Category: Quick hits

Governor Perdue vetoed a bill Monday that required a woman to wait 24 hours and attend a counseling session before having an abortion.  North Carolina is one of 16 states that do not require specialized counseling before an abortion.  Perdue said, “This bill is a dangerous intrusion into the confidential relationship that exists between women and their doctors. The bill contains provisions that are the most extreme in the nation in terms of interfering with that relationship. Physicians must be free …

We’d like to remind all of a City of Henderson council meeting tonight.  Please see our post about it for more details, and to download the agenda and the full agenda package (over 100 pages) A quick recap of the agenda is as follows: a)  Close Out Amendment for FY 10-11 b)  Approving Audit Contract c)  FY 11 Budget Amendment #46, North Carolina Department of Commerce Water and Sewer Project Grant d) Authorization to Submit 2011 BJA Justice Assistance Grant …

North Carolina has the 13th highest taxes per gallon of gas in the nation.  This July 1st our gas tax will increase by another 2.5 cents per gallon to a total of 53.7  cents per gallon. You can read a detailed article about the North Carolina gas tax hike and reasons here. This weekend, we encourage readers to visit Hill Music Shoppe for a chance to meet a local published author, Mari Miller, purchase her book and get an autograph.  …

A reminder that tonight hosts the Neighborhood Watch Meeting at Maria Parham Medical Center.  For more information please click the previous link to go to our calendar event page. In Wednesday night’s presidential speech, Obama called for 30,000 troops to be pulled from Afghanistan.  Is it too little too late?  Or should we keep our troops there to secure our national security?

Perhaps you’ve read in the news about a North Carolina man who had lost his job after 17 years as a Coca-Cola delivery man, and with it his health insurance. He was in increasing pain from slipped discs, arthritic joints, a gammy foot and a growth on his chest.  The story is making international news now mocking our health care system (or lack thereof) due to the fact the gentleman figured the best way to get proper treatment for his …

North Carolina has wasted $318 million dollars in a debacle regarding which company handles the state medicaid claims processing. EDS (now owned by Hewlett Packard) held the contract with North Carolina for years when in 2004 it was suggested to rebid out the contract.  In 2004 ACS (Affiliated Computer Services) won the bid with the lowest cost, but failed to deliver a working system.  The state cancelled, ACS sued, and NC paid 10.5 million for breach of contract.  In 2008, …

The Governor is expected to Veto another bill this week, the new voter identification bill that requires a photo ID to be presented by a voter during the voting process. Please be informed that the County’s Public Safety Committee is scheduled to meet tonight,  Monday, June 20 at 4:00 p.m. in the County Manager’s Office. Also, Chairman Eddie L. Wright has called a special meeting for Tuesday, June 21 at 4:30 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Conference Room, Vance County Administration …

I’ll keep it light today and put up for consideration our official North Carolina State Sport may soon become NASCAR if the Governor signs the bill on her desk.  Good choice? Discuss and more on your open line…

By the time you read this Wednesday Morning, the North Carolina Legislature may have already overridden the veto of Perdue’s budget veto.  Rumors are that a 12:01am session Wednesday morning will attempt to override her veto of the budget which included heavy cuts to North Carolina schools.  Democratic Local Representative James Crawford Jr. is one of the ‘party of 5’ democratic legislators expected to vote with republicans for the override.  The other four are William Brisson, Dewey Hill, Bill Owens, …

Mr. Obama visited Durham, NC yesterday.  At a company called Cree, which makes lighting products.  Obama also visited Cree and held a ‘town meeting’ there in May 2008 during his presidential campaign.  I wonder how much money those guys have donated to his agenda? First is a clip from his 2008 visit: Now a clip from Monday’s visit: So his original campaign promises in the first clip, he promises relief to the unemployed and to the gas prices. This was …

Governor Perdue has become the first North Carolina governor to veto a budget bill since the position was given power in 1997. You can read the full statement on the article at our website. She specifically cites education cuts as the reason. We’d like to remind all that this afternoon hosts a 7pm city council meeting, and a 7pm Vance county school board meeting.  The Vance County budget work session scheduled for this afternoon has been canceled. The agenda for …

In consideration for Governor Perdue is a new bill that will add a tax to prepaid wireless service.  The revenue from the tax will go towards the 911 fund to support 911 service in the state.  It seems governments are trying to add taxes here and there to make up for shortfalls in revenue.  Businesses are doing it too, my bank previously offered free checking for personal and business however that has been eliminated the last couple of months. Also …

On yesterday’s open line MS relayed a sad tale of someone wanting to adopt from the Vance County Animal Shelter, however the animal they wanted to adobt was put down early the next day before they realized it.  I recently adopted 3 cats from there about 3 weeks or so ago for my family and everyone at the shelter was very nice to us the entire visit.  We worked with Gail who sincerely wanted to get these animals out of …

This weeks version of the new North Carolina voting laws include changes to the identification section of the bill yet again.  Earlier, it was allowed to bring not only a photo ID, but you could instead bring in a copy of a utility bill that included your name and address.  Now that provision is gone, and a photo ID is the only acceptable form in the latest version.  Also in talks is the possibility to reduce the number of petitioners …

Seems all the buzz surrounds Mr. Weiner’s admission that he did send naughty pictures to a 21 year old college girl.  I did enjoy listening to some of his entertaining speeches on the floor in the past, but does this necessitate people calling for his resignation?  He did lie about it outright, but maintains that he did nothing illegal.  Even if Weiner’s statements were accurate about no House or legal violations, under the “Official Code of Conduct” for lawmakers and …

As a follow up to our brief last week, Mr. Obama gave his weekly address Saturday from a Chrysler plant in Ohio. This weekend, we received a reader comment in our email from Stan that reads: Found several one/five gallon cans of old paint/stain. Took them to the dump and gentleman there said they will only accept if dried out. So I went to the landfill and learned from the kind lady there that Vance County does not have a place …