Free Republic

A North Carolina lawmaker who proposed to slash tuition to just $500 a semester at five public universities that serve mostly blacks, American Indians and the poor announced Wednesday that he is scaling back on the bill after running into mistrust so fierce he was branded a racist. Republican Sen. Tom Apodaca said he plans to drop the three historically black colleges from the bill. Apodaca is Hispanic.The move came after North Carolina’s NAACP called the proposed tuition cut a back-door attempt to drive the black schools into bankruptcy. …

Rep. Heath Shuler is being recruited again to run for the Senate, and the Western North Carolina congressman might take them up on that idea. Shuler, D-Waynesville, told the Times-News in November that he was considering challenging Sen. Richard Burr in 2010. After some thought, he announced that he was not going to run against Burr, citing the time he would be away from his family during a statewide campaign. In recent weeks, however, the buzz has started again that Shuler was exploring a run against Burr. The flames were only fanned when Attorney General Roy Cooper said he was...