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Some members of local school boards are questioning the decision by the state school boards association to join a legal battle over vouchers for students from lower-income families. They also question whether the organization should be using membership dues, which come from local tax dollars, to...
Published: Sunday, March 30th, 2014 @ 12:51 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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There's an old newsroom adage that if a dog bites a man, it's not news, but if a man bites a dog, it is. For those who don't understand this musty aphorism, it means that something being unusual greatly adds to its newsworthiness.
Published: Saturday, March 29th, 2014 @ 10:54 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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By a 6-3 vote, the Greensboro City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with a local nonprofit that paves the way for a new $65 million downtown performing arts center.
Published: Saturday, March 29th, 2014 @ 5:53 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Congress should give President Barack Obama more power — when it comes to the issue of free trade, that is. Conservatives and constitutionalists are rightly concerned about recent arrogations or abuse of power by the executive branch. They should demand greater oversight by Congress and the...
Published: Saturday, March 29th, 2014 @ 8:23 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Saturday, March 29th, 2014 @ 7:13 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Taxpayers and patients unnecessarily pay hundreds of millions of dollars in medical costs because of arcane regulations, turf-protective hospitals, and a state regulatory agency that opposes reforms, say physicians seeking legislative relief to open more doctor-owned same-day surgery and...
Published: Friday, March 28th, 2014 @ 11:57 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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President Obama has announced that, through executive order, he will be changing the rules regarding which employees have to be given overtime pay for working more than 40 hours per week. Under current regulations, all hourly employees who work more than 40 hours must be paid...
Published: Friday, March 28th, 2014 @ 11:53 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Because I enjoy watching and analyzing legislative politics, it pains me to say this: for the 2014 election cycle in North Carolina, the most competitive and fateful races will be found at the top and bottom of the ballot — not in state house and senate contests, which probably aren't going...
Published: Thursday, March 27th, 2014 @ 12:11 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Wednesday, March 26th, 2014 @ 9:39 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The political debate in North Carolina has me seeing double. A double standard, that is. On Tuesday, longtime Duke University health care scholar Chris Conover testified before the General Assembly's new Joint Study Committee on the Affordable Care Act and Implementation Issues. Conover's...
Published: Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 @ 11:46 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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An analysis by a UNC School of Government professor suggests there's no clear-cut answer over whether changes in laws regulating voter registration and extending the time people are allowed to vote have affected turnout in recent decades.
Published: Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 @ 5:29 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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In early May, the North Carolina General Assembly will reconvene in Raleigh for its so-called "short session." Beyond approving adjustments to the second year of the state's two-year budget, lawmakers could consider a number of other key issues. Becki Gray, John Locke Foundation vice president...
Published: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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State lawmakers were presented Tuesday with a litany of potential horror stories related to the federal Affordable Care Act. At its worst, Obamacare would sock North Carolina with thousands of job losses, double-digit insurance premium increases, deep Medicare cuts to help pay for the health...
Published: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 @ 10:55 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 @ 9:36 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Remember all the brouhaha from last fall's Washington showdown and government shutdown? The dispute purportedly pitted Republicans intent on repealing Obamacare against the president and Democrats intent on preserving the legislation.
Published: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 @ 12:04 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Parents of students seeking to benefit from the state's Opportunity Scholarships program must wait for the N.C. Court of Appeals to consider a lawsuit filed on their behalf. Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood denied motions made by defendants to delay his preliminary injunction preventing the schol
Published: Saturday, March 22nd, 2014 @ 6:08 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, few of the fastest growing occupations require a four-year or graduate degree for entry. In this week's CommenTerry, I discuss implications of their findings for North Carolina.
Published: Saturday, March 22nd, 2014 @ 1:17 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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When I took the job as a movie theater cashier, I had no idea my first excursion into the working world would deliver such valuable life lessons. I learned it's not a good idea to work for someone who tells you to protect the cash register at all costs and hands you a baseball bat to fend off robber
Published: Saturday, March 22nd, 2014 @ 12:21 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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One of the cheapest shots in politics is to claim that only the unschooled and ignorant could possibly side with the other team. Both Democrats and Republicans make the claim about the other party. Democrats ridicule Republican-leaning voters for being dumb rednecks and undereducated boobs...
