House Bill 893 arrived with little fanfare last week. The legislation, filed Thursday by three N.C. House freshmenRep. Rick Catlin, R-New Hanover; Rep. Dana Bumgardner, R-Gaston; and Rep. Chris Millis, R-Onslow, Penderhas been largely overshadowed by GOP education reforms. But some people are aware of HB 893’s implications. “We’ve got our eye on it,” says […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
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Better late than never for Rogers Road community center
It may have taken a few decades, but the landfill-blighted Rogers Road community in Chapel Hill is getting some recompense. Orange County commissioners unanimously approved a vote Tuesday night authorizing County Manager Frank Clifton to award a construction bid for no more than $650,000 to build a long-promised community center in the historically black, low-income […]
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Court case threatens Orange County’s successful recycling program
Once a week, workers at the popular Chapel Hill seafood restaurant Squid’s load 25 to 45 bushels of used oyster shells into a pickup truck. From there, they drive the crustaceans roughly six miles, depositing them in a growing, shock-white pile near the entrance of the Orange County landfill off Eubanks Road. Every few months, […]
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In Orange County, trash gets its day
The future of Orange County’s celebrated recycling program is before county commissioners tonight. County commissioners will consider a number of proposals—including the widely-reviled prospect of privatization—when they meet at 7 p.m. in Hillsborough. Expect a full story on the recycling program and its funding challenges in Wednesday’s print edition of INDY Week, but in the […]
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Rachel Maddow calls N.C. GOP “amazeballs”
For the liberals out there: Rachel Maddow—the oh-so-sharp host of MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show”—has heard your cries. On Thursday’s show, Maddow panned the ominously-numbered Senate Bill 666, a measure that—for all intents and purposes—appears geared to curb North Carolina’s college vote. In case you don’t remember, college students made up a key demographic in North […]
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McCrory’s Medicaid plan doesn’t fix what’s broken
Gov. Pat McCrory’s budget, all 344 pages of it, was released last Wednesday, but health care advocates say the battle for the state’s poorest residents was lost three weeks ago. That’s when McCrory approved GOP legislation denying Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, an expansion thatbased on the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, as […]
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Cat’s Cradle to open back bar
Carrboro is growing; so shall the Cat’s Cradle. Cradle owner Frank Heath has begun work on a small back bar for the longtime Carrboro venue that will serve Cradle overflow and non-concertgoers. Steve Balcom of The Splinter Group, which handles publicity work for the Cradle, confirmed the news Friday afternoon. According to Balcom, the freestanding […]
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North Carolina: No Medicaid dollars for undocumented mental health
Addendum: It seems that Cardinal Innovation’s approach on mental health care for the undocumented community is not unique. N.C. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Julie Henry notified INDY Week after its print deadline Tuesday that undocumented immigrants are only eligible for emergency service coverage under Medicaid rule, echoing the comments of Cardinal leaders […]
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Immigrants denied mental health services
Angelica Velazquillo’s fight for mental health care for undocumented immigrants began not in a hospital room but in a busy downtown Charlotte intersection. In September 2011, Velazquillo, then a 25-year-old undocumented woman brought to the U.S. when she was 4, joined nine protesters who blocked traffic, chanting “undocumented and unafraid.” Charlotte police arrested the group, […]
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When advocacy crosses the line: nonprofits, elections and the law
Between the slams on President Obama, Democratic U.S. Rep. David Price and Democratic-sponsored health care reform, Jessica Anderson, deputy political director for the D.C.-based, conservative group Heritage Action for America, managed to insert a disclaimer. “Heritage Action is a 501(c)(4), which means I’m allowed to say what I just said,” Anderson announced. “Don’t say that […]