While a bill that would legalize sports betting across North Carolina passed a House committee last week, odds are heavily against it passing the full General Assembly before the session ends. The House Commerce Committee passed Senate Bill 688 by a 12-4 vote, but the sports betting legislation would have to make it through three...
It has been a long time since I lived on Hillock Drive, which runs off North Hills Drive near Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. My parents moved there with their two children, Joy and Brad, in 1971. I came along two years later as, my mom says, their “postscript.” It was a great, safe neighborhood to grow up in, and I spent my entire...
Free societies require real sacrifice, which might explain why our culture struggles to cultivate and embody freedom today.
A retired Union County judge is trying to leapfrog the Republican-led N.C. General Assembly by ordering a $1.7 billion transfer from the state’s coffers to fund public education. The transfer would bankroll two years of a remedial plan in the long-running Leandro school funding case that dates back to 1994. The price tag for the...
The staff of the N.C. ABC met Tuesday, Nov. 9, with representatives from 34 local ABC boards across the state to talk about ways to improve the distribution of high-demand, low-supply, allocated spirituous liquor products. “Local ABC boards and their employees are on the front lines of spirituous liquor sales and have direct insight into...
The U.S. Supreme Court's 1962 decision to open the door to redistricting disputes followed heated debate.
North Carolina’s top elected school official is calling the Biden administration’s national vaccine mandate a clear example of government overreach. In a statement released Thursday, Nov. 4, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said she encourages everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but that mandating vaccination is a bridge too far. “As a breast...
After much debate, public scrutiny, and controversy, the General Assembly passed redistricting maps for the N.C. House and Senate, and U.S. Congress. The Senate on Thursday, Nov. 4, voted 25-21 for the House map. The House voted 65-49 to approve the map for the Senate, and also 65-49 for the congressional map, which includes a...
Is the GOP’s electoral wipeout of Democratic candidates in Virginia a harbinger of things to come in North Carolina next year? That’s the question running through political pundits’ minds the day after Republicans made a clean sweep of races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general in the commonwealth, in addition to standing poised to...
The plaintiffs in the long-running Leandro school funding case have asked the court to bypass the legislature and order the state government to transfer $1.7 billion to begin funding components of the plan. The plaintiffs made the request in a court filing obtained by WRAL-TV in Raleigh. The transfer would fund years two and three...
As the N.C. House passed its new election maps Tuesday, Nov. 2, the Senate followed suit Wednesday, Nov. 3, passing new maps with a vote along party lines, 26-19. Sen. Ralph Hise, R-McDowell, one of three co-chairs of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said lawmakers didn’t use racial or election data as part of the criteria...
