Like a prizefighter exiting his corner, hot dog vendor Freddie Rodriguez strutted away from his cart and approached his opponent. For several weeks, Freddie had feuded with fellow vendor Josh “Zeus” Pfohl, whose cart occupies the same street corner in front of the Durham County Courthouse. Now the tiny piece of concrete has become a […]
John H. Tucker
Bio: John H. Tucker is a staff writer for INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/JH_Tucker
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The case of the trooper’s missing hat, now in N.C. appellate court
Inside the internal affairs interview room, a 22-year-old North Carolina state trooper was crying. Weeks beforehand, he had lost his department-issued hat. Now the top brass was suspicious about the circumstances surrounding its disappearance, and they wanted answers. The hat in question is a flat-rimmed, Smokey-the-Bear-style headpiece, often called a “campaign cover” because of its […]
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Coin dealer flips the game on counterfeiter
The coin shop owner couldn’t control his trembling hands, so hid them behind the counter. His mouth had grown parched; his stomach, queasy. The customer seemed as relaxed as a pocket of jingling change. He was the size of a lineman, with a trim goatee and sunglasses atop his head. On Friday, Aug. 30, he […]
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Durham citizens air policing grievances before Human Relations Commission
Approximately 100 Durham citizens gathered Tuesday evening at City Hall to voice concerns about racial disparities in police stops, car searches, frisks and misdemeanor drug charges. The public forum was held before the Durham Human Relations Commission at the request of Mayor Bill Bell. More than 15 citizens, activists and ministers addressed the 12-member panel […]
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Gay and lesbian couples sue for marriage equality and adoption rights in North Carolina
Download the lawsuit Six same-sex couples are suing the state of North Carolina and Durham and Guilford county court officials as they seek to overturn the state Supreme Court’s 2010 ban on second-parent adoptions and the state’s prohibition on gay marriage. They are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of North […]
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The brief life of Derek Walker
Last Thursday, before a wake that drew hundreds, before a funeral crowd spilled into the street, before a family grieved a beloved father, brother and son, begging questions about why a promising 26-year-old man’s life was suddenly stopped by a police bullet, Randy Blackwell embalmed his friend Derek Walker. Like Blackwell, Derek worked at Hanes […]
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Former baseball player and drug addict finds solace in rare rehab program
Sick from heroin withdrawal, Eric Graham would enter a big-box store and approach the DVD section. Hundreds of times over the past four years, he would search for new releases, boxed sets and Blu-Rays, piling multiple stacks across the shelves and loading his cart at the last minute. Sometimes he would drape a T-shirt on […]
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How Sanford and Cary police assisted in the largest bust of a gun-smuggling ring in NYC history
Sgt. Ray Bullard, an investigator with the Sanford Police Department’s narcotics division, sprinted across the trailer park as he chased the armed suspect toward a patch of Harnett County woods. It was the afternoon of Aug. 14 and Bullard had been on a 10-day hunt for the man, Chris Hill. A Sanford resident, Hill was […]
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Is Sidney Harr’s crusade for Crystal Mangum backfiring?
This past May, at the Junior League of Raleigh where a federal judge was delivering a speech on the importance of courts, an audience member wearing a T-shirt that read “Justice for Mike Nifong” raised his hand. He was a retired physician, he explained, worried about the integrity of the criminal justice system: “What I’m […]
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A former football player, Tony Braswell lives by one rule: Hair is hair
The man in the apron isn’t sure how to respond. He pauses, contemplating the question. He purses his lips, takes a couple of breaths, stares at the wall in front of his chair. It’s 10:30 in the morning, and the man had prepared for this moment, but still, he’s caught off guard by the wording […]