Two days after INDY Week called N.C. Department of Transportation about the Americans for Prosperity Foundation ice cream van, abandoned in the District Drive park-and-ride in Raleigh, the vehicle was gone. DOT spokesperson Jennifer Garifo said the agency called the owner in Missouri on Wednesday; on Thursday the van had been moved. The name of […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
This week in disappointment: Global warming, Skvarla still mum
The timing was perfect. On Monday, John Skvarla, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, again wobbled on the climate change question, telling a lunch crowd at the conservative John Locke Foundation: “It’s a disservice for me to have an opinion on global warming. I’m not a scientist.” On the same day […]
The scoop on the vagrant van
Since at least June, an Americans for Prosperity Foundation ice cream van with Missouri plates has sat in the overcrowded District Drive park-n-ride lot in Raleigh. Wrapped in red, white and blue, with images of the American flag, the foundation website and a quote from Ronald Reagan, the van is always parked in the same […]
Closing time
One of my favorite Tom Waits albums is Nighthawks at the Diner, which includes the song “Eggs and Sausage”: “Now the waitress calls eggs and sausage and a side of toast, coffee and a roll, hash browns, over easy …” I thought of this song when I visited Honey’s, the only 24-hour diner in Durham, […]
EPA unveiling new pesticide labels to help protect bees
Justin Cook This post has been updated to include a statement by the Pesticide Action Network. The Environmental Protection Agency announced today it is requiring new warning labels on a type of pesticide known as neonicotinoid, thought to be one cause of massive bee die-offs. As INDY Week reported last week, dozens of studies published […]
This week in disappointment: New education laws prompt teacher to leave North Carolina
The 2013 legislative session is over, and without the daily travesty to cover, This Week in Disappointment turns its attention to the on-the-ground impacts of the laws enacted over the past seven months. In education, lawmakers march toward privatizing schools: ending salary increases for many teachers with a master’s degree; no longer requiring charter schools […]
Thom Tillis’ curious fundraising for U.S. Senate (h/t Carolina Mercury)
Tsk, tsk, Thom. The Carolina Mercury‘s Kirk Ross posted a fascinating story about the fundraising habits of House Speaker Thom Tillis, who is courting donors for 2014 U.S. Senate campaign. As Ross notes, state lawmakers can’t accept contributions for their state offices during a legislative session but they can raise money for federal offices, which […]
Biker Bar NC in