Can urban and rural areas get along?
by Dr. Mike Walden, NCSU Professor of Economics, May 26, 2017. My wife and I have one foot in rural regions and the other in big cities. We were both born and raised in small towns – I in an... Read More
NC Spin Articles
Food stamp purge could benefit from study, compromise
Editorial by Wilson Daily Times, May 25, 2017. Some state legislators want to turn away federal funds that provide free meals for Wilson County schoolchildren. The N.C. Senate’s spending plan would... Read More
Refusal to expand Medicaid leaves dire consequences: WRAL
A CBC Editorial: Wednesday, May 31, 2017; Editorial # 8167 The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company Leaders of North Carolina’s General Assembly can’t silence the truth by... Read More
John Hood: NC Republicans make sensible tax cuts, honest budgets
North Carolina Republicans has gotten right what Republicans elsewhere have gotten very wrong: how to construct sensible tax cuts and honest, conservative budgets. Liberal critics aren’t inclined to... Read More
Chris Fitzsimon writes senate leaders making bad
Since the Senate passed its disastrous budget, bad reviews keep rolling in about the choices Senate leaders made and the process they used to make them. Sen. Phil Berger and his staff are still busy... Read More
The most shameful thing about the Senate budget
The most shameful thing about the disastrous budget passed by the Senate two weeks ago is not the vindictive 3:00 a.m. budget cuts to education programs in Democrats’ districts. It’s not the... Read More
Pay raise could lessen regulation
I have been writing a regular column on North Carolina politics and public policy since 1986. Over three decades of writing about and talking to politicians in Raleigh, few issues have come up more... Read More
State needs an alternative to occupational licensing
by Jon Sanders, John Locke Foundation, May 25, 2017. For half a century, making any reform to a state’s occupational licensing system has been nigh on impossible. How hard? In 2015, the federal... Read More
House budget outlines sharp differences with Senate
House members on Thursday began reviewing pieces of the chamber's proposed 2017-18 budget, but legislative leaders said details about raises for teachers and state employees won't be released until... Read More
Independent investigators, courts and press guard us all
This is a tough time for our country, but we can count on our strong national institutions to carry us through them. If we protect those institutions. President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James... Read More
