Featured Articles
In opposition to Amazon Wind farm, NC lawmakers cite #alternativefacts
Overlooking the all caps, italics, bolded passages and occasional exclamation marks, on its face the two-page letter sent by eight North Carolina lawmakers looked overblown but possibly informed.
Last month, the lawmakers — all Republicans — wrote to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, asking him to permanently close the Desert Wind farm just west of Elizabeth City. The letter quoted impressive-sounding government-funded studies about the threat of wind turbines on military radar. It cited a meticulous set of facts and figures. It listed footnotes in superscript, just like the MLA academic style book instructs.
The GOP’s false and telling choice for public schools
The 2017 General Assembly session is only a few weeks old but there’s already a compelling example of what’s wrong with the way things are being done in Raleigh and why the conventional wisdom about the legislature often misses the real story.
Berger and Moore’s latest destructive power grab
Why holding confirmation hearings for the Governor’s department heads is a lousy idea
Leaders of the North Carolina General Assembly have taken a lot of disastrous turns – both substantive and procedural – over the past six years. Denying health care and unemployment insurance benefits to hundreds of thousands, slashing taxes on the rich, eviscerating voting rights, waging wars on science, the environment, reproductive freedom and LGBTQ equality, pushing loaded guns into every corner of the state, and just generally undermining the health of government; the list of regressive policies goes on and on.
Five questions with Gunther Peck
Gunther Peck is an associate professor of History at Duke University specializing in 19th and 20th century American social and cultural history, comparative immigration and labor studies.
Mobilizing the progressive movement: Lessons from a battleground state
In the wake of the stunning women’s marches across the United States and the planet last month, President Donald Trump articulated a thought that was on the minds of many marchers: “Why didn’t these people vote?” We will never know how many marchers did not vote in the 2016 election. But the remarkable enthusiasm gap […]
The Follies
DeVos cites wildly inaccurate data about virtual charters
New information about the written responses from Education Secretary-nominee Betsy DeVos to questions posed by a Democratic Senator should cause more problems for her embattled nomination.
Trump should cease his war on reproductive rights
Of the many grave concerns held by millions of people about the new Trump Administration, one of the most pressing is what the new president will do to women’s reproductive freedom. Far from merely addressing a “social issue,” the restriction of reproductive rights can have dire impacts on the health, safety and economic security of […]
NC political, historical experts reflect on Trump presidency
In a tumultuous first two weeks in office, President Donald Trump has broken with norms and precedents of his office, spawned dozens of lawsuits, generated historically low public approval numbers and some of the largest protests in U.S. history.
Historians and political scientists in North Carolina agree the Trump presidency is, in many ways, without precedent. They are also expressing concern about Trump’s impact on the institution of the presidency, the functioning of the nation’s government and the standing of the U.S. in the world.
The path forward: Debate over voting rights to remain contentious; “Raise the age,” technological advances face smoother sailing
North Carolina residents know well what happens when a politician throws around claims of voter fraud without actually verifying the validity of such notions.
When former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory was losing during the last election, his team took extreme measures and latched on to any allegation of voter fraud researchers could dig up.
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court pick will face Democratic concern for the underrepresented, fallout over stolen seat
Conservative federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch was nominated Tuesday by President Donald Trump to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat left vacant for almost a year after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Trump made the announcement during prime time from the East Room of the White House. He said he made a promise […]
New state superintendent may find it hard to keep pledge on school testing
N.C. Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson may have signaled his intent to reduce the testing load for North Carolina public school students, but education officials, past and present, say the new superintendent is going to need some help from state and local policymakers to achieve his goals. The Winston-Salem Republican—who has not responded to […]
Why Burr and Tillis must reject any new Supreme Court nominee
Fundamental questions on legitimacy of Trump’s presidency must be answered first
These are extraordinary times. The President of the United States is, by every indication, a serial liar who genuinely seems incapable of distinguishing between truth and falsehood. He entered office on January 20 under a cloud of profound constitutional questions related to his fitness to serve and legitimate doubts about his loyalty to the country. His first days in office have been an unmitigated disaster and have featured repeated lies, disastrous cabinet appointees, outrageous conflicts of interest and a series of executive orders that were either horrifically destructive or absurdly and sophomorically nonsensical or both.