About: Mitch Kokai

North Carolina’s Common Core-based English tests focus almost no attention on spelling, grammar, mechanics, or usage. That’s just one of the key problems Terry Stoops details in a new report critiquing the tests developed by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction. Learn more here and by watching the video clip below.

Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform added his voice this morning to the chorus supporting tax reform in North Carolina. Norquist is endorsing neither the Senate reform plan, nor the House plan that’s being unveiled today. He says both chambers are moving in the right direction by pursuing rate reductions. Click play below toContinue Reading

Barry Smith reports for Carolina Journal Online about a bill to create an employment fraud civil offense. Critics say the bill targets employee whistleblowers.

As the Obama administration scrambles to address scandals surrounding the Sept. 11 Benghazi terrorist attacks and the recently revealed IRS assault on conservative groups, Michael Barone probes similarities between the two sets of events. What do the Benghazi cover-up and the IRS scandal have in common? They were both about winning elections under false pretenses.Continue Reading

Kevin D. Williamson sets out for National Review Online readers a series of lies related to Lois Lerner’s recent apology for the IRS attacks on conservative groups. Lie No. 1: The apology was a spontaneous reaction to an unexpected question. On the contrary, Williamson explains, the question almost certainly was planted. Lie No. 2: LernerContinue Reading

John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis explains to Forbes readers how President Obama’s policies are influencing the labor market, including the 2010 federal health care reform law that has yet to be implemented fully. ObamaCare is already the law of the land, and its effects are being felt right now, even thoughContinue Reading

Historian Paul Johnson devotes his latest Forbes column to the potential dangers associated with rogue states pursuing nuclear weapons. Today’s three superpowers–the U.S., Russia and China–have no conflicts of interest that can’t be resolved through compromise. All have hair-trigger nuclear alert systems, but the sheer scale of their armories has forced them to take nuclearContinue Reading

Steve Forbes warns readers in the latest issue of Forbes magazine that the federal government has several ways to target your retirement savings in the future. When the Cyprus bank crisis hit, this column warned that the precedent set by seizing people’s savings would not be lost on Washington politicians. Hardly had the digital inkContinue Reading