It’s four weeks into the legislative session, and lawmakers are getting restless. Meetings on the state budget have moved behind closed doors to speed the process. At nightly parties and receptions in Raleigh, the talk centers on the fall elections and how quickly the session will wrap up so politicians can go home to campaign. […]
Barbara Solow
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Off the Dime
You know state lawmakers are serious about something when they start discussing it behind closed doors. That’s what’s been happening for the past two weeks at the General Assembly, where legislators are working feverishly on a state budget. Coming up with a viable spending plan hasn’t been easy. The state faces a $91 million revenue […]
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Budget winners and losers
When Gov. Jim Hunt unveiled his budget two weeks ago, he was resolutely upbeat. “There’s no question that this is a tough budget year and we had to make some tough decisions,” he said, at a press conference in Raleigh. “But our economy is strong, and we have what we need to do the job.” […]
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Targeting the poor
Minnie Alston slides a small tray off a shelf in her Durham kitchen and turns to show me six plastic bottles containing her daily medications. A lively, expressive 86-year-old, Alston takes the drugs for chronic high blood pressure, diabetes and glaucoma. She used to pay nearly $100 a month for her medicines–more than she could […]
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A Picnic in D.C.
When I heard that “a million moms” were gathering in the nation’s capital to protest gun violence, I was intrigued–and skeptical. I’ve only been a mother for three years, but it doesn’t take long to realize that our society has mixed feelings about the power and value of motherhood. Asserting that power seemed like a […]
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Hospitality
Anyone with doubts about whether North Carolina is still friendly to business had only to stop by the annual legislative conference hosted by N.C. Citizens for Business and Industry in Raleigh last week. At an evening reception at the new Entertainment and Sports Arena, and in the high-ceilinged confines of N.C. State University’s McKimmon Center, […]
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Keeping Close Counsel
The first week of June was especially exhausting for Kit Gruelle. In her job at Family Violence and Rape Crisis Services of Chatham County, she spent days trying to help a Pittsboro woman who’d filed criminal charges against a former lover. Despite her long experience in the emotional minefield of domestic violence work, Gruelle found […]
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The Secret Lives of Guinea Pigs
For the past six months, I’ve been talking with guinea pigs. Two-legged guinea pigs, that is. The kind who sell their bodies to science. There are guinea-pig musicians, librarians, restaurant workers, teachers and union organizers in our midst. Some are regular recruits for studies at local universities, while others routinely offer themselves as paid volunteers […]
