Gov. Roy Cooper’s recommended budget adjustments for the fiscal 2024-25 year that begins July 1 would mark an eye-popping 16 percent year-over-year increase over this year’s approved spending plan. Cooper’s budget would mark the largest single-year budget increase in 40 years. Cooper’s spending plan would mark the largest single-year budget increase in 40 years. The recommended adjustments are to the second year of the biennial budget passed last year. The Governor’s proposal would spend $4.75 billion more than this year, and that’s not counting the $3.5 billion he’d set aside into reserves ..read more

Early voting for North Carolina’s second primary (commonly referred to as runoffs) begins Thursday, April 25th. All 100 counties will be involved in this year’s second primary due to the two runoff elections for Republicans seeking statewide office. During a second primary election, many of the rules stay the same as they would for a standard primary election. Early voting will be for 17 days, running from the third Thursday before the election (April 25th) to 3 pm on the last Saturday before the election (May 11th), and election day will be Tuesday, May 14th. All early voting locations throu ..read more

John Stossel devotes a Townhall.com column to battling a common myth about capitalism. Capitalism and racism go together? I hear it all the time. “Racism is intricately linked to capitalism,” says famous Marxist Angela Davis. “It’s a mistake to assume that we can combat racism by leaving capitalism in place.” “Anti-racist” activist Ibram X. Kendi says, “In order to truly be anti-racist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist.” This is just silly. In my new video, Swedish historian Johan Norberg explains how free markets discourage racism. Capitalists make a profit by serving their custome ..read more

Elizabeth Stauffer of the Washington Examiner documents the latest stage in Democrats’ war against Donald Trump. Democrats say the most extraordinary things. Last week, Hillary Clinton joined attorney Marc Elias on his Defending Democracy podcast. Elias, you may recall, famously hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS and laundered Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee funds through his law firm, Perkins Coie, in April 2016 to pay for the creation of the Steele dossier. In her typical inflammatory fashion, Clinton said, “[Former President Donald] Trump is, like, gaga over [Rus ..read more

Collin Anderson of the Washington Free Beacon reports a disturbing element of the Columbia protest story. For more than two weeks, Columbia University graduate student Aidan Parisi has defied the university’s suspension, refusing to vacate his dorm room on the school’s Manhattan campus. The school announced Parisi’s suspension on April 4 following his participation in a pro-Hamas event. And while Columbia leaders have pledged to enforce the suspension, they have yet to follow through. In the meantime, Parisi has contributed to the mayhem that has engulfed the campus over the past several day ..read more

Dan McLaughlin of National Review Online shares his concerns about the U.S. solicitor general’s recent argument at the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving January 6. One thing about the argument really puzzled me: why Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar insisted upon distinguishing January 6 from other types of obstructive protests. I understand what, legally, she thought this would accomplish — but her approach runs the risk of being a disastrous misreading of the justices, and one that may have been driven more by the demands of her client than by a sound strategy for winning the case ..read more

A court filing has revealed serious allegations of vote buying in a county commissioner race in the March 5 primary. While shocking, vote buying is hardly new in North Carolina. Allegations of Buying Votes in Robeson County Lacy Cummings, who lost to Sampson in the March 5 Democratic primary 875 to 870, filed the court petition only after both the Robeson County and North Carolina State Boards of Elections denied Cummings’ protest of the result: Commissioner Wixie Stephens allegedly paid at least nine residents up to $60 to vote for incumbent Judy Sampson in the March 5 Democratic primary fo ..read more

Editors at the Washington Examiner analyze U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “first big win.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) scored his first big legislative victory this past weekend, making good on the first promises he made in leadership that he would find a way to send much-needed aid to our allies Israel and Ukraine. Contrary to what some are saying, Johnson supported more aid for Ukraine from the start of his speakership. Just two days after securing the job, Johnson told Fox News’s Sean Hannity, “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would s ..read more

Jessica Costescu of the Washington Free Beacon highlights a tie between pro football and anti-Israel radicals. The left-wing nonprofit that bailed out anti-Israel protesters who blocked bridges and highways across the country last week was a multi-year partner of the NFL’s “Inspire Change program” whose work is still promoted on the NFL’s website. Community Justice Exchange set up a “bail and legal defense fund” for those arrested during last week’s A15 protests. The protests targeted major airports, highways, and bridges in dozens of U.S. cities including San Francisco, Chicago, New York Ci ..read more

Editors at National Review Online question Democrats’ plans to target the chairman of the Federalist Society. Senate Democrats can’t seem to help revealing their priorities. The rule of law isn’t one of them. While the entire Democratic caucus agreed to shrug at the Department of Homeland Security nullifying federal immigration law, Senate majority whip and Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin has decided to press forward with a subpoena for conservative legal activist Leonard Leo. The subpoena is part of a supposed investigation of Supreme Court ethics and seeks information from Leo — b ..read more