national: Triangulator, Indy Week

EPA: Lots left to do on fracking study

Billy Ball — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:18:22 -0500

If you enjoy reading instruction manuals, chances are Friday's webinar report on a long-awaited fracking study from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was a hoot.

EPA scientist Jeanne Briskin, who is helping to lead the study, explained the multi-pronged approach the agency is taking to tackle fracking, which could begin permitting in North Carolina as soon as 2014.…

RNC Day 5: Tossed from the Art Pope-David Koch cocktail party

Barry Yeoman — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 15:06:00 -0400

When I learned that Americans for Prosperity was hosting a cocktail party honoring Art Pope and David Koch during the Republican National Convention, it seemed like a natural event for me to cover. I used to write about Pope for the Independent, back when he was a state legislator from Raleigh and often the smartest (and nerdiest) Republican in the room.…

RNC Day 4: In his speech, Paul Ryan doesn't let facts get in the way

Barry Yeoman — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 14:51:00 -0400

In 2009, I was researching an article for AARP The Magazine about the impact of factory closings on older employers. Traveling around the country, I talked with unemployed workers who had skimped on food, lost health insurance, even suffered strokes because of the stress.…

RNC Day 3: Preparing for armed revolution

Barry Yeoman — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:23:00 -0400

I’ve covered national political party conventions since 1980. I know how amped-up the rhetoric can get on both sides.…

RNC Day 2: "All the laws we have today came from Judeo-Christian views"

Barry Yeoman — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:25:00 -0400

Forty years ago, when she was a teenager, Miriam Aikens had an abortion. Then she had another.…

Republican National Convention, Day 1: red meat at the tea party

Barry Yeoman — Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:49:00 -0400

Volunteers wearing plastic rain ponchos steered drivers into the sprawling parking lot of River Ministries International, a campus on the outskirts of Tampa that includes an evangelical church, a worship school, and a “Holy Ghost training center.” There were food trucks and merchandise tables, including one man selling “Anybody but Obama” sticky notes. (He gave me a sample, telling me to slap it onto the windshield of any car sporting an Obama bumper sticker.…

Paul Ryan in North Carolina

Billy Ball — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:07:00 -0400

Generally speaking, vice presidential candidates are thought of as the presidential ticket's attack dog.

GOP Congressman Paul Ryan, controversial architect of deficit-reducing federal budget plans, was just that when he made a campaign stop in Raleigh Wednesday, taking shots at President Obama on the economy, healthcare and Medicare.…

Task force meets Tuesday on compensation for N.C. sterilization victims

Samiha Khanna — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:00:00 -0500

A state task force will meet Tuesday to decide what compensation the state government should offer victims of North Carolina's eugenics program.

The N.C. Eugenics Board forcibly sterilized at least 7,600 men and women from 1929 to 1974.…

Walkupy marchers to reach Durham on Wednesday

Joe Schwartz — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:14:00 -0500

A cadre of Occupy Wall Street marching from Washington, D.C., to Martin Luther King’s gravesite in Atlanta will reach Durham on Wednesday.

DCmarch2GA, also dubbed #Walkupy or Occupy the Highway, will spend two days in the Bull City resting and holding teach-ins after churning down Highway 70 from Raleigh.…

N.C. clergy to call for Lowe's to apologize for pulling All-American Muslim ads

Joe Schwartz — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:15:00 -0500

An interfaith group of North Carolina clergy members will deliver a petition at Lowe's headquarters in ~~Morrisville~~ Mooresville on Tuesday demanding that the home improvement giant apologize for removing ads from TLC's All-American Muslim TV show.

The petition, which organizers say has 200,000 signatures, will be presented at 11:30 a.m. at 1000 Lowe's Boulevard.…

New report says chimps shouldn't be used in biomedical research

Maggie Smith — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:07:49 -0500

The year 2012 could be a good one for chimpanzees who are research subjects in biomedical labs after a national report recommended the primates should no longer be used in those settings.

According to a report published Dec. 15, the National Institutes of Health should prohibit the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research except under stringent circumstances, "including the absence of any other suitable model and inability to ethically perform the research on people," according to a press release by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, which conducted the study.…

Senate committee to consider Racial Justice Act repeal Monday

Samiha Khanna — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 21:10:13 -0500

A special session of the N.C. General Assembly convened briefly Sunday night, with prayers, recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance and just a few announcements in each chamber.

The real action starts tomorrow, when lawmakers take on a bill that would repeal the Racial Justice Act.…

How potent is pepper spray? That shit can stop a bear.

Samiha Khanna — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:28:00 -0500

Police officers from coast to coast have made headlines in the past few months when they have used tactics including pepper spray to subdue protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Most recently, the public turned its attention to campus police officers at the University of California-Davis who saturated the faces of seated, nonviolent protesters who were criticizing tuition increases.…

With DADT now history, Isaacson eager to return to UNC, honor military commitment

Joe Schwartz — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:59:23 -0400

Sara Isaacson, the former UNC ROTC cadet who was told to repay $79,285.14 in federal scholarship money after she informed her commanding officer that she is a lesbian, said she is relieved that the wait is complete and she is ready to re-enroll after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed Tuesday.

