The folks determined to write discrimination into the state constitution are pulling out all the stops to mislead voters about the amendment on the ballot in the May 8th primary. The pro-discrimination forces don’t want voters to consider the damage the amendment could do to children, families, and workers, gay and straight, across [Continue Reading...]
What North Carolina courts have to look forward to if Amendment One becomes law For months now, prominent and well-respected lawyers and law professors of both political parties have been raising questions about the impact that Amendment One will have on the North Carolina courts and law enforcement systems. You don’t [Continue Reading...]
The General Assembly comes back to town in two weeks for the short session that is traditionally dominated by discussion and debate about the budget as lawmakers make adjustments the two-year spending plan they passed the year before. That is likely to be the case this year too but don’t look for much [Continue Reading...]
2,000—number of teachers that Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger claims the Republican budget added to classrooms this year (Excellent Public Schools Act: Students First in North Carolina, Senator Phil Berger) 93,964—total number of teaching positions in the budget passed by the General Assembly last summer for the 2011-2012 school year (Statistical Profile, [Continue Reading...]
The discrimination document You have read here and elsewhere that top Republicans like House Speaker Thom Tillis and Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory don’t seem all that interested in talking about the marriage discrimination amendment on the ballot May 8. They both say they will vote for it, McCrory sheepishly and Tillis only [Continue Reading...]
A sense of panic appears to be setting in among the forces who want to write discrimination into the North Carolina constitution. And for good reason. Almost every day brings more signs of the growing momentum against the marriage discrimination amendment that is on the ballot May 8. Prominent business people, Republican and [Continue Reading...]
Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory is asking people to flash their photo ID when they show up to vote in the primary election. McCrory says in a campaign video that ID is “necessary to protect the fair, democratic vote.” His election gimmick is allegedly designed to remind people that he supports legislation passed [Continue Reading...]
Why the right keeps talking about anything other than the real issues One of the basic and usually accurate rules of modern Americans politics is that when a candidate starts talking like a pundit or an analyst (i.e. he or she starts talking like an insider rather than a real person – think [Continue Reading...]
It’s not often that legislation introduced in the General Assembly comes with a slickly produced 12-page color brochure, but that’s what the office of Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger sent out Monday to accompany Berger’s introduction of the “Excellent Public Schools Act.” Berger released his education package at a news conference at [Continue Reading...]
15—number of days until voters in North Carolina will decide the fate of the marriage discrimination amendment to the state constitution (N.C. State Board of Elections) 27—number of words that appear on the ballot to describe constitutional amendment—“Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic [Continue Reading...]
Republican leaders in North Carolina get very agitated when their party and their agenda are described as extremist, though it’s hard to think of a word that fits any better given the General Assembly’s performance in the last year. Lawmakers passed the one of the most extreme and intrusive anti-choice bills in the [Continue Reading...]
New study on kids confirms link between tax revenues and child wellbeing There is a bit of popular mythology in the modern American political spin world – especially in conservative circles – that it’s somehow a mistake to preserve or increase public spending on important public programs and structures in order to get [Continue Reading...]
One of the least discussed destructive decisions made by the General Assembly last year was the approval of a budget provision that opened the door to for profit virtual charter schools in North Carolina. And it didn’t take long for a company to try to take advantage of the new law. Officials with [Continue Reading...]
