Yesterday, the Trump administration dealt a blow to LGTBQ students and advocates across the country, rescinding Obama-era guidelines for protecting transgender students in public schools. The announcement, which came in a letter (see below) from Department of Justice and the Department of Education officials, said that the administration is withdrawing guidance put forward by the […]
Erica Hellerstein
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A Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Just Filed a New HB2 Repeal. What’s Next?
Well, here we go again. This afternoon, a group of lawmakers introduced a new bill to repeal HB2 to a swift round of criticism, including from Governor Roy Cooper. One thing to know about the latest attempt at reconciliation, HB 186, is that it’s actually a bipartisan effort. The bill was sponsored by two Republicans, […]
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If Trump Drops DACA, Will Triangle Universities Protect Student Dreamers?
In 2012, when Oscar Ivan Santoyo Apolonio heard that President Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, he was hopefulbut nervous. Apolonio, then a high school student, was undocumented; he came to the Triangle with his parents when he was four years old from Michoacán, Mexico. He knew that DACA, which grants temporary […]
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Felipe Molina Mendoza’s Story Shows How Arbitrary America’s Immigration System Can Be—And It’s Only Going to Get Worse
Felipe Molina Mendoza is trying to maintain his composure. It’s an unseasonably warm Tuesday evening in February, and dozens of people are crowded into the pews of Durham’s Monument of Faith Church. Molina Mendoza, wearing jeans and a crisp plum-colored dress shirt, stands behind a mahogany lectern. Nearby, his boyfriend Francisco, in the same jeans-and-plum-shirt […]
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Judges Block Senate Hearings for Cooper Cabinet Members, Drawing the Ire of Republican Leaders
Last night, a panel of judges handed a rare victory to Democratic Governor Roy Cooper, temporarily blocking the Senate from holding hearings to confirm his cabinet nominees—part of a series of provisions enacted at the end of the year limiting the incoming governor’s power. The temporary order postponed a hearing today on Cooper’s appointee for […]
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The Triangle’s Refugee Advocates Breathe a Sigh of Relief After Trump’s Order Is Halted
On January 27, Donald Trump signed the executive order heard ’round the world, causing pandemonium at airports nationwide and beyond. The deeply unpopular orderif polls are to be believed, which, according to the president, they are notdrove a stake through the heart of the American mythology on immigration, suspending refugee entry for 120 days, barring […]
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Senate Democrats File Bill to Fully Repeal HB 2
Senate Democrats filed a bill this afternoon to fully repeal HB 2, making good on vows to prioritize repealing the deeply unpopular and divisive bill this legislative session. “It’s obvious we need to repeal HB 2,” said Senator Jeff Jackson (D-Mecklenburg), one of the bill’s three Democratic sponsors. “If we do it will be the […]
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Reversing Self, The Civitas Institute Says North Carolina Does Not Need Nonpartisan Redistricting
On Wednesday, the conservative Civitas Institute published an article denouncing efforts to establish a nonpartisan redistricting commission—instead of letting self-interested lawmakers pick their own voters, as currently happens—as a “fantasy” pushed by leftists. The article, echoing comments from state Representative David Lewis, R-Harnett, argues that partisanship is baked into the very cake of redistricting and […]
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The Resistance, Day Two: The Women’s March on Raleigh Brings 17,000 Downtown
There was a moment during Saturday’s Women’s March on Raleigh when everything seemed to fall into place. Carly Jones, one of the rally’s organizers, climbed on the stage in a bright green jacket, short brown curls bobbing as she maneuvered her way to the microphone. Beaming, she told the crowd that as many as five […]
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N.C. Politician Says N.C. Politicians Should Be Protected from the Subversive Act of Public Disagreement
Forget millennials. It’s politiciansor, at least, some of themwho are really the fragile snowflakes. Take, for example, state Senator Dan Bishop, R-Mecklenburg. He wants to introduce legislation that would protect state officials from potentially hostile constituents, making it a crime, punishable by up to five years behind bars, to “threaten, intimidate, or retaliate against a […]