Budget, Taxation & Economy
What is the April Surprise?
State senators are still working on their budget bill this week, and it may take until the week of May 15 for them to make it public and vote on…
Mark Binker
Liberty
Lobbyists have already been spoken for
Hot off the press: WRAL’s Mark Binker authors an in-depth piece on the role lobbyists play in the legislative process at the General Assembly. Comparing the lobbyist community to a…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
WRAL fact check on education spending? Hilarious.
OK, folks, let’s not get too bent out of shape about WRAL’s latest fact check, “Fact Check: Senators debate education spending, constant dollars, fairy tales.” Consider the function of a…
Liberty
List of best state political reporters
The Washington Post‘s Chris Cillizza published a list of the best state political reporters. The following North Carolina reporters made the list: Mark Binker, WRAL Jon Camp, ABC11 Tim Boyum,…
Elections & Public Integrity
Dispatches from the campaign trail, August 28, 2014
• WRAL News’ Mark Binker looks at the charge by the Senate Majority PAC that House Speaker (and Republican Senate nominee) Thom Tillis “[gave] tax breaks for yacht and private…
Elections & Public Integrity
Dispatches from the campaign trail, July 21, 2014
• An ad from the American Energy Alliance repeats the argument that Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan backs a tax on carbon emissions. WRAL News’ Mark Binker gives the ad a…
Elections & Public Integrity
Dispatches from the campaign trail, March 27, 2014
• Democratic consultant Thomas Mills encourages his fellow Democrats to stop fixating on the billionaire Koch brothers and start criticizing Republican policies. Mills’ comments were picked up in a National…
Liberty
Re: Clock ticking on Wade’s school board bill
The N&R’s Travis Fain says a lot of things have to happen begore the legislative session wraps up tomorrow for Sen. Trudy Wade’s Guilford County school board bill to become…
Liberty
Look who else bankrolls Blueprint NC
Mainstream media sure has done a good job of helping Blueprint NC try to walk back the stalk McCrory memo, including this McClatchy piece with a Winston-Salem Journal headline screaming…
Liberty
Debate over publishing concealed carry permit holders
Remember the controversy back in July when former N&R reporter Mark Binker —now working for WRAL — published a database of concealed carry permit holders in North Carolina? No doubt…
Liberty
American Petroleum Institute-Hagan ad
..In case you haven’t seen it, or in case you have and you’re wondering what’s up. WRAL’s Mark Binker reports. Update: SF Chronicle —via Carolina Plott Hound— says Hagan “isn’t…
Elections & Public Integrity
Latest dispatches from the campaign trail, October 8, 2012
• Open wallet, closed wallet. The Republican Governors Association, confident of a November victory by former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, has cut its ad buys on McCrory’s behalf. A group…