On Tuesday, the state’s top legislators said The U.S. Supreme Court should rule against a lower court that just found North Carolina’s Congressional districts to be illegally gerrymandered. “In yesterday’s decision, the three-judge panel forecasted voiding the results of primaries and canceling the November election for Congress,” their statement said. The judges did not say…
Author: Lowell Simon
Maryland, Another Tragedy Already Forgotten?
Yet another tragic shooting, this time at a newsroom in Maryland. Five people were killed and another three seriously injured. The gunman did not use an assault style weapon but was apparently harboring a vendetta that authorities knew about for years. More thoughts and prayers came from the White House but no discussion of sensible…
Amending the State Constitution
Do you believe that our state government should be run by and for the benefit of the people? Do you believe in the constitutional separation of the branches of government? The Republican legislature does not. Friday was the final day of the legislative “short” session, and the Republican super-majority used their unmitigated powers to seize…
Why SB 75 Matters More Than Anything
What might be the biggest threat to the State of North Carolina’s economic future is called Senate Bill 75. A very non-threatening moniker for a referendum to amend our state constitution by permanently freezing the state’s current income tax rate. Voters will have the opportunity to oppose this debacle in November. How will this permanent…
Mockery of Democracy
This week our State Legislature put out a 300+ page budget for 2018-2019. This is part two of last year’s two-year budget and one might assume that we write two year budgets so that we don’t have to redo them every year. But one would be wrong. This budget is packed with partisan pork. It…
Using Your Teacher’s Voice
Today I spent an amazing day with teachers from all over NC. I am certain you heard them. They were in Raleigh to let legislators know that our schools are still drastically underfunded. It was not just about pay, although that is still a big issue. It was also about funding basic school supplies like…
We now see the job in front of us
Jamie Boles picked up 60% of Republicans. They are clearly happy to have more of the same. On the other hand, Republicans showed they are open to change by voting Sheriff Godfrey out. I wouldn’t speed through Carthage for awhile. On Primary Tuesday, I visited 13 polls and loved every minute of it. I met…
Born on Third Base
US UNEMPLOYMENT FEBRUARY 2009 – FEBRUARY 2018 Trump taking credit for the decrease in unemployment is like NC Republicans taking credit for increasing teacher pay. When you manipulate numbers out of context you can change the message. Maybe numbers are like guns – numbers don’t lie, it’s the people using them that do.
Why We Should Be Nervous
Back in July of 2016, long before I thought of running for office, I wrote about Donald Trump’s economic policies towards China; “Of course, if we place tariffs on their goods, they are likely to do the same to ours. As the prices of our domestic goods increase and inflation becomes certain, our currency will…
Behind the Curtains of a Campaign (NRA Review)
This is our first installment in “behind the curtains of a campaign.” It is about the numerous candidate questionnaires we get and a short review on the one I got from the NRA. For the record my position on gun control is the following: 1) ban assault-style weapons from the public domain (except the police…