Advocates for hundreds of millions of new dollars in court-ordered N.C. education spending are renewing their appeals to the N.C. Supreme Court. Two filings Thursday urge the state’s highest court to take its next step in the long-running Leandro lawsuit.
A North Carolina House bill aimed at protecting consumers from being financially destroyed by medical debt was filed Tuesday, May 24. H.B. 1039, Medical Debt De-Weaponization Act would create a pro-family, anti-poverty consumer protection law geared toward setting transparent parameters around the provision of charity care, limiting the ability of large medical facilities to charge unreasonable interest rates and employ unfair tactics in debt collection.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd is polling slightly ahead of Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley, according to a new Civitas poll of general election voters. Budd, now serving as a congressman from the state’s 13th Congressional District, polled at 44%. That number just edges out the 42% support for Beasley, a former chief justice of...
The N.C. General Assembly's Senate leadership announced a health care proposal that includes Medicaid expansion under the federal entitlement program, the Affordable Care Act. The bill contains with work requirements for Medicaid expansion enrollees, and measures bill sponsors say would cut regulations on the healthcare industry that limit the number of providers and facilities. State Medicaid expansion could put more than 600,000 able-bodied, working age adults onto taxpayer-funded healthcare program.
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, discusses a Parents’ Bill of Rights proposed by the N.C. Senate. Stoops offered these comments during the May 25, 2022, episode of Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight.”
To paraphrase the old saying, you may not be interested in the federal debt, but the federal debt is interested in you. There’s abundant evidence for this proposition across the economy right now as prices continue to soar for food, fuel, housing, and other necessities. Inflation consists of too much money chasing too few goods...
Two recent cases offer clues about how Democratic and Republican N.C. Supreme Court justices approach cases involving convicted criminals.
According to the latest estimate from fiscal analysts at the North Carolina General Assembly, our state government will take in about $6.2 billion more in General Fund revenue over the 2021-23 budget biennium than was originally projected last year. That’s a huge number. It represents nearly a quarter of the entire General Fund budget for...
North Carolina’s primary produced similar headlines across the state. Former President Trump’s influence in North Carolina clearly matters. However, there is much more to unpack in the primary post-game report. Overall, 758,000 people voted a GOP ballot in the primary election. That’s 146,000 more than the 612,000 who voted a Democrat ballot.
U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who currently represents N.C.’s 13th Congressional District, has won the Republican primary for the state’s U.S. Senate race, according to the Associated Press, the New York Times, and CNN. Budd’s candidacy was given a major boost over key rivals after an endorsement by former President Donald Trump and big spending on...
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley says in a recent campaign ad, “In the Senate, I’ll never stop fighting to make North Carolina safe.” A new anti-Beasley ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee calls that promise into question. NRSC unveiled the ad titled “Victims” on Friday, four days before Beasley was expected to win...
According to data from the N.C. Board of Elections, 577,232 voters cast a ballot early, with 290,226 of those voters requesting a Democrat ballot and 284,568 voters requesting a Republican ballot, giving Democrats a 50.3% to 49.3% edge. But for context, in 2020, 68% of early ballots requested were for the Democratic primary.
Update 10:42 p.m.: Cook Political Report calls NC11 GOP primary for Edwards over Cawthorn. Reports that Cawthorn has called to concede. Update 10:15 p.m.: Decision Desk HQ calls NC11 GOP primary for Edwards over Madison Cawthorn. Update 10:01 p.m.: Trey Allen, Donna Stroud, and Michael Stading comfortably winning GOP judicial primaries. Update 9:56 p.m.: DeVan...
Judicial races decided in the fall will have a significant impact on the future of North Carolina, but as is often the case, these races are mostly flying under the radar of voters. That’s doubly true for a handful of key primaries in judicial races to be decided May 17. This year, two seats on the seven-member N.C. Supreme Court and four judges on the 15-member Court of Appeals are up for grabs.
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, discusses a Parents’ Bill of Rights proposed by the N.C. Senate. Stoops offered these comments during the May 25, 2022, episode of Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight.”
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, discusses the General Assembly’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Stoops offered these comments for a May 25, 2022, report on WTVD (ABC11).
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses the impact of North Carolina’s 30% threshold for primary election winners. Kokai offered these comments for a May 19, 2022, report on WNCN (CBS17).
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses top stories during North Carolina’s 2022 primary elections. Kokai offered these comments during the May 16, 2022, edition of Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight.”
Dr. Terry Stoops, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, discusses Locke’s proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. Stoops offered these comments during the May 10., 2022, edition of Spectrum News 1’s “Capital Tonight.”
It’s recently become clear that the common ground people of a variety of worldviews once stood on is crumbling beneath our feet. And without this mutual starting place, known as Natural Law, it’s not clear how we can have meaningful dialogue or come to agreements on how to live together. Evidence for this can be...
“The only endorsements I need are the endorsements of the folks I want to serve.”
Sen. Josh Kimbrell (R-Spartanburg) deserves a lot of credit for proposing Amendment 32 to the South Carolina budget. It requires libraries to forgo purchasing “sexually explicit” materials for children. Senator Kimbrell proposed the amendment after hearing complaints from parents in his district about materials their children saw in public libraries. It isn’t just his district, either,...
Supply chain issues, the rule of law, and basic economic policies are all unraveling under President Biden's leadership.
Mitch Kokai, John Locke Foundation senior political analyst, discusses the New York Times’ column warning about America’s “free-speech problem.” Kokai offered these comments during the March 25, 2022, edition of PBS North Carolina’s “Front Row with Marc Rotterman.”
Canadian professor, author, and psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson on Thursday offered a non-political and largely academic lecture on the psychology of beauty, dreams, and purpose. The reaction from city officials and activists to the address at the Durham Performing Arts Center was night-and-day from the one leading up to his appearance four years earlier. It...
As the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine continues to escalate, North Carolina’s local Ukrainian population is rallying to bring attention to the suffering of people in their homeland and to gather supplies to help them. Donna Goldstein, co-president of the Ukrainian Association of North Carolina, finds herself at the forefront of these efforts. Goldstein has...
The fourth estate, journalism, is racing to receivership unless we can rescue it from its rapacious self. The hubris hasn’t always been this bad, this blatant, or this biased, yet it worsens daily. In the town I grew up in, Nashville, Tennessee, there were two newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s, one for the morning,...
One of the goals within our cultural wars is to push Christmas aside, to make even more room for divisive politicized agendas that tear us apart.