News
Fracture in NCI board over $168m state budget ask
The debate by budget writers appears to be not if the legislature will claw back the NCI endowment, but how lawmakers will restructure any funding and governance to replace it.
Opinion
NC media panel: Internet obliterated traditional news business. Now what?
Over the weekend, I was privileged to be in attendance at the John Locke Foundation’s Carolina Liberty Conference. Among the highlights of the weekend (which included recording an episode of our weekly show “The Debrief” in the hotel lobby) was a media panel, hosted by Carolina Journal editor-in-chief Donna King, discussing the current state of...
Opinion
To brief or not to brief: Roy Cooper’s bad Hamlet act
We’re all more suspicious of public health guidance than we used to be, but pandemic policy forced me and my goombahs into meeting weekly over a Zoom video feed rather than across coffee shop tables. While there’s no substitute for ordering a macchiato under cafe speakers where Mick Jagger and his bandmates are oozing their...
Opinion
Vote like an Anti-Federalist this year
Everything the Anti-Federalists worried about in 1789 has come to pass.
News
Democrats’ N.C. Supreme Court majority on the line with two seats up in ’22
N.C. Appeals Court Judge Lucy Inman is aggressively campaigning for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Inman announced her intentions shortly after being defeated by fellow Court of Appeals Judge Phil Berger Jr. in 2020 for an open seat on the state’s highest court. Berger defeated Inman 51% to 49%, a margin of 71,517...
News
Distiller’s battle with monopolistic ABC system turns toward online sales
Jonathan Blitz makes and sells whiskey. He and his team make the whiskey in Durham, at Mystic Farm & Distillery. They sell the whiskey from the distillery, and in state-controlled Alcoholic Beverage Control stores. But they can’t sell it online, per Chapter 18B of the N.C. General Statutes. Blitz, like most N.C. distillers, wants to...
News
Newby’s narrow win suggests broader philosophical changes in N.C. courts
It took five weeks to settle the final race, but when the N.C. Supreme Court’s session opens in a few weeks, there will be a new chief in Raleigh. Republican Associate Justice Paul Newby defeated incumbent Democratic Chief Justice Cheri Beasley by roughly 400 votes. Nearly 5.4 million ballots were cast. Beasley, who was elevated...
Opinion
New era on N.C. Supreme Court begins with election of conservative Chief Justice Paul Newby
After failing to earn a statewide hand recount, and unable to get Democratic boards of elections to accept ballots already deemed unlawful, Chief Justice Cheri Beasley conceded the North Carolina Supreme Court chief justice race Saturday, Dec. 12. The Saturday morning concession, 39 days after the election, clears the way for Republican Justice Paul Newby...
News
Cooper’s virtual news briefings put him in the minority of governors nationwide
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is one of 16 governors who holds only virtual press briefings without reporters in the room. He has scheduled one for 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8, when he’s expected to issue tighter coronavirus regulations. After nine months of the coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns, Cooper is in the minority. The other...
Opinion
Cooper blunders on rural broadband
Local communities, legislators, and businesses are having a hard time understanding why Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget office pulled the plug on $32 million in grants for rural broadband projects that had attracted 70 applicants. Although some have raised concerns Cooper is redirecting the money to a pet project, the issue seems as likely to be...
News
Cooper tightens restrictions as state treasurer questions COVID-19 measures
Gov. Roy Cooper moved North Carolina backward in economic reopening in another virtual news conference that shut out conservative publications. Cooper tightened restrictions on indoor mass gatherings, dropping the maximum allowed gatherings from 25 people to 10 people. He said he is targeting family groups and community gatherings, like those held around Thanksgiving. The new...
News
N.C. GOP calls out Cooper over lack of transparency, absence of in-person briefings
Republicans are blasting Gov. Roy Cooper for a lack of transparency and demanding that he hold in-person press briefings. The N.C. Republican Party announced a public records request Friday, July 31, asking for Cooper’s schedule and travel plans. They criticized him for holding virtual press briefings instead of in-person, socially distanced meetings with opportunities for...
