Dare County real estate developer Ray Hollowell was counting on Dolly Parton and her family to help him transform the Pine Mountain development, located in southern Burke County, into a more upscale community that he renamed "The South Mountain Preserve." Hollowell also was counting on Gov. Bev...
Published: Tuesday, June 10th, 2014 @ 5:27 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Progressive protesters, including "Moral Monday" demonstrators, have for roughly the past year voiced their opposition to a supposed state "tax increase" passed last year. Specifically, they gripe that the landmark 2013 North Carolina tax reform - which lowered income tax rates on all income...
Published: Saturday, June 7th, 2014 @ 8:10 am
By: Civitas Insitute
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are County developer Ray Hollowell told Carolina Journal that he and developer Rick Watson signed a promotion agreement in March 2008 with Dolly Parton's sister, Cassie Parton King, and Cassie's husband, Scott King, to push development at South Mountain in Burke County. The marketing...
Published: Friday, June 6th, 2014 @ 2:45 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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I well remember the first time I met Keith Crisco, the former North Carolina commerce secretary and textile entrepreneur who passed away Monday after an accidental fall at his home in Asheboro.
Published: Friday, May 16th, 2014 @ 2:20 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The latest federal employment data for North Carolina support the case that a fiscally conservative approach to state fiscal policy is helping improve the economy's long-term outlook. That's the assessment from John Locke Foundation President John Hood.
Published: Sunday, April 20th, 2014 @ 10:50 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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After years of scrambling and squabbling about the fate of the Dorothea Dix campus near downtown Raleigh, the two sides are finally doing the right thing: negotiating the size and price of the land parcel that city taxpayers will be purchasing from state taxpayers.
Published: Wednesday, April 16th, 2014 @ 12:59 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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If North Carolina Democrats were to gain some legislative seats this year, state and national pundits would probably spill gobs of ink - or at least fill gobs of pixels - with elaborate explanations of how the party began to recover its footing in a state it once dominated.
Published: Tuesday, March 11th, 2014 @ 6:48 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Did Gov. Pat McCrory and the North Carolina legislature raise taxes on poor and middle-income families to give tax breaks to the wealthy?
Published: Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014 @ 4:44 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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For North Carolina liberals intent on recovering some political power in Raleigh, a funny thing happened on the way to a quorum: reality intruded on their most-cherished claims about the two biggest issues in North Carolina politics.
Published: Tuesday, November 26th, 2013 @ 2:25 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Nor can the fault be laid solely at the feet of George W. Bush, or North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, or former governors Bev Perdue and Mike Easley.
Published: Thursday, October 31st, 2013 @ 6:08 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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After the 2010 elections put North Carolina's legislature in the hands of Republicans for the first time in more than a century, state policy began a turn to the Right - that much is indisputable.
Published: Thursday, October 24th, 2013 @ 12:00 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina's film tax credits are currently slated to expire at the close of 2014. Accuracy requires use of the word "currently" to underscore the fluidity of the situation.
Published: Friday, October 18th, 2013 @ 12:44 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The North Carolina Supreme Court has never ruled that the state constitution requires the delivery of early childhood services to all preschoolers, or even to all low-income preschoolers.
Published: Thursday, October 17th, 2013 @ 10:48 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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In case you've been too busy with real life to keep track of the political dramas of the past two weeks, here's a brief recap.
Published: Tuesday, October 15th, 2013 @ 5:23 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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This summer I took calls from dozens of reporters across the country. A couple of questions were repeated time and again: How could North Carolina Republicans have moved so far to the right? How have the state's politics polarized so much when the Democratic Party barely has budged from its...
Published: Wednesday, September 18th, 2013 @ 2:10 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Republican Gov. Pat McCrory took it on the chin twice this week as the General Assembly, controlled by his fellow Republicans, voted to override the only two vetoes stamped by the first-year governor.
