Liberty
Asset Forfeiture
Introduction Civil asset forfeiture is a legal process that authorizes the confiscation of property suspected of having been used for, or derived from, criminal activity. Because the action is against…
Highway patrol
police unit or a detail within an existing local or regional police agency
Elections & Public Integrity
Do Cooper & Stein have a point on the changes to the State Highway Patrol?
The first lawsuit on Senate Bill 382 was filed Thursday evening, just one day after the State House voted to override the Governor’s veto of the bill. This is unlikely…
Research Brief
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Budget 2019: Mini Budgets Circumvent State Budget Staring Contest
Despite his protestations, Gov. Roy Cooper has signed three mini-budget bills passed unanimously by the General Assembly. Republican legislative leaders signaled their move to piecemeal budgeting in mid-August when they…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
How North Carolina gained $470 million annually for transportation
The Highway Fund and Highway Trust Fund pay the transportation needs of North Carolina. For most of their existence, these funds also transferred money to the General Fund and paid…
Regulation
Preventing Asset Forfeiture Abuse In North Carolina: Part 2
This is the second part of a three-part analysis of the federal government’s “equitable sharing” program and its impact in North Carolina. Part One explained how equitable sharing makes it…
Liberty
Panthers should have stayed in bed?
With protesters and police in riot gear outside Bank of America Stadium, the Carolina Panthers laid an egg against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. Covering the game for the Greensboro…
Liberty
Keith Mabe busted for DWI —again
Rockingham County Commissioner Keith Mabe was arrested and charged with driving while impaired—-for the second time in seven months: A spokesman for the Highway Patrol said Sunday that a trooper…
Liberty
Crime of the Week
For those keeping a crime calendar, you will recall a couple weeks ago you had to be careful not to drive past school buses with their stop arms out. You…
Law & Public Safety
N.C. Supreme Court rules against DWI defendant who tried to evade Highway Patrol checkpoint
A 6-1 decision from the N.C. Supreme Court reverses the N.C. Court of Appeals and reinstates a DWI conviction in a 2009 Pamlico County case. The state’s highest court ruled…
Liberty
Ticketing Astral Projection Trips Might Bring in More Revenue
Again invoking the widely popular and idiotic practice of establishing foregone conclusions with stray numbers thrown in a pretty chart; one finds the correlation between the perceived need to establish…
Law & Public Safety
Appeals Court upholds ruling against for-profit club challenging state smoking ban
A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower-court ruling against a for-profit Guilford County private club that had challenged the state’s smoking ban as…
Liberty
A Troopergate whitewash
The N.C. Highway Patrol has cleared one trooper and suspended another in the bizarre case involving a woman who was stopped for suspicious reasons, who later blew a 0.00 on…