Donna Martinez

One of my favorite constitutional experts is Jonathan Turley of George Washington University. A self-professed liberal, he calls them as he sees them. It’s a rare quality in analysts these days. His latest blog is about an Illinois legislator who thinks he has the solution to Chicago’s rampant problem…

Leadership matters, and the chart below shows it in crystal clear terms. In North Carolina, we’re fortunate to have legislative leaders who take spending, taxing, and budgeting very seriously. Their prudent decisions over the past decade have given our state national attention and made us the model for other…

State legislators are rightly concerned about how kids are faring in a virtual learning environment. Some may have adapted well, but others are being left behind. We can’t have that. But there’s a better way to help struggling kids than six weeks of summer school, according to Locke’s Bob…

Those who think the stain of impeachment has relegated Donald Trump to history may be jolted by this new Morning Consult/Politico poll of Republican voters. According to a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted at the conclusion of the Senate’s weeklong trial, a majority of Republican voters (54 percent) said…

COVID-19 has proved a public health crisis for virtually every state, and also a fiscal crisis for those states that spent, spent, spent and failed to engage in sound stewardship of tax dollars leading up to the pandemic. Thanks to the Republican-led General Assembly, North Carolina has avoided the…

Candidate Joe Biden told CBS News he would appoint a commission to look at the federal court system because they are ‘out of whack.’ He said it wasn’t about court packing, but other things. Now that commission is being assembled, according to politico.com. Will it be partisan in…

I was in middle school before I realized that my family was poor — what we today call the ‘working poor.’ My dad was a truck driver with an eighth-grade education, and my mom a housewife who stayed home to raise four kids. At one point she sold Avon to…

Yes, Gov. Roy Cooper did, in fact, veto raises for North Carolina teachers. Now his budget priorities include giving teachers bonuses of $2,500. Hmm. So what’s up with this? An exasperated Joe Coletti points out that it’s North Carolina Democrats — led by Roy Cooper — who wouldn’t allow teachers…