Published: Friday, March 21st, 2014 @ 4:11 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Newly revised employment data show that 2013 was the strongest year for job growth in North Carolina since the Great Recession. Those numbers contradict liberal arguments about the impact of policies adopted by the conservative-led General Assembly, according to new analysis from the...
Published: Friday, March 21st, 2014 @ 2:15 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The first week of February brought Wayne County mother Jennifer Strickland an eye-popping surprise. A letter from the principal indicated that one of her twin boys — a stellar, straight-A student reading at an almost sixth-grade level — was in danger of being retained in third grade...
Published: Thursday, March 20th, 2014 @ 2:18 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Does North Carolina need an energy policy? In my view, it depends on what you mean by the phrase. If by "energy policy" you mean a detailed plan of requirements and timetables for producing and distributing electricity and fuel in proportions set by government fiat, then the answer is a resolute...
Published: Wednesday, March 19th, 2014 @ 2:14 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Teachers finding their schedules packed with testing would get relief from education reforms promised by Gov. Pat McCrory and top Republican lawmakers, who say students would benefit from a streamlined list of required state and local exams.
Published: Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 @ 4:07 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Going to college can be an expensive proposition. Tuition has been rising steadily in North Carolina and in other states. Many students receive aid in the form of a federal Pell Grant, but the Pell Grant Program faces problems and needs serious reform. Dr. Jenna Ashley Robinson, director of...
Published: Tuesday, March 18th, 2014 @ 2:31 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Last month, the U.S. Senate held a committee hearing on offshore tax evasion and published a report stating that foreign tax havens have cost the United States $150 billion a year in lost revenue. The report didn't include any information about the states' tax losses, yet states have the ability...
Published: Monday, March 17th, 2014 @ 7:22 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Remember voting for a bond on the ballot? You know, those things city, county and the state government use to pay for things like prisons, schools, roads, and any number of things.
Published: Monday, March 17th, 2014 @ 7:08 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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I'm talking about the political struggle over North Carolina's 3rd-grade reading standard, not the violent struggle between Paul Newman and the prison warden in "Cool Hand Luke." Nevertheless, the consequences could be severe if North Carolina's dispute isn't resolved. Any resolution, in turn...
Published: Sunday, March 16th, 2014 @ 11:48 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The North Carolina State Bar circumvented the State Board of Elections, may have trampled a Stanly County candidate's constitutional rights, and possibly ran afoul of a prior U.S. Supreme Court ruling when it demanded that Jim Phillips change his campaign signs, critics allege.
Published: Saturday, March 15th, 2014 @ 9:49 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We will offer this allotment of three with more to come; some old, most new, but all quite informative, and, moreover, necessary to understanding that in North Carolina, there is a wiser path to govern ourselves and our People.
Published: Saturday, March 15th, 2014 @ 9:33 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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There comes a moment in every economic development bubble when reality hits a community like a two-by-four smack to the head. That happened Feb. 3 in Charlotte, when the Charlotte Observer reported that the merger between US Airways and American Airlines will result in US Airways early next year...
Published: Thursday, March 13th, 2014 @ 4:45 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Eastern North Carolina traffic planners are in the process of deciding whether to add tolls to ferries that operate up and down the coast, or to divert money for their eventual replacements from the money allocated in their divisional highway budget.
Published: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 @ 6:35 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina maintains one of the nation's most restrictive versions of the Map Act, which can freeze property development within proposed road corridors for years. A new John Locke Foundation Spotlight report documents one Forsyth County case in which Map Act restrictions have limited private...
Published: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again," wrote the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes. "There is nothing new under the sun." More than two millennia later, Karl Marx, wrote that history repeated itself "the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."
Published: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 @ 10:36 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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How the Map Act threatens NC property owners: The North Carolina Map Act virtually freezes property development within proposed road corridors by blocking building permit and subdivision applications for up to three years.
Published: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 @ 10:21 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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