Tomorrow morning, UE Local 150, the public service workers union here in North Carolina, will go to the general assembly to meet with and lobby legislators. UE are a grassroots organized, rank-and-file union who have cut their teeth on public sector, DHHS mental health workers and sanitation worker campaigns in the Triangle over the last […]
Aaron Lake Smith
Bio: Aaron Smith is the Raleigh Bureau Chief of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]
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Thom Tillis sit-in demonstrators arrested in the dead of night
After hours of back and forth negotiation with the General Assembly police—after the Raleigh Police came to arrest the protesters but then were held back for fear of creating bad press— Thom Tillis quietly had the 14 fast food workers and faith leaders staging a sit-in at his office arrested at 2 a,n,—long after the […]
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15 fast food workers and faith leaders staging sit-in at Speaker of the House Thom Tillis’s office
Update: At 6:30, sit-in is still taking place in Thom Tillis’s office with protestors vowing to stay all night. Pizzas have been delivered. Police have cleared out. Most of those sitting in are fast food workers, making $7.25 an hour. The majority of the Moral Monday protestors having gone home, the GA and Raleigh police […]
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The Rev. William Barber fights lawmakers’ attempts to muzzle the Moral Monday movement
By now, many North Carolinians know where to find Rev. William J. Barber on Mondays while the state Legislature is in session. But on Sundays, the preacher can still be found testifying before his devoted congregation in a modest church in Goldsboro. His impassioned sermons serve as sprawling B-sides to the more polished studio albums […]
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Moral Monday pots & pans protest kicks off General Assembly short session
This morning, before the General Assembly opened for the short session at noon, about 100 Moral Monday protesters, many of them grandmothers, gathered in front of the legislative building on Jones Street for a press conference. Reverend William Barber, head of the NC NAACP spoke, as did Minister Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove of St. John’s Missionary Baptist […]
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Keith Crisco dies awaiting final vote tally in close race against Clay Aiken
Keith Crisco, the Asheboro businessman and Clay Aiken’s challenger in the District 2 Democratic Primary died suddenly at his home today, according to confirmed reports from WRAL. He was 71. Crisco was waiting for the final vote tallies in his too-close-to-call race against Aiken. Crisco was behind Aiken around 300 votes; his team was in […]
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Too Close for Clay: Keith Crisco Takes a Day To Canvas
Update Monday 10:39 AM: the Town of Cary says that there was no “last minute cancellation” at Cary Arts Center. Rather, there was simply no space available. Last night, a tense air hung over Clay Aiken’s primary night party at the Devil’s Ridge Golf Club out in Holly Springs. First, the gathering was originally supposed […]
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Watching drones, prayer and unions
It’s difficult to predict what legislation will come up during this summer’s General Assembly short session, but it seems to be shaping up to be noticeably less sweeping than last year. However, observers pointed out several bills to keep on the radar: Unmanned Aircraft Regulation: Last August, a provision in the state budget put a […]
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The fight to unionize the South brews at an N.C. slaughterhouse
Three Robeson County Sheriff cars idle in a dirt lot in front of the windowless Mountaire chicken processing plant and slaughterhouse about 80 miles southwest of Raleigh. Semi-trucks full of live chickens barrel through the chain-link entrance and over the railroad tracks; trucks carrying empty cages exit the plant. Mountaire’s Lumber Bridge plant employs 2,000 […]
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An exit interview with Raleigh Planning Director Mitchell Silver, bound for New York City
Raleigh Planning Director Mitchell Silver will return to his hometown of Brooklyn in May. He has been tapped by Mayor Bill De Blasio to head New York City’s 7,000-person parks departmentan opportunity most would be loathe to pass up. For the past nine years, the lauded planner and New York native has been instrumental in […]