Shortly before Donald Trump’s return to the White House, staffers made sure to rehang an Andrew Jackson portrait that Joe Biden had removed. Trump described America’s seventh president as “a very tough person” who nevertheless had “a big heart.”
RALEIGH — According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, North Carolina businesses shed nearly 920,000 jobs over the latest 12-month period. Do you find that astounding? Disturbing? Terrifying?
RALEIGH — There are many critters designated by law to symbolize North Carolina. For example, we have an official state bird (red cardinal), reptile (eastern box turtle), horse (colonial Spanish mustang), mollusk (Scotch bonnet), dog (Plott Hound), and mammal (eastern gray squirrel), as well as two state amphibians (the marbled salamander and Pine Barrens tree frog).
RALEIGH — For universities, state governments, localities, medical providers, and other institutions receiving lots of federal money, it’s time to batten down the hatches. Storm’s a-brewing.
RALEIGH — North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. If present trends continue, we’ll surpass Georgia and become the eighth-most-populous state by 2030. There’s even an outside chance we’ll overtake seventh-ranked Ohio.
RALEIGH — In recent weeks, I’ve written several columns flagging areas where North Carolina lags behind other states. We don’t do a good job of providing patients access to telehealth services, for example, and our education system — previously among the best in the country in converting public investment into reading and math performance — has tumbled in the rankings since the school shutdowns of the COVID era.
North Carolina has become a national leader in such policy areas as tax reform, school choice, and transportation funding. Unfortunately, we lag far behind in providing telehealth options to patients.
Four Republicans members of the North Carolina House of Representatives — Erin Paré and Mike Schietzelt of Wake County, Donny Lambeth of Forsyth County, and Tricia Cotham of Mecklenburg County — have just launched this year’s policy debate on teacher pay in our state.
RALEIGH — “What’s in a name?” wrote the Bard in his masterpiece Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
RALEIGH — What does it mean to be a conservative? “I’ve always believed that conservatism is the politics of reality,” wrote National Review founder William F. Buckley, “and that reality ultimately asserts itself in a reasonably free society.” Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher put it succinctly: “The facts of life are conservative.”
Every citizen who meets the basic requirements — adulthood, residency, and the completion of sentence after a felony conviction — can cast a ballot in North Carolina. There’s no test of civic knowledge required to exercise the civil right to vote, nor should there be.
RALEIGH — The asymmetry is striking. In Washington, many Republicans take a maximalist position on the executive power of the president of the United States. All departments and agencies — even if created by Congress with the intent of limiting presidential authority over them — are as a constitutional matter subordinate to the president, who can fire their officers and overrule their decisions at will.
