News-Record.com

Where have all the politics gone?

Just a reminder, I'm posting more campaign-oriented posts at Decision 2008, although I'll continue to cross-post here from time-to-time. (And really, trying to separate politics from government is like trying to separate the white from library paste.) Oh, and there is a handy feed of the top posts from Decision 2008 (as well as Inside Scoop and your comments on this blog) over in the right-hand bar.

On the agenda

Coming up this week:

• *The House committee looking at whether the criminal charges lodged against Rep. Thomas Wright (D-New Hanover) are sufficient to boot him from the legislature meets. 1 p.m. in LOB Room 643. (You can catch up on the latest here.)

• *The State Board of Education meets Tuesday through Thursday this week. Agenda here. Looks like the board will road trip to the General Assembly on Wednesday to talk about testing, accountability and charter schools. BOE members are due to hold a press on Thursday at 11:15 a.m.

From those not on the campaign trail...

You may notice that your mix of state government and politics stories is running a bit thin in recent weeks. That's because a lot of the folks who write those are either on the road with the presidential hopefuls or writing about the campaign from back here in the NC.

That said, there were some folks holding forth on state issues this weekend (or a little before):

• * I have yet to slog all the way through the NY Times Magazine piece on voting machines. The gist of it is that voting machines, particularly the touch screen variety used in Guilford County, could give us another 2004-Florida-presidential-recount (or 2004-North-Carolina-Ag-Commissioner-recount) situation. (Previously.) Columnist Scott Mooneyham says we shouldn't get our knickers in a bunch, too much anyway.

• *Winston-Salem's Paul O'Connor has a few books to add to your reading list.

• *A passel of new laws went into effect Jan. 1, including one that requires motorcycle riders to wear helmets, or, more exactly, requires them to wear helmets that offer some sort of meaningful protection. There are bikers who pledge to try to repeal this coming session of the General Assembly. The Burlington Times-News wrote about the controversy here. The Shelby paper opined in favor of the bikers here while my paper took the opposing view.