As the controversy over vaccine mandates grows, public officials’ animus for the unvaccinated is resonating among social justice activists. On Thursday, July 29, Gov. Roy Cooper announced that while the statewide mask mandate would still expire at the end of the month, his administration was focused on increasing vaccinations and was implementing a verification, masking,...
The city of Charlotte is set to approve an ordinance aimed at barring businesses and employers from discriminating against people based on transgender identity and other “protected classes.” The measure is similar to the one that launched the “Bathroom Bill” controversy in 2016 and led to a significant fundraising advantage for Democrats in that year’s...
Editor’s note: This story was updated Thursday, Aug. 5, to correctly identify Nazneen Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Justice. On the heels of a new executive order requiring state employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine or be required to wear a mask and submit to weekly testing, Gov. Roy Cooper is urging...
Some Republican members of the N.C. Council of State used a meeting Tuesday, Aug. 3, to underscore the challenges employers face in finding workers because, at least in part, of generous unemployment benefit payments from the federal government. “I’m sounding the alarm because we’re in an employment crisis in North Carolina,” said Treasurer Dale Folwell,...
Editor’s note: The submissions are from concerned parents and teachers who highlighted student assignments on white privilege and systemic racism and pressured ‘Equity’ training for staff as examples of the promotion of the controversial ideology in public schools. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in March announced the launch of a task force to address growing concern...
Gov. Roy Cooper announced on Thursday, July 29, that, although statewide mask mandates will still expire July 30 according to recent guidance, his administration is launching vaccination verification requirements for Cabinet agencies and a general campaign to pressure other government entities and private businesses toward similar vaccination requirements. “This virus is now much more contagious...
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee voted to cut $40 million from the federal Charter Schools Program, in a major policy shift away from the bipartisan support that charter schools have enjoyed in recent years. In addition to the funding cut, the move would prohibit federal funding for charter schools that contract “with a for-profit entity...
Public school districts in North Carolina have received about $5.3 billion in COVID-related relief from the federal government. But, on average, school leaders have spent just 13% of that money. That’s according to an analysis of data from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction compiled by Dr. Bob Luebke, senior fellow for the Center for...
The voices of those urging government officials to rely on individual liberty and personality responsibility as the founding principles relate to getting the COVID vaccine are getting louder. While conservative politicians in North Carolina and throughout the U.S. are urging people to get the shot, which has proven safe, they stop well short of supporting...
Ollie Mulligan, this week from an airport somewhere in the Northeast, talked about his upcoming flight home, about returning to his native Ireland, to County Kildare. He thought aloud about the bright, rolling green fields. Of horses, and of Guinness. Mulligan, turning the conversation, started talking about his businesses in his other home, of Great...
The N.C. Senate Finance Committee approved a bill Thursday morning that would dramatically alter high school sports governance in the state and end 110 years of control by the N.C. High School Athletics Association. The organization’s commissioner, Que Tucker, tells media that she believes the bill is the product of racism. House Bill 91 heads...
