A plethora of public hearings The first of the public hearings was the final opportunity to praise or denounce the councils work on the draft consensus budget for the coming fiscal year.  I expected to observe harmonic resonance as taxpayers discussed the necessary needs of the citizens and mandates of regulatory authorities.  Sadly not one [...]

Drum Roll Please.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKmJPnAGUJk All but one man died, down there at Bitter Creek. . . . They say he ran away? ‘BRANDED. . .’ When I think about the North Carolina Democratic Party, I’m reminded of the old 60s t.v. show entitled BRANDED, starring Chuck Connors. Who sometimes is confused with Chuck Taylor. A [...]

Recently, the Daily Dispatch reported that the Kerr-Tar Council of Governments improperly spent $138,537 in restricted funds from its only checking account, has been directed to repay the funds in short order to the Economic Development Administration, and is assessing member municipalities a per capita $1.39 “tax” (for lack of a better word) to pay [...]

Budget Hearing – FY 2013 – 2014 Proposed Budget The June Board of Commissioner’s meeting opened with a resounding public silence.  This was the time the commissioners reserved to hear from the county’s taxpayers their suggestions, recommendations, ideas, objections, and overall approval or disgust of next year’s fiscal budget.  Instead the commissioners heard not one [...]

“North Carolina does not have an ag-gag bill,” blogs the Fayette Observer,  claiming that an ag-gag bill must be specific to the agriculture industry. The bill language of SB 648 does not have a different intent from the ag-gag bills that have popped up (and been smacked down) in a dozen states this year. North [...]

Congratulations are to be given to the City of Henderson, City Council and The Embassy Square Foundation. The plan worked. The deal has been completed. The arrangement produced what it was designed to do. The City provided the land to the Embassy Square Foundation and the Foundation promised to return the land to the city [...]

Demolition of the Abandoned Structure Last month the City Council discussed the need to demolish houses on Charles and Roland Streets only to kick the can down the road. Last night’s meeting started out discussing the need to demolition of an abandoned structure at West Andrews Avenue. A common theme at City Council meeting is [...]

Senate Bill 648 would prevent the exposure of egregious and systematic animal cruelty in large-scale industrial agriculture operation that has led to serious concerns about animal welfare and the safety of the animal products that the public consumes, as documented in undercover investigations at Butterball farms in North Carolina. The Butterball investigations in 2011 and [...]

A few years ago and in my early time as North Carolina’s State Superintendent, I met with at least 45 of my state superintendent colleagues in Chicago to talk about how all of us could work together to determine what students should know and be able to do in mathematics and English language arts as [...]