This is getting kinda scary.  Some in the GOP legislative majority are proposing merging several small community colleges in order to save the state some money.   Florence and Darlington Counties in South Carolina have done well — for AGES — with Florence-Darlington Technical College….

The nation has been captivated recently by the sensational trial in Florida of a young mother accused of killing her two year old daughter.  The tabloids, newspapers, and TV shows gave us the most sensational bits and pieces of testimony and the case facts.  The…

  Reports are that the congressional redistricting map produced by the state legislature in Raleigh has been challenged by The U.S. Justice Department over concerns about compliance with the Voting Rights Act.  The 1965 Voting Rights Act gives federal authorities the right to OK or…

Over the past couple of days, there have been a few misleading stories in the N&O regarding political poll numbers.  I am going to assume the best — that Rob Christensen and the other folks in the N&O newsroom don’t understand how to read an…

I often harken back to the eight year period (1984-1992) when we last had a GOP governor in Raleigh. That is also the last occasion when The Raleigh News & Observer subjected an incumbent governor to tough questions and scrutiny. The newsroom practically went to…

“He spent the last 20 years predicting we were going to lose and when we did declared victory … He was right 1 of 20 times. A broken clock is right twice a day.” — State Senate Minority Leader Martin Nesbitt (D), describing Raleigh political…

The new redistricting map released by the state legislature Tuesday puts Moore County in a new state senate district and confronts our longtime incumbent, Senator Harris Blake (R), with possibly the most significant electoral challenge of his tenure in Raleigh. The plan puts Moore County…

“Congressional redistricting plan unpopular” screams the headline in today’s edition of The News & Observer.  If you read into the story, you see that the following phrase needs to be added to THE END of that headline: ” … among 37 percent of respondents to…

The Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation has released a study that details and makes recommendations on the economic and financial conditions of North Carolina’s local governments. This study, available for download on Locke’s web site, provides some real “food for thought” for local officials and people…

The Charlotte Observer’s Jim Morrill has an excellent piece in today’s paper about congressional redistricting.  Opponents of the plan, drafted by the conservative majority in the legislature, say it unfairly splits counties and cities and puts counties together that have nothing in common.  (As though…