President Joe Biden’s approval rating in North Carolina has taken a beating since the first quarter of the year, with just 39% of North Carolinians approving of him today, compared to 57% who disapprove. In March, Biden’s approval rating stood at 48% to 49% disapprove.
Gov. Roy Cooper says he will sign the first budget from the General Assembly since he took office in 2017. The announcement came in a news conference Tuesday, Nov. 16, and before the first vote from the Senate on Tuesday afternoon. As of Wednesday morning, the Senate has passed the budget 40-8, with 14 Democrats voting in favor of it. A final Senate vote is coming Wednesday with the House slated to vote Wednesday afternoon and Thursday.
In this case, however, my inspiration came not from the realization that something I wrote might deserve to be trashed. I’d already had that realization decades ago after penning one of my first columns, when its subject complained to me that I’d misquoted him, misunderstood his point, and even misspelled his name. Other than that, it seems, the article was decidedly mediocre.
Argument: If you are for the school system requiring students to be immunized against diseases, and COVID-19 is just another disease for which a reliable, safe vaccine is readily available, then you should not be against mandatory COVID-19 vaccines in schools.
Frank Buckles, who passed away in 2011, was the last surviving American veteran of World War I. An ambulance driver on the Western front, Buckles lied about his age and enlisted at 16. His parents were born before the Civil War, and his mom delivered her last child, Frank, in her 40s.
Republicans in much of the country enjoyed significant success during the 2021 election cycle. They elected a GOP governor in Virginia, almost elected one in New Jersey, won several important judicial races in Pennsylvania, and even elected their first Republican candidate to local office in Seattle (city attorney) since the 1980s.
Former N.C. congressman Mark Walker, a Republican candidate for the state's open U.S. Senate seat in 2022, has taken numerous calls urging him to shift gears and try instead to return to the U.S. House. Walker has taken those calls from elected officials in North Carolina and from former House colleagues in other states.
It’s one of the best quotes attributed to baseball legend Yogi Berra: "It's like deja vu all over again."It’s also a phrase that sums up North Carolina’s political landscape going forward as new legislative and congressional district maps are approved by the Republican-led legislature along party-line votes.
The North Carolina General Assembly is slated to give final approval to the state’s new congressional and legislative district maps on Thursday. The three proposal boundary maps moved quickly through committees and floor votes this week. During Thursday’s sessions the House is slated to pass the map for U.S. congressional seats in North Carolina, and the map for N.C. Senate districts. The Senates will consider the N.C. House district map.
A year ago, would you have correctly guessed that meetings of local school boards would be among the most politically charged events of 2021, and that school-board races would be among the most contested of the next election cycle? If so, more power to you. I would have gotten those questions wrong.
As the North Carolina General Assembly plans for the first votes on new legislative and congressional district maps this week, interest groups have already filed lawsuits to block them. The maps are still in development with several map proposals having been presented to the public in recent hearings.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has vetoed a bill to limit his powers as a governor, as well as the power of his successors. House Bill 264, Emergency Powers Accountability Act, would have required that the governor receive concurrence from the 10-member elected Council of State for an emergency declaration of more than seven days, and legislative approval for it to extend beyond 45 days.
