A new meta-analysis from Johns Hopkins University shows that government-mandated lockdowns in America and Europe during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic only reduced the death rate by 0.2%, on average. Researchers concluded that lockdowns “have had little to no public health effects” while imposing “enormous economic and social costs” and should be “rejected...
Applications are open for North Carolina’s government broadband grants. Taxpayer advocates hope the money is spent in the right places. Gov. Roy Cooper’s office recently announced that qualified internet service providers and electric cooperatives can now apply for the recent round of Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants. Up to $350 million...
Three Republican lawmakers are questioning the legality and affordability of Gov. Roy Cooper’s latest executive action on clean energy, including how to pay for bridge and road repairs if electric vehicles replace gas-powered vehicles. Sens. Tom McInnis, R-Richmond; Paul Newton, R-Cabarrus; and Vickie Sawyer, R-Iredell; sent a letter to Cooper on Jan. 19 taking aim...
State Auditor Beth Wood’s office found that Ocean Isle Beach Mayor Debbie Smith benefitted from using confidential town information in her real estate company’s purchase of a former police station site in 2018 and has referred the matter to the local district attorney. In the report released Wednesday, Jan. 26, the office said it received...
Americans have little appetite for a potential war with Russia, a recent poll by Rasmussen Reports finds. The new national telephone and online survey, released Wednesday, Jan. 26, finds that only 31% of likely American voters think that, if Russia attacks Ukraine, U.S. combat troops should be sent to help, Rasmussen says. Of the respondents,...
A new Rasmussen poll finds that a majority of likely Democratic voters favor taking strong action against Americans who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, including fines and home confinement. Forty-eight percent of Democrats also would give the green light to government fines or imprisonment for those who question the efficacy of the vaccine on social...
Gov. Roy Cooper has been a stalwart opponent of school choice since securing the governor’s office in 2016. That makes a proclamation from his office declaring Jan. 23-29 National School Choice Week in the Tar Heel State all the more surprising. The proclamation affirms that North Carolina is “home to a multitude of high-quality public...
The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked President Biden’s federal COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate, although the battle over the jabs continues. On the same day, the high court approved the federal vaccine mandate for facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funding. This means that hospitals and other health care facilities with millions of employees now...
North Carolina set another record for new business creation in 2021. Roughly 178,300 new businesses were legally created across the state last year, up 40% from the year before — which was itself a record, according to the Secretary of State’s office. The figure is double the pace of new business filings from 2017. “The...
Military installations in North Carolina will benefit from the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, which U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, helped to push through Congress. President Biden signed the $778 billion act, Senate Bill 1605, in late December. The act authorizes appropriations principally for Department of Defense programs and military construction,...
A majority of the state’s hospitals are reaping the benefits of tax-exempt status but come up short in providing adequate charity care to earn that designation — and they’re getting away with it. That’s the conclusion of a report released in October jointly by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the N.C....
