They never saw themselves as underdogs, though Raleigh’s whites saw them that way. When the all-black John W. Ligon High School opened its doors in Southeast Raleigh for the 1953-54 school year, Leonard Hunter and Chuck Davis were leaders of its inaugural junior class, Hunter as class president, Davis as an all-state singer. Best friends, […]
Bob Geary
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The lie behind the shrinking labor force
Bless his heart, Gov. Pat McCrory can’t understand what’s happening to our economy. On Friday, he pronounced himself pleased that the state’s unemployment rate in February dropped to 6.4 percent because “more and more people are getting back to work.” The same day, a Wall Street Journal story was headlined: “North Carolina Had More Job […]
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A movement emerges against the Duke Energy-Progress monopoly
Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Two years ago, when Duke Energy merged with Progress Energyswallowed it, actuallyyou’d have been hard-pressed to find a public figure brave enough to question the giant utility monopoly that bestrode North Carolina. Or who called the merger a mistake. What could possibly be wrong with one company supplying the […]
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The REAL ID Act’s costly implications for North Carolina Latino communities
Ana Gonzalez greets me at her home in southern Wake County with a warm smile and a wish that what I write might help her. Gonzalez, a native of Mexico, has lived in the United States for 19 years. “Half my life,” she says. And for 19 years, she was a legally licensed driver. Now […]
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Will Raleigh follow its plan in mediating neighborhood zoning fights?
Back in the bad old days, these things could get ugly. I mean eye-gouging, knees-to-the-groin ugly and unfair. One side, green as grass, would play by the rules. The other, veterans in the ring, would break the rulesbut sometimes, the refs didn’t seem to care! You know what I’m talking about: Rezoning fights in Raleigh […]
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Kentucky Attorney General is 7th who won’t defend his state’s same-sex marriage ban
Democrat Jack Conway, Kentucky’s elected attorney general and a prospective candidate for governor next year, tells Talking Points Memo why he cannot defend his state’s law banning recognition of same-sex marriages: He said he came around “over the last few years” after conversations with friends in the gay community, and after thinking about how his […]
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Kay Hagan should lead with her ideals, not her pragmatism
Last week, when I wrote unfavorably about state Democratic Party Chairman Randy Voller, I mentioned that he was working at cross-purposes with U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat whose re-election in 2014 is of critical importance for a Democratic majority in the Senate. This prompted Jim Senter, a progressive Democrat and former Person County party […]
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Party chairman Randy Voller’s latest ruckus should be his last
Enough. After a stormy year as state Democratic Party chair, Randy Voller should step down for the sake of his party’s candidates and North Carolina. I say this knowing that he won’t, because Voller sees himself as a visionary leaderbut he can’t see that he’s hurting Democratic prospects for 2014. When he was mayor of […]
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Oregon’s AG is 6th, so far, who refuses to defend state’s same-sex marriage ban
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum: “Because we cannot identify a valid reason for the state to prevent the couples who have filed these lawsuits from marrying in Oregon, we find ourselves unable to stand before [U.S. District Court] Judge [Michael] McShane to defend the state’s prohibition against marriages between two men or two women.” Oregon’s […]
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DENR, Duke, McCrory, and the Web of “Customer Service”
U. S. Attorney David Walker has opened a criminal investigation into how the state dealt with Duke Energy’s coal-ash pits, reports the Associated Press. Grand jury subpoenas from Walker’s office in Raleigh have demanded records and emails from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Duke Energy related to DENR’s actions on the […]