Voting system approval in North Carolina is in for yet another delay. In a split vote, Thursday, Aug. 1, the State Board of Elections reaffirmed its decision to delay approving new voting machines until the board adopts new certification requirements. The delay has some board members…
Roughly a week after State Treasurer Dale Folwell sweetened the State Health Plan, major hospitals don’t seem tempted by the treasurer’s latest carrot. As negotiations devolve into a struggle of wills that resembles nothing so much as an escalating game of chicken, hospitals are eyeing the…
A bill allowing federal funds to continue flowing to North Carolina hasn’t earned Gov. Roy Cooper’s signature yet, but one political analyst said it would be wise for the governor to let it become law. Weeks have passed since Cooper vetoed the biennial budget bill. Negotiations…
North Carolina taxpayers are paying Merck, the $210 billion dollar pharmaceutical company that produces Viagra, among other drugs, some $12.5 million in tax incentives to build in Durham. North Carolina has a robust history of giving targeted tax breaks to encourage particular businesses. The state’s Job…
As a three-judge panel heard a second week of testimony in Common Cause v. Lewis, defense attorneys and witnesses tried to cast doubt on the ability of statistical analysis to predict how North Carolinians would vote in legislative elections. Plaintiffs have produced…
Rep. Chuck McGrady, R-Henderson, won’t seek re-election when his term expires next year, but he’s far from finished. House Bill 971, which McGrady sponsored, has stalled in the legislature. Still, McGrady got a hearing for a proposed committee substitute in the House’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Committee on…
It started with a simple request on Saturday morning, Jan. 13, 2018. Duke Energy lobbyist Kathy Hawkins asked Ken Eudy, Gov. Roy Cooper’s senior adviser, to help expedite a state official’s signature on an agreement tied to Duke’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline project. Hawkins told Eudy the state needed to sign…
Parity. It’s what North Carolina’s craft distillers wanted most, really. To, in a regulatory and statutory sense, take their place in line with the state’s brewers and vintners. If not in front of them, then just behind, in a place where they can extend an arm…
Have you ever heard “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper or “See You in September” by The Tempos? Perhaps you’ve watched “Summer of ’42,” “Adventureland,” or “Dirty Dancing.” The pervasiveness of summer vacation in music, film, and TV is indicative of the remarkable role it plays in the life of Americans.
A years-long push to expand competition in the health-care industry passed the Senate Health Committee Monday and soon may reach the Senate floor. Under current certificate-of-need laws, hospitals and medical providers must apply to the state planning board before they can build or expand facilities. North…
