This Week’s Top 5 / Bottom 5

After a one week, holiday hiatus, there are plenty of things to recognize in this week's installment of North Carolina's best and worst performances from the world of policy and politics.

The Tops

1. Governor Mike Easley - It took him a little while, but the Guv deserves major kudos for standing up for immigrant kids:

Here's my position. The people we are talking about were brought here as babies and young children through no fault of their own. They distinguished themselves throughout our K-12 (public school) system. Now, I'm not willing to grind my heel in their faces and slam the door on them. The Community College System has to be open to them in order for them to be productive members of our society and help North Carolina and America compete in the world economy.

2. The state Community College System itself – It's not entirely clear who made the decision, but the policy of admitting undocumented kids into state community colleges is the right thing to do. As Chris Fitzsimon put it the other day:  

The children have no say where they live. They didn't decide to come to the United States. Their parents brought them here in the pursuit of a better life and with the hope that at some point sanity would prevail and elected officials would develop a comprehensive approach to immigration that would streamline the citizenship process, and provide an ultimate path to citizenship for the 12 million people currently here without documentation.

But this isn't about buildings or money. It is about finding another way to continue the demonization of immigrants to keep a divisive issue alive for the 2008 elections, this time by attacking children who are working hard everyday to learn about their adopted country and improve their chances of succeeding where they live.

3. Columnist and author, Prof. Paul Krugman – One of the nation's strongest and most consistently accurate progressive voices comes to North Carolina and tells it like it is (see Steve Turner's post below). If the local market fundamentalists are rising to the defense of their corporate masters by attacking him for decrying the nation's growing inequality, you know he must be saying something right.

4. Former Supreme Court Justice I. Beverly Lake, Jr. – The conservative former Supreme Court Chief Justice follows up on his work to establish North Carolina's Innocence Commission by taking on the cause of Lee Wayne Hunt – a man who has spent the last two decades in jail on a murder conviction obtained in large measure on a long discredited type of scientific testimony.  

5. The Charlotte Area Transit System -The new Lynx Blue Line Train is officially unveiled and incorporated into the Charlotte transportation landscape. Let's hope it's only just the start.

The Bottoms

5. State Senator Fred Smith – The Republican gubernatorial wannabe purports to be cautious about corporate subsidies/giveaways, but then touts the outrageous 1999 handout to R.J. Reynolds (in which the cigarette giant was paid $136 million to save some of its jobs in Winston-Salem) as an example to be emulated. And see Adam Searing's post below for his failure to keep up to date on the health care debate.

4. The 21^st Century Transportation Committee – The group's second meeting this week turned out better than the first (the one in which chairman Brad Wilson of Blue Cross/Blue Shield summarily dismissed the idea of alternatives to more roads), but it still appears to be mostly a paver's paradise.  

3.  The "Blue Ribbon" Charter School Commission - Talk about starting with your conclusion and then working backwards to justify it. Recently, the Commission indicated it would recommend lifting the state cap on the number of charter schools. In June at the group's first meeting, Commission chair Dr. Michael Fedewa (a man who runs parochial schools for a living) said there is "no need for a cap."     

1 and 2. ALIPAC, Civitas, Congresswoman Sue Myrick, State Senator Richard Stevens, all five major gubernatorial candidates and an array of spineless and/or mean spirited public figures – For their wimpy and/or opportunistic immigrant bashing around the issue of letting a handful of kids get an education in our community college system. Special demerits to normally progressive candidates Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue for jumping on the bandwagon.