Fitzsimon File Archive

One of the more absurd claims made these days by right-wing political candidates and the think tanks that support them is that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal stimulus package, has not save or created a single job in North Carolina, not one.

There’s plenty to be outraged about in the superb and ongoing News & Observer series, “Agents Secrets,” about the State Bureau of Investigation including the apparent misconduct and mismanagement of the bureau that has distorted trials and resulted in wrongful convictions, robbing innocent men of years of their lives.

The intensity of the fall political campaign in the state is just around the corner as Labor Day approaches. The tweets, news releases and press conferences from political parties and candidates themselves are picking up as they all look for an edge that will help them in November.

4.26—average number of hours people in North Carolina waited in emergency rooms in 2009 (State Psychiatric Hospital Admission Delays in North Carolina. Gerald and Ann Akland, NAMI Wake County, August 6, 2010)

The semantic attack on integration

Am I the only one tired of the term “forced busing” spewed by the public school dismantlers on the Right almost every day? What does that mean? No one is actually forced to ride a bus, ever.

Governor Beverly Perdue and state legislative leaders breathed a sigh of relief this week as a procedural vote in the U.S. Senate signaled that the state will soon receive more than $300 million in federal Medicaid funding.

Conservatives tell us virtually every day that government can’t create jobs and that public investments in the economy don’t have much effect on employment. That was the core of their argument against the federal stimulus bill, that it was a waste of money and would not help local economies.

When more than 1,200 people protesting the actions of the Wake County Board of Education filled Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh last week, a few staff members of Governor Beverly Perdue reportedly took leave time to attend.

50—percentage of Americans in July poll who say they have a favorable opinion of health care reform law passed earlier this year (Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released July 29, 2010 by the Kaiser Family Foundation)

The cost of spinning the ports

The Wilmington Star-News is reporting the N.C. Ports Authority recently hired the prominent Raleigh PR firm Capstrat for a cool $375,000 a year for three years to boost the Authority’s image.

The last week of the ferocious debate about the future of the Wake County Schools has been dominated by an idea called Controlled Choice, an assignment plan billed by its creator Dr. Michael Alves as a way to allow parents to choose their child’s school while maintaining diversity. Or that’s the idea anyway.

There was no made-for-television event at the State Capitol recently when Governor Beverly Perdue signed legislation banning video sweepstakes parlors, the latest version of video poker that lawmakers outlawed several years ago in the wake of a series of corruption scandals.

Race plays a role in determining who receives the death penalty in North Carolina, specifically the race of the victim. That was the disturbingly simple and clear conclusion a of study released last week by two national scholars who examined more than 15,000 murder cases in North Carolina over 28 years, from 1980-2007.

2.7—minimum percentage increase in the Gross National Product as of the second quarter of 2010 due to the investments made by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (White House Council of Economic Advisers)

Keeping quiet about Obama’s popularity

President Obama’s net favorability rating among North Carolina voters jumped 15 points from May to June according the Pope Civitas Institute, though the Civitasers would rather not talk about it.