominees included Governor-elect Bev Perdue, Reverend William Barber, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight. But the consensus was that the #1 NC Newsmaker of ’08 was Senator-elect Kay Hagan. Who do you think deserves the honor and why?

2. What is Governor Mike Easley’s legacy? How will he be remembered? Governor Easley lashed out at the News and Observer for the highly critical coverage they have given him and his administration. Was the media too hard on Easley or do you think he got off easy? How would you rate the news coverage given the Easley administration?

3. What are the keys to 2009? What should we be watching for? Give us your ideas, then tune in this week to hear what our panelists say.

Please let us hear from you. Make all entries less than 250 words and please no vulgarity or slanderous remarks.

Happy New Years

Comments

Mike Easley was allowed to lead and Emperor's New Clothes existence by the NC media. Only recently has his administration been scrutinized about its lack of accountability. Regardless of the gap between revenue and expenditures, how will the government processes be scrutinized so that we can hold Perdue's administration accountable? How will we get the truth about the State Health Plan? How will we get accurate information about whether or not the ABC's program has better prepared our students? (Is there any correlation between test scores and preparation for the global economy?) How will we get accurate information about how transportation projects are funded, designed, and supervised? And who is going to ask those tough questions? The News & Observer has cut staff and the size of its paper. WRAL reports, but rarely does investigative analysis. UNC TV is funded by the General Assembly so avoids controversy in its coverage. In an era of decreasing resources for the media, and a seemingly lack of interest in scrutinizing NC government, how will the tough questions be raised? Who will hold Governor Perdue's feet to the fire?

posted by E. C. Greaves on 12.31.08

The NC legislature has to save money. The thing to look for is if they are willing to do it.

Two years ago my district elected Joe Boylen. In an interview after he arrived in Raleigh he was astonished at all the programs. He commented to the effect that he wouldn't be surprised if there was a program for blue-eyed Albanians.

I don't recall our state government ever eliminating a program. NOT ONE! This is simply not done. If they tried, they could surely find a bunch of programs which are outdated, useless, redundant, or counterproductive. This would not be hard to do. The test is if our representatives in the House and Senate are willing to question the immortality of government programs.

An eliminated program is the gift that keeps giving -- it will never cost us taxpayers another penny. If they decide that it is easier to just increase our taxes again, it will be a bad year.

posted by Ken Hohoff, Southern Pines on 12.31.08

I believe many of the successes in the last election cycle were due to the ability to vote for all of one party with a single selection. Is this ever tracked?

posted by Bryan Bullis, Apex on 12.31.08

would like to offer comments to your question ...."What are (some of) the keys to 2009? What should we be watching for?...."

Well, you can expect the outcome of Senate Bill 599, which will be re-introduced in the General Assembly to be a big player in whether beach nourishment proponents get their way . The old Senate Bill, which got bogged down last year, is clear and precise. It defines "terminal groins" and explicitly sets out how they might be tested with two (2) projects adjacent to inlets along the North Carolina coast.

But, along comes a coalition of coastal beach towns/communities under the guise of Inlet Solutions... www.inletsolutions.org
all of them signing "resolutions of support"... http://inletsolutions.org/Support/tabid/57/Default.aspx

But, wait !!!....when the time comes for the County of Dare and the Town of Nags Head to sign their resolution.....they add in the following wording....
.... (underlined)...."Dare County supports the construction of pilot projects for terminal groin structures as well as jetties along the entire coast of North Carolina."....

In other words, Dare and the Town of Nags Head will be attempting to attach jetties onto the Senate Bill, in hopes of constructing "jetties" at the south end of the town limits which Nags Head shares with the National Park Service. National Park Service properties run from the south Nags Head boundary to Oregon Inlet and everyone knows that they will never approve a "terminal groin" on the north side of the inlet. A terminal groin does not fit the definition of what Nags Head seeks; that being a groin or jetties which they believe (erroneously) will stop the littoral drift of sand from their badly eroding beaches. In other words, Nags Head officials want to run a jetty out into the ocean between them and the NPS in an effort to trap sand which they believe is ending up in Oregon Inlet, 10 miles to the south..

And, all of this is occurring in the home county of Senator Marc Basnight, the sponsor of the original bill prohibiting jetties and other hard structures on our State beaches. Word is Basnight is softening on that issue. Stay tuned....

posted by Ray Midgett, Outer Banks on 12.31.08

Question 1. The newsmaker of the year was Jim Black. His force feeding eye exams to benefit his occupation coupled with his underhanded purchase of the votes to support a lottery the state did not want or need won him a prison sentence but more importantly it opened the publics eyes to the sad quality of representative we have in Raleigh and the moral price the state was paying for it.

Question 2 Governor Easley will share with Governor Hunt historic distain for his theatric self description of himself as “the education” Governor while state test scores were hidden or fudged to hide the dismal quality of our education system.

Question 3 I feel certain we will see highly placed legislators indicted and sent to prison as more of the Jim Black activities are exposed.

posted by Bob Quinn, Southport on 12.31.08

as for newsmakers, perhaps Kay Hagan is the most noteworthy. I would title the story "how in the world did North Carolina elect this woman to be a US Senator......" if she is re-elected in 6 years it will be absolutely amazing. I hope a democrat challenges her if nothing else. she will be the least cultured Senator in Washington. bring out the old spittoons.

posted by Kip Meadows on 12.31.08

With out a doubt Kay Hagan. I was her campaign person in Haywood County and there wasn't two or three people who knew who she was, but we worked hard and she won handily, although Liddy Dole was here for everything. She had been an absent Senator until election time.

