January 28, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina legislators arrived Wednesday for a new session sobered by the dismal national fiscal picture, but its leaders sounded a hopeful tone they would act responsibly and help the state's economy rebound. "Other states have mortgag...
Read More
January 27, 2009
MEBANE (AP) - Relatives of former Gov. Bob Scott told mourners at his funeral Tuesday that he loved North Carolina like he loved his family and used that commitment as he led the state through a tumultuous era of social unrest. Several hundred people atte...
Read More
January 26, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - When North Carolina lawmakers return to Raleigh this week, they'll find waiting a state struggling through the worst recession in decades and a new governor bent on making the best out of a deepening budget crisis. The projected gap between...
Read More
January 23, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Former Gov. Bob Scott, a member of one of North Carolina's most prolific political families who got a retail cigarette tax passed to pay for public kindergarten and later ran the state's community college system, died Friday at the age of 7...
Read More
January 22, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Cities and towns shouldn't be allowed to annex unincorporated areas unless targeted residents first are allowed to vote on the matter, a legislative study committee agreed Thursday despite opposition from a powerful lobbying group and state...
Read More
January 13, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina should drop some business tax credits that began in the 1990s because they no longer create jobs, and the state should give more cash grants and lower the corporate tax rate, according to a university report released Tuesday.
Read More
January 12, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Former Gov. Mike Easley ordered on his final day in office that all e-mails in executive-branch agencies be stored for at least 10 years and barred employees from deleting e-mails received for 24 hours so that they could be saved. Easley's...
Read More
RALEIGH (AP) — Gov. Bev Perdue followed through on pledges on her first weekday in office today by signing executive orders she said will reduce the power of political influence on road-building and fundraising for future gubernatorial campaigns.
Read More
January 8, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Since North Carolina's founding as a colony of the British crown more than 400 years ago, 99 men have taken office as chief executive. For No. 100, voters in the Old North State decided it was time for a change. "It is an important historic...
Read More
January 6, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Democratic Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue wrapped up her Cabinet picks Tuesday by choosing a Republican and former deputy at the troubled Department of Health and Human Services to lead the agency. Perdue chose Lanier Cansler as HHS secretary ev...
Read More
January 2, 2009
RALEIGH (AP) - Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue on Friday named some holdovers from her predecessor's administration - as well as a veteran Marine prosecutor and judge - to run three public safety-related agencies. Announcing her first Cabinet members eight days...
Read More
December 31, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Starting Thursday, North Carolina state employees can no longer light up inside state-owned or -leased vehicles as the new year brings more than a dozen new state laws into effect. Other new laws will require motorists to get insurance to c...
Read More
December 12, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue took suggestions Friday from North Carolina farmers to improve one of the state's healthier industries during the recession but said she understood they're facing similar troubles like everyone else. The 20 farmers...
Read More
December 10, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Some states aren't waiting for that economic stimulus package to come down from Capitol Hill to help jump-start their economies. At least a half-dozen states have started economic recovery initiatives of their own this year to fast-track pu...
Read More
December 3, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina lottery ticket sales growth is slowing down due to the bad economy, but the lottery's chief executive said Wednesday the state enterprise will get its own kind of stimulus package soon in the form of new games. The $400 milli...
Read More
November 18, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina Democratic Party chairman Jerry Meek, who presided as Democrats improved their electoral standing in the state from president to county commissioner, said Tuesday he won't seek another two-year term. Meek, 38, is leaving the...
Read More
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina has finally had to rein in state government spending to narrow a budget shortfall, a year after many other states began feeling the nation's economic crunch. Outgoing Gov. Mike Easley has ordered spending cuts of up to 5 perc...
Read More
November 13, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - U.S. Sen.-elect Kay Hagan withdrew her defamation and libel lawsuit Thursday against incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole for a campaign commercial that Hagan alleged questioned her Christianity. Hagan spokeswoman Colleen Flanagan said the papers...
Read More
November 6, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Preparing for a revenue shortfall that number crunchers said Thursday could reach $1.6 billion, outgoing Gov. Mike Easley's administration has ordered more cuts and savings to keep the state government budget balanced. Several state departm...
Read More
November 5, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Democrat Beverly Perdue shifted from campaigning to the task of governing Wednesday, one day after narrowly beating Republican Pat McCrory to become North Carolina's next governor. Facing the state's highest unemployment rate in six years a...
Read More
RALEIGH (AP) - Thanks to the rain, or maybe the intensely focused efforts of campaign partisans, North Carolina's overall voter turnout wasn't quite as high as expected. But it was a record nonetheless. Unofficial results from Tuesday's election show more...
Read More
November 4, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - Beverly Perdue was elected North Carolina's first female governor Tuesday, the daughter of a Virginia coal miner who achieved a decade-old dream by rising through the ranks of the Legislature to the state's top job. Perdue is the two-term l...
Read More
November 3, 2008
RALEIGH (AP) - With nearly 2.6 million ballots already cast, the candidates at the top of North Carolina's ticket - competing in races that most see as too close to call - traveled across the state Monday in search of voters still making up their minds on...
Read More
RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina's system of publicly financed judicial campaigns remained intact Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge over a provision for additional funds in expensive races. The justices declined, without comment...
Read More
October 31, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) - Democrat Beverly Perdue spent Friday talking to those undecided on their choice for governor at early-voting locations, benefiting from a money advantage over Republican Pat McCrory in the campaign's final days. With $1.6 million pouri...
Read More
