North Carolina residents know well what happens when a politician throws around claims of voter fraud without actually verifying the validity of such notions.
When former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was losing during the last election, his team took extreme measures and latched on to any allegation of voter fraud researchers could dig up.
...These are extraordinary times. The President of the United States is, by every indication, a serial liar who genuinely seems incapable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood. He entered office on January 20 under a cloud of profound constitutional questions related to his fitness to serve and legitimate doubts about his loyalty to the country. His first days in office have been an unmitigated disaster and have featured repeated lies, disastrous cabinet appointees, outrageous conflicts of interest and a series of executive orders that were either horrifically destructive or absurdly and sophomorically nonsensical or both.
...N.C. Policy Watch is chatting with some of the newest members of the N.C. General Assembly to offer a bit more insight on who they are and what they plan on doing this session in Raleigh. Senator Paul Newton declined to participate in this profile. Answers are gathered from his website and interviews available online.
...3---number of days since President Trump signed an executive order banning entry into the United State for refugees and travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries (“How Trump’s Rush to Enact an Immigration Ban Unleashed Global Chaos, New York Times, January 29, 2017)
10,000---number of people who gathered in Battery Park in New York Sunday to protest immigration order, one of dozens of large protests held across the country (“2nd day of protests over Trump's immigration policies, CNN, January 30, 2017)
...Every year around this time there’s an increase in the coverage of the school privatization movement as “National School Choice Week” rolls around, a highly organized and well-funded effort by folks on the Right to build support for more public funding for private and religious academies and as well less regulations and accountability for charters and home schools.
...There is a good bit of uncertainty in North Carolina when it comes to the courts despite a very clear agenda on the path forward.
The two issues that will almost certainly dominate headlines this year are the power clashes between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislative leaders and redistricting. Of the eight pending cases covering those issues, there is one outcome experts expect but the other results are anyone’s guess.
...For many of us, these are troubling times as Donald Trump has ascended to the nation’s highest office. We can hope for the best but it’s hard not to anticipate the worst: valuable alliances trashed, environmental protections ravaged, civil rights eroded, neighbors pitted against neighbors as Trump’s own crude selfishness like a virus afflicts our civic character.
...Hog Lagoon in North Carolina (Photo:DELMO/Creative Commons) Last October, about 20 people from North Carolina's hog country — working-class, African-American, ordinary people — drove 300 miles to Washington, D.C., to tell their story. At two meetings, one with the EPA and another with several members of Congress and staff, these ordinary people described their very unordinary lives near industrialized hog farms.
...Two-term N.C. Rep. Cecil Brockman (D-Guilford) begins this legislative session as the only openly LGBT member of the North Carolina General Assembly.
Last year, amid the controversy over HB2, Brockman came out as bisexual - something he says even his family didn't know. His experience as an aide to former Rep. Marcus Brandon, an openly gay black state representative, gave him the opportunity to see the challenges of being an out politician up-close - and didn't make the decision to come easier, once elected.
...There’s a moment, partway through school choice champion Betsy DeVos’ oft-strange confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate, in which President Trump’s nominee for the top education post in the country suggests a federal civil rights law protecting students with disabilities is a matter best left to the states.
...The global resistance to the dark and troubling new world order promised by President Donald Trump got off to a fabulous start this past Saturday. All across the planet, caring and thinking women and men took to the streets by the millions to register their opposition and to commence the process of pushing back.
...N.C. Policy Watch is chatting with some of the newest members of the N.C. General Assembly to offer a bit more insight on who they are and what they plan on doing this session in Raleigh. Sen. Cathy Dunn declined to participate in this profile, which is compiled from past media interviews and her campaign website. The 2017 session of the legislature will resume January 25.
...N.C. Policy Watch is chatting with some of the newest members of the N.C. General Assembly to offer a bit more insight on who they are and what they plan on doing this session in Raleigh. Sen. Chuck Edwards declined by email to participate in this profile, which is compiled from past media interviews and Sen. Edwards’ campaign website. The 2017 session of the legislature will resume Wednesday, January 25.
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