Fitzsimon File Archive

Wake County School Superintendent Del Burns talked more today about his decision to resign in an interview with WTVD. He is leaving because of the push by the new Gang of Five majority to resegregate the schools.

State lawmakers received troubling news this week about this year’s budget and an increasing problem for budgets for the next ten years, the state’s rapidly growing inmate population that already exceeds the capacity of the prison system.

The damage to Wake County from the efforts of the new resegregationist Gang of Five majority on the board of education became quantifiable Tuesday, as the taxpayers lost $15 million and the community lost the dedicated leadership of School Superintendent Del Burns, whose conscience wouldn’t let him stay on as the nationally recognized system was dismantled.

Legislative leaders are now working on a package of legislation to clean up government as federal investigators continue their probe into the activities of former Governor Mike Easley that has already resulted in the indictment of Easley’s former legal counsel and embarrassing testimony by Easley himself before the State Board of Elections.

0—-number of days after General Assembly passed the 2009 budget that Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C. (BCBSNC) lobbyist Mark Fleming emailed Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand about how to gut a provision in the budget to rein in costs of providing health care for prison inmates. (News & Observer, February 12, 2010)

Rep. Patrick McHenry is the latest member of Congress to show up at a local event to present a check from the federal government that he says is spending too much on local grants. This time it was $7,505 for the Linville Volunteer Fire Department.

Here is a sobering statistic about the daily economic struggles faced by thousands of families in North Carolina. More than 1.2 million people in the state now receive food stamps. That is up 24 percent over a year ago.

State lawmakers will receive a report on the state of the mental health system Wednesday and the news is mixed at best, some improvements in the troubled system along with startling reminders of the huge problems that remain.

News that prominent conservatives Art Pope and Bob Luddy gave a combined $38,000 to elect four members of the new Gang of Five majority on the Wake County Board of Education is not much of a surprise. An email to Chair Ron Margiotta this fall from a Republican activist said that Art Pope’s plan to get them elected worked very well.

100,000—-number of immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children who have been deported from the United States in the last ten years. (Facing our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement, Urban Institute. January 2010.)

Wake County School Board member John Tedesco, the self-appointed spokesperson for the Gang of Five that now runs the board, tells the News & Observer that a recent survey showing that 94.5 of parents are satisfied with their child’s school doesn’t mean that parents are satisfied with their child’s school.

The recent report about the rising cost of Medicaid from the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research has some sobering news for policymakers, most notably that the rapid growth of the state’s aging population will spur even more increases in Medicaid spending and significantly increase the percentage of the state budget that will pay for the program.

The Gang of Five that now runs the Wake County Board of Education can’t be too happy these days, as their clumsy ideological efforts to dismantle the system’s nationally recognized student assignment policy are running into trouble at every turn.

It has been hard to miss the headlines in your local paper about your city slashing the budget or your county commissioners scrambling to find cuts to respond to last year’s revenue shortfall or to compensate for the cuts the state has imposed.

$281,810—amount of political contributions made by developer and former Board of Transportation member Lanny Wilson and his wife since 2000 (State Board of Elections)