NC Justice Center

Two bills were filed Wednesday that will have a tremendous impact on how our health care system works, or doesn't work, in North Carolina. These are competing bills that offer radically different visions of how to establish a health benefits exchange.

You can read this editorial for some background. Basically, most people who do not get health insurance through work will purchase coverage through this new entity, called the health benefits exchange.

An Action Alert for the BlueNC community from our friends at the NC Justice Center:

Next Tuesday, May 25th, the NC House Committee on Financial Institutions will meet to discuss SB1015, The Homeowner and Homebuyer Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Josh Stein.

This bill would prohibit foreclosure rescue scams and create reasonable regulation and standards for option to purchase or "rent to own" contracts and contracts for deeds. These scams and unscrupulous real estate transactions are used to exploit and manipulate families struggling to pay a home loan or families who are having trouble obtaining a loan to purchase a home.

Please act today!

Low turnout and inside baseball hang-wringing got you down today? The always excellent Chris Fitzsimon of the NC Justice Center's Policy Watch blog has a great piece today looking at the November 2010 elections from 30,000 feet.

The tea partiers shouldn't plan a post election celebration party yet...

There will no doubt be interesting stories in the primary results. Politics always brings some surprises. But don't let the efforts of the pundits convince you that the results are another indicator of a looming Republican landslide in November.

An afternoon mental health break that is well worth any NC political junkie's time.

This is how we treat them when they do come here legally:

The federal suit filed in Raleigh by three women says that as many as 150 migrant workers could have been short-shrifted by Captain Charlie's Seafood in Tyrrell County, about 150 miles east of Raleigh. The suit seeks class-action status to represent all other employees who might have been paid less than is required by this country's visa program for temporary foreign workers.

The Justice Center settled a similar suit last year, involving travel and visa expenses, against Frog Island Seafood in Elizabeth City. According to the suit, to get from Mexico to this country the migrants paid a $100 visa reciprocity fee at a Mexican bank, a $100 visa fee to the U.S. Consulate and $270 for a bus ticket.

One of the many useful theories taught in journalism school is the theory of agenda setting, first articulated by Dr. Donald Shaw at UNC Chapel Hill.

The agenda-setting theory is the theory that the mass news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them.

It worried me to learn that the publisher of the N&O, Orage Quarles III, had signed on to advise the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service. The Foundation is part of the Pope empire of think tanks and related investments.

Then we learned that Mr. Quarles is also on a board at the NC Justice Center, a hard-working think tank on the left. That made me stop and think. My impression of the Foundation had been part detective agency, part truth squad, part empire-building. A vigilante sort of thing, with public service as the target.

Two months ago we all came together to support financial reform and sound fiscal policy.

Now, with North Carolina in the most severe budget crisis in decades, some extremist politicians refuse to let the North Carolina attempt to stem the bleeding. 

Legislators are proposing unprecedented cuts to critical services by eliminating 12,000 teaching positions, cutting children's health insurance, teacher pay, cancer research, medicare, and job placement services, and closing rape crisis, abuse, and sexual assault centers across the state.  Conservatives believe the way out of the recession is eliminating the safety net for the economically disadvantaged while preventing the next generation from getting the education they need to succeed.  

Very glad to see this plan put on the table. Please take time to read it ... and contact your representatives to encourage its adoption.

The plan recommends three actions to modernize the state’s tax system:

•Broaden the base of the sales tax to capture a greater share of economic activity
•Broaden the base of the personal income tax and make it more progressive
•Close corporate tax loopholes and eliminate ineffective business incentives

Throughout March and April, MomsRising.org and the NC Justice Center will be traversing the state and hosting Town Hall meetings in communities across North Carolina. These meetings will be to build support for NC's Campaign for Paid Sick Days, to hear from folks about their experiences with or without paid sick days, and to dialogue about this important issue.

Come join one of these town halls and please help spread the word.  To RSVP for any of the Paid Sick Days Town Hall meetings, contact Ajamu Dillahunt at ajamu@ncjustice.org or (919) 856-3194.

March 16: High Point Town Hall
Deep River Friends Meeting
5300 West Wendover Avenue, High Point, NC
6:00pm-8:00pm

March 19: Durham Town Hall
Durham Main Public Library

With so much at stake in public policy over the next few years, we all need good sources of facts to inform our conversations.  When it comes to facts about the North Carolina economy, public spending, and taxes, no one does a better job than the people at the North Carolina Justice Center - and in particular their budget and tax people.  Bookmark these pages ... and use them whenever you have a question or need some numbers. 

And while we're at it, use this thread to give them any feedback or questions you may have.  For example, I'd like for someone there to help us understand the real cost of North Carolina's participation in America's Holy War on Drugs.