The Latest

• There is hope in small towns and there are challenges in cities

  Can we save the small towns and rural areas that are losing people to booming metropolitan areas? Gracy Olmstead explores the options and some of the overlooked costs and benefits what we leave behind may not be all bad, as we go out in search of greater gains: “The…

  Joseph Coletti, April 20, 2018, 235 words

• Math from the Independent Weekly

  Jeffrey Billman provides a good rundown for Independent Weekly readers of how Wake County Commissioners could push property taxes up more than $200. Natural growth will provide $32 million for the county, but $10 million of that goes to already pledged debt service on recently passed bonds. By…

  Joseph Coletti, April 20, 2018, 189 words

• Martin Center takes second look at college faculty’s role

  Jay Schalin’s latest Martin Center column responds to an earlier piece from Fabio Rojas. It attempted to define a proper place for activism within college faculty members’ job descriptions. … [H]e described the proper role of a faculty member as one of “scholarship first, activist second.” I greatly…

  Mitch Kokai, April 20, 2018, 353 words

• Reversing Obama-era union rules

  Bill McMorris of the Washington Free Beacon reports on pleas to President Trump to reverse union rule changes adopted during Barack Obama’s administration. Management attorneys and trade groups are petitioning the Trump administration to reverse President Obama’s rule changes that drastically sped up the timeline of union elections.

  Mitch Kokai, April 20, 2018, 238 words

• Rejoining a scrapped trade deal

  Editors at National Review endorse the prospect of President Trump returning the United States to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The simplest reason why is that it would boost the American economy. The signatories of the agreement — including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Chile — account…

  Mitch Kokai, April 20, 2018, 299 words

• This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

  Efforts to boost safety in N.C. schools include a focus on improving mental health services available to students. Lindsay Marchello reported on a recent legislative school safety meeting that emphasized the need for more school nurses and psychologists. She shares her findings during the next edition of…

  Mitch Kokai, April 20, 2018, 145 words

• Examining the Right to Earn a Living Act, part 10

  Can the state accomplish a necessary, legitimate purpose used to justify a license while allowing more freedom and imposing fewer burdens on economic opportunity?

  Jon Sanders, April 19, 2018, 919 words

• North Carolinians use their own dollars wisely, too

  North Carolinians pay less of their paycheck each month on credit cards, student loans, and housing than people in most states around us and across the country, according to data compiled by lending marketplace Credible.com. Michigan has the lowest monthly debt-to-income ratio (25.27%) and Hawaii has far and away the…

  Joseph Coletti, April 19, 2018, 92 words