legislature

The mad rush to experiment with Instant runoff voting in North Carolina has created some very bad news for the supporters of NC's paper ballot law.

Anything goes in North Carolina, or Welcome back Diebold and gang.

Thursday the House Election Law Committee passed the bill SB 1263 which extended the IRV pilot program for 3 years. It goes to the House Judiciary I committee next Tuesday.

See NCVoter's website on HOW YOU CAN HELP . PLEASE TAKE ACTION BEFORE THIS TUESDAY JULY 8TH. SEE OUR WEBSITE ACTION ALERT, SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

As I write this NC HB 1587 is before the Utilities Committee for consideration. Big Telecommunications companies want to prevent democratically elected bodies from bringing broadband Internet access to everyone.

Please ask your state Rep to vote No or ask their colleague to vote No!

Hate crimes in schools discussion gets wonky

I'm running a bit late on this, because the committee meeting is tomorrow (Thursday) at 1 PM, but please take a look to see if you've got a representative on the committe, and if so, please contact them.

North Carolina is again discussing the idea of using higher pay to attract good teachers. Since Math and Science teachers are such a hot item the legislature is considering increasing pay for these teachers in three school districts by $15,000 per year.

Three years ago in 2001 the state's experiment of offering an extra $1,800 a year to math, science and special education teachers at high-poverty schools or those where student performance lagged ended in disappointment. The N.C. Association of Educators says "differential pay kills teacher morale". Representative Ray Rapp, a Mars Hill Democrat who will help assemble the state education budget, doesn't think it is right to build a pay scale based on teacher specialty, when a school's English teacher may be working just as hard as the math teacher. "It has the potential to create a situation that is terribly demoralizing and destabilizing."

Read the article...

News and Observers
March 19, 2007
Lynn Bonner, Ataff Writer

More pay weighed for some teachers
Lawmakers are talking about raises for math and science instructors, or those at high-poverty schools

Math and science teachers are such hot commodities these days, legislators are considering offering them extra pay to fill North Carolina's classrooms.

The state has a spotty history with offering extra money to teachers-in-demand, but influential supporters want to try again.

12/30/2006
NC Environmental Retrospective

[from The Conservation Council of NC]
A Year's Retrospective: NC's Most Important Environmental Stories of 2006

Congress Changes for the Greener in Mid-Term Elections

The biggest environmental story of the year nationwide had to be the turnover of Congressional leadership through the mid-term elections. More than a simple change in party control, these Congressional elections removed majority support from the most anti-environmental leadership in modern American history. They were replaced with a bunch whose voting records are generally very green, according to the non-partisan League of Conservation Voters (LCV). The story is exemplified by the 2006 LCV environmental voting scores of the outgoing vs. incoming House Speakers: 0% for outgoing Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), and 100% for incoming Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).