Imagine squeezing by on $2,000 a month. Now take out $600. You’d be living on less than $17,000 a year. North Carolina’s jobless could face deep cuts to unemployment benefits if a Republican plan passes the N.C. General Assembly in the upcoming legislative session. Unveiled during a Dec. 5 meeting of the Revenue Laws Study […]
Billy Ball
Bio: Billy Ball is an INDY Week staff writer.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/billy_k_ball
Posted inNews
Fracking board chair promises “substantive” meeting next week
Thus far, the N.C. Mining and Energy Commission’s meetings have been primarily organizational in nature, with members debating such things as pre-meeting prayers and committee assignments. But commission Chair Jim Womack told members of the N.C. General Assembly’s Environmental Review Commission Thursday morning that the group expects its first “substantive” discussion of fracking regulations next […]
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Latino? Bypass Alamance County
It’s still not safe to drive while brown in Alamance County, where sheriff’s deputies continue to stop Latinos at a higher rate than non-Latinos. This is despite a U.S. Department of Justice report issued in September alleging the sheriff’s office racially profiles Latinos. September and October reports to the N.C. Department of Justice show Latino […]
Posted inNews
Latino arrest rate still high in Alamance
If the Sept. 18 U.S. Department of Justice allegations of racial profiling have had any impact on the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, it doesn’t show in recent traffic stop data. September and October reports to the N.C. Department of Justice show Latino drivers were more than four times as likely as non-Latinos to be arrested […]
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Love it, hate it: Will Carrboro landmark Johnny’s survive?
Both his shirt pockets bulge with cigarette packs, but Johnny Howard smells like a Christmas tree. Howard has been here all morning, peddling Fraser firs at the market named for him on West Main Street, a mile from downtown Carrboro. Locals say the holiday tree business is good this year. That’s about all the cheerful […]
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When an owner and a bank abandon a house, an entire Durham neighborhood suffers
A squatter with a taste for cigars and the books of fantasy writer Marion Zimmer Bradley has made a ramshackle back stoop into a temporary home, including a makeshift bed of couch cushions. At 212 E. Geer St. on Durham’s North Side, the weedy dirt yard is littered with broken glass and rusting tools. Missing […]
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Deportations dropped in Alamance County, but how many?
Immigration court observers say government prosecutors continue to drop deportation cases in troubled Alamance County, but federal customs officials say they cannot count how many. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says the agency, charged with enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, does not track the number of cases voluntarily dismissed by prosecutors. […]
Posted inElections
Despite election of all-female delegations in Orange and Chatham, women still a minority in N.C. legislature
For the first timea historic first, in factOrange County is sending an all-female delegation to the N.C. General Assembly. As Orange Democrats celebrate the Election Day victories of Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, Rep. Verla Insko and Rep.-elect Valerie Foushee, it’s the same story in rural Chatham County, which will be represented in Raleigh by Kinnaird and […]
Posted inElections
What went wrong for North Carolina’s Democrats?
On Election Day, Pat McCrory is coasting, and not just on money, although he’s fine on that count, too. The Republican gubernatorial candidate has roughly six times more cash than his Democratic counterpart, Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, whose defeat has seemed pre-ordained since he announced his candidacy. And the seven-to-19-point polling lead McCrory has enjoyed […]
Posted inNews
What life is like in solitary confinement at North Carolina’s Central Prison
An excerpt from Central Prison inmate Chris McBride’s letter to Indy Week, dated July 4, 2012: “Solitary confinement is hell. I agree with the publicit is a form of torture. It is a tiny cell about 6 feet by 8 feet. It has a steel toilet, with a sink built in the top. There is […]