Archive: Daily Journal

• Does UNC ‘need’ a course on big-time sports?

  Students ought to use their four years in Chapel Hill as basic building blocks for a lifetime of personal and professional growth as citizens and scholars.

  by Mitch Kokai
• Budget builds on conservative success

  Since 2010, when Republicans won their first majorities in both legislative chambers in modern times, they’ve consistently pursued a conservative approach to fiscal policy and state government.

  by John Hood
• Do million-dollar earners really get a tax break 85 times as large as working-class families?

  Lowering the state income tax rate and increasing the standard deduction do not produce the effect Gov. Roy Cooper claims.

  by Mitch Kokai
• Divergent opinions and the power of independent thought

  The News & Observer of Raleigh and The Charlotte Observer have offered up a wonderful example of the power of free and independent thought. The example, in the form of a pair of wildly disparate editorials, was probably an accident and most likely elicited audible gasps and groans from the staffs…

  by John Trump
• Midterm spread favors the Democrats

  In the modern era, the party not in the White House has almost always gained seats in the North Carolina legislature in midterm elections.

  by John Hood
• Repeal Certificate of Need so patients have better access to health care 

  Patients deserve better access to both life-saving and life-preserving health-care treatments. Which means physicians, hospitals, and other health care facilities should be able to invest in their communities to address unmet patient demand for critical services such as kidney dialysis units, cost-effective surgery, neonatal intensive care units, nursing homes, and much, much, more.

  by Katherine Restrepo
• Good government built on honesty and openness

  “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Credited to Louis Brandeis from Harper’s Weekly in 1913, it was true then, and it’s true today. Shedding light on government leaves it transparent, open, accessible, and accountable. It’s also harder to do bad things when you know someone is watching. I’ve…

  by Becki Gray
• Politics isn’t always the answer

  What ought to worry North Carolina leaders, regardless of party or ideology, is that the labor market and other indicators are suggesting a recent weakening of the state’s economic momentum.

  by John Hood
• Cooper’s selective constitutionalism in redistricting fight

  RALEIGH — Before Gov. Roy Cooper and his surrogates accuse the N.C. General Assembly of “thumbing its nose at the North Carolina Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court,” the governor might want to reflect on his own actions in connection with legislative electoral redistricting. The best place to start involves…

  by Mitch Kokai
• Voter ID will likely return

  If the General Assembly enacts a new measure focused on verification of voter identity, it will match North Carolina law with that of other jurisdictions.

  by John Hood