U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan introduced a bill today that would cut down on the paperwork small business must complete in order to apply for federal grants and contracts.
The Greensboro Democrat says the Small Business Common Application Act would encourage small businesses to seek new business opportunities they'd otherwise avoid because of the paperwork hassle. According to a 2010 study from the SBA Office of Advocacy, it costs small businesses with less than 20 employees more than $10,500 per employee to comply with federal regulations.
Patrick Ballantine, a former GOP candidate for governor, has returned to Raleigh as a lobbyist.
Ballantine, who lost to former Gov. Mike Easley in 2004, is lobbying for aluminum giant Alcoa, Lorillard Tobacco, Universal Leaf Tobacco and a group called Advocates for Free Commerce, as clients in his new firm Ballantine Co.
Ballantine was elected Senate minority leader in 1999 when he represented New Hanover in the legislature. He resigned his Senate seat in 2004 to focus on his run for governor.
Two of the top officials in the Obama campaign were in Raleigh Monday raising money and organizing at events that targeted women.
Deputy campaign managers Julianna Smoot and Stephanie Cutter held a series of meetings and then held a major state-wide grassroots event in the evening in downtown Raleigh.
“President Obama was raised by single mother and is the father of two girls,” Cutter said in remarks made available by the campaign. “He has always been a staunch advocate for women. He's protected policies that promote fairness, equal opportunity, and a level playing field.”
She said Republican Mitt Romney has “a different vision.”
Smoot, who is the Obama campaign's chief fund raiser, is a native of Eastern North Carolina and a veteran of several Tar Heel campaigns.
Remember that proposal from House Republicans to stop making new-car owners get safety and emissions inspections until the cars were more than three years old? Forget it.
As has happened in the past when legislators tried to ease North Carolina’s inspection requirements, the new proposal was killed today after a lot of phone-calling and letter-writing by garage owners who make their living from car inspections. Read more on this bill and get the latest on other transportation legislation moving at the statehouse.
Pat McCrory will be blessed by the Tar Heel Republican establishment next week at a Greensboro fund raiser attended by the “Four Jims” of GOP politics.
Laying on of the hands will be Jim Broyhill, a former congressman and former senator; Jim Gardner, a former lieutenant governor, congressman and three-time gubernatorial candidate; Jim Holshouser, a former governor, and Jim Martin, a former governor and former congressman.
They, of course, hope that McCrory will be next Republican governor.
The fund raiser is being hosted by Don, Jim and Joe Brady of Brady Energy Services. But helping put it together is Phil Kirk, who served as chief of staff for Broyhill, Holshouser and Martin.
“I think they accepted our invitation to participate because they were afraid of what I might say about them in their absence,” Kirk quipped.
The cost of admission to the the event ranges from $250 to $2,000.
The boisterous clanking of wooden spoons on pots and pans could be heard for several blocks from the Legislative Building as the legislature convened for its first day of its short session. (Caution: Video is loud.)
More than one hundred citizens gathered in front of the Legislative Building to voice and bang out their frustration with fracking, marriage amendment and worker's rights.
"No matter what issue brought us here, we are standing together," announced MaryBe McMillan, the Secretary-Treasurer of the North Carolina American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
A House bill introduced Wednesday would offer $50,000 to people ordered sterilized under the authority of the state Eugenics Board.
The board authorized thousands of sterilizations from 1933 to 1974. Rep. Larry Womble, a Winston-Salem Democrat, has been working for years for victim compensation. House Speaker Thom Tillis took up the cause last year.
Under the bill, the state Industrial Commission would determine individuals' eligibilty. Eligible people would receive the $50,000 tax free.
An initial committee meeting on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday.
John Edwards' defense team rested Wednesday without calling the two-time Democratic presidential candidate or his one-time mistress to the witness stand, a sign of confidence after presenting little more than two days of testimony and evidence.
The defense called a series of witnesses aimed at shifting the jury's focus from the lurid details of a political sex scandal to the legal question of whether the Edwards' actions violated federal campaign finance laws. Read more from the trial here.
The state’s debate over fracking resumed Wednesday with the advance of a bill that would legalize the natural gas mining method within two years in this state, giving agency officials until 2014 to come up with provisions to protect the public health and the environment.
The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg County, is controversial even within the Republican-dominated legislature. It will compete for votes against a more moderate approach expected from Sen. Mitch Gillespie, a McDowell County Republican who favors greater public safeguards. Read more on the debate from the legislature here.
The presidential campaign in North Carolina is a dead heat, according to a new survey.
President Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by a statistically insignificant margin of 48-47 percent, according to a survey released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling, a Raleigh based firmed with Democratic leanings.
The survey showed upward movement for Romney from a month ago, when PPP found Obama with a five point lead over Romney. But the polling firm noted that during the past 19 months, that was the only poll that showed either Obama or Romney leading in North Carolina by more than 3 points.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will stump for GOP gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory in Charlotte on Thursday, touring a Coca-Cola bottling facility.
McDonnell is chairman of the Republican Governors Association which began a $865,000 TV ad campaign on Tuesday tying Democrat Walter Dalton to Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue.
He is the latest in a string of Republican governors who have visited North Carolina to help McCrory's campaign including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
The liberal blog Think Progress says it already refuted one of the claims of non-citizens voting. The blog uses a News & Observer article from 2008 that interviewed the voter in question, Zbigniew "Ziggy" Gorzkowski, to show he is a naturalized citizen. And later the blog refuted the second claim of non-citizen voting, too.
Crossroads GPS announced that it will begin a $1.1 million TV advertising campaign in North Carolina beginning Thursday that criticizes President Barack Obama's record on the economy, health care and the national debt.
The campaign, which will run May 17 through May 31, is part of a $25 million ad buy being run by Crossroads in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevad, Ohio, Pennylvania and Virginia. The Crossroad superpac is closely associated with Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, top strategists for former President George W. Bush. The ads come at a time when Obama's re-election campaign has been airing TV comercials in North Carolina, but not Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
UPDATE: Melanie Roussell, Democratic National Committee: "Karl Rove's mo recent deceptive ad can't hide the reality that, unlike Mitt Romney, President Obama has proposed a planto reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade while creating an economy built to last through investments in education, infrastructure, and research. Nor can it hi8de that, as promised, the president has cut taxes for every working American and cut taxes for small busineses 18 times, bringing federal taxes for middle class households near historic lows.''
UPDATED: The disgraced former chief of staff to House Speaker Thom Tillis is launching a government relations firm that promises "access to the best lobbyists in the industry."
Thomas called his new Asheville-based company, Third Reading, offering his services in government consulting, marketing, issue advocacy and campaign finance. He touts expertise on a variety of issues. "We assist our clients with advice in navigating the often cumbersome framework of government in a professional and business oriented manner. We maintain a strong network of issue oriented campaign managers to assist our clients and have access to the best lobbyists in the industry," the website states.
Under the Dome is your inside source on North Carolina politics and government and has been a regular feature in The N&O since 1934. Check here for the latest on state and federal government, political advocacy and upcoming elections.
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