For the week of
February 24, 2012
- carolinajournal.com
Reaction of the Week
RALEIGH — Wake County commissioners should be wary of their
environmental sustainability task force’s final report. A John Locke
Foundation expert who served on the task force says the report relies on
a flawed decision-making process, bad assumptions, and incomplete
analysis.
He’s releasing a 4,000-word critique of the task force’s work as county commissioners prepare to address the sustainability report.
“This brief analysis only hints at the systemic problems in the
sustainability task force’s final report,” said Dr. Michael Sanera, JLF
Director of Research and Local Government Studies. “To discuss all of
its problems in detail would require a much heftier document.”
County commissioners need more detailed information before accepting any
of the task force’s ideas, Sanera said. “It is imperative that
commissioners call on qualified experts — resource economists, not
sustainability consultants — to conduct economic analyses of the task
force's recommendations,” he said. “This should be done before the
county implements any of these ideas.”
News Features
CJ: DHHS defends school lunch inspections
RALEIGH — Even though government officials admit
mistakes were made in the way a Hoke County preschool program handled
lunches students brought from home, they continue to enforce the
regulations that caused a nationwide uproar. CJ: State backs off of sea-level rise projections
RALEIGH — State officials are pressuring local
governments to plan for a one-meter sea-level rise by 2100, even though
many independent scientists have argued the rise is highly unlikely if
not impossible. Even though a state advisory panel no longer recommends regulations
based on the one-meter projection, local government officials worry that
state regulators will try to implement those rules. CJ: Combining ‘dual enrollment’ programs promises efficiency
RALEIGH — North Carolina’s state politicians
love the idea of “dual enrollment” — high school students taking
community college classes while still in high school. In fact, they love
it so much that over the last few years they have created an array of
different programs for implementing it.
Proposed same-sex marriage ban’s impact debated
WINSTON-SALEM — The proposed amendment that would write North Carolina’s
same-sex marriage ban into the state constitution uses overly broad
language that could cause a range of problems for unmarried heterosexual
couples, according to a detailed legal analysis from three law
professors at UNC Chapel Hill. Why did N.C. lose Caterpillar?
WILMINGTON — It’s beginning to feel like a mini-epidemic. The post-mortem has
begun on why Southeastern North Carolina lost yet another big industrial
project to another state – this time Georgia. Government and
development officials tried Friday to dissect a deal that could have
lured Caterpillar here to build a manufacturing plant and hire up to
1,400 people.
Upcoming Events
Monday, February 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm Noon
A meeting of the Shaftesbury Society
with our special guest Dr. Daniel I. Fine
"Shale Gas Wars: From Pennsylvania to North Carolina."
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 at 7:30 PM
2012 John William Pope Lecture
with our special guest Meghan L. O'Sullivan
"Making Sense of the New Middle East: The Dynamics and Their Implications for US Interests" Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
A Citizens' Constitutional Workshop in Morehead City, NC
with our special guests Dr. Troy Kickler & Dr. Michael Sanera
Workshop #2 in Morehead City: "What would the Federalists and Anti-federalists say about the current political and economic crises?"
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Capital Quotes
“Never again should we send our young men and women to fight unless we declare war.”
— Rep. Walter Jones, R-3rd, as quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer, speaking with Reps. David Price and Brad Miller at an anti-war town hall meeting in Raleigh.
“I guess I’m glad that she finally read the budget and realized that this money has been sitting there.”
— Rep. Justin Burr, R-Stanly, as quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer, reacting to Gov. Bev Perdue’s announcement that she’s found more money in the budget for pre-K programs for at-risk children.
“The land is going to be sold. Why not go ahead and have the revenue be dedicated to something positive?”
— Deby Dihoff, executive director of National Alliance on Mental Illness NC, as quoted by the Raleigh News & Observer, calling for the proceeds of the sale of the Dorothea Dix mental hospital campus to be used to fund mental health services in the state. “It’s not an industry that happens really fast.”
— Brian O’Hara, president of the North Carolina Offshore Wind Coalition, explaining to the Wilmington Star-News that it likely won’t be until at least 2017 or 2018 that wind turbines appear off the North Carolina coast.
On The Air This Week…
This week on C J Radio…
JLF’s Terry Stoops compares U.S. students’ academic performance with international competitors; Robert Lawson of Southern Methodist University discusses freedom and the underlying reasons for recent American decline in ranking; George Leef of the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy explains why capitalism is guaranteed as long as the Constitution continues to limit government activity; the Reason Foundation’s Leonard Gilroy analyzes the benefits of public-private partnerships; and Jenna Ashley Robinson talks about a new group aimed at engaging young conservatives and libertarians.
This week on NC Spin…
Join moderator Tom Campbell
for another week of political discussion and debate on the most
intelligent television talk show in the state. Topics this week: North Carolina missing the boat with ports; obesity costing all of us; and cutting cultural resources. This week’s panelists: John Hood and Becki Gray from the John Locke Foundation; Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch; and former Attorney General and Secretary of State Rufus Edmisten.
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