Weekly Briefing Archive

New report indicates that federal immigration policies have improved only slightly over the past year

Most Americans have a very simplistic view of immigration policy. We tend to think about the issue on a macro scale - How many undocumented people are there? What can we do to curb illegal immigration? For which public services should immigrants be eligible? What we usually fail to grasp or acknowledge is that every overarching, big picture, policy gets implemented at the human level, on a person-by-person basis.

Now is the time for all good women and men to come to the aid of their capital county

There comes a time in the public life of a democracy when people who care about their community must stand up and be counted; a time in which remaining on the sidelines and merely pursuing one’s own private interests (or contending that one’s interests aren’t at-stake) simply won’t do.

The Supreme Court’s corporate speech decision starts to hit the fan

A measure of skeptical cynicism has almost always been a part of the armor worn by those who champion progressive policy reform. When you’re a soldier in the fight to elevate and empower the underdogs and have nots of society, you’re used to watching the rich and the powerful have their way. Allow that armor to crack or slip too much and one runs the risk of debilitating discouragement when, as frequently happens, one’s idealistic visions are dashed on the rocks of political reality.

Why patience and common sense should trump panicky overreaction

Stories about the national debt are all over the news this week. The combination of a monstrous global recession and nearly a decade of tax cuts for the wealthy have combined to put the federal government into a significant and relatively daunting fiscal hole. Like so many of the other problems he inherited, this predicament has placed President Obama in a tough spot.

Ten reasons to attend the fourth annual “HK on J” event

This coming Saturday morning, thousands of North Carolinians will gather in Raleigh for the fourth annual HK on J march and rally.

Of snow removal and other essential services

Much of North Carolina took it on the chin from Mother Nature this past weekend. Snow and ice piled up in several parts of the state and left things, much to the self-satisfied amusement of just about anyone who’s ever lived even a few miles north of North Carolina, generally paralyzed for the beginning of the work week.

Here are two quotes that tell you everything you need to know about the so-called “moderate” U.S. Senate Democrats who are arguing for a piecemeal approach to health care reform now that Republicans have claimed what one insightful wag described as a “41-59 majority” - they come from Indiana Senator, Evan Bayh and Nebraska’s Ben Nelson:

In 1988, one of the nation’s great political cartoonists, Mark Alan Stamaty, created a side-splitting parody of the 1988 Bush-Dukakis election is his comic strip, “Washingtoon.” The message Stamaty delivered in the cartoon still resonates 22 years later.

Event highlights why immigration reform should be a part of our national recovery

For decades, one of the most persistent stereotypes in American policy and politics has involved the depiction of conservatives as hard-headed realists and progressives as hopeless dreamers. Think about it: we can all easily conjure up such images. Many progressives have helped promote the myth themselves.

Ten New Year’s resolutions for North Carolina’s progressive community

Despite hard economic times, progressives have a lot of reasons to feel good about the year that just ended. In Washington, the Obama Administration (along with an occasionally helpful Congress) took several important steps to halt the nation’s disastrous slide on several fronts. From the economy to healthcare to the environment to matters of war and peace, things are decidedly better and more hopeful than they were 12 months ago.

Though fraught with frustrations and delays and most of the other downsides that one associates with democratic government in a closely divided state, the 2009 session of the North Carolina was still a real success. In addition to raising nearly a billion dollars in essential revenue, lawmakers passed numerous important bills that will benefit workers, consumers, public health, public education, and the economy as a whole.

During this holiday period, we are pleased to present you with ‘the best of 2009′ Fitzsimon File commentaries. We hope you enjoy re-reading some of these thoughtful editorials that are still relevant to the 2010 policy debate.

The ongoing delay in compensation for victims of forced sterilization

Despite the recent wall-to-wall media coverage of the Mike and Mary Easley scandal, there is another state policy scandal that continues to fester in relative obscurity. This one involves the continuing lack of compensation for victims of the state’s long abandoned “eugenics” program. Last week, a committee in the state House approved a long overdue proposal that would begin to repay some of the damage.

The need to confront some basic issues about our mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse systems

Imagine you are the family member of a person who for several years (perhaps most of their life) has been the subject of a “dual diagnosis” of developmental disabilities and mental illness. Not only is your loved one mentally retarded, but they are afflicted with a mental illness that prevents them from succeeding in a wide variety of social situations (like, for instance, a group home). There are several hundred of such persons in North Carolina - many of whom were the beneficiaries of a lawsuit brought during the 1990’s referred to as the “Thomas S.” case.

World and local events next week highlight the need for responding to global warming with smart, public solutions

The world’s attention will turn to global warming next week. Thank goodness. It may drive the anti-government crowd and some Middle East oil bosses crazy, but anyone who cares about the long-term health and well-being of the human species should be glad that the United Nations Climate Change Conference will convene December 7th through the 18th in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As reported in this space last week, there is a growing consensus that the federal stimulus package pushed through at the beginning of the Obama presidency helped arrest the freefall that had gripped the American economy.