Walter Dalton, lagging badly in the polls, needed to attack. Check. Pat McCrory needed to project confidence and just let Dalton’s bait continue to bob in the water. Check.
RALEIGH — Whether voters elect Democratic incumbent Sen. Stan White or Republican state Rep. Bill Cook, they’ll have an advocate against proposed ferry tolls and in favor of the $600 million Mid-Currituck Bridge project. This summer the legislature postponed ferry toll increases until July 1, 2013.
RALEIGH — It will take about two weeks after the budget passes before the session adjourns. And both the House and Senate appear to be headed toward adopting legislation regulating fracking and making changes to the state’s Racial Justice Act, with the House giving its initial approval of the bill Tuesday.
If the courts uphold a law preventing payroll deductions of teacher union dues, the North Carolina Association of Educators could become nothing more than another interest group.
RALEIGH — Holiday cheer gave way to Scrooge-like griping during two contentious sessions Wednesday and early Thursday morning in which Republicans overrode Gov. Bev Perdue’s veto of a bill that eliminates an automatic dues check-off option for members of the state teacher’s association.
Whatever discontent there may be among liberal Democrats, they are going to turn out in 2012 for President Obama. Most will vote for Perdue. Her real problem is among swing voters.
RALEIGH — The Racial Justice Act allows death row inmates to appeal their sentences on the basis of statistical data that some say demonstrate rampant racial discrimination. Opponents of the law say it is a backdoor attempt to get rid of the death penalty altogether.
There is no evidence that, all other factors being equal, blacks are more likely to be executed than whites.
RALEIGH — Republicans say that trial lawyers are abusing a law passed last year by the General Assembly aimed at reducing racial bias in death penalty cases, and they plan to introduce legislation this session to change it.
