NEWS: Trotline

September 10 was a bad day for progressive politics in North Carolina. Triangle-area residents, in particular, witnessed three races providing an ominous barometer of the way political winds are blowing.In the Democratic primary to pick a nominee to replace U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, the message was simple: Money wins.

Since Bunkey Morgan won the Democratic primary for county commissioner on Sept. 10, things are looking up in Chatham County. Well, for the developers, anyway.

Hard to believe it's still an issue, in the year 2002, whether cropdusters should be allowed to spray pesticides on your house. But there we were on Sunday, 50 of us in the tiny Mt. View AME Zion Church in Chatham County, recalling the "white rain" that came down on people in the Gorgas community 20 years ago and how they fought to see that it would never happen again to anybody else ... and hearing that, 20 years later, the N.C. Pesticide Board is thinking of undoing the small victory they won.Chatham County Commissioner Margaret Pollard remembers coming home the afternoon of June 22, 1982, and finding people outside watching, "fascinated, but also in shock to the point of not thinking," as a crop plane spraying nearby trees for the Boise Cascade Corp. indiscriminately sailed over their houses trailing a cloud of so-called Agent White--an herbicide containing the poison 2,4-D.

For the young people aspiring to high office one day, U.S. Senate candidates Elizabeth Dole and Erskine Bowles offered textbook lessons last week on a skill needed by the modern campaigner: Having it both ways. Dole went first.

Thanks to the Governor, the Budget Gets Even More RegressiveMost of the suspense about this week's probable House and Senate votes on a final budget bill has focused on the likelihood that the lottery will be included in the budget.Lost in the lottery fever have been two important aspects of what appears to be the final budget deal: Gov. Easley's demand that transfers and savings in the House budget be replaced by keeping reimbursements to local governments and giving them the impossible-to-resist option of raising the local sales tax; and the dramatically regressive nature of Easley's demands. The House passed a budget that took $80 million of tobacco settlement money headed to the Golden Leaf Foundation and $100 million from so far unspent Hurricane Floyd relief funds to pay for state programs.