The Greensboro paper is the first daily paper to call for Speaker Jim Black’s resignation, a move that any serious person interested in good government has to applaud. The News & Record explained its call thusly:

Now in his fourth two-year term as speaker, Black has built a power base by raising millions of dollars in political donations and doling out parcels of it to Democratic legislative candidates. He also controls the distribution of state funds for favored projects and, in an incident not widely publicized, directed that a UNC-Charlotte economist be denied a state research contract because Black objected to his policy views.

Examples like this show that Black has acquired more power than a leader of a part-time legislature should have, and that he is inclined to use it for the wrong purposes.

That would seem to be putting it mildly, but after dithering for weeks it is good to see some evidence that North Carolina’s political class is catching up to the reality of Jim Black governance.

Any hope of hearing a similar call locally, you know, where it might actually influence Jim Black?

Don’t hold your breath.