Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt Amid the continuing backlash to Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” law, two openly LGBT leaders in Chapel Hill are calling for the town to sever its “sister city” relationship with a Russian city. Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Councilman Lee Storrow condemned the law in a joint statement Thursday afternoon, describing […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
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Chatham Park: jumping the shark?
Alan Ward, bespectacled and bewildered, paused mid-sentence with the microphone to his lips. Moments earlier, the bookish planner for Chatham Park developers had been outlining the types of housing to be included in the proposed 7,120-acre project east of Pittsboro. Some of the houses would be opulent enough for a doctor to feel at home. […]
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A provision tucked in the state budget empowers CIO to allow drones
If you’re feeling paranoid, turn to page 41 in the newly approved state budget. Sandwiched between rather innocuous passages on motor fleet management and tax programs are the drones. Budget section 7.16.(e) includes a ban on the purchase or operation of the unmanned aircrafts by state and local government agencies, including law enforcement, through July […]
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Chapel Hill had to decline FEMA money to buy flood-prone condos at Camelot Village
It’s been four days since the flood, but Bolin Creek lingersbrown, bloated and angryin Chapel Hill’s Camelot Village like a monster under the bed. Piles of belongingsmusty rugs, pictures, furnituresit 5 feet high on soggy lawns. Hastily moved refrigerators crowd the parking lot like a white forest. Meanwhile, residents wait on lawn chairs while restoration […]
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In N.C., 40 counties are no longer governed by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act
For most people, the Civil Rights Movement recalls a black-and-white photo in a history book. For Floyd McKissick Jr., it’s his childhood living room. That’s where McKissick’s late father, an iconic local civil rights leader who is one of the first black graduates of UNC’s School of Law, orchestrated a series of demonstrations and legal […]
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Ties to Duke Energy abound in N.C. Utilities Commission appointees
In January, clean energy activist Jim Warren did his civic duty the old-fashioned way. In a formal letter to then Gov.-elect Pat McCrory, Warren and state AARP Director Doug Dickerson asked McCrory, a 28-year Duke Energy employee, to recuse himself from appointing the newest members of the N.C. Utilities Commission, a regulatory panel with the […]
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Duke study finds elevated gas levels near fracking sites
Major news for frack-followers: A Duke University study published this week finds homeowners living near fracking wells may be at an elevated risk of drinking water contamination. The study, performed by researchers at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment, analyzed 141 drinking water samples from water wells in northeastern Pennsylvania, prime fracking country. According to […]
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Budget slashes mental health funding
Mental health funding Senate budget $675,738,286 Shortfall $31,059,461 • Closes Wright School, saves $2.7 million annually • Closes three state-operated alcohol and drug abuse treatment centers effective July 1, 2013, saves $88.5 million over two years; gives $30 million of that to community-oriented substance abuse treatment • Allocates $2 million each year for telepsychiatry, intended […]
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Better than the Senate version, the House budget is still bad
Dread-soaked optimism: That’s the pervasive feeling from state Democrats and left-leaning advocacy groups this week after Republicans in the N.C. House unveiled a $20.57 billion budget late Sunday night. In dollars, the House spending plan hews closely to the $20.58 billion proposed by the Senate. However, the plan tempers unpopular Senate provisions in numerous ways, […]
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Fracking bill passes House environment committee
Sen. E.S. “Buck” Newton, R-Johnston, Nash, Wilson, sponsored Senate Bill 76. Fast-track fracking legislation, Senate Bill 76, is headed for the House floor after the chamber’s Environment Committee gave its approval of the measure Thursday morning. Sen. E.S. “Buck” Newton, a Republican from Johnston, Nash and Wilson counties who co-sponsored the bill, said the drilling […]
