The controversy over district voting fractured Chatham County by ideology and geography, politics and race. After more than a year of sniping, some of it voiced on the county’s populist online venue, the Chatham Chatlist, the referendum to replace at-large voting with a district system was defeated by a 54-45 margin. “I guess you guys […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
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An index of toxic emissions in Wake County
It was only when the Environmental Quality storage facility exploded last month that many Apex residents discovered they were living near a dangerous place. Yet, pollution and hazardous waste can be found throughout the Triangle, the state and the nationoften near schools, parks and neighborhoods. In the wake of the EQ fire, this week the […]
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Jonathan Alter speaks at UNC, compares Bush to FDR
On Nov. 7, 2000, I went to bed nauseous, despondent and jittery. On Nov. 8, I woke up feeling worse. A butterfly ballot had flapped its wings in the Sunshine State and blown Al Gore out of the water. By Dec. 12, when the U.S. Supreme Court had installed George W. Bush as president of […]
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Fault lines
Article navigation: Orange | Chatham | Referendum divides black community Orange County citizens will decide whether to combine district voting with their current at-large system and add two commissioners to the board. If the measure passes, the effect will be largely symbolic. Rural constituents will gain additional representation without really denting the established power–and population–base […]
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Duke Energy pays lip service to efficiency
On the morning of Sept. 12, a headline blared from the front page of The News & Observer: “Gases heat seas, stoke storms, scientists say.” The story, one of hundreds of media reports this year about the perils of global warming, explained that greenhouse gases are heating ocean surfaces where hurricanes form. Coincidentally, Sept. 12 […]
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Black on Franklin Street
People pay a lot of money to hear comedian Lewis Black spew the word “fuck” with his unique gusto. But if you’re strolling down Franklin Street at just the right moment sometime soon, you may get a free show. Black, a Daily Show and HBO favorite famous for his jittery gesticulations and splenetic sputterings on […]
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Free movies or felonious activity?
A grand jury indicted him. The Durham Housing Authority revoked his Section 8 voucher. And last Tuesday, Larry Partée was at the magistrate’s office, fighting his pending eviction from Preiss-Steele Place, an affordable housing complex. And despite a magistrate’s ruling in his favor–and Durham Assistant District Attorney Doretta Walker characterizing him as “small potatoes”–the Durham […]
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NCDOT silent on development, residents not
The musty smell of fertilizer hangs in the air at Pope’s Tru Value Hardware in Cole Park Plaza, where shelves are packed with everything from sledgehammers to saws to fuses. For more than 20 years, Tommy Pope has owned this Chatham County store, which has withstood being sandwiched between two Lowe’s, one eight miles north, […]
