Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, sponsored Senate Bill 76. As expected, fast-track fracking legislation, Senate Bill 76, passed the House Commerce and Job Development Committee Wednesday morning, although with several notable departures from the version passed by Senate leaders in February. Those differences, according to fracking opponent and Environment N.C. Director Elizabeth Ouzts, include stripping the […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
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This week in disappointment: taxes, schools and executions
Between the Opportunity Scholarship Act and the Fair Tax Act, Republican lawmakers are catching major guff this week for their giddily titled bills. Up next: The GOP’s N.C. Happy We Love Ice Cream Sandwiches Act. OK, we made that one up. No doubt, however, the opposition is very real for Mecklenburg Republican Bob Rucho’s Fair […]
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Legislation would prohibit cities and counties from regulating fracking
Energy interests support bill sponsors Sens. Andrew Brock, Harry Brown and Brent Jackson, who co-sponsored Senate Bill 612, received large campaign contributions from political action committees representing Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, BP and other energy interests in the 2012 elections. State campaign finance reports show Brock received $13,850 from energy interests, while Brown and […]
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Parents and environmental activists concerned about sewage sludge fields near schools
The first thing you notice is the stench. “It’s not going to smell like your husband’s farts,” says Myra Dotson. “It smells like fetid, festering meat.” A former UNC research assistant and current environmental activist, Dotson has lived near a sewage sludge field on Orange Grove Road in western Orange County for 20 years. Officially […]
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Indeed, Cardinal Innovations receives federal funding
As an addendum to today’s story, Cardinal Innovations spokeswoman Rachel Porter confirmed after deadline Tuesday that her agency—known in official lingo as a managed care organization—does indeed receive federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). That information is key because it confirms the state-funded Cardinal Innovations, formerly known as Piedmont […]
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This week in disappointment: rolling back the environment, reproductive rights and more
HB 693: BIRTH CONTROL The same Republicans who want to ban abortion also want to make it harder for teens to get birth control. A committee amendment last week adds parental consent as a requirement for teens to obtain birth control or screening for sexually transmitted diseases. Because it’s easy telling your mom you might […]
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In clash over mental health care, anti-immigrant policy draws feds’ scrutiny
Martha Olaya-Crowley said this was coming. The chairwoman of the board of directors for El Futuro, a nonprofit mental health care provider, warned in March that a policy that imperils affordable mental health care for Orange County’s poorest undocumented immigrants would attract federal scrutiny. Apparently, Olaya-Crowley was right. A spokeswoman for the Office for Civil […]
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One N.C. county says “no” to fracking
Expect the debate of local vs. state control over fracking to only swell. Tuesday night, commissioners in Anson County approved a 5-year fracking ban as they gather more information on the drilling and its prospective pros and cons. Leaders in the rural county east of Charlotte were pushed to approve the moratorium by at least […]
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A 278-year-old error over the N.C.–S.C. border is riling residents
See also The Greater Carolina Swap Meet: 20 things we’re willing to trade with our neighbors to the south Fred Berlinger has a message for King George II, the long-dead English monarch whose 18th-century vision for the border between North Carolina and South Carolina is wreaking havoc on Berlinger’s Polk County home. “Have you ever […]
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Affordable housing takes a hit in Chapel Hill
Eleven years ago, Chapel Hill tried a new solution for an old problem. Town leaders, seeking to assuage concerns that housing in the college town was becoming increasingly unaffordable, negotiated an unusual special-use permit for the sleek, urbanized Rosemary Village at 400 W. Rosemary St. Adopted in August 2002, the agreement required builder Tom Tucker […]
