August 13, 2009
RALEIGH — First, let’s be clear: North Carolina is not California. State lawmakers and bureaucrats won’t make anyone’s list of soy-swilling, tree-hugging, Mother Earth-worshipping environmentalists. At least not most of them. &ldqu...
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August 12, 2009
RALEIGH — This was the year lawmakers on Tobacco Road asked smokers to take it outside. As the General Assembly session adjourned Tuesday, lawmakers pointed to a new law that will ban smoking in bars and restaurants starting Jan. 2 as one of the hal...
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August 11, 2009
Unemployed workers can begin filing claims online again after a 24-hour computer outage at the N.C. Employment Security Commission delayed claims for thousands. Many workers trying to file claims for unemployment benefits were unable to do so Sunday or Mo...
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August 10, 2009
RALEIGH — A scholarship program designed to allow low-income students to graduate from college debt-free will be phased out as part of the cuts made in this year’s budget. Gov. Bev Perdue Friday signed the $19 billion budget lawmakers approved...
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August 9, 2009
RALEIGH — When lawmakers finish their annual session this week, they will be taking home a big piece of homework: tax reform. North Carolina’s tax code hasn’t undergone a comprehensive rewrite in decades and no longer fits with the state...
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August 6, 2009
RALEIGH — A pending change would weaken the newly minted Jordan Lake water quality rules before they have a chance to take effect, environmental advocates said this week. The new rules will require developers and local governments throughout the Tri...
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August 5, 2009
RALEIGH — N.C. residents will pay more to run their state government but get fewer services in return under the $19 billion budget lawmakers tentatively approved Tuesday. Voting along party lines, with Democrats in favor, the House voted 65-52 to ap...
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August 4, 2009
RALEIGH — School systems would choose how to cut their own budgets under a spending deal that House and Senate leaders reached Monday night. The state budget is more than a month overdue, and the budget compromise still faces two days of votes in th...
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GREENSBORO — With U.S. House members already home for their summer recess and the Senate soon to follow, the battle over health care reform is moving to the home front. Case in point: the parking lot outside the Shoney’s restaurant near Piedmo...
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August 3, 2009
North Carolina lawmakers are already a month late passing an $18.9 billion budget and could get even more tardy, thanks to a group of lawmakers headlined by some Triad legislators. At issue are $1 billion in new taxes, some of which would come from beer......
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August 2, 2009
RALEIGH — If nothing else, Rep. Earl Jones knows how to grab a headline. This year alone, the Greensboro Democrat has sponsored legislation to return video poker to the state, two bills that would legalize medical marijuana, a measure urging stores...
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July 29, 2009
RALEIGH — Rep. Earl Jones doesn’t say he’s arguing for the return of video poker to North Carolina. After all, the Greensboro Democrat points out, a form of the game is spreading even after the state voted twice in five years to outlaw t...
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July 28, 2009
RALEIGH — An association that represents state employees and the caucus for African American legislators will back efforts to legalize video poker at a news conference planned for today. Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, sponsored the bill. Th...
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RALEIGH — Yes, she may be a Democrat and she may be a U.S. senator, but Kay Hagan is waiting like the rest of us to hear what President Barack Obama has on his mind this week. When asked what she hoped to hear from the president, the Greensboro Demo...
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July 27, 2009
RALEIGH — Attorney General Roy Cooper says North Carolina should collect DNA samples from all booked into the state’s jails, much like fingerprints are collected now. “I want us to move to taking DNA samples from those who are arrested......
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July 26, 2009
RALEIGH — The price of cigarettes has already made Patrick Smith a connoisseur of coupons for his favorite brand, so he wasn’t happy to hear Thursday that lawmakers may raise the excise tax by 10 cents a pack. “I think they’re alre...
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July 24, 2009
RALEIGH — N.C. lawmakers have scrapped a plan to raise $1 billion in new income, sales and sin taxes next year, but don’t count on holding on to that money. Neither legislative leaders nor Gov. Bev Perdue say they can piece together an expecte...
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July 22, 2009
RALEIGH — Negotiators for the N.C. House and Senate have reached a tentative agreement on raising taxes, breaking a stalemate toward the passage of the three-weeks-overdue state budget. Although there is not a final agreement, negotiators from both...
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July 21, 2009
RALEIGH — Regulators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission are due to propose new rules this week that could dramatically change the nature of campaigns for state treasurer. The position is one of 10 statewide elected positions and is respo...
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July 20, 2009
One might think these would be halcyon days, at least politically, for Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat who represents parts of Guilford and Rockingham counties in Congress. A member of his party is in the White House, Democrats control the House and...
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RALEIGH — A proposal to subject power companies’ coal ash ponds to more government oversight cleared a key committee last week and appears on a fast track to become law before summer’s end. That’s in stark contrast to the measure&r...
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July 15, 2009
RALEIGH — A bill aimed at protecting the right to hang laundry on a clothesline fell victim to dry, or at least drying, humor Tuesday. Sponsored by Greensboro Democrat Rep. Pricey Harrison, the measure would have prohibited cities and counties from...
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July 14, 2009
A story Saturday mentioned some of the recommendations that Sen. Kay Hagan made to the president regarding judicial appointments and U.S. marshals posts. President Barack Obama will make the final call on whose nomination is sent to the Senate for confirm...
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July 7, 2009
RALEIGH — A bill that would make video poker legal again in North Carolina got its first — and probably last — airing at the General Assembly on Tuesday. Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat and the bill’s lone sponsor, found him...
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RALEIGH — North Carolina would raise $1.6 billion in new taxes under a plan Gov. Bev Perdue offered to legislators Tuesday in an effort to break a logjam in budget negotiations. The state began its new fiscal year on July 1, facing what Perdue and s...
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