Last night’s session of the House of Representatives was sadly emblematic of the 2011 session. Late into the night, lawmakers shoveled bill after bill out the door — many of them hugely regressive and counterproductive. It was toward the end of the evening, however, – sometime in the 10 o’clock hour — that the House majority really [Continue Reading...]
As today’s Weekly Briefing makes clear, the Republicans’ promising start to the 2011 session is quickly degenerating into a chaotic conclusion. Further evidence of this was provided last night when the Senate Rules Committee Chair moved to suspend a rule (45.1) — a rule designed to prevent bills from being completely rewritten at [Continue Reading...]
Members of the House Business Lobbyist’s Commerce Committee will take up what appears to be one of the more nonsensical legislative proposals of the session this morning. The subject matter is that most unpleasant of topics — bedbugs. As most everyone is aware, bedbugs are growing problem in the U.S. For decades, most of North America had been [Continue Reading...]
It’s hard to keep track of all the absurd gibberish coming out of the General Assembly these days. This is especially true in the numerous committee meetings in which no reporter or microphone is likely to be present. Occasionally, however, a lawmaker will say something so outrageous that an audience member will feel compelled to take notes and preserve [Continue Reading...]
Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt expressed great frustration this morning at the latest overnight rewrite of the Senate budget. Nesbitt strongly attacked both the process involved as well as the substance of the new version that was apparently made available minutes before midnight last night. Nesbitt accused the Senate Republicans of simply”rearranging the deck chairs on [Continue Reading...]
Fay Walton wrote out a suicide note last week, letting the thought of being worth more dead than alive step out from where it lurked in the back of her head. “If I just end it, maybe there’s a little insurance money that my husband will have,” she recalled thinking. The 52-year-old Salisbury [Continue Reading...]
After yesterday’s maddening budget exercise in the Senate, the big action on Jones Street shifts to the House of Representatives today. At noon, the House Banking Committee will again take up House Bill 810 — the conservatives’ gift to the high cost loan industry. Last week, members of the committee couldn’t [Continue Reading...]
Activists and advocates concerned about the policy choices advanced by the conservative majorities at the General Assembly this year will convene a “people’s hearing” this afternoon at the General Assembly. The event is slated for 4:00 pm in the Legislative Auditorium and will include health doses of “protest and prayer.” Click here [Continue Reading...]
The North Carolina Senate Republicans released their budget and tax proposals this morning. For the most part, there is little to distinguish them from the disappointing efforts of their House colleagues. Here is one, initial take. If you’re interested in examining the details in the differences between the House and the Senate proposals, Josh Ellis [Continue Reading...]
A House Judiciary subcommittee debated the proposal to repeal the Racial Justice Act this morning. You can watch a video of the entire committee meeting at WRAL.com. Not surprisingly, the enthusiasm of the supporters for speeding the death machinery of the state vis a vis people who would otherwise be sentenced to life [Continue Reading...]
The House and Senate Minority Leaders, Joe Hackney and Martin Nesbitt held a press conference this morning at which they leveled scathing attacks at GOP budget proposals to slash K-12 education. The event was highlighted by the appearance of a Randolph County kindergarten teacher named Jennifer Tuft who just recently received notice that her job [Continue Reading...]
Things have now sped past the point of absurdity in the GOP’s vengeful effort to block the renewal of unemployment benefits for 37,000 workers and their families. Today, in an act of amazing irony, the House Judiciary A Subcommittee took up a bill that purports to be about improving the review process for people who [Continue Reading...]
The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and Higher Education met this morning (see the WRAL video here) and confirmed a couple of things that we thought we knew: 1) The process for Senate consideration of the budget bill will take a while; the subcommittee will probably finish up in two weeks and then the [Continue Reading...]
Greg and Elizabeth Rain Georgaras, two of the 37,000 North Carolinians cut off from their employment benefits four weeks ago, can no longer afford to keep their two young children with them. It recently fell to family to take in Roger, 3, and Victoria, 2, while the Concord couple keeps looking for work [Continue Reading...]
The following is from an update sent out last night by the folks at the B.C. Health Access Coalition: By Adam Searing and Adam Linker TERRIBLE HEALTH EXCHANGE/MARKETPLACE BILL (H115) READY TO PASS NC HOUSE H115 is the bill that allows NC Blue Cross and other insurers to take over the new marketplace in [Continue Reading...]
