I’m standing outside the state Capitol, attemptingto ascertain what’s on the minds of Franklin Graham’s disciples as we approach Election Day, when an old man wearing a cowboy hat lets me know who’s in charge. He calls me a “fucking sodomite” and tells me he hopes I“burn in the fires of hell.” But wait. I’m […]
Ken Fine
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N.C. Republicans Disgusted By Trump, Will Vote for Him Anyway
October surprise / äkˈtōbər sə(r)ˈprīz/ noun any political event orchestrated (or apparently orchestrated) in the month before an election, in the hopes of affecting the outcome. October shit show / äkˈtōbər SHit·shō / noun a video leaked to the Washington Post that reveals a presidential candidate talking about attempting to have sex with married women […]
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In North Carolina’s Absentee Ballot Data, Good News for Democrats
Polls may lie, but raw data doesn’t. And judging by absentee ballot requests in North Carolina a month from Election Day, the numbers look very good for Democratseven better than a series of recent surveys showing a slight Hillary Clinton lead (and Governor McCrory getting his ass handed to him). At a minimum, you get […]
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Federal Judge Protects Red Wolves, Blasts U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Don’t shoot. Don’t even touch. That was the message delivered last week by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle, as he ordered a temporary injunction that both restricts the federal government’s ability to remove endangered red wolves from private property and prohibits landowners from shooting members of the species. Boyle’s rulingwhich also included scathing criticism of […]
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The Morning Roundup: Trump Says Veterans Who Take Their Own Lives ‘Can’t Handle It’ … For Real
Good morning, one and all. If for some reason you endured a media blackout yesterday, consider yourself lucky. Sharing this stuff with you makes me jealous—like when my wife binge watched the first two seasons of “Game of Thrones” after I had already experienced the carnage.1) Donald Trump kind of says military suicides are a […]
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Charlotte Rising: The Night I Got Pepper-Sprayed in the Queen City
It was right about the moment two protesters lifted me over the concrete barrier guarding Interstate 277 that I realized just how screwed we were. There were hundreds of people staging a sit-in, blocking traffic in both directions. A few dozen more were shouting down from the overpass and throwing debris at the police lining […]
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Durham Wants to Deprioritize Marijuana Enforcement. What’s Raleigh Doing?
In light of a unanimous Thursday afternoonvote by the Durham City Council authorizingthe city manager to work with the Durham Police Department to figure out how tohave police issue citations and warnings forlow-level marijuana offenses in lieu of makingarrests—nice work, Durham, for real—wereached out to Raleigh officials to see if the state capital might take […]
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The Morning Roundup: Debate Goes Clinton’s Way … Big Time
Good morning everyone. So, I had this weird dream that there was a presidential debate last night, but that one of the candidates for the most important job in the world just sniffled a lot and answered every question with bizarre rants and lies instead of, you know, plans. Weird. What? That actually happened? God […]
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A Dispatch from the Transgender Closet in McCrory’s North Carolina
She finds it curious but fittinghow the light that sneaks through the shutters guarding her bedroom windows creeps across the dresses and blouses hanging inside a closet without a door, as the sun sets behind her newly purchased house on a tract of land “in the middle of nowhere” between Raleigh and Durham. For Grace […]
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The Morning Roundup: Donald Trump Jr. Tastes the Rainbow and a Poll That Makes You Go Hmmm
Good morning, everybody. Let’s get going.1) Donald Trump Jr. hates Skittles … and refugees. Remember when you were a kid and people warned you to stay away from red M&Ms? Well, Donald Trump Jr. apparently didn’t understand the difference between fact and urban legend. Or maybe, this explains more than we think. I mean, we […]