Fitzsimon File Archive

Troubling news about North Carolina’s troubled mental health system has come often in the last year and that’s not likely to change soon, despite some recent progress including a new hospital in Butner and new investments in crisis services across the state.

You would think that the ruling by Superior Court Judge Howard Manning that the state owes school systems almost $750 million in civil fines collected over nine years would spark some concern among legislative leaders and other state officials.

One of the stories often used to illustrate a common frustration with the way much of the media covers political campaigns started during the 2004 presidential race. One version of the exaggerated example pretends that President Bush says in a public appearance that the earth is flat.

The summer is winding down and Labor Day is just around the corner, the day that traditionally marks the real beginning of the fall campaign season when political commercials are on television around the clock.

Secretary of Transportation Lyndo Tippett announced this week that the department was being reorganized. If ever a department needed reorganizing, DOT is it. Tippett says the changes will make the department more efficient, accountable and transparent, though you could argue that in one sense transparency has not been the problem.

It wasn’t long after Governor Mike Easley took office in January of 2001 that he realized his plans for a new program for at-risk kids and other budget priorities would have to wait.

If there is a consensus about anything in this year’s heated political debate in North Carolina, it is that one of the state’s most pressing problems is the scandalously low high school graduation rate, with only two-thirds of students who enter the ninth grade earning a high school diploma four years later.

The battle between Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory to be North Carolina’s next governor is starting to seem very familiar. Perdue is part of the ruling Democratic Party establishment in Raleigh and will get credit and blame for what Democrats have done in the last 8 years whether she deserves it or not.

In case you are not already frustrated with the nature of the debate in statewide races in North Carolina in this watershed election year, consider the coverage of a recent appearance in Greenville by Democratic Senate candidate Kay Hagan, who is challenging the incumbent Senator, Republican Elizabeth Dole.

As shocking as it may seem, Raleigh’s leading market fundamentalist think tank is sponsoring yet another event for the global warming deniers. A September luncheon will feature Dr. Roy Spencer from the University of Alabama in Huntsville explaining why all the fuss about global warming is unjustified.

Most of the headlines about HIV/AIDS in recent years are about efforts to control the disease in Africa, but the deadly epidemic is still raging in the United States, particularly in African-American communities in the rural South, including many parts of North Carolina.

The folks in Alamance County must be feeling awfully safe these days. A popular local librarian was arrested at work by sheriff’s deputies and three children, one just six years old, were left to fend for themselves in a car on the side of an interstate highway at 2:00 in the morning after their mother was dragged away in handcuffs.

The state policy debate in now fully in election mode as Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory and Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue are sniping back and forth about special interest money, immigration, and the recent legislative session.

Public health advocates are justifiably celebrating news that all 115 school systems in North Carolina will be tobacco-free by Friday. No tobacco products will be allowed anywhere on school grounds at any time. It is an important step forward to protect public health and an achievement even more impressive when you consider North Carolina’s long tobacco history and the political power still wielded by major cigarette companies.

The disturbing back and forth about access to higher education for undocumented students continues. The News & Observer reported Friday that Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office told community college officials this week that they may admit the students, exactly the opposite of what Cooper’s office told them in May.