You probably missed the news that the members of the overwhelmingly Republican state Senate finally came to their senses Monday and voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and provide... Read More
Day in and day out for years I sat in meetings watching and listening to men who lived and breathed politics and, almost to a man every one looked on telling a lie (or, more precisely, being caught... Read More
Today at 1 p.m., the North Carolina Senate Finance Committee will take up the Senate’s latest tax cut proposal: a bill that flies under the dubious official title, “Billion Dollar Middle Class Tax... Read More
Editorial published in Burlington Times-News, March 29, 2017. North Carolina's community college system originated in 1950 when the state superintendent of public instruction commissioned a study to... Read More
by Paul O'Connor, Capitol Press Association, published in Salisbury News, March 28, 2017. Let’s look back six years to the beginning of this Republican legislative era and ask: Has the GOP done what... Read More
I have to vote to break a tie on town council's votes all the time,” the mayor of a small North Carolina mountain town told a friend. “When they deadlock it is a 3 to 3 vote, with the same people... Read More
The North Carolina House passed a bill on Monday that would give concealed carriers the ability to carry their firearms in places of worship that also operate schools outside of school operating hours... Read More
There will be no quick solution for school districts grappling to address new class size requirements. You may remember that in mid-February the North Carolina House passed legislation (HB 13) in... Read More
State Rep. Dennis Riddell, R-Alamance, is under no illusion a constitutional amendment to impose legislative term limits will be an easy sell, even though the earliest anyone would be barred from... Read More
My father was Darth Vader. No, that doesn’t make me a Jedi Knight. My father was also Boss Hogg and a range of other bad guys. During his nearly two decades as principal of North Carolina’s... Read More
