State auditors found that a former finance officer in the troubled municipality of East Laurinburg used town taxpayer money on personal expenses, which resulted in overdrafts of the town’s bank account. East Laurinburg, a town of fewer than 300, could lose its charter due in part to its tenuous financial status, which has seen the...
Jessica Thompson, attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, discusses Ole Time Smokehouse’s lawsuit challenging Farmville Food truck rules. Learn more here: “Food truck owner files court challenge against Farmville regulations.” (Editor’s note: The new rules require a 100-foot buffer between the food truck and a brick-and-mortar restaurant’s property line.)
An eastern N.C.-based food truck owner is going to court to challenge a steep increase in the cost of doing business in Farmville. Mark Shirley, owner of the Ole Time Smokehouse food truck, filed a lawsuit today in Pitt County Superior Court. It challenges Farmville’s food truck rules as violating the N.C. Constitution. “We have...
The state auditor found that the town of Hertford made several questionable financial decisions, under the guidance of its former Mayor Pro Tem Quentin Jackson. In a report released this week, State Auditor Beth Wood’s office says the Town Council awarded a contract for a street light fixture project to the highest bidder in 2019,...
State Auditor Beth Wood’s office found a glaring lack of transparency in the town of Plymouth due to the nonexistence of meeting minutes for the Town Council for most of 2020. Plymouth Mayor Vershumn Hawkins blamed the problems on the sudden departure of the town clerk and a ransomware attack on the city’s computers. The...
The city of Charlotte is set to approve an ordinance aimed at barring businesses and employers from discriminating against people based on transgender identity and other “protected classes.” The measure is similar to the one that launched the “Bathroom Bill” controversy in 2016 and led to a significant fundraising advantage for Democrats in that year’s...
Update: On Tuesday, August 3, 2021, The Wake County School Board voted unanimously to require masks for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students for the Fall 2021 semester regardless of vaccine status. Given the freedom to choose whether to mandate masks for students, school boards across the state have begun voting to make face coverings optional for...
A new report from the Fordham Institute argues that North Carolina’s controversial social studies standards flunk the test on history and civics, ranking worst in the Southeast. In an interview with Carolina Journal, N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt emphasized the Fordham report shows the structural weaknesses of the new standards and should throw...
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Senate leader Phil Berger are highlighting concerns about the role of Critical Race Theory in another large N.C. public school system. The two leading Republican elected officials issued a news release Friday questioning a vote this week from the Durham City Council. A unanimous council endorsed a resolution supporting the...
A bill that would open disciplinary records of government employees is crawling through the Senate, and employee unions and Democrats are determined to kill it. Lawmakers filed Senate Bill 355, the Government Transparency Act of 2021, in late March, and it has been mired in committee since. Republic Sens. Norm Sanderson of Craven County, Bill...
A unanimous N.C. Court of Appeals reminds local governments that their intrusions upon private property rights must serve a public purpose.
