NCMatters

Two bills introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly recently came directly from the people — 13 elementary-school students, to be exact. And if they’re passed, the state will have its first official sport: stock-car racing. The Mooresville "pit crew" worked secretly at first so as not to tip off fans of any other sport, […]

NCmatters

The countdown on the Health Care Freedom Act (HB 2) went down to the wire, but just before 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 5, Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the controversial legislation, which would have pitted the state against the federal health-care law. "A state can't pass a law that is out of obeyance with federal […]

Backdoor vouchers?

Three state representatives from Western North Carolina held a March 4 press conference in Asheville slamming charter-school legislation approved by the N.C. Senate this week. The three legislators, all Democrats, praised Buncombe County's existing charter schools as a model for the state. Reps. Susan Fisher, Patsy Keever (both Buncombe County) and Ray Rapp (Madison County) […]

NC Matters

Entering her fourth term in the N.C. General Assembly, Rep. Susan Fisher of the 114th District is the senior representative from Buncombe County. As a Democrat, however, she lost the leadership positions she held last year as Republicans took control of both houses of the Legislature in January. "None of the Democrats are seeing office-holding […]

State Beat

As the North Carolina General Assembly’s 2011-12 biennium got under way last week, leaders were formally elected, committee assignments were handed out, and a small number of bills — some tackling such weighty subjects as involuntary annexation and the use of eminent domain — were introduced, perhaps providing clues as to what might be coming […]

Republican­s step up to bat

The new Republican majority in the state Legislature came ready to play on Jan. 26, the first day of the 2011 session, immediately introducing bills to forbid contraints on “health care freedom” and to amend the state constitution to prohibit the use of eminent domain for economic development. Sen. Tom Apodaca of Hendersonville, representing the […]