John Locke Updates: 2020

What is going on? Isn't Cooper supposed to be a staunch opponent of corporate tax breaks? Why is he pledging millions of dollars of state money to corporations, and why so much to so few?

Could Cooper callously continue to play favorites with individual corporations at the exact same time he was putting hundreds upon hundreds of small businesses at risk of closings, bankruptcies, and ruin? Yes. Of course. At several levels worse than last year, even.

When you go to the polls, or when you fill out your absentee ballots, remember that the NC Supreme Court justices you choose will be able to exercise more power over you and your family than any other candidates on the ballot. So choose wisely!

Under the terms of the settlement, the Board of Elections would evaluate absentee ballots without the prescribed witness protections and allow nine days after election day to have those ballots counted. In other words, the settlement would enforce as law precisely what the law prohibits.

Medicaid enrollment is up across the country, including North Carolina, which means costs are up, too. States don't have the flexibility to borrow and print money as the federal government does, so planning for the future is especially important when facing economic uncertainty.

North Carolinians do not need WalletHub to tell us that North Carolina teachers have fared well since 2014. Several state-level reports and studies reflect the efforts of the NC General Assembly to prioritize investments in public school teachers.

Solar power requires the use of fossil fuels. Solar requires fossil fuel–fired combustion turbines to provide 79% of the load. To the extent manmade GHGs are impacting global warming, then, solar power cannot compete with nuclear power.

Remember Cooper's supposed "metrics" for reopening? According to the very standards the governor set, North Carolina should be open and back to business.

Just before Labor Day, Gov. Roy Cooper signed the final bill appropriating money from North Carolina’s $3.6 billion share of the Coronavirus Trust Fund. He was clearly under duress. A veto of the bill that passed with large bipartisan majorities would surely have been overridden.

How do we account for these differences? Does money matter? While comparisons of school performance have been available for years, the ability to evaluate spending by school wasn’t possible until this year.