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No mysteries about 
unemployment tax deficit (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 30,2011

RALEIGH — Connie Wilson says there is “foot-dragging” going on. She may be right. Wilson is a former state legislator and lobbyist for a group of businesses called the Employers Coalition of North Carolina. The foot being dragged to which she referred can be found in the Department of Commerce. Earlier this year, legislators gave [...]


Accounting gimmicks or not, someone must pay (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 26,2011

RALEIGH — It would be interesting to know what goes through the heads of corporate executives who scheme to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Are the competitive pressures at the top of the business world so intense that they simply don’t think beyond the moment? Perhaps they never imagine what a world would [...]


Why North Carolina needs certificate of need (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 23,2011

RALEIGH — Jim Davis is right about this much: Hospitals in North Carolina shouldn’t be using any monopolistic muscle to try to prevent competition that will benefit patients and the larger public. The freshman state senator and orthodontist from Macon County is wrong on another score. “Health care is a business,” Davis recently told The [...]


Who is outside of 
the mainstream? (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 20,2011

RALEIGH — Legislative Republicans did themselves no favors in the state capital last week. Oh, sure, they believe they’ve fired up their conservative base by passing a proposed amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage. They probably also placated some national GOP groups that still see Southern politics through the prism of the 1960s [...]


Alcoa pushes jobs and locals push back (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 17,2011

RALEIGH — Stanly County commissioners apparently aren’t backing down from their fight with aluminum-maker Alcoa. Neither is the administration of Gov. Beverly Perdue. The fight is over the water that flows through the Yadkin River and into the reservoirs created by dams that Alcoa built by almost a century ago. Alcoa wants the dams to [...]


On the Outer Banks, sands shift again (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 13,2011

RALEIGH — Near the end of the 19th century, Diamond City was the largest community on the Outer Banks. Never heard of it? That’s because it’s not there today. The village of 500 people was on Shackelford Banks, not far from Cape Lookout. A series of storms in the late 1800s marked the end of [...]


Ignoring the net 
of economic reality (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 9,2011

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s commercial fishermen have an image problem. You wouldn’t know it from the rhetoric coming from one of the primary groups that represents them, the North Carolina Fisheries Association. But since last winter, all up and down the East Coast, recreational fishermen have been bad-mouthing this state’s commercial fishermen. The reason: photos [...]


It’s not just a 
football problem (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 6,2011

RALEIGH — Firing a football coach might fix the problems in a football program. It may not correct the academic malfeasance that seems to go hand in hand with football at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In recent weeks, Dan Kane of The News & Observer of Raleigh has reported how star [...]


For some, Irene 
was big and bad (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: September 2,2011

RALEIGH — Hurricanes prompt a strange human response. As the storms near land, everyone in their potential path is riveted. Fear of physical or financial harm, awe at the power of nature and curiosity about the situation’s unpredictability all enter into the equation. Then the hurricane comes and exacts its toll. For those who escape [...]


The dangerous business of studying the founders (access required)

By Scott Mooneyham
Published: August 30,2011

RALEIGH — Earlier this year, North Carolina legislators chimed in on a subject that had brought derision upon state educators the year before. In passing the Founding Principles Act, legislators made known that they wanted high school students to take another dip in U.S. history that included instruction on the ideas of the nation’s founders [...]