The News and Observer published an interesting editorial today voicing support for the Raleigh City Council’s decision to approve of a bill in the General Assembly that would give cities the option of using taxpayer money to fund local campaigns.
A public financing program had its first run in Chapel Hill in November. The editorial says that two Chapel Hill candidates successfully used the public campaign financing last year—success meaning that both candidates won their elections.
The News and Observer argues that newcomers to elections have the most to gain by using public financing, although in Chapel Hill both candidates who used it had run before.
The N&O also tries to argue that taxpayer financed campaigns would ensure that “big-money interests” would not influence local campaigns in the same paragraph that they applaud Raleigh’s city government for being “well-connected to the people’s concerns.” So, then, according to their logic, is public financing even necessary in Raleigh?
Yesterday in my Philosophy of Law class at NC State, I learned some very important things. The course’s objective is to better answer the question “what is law?” through readings of philosophers and court cases, and discussion of legal issues. The class assignment due yesterday was a reading of an excerpt of Aquinas’ Summa Theologica that dealt specifically with law.
As the class was going over the reading and taking notes, my professor made an interesting comment. She said that she removed from the text that she had given us to read many references to God and to “Aquinas’ theology”.
Puzzled, I raised my hand, wondering why a philosophy professor would remove references to God and to theology from a work by a theologian titled “Summary of Theology.”
My professor replied that what she refers to as “Aquinas’ theology” is not relevant to our class’s study of law and Aquinas’ answer to the question “what is law?”. She said that we only need to study his thoughts on law and the parts of the text that she removed were not necessary to our understanding of Aquinas’ thoughts.
This made me wonder–how can we separate God and theology from Aquinas’ writing?
Depositions taken last month show that former Democratic Governor Mike Easley was hiding a lot from the people of North Carolina. Testimony from his former communications directors for a public records lawsuit brought by the John Locke Foundation and several news outlets show that Governor Easley had a private email address that he used to conduct state business. Because email messages are considered public information, Locke and the news outlets sued the Easley administration when they found that messages were being deleted, or in the case of Easley’s secret account, not revealed at all, even when requests for information were made.
Easley’s private email address, a Road Runner account, was “Nick Danger” spelled backwards, presumably a reference to the fictional private eye.
In an April 2008 interview, Easley made it clear that he thought private email addresses should be public record if they contained messages pertaining to state business. North Carolina Public Records Law applies to every message “in connection with the transaction of public business by any agency of North Carolina government.” Although Easley said on the record that he understood the law, he continued to keep his email account and the state business he conducted using it a secret.
According to the communications staff in the deposition made public yesterday, Easley’s communications director, Sherri Johnson, instructed public information officers in several Cabinet agencies to delete emails to and from his office, and not to mention his office in emails. Officers were instead instructed to use the telephone for most communication, and not to mention the order in emails. This policy likely came about from feelings arising after an email from the Department of Cultural Resources painting Easley in a negative light.
I just returned from Ruffin Poole’s initial appearance in federal court before U.S. District Judge Terrance Boyle. Poole, advisor to former Governor Mike Easley, was led into the courtroom with his hands cuffed behind his back. Boyle read a summary of the 64-page indictment that refers to Poole as the “Little Governor” because of his role as Easley’s right-hand man.
The 51 charges against Poole include extortion, mail fraud, and money laundering, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years plus fines; bribery and monetary transactions in criminally derived property, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years plus fines; and racketeering, carrying a maximum sentence of five years plus fines. All parties agreed on the terms for Poole’s bail–$50,000 unsecured bond, that he surrenders his passport and any firearms, and that he restrict his travel to the states of NC, VA, and MD.
The entire court appearance lasted less than 15 minutes. The press outside the courthouse waited longer for Poole to appear and be whisked away by his attorney.