4.6—the number of unemployed workers for every job opening (Labor market will lose over half a million jobs if UI extensions expire in 2012, Economic Policy Institute, November 4, 2011) 70,000—number of unemployed workers in North Carolina who will lose their federally funded extended unemployment insurance benefits at the end of this year [Continue Reading...]
A bad decision and a waste of time Another week, another special session of the increasingly full-time General Assembly. This one had a new twist, a Sunday session. House and Senate leaders dragged legislative staff members and some incredulous lawmakers back to work early from their Thanksgiving holiday weekend to hold a Sunday [Continue Reading...]
Here is some extra holiday advice you will need this year thanks to the General Assembly. It’s probably not a good idea to argue with a stranger over a parking space at a state park or confront a reckless cyclist on your local greenway. They might have a loaded handgun hidden in their [Continue Reading...]
The most remarkable thing in the Senate debate and vote to repeal the Racial Justice Act (RJA) Monday was that no one seriously responded to the studies cited by RJA supporters that prove race plays a role in who is sentenced to death in North Carolina. The only conclusion you can draw from [Continue Reading...]
158—number of days since Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed House Bill 351 that would force voters to present a government issued photo ID before casting a ballot (Office of Governor Beverly Perdue, Press Release, June 23, 2011) 118—number of days since the House attempt to override veto of voter ID bill failed (N.C. General [Continue Reading...]
The holidays always bring more attention to the plight of low-income families and efforts to help them and this year is no exception. There are canned goods drives, expanded soup kitchens, clothing donation programs, toys collected for children and initiatives to help families who can’t afford their heating bills as December approaches and [Continue Reading...]
The House and Senate will reconvene Sunday night after Thanksgiving for the latest of the unusual special sessions called this year by Republican legislative leaders. Sunday sessions of the General Assembly are extremely rare and there is no reason for this one, other than the arrogance of House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate [Continue Reading...]
157—number of people on death row in North Carolina (N.C. Department of Correction) 40—percent of people on death row who were sentenced by juries that had zero or one person of color on them (North Carolina’s Death Row Inmates Let Statistics Back Up Bias Claims, ABA Journal, May 2011) 34—percent of qualified white [Continue Reading...]
It is not surprising that students at UNC-Chapel Hill are protesting a proposal to raise tuition 40 percent in the next five years. More people ought to be protesting with them. What is difficult to understand is why one member of the UNC Board of Governors is so upset by the plan and [Continue Reading...]
It is no secret that many Republicans and the right-wing think tanks that support them are ferociously opposed to public financing of elections, preferring instead to allow private wealthy special interests to control our elections and our politicians after they are elected. Republicans in the General Assembly have defunded North Carolina’s public financing [Continue Reading...]
112—number of days since Superior Court Judge Howard Manning ruled that budget changes made by the General Assembly to early childhood programs in 2011 denies at-risk children the sound, basic education guaranteed them in the N.C. Constitution (“NC judge orders pre-kindergarten services restored,” Associated Press, July 20, 2011) 95—number of days since Governor [Continue Reading...]
The never ending General Assembly session resumes in a few weeks with the House reconvening the Sunday after Thanksgiving and the Senate getting together the next day. There’s no indication of what lawmakers who are supposed to represent us will be discussing, though the adjournment resolution passed in Monday’s redistricting session mentions legislation [Continue Reading...]
Just a month after an encouraging October election, voters in North Carolina and across the country continued their rejection of extremist right-wing politics Tuesday. Wake County voters re-elected progressive incumbent Kevin Hill to the school board. Hill’s defeat of Republican tea party challenger Heather Losurdo in their runoff election means the two-year reign [Continue Reading...]
It is becoming increasingly impossible to keep up with the changing positions of Republican legislative leaders when it comes to Medicaid. They clearly want to slash the program. The budget they approved this summer is plain evidence of that, cutting more than $700 million in state Medicaid spending over the next two years, [Continue Reading...]
(The sources for items in this edition of Monday number are the facts cited in the redistricting lawsuits filed last week, facts taken from the legislative and congressional district maps approved by the General Assembly) 19—number of counties split in the state Senate redistricting map approved by the General Assembly 49—number of counties [Continue Reading...]
