“I encourage you to ask your legislators to support legislation to modernizing the Nurse Practice Act and improve access to health care for all North Carolinians.”
![](https://mountainx.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/X_letters-480x320.jpg)
“I encourage you to ask your legislators to support legislation to modernizing the Nurse Practice Act and improve access to health care for all North Carolinians.”
“Overall, [Asheville’s] critics can be divided into three groups: the transplants who didn’t, some surrounding mountain neighbors and the conservative sanctorum in Raleigh. For them, it’s definitely ‘anywhere but Asheville’ — socially, culturally and politically.”
Amid a hostile legislative climate in Raleigh, innovative, sustainable design and construction are flourishing in Western North Carolina. The WNC Green Building Council was founded in 2001. Since then — and despite an unstable housing market — local interest has grown steadily, says Maggie Leslie.
“Unfortunately — especially given the feelings of paranoia that drones, by their very nature, tend to spur in a lot of people — open discussion and debate have not featured prominently in the equation in North Carolina. “
“Kudos to cartoonist Brent Brown for nailing the absurdity of the legislature’s opossum bill debacle.”
Have you noticed that prices are dropping and you can get more for less these days? We haven’t either, but our lawmakers are acting as if this were true. Our current state budget touts a $1 billion increase in educational funding, but little is said about how much of that money actually reaches classrooms. In […]
It was heartening to read the story about First Congregational United Church of Christ’s commitment to get as far off the electric grid as possible. The stated goal is to completely offset their power consumption. Their fundraising event as described in the Conscious Party article [“Souls for Solar,” March 11, Xpress] was a great way […]
North Carolina Rep. Tim Moffitt and his study committee recommended to the General Assembly that Asheville city water be taken over by the state; this bill is expected to be voted on soon. See ashevillewater.blogspot.com for updates. Jane Whilden is running against Moffitt for the N.C. House of Representatives, District 116. Please spread the word […]
The proposed 11th Congressional District, which includes the city of Asheville, would lose almost 9,000 registered Democrats and gain more than 26,000 Republicans, according to stats released on the North Carolina General Assembly website.
Whatever the outcome of the N.C. General Assembly’s 2011 redistricting, the process has already attracted both national and state-level scrutiny. An across-the-aisle coalition has formed North Carolinians for Redistricting Reform, a nonprofit that aims to take redistricting away from state legislators in favor of an independent body to ensure an open, public-driven process. As Executive […]
Although "healthcare reform" was passed, the state is now making decisions about how North Carolina will respond to the new federal rules. The N.C. General Assembly is considering legislation that would put Blue Cross Blue Shield permanently on a board whose purpose it is to help small businesses and those who cannot afford health insurance. […]
With the 2010 census numbers now in hand, the state Legislature has begun redrawing the lines for N.C. House and Senate, as well as congressional districts. May 15 is the target date for producing new district maps; public hearings are now being held around the state, with a visit to Western North Carolina slated for […]
The Joint Committee on Regulatory Reform, established by North Carolina legislators this year, is on the road. Its mission: Scrutinize “burdensome state rules and regulations on behalf of the private sector.” The 18-member team wants to hear from business and farm owners around the state concerning “outdated rules and regulations that should be eliminated.” The […]
Legislators added more than 130 new bills to the roster last week, while one of the premier acts in the House (HB 2, which proposes bucking the federal health-care bill) was returned by the governor, who exercised her veto power for the second time.
Area Democratic representatives plan bill-to-bill combat with the Senate’s proposed charter-school changes.
photo by Jonathan Welch
The North Carolina General Assembly’s protest of the national health-care mandates is resting uneasily on the governor’s desk.
Gov. Bev Perdue, at 3:05 p.m. yesterday, Feb. 22, exercised her veto power to send SB 13, “The Balanced Budget Act of 2011,” back to the General Assembly, calling it a “one-time cash-grab.”
In a bit of a shell game, legislators continued to formulate their approach to the state’s budget deficit even as the governor announced that new projections had erased $1 billion of the originally predicted $3.7 billion shortfall for the next fiscal year. (The projected deficit was subsequently scaled down to $2.4 billion.) Meanwhile, the Legislature […]
With the release of Gov. Bev Perdue’s proposed 2011-2013 budget on Feb. 17, an important line was drawn.
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 […]
In a bit of a shell game last week in the N.C. General Assembly, legislators continued to look for their own approach to the state’s budget deficit while the governor announced new deficit projections had erased $1 billion of the original $3.7 billion shortfall.