“Like schoolyard bullies, the Senate budget writers chose to pick on those least able to defend themselves: the poor and disabled.” So says Beth Melcher, government relations director for the state chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. “The Senate budget is a scandal,” says Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the Common […]
Bob Geary
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Making Do
Most nights, upward of 300 men stay at the South Wilmington Street Center in Raleigh, a big old warehouse of a homeless shelter. One night, they had 407. That’s too many, way too many. It’s depressing, but it beats nowhere to stay at all, and for most of the men, that’s the alternative. There’s no […]
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Her Honor
Isabella Cannon will be 97 years old this Saturday, the day before Mother’s Day. When she said that the other day, after an event at City Hall with some former Raleigh officials, it reminded me that I was long overdue in writing about why–when I think about the best people I’ve met in public life–Mayor […]
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Ex-Offenders Do Vote in N.C.
In North Carolina, convicted felons lose their right to vote once a final sentence is entered against them. They regain voting rights when the sentence is completed–including any probation time–and all fines have been paid, according to Michelle Mrozkowski, assistant director of the State Board of Elections. That means someone convicted of a felony, but […]
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Spring Ahead
In elections, as in geography, North Carolina is located between Maine and Florida. We know now, thanks to Bush vs. Gore, that Florida is election hell. We’re not Florida, thank heavens. But we’re not as heavenly as Maine either. What Maine has that North Carolina doesn’t is a “clean-elections” law passed by the voters in […]
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Wasting Away
A decade ago, North Carolina set a goal: By 2001, reduce the amount of stuff we throw into landfills–the “waste stream,” as you may have heard it called–by 40 percent. How’re we doing? In a word, terrible. Not only are we not down by 40 percent, we’re up. Worse, after a few years of fits […]
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No need to rush
Ira Shorr is a funny guy. The character he plays, arch-conservative Sen. Jess Tressme, is running for president in 2004, and promises to build more stealth weapons, “because only with weapons you can’t see can you defeat enemies that don’t exist.” But Shorr’s new campaign, called Back From the Brink, is as serious as it […]
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Backyard Boosters
“The fact is,” says Paul Boudreau, the man formerly known to Raleigh neighborhood activists as “Bulldog Boudreau” for his willingness to battle big-box developers, “Ninety-eight percent of the people don’t know there even is such a thing as a CAC.” Which has got to hurt your feelings if you believe strongly, as Boudreau does, in […]
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Dissension in the House
There are two ways to keep a state lottery from starting in North Carolina, if that’s your bent. One is to launch a massive public relations campaign to defeat it once the General Assembly votes to put it on the ballot–the May 2002 primary elections ballot is likeliest, we’re told. That’s the expensive, time-consuming way, […]
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Pushed Aside
Cindy Crouse-Martin didn’t set out to be a crusader. When she was named executive director of the Governor’s Advocacy Council for Persons With Disabilities (GACPD) eight years ago, she thought she’d be a kind of poster child for the agency since she uses a wheelchair, the result of childhood polio. That was fine with her. […]