About: Barry Smith

A map published by the Tax Foundation puts North Carolina in the nation’s top 10 in excise taxes assessed to beer. North Carolinians pay 62 cents per gallon of beer, putting the Tar Heel State ninth in the nation. Beer drinkers can be glad they don’t live in neighboring Tennessee, where the per-gallon excise taxContinue Reading

If your head is spinning because of the shuffle going on in Raleigh and in Washington, join the club. Earlier this week, we learned that Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx will be leaving the Queen City to become President Obama’s transportation secretary. We also found out that longtime state Rep. Jerry Dockham, R-Davidson, has been tappedContinue Reading

North Carolina now has a Good Samaritan Law, allowing people to summon assistance for drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning for underage drinkers without fearing prosecution in limited circumstances. The Good Samaritan Law was one of four bills signed into law by Gov. Pat McCrory on Tuesday. The law, which takes effect on Dec. 1, alsoContinue Reading

As Sunshine Week approaches its conclusion, state Sen. Thom Goolsby has filed a couple more open government bills. One is a proposed constitutional amendment known as the “Sunshine Amendment.” It would write open government principles into the N.C. Constitution, requiring any new measures restricting access to meetings or public records to pass with a supermajorityContinue Reading

If you didn’t get enough of voter ID Tuesday, there’s more to come Wednesday afternoon. The House Elections Committee will be hearing from experts and advocates on both sides of the issue today at 1 p.m. The meeting will be in the same room where the hearing was held on Tuesday, 643 Legislative Office Building.Continue Reading

You can’t say that Rep. David Lewis is afraid to face opposition. Lewis, the chairman of the House Elections Committee, presided over the committee’s public hearing on voter ID Tuesday. By a long shot, most of the speakers at the hearing opposed the measure, which would require North Carolina voters to show a photo ID toContinue Reading

The N.C. Open Government Coalition has released a new mobile app, just in time for Sunshine Week. The app, called “NC Sunshine Center,” can be downloaded at the iTunes App Store and the Google Play store for Android devices. Simply search for “NC Sunshine,” and it’ll pop up. It’s easy. I just did it onContinue Reading

In baseball, the tie goes to the runner. In an N.C. Supreme Court ruling, a tie means that you revert back to a previous ruling. With one justice not participating in the case, the N.C. Supreme Court tied 3-3 over whether the campus police at Elon University was required to make public an arrest report.Continue Reading