Last night, at the city of Raleigh’s eighth-annual Environmental Awards at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, the city doled out awards to, according to the city’s press release, “those individuals and organizations committed to preserving and improving the environment.” And so the Chavis Conservation Public Leadership Group won the Raleigh Environmental Stewardship Award for […]
Jeffrey C. Billman
Posted inNews
Senate Republicans kneel before the Magic Tax Cut Fairy, are wrong
As I noted yesterday in this space, It is a fundamental principle of supply-side economics that tax cuts basically pay for themselves—that is to say, whatever losses the state would incur will be offset by the improving economy those tax cuts spur, which will lead to the state bringing in at least as much if […]
Posted inNews
What’s the matter with Kansas? (Everything. And that matters here.)
Earlier today on this here blog, Jane Porter noted that Volvo had joined a growing list of car manufacturers that did not want to locate a plant in North Carolina, despite the governor’s best attempts at seduction. Jane pointed out that Volvo comes from Sweden, which loves the gays, might have had a teensy-weensy problem […]
Posted inNews
Report: Downtown Raleigh is on fire (figuratively, relax)
Yesterday the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, the people tasked with making sure downtown continues on its trajectory toward being A Thing, released a progress report of sorts on the first three months of 2015. Call the source biased, perhaps, but damned if there isn’t a lot to love in there, especially if you’re a fan of […]
Posted inNews
The Supreme Court just spanked the NC GOP on racial gerrymandering
The order itself was short and to the point, included in a several-pages long list of denials and dispositions published by the U.S. Supreme Court this morning. It reads, in toto: 14-839 DICKSON, MARGARET, ET AL. V. RUCHO, ROBERT, ET AL. The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and […]
Posted inNews
Do me, Raleigh: WakeUP Wake’s City Livability Tour this Saturday
What are you doing Saturday afternoon? Oh, sure, you could mow the yard or go bike somewhere or get ’faced on high-gravity beers at Tasty or watch the new Star Wars trailer (squee!) or maybe this hilarious video of Pat McCrory failing at sitting down, on repeat. Those are all good options. Here’s another, probably […]
Posted inNews
Poll: 60 percent of North Carolinians say their taxes went up after the Legislature’s 2013 reform
If there’s one thing Republicans profess to hate, it’s taxes. Just two years ago, Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly passed a fundamental overhaul of the state’s tax system, eliminating the state’s longstanding progressive tax rate—meaning rich people pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes—and replacing it with a flat tax, reducing corporate […]
Posted inNews
Today in activism: Fight for 15 comes to Raleigh
Today, in cities all over the country, college students and workers from the fast-food and other low-paying industries are rallying under the banner of Fight for 15, a movement to raise the national minimum wage to $15 per hour, or about $31,200 a year for full-time work. (Here’s a serviceable-enough primer on the national Fight […]
Posted inUncategorized
Cheaters and cheapskates: Wake voters strike back, and light rail dies again.
So this was as predictable as sunrise: The Raleigh Wake Citizens Association and 14 Wake voters filed a federal lawsuit last week challenging the Wake County Commission redistricting bill rammed through the Legislature a few weeks ago by Sen. Chad Barefoot, R-Wake and Franklin, who looks like the kid you stuffed into a locker in […]
Posted inNews
Righteously indignant: (lots of) fear and (plenty of) loathing at the NC Council of Churches Legislative Seminar
This morning, in the mostly nondescript sanctuary of the Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary, under wood-panel ceilings and in stiff, unforgiving pews, a hundred or so people (I’m extraordinarily bad at estimating crowd counts)—mostly white, mostly older, though not exclusively—gathered for the opening service of the NC Council of Churches’ annual legislative seminar, a […]
