Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire. —Thomas Merton In the mugshot of Craig Stephen Hicks, you can see his desire. Maybe not the specific impulse to shoot three Muslim students in the head, execution-style, as he did last week, but in […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
Posted inNews
New report documents more than 100 lynchings in North Carolina, several in Chatham County
“A colored man hanged in Chatham County. A revenue officer riding along the road, saw his body hanging and reported. His wife and children were sitting under the body moaning. Nothing was done about it.” This was the 1871 deposition of a North Carolina governor about the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in the […]
Posted inNews
Gov. Pat McCrory’s State of the State address, in a word cloud
This is a word cloud of Gov. Pat McCrory’s 1-hour and 23-minute State of the State address. In it, he mentioned the word “jobs” 18 times. (McCrory came out of the gate with multiple uses of the word “resilience,” leading us to briefly change the rules of our drinking game. Then “jobs” made a revival.) […]
Posted inNews
N.C. Division of Veterans Affairs receive ominous email tonight
Lawmakers were still clapping at 8:25 this evening, one minute after Gov. Pat McCrory had finished his State of the State address, when Division of Veterans Affairs employees received an ominous email from Bill Daughtridge, Secretary of Administration. [pdf-1] In the brief letter obtained by the INDY, Daughtridge warned employees of an “impending change” at […]
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U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis’ craptastic idea of personal hygiene
If you ever shake Thom Tillis’ hand, we suggest having sanitizer nearby. Tillis, the newly minted U.S. senator from North Carolina, has taken the bold stance that restaurants, not health departments should require restaurant workers to wash their hands after using the bathroom. Getting health departments involved in such personal decisions as to whether to […]
Posted inNews
Google Fiber and an FCC decision could give more people cheaper access to the Internet
The bad news about Google Fiber coming to seven cities in the Triangle is that the high-speed Internet service won’t be installed in your neighborhood by the next season of House of Cards. The good news is that Google Fiber says it will seek out traditionally underserved communitieslow-income, minority, non-English speaking areas, where some residents […]
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Durham Main Library: Renovation could re-energize northeast downtown
Where is the front door? If this is your first trip to the Durham Main Library, that’s likely your first question. And it’s not a minor one. As it stands, the downtown library, built in 1980, feels like a suburban home where the front door is merely symbolic, and everyone uses the side door off […]
Posted inSoapboxer
Demolition of the Green Wall in Durham, Day 2
Yesterday the bricks and paint and asbestos started falling, flaking and flying as demolition began on the Green Wall in downtown Durham. By the end of the day, one of the fish was losing its tail. I circled to the storefront facing Main Street because I knew an old upright piano had been stored in […]
Posted inSoapboxer
In downtown Durham, the Green Wall is tumbling down
We knew it was time when the Bobcats and steam shovels and Rent-a-Fence arrived. The dismantling of the Green Wall and the de facto green lawn at Main and Corcoran streets began in earnest today. Workers wearing white haz mat gear are spraying water on the site to keep down the dust (and mold and […]