Increasing the likelihood of Paul Valone's head exploding from rage and frustration:

Gov. Pat McCrory doesn’t want to allow guns into the N.C. State Fair, according to his office. That means he’s supporting Steve Troxler, the head of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, in trying to uphold a ban on firearms at the Fair in the face of a potential legal challenge.

Troxler is a supporter of the right to carry a concealed firearm, but believes that guns would be detrimental to the Fair’s family-friendly environment, he said at a press briefing on Tuesday. McCrory supports that position, according to Josh Ellis, a spokesman for the governor. “Commissioner Troxler called the governor yesterday to discuss the situation. The governor agrees with the commissioner’s conclusion,” Ellis wrote in an email on Wednesday night.

Just a warning to the Gubernatorial staff: You can expect a barrage of nasty phone calls incited by Grass Roots NC and NC Renegade, and you should record every single one of them for security purposes. There may be some e-mails as well, but it's hard to bark and growl in an electronic format

Apparently enforcing the law is bad for somebody's business:

The state budget, echoing a directive from the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission, gave Dr. Louis Daniel, NCDMF’s executive director, the authority to enter into an Joint Enforcement Agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service that would provide the state with an estimated $600,000 per year to allow the marine patrol and NMFS enforcement officers to respond to fisheries violations in either state or federal waters off North Carolina.

But Daniel is apparently waiting on directions from John Skvarla, director of the NCDMF’s parent N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, before doing anything. And Skvarla is apparently waiting for an okay from Gov. Pat McCrory. Why? Six weeks ago, Daniel, Skvarla, McCrory, Rep. Thom Tillis (speaker of the state house and a candidate for the U.S. Senate) and Sen. Rep. Phil Berger (president of the state senate) received a letter from 10 Republican legislators expressing their opposition to the JEA, despite its having been part of the budget that was passed by both Republican-controlled houses of the legislature.

They cut the Fishery's enforcement budget in lieu of receiving these Federal dollars, and now they're trying to block that partnership. And the only logical reason is: The big commercial fishing operations are profiting from violations of the law, and they want to sink the boats of those who are tasked with enforcing them. Law and order, indeed.

Callous disregard or guilty conscience?

It’s been a big year for environmental news in North Carolina. First there was a major coal ash spill into the Dan River in February that raised concerns about water quality. And there’s been a push for more hydraulic fracturing – better known as “fracking.” It’s led to packed houses at town hall meetings across the region.

But these issues aren’t likely to change the political landscape. That’s according to Jason Husser. He’s an assistant professor of political science at Elon University and also works on the university’s poll. He spoke with WFDD’s Paul Garber about where the environment ranks among voters and where it could make a difference.

This is not surprising. For years, polls have steadily shown that only about 3% of voters put environmental concerns at the top of their list of most important issues. That may have increased slightly in the wake of the spill and the looming fracking problems, but hoping it will be a major factor in November is probably naïve. I explored some of the reasons for this in an op-ed I wrote earlier in the year:

If it walks like a Tea Party duck:

Mark Walker does not think Barack Obama may declare martial or Sharia law. He does not really believe the president has been spending billions of dollars — with a B! — on family vacations. He doesn’t actually have no qualms about bombings at the border that could start a war with Mexico. But he still says these things. Why?

Because there’s something in him that wants to please a crowd, be it a Tea Party rally or a small clutch of cynical journalists. He can’t help himself. He gets carried away. And that makes for some great performances — but it doesn’t help you understand who he really is, what he really thinks.

You have to say one thing about the News & Record: They are loyal to their locally-brewed candidates. If I had to place my bet this very moment, I would say the paper is going to (unwisely) endorse Mark Walker in the race for the NC-06 seat. All this hand-wringing about Walker being a really good guy but a "naïve" politician is likely cover for the real issue: Mark Walker has been a preacher and civic leader in Greensboro, while Laura Fjeld hails from way over there in Orange County. Case closed.

It's a special kind of jerk who would think this is a good idea:

House Speaker Thom Tillis often wears an Autism Speaks pin and supported legislation this year that would require insurers cover certain treatment for autism disorders. The measure got tied up in the Senate and didn't become law, but that's not stopping Carolina Rising from running two ads thanking Tillis for his support.

The North Carolina-based group is run by Dallas Woodhouse, the former state director of Americans for Prosperity. It is a tax-exempt nonprofit that is not required to disclose its donors. According to Carolina Rising it is spending $2 million on the TV ads.

The only thing "rising" is the bile in my throat. Again, a regulatory system that would allow this kind of dark money to be spent is no regulatory system at all.