Featured Articles
Peligro inminente: Una antigua planta de misiles del Ejército ha contaminado un vecindario negro y latino durante 30 años
El Ejército y los propietarios privados han permitido que los contaminantes tóxicos se enconen sin tener que pagar ninguna multa, mientras los residentes soportan las repercusiones medioambientales. Esta es la primera entrega de un artículo de dos partes sobre el peligro de contaminación que supone una antigua fábrica de misiles en Burlington para una comunidad […]
Q & A with the new head of NC’s controversial Achievement School District
Eric Hall says he has education in his blood.
The soon-to-be superintendent of North Carolina’s controversial achievement school district says both of his parents were educators. His wife, meanwhile, is a public school social worker.
The Follies
An offensive call for a referendum on discrimination
Promoters of the latest so-called compromise on HB2 filed in the General Assembly this week apparently believe that discrimination in their communities should be up for a vote.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will forever change forests, wetlands and rivers in North Carolina
It's nearly spring and the Neuse River Waterdogs are on the prowl, searching for mates. About 6 to 9 inches long, slimy and the color of mud, the salamanders are homely, yet lovable. They have dark spots, like a Dalmatian, and their neck sports two frilly gills the shade of magenta, which, when waterdogs want attention, rise like an Elizabethan collar.
Bills seek to end permits for concealed handguns
Two new North Carolina House bills aim to do away with permits for carrying concealed handguns and eliminate the state’s ability to regulate concealed weapons.
The moves, which have failed to get traction in previous sessions, have been denounced as dangerous by leaders in law enforcement and gun control advocates. But groups and lawmakers supporting the bill say it’s the next step in North Carolina’s recent history of gun deregulation.
About that economic “mess” Trump claims to have inherited
The data show that the President’s alternative facts about the economy are flat wrong
One month into the presidency of Donald Trump, it’s already common, even global, knowledge that the American commander-in-chief is a man who maintains only a passing familiarity with the truth. Hour after hour and day after day, the “alternative facts” emanating from the White House are so blatant and plentiful that it’s become difficult to keep track.
Unofficial DPI spokesman raises questions of accountability, transparency
When Jonathan Felts speaks for North Carolina’s superintendent of public instruction, he insists it’s a labor of love.
Felts, a former George W. Bush White House staffer, professional GOP consultant and senior advisor to former Gov. Pat McCrory, says he’s taking no pay for his work in the office of new Superintendent Mark Johnson.
Getting to the bottom of NC’s gerrymandering crisis
Our gerrymandering crisis isn’t just philosophical – “politicians choosing voters instead of voters choosing politicians.” Rather, it’s practical – gerrymandering is election rigging; certain votes “count” more than others through gerrymandering. That’s because the value of a vote lies not in the mere ritual of casting it, but in the equal opportunity for each vote to confer political power. The principle “one person, one vote” encapsulates democracy’s central promise of equality at the polls.
Republicans target non-surgical abortions in latest move to restrict reproductive rights
North Carolina Republican legislators appear to have found a new way to interfere with women’s reproductive rights – this time potentially eliminating the option of a non-invasive abortion for women during the first trimester of pregnancy.
House Bill 62 would require doctors to tell women seeking a non-invasive medical abortion that they could reverse the process halfway through – advice that is medically unproven.
Monday numbers
52---percentage of voters without a college degree who cast their ballot for Donald Trump in the November election (“Behind Trump’s victory: Divisions by race, gender, education, Pew Research Center, November 9, 2016)
44---percentage of voters without a college degree who cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton (Ibid)
The Follies (of the inaction on HB2)
More damage to come from HB2 while Republicans do nothing
The clock is ticking yet again on HB2 and the news from Raleigh is not encouraging. As the NCAA prepares to decide where championship events will be held for the next six years, North Carolina is on the verge of being locked out of hosting any of them because the anti-LGBTQ law remains on the books.
Opponents of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline: “Nobody is saying what’s happening to the little people”
This is the first of a two-part story about the potential impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline on people and the environment. The second story, dealing with the environmental ramifications, will run Monday. Belinda Joyner rode shotgun and stared out the window at the fertile farm fields ripening with cotton. She pointed to the tidy brick ranch […]