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 …
Reactions to the Office of State Budget and Management’s Consensus General Fund Forecast have ranged from Governor Stein saying our state is approaching a fiscal financial cliff next year to …
North Carolina lawmakers have seldom been on the cutting edge of national public policymaking in recent decades. Former Gov. Jim Hunt won plaudits and copycats at various points during his four terms …
In mid-February, the White House barred Associated Press journalists from presidential events for refusing to change the name of a body of water from "the Gulf of Mexico" to "the Gulf of America" in …
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 …
My wife is an excellent cook, perhaps because she came from a family of cooks. Her paternal grandparents ran a restaurant, and her maternal grandparents were bakers. By the time she was a teenager, …
Unlike parliamentary government in which the party with a legislative majority typically holds a virtual monopoly on power, the American system is designed to distribute power and make divided …
Whenever the insanely high level of federal government spending comes up — which is every time federal government spending comes up — federal government spenders immediately trot out a …
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall earned at least two rounds of bipartisan applause at the start of this year’s legislative session. One was for assuming his new leadership post. The …
Experience dictates we should read polls with a grain of salt. Therefore, with shaker in hand, I read the latest Carolina Journal Poll on North Carolinians’ satisfaction with public schools. …
This has all the makings of a constitutional crisis. According to law professor Amanda Frost, “a constitutional crisis occurs when one branch of government, usually the executive, …
In 2010, the year North Carolina Republicans won control of both houses of the state legislature, Site Selection Magazine — the self-described “leading publication in corporate real estate, …
On Jan. 28, U.S. President Donald Trump made federal government employees an offer that, at least theoretically, they could refuse: "If you choose not to continue in your current role in the federal …
Last month, North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall tapped Rep. John Torbett (R-Gaston) and Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort) to lead a new select committee on government efficiency. The timing is no …
The Trump administration will soon announce new leadership at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the relatively low-profile but hugely influential federal agency that evaluates patent applications …
Donald Trump has undoubtedly caused more needless and destructive havoc in the first two weeks of his second administration than any president in U.S. history. As Triangle-area Congresswoman Deborah …
During last year's presidential campaign, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris seemed to disagree on quite a few things. One thing they agreed on — Trump reiterated his position in a speech in Las Vegas …
Reacting a few days ago to President Donald Trump’s brief attempt to suspend payment on a broad swath of federal grants, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer warned that “virtually any organization, school, …
It’s long been a tradition in American politics that new presidents experience a “honeymoon period” during their first several weeks in office — a time during which allies and supporters heap …
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed last November ("The DOGE Plan to Reform Government"), Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy asserted that "[r]equiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week …