Specific heat is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature by one degree Celsius. The formula used to capture this relationship does not apply to a phase change, or the transitional period between states of matter, because more energy is required to cause the phase shift than can simply be charted by the formula. In North Carolina, it seems as though ethics reform at the state level has hit a phase change, as pressure is being added to the system. Will ethics reform actually move ahead, or will the momentum wither? John Hood, in the New Bern Sun Journal, thinks that the issue is too important to be left asphyxiating in the capital. One of the main reasons, of course, is that the allegations of corruption are tied to specific legislative leaders who must save face by enacting change, as John points out in the Winston-Salem Journal. And as Daren Bakst reminds us in the Marshville Home News, the state’s ethical problems extend farther than contributions and lobbyists; they also includes the state’s plan to subsidize elections. But wait, there’s more. There’s the state-run education lottery that’s praying on low-income residents, and the now infamous ferry-gate scandal, summed up nicely by Don Carrington on the Lockwood Phillips show.
