On Monday, Nov. 14, Dr. Bill Harrison, chairman of the State Board of Education visited the Macon County School System.

During his visit, he toured Iotla Valley Elementary School, Mountain View Intermediate School and the Board of Education. Dr. Harrison was complimentary of the staff and students at each school and the programs that are being implementing to improve the education of Macon County students.

At right is Jennifer Love and student Hailey Bryson explaining to Dr. Harrison the connections program that is being implemented at Mountain View Intermediate.

Consumer protection experts with the Attorney General’s Office have published a comprehensive guide to frauds and scams that are currently targeting North Carolina consumers, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced.

“Con artists are experts at finding new ways to rip you off, and they also love to recycle tried and true scams,” Cooper said. “Outsmart the scammers by learning their tricks so you can avoid them.”

The publication offers details about ploys scammers use to try to rob North Carolinians of their money and their personal information. It includes a wide variety of scams, such as telemarketing fraud, phony prizes, fake checks, sweetheart scams, and home repair rip-offs.

North Carolina Democrats cringed when the United States Justice Department preapproved the redistricting maps on November 1. The decision by the Obama administration will likely give Tar Heel Republicans an electoral advantage for the next decade. The state’s Democratic Party is already preparing to file a lawsuit to challenge the decision, but such a prompt ruling by the Democratic administration poses a significant hurdle to opponents of the GOP drawn lines.

Read more...

With just three weeks remaining before the deadline for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to establish a plan to reduce the nation’s budget deficit, Congressman Heath Shuler and Mike Simpson, Republican Representative of Idaho, led a bipartisan effort to send a letter to the committee urging members to consider all options when developing a plan.

Led by Shuler, the bipartisan letter was signed by 40 House Republicans and 60 House Democrats and encouraged the committee to consider additional revenue along with spending cuts as part of a deal to reduce deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years, instead of settling for the minimum requirement of $1.2 trillion.