Published: Thursday, September 5th, 2013 @ 5:42 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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When Watauga High School opened in 2010, Governor Bev Perdue declared that the school was "what education is all about."
Published: Thursday, August 29th, 2013 @ 7:27 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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When the July jobs report for North Carolina came out last week, showing an uptick in the unemployment rate, all the usual suspects said all the usual things.
Published: Monday, August 26th, 2013 @ 11:10 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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An ancient Chinese philosopher once said: "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshit."
Published: Sunday, August 25th, 2013 @ 12:13 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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I was out at a social gathering last night, when I overheard a conversation that bothered me. These were some folks I know - low info voters who are moderate to conservative in their politics - who I know voted for Pat McCrory in 2012.
Published: Thursday, August 22nd, 2013 @ 8:52 am
By: Brant Clifton
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Since Barack Obama took office in 2009 promising to end and reverse the effects of the Great Recession, Republican politicians and conservative critics have relentlessly pointed out how weak the economic recovery has been by historical standards. One popular rhetorical tactic has been to use a...
Published: Monday, July 15th, 2013 @ 7:26 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Contrary to recent media reports, North Carolina has taken out federal loans to operate its underfunded unemployment insurance system, and it is the state's obligation to see that $2.5 billion debt is repaid, said Dale Folwell, state assistant secretary of employment security.
Published: Wednesday, July 10th, 2013 @ 2:59 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Three associates of former Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue -- New Bern attorney Trawick "Buzzy" Stubbs, Morganton businessman Charles Michael Fulenwider, and former Western Piedmont...
Published: Sunday, April 28th, 2013 @ 8:39 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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A Wake County grand jury Monday suggested one of Democratic former Gov. Bev Perdue's donors obstructed justice by violating campaign finance laws. In a presentment (PDF download), the grand jury asked Wake County District Attorney...
Published: Thursday, April 11th, 2013 @ 4:30 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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A legal-issues think tank is calling for privatization of the state's ABC stores, even suggesting that the current government-controlled system might violate the N.C. Constitution's ban on monopolies.
Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 @ 7:56 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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House Republicans have rolled out their voter identification bill.
Published: Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 @ 9:54 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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In 2007, with Bev Perdue as president of the Senate, Joe Hackney as speaker of the House, and Mike Easley as governor, a very liberal, Democratic-run state government imposed a mandate that by 2021, the state's investor-owned utilities must provide 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable...
Published: Thursday, April 4th, 2013 @ 2:36 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Republican Gov. Pat McCrory issued his first executive order Monday, rescinding an order issued by his predecessor, Democrat Bev Perdue, which Perdue exempted herself from at the end of her term of office.
Published: Thursday, January 10th, 2013 @ 6:18 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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It's interesting to see what's left of North Carolina's mainstream media thoroughly inspecting Pat McCrory's transition team, agenda, and appointees.
Published: Monday, December 31st, 2012 @ 1:10 am
By: Brant Clifton
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It's become pretty clear that the massive left-wing conspiracy is focusing MOST of its energy on DENR secretary-designate John Skvarla and budget director-designate Art Pope.
Published: Thursday, December 27th, 2012 @ 11:27 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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The GOP nominees for the top two posts we'll be voting for on November 6 can really vouch for the old theorem about "right place, right time."
Published: Thursday, November 1st, 2012 @ 9:00 pm
By: Brant Clifton
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"I love it when a plan comes together."
Published: Sunday, October 28th, 2012 @ 1:38 pm
By: Fern Shubert
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There was little hope when the 2012 short session opened that the State House would gain the Democratic votes needed to override Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the voter photo ID bill - HB 351 - that originally passed both chambers in 2011.
Published: Monday, July 30th, 2012 @ 7:06 pm
By: Civitas Insitute
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No matter what happens in the gubernatorial election this year, a political string will be broken - our governor will no longer hail from Eastern North Carolina.
Published: Monday, July 30th, 2012 @ 10:52 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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