In January, the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out a criminal conviction because Washington, D.C., police had failed to obtain a search warrant before placing a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car.

North Carolina police departments would do well to consider that ruling as they use cell phone technology and records to track people. Cell phones utilize both cell towers and global position satellites to allow communication. Using the technology, it is possible to track the movements of cell phone owners even when they aren't using the phones.

In a devastating 5-4 ruling that not only condones an overreach of state power but legitimizes what is essentially statesponsored humiliation and visual rape, the U.S. Supreme Court recently declared that any person who is arrested and processed at a jail house, regardless of the severity of his or her offense (i.e., they can be guilty of nothing more than a minor traffic offense), can be subjected to a strip search by police or jail officials without reasonable suspicion that the arrestee is carrying a weapon or contraband. The five-man majority rationalized their ruling as being necessary for safety, security and efficiency, the government's overused and all-too-convenient justifications for its steady erosion of our freedoms since 9/11.

RALEIGH — Legislative Republicans may soon head down a path that always seemed to befuddle their Democratic predecessors.

Assuming that they still control the North Carolina General Assembly in 2013, GOP lawmakers say that they will take a stab at tax reform.

Democrats talked a lot about the same subject for a number of years.

Gov. Beverly Perdue, near the end of her first year in office, called tax reform “a must-do.” Before that, former Gov. Mike Easley created a commission to examine reworking the state’s tax structure.

When President Obama spoke to the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying organization, he provided the required red meat—America’s support for Israel remains drum tight, and war on Iran to prevent their acquisition of nuclear weapons continues to be a viable option. Mr. Obama's pandering (mitigated, in fairness, by his continued commitment to diplomacy) ignored Israel’s own nuclear weapons, and its government’s obdurate support for the settlements that keep eroding Palestinian territory. No doubt it seemed inappropriate to examine the ongoing suffering of the Palestinians with that particular audience—or even the potential suffering of people in Iran and Israel should the dogs of war let loose. He chose instead to use “us against them” language to strengthen his chances for election.