June 22, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The state of North Carolina is recalling a regretful side of its history by unveiling a roadside marker remembering the thousands of poor people, mental patients and prisoners who were forcibly sterilized "for the public good.&qu...
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June 18, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers said Thursday they are closer to the governor's suggestion of adding more than $1 billion in new taxes to the state budget, which she says would prevent public school teachers from being laid off. Democratic l...
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June 12, 2009
RALEIGH — The House scheduled a rare Friday evening session to vote on an $18.6 billion state budget that contains higher taxes added by Democrats who argued they're necessary to avoid harsh spending cuts. Democratic leaders agreed to push forward w...
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June 11, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The full House agreed Thursday to add nearly $800 million in new taxes to pay for a North Carolina government budget plan in a vote reflecting conflicting partisan opinions on the extent of the state's fiscal crisis and how lawmakers...
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June 9, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — Lawmakers want more North Carolina motorists to stop mashing their cell phone keypads while mashing on the gas. The Senate gave final approval Tuesday to legislation that would ban drivers from text messaging or sending e-mails with t...
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June 8, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — House Democrats moved forward on a North Carolina state budget proposal Monday night by announcing a proposed $940 million tax package for next year that would raise rates for sales and income taxes, cigarettes and alcohol. The tax de...
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June 4, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — Former first lady Mary Easley's ability to do her job at North Carolina State University could be crippled as a House budget subcommittee agreed narrowly Thursday to end state funding for a speakers series she runs. The education subc...
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June 2, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — A candidate for chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party has sued a radio show host and a company that owns Wilmington radio stations for libel over a letter that the candidate said claimed he is gay.Tom Fetzer, a former Raleig...
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May 28, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — House budget writers rolled out deep health care cuts for the next two years Thursday, including one that would phase out a heavily scrutinized program that pays for non-medical care for mental health patients living at home. The draf...
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May 26, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — House budget-writers dropped their proposal Tuesday that North Carolina public schools be open fewer days next year and reworked a university tuition proposal to temper increases at some campuses. The draft budget plan for public educ...
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May 20, 2009
RALEIGH — A preliminary review of accusations that a state House member embraced a teenage female page and had been drinking before speeding to work has been sent to a legislative ethics panel, House Speaker Joe Hackney said Wednesday.The report, as...
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May 18, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers are considering changes to how state courts award damages for personal injury and property damage lawsuits. The House last week approved a bill that eliminates a standard that denies damages to a plaintiff if...
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May 13, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina's legal knot that has delayed executions could unravel completely in legislation tentatively approved Wednesday by the Senate that is designed to weed out racial bias in capital punishment. Senators agreed 35-13 on legi...
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May 12, 2009
RALEIGH — North Carolina's voluntary public campaign-financing program would expand to cover more statewide elected positions through legislation approved Tuesday by a Senate committee. Up to five additional members of the Council of State — a...
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May 11, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The state Senate on Monday gave final approval a smoking ban in nearly all restaurants and bars, building momentum to restrict secondhand smoke in the country's largest tobacco-growing state. The Senate voted 30-18 in favor of the mea...
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May 6, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The scope of a statewide smoking ban was narrowed Wednesday to include only restaurants and bars, the result of political realities in the Senate that left neither health advocates nor tobacco boosters pleased.The altered bill was rec...
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RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina's historic economic downturn made the job of House budget-writers harder Wednesday when they learned they'll have to find another $1.5 billion in spending reductions or new taxes to balance next year's government spendi...
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May 5, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina state employees rallied Tuesday against proposals they worry could force them to take extended furloughs as soon as this summer if the state's fiscal picture doesn't improve. A week after Gov. Beverly Perdue ordered a 0...
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April 28, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — A rare statewide public hearing Tuesday to seek comments on how to manage North Carolina spending during the state's worst fiscal crisis in a generation brought pleas not to cut programs for children, schools and the poor. Several doz...
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April 22, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — Camera! Action! But no lights? Debate on a bill to ban smoking at many work places in North Carolina was delayed in the Senate Health Care Committee on Wednesday because the motion picture industry worries the bill would prevent actor...
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April 21, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The fight over who should have the most say when public schools open and close returned to the Legislature Tuesday, five years after lawmakers ordered classes to start later in the summer. The House Education Committee approved legisl...
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April 14, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — A cadre of North Carolina business leaders appealed Tuesday for new momentum on state tax reform, urging lawmakers to cut overall tax rates this year while simultaneously placing levies more broadly across services and industries. A b...
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April 13, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — Former North Carolina Rep. Frank Ballance has been released from prison but is serving the rest of his four-year federal sentence under home confinement, a prison official said Monday. Ballance, a former Democratic congressman from Wa...
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April 9, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) — The state Senate made quick work Thursday of its two-year proposed budget for North Carolina government, giving final approval to a multibillion-dollar spending plan that doesn't fully explain how the state intends to pay for it. Sena...
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RALEIGH (AP) — House leaders accepted cautiously Thursday the Senate's proposed North Carolina state government budget, worried whether they'll ultimately need to make more cuts or raise more taxes than their counterparts. In any event, the House's...
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