News

Holiday staff shortages hit the service industry hard

The NCRLA compiled hiring data from Lightcast and Indeed and found that since the beginning of October, approximately 2,134 restaurant jobs have opened up in the Triangle area alone. This development may come as a surprise to some due to the state’s historically low unemployment rate of 3.4%.

Sherman Criner
Video

Locke’s Jon Sanders discusses CDC Director Mandy Cohen’s work in North Carolina

Jon Sanders, director of the Center for Food, Power, and Life at the John Locke Foundation, assesses Dr. Mandy Cohen’s record as head of North Carolina’s top health agency. Cohen is now director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sanders offered these comments during an Aug. 22, 2023, interview on One America...

Jon Sanders
Opinion

COVID mandates were too strict

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, Gov. Roy Cooper and other officials began exercising government power in ways unprecedented in modern times. They shut down businesses, withheld basic public services such as in-person schooling, and ordered healthy, law-abiding citizens not to travel, to visit their loved ones, or even to enter a house...

John Hood
Opinion

Yes, they’ll waste our money again

We will probably never know how much of our money was squandered during the pandemic by reckless politicians. But here are two damning numbers to start with: $400 billion and $855,000 per job year. The first is a reasonable estimate of unemployment-insurance payments either improperly paid or stolen by fraudulent claimants. As you may remember,...

John Hood
Opinion

Lawsuit: Big Media and Big Tech conspired to block COVID news

An anti-trust lawsuit was filed this week against legacy media giants and big tech companies for their collusive agreement to shut down anti-vaccine coverage during the height of the COVID pandemic. Associated Press, Reuters, BBC, Washington Post, Meta, Microsoft, and Google censored coverage questioning the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines.

Donna King

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Opinion

Break up to make up with parents

Although North Carolina continues to be one of the nation’s fastest-growing states, the number of students in our district-run public schools has been shrinking. Total enrollment in the 2021-22 school year was about 4% lower than a decade earlier, translating into roughly 60,000 fewer students. Districts enrolled 77% of all school-aged children in our state...

John Hood
Opinion

Government got COVID mostly wrong

I’m a liberty-minded conservative, not an anarchist. I think government is inevitable and necessary but its legitimate scope and practical competencies are rather limited. The many public-policy failures during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate the point well. For the most part, these failures were about competency, not legitimacy. As I argued when the COVID crisis began,...

John Hood
News

Audit: Pandemic Recovery Office failed to track grant money

Another report out this week from the N.C. Office of the State Auditor shows inadequate monitoring of funds and deficiencies from departments including the N.C. Department of Public Safety and N.C. Pandemic Recovery Office. The newly released Statewide Single Audit examined funds that come primarily through federal grants like Medicaid, highway, and bridge funding, and,...

Theresa Opeka
News

Study: COVID fear to cause long-term labor shortage

New research predicts long-term pain for the labor market due to around 3 million workers who plan to remain permanently sidelined over concerns of physical illness or physical impairment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The research team — represented by scholars from ITAM Business, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago — named this phenomenon...

David N. Bass
News

Raleigh city employees file suit over vaccine mandate

On Monday, 68 police officers, firefighters and other Raleigh municipal employees filed a lawsuit against the City of Raleigh and Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin over the city’s denial of promotions to those who haven’t received a COVID-19 vaccine, and their requirement that employees either need to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. The suit was...

David Larson