Daily Archives: June 18, 2012

Tax credit scholarships are a threat to public education… Rockingham Superintendent calls revised education reform plan a ‘full-scale assault on public education’ – Progressive Pulse blog post, NC Policy Watch, a project of the NC Justice Center, June 18, 2012   …except when they’re not… …school data over the implementation of these credits shows thatContinue Reading

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly undertook the reformation of occupational licensing for landscape and irrigation contractors in Senate Bills 405 and 447. Like all occupational licensing programs, these reforms will harm the state’s lagging economy by increasing the costs of these services, and wasting more tax dollars on an inefficient, ineffective purpose. ToContinue Reading

In a recent article written for CNN, Moni Basu discusses the current legal battle over second-parent adoptions in the state of North Carolina. Second-parent adoption is when someone in relationship with the legal parent of a child adopts said child, and the first parent retains his or her rights. Six same-sex couples, represented by theContinue Reading

Students of economics know all about the concept of an “invisible hand” that ensures free-market processes lead to beneficial social results. Duke psychology, biology, and neurobiology professor John Staddon has identified a less beneficent force in financial markets. He labels that force the “malign hand,” and he blames it for the mistakes that led toContinue Reading

The Mercatus Center’s Veronique de Rugy shows here that despite all the wailing and howling over “austerity” measures in Europe, there’s hardly been any austerity at all. The governments of Greece, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom have curtailed their spending a little since 2008, but significant spending cuts are nowhere to be seen.Continue Reading

The Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) held Locations Show 2012 last week.  What is the AFCI Locations Show?  According to the website, Locations Show 2012 creates the industry’s premier platform for bringing together the full scope of industry professionals. From independent filmmakers to industry veterans, this is the one location where the production communityContinue Reading

Many of North Carolina’s largest school districts have debated and/or implemented policies that route a significant number of eighth-grade students into Algebra I, a course that traditionally reserved for ninth-graders.  Earlier this year, for example, members of the Wake County school board clashed over middle school math placement policies. The National Bureau of Economic ResearchContinue Reading

In his youth, Obama was an avid pot smoker, and while campaigning back in 2007-8, he indicated that he’d lighten up on federal enforcement of laws against sale and possession, especially where state laws permitted marijuana use for medical purposes. But as columnist Clarence Page notes here, since assuming the presidency, Obama has been justContinue Reading