Well, the season of giving is upon us again, and while it’s clear that North Carolina ethics statutes prevent public servants and other “covered persons” from receiving any gifts that might influence their official actions, the law includes a number of – nudge-nudge, wink-wink – exceptions, so one hopes that perhaps there is a way to make the following list a reality. For Senator-elect Ted Budd: A collector’s edition set of official Donald Trump superhero trading cards.
...Sen. Thom Tillis
Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz is trying to cut a last minute deal that could bring tens of millions of dollars in new funding to the islands for Native Hawaiian housing. WASHINGTON — As Congress prepares to wrap up work for the year, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz is looking to cut an ambitious deal that could pump tens of millions of dollars of new money into Native Hawaiian housing for at least the next decade.
...Tillis and Burr 'aye' votes help assure measure could not be filibustered WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would enshrine protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, codifying many of the rights that would disappear if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn those landmark decisions the way it overturned the nationwide right to an abortion this summer.
...U.S. Senate committee learns that more than 1,100 service members took their own lives in just the past two years Dr. Beth Zimmer Carter remembers her son as "vivacious, bright, funny and handsome," who was fulfilling his dream of being an Army Ranger. But on Chris Carter's first deployment to Afghanistan, he witnessed the gruesome deaths of his best buddy, his interpreter and a female Special Forces member.
...NC's Tillis among 22 Judiciary Committee members who will evaluate first Black woman nominated to the nation's highest court After more than two weeks of private meetings with nearly half the U.S. Senate, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court, will field questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee in highly anticipated public hearings that begin Monday.
...It seems certain that one of the contributing factors in the disastrous calculus that led Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to believe he could get away with his murderous and criminal invasion of Ukraine was his perception of weakness and division in the United States. And, of course, it was not a completely unreasonable perception to hold.
...Earlier this past month, Senator Thom Tillis tweeted something that no one could disagree with. “During #BlackHistoryMonth, we recognize the experiences and contributions of Black North Carolinians to our state.” Those are easy words. But, the fact is, Senator Tillis blocked the historic appointment of a Black North Carolinian to the powerful Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in the same month.
...The subject of inflation has been on many tongues in the public policy world of late – especially as Republican politicians comb every nook and cranny of the news cycle for topics with which to launch broadsides at the Biden administration. In November, Congressman Ted Budd – a candidate for Richard Burr’s soon-to-be-available U.S. Senate seat – introduced a snarky bill that would “require all personnel in the Biden White House to complete a financial literacy course focused on inflation.”
...Ho, ho, ho! It’s that time of year again – the fleeting period during which Americans of all stripes set aside petty partisan and ideological differences (hah!) and focus their attention on the one thing that, as humorist Jean Shepherd so accurately observed in his holiday classic “A Christmas Story," tends to unify us all in and around the winter solstice: “unbridled avarice.”
...Hint: It has something to do with the realities of a market economy “In less than a year, Joe Biden has crippled our domestic energy production,” Adam Laxalt (a Republican candidate for a Nevada U.S. Senate seat) tweeted last week. “We’re feeling the effects of Democrat (sic) leadership right now every time we go to the gas pump,” reads a recent fundraising missive from the Nevada Republican Party.
...It’s a common phenomenon for well-known politicians to become associated with, or remembered for, an inspiring or infamous utterance. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” “Ask not what your country can do for yourself. Ask what you can do for your country.” “Mr. Gorbachev: tear down this wall.” “I am not a crook.” And this doesn't apply just to presidents.
...Tillis joins 42 Republicans in voting to acquit as seven others join 48 Democrats and two independents in adjudging Trump guilty WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate voted on Saturday to acquit former President Donald Trump on a charge of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, concluding his second impeachment trial with the same verdict as his first impeachment.
...DEQ secretary appears headed for easy confirmation as federal EPA Administrator Several years ago, Michael Regan was giving his young son a bath when he remembered a conversation with Amy Brown. Brown, the mother of two young boys, lived near the Allen coal-fired power plant and had been living on bottled water for hundreds of days because her drinking water had become contaminated.
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