Cartoon
Opinion
Licensing laws shackle labor markets
North Carolina is one of the toughest places in the country to enter a new career — and that doesn’t auger well for our future economic performance. The issue is occupational licensing. For dozens of professions, North Carolina requires a prospective employee to possess a specified education credential, receive a specified amount of training, pass...
Opinion
Wake County should take notes on school safety from rural neighbors in Johnston
All one needs to do is turn on the news, and you will hear and see criminals running amuck without worrying about being arrested. Remember the “Defund the Police” movement? Well, we see how that turned out. The only “good” thing that came out of that is it showed, and proved, we need more law...
Cartoon
Going green
Opinion
The good and not-so-good elements of Riggs’ latest dissent
The state Supreme Court's newest justice appears to have staked out a final position in an active dispute before a case has had full briefing and arguments.
Opinion
NC’s Innovations Waiver is lifesaving for 14k disabled, but 17k others languish on waitlist
My son, Nicholas, is 23, intellectually disabled, and autistic. He has a good life. But most North Carolinians with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities lack the services and support he receives. In North Carolina, about 14,000 people — including my son — receive the Innovations Waiver. This Medicaid waiver is our state’s primary home- and...
Cartoon
Groundhog Election Day
Opinion
Winners still flirt with swing voters
Carolina Journal’s first post-primary survey is out. It shows our state’s 2024 general elections will be, as usual, quite competitive. That’s not to say North Carolina’s electorate is perfectly purple. It’s not. All other things being equal, Republicans enjoy a modest edge statewide of a few percentage points. As John Locke Foundation analyst Andy Jackson...
Opinion
Save NC’s endangered farmland from overbuilding solar facilities
The American Farmland Trust (AFT) ranked North Carolina second in the nation for farmland threatened from residential development. It’s a big concern. Agriculture is the state’s top industry, employing about one-fifth of the state’s workforce. According to North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, North Carolina has about 8.3 million acres of farmland. Per AFT estimates,...
Opinion
Intellectual diversity missing at top NC law schools
Derek T. Muller, a Notre Dame Law School professor, recently published research on his personal site showing the political contributions of his fellow law professors at major American law schools. What he found is not surprising, but it is fairly disheartening to those who hold traditional American beliefs on things like freedom of speech, limited...
Opinion
NC should be first in financial freedom
Listen to talk radio long enough, or watch cable news for a segment or two, and you’re bound to hear an advertisement for physical gold. These commercials are probably playing in your head right now, complete with a recognizable (albeit past prime) actor or media personality, telling you that gold is a “safe haven asset”...
Cartoon