“It was just a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders, just the sense of relief that it was finally here and the sense of pride that I was part of the enormous group of people that worked for so many years to repeal the policy,” she said.…

Legal fight brewing in N.C. as Republicans get feedback on proposed Congressional map

Joe Schwartz — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:26:58 -0400

The “fair and legal” assurances made by North Carolina Republicans since the redistricting process began were challenged directly Thursday both at a marathon nine-location public hearing on the proposed Congressional map and earlier in the day when the Democrats released their response, terming the plan “divide and conquer.”

N.C. NAACP President the Rev. William Barber said he had mixed emotions about appearing at the Raleigh hearing at the N.C. Museum of History. He knew that the GOP had the votes to pass the plan and that Gov. Bev Perdue has no veto power on redistricting.…

State eugenics task force hears from survivors; report on possible compensation due Aug. 1

Jason Y. Lee — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 21:16:00 -0400

At an age when most of their peers share family memories and photos of children and cherished grandchildren, several men and women instead professed to state investigators this week how North Carolina's forced sterilization program wrongfully robbed many of them of that privilege.

There are nearly 3,000 living victims of North Carolina's eugenics program; a small group of them appeared before a state task force Wednesday, describing the personal humiliation, stilted relationships, shattered marriages and even drug addictions resulting from choices the government made to take away their ability to have children.…

RJA repeal efforts: bill to erase Racial Justice Act now has a half-sister in the Senate

Samiha Khanna — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:34:00 -0400

In just the past week, Raleigh’s conservative lawmakers have pushed forward on three of perhaps their most tendentious priorities, working to add restrictions to abortion, and rallying just yesterday to gain support to amend the state’s constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam and Republican colleagues honed in on another intense and emotive issue, one with life or death consequences: allegations of racism in the courtroom.…

As anticipated, Stam sponsors House bill to repeal Racial Justice Act

Samiha Khanna — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:20:41 -0400

It wasn't a question of if, but when the new Republican majority at the N.C. General Assembly would file a bill to repeal the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which allows death row defendants to appeal their sentences on grounds of racial discrimination. Under the progressive new law, death-row defendants who prove racial discrimination factored into their case could serve life in prison instead of being put to death by the state.…

House Republicans target illegal immigrants with ID ban, expand gun laws

Samiha Khanna — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:35:28 -0400

Leaders in the state House of Representatives passed two controversial bills Wednesday afternoon, sending both to the state Senate for consideration. One of the bills (HB 33) rules out documents from the Mexican Consulate for North Carolina issued to Mexican residents in our state as a valid form of identification or proof of residency.…

Tar Heel state passed over as Kansas City wins Google fiber project

Samiha Khanna — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:57:00 -0400

Google announced today it selected Kansas City, Kan., for a free fiber-optic network that promises Internet speeds 100 times faster than those currently available to most homes and businesses in the U.S. It's a project worth millions. The news likely dashed the hopes of the more than 600 communities across the country that asked to be considered for the project, including Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.…

House Dems challenge bill to block health care reform; House could vote Wednesday

Samiha Khanna — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:19:00 -0500

House Democrats held a press conference Monday afternoon to challenge a bill filed late last week by House Republicans, including Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam and Rep. Tom Murry of Wake County, to block last year's federal health care reform law. The federal law, which is being challenged by 26 states and may end up before the Supreme Court, would require all Americans to have health insurance and prohibit insurance providers from refusing to cover many preexisting conditions.…

Justice Department, Garner settle Fair Housing Act suit

Joe Schwartz — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:27:00 -0500

The U.S. Department of Justice settled a lawsuit with the Town of Garner today that alleges that the town violated the Fair Housing act by refusing to allow eight recovering drug and alcohol addicts to live together and receive treatment.

Federal investigators filed the discrimination suit in May 2009 after Oxford House, a nonprofit Maryland-based group that runs more than 1,200 rehabilitation centers nationwide, claimed the town and its Board of Adjustment violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to listen to their requests to increase the number of residents from six to eight.…

Durham Council endorses officers' acceptance of Mexican ID

Samiha Khanna — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 21:01:00 -0500

Durham's City Council took a symbolic stance on a sharply divisive issue Monday night when it passed a resolution endorsing the practice by the Durham Police Department to accept the Matricula Consular, the national Mexican identification card for non-residents, as valid identification during traffic stops and other police interaction. The resolution passed five to two, with Council members Eugene Brown and Howard Clement voting against it.…

B.J. Lawson: He'll read the bills, but will he read his e-mail?

Lisa Sorg — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:23:00 -0400

One of the B.J. Lawson’s main campaign promises is that, if elected, he will read every bill and amendment that comes before him.

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Jimmy Carter falls ill, plans to reschedule Regulator event

Joe Schwartz — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:00:04 -0400

Former President Jimmy Carter has cancelled his appearance tonight at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop and will remain in a Cleveland hospital overnight where he is being treated for an upset stomach. (More details from CNN here.)

Wander Lorentz De Haas, a manager of the Regulator, says Carter, who was slated to sign copies of his latest book, “The White House Diaries,” will set a new date.…