A bards-eye look at NC politics today
I am hurt,” says the dying Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet after trying to stand up for his friend Romeo and getting stabbed for it. “A plague o' both your houses!” In popular remembrance, we... Read More
NC Spin Articles
NC awards $3 million contract to fix Medicaid
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services late Friday announced a $3 million sole source contract for a Washington, D.C.-area consulting firm to fix the problems in the state’s troubled... Read More
Jobs recovery still waiting to happen in many NC metros
Despite falling unemployment rates, most of North Carolina’s metro areas are still waiting for meaningful job creation, according to new numbers released Wednesday by the Division of Employment... Read More
Yes, Clay Aiken
Your first reaction was probably the same as mine. Clay Aiken? The singer? For Congress? Then I met him. He’s the same person you meet in his announcement video. He’s smart, serious and... Read More
Board of Education approves alternatives to Read to Achieve portfolio
Members of the State Board of Education approved today multiple alternative assessment methods for determining third grade reading proficiency, which were put forth by local school districts in an... Read More
Fact checking ACA job claims
by Mark Binker, WRAL, February 6, 2014. Given the hyper-partisan atmosphere surrounding the Affordable Care Act, what some call "Obamacare," the reaction to this week's Congressional Budget Office... Read More
Lawmakers say government needs to get better with IT projects
State lawmakers received a postmortem Thursday on a failed effort to build a new tax-processing system – the latest government IT project to run into trouble – and said there has to be a better... Read More
Institute tracks human progress
Having authored more than one optimist’s lament in recent years, I am clearly of the opinion that, generally speaking, things are better than they seem — and getting better all the time. We all... Read More
In a bottom-line world let's examine the bottom line
A top executive from a for-profit online education company has been making the rounds lately trying to sell the idea of a virtual charter school to state policymakers. Mary Gifford, who is senior vice... Read More
The anti-government ideologues behind NC GEAR
It’s not unusual for governors to create special committees or blue ribbon commissions to find ways to make state government more efficient. Usually the initiative comes in their first year in... Read More
