John Hood’s
Daily Journal

7.30.10
Obama’s Anti-recession Policies: George Bush on Steroids

CJ Ticker

• Sen. Kay Hagan will vote for cloture on spending bill also allowing public safety workers to unionize.
• New ABCs results show Wake County's growth lags behind other urban N.C. districts.
• N.C. ranked the fourth laziest state in the union. Yawn.
• Poll: only 23 percent of American voters think federal government has consent of the governed.
• Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Elaine Marshall has $166k cash on hand. GOP incumbent Richard Burr, $6 million more.
• Glover resigns as N.C. Highway Patrol commander.
• N.C. unemployment dips to 10.0 percent in June, still exceeds national average. JLF budget expert blames economic uncertainty.
• Yowza. WRAL poll (PDF) puts Perdue's approval rating at 23 percent.

Other Opinions

7.30.10
Nursing compact

Sometimes, great ideas don’t work as well in the real world as they do on paper. That appears to be the case with a 24-state compact that provides license reciprocity for nurses says the Winston-Salem Journal.

7.30.10
TVA ruling

The Asheville Citizen- Times argues that the state should fight an appeals court ruling saying that public nuisance laws can’t be used to fight pollution coming from other states.

7.30.10
Government and kids

The kids are not all right. They weren’t last year. They aren’t this year. And we see no reason to hope they will be next year. It ought to be an election issue says the Fayetteville Observer.

7.29.10
Inspecting the Patrol

The Raleigh News & Observer writes that the N.C. Highway Patrol’s credibility has been seriously compromised.

7.29.10
Set the bar higher

The Greensboro News & Record writes that North Carolina adopts tougher national education standards to gain points for a federal grant. Its own measures drew low grades in a 50-state survey.

Media Mangle

7.30.10
Finding all bias in a newspaper is tough for an editor

Sometimes little examples of bias can just sneak by the most diligent of editors.

6.27.10
N&O needs remedial instruction on First Amendment

The editors dedicated roughly two-thirds of a piece ostensibly about the ethics bill before the short session of the General Assembly into a diatribe on the public-financing provision that was axed.

6.16.10
Spinning for Etheridge

In a shocker, The News & Observer spins for Etheridge in his sidewalk incident.

Carolina Beat

7.22.10
Charter Critics Create Cynics

Lead Story

Robeson County Sells $1.1 Million Tax Hike As Tax Cut

July 30, 2010, By CJ Staff

Headlines

7.30.10 - Cooper replaces SBI director, suspends bloodstain analysis

RALEIGH — Attorney General Roy Cooper on Thursday removed Robin Pendergraft, the SBI director whom he handpicked a decade ago, and halted the work of bloodstain pattern analysts whose methods have faced mounting criticism. Both moves came in the face of questions from The News & Observer about problems at the lab and in other SBI operations. Cooper on Thursday expressed concerns about the work produced by the bloodstain pattern analysts and said their work would stop until he is satisfied that their experiments and training are sound.

7.30.10 - NC Democrats meeting in Fayetteville face tough road

FAYETTEVILLE — Democrats from across North Carolina hope their convention and star-studded dinner this weekend in Fayetteville will re-energize their party ahead of November’s tough elections. The convention, which runs tonight through Sunday at the Holiday Inn Bordeaux, is expected to draw about 1,000 people. Delegates will vote on resolutions, dine together and elect a member to their parent organization, the Democratic National Committee.

7.30.10 - Judge: Smoking ban does not violate constitution

HIGH POINT — Judge Jan Samet has ruled that the state’s smoking ban does not violate the constitution, according to lawyers in the case. A written order has not been issued yet, but lawyers for Guilford County and Gate City Billiards both confirmed the decision Thursday morning. “We will appeal to the Court of Appeals,” said Seth Cohen, a lawyer for Gate City Billiards.

7.30.10 - Good news, bad news for Brunswick leg of bypass

WILMINGTON — The entire Brunswick leg of the U.S. 17 Wilmington Bypass should be ready to drive on by 2020, according to an urban loop funding schedule released by the N.C. Department of Transportation on Thursday. The draft plan, which prioritized 21 unfinished sections of urban loops across the state, ranked the Wilmington bypass high on the list. As such, it is expected to get built during the next 10 years, while projects in other parts of the state must wait longer

7.30.10 - Experts: Gulf oil unlikely to reach East Coast

RALEIGH — Researchers who initially projected that oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill would threaten the East Coast now believe there’s little chance it will. Despite the months of oil gushing from a blown-out undersea BP well off the coast of Louisiana, there’s no sign that any of it has migrated into the Loop Current that could carry the spill around Florida and into the Atlantic.

7.30.10 - N.C. mental health provider loses accreditation

RALEIGH — The financially troubled Mental Health Association of North Carolina is getting out of the business of providing care to hundreds of people. The association, one of the state’s largest private providers of group homes and treatment programs, lost its accreditation Monday, cutting off the group’s access to federal Medicaid reimbursements. The association had suffered severe financial problems in recent months, laying off employees and cutting the wages of those who remained.

7.30.10 - Winston-Salem lands Caterpillar plant

WINSTON-SALEM — Winning the new Caterpillar manufacturing plant is “like gold” for Winston-Salem, a city official said yesterday. Caterpillar Inc. has chosen Winston-Salem as the site of a $426 million manufacturing plant, several officials confirmed yesterday. The 850,000-square-foot plant will employ about 510 people. Construction is expected to begin in November.

7.30.10 - Forsyth students score better on end tests

WINSTON-SALEM — Principals believe that collaboration among staff members, setting goals based on data analysis and community support helped students in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools gain in every subject area and every grade level during end-of-grade and end-of-course tests in 2009-10. Overall, white, black and Hispanic students improved, and the gaps in proficiency between black and white students and between Hispanic and white students shrank.

7.30.10 - Durham sales tax won’t be on November ballot

DURHAM — The idea of County Commissioners calling a referendum on a quarter-percent sales tax to raise money for the Durham Public Schools is dead — though just for this November’s general election. Commissioners on Thursday voted 3-2 to put the sales tax proposal on the shelf for now, in lieu of holding further discussions with DPS leaders and state legislators about possible steps to avoid teacher layoffs in fiscal 2011-12.

7.30.10 - Corps backs New Hill waste plant

CARY — Four western Wake County towns are a step closer to building a $327 million regional wastewater treatment plant in New Hill, an unincorporated community that has fought the plant for years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental approval for the site Thursday. The 85-page document endorses the site as the one that will have the smallest negative environmental impact, despite being near wetlands.