Category Archives: NCGA

AFP To Distribute Essential Equipment To #NCGA Legislators

Posted on May 13, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Tomorrow, the Occupy Monday and AFL-CIO union bus will hit the NC General Assembly to ‘welcome’ legislators back.
Americans For Prosperity is making sure our legislators have the right equipment for the first day: Ear plugs.

From an emailed press release: Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Moral Monday, NCGA, Occupy 2.0, Unions | Tagged | 1 Comment

NCGA Dem Senator’s Aide Goes On Bigoted Rant

Posted on May 12, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

The News and Observer ran an article on May 10th entitled, Sen. Phil Berger, self-made and self-certain, is likely the most powerful politician in NC. The article profiled the Senator and highlighted his background and rise as Senate President Pro Tem. The article itself isn’t what caught people’s eye, but a rather inappropriate and at times bigoted rant in the comments by an aide to another NC General Assembly Senator.
That aide is Vicki Spears and she’s the legislative assistant to Senator Michael Walters, who serves the 13th district.

Below are the comments she made on the above mentioned article. In them, Ms. Spears calls Republicans ‘ignorant’, ‘evil’, ‘racist’ and lauds North Carolina as a ‘progressive’ state. She even throws in some Koch brothers at the end as proof of outside spending. Clearly, Ms. Spears is unaware of the barrels of Democrat Dark Money pouring in for Kay Hagan. Ms. Spears also launches an assault on another commenter with the line, “You must be a white old man like the idiot repubs in public office.”
Charming. Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Democrats, Moral Monday, NCGA, Reverend Barber | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Common Core Shutuppery Theme: Politicizing

Posted on May 10, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Over the last few weeks since the North Carolina Common Core legislative study committee (LRC) released their findings, which included a bill to replace the Common Core, we’ve heard sound bite after sound bite from supporters that all contain a theme: Politicizing.

I took one egregious and hypocritical offender to task but wanted to revisit it after I found more video of her comments. I’m talking about Rep. Cotham. At the final meeting of the LRC, Rep. Tricia Cotham (who is a member of Common Core LRC) decided to grandstand and fluff her political feathers while simultaneously degrading the parents and citizens who spoke out against Common Core to the LRC. Continue reading →

Posted in Common Core, Democrats, NC State Standards, NCGA, Video | Tagged , | 4 Comments

NC Primary 2014 Results

Posted on May 7, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Yesterday was primary day in North Carolina. There were 1,021,413 ballots cast out of 6,516,126 voters. Some folks in the Twitter #ncpol hashtag found the number of voters, specifically the number of women to men ratio of voters, confusing.

This is state demos, not tonights. MT @NCDiane777: @JeanneBondsNC: Standing ovation #ncwomen. You showed up!! #ncpol pic.twitter.com/F8OVjsk16m

— LL1885 – A.P. Dillon (@LadyLiberty1885) May 7, 2014

Um, ladies? That’s the static demographic at the bottom of the News and Observer’s election coverage page…
The results are still listed as ‘unofficial’ on the NC State Board of Elections site, but here is a quick run down of some of the more prominent races we’ve followed here on this blog. Continue reading →

Posted in ELECTIONS, NCGA, POLITICS NC, Senate 2014 | Comments Off on NC Primary 2014 Results

About That Flier and Sen. Bingham…

Posted on May 6, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Haymaker is reporting on a story about Senator Bingham allegedly being given fliers by the NCGOP. The NC GOP denied they gave Bingham the flier. This was allegedly going on down in Davidson county (Senate District 33).

Sharon Myers of the Dispatch has a more recent update, wherein the flier has been demonstrated as paid for by Bingham, not the NC GOP, and in which Bingham apologizes and sets the record straight. Continue reading →

Posted in ELECTIONS, NCGA, POLITICS NC | Comments Off on About That Flier and Sen. Bingham…

Sen. Stein Politicizing, Giving Misinformation On Common Core

Posted on May 5, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

At a panel discussion hosted by Public Schools First NC on May 3rd, several legislators were on hand to discuss teacher pay and Common Core. Democrat State Senator Josh Stein upheld the tradition of ‘politicizing’ and ‘misinformation’ that the opposition of Common Core has come to know all too well. Memo to those doing the actual politicizing here: NC Replacing Common Core Means Leading, Not Following.

We’ll get to Public Schools First NC at the end of the article. First let’s look at what was said. WRAL, to their credit this time, explained a bit more about the commission to be formed, that the brand name Common Core is currently in our state statutes and in a way, corrects Senator Stein. The relevant portion is below; emphasis added is mine.

As for Common Core, Stein said he expects the legislature to abandon it.

“There is a great deal of misinformation. First, it’s not a curriculum. It’s a set of standards about what we expect students to know each year,” Stein said. “Second, it’s not a federal initiative. Third, it’s extremely popular with teachers. When you roll out a new program you expect kinks. You work through them.”

A student committee on April 24 approved a proposal to move North Carolina away from Common Core.

Although the bill does delete legislative language referencing Common Core standards, it does not take them out of play right away. Rather, the measure would create an Academic Standards Review Commission to develop standards “tailored to the needs of North Carolina’s students.”

The commission would be part of the state Department of Administration, not the Department of Public Instruction. It would be instructed to finish a first run at revising the standards by 2015, in time for the 2016 legislative session.

The revised standards would go to State Board of Education for approval, but if lawmakers don’t agree with the board’s position, they could override it and enact new standards themselves.

Now, let’s break Stein’s comment down. Continue reading →

Posted in BlueprintNC, Common Core, EDUCATION, Moral Monday, NC State Standards, NCGA | Tagged , , | 2 Comments