Citing concerns over the lack of local seafood served at the Outer Banks Seafood Festival, Outer Banks Catch (OBC) has chosen not to participate in this year’s event, scheduled for Oct. 15. A letter from OBC Executive Director Sandy Semans Ross stated that, “This action is not being taken lightly,” adding that the event’s advertising […]
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It is inconceivable that anyone could look at this face and see anything other than exuberance, trust and hope. And yet, that would be incorrect. It is the face of poverty that as a society we have come to shut out of our minds. Instead, many have replaced it with image of “The Welfare Queen” […]
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Finally! Legislators called it a wrap on the 2015 session of the General Assembly a little after 4 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30, thus making it the longest legislative session since 2002. Total cost of the session extended beyond the beginning of the fiscal year that began July 1 – $2.73 million. The final days […]
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In the words of the late great Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” And that appears to be the theme song of the General Assembly, which has finally passed a budget that has received the governor’s signature and become law. But they aren’t finished yet. This week, in between votes on the budget, […]
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The ink on the 2015-16 North Carolina State Budget wasn’t quite dry yesterday when the North Carolina Senate voted 33-16 along party lines to approve it — just six hours after the printed copies were provided to the legislators. Democrats refused to rubber-stamp the budget because of lack of time to review the more than […]
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Forty-two thousand dollars a day — $210,000 a week — and the price tag keeps getting higher. That is what the General Assembly’s Legislative Services is reporting that it is costing to continue convening the North Carolina General Assembly, so that it can keep trying to nail down the state budget to a document that […]
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Legislators are working behind closed doors as they continue to try to hammer out a budget that was due to take effect 66 days ago. Rumblings around Raleigh don’t bode well for progress in completion of the fiscal 2015-16 budget, but leaders announced that they will work through the Labor Day weekend in an effort […]
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They came, they talked, they went home. And that pretty much sums up the past week’s activities in the General Assembly. The few notable actions that occurred happened on Thursday, the last legislative day of the week, when both chambers passed yet another continuing resolution to keep government operating without an approved state budget in […]
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That’s not the ocean breeze you hear. It’s the collective tentative sigh of relief from local governments because the House has refused to accept the Senate changes made to House Bill 117, N.C. Competes. While in the Senate, the original bill, an incentives package requested by Gov. Pat McCrory, was amended twice to add the […]
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Two things continue to be missing from the General Assembly – a budget for fiscal year 2015-16 and Sen. Bill Cook, R-Chocowinity. On Thursday, Aug. 13, the deadline for producing the state’s budget was extended until Aug. 31. The budget was to take effect on July 1, but is the tardiest since 2002. School systems […]
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