Displaying items by tag: politics

There have been many contributing factors to the disastrous scope and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States over the past year, but right now, tragically, misinformation and ignorance top the list.

ROCKINGHAM — When candidates file for political office, one of the questions they’re asked is if they’ve ever been convicted of a felony.

RALEIGH — The North Carolina House of Representatives next week will honor one of its former members, the late Melanie Goodwin, who served Richmond County for three terms.

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper has vetoed more legislation than all other North Carolina governors combined. With the past three vetoes stamped over the past three weeks, Cooper’s total comes to 57 vetoes, and the session isn't over.

The U.S. Supreme Court backed donor privacy in a decision released Thursday, July 1.  The closely watched ruling was based on a case from California in which the state's then-Attorney General Kamala Harris tried to require nonprofit organizations to disclose the identities of donors by requiring them to file an unredacted “Schedule B” with their taxes, which would reveal the identities of anyone giving $5,000 or more in money or goods.

WINSTON-SALEM — Lei Zhang says he moved from his home country for a reason, and it wasn’t a trivial one.

RALIEGH — The president of the state chapter of the NAACP is leveling accusations of racism and white supremacy against auditor Beth Wood and state Sen. Lisa Barnes, R-Nash, over Wood's investigation of corruption in the Rocky Mount City Council and Barnes' proposed legislation intended to address it.

I can’t wait to watch Pat McCrory lose again. McCrory is on Twitter making asinine statements and parroting childish right-wing talking points. While he might not be as smart as Thom Tillis, he has just as little substance. I don’t know what’s wrong with Charlotte Republicans. They will say anything to get elected.

If more people are getting vaccinated because of the governor’s handouts and giveaways, I sure can’t tell.

We’re about to learn a lot about economic recoveries. Back in 2009, Barack Obama, with a hefty Democratic majority in Congress, tried to pull us out of the Great Recession with a tepid relief program designed to attract Republican support. It led to a slow recovery, and when the GOP took control of the Congress and many state legislatures after the 2010 Republican wave, they instituted austerity policies to counteract Obama’s spending. Climbing out of that recession took almost all decade.