RALEIGH — A 2011 North Carolina law placed new limits on city-owned communications service providers. The intent of the measure was to prevent municipalities from building and offering broadband service and using taxpayer subsidies to undercut private competitors. It’s unclear whether a move by the FCC to overrule state law would survive challenges in the courts, but observers are wary.
CHARLOTTE — An estimated 300 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints got a boost from the U.S. Senate’s top Democrat, when Nevadan Harry Reid told the group to “be proud of who you are.” A Pew Research Center study found 80 percent of Mormons nationally identify with Republicans.
CHARLOTTE — At its core, there’s a tension between tax code compliance and public disclosure. Organizations created as nonprofits must comply with the Internal Revenue Code as interpreted by the IRS. And the IRS is concerned primarily with tax liability, not public disclosure of revenue sources.
RALEIGH – Nearly two-thirds of North Carolina voters oppose climate change legislation that would raise gasoline prices or electricity rates, according to a new poll. Opposition grows as the potential costs increase, according to the July Civitas Decision Maker poll.
New 2008 rankings of the nation's premier public high schools from U.S. News and World Report are likely to provide fresh insights for reform-minded educators nationwide.
RALEIGH — Individuals involved in domestic and international terrorism not only have infiltrated American society, but also have initiated some of their activities in North Carolina, a top federal law-enforcement official in Charlotte and experts on radical Islam say.
STANFORD, CA — Stanford Alumni Magazine asked two experts for their perspectives on school reform and NCLB testing and accountability policies. One says that the necessary incentives structure is lacking. The other worries about the effects of choice.
RALEIGH — Sixty-three percent of Wake County voters would reject a school bond referendum that triggers a property-tax increase, according to a new poll commissioned by the John Locke Foundation.
The news media love John Edwards. Why? Some say it demonstrates snap-judgment superficiality, but Paul Chesser writes that Edwards has worked hard to earn reporters’ attention.
RALEIGH — “Zero-tolerance” policies are popular with parents, to a point. They seem to promise safer schools, ones where learning can actually take place. But some parents are rethinking the one- size-fits-all approach to discipline. Recent events in Clay and Wautauga counties reflect some of the hazards inherent in enforcing disciplinary policies. A Clay principal is facing misdemeanor child-abuse charges connected with bruises to a 10-year-old boy that are alleged to be the result of a paddling the student received — with his mother’s permission — in school. In Watauga, the school board intervened in a case that concerns high school students who violated the school’s dress code.
News organizations across the United States have given citizens a distorted view of why their state governments are struggling with budgets and raising taxes, writes Carolina Journal's Paul Chesser.
