Updated: S2 passed the full Senate Wednesday morning in a 32-16 vote. Republican Sens. Jeff Tarte and John Alexander of Raleigh voted against the bill. It will go to the House. Members of the state Senate Judiciary II passed a bill Tuesday which allows court magistrates to opt out of performing marriages by stating a […]
Jane Porter
Jane Porter is Wake County editor of the INDY, covering Raleigh and other communities across Wake County. She first joined the staff in 2013 and is a former INDY intern, staff writer, and editor-in-chief, first joining the staff in 2013.
Posted inGuides
Advocating for the wrongfully convicted
In a datebook in her bag, Christine Mumma carries a list of the names of North Carolina inmates she believes are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of. Joseph Sledge was on the list. He spent four decades in prison for a double murder he didn’t commit. Mumma worked on Sledge’s case for 10 […]
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Raleigh’s Law and Public Safety Committee takes up AirBnB
Council members heard from an AirBnB representative Tuesday afternoon, as well as from residents who host guests on the short term online rental service and from the owner of the Oakwood Inn who says her business is being threatened. City planning and zoning administrator Travis Crane first gave the committee an update on the status […]
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Raleigh Christian school gets the most public money through school voucher program
Raleigh’s Word of God Christian Academy has received $180,600 in public money through the state’s voucher program. According to public records obtained by left-leaning NC Policy Watch, five schools in the state received more than $100,000 in taxpayer dollars diverted through the voucher program; all are religious schools. The state has paid out more than […]
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Wake County study: 25 percent of homeless children need mental health services
Researchers at N.C. State University and Project CATCH, a Wake County partnership that targets child homelessness, have found that a quarter of all homeless children in Wake County need mental health services. Dr. Mary Haskett, a psychology professor at N.C. State and the author of the research paper, says homeless children often have been exposed […]
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An architecture professor remembers the promise of Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha
Before Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha was killed on Feb. 10, she had an epiphany in her architecture class. The youngest victim of the shooting, 19-year-old Razan was a first-year student in N.C. State’s College of Design, studying architecture. Christian Karkow, an artist and designer who runs Raleigh Brightwork, taught Razan in his rigorous Fundamentals of Architecture […]
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Tell Raleigh leaders how you feel about AirBnB
Raleigh’s Law and Public Safety Committee meets next week and AirBnB is on the agenda. Jeff Tippett of Raleigh advertising agency Targeted Persuasion has created a flash poll at his website, targetedpersuasion.com, to survey Raleigh residents’ concerns about regulating the short term online rental service, including equitable taxation, safety, parking and insurance issues. The results […]
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This week in the N.C. General Assembly
The House is gearing up to roll out an economic development package next week, while the Senate was busy voting on (and passing!) a tax hike on middle class families. Here are a few of the bills lawmakers in the General Assembly filed this week. Senate Bill 49 Moore County Republican Sen. Jerry Tillman’s bill […]
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How local law enforcement spies on citizens
More than 70 North Carolina law enforcement agencies are using automatic license plate readers, cell phone location trackers and surveillance cameras to keep an eye, and a mass of data, on ordinary citizens. And soon, they could add unmanned drones to that list. Through a series of public records requests, the ACLU of North Carolina […]
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Wake Transit holding public meetings on transit choices
At Cameron Village library Tuesday, representatives from the Wake County Planning Department presented early work from the County’s 78-member Transit Advisory Committee, and encouraged attendees to respond to their findings. Since the December kickoff presentation to elected officials, decision makers and interested residents, the Committee—consisting of members from all the Wake municipalities, as well as […]