The N.C. House voted 72-40 Wednesday to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 824, legislation implementing a constitutional amendment mandating voters present approved state-approved photo identification. The Senate’s vote Tuesday was 32-13, so the measure will become law. Debate in the House broke along partisan lines. Republicans…
University of North Carolina System President Margaret Spellings is about to leave her job in Chapel Hill, saddling her successor with a daunting task: wrangling a perfect storm of campus and state politics. On Dec. 14, while Spellings gave her final remarks to the UNC…
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday, Dec. 18 he would veto a bill returning the Bipartisan Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement to separate agencies over concerns about a provision related to campaign finance investigations. But he would wait to issue the veto, hoping the legislature will pass a…
In North Carolina, the legislative branch oversees the operations of the executive branch. Not the other way around. That’s the message delivered by the Republican leaders of a legislative subcommittee probing Gov. Roy Cooper’s controversial $57.8-million Atlantic Coast Pipeline discretionary fund. Rep. Dean Arp,…
The N.C. Department of Public Instruction classifies about one in five teachers as chronically absent. The absenteeism costs North Carolina schools about $17 million a year to pay substitute teachers, DPI says. Thomas Tomberlin, director of educator recruitment and support at DPI, presented a…
Free speech is overwhelmingly popular in courtrooms around the United States, but the jury of public opinion doesn’t support First Amendment rights, a conservative litigator and legal writer says. Political mudslinging happens when people choose sides based on what they hate rather than what they…
The Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement announced Friday it plans to hold an evidentiary hearing Jan. 11, 2019, on alleged ballot irregularities in the race for an open seat in 9th Congressional District. In the announcement, Board Chairman Joshua Malcolm said details about location and…
Dozens of protesters gathered in the rain outside the UNC Center for School Leadership Friday, Dec. 14, to protest the potential return of the Confederate statue dubbed “Silent Sam” to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Now it looks as if the debate will continue into next…
As expected, Gov. Roy Cooper Friday vetoed Senate Bill 824, a measure implementing the voter identification requirement enacted in November by voters in a constitutional referendum. In his veto message, Cooper called the measure “sinister and cynical.” “It was designed to suppress the rights of minority, poor and…
Karrie Dixon, chancellor of Elizabeth City State University (Photo courtesy of UNC System) Elizabeth City State University interim Chancellor Karrie Dixon was named permanent chancellor Friday, Dec. 14, during a meeting of the University of North Carolina System’s Board of Governors. Dixon took…
