Fitzsimon File Archive

The folks who start each morning pledging philosophical allegiance to the holy free market must be in a panic these days. There is close to a consensus in Washington that the financial markets need more regulation and oversight from the federal government.

The last two weeks have been like the last seven years in the state mental health system, a discouraging, infuriating, frustrating mess that raise questions about financial management, access to services and patient safety.

Half a misleading loaf

The Wall Street bailout and worries over the economy may be dominating campaign speeches these days, but that doesn’t mean some pandering politicians and the think thanks that support them aren’t still willing to demagogue immigration every chance they get.

A member of Congress who voted for the Wall Street bailout this week told a reform group that the $50,000 he received in campaign contributions from banks did not influence his decision to support the legislation. And maybe that’s true.

The last 34 days of the most hotly contested gubernatorial campaign in a generation isn’t going to be pretty if the last few days are any indication. Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue complained recently that Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory has been “whining” about crime, and she made the remarks at an appearance in Charlotte, McCrory’s hometown.

The General Assembly will consider a $5 billion transportation bond next session if House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman gets his way. Holliman wants as much as $450 million of the bond to pay to replace the bridge over the Yadkin River.

There could be an unexpected benefit from the Congressional debate and public outrage about the Bush Administration’s $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, a new understanding of the extent of support for corporate welfare among policymakers at the state and national levels.

Scandals at DOT like clockwork

There aren’t many things you can count on in North Carolina politics, but a scandal at DOT is one of them. We have had bid-rigging, personal corruption, official corruption, a prostitution ring run out of the DMV building, and more conflicts of interest that you can list on the front page of the newspaper.

When the latest Elon University Poll was released earlier this week, headlines across the country touted one finding, that people in North Carolina overwhelmingly support drilling for oil and natural gas off the state’s coast.

There’s good news for the mental health community this week, from Washington of all places, as Congress is almost certain to pass parity legislation that would require health insurance companies to cover mental illness the same way they cover physical illnesses.

The possibility of a national economic meltdown and the debate over a government bailout of Wall Street is understandably dominating the headlines these days. But there is also a growing sense of dread among some state lawmakers about state budget prospects for next year.

Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory appeared at a forum last week to discuss their proposals for ethics and government reform. A story in the News & Observer Sunday shows again why the issue is so important.

Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory debated public education policy Friday morning before an audience of educators and business leaders in Cary.

You may not have heard much about it, but there is a heated race for Lieutenant Governor this year between two members of the North Carolina Senate, Democrat Walter Dalton and Republican Robert Pittenger.

It was just over 17 years ago, September 3, 1991, that 25 people died in a fire in a chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. Forty-nine others were hurt. The workers were trapped behind locked doors. Footprints on the inside of a door provided graphic evidence of the unimaginable horror in the plant that day.