On Wednesday night, the House Education (K-12) Committee gave its approval to a bill that would allow the state to choose charter school operators to take over low-achieving school districts in North Carolina, an idea that has been tried in other states and failed to produce positive results. HB 1080 would transfer five participating schools […]
Paul Blest
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No Retreat, No Surrender: Charlotte Rejects an HB 2 “Compromise”
As the battle between Charlotte and the General Assembly over transgender rights has raged over the past few months, neither side has seemed very interested in ceding any ground on an issue that’s sure to shape the next election. That all changed last week, however, when the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce publicly encouraged the city […]
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Surprise, Surprise: North Carolinians Still Don’t Like HB 2
Public Policy Polling released its monthly survey of North Carolinians, and what they found about HB 2 will…not shock you: Only 35% of voters in the state support the bill, to 44% who are opposed to it…50% of voters in the state would like to see it repealed, compared to only 38% who think it […]
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The Morning Roundup: Decision Day
Good morning! Today is something called World Turtle Day. 1. Charlotte Chamber of Commerce head encourages City Council to do incredibly stupid thing. You may or may not have heard over the weekend that Charlotte is considering a “deal” with General Assembly leaders to repeal its ordinance extending non-discrimination protections to the LGBT community, in […]
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Maroon 5 Canceled Their North Carolina Shows, and You’ll Never Guess Why
Maroon 5, who were supposed to play in Charlotte on September 11 and Raleigh the next night, have canceled their shows in North Carolina because of—wait for it—HB 2. From their website: We have announced that we will be canceling our upcoming shows in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina because of the recent passage of […]
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Former Republican North Carolina Chief Justice Comes Out Against the Death Penalty
In a Huffington Post blog yesterday that was reposted by NC Policy Watch today, I. Beverly Lake III—a former justice on the N.C. Supreme Court who served as an associate for from 1994–2000 and then as its chief justice until 2006, and who unsuccessfully ran for governor against Jim Hunt in 1980—wrote that “protecting the […]
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The Morning Roundup: The One With The Budget
Good morning, it is Thursday. Here’s what’s up. 1. The House agrees on a budget that a lot of Democrats like. The House voted overwhelmingly in favor of a $22.2 billion budget on Wednesday, with just 12 Democrats, one of them being Democratic House leader Larry Hall, voting against. The plan would give teachers up […]
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Legislators Want to Make It Easier for Local Governments to Reject Refugees
Last week, while the state government remained engulfed in the dumpster fire known as HB 2, four Republican representatives quietly filed a bill to throw even more obstacles at refugees who want to resettle in North Carolina and the localities that want to take them in, while making it much easier for cities and counties […]
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“Hard-Earned Fun”: An Interview with Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, in North Carolina
As Against Me! took the stage on Sunday night in Durham at Motorco, frontwoman Laura Jane Grace produced a lighter and her birth certificate. She lit it on fire. “Goodbye, gender!” she said as the band kicked into its first song, “I Was A Teenage Anarchist”. Grace, who came out as transgender in a 2012 […]
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ACLU Seeks to Block Enforcement of Bathroom Discrimination Provision of HB 2
This afternoon, the ACLU filed a preliminary injunction to “seek immediate relief for transgender people” in their ongoing lawsuit to overturn HB 2. The bill would block enforcement of the parts of HB 2 that prevent transgender people from using the bathroom associated with their gender identity. Currently, under HB 2, transgender people have to […]
