“State of Emergency.” It’s an official proclamation triggering emergency powers that we’re all too familiar with after COVID. But this week, Gov. Roy Cooper added a new definition to “state of emergency” – one that’s not an official proclamation but a means of communicating urgency over what he perceives as poor policymaking. It began Monday morning with…
Read MoreThe room fell quiet as the stalwart Senator Brent Jackson quietly stepped up to the podium to announce the North Carolina State Senate’s budget proposal late Monday afternoon. What he described in his remarks is a project, more than six years in the making called NCInnovation – a not-for-profit corporation most reporters in the room didn’t know existed.…
Read MoreThe room fell quiet as the stalwart Senator Brent Jackson quietly stepped up to the podium to announce the North Carolina State Senate’s budget proposal late Monday afternoon. What he described in his remarks is a project, more than six years in the making called NCInnovation – a not-for-profit corporation most reporters in the room didn’t know existed.…
Read MoreThank you for taking the time to read this morning, and this weekend we join you in honoring the mothers that have been impactful in each of our lives. Today, however, we’re talking media. Trust in news reporting is in utter freefall. Why? And what does it mean? A common answer is that the purpose…
Read MoreGood Saturday morning. If you tune in to the most exciting two minutes in sports this evening, you’ll hear a familiar refrain echoing from the Churchill Downs speakers: “The horses have reached the starting gate: They’re at the post.” So too is a supermajority of state legislators. They’re poised to fundamentally reshape North Carolina’s K-12 education landscape…
Read MoreGood Saturday morning. It’s nearly May, and you likely haven’t thought all that much about the 2022 election results in a few weeks (or, if you’re healthy, a few months). That means it’s prime time to look ahead to the Way Too Early 2024 Ballot Preview. TRC Nexus is, after all, a political intelligence newsletter.…
Read MoreApril 22nd, 2023 Hello this Saturday morning. Thanks for joining us. Conversations about America’s debt crisis often end in confusion. Our national debt is approaching $32 trillion. The U.S. government will spend about $6.2 trillion this year. It seems simple: If we’re in debt, why do policymakers keep spending so much? The irrationality of it all probably has something…
Read MoreApril 15th, 2023 Good morning. Thank you for spending some time with us this Saturday. Children learn in grade school that the legislative branch makes laws and the executive branch implements them. One can imagine a fourth-grade quiz instructing a student to “define checks and balances.” But childhood’s clarity eventually gives way to reality’s haze.…
Read MoreApril 8th, 2023 From the Desk of Chuck Fuller: Passover and Easter — the celebrations of life and liberty. As we emerge from the doldrums of winter to a delightful spring, we experience a collective hope brought by the transformation of the world around us. Each new day brings new a choice of how we…
Read More