There are two ways to look at the short life and quick death of Raleigh’s outdoor-drinking crackdown. The first is that the proposalwhich would have blocked sidewalk permits for establishments that don’t derive a significant portion of their revenues from foodwas hastily drafted by an assistant city attorney at the behest of irate downtown condo-dwellers, […]
Jeffrey C. Billman
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N.C.’s homophobic lawmakers override veto on same-sex marriage law
Oh hey, homo-haters. Congratulations! You did a big thing last week, getting the General Assembly to override Gov. Pat McCrory’s veto of Senate Bill 2. (The House muscled through its override by making sure a bunch of Democrats weren’t around when they voted, NBD. The Senate, always a festering boil of wingnuttery, had no such […]
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Greg Hatem’s haters take to Facebook to protest Raleigh’s proposed outdoor drinking ordinance
So by now you’ve probably heard about the city of Raleigh’s brilliant and not-at-all-ham-fisted plan (endorsed by the wagging fingers of The News & Observer‘s editorial board) to crack down on the scourge of outdoor drinking, by prohibiting some barsthe ones that sell no or little foodfrom allowing people to drink on public sidewalks outside […]
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Raleigh public safety committee punts on outdoor drinking ordinance, kills most odious provision
This afternoon, the Raleigh City Council’s Public Safety Committee held a hearing on the contentious ordinance that would prohibit some bars—the ones that serve no or little food—from having patios on public sidewalks. The ordinance wouldn’t have affected a lot of bars—a document tweeted by N&O reporter Andrew Kinney (see below) showed seven that have […]
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North Carolina’s solar industry is booming. So why are state Republicans threatening to strangle it?
In the short term, the uncertainty on Jones Street has been good for business. Actually, great for business: More than Steve Nicolas’ 18-employee company, NC Solar Now, can handle, in fact. Since 2010, Nicolas, a Londoner who moved to North Carolina in the early ’80s to work for a tobacco-leaf distributor in Wilson”The opposite of […]
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Raleigh City Council weighs a no dancing provision for some bars
The Raleigh City Council found itself in a bit of a quandary recently. Not the kind of quandary that arouses the passions of hundreds of loud people who cram into Council chambers, but a quandary nonetheless: how to let bars into some neighborhoods without letting those bars take over the neighborhood. As it turns out, […]
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Family of slain inmate sues Wake County
A telling detail about Shon Demetrius McClain’s death at the hands of a Wake County Detention Center officer is the videovivid, unambiguous videoshowing exactly what transpired on that day in June 2013. There’s none of the murkiness that usually surrounds the killings of young, black men by law enforcement, no questions about the veracity of […]
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Use this handy graphic to navigate Raleigh’s budget
Don’t know what to make of Raleigh’s proposed budget? We’re here to help. We waded through 189 pages of numbers so you don’t have to. (And then we drank. A lot.) In a lengthy presentation to the City Council last week, Raleigh city manager Ruffin L. Hall laid out his vision for the year’s budget. […]
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How much will this dumb jail guard cost Wake taxpayers?
Above is video from the Wake County Detention Center in 2012, which went viral after prosecutors charged the guard who is doing the body-slamming, Markeith Council, with killing Shon D. McClain, a 5-foot-6, 145-pound inmate in jail awaiting trial on misdemeanor charges of drinking in public and failing to appear in court. (The estate is […]
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North Carolina sues FCC over municipal broadband
The lawsuittechnically, a “petition for review”the state of North Carolina filed in federal court last week is, for a case rooted in weighty constitutional matters, fairly short, just two-and-a-half pages. The argument is straightforward enough: The Federal Communications Commission overstepped its constitutional bounds earlier this year when it preempted a state law that prevented municipalities […]
