Pat McCrory, ever the pragmatist, wanted to wait and see how the Supreme Court ruled on a key provision of the Affordable Care Act before deciding whether he supported expanding Medicaid in North Carolina. In June, SCOTUS upheld the provision. So where does the governor stand? “It’s a very complex issue,” McCrory said after the […]
David Hudnall
Posted inHousing
Chapel Hill passes on potential parkland to let a developer do his thing
Luxury apartment developers are not, generally speaking, deserving of the public’s pity. Still, it was tough not to feel just a tiny bit bad for Scott Underwood last Wednesday evening. Underwood’s firm, Woodfield Investments, is under contract to purchase, for $10 million, 36 acres of land just east of Fordham Boulevard and Ephesus Church Road […]
Posted inNews
Lost cause: “Confederate Memorial” lettering officially removed from Hillsborough history museum
Last May, Orange County Historical Museum leaders asked the town of Hillsborough—which owns the museum—to remove the words “Confederate Memorial” from the building’s portico. They felt the signage was discouraging people from entering the building, which is not a memorial to the Confederacy but rather a monument to the history of Orange County. But it […]
Posted inUncategorized
Who killed the Durham-Orange County light-rail project?
On Sept. 18, Triangle residents awoke to news that the long-planned, 17-mile light-rail project connecting Durham and Orange counties was effectively dead. Worse, nobody knew who killed it. Things had been chugging along nicely for light rail. The financing planwhich called for 25 percent from the counties, 25 percent from the state and 50 percent […]
Posted inBusiness & Economy, News
What’s the holdup on the 27-story high-rise in downtown Durham?
There’s a giant hole in the ground at the southeast corner of West Parrish and Corcoran Streets in downtown Durham. We would know: It’s literally what we see when we look out the INDY office windows. At some point, we’re told, a 27-story high-rise tower is going to fill in that hole. One City Center, […]
Posted inNews
Civitas Institute press release about the importance of education absolutely riddled with grammatical errors
Civitas Institute is a Raleigh-based conservative think tank that advocates for all the usual conservative causes — and then some! As the INDY has pointed out, Civitas has rather broad—one might say paranoid—views regarding what constitutes liberalism. For example, Civitas’s website, Mapping the Left, identifies the AARP as “one of the most powerful liberal lobbying […]
Posted inBusiness & Economy, News
Shipt, an Uber-like grocery-delivery service, launches in the Triangle next week
“Like Uber but for ______” is essentially a meme at this point. Still, it’s the most efficient way to describe what Shipt does: The company’s mobile app connects people who don’t want to go to the grocery store with “shoppers” who buy them groceries and deliver them to their home. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, in […]
Posted inNews
Durham County cracks down on e-cigarettes
Another new law for the New Year: Vapes are now the same as cigs in the eyes of Durham County law enforcement. That means no more e-cigarettes on city or county property, including parks and trails and within a 100-foot radius of bus stops. Bars and restaurants can still decide for themselves whether they want […]
Posted inUncategorized
What good are Durham Police Department body cameras if the public can’t see what’s on them?
In theory, Durham police officers wearing body cameras is good for everybody. For citizens distrustful of the Durham Police Department—a not-unreasonable point of view, given that Chief Jose Lopez was just run out of town due, in part, to accusations of racial profiling in the department—body cams offer a degree of protection against police misconduct. […]
Posted inNews
DEQ lets Duke Energy off the hook for coal ash
The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality had a big assignment due on New Year’s Eve. It had 16 months to work on it, but still turned its homework in at the very last minutearound noon on Dec. 31. Whether DEQ’s timing had anything to do with the fact that New Year’s Eve is a fantastic […]