Governor Easley's legacy? The Lottery
No, I do not think the press has been too hard on him.

I pray Bev Perdue will listen more to the people and not be swayed by lobbyists and big money.

posted by Juanita Dixon, Haywood County on 12.31.08

1. The Newsmaker of 2008 was President Obama. Many of our newly elected officials owe their success to the large turnout for the Presidential election and this includes our Senator-elect Hagan. Senator Dole never did much for NC and only came out against the OLF until late in the game. The Obama coattails were long and wide and even helped to elect our new state auditor unfortunately.

2. Governor Easley’s legacy is one of doing nothing. He is Governor Doolittle, but unfortunately even Liza was able to learn and improve herself.

The News and Observer finally looked into some of the issues created by this administration over the last 8 years. The mental health and parole commission situations are atrocious. The problems were caused by the Governor’s lack of leadership and our legislature’s inability to do anything more than wanting to blame someone else and never work for a solid solution.

Overall the Easley administration has gotten off very easy in the media coverage.

A) Mary Easley’s new cushy appointment at NCSU has barely been explored. She is co-teaching and co-directing this new department. Of all the qualified people in this state, they had to hire the first lady and at a very handsome salary.
B) Where did the highway monies go? No one has talked about the transfer of $100 million per year from the road fund to the general fund, why not? Instead of looking at actual monies raised from the gas tax and registration fees, we follow along like sheep and believe the ……. They feed us. We do not need to be taxed on our yearly mileage, these monies will be sucked into the general fund and never be used for our highways and public transportation.

3. The key to 2009 is tax breaks for research and development and a creation of universal healthcare.

Let’s help our existing businesses invest in new R&D especially in green energy and mass transportation.

NC can lead in healthcare for everyone, with a skyrocketing rate of unemployment, the strain on our system is going to grow. Fewer and fewer people will be able to qualify for it, much less pay for it. It is time to inject common sense into this discussion.

posted by Becton James on 12.31.08

Happy New Year and thank you for your usual fine show.

I was disappointed however that your discussion of the major problems to be solved in 2009 only included mental health care and the probation system. I heard nothing about our K to 12 public education system.

With almost 50% of Hispanics, over 40% of Blacks, and 25% of Whites not graduating in four years, we have a major problem which will not be solved unless you call attention to the situation. All the elected officials speak about the wonderful North Carolina University system and getting a college degree --how about a high school degree which is even more important.

See http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/stateDetails.jsp?Page=1&pYear=2006-2007

You might also insist that the State report the 2007-2008 results on the website. The test results, on a state wide basis, for a test that was given about six months earlier were much worse than earlier years but were only reported a week after the election. The website www.ncreportcards.org is an excellent site to get information but if it is not up to date, it is not useful.

Keep up the good work and thank you.

posted by Tom Hauck on 1.04.09

Of course Obama was the big news for 2008. What I found interesting was the election of Kay Hagan. Kay has been a quiet state Senator who has served dutifully on the Democratic bench under Lord Marc Basnight. Other than outspending and defeating her Republican incumbent (in a strong Democratic district), she's accomplished nothing else, politically. Her time in the NC Senate has revealed absolutely no leadership. She had nothing to say about fellow Democrat Jim Black, when his crimes began to be revealed. She never once stood up to Basnight or the power establishment. She quietly went along with all the back room deal-making at a time when our state sorely needed some strong leadership. I think Kay is a very likable, hard-working woman but, given her years in the NC Senate, I have no confidence that she will do anything in the US Senate other than follow Harry Reid's instructions.

The other side of this story is how Elizabeth Dole lost the election to a woman unknown beyond Greensboro. Obama's coattails are probably to blame some. But, Dole ran a dreadful campaign. She obviously never consulted with the "locals" in developing her ads. An early ad attacked Kay Hagan opening with the line, "they call her fibber Kay". No one ever called Kay Hagan that. Another ad tried to question Kay's faith. I found the ads repulsive. Dole just didn't do much as a senator, took for granted the citizens of NC and she did not deserve another term. Unfortunately, for the next six years, I don't think Kay Hagan will do much either. At the least, we will now have a Senator who has actually lived in NC since the 1960's.

posted by Keith Pearson, Greensboro NC on 1.03.09

I'm still trying to take in that Mike Easley really said that about his job being to make nice and the press's job being to be nice back. This confirms what I'd been suspecting all along: Easley has a jaw made of pure glass. To shift metaphors, he likes the kitchen but not the heat.

Of course The News and Observer has been pounding away at the all too many, only too deplorable deficiencies in how agencies whose oversight IS the governor's job do theirs. It's surprising that the N&O and the Charlotte Observer, with their diminished staffs, are doing as well as they do at what IS their job of riding herd on the public interest.

Even so, you have to wonder what is not being uncovered. The stretched-thin press will have it even tougher when the legislature gets going. And the Perdue administration shows disappointing indications that it will offer more of the same old inside-baseball governing style.
Mike Easley, Bev Perdue and every other North Carolinian--even Marc Basnight--should thank their lucky stars this state is still blessed with a press that knows what it's here for, whether governors do or not. And should hope it will still be so blessed four or eight years from now.

posted by Ann Berry, Raleigh on 1.03.09

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