#tim moore

Who: Representative Tim Moore (R-North Carolina)

X: https://x.com/RepTimMooreNC

When: March 2025

What: North Carolina State Senator Marshall Rauch

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Who: Representative Tim Moore (R-North Carolina)

X: https://x.com/RepTimMooreNC

When: February 2025

What: DOGE and Math

Watch on C-SPAN

Bay City Rollers - Rock N' Roll Love Letter (1976)

Give this song a listen, it's actually pretty good. Another guilty pleasure - it's hard to take the Bay City Rollers seriously, but this tune really hits the spot - fantastic power pop, originally written and recorded by Tim Moore. The story of one of the first boy bands is actually very tragic - sexual abuse, financial swindles, drug and alcohol abuse, fatal car accidents...

June 28, 1951 marked the CBS debut of “The Amos 'n' Andy Show,” Television’s first Black sitcom. #OnThisDay

Tesmin Zekeria at Popular Information:

North Carolina’s new $30 billion state budget contains a provision that gives extraordinary investigative powers to a partisan oversight committee co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R). The Joint Legislative Committee on Government Operations — or Gov Ops for short — is empowered to seize “any document or system of record” from anyone who works in or with state and local government during its investigations. The rule applies to contractors, subcontractors, and any other non-state entity “receiving, directly and indirectly, public funds,” including charities and state universities.  Moreover, Gov Ops staff will be authorized to enter “any building or facility” owned or leased by a state or non-state entity without a judicial warrant. This includes the private residences of subcontractors and contractors who run businesses out of their homes, lawmakers say.

Alarmingly, public employees under investigation will be required to keep all communication and requests “confidential.” They cannot alert their supervisor of the investigation nor consult with legal counsel. Violating this rule “shall be grounds for disciplinary action, including dismissal,” the law reads. Those who refuse to cooperate face jail time and fines of up to $1,000. In the event that Gov Ops searches a person’s home, these rules mean that the person 1) must keep the entry a secret, 2) cannot seek outside help (unless necessary for fulfilling the request, the law says), and 3) could face criminal charges if Gov Ops deems them uncooperative.  Moore and Berger claim these new rules are benign and necessary to exercise oversight of state funds. But Democrats and other critics say the changes turn Gov Ops into a “secret police force,” warning that the new policies have far-reaching implications.

During a legislative debate, State Senator Graig Meyer (D) asked lawmakers to consider a hypothetical scenario in which Gov Ops accesses personal health records like ultrasounds, which are required by the state to receive abortion pills. The Commission, Meyer said, could release these documents “to the public in a hearing.”  Gov Ops could also potentially enter and search “a law firm that receives state funding for court-appointed lawyers,” compromising “the sanctity of the attorney-client privilege,” State Representative Allison Dahle (D) said. Dahle added that these new powers will allow Gov Ops members to carry out grudges, empowering them to target political enemies as “backlash for previous actions.”  “I don’t think I have ever publicly called the GOP leadership ‘authoritarian’ because that’s not a term I take lightly, but their approach to seizing power and cover up their tracks now fits the bill,” Meyer told Popular Information. “The hypotheticals of how Gov Ops power could be abused are endless. Verbal assurances of restraint are inadequate; we need clear guardrails in law.” Meyer added that he “hope[s] that members of both parties can see what's happening before it's too late."

The legislature created the Gov Ops committee years ago to increase ”governmental accountability by ensuring that governmental institutions operate efficiently, effectively, and in compliance with the law.” But unlike other types of government watchdog groups, GovOps is partisan. Republicans dominate the body, and the group’s politics greatly influence the types of investigations it carries out. For example, Gov Ops launched an inquiry into diversity training programs at the University of North Carolina earlier this year. This wasn’t always the norm in North Carolina – the state used to have a nonpartisan division “tasked with evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of public services.” Known as the Program Evaluation Division (PED), the unit was created in 2007 after receiving unanimous approval from state lawmakers. PED was “said to have saved the state millions,” the News & Observer reported. But, in 2021, Moore and Berger shuttered the unit. A spokesperson for Berger at the time noted that Gov Ops had a “similar mandate” to PED.

Keeping public records secret 

The Republican leaders who pushed to dramatically expand Gov Ops' power say it will enhance government accountability. The same leaders, however, pushed through several provisions in the budget that restrict access to legislative public records, eliminating a critical tool for accountability — including for Gov Ops itself. One provision repeals a law that required “communications regarding redistricting” be made publicly available when new legislative maps were adopted. As one of the most gerrymandered states in the nation, public records have been instrumental in challenging North Carolina’s redistricting maps. In 2022, a gerrymandering trial exposed a top Republican redistricting official for using “secret maps to help draft the state’s redistricting plan.”  This fall, Republican lawmakers are set to redraw voting maps after the new conservative majority on the state’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling and legalized partisan gerrymandering. Under the new budget, "lawmakers responding to public records requests will have no obligation to share any drafts or materials that guided their redistricting decisions."

Yesterday, in response to a gun threat on UNC campus, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore suggested that the legislature should remove the gun-free status on college campuses. Earlier in the week, GOP Congresswoman Lauren Boebert  was removed from a theater in Denver for vaping, taking flash photos, dancing, singing, and generally disrupting a performance of the musical “Beetlejuice.” She gave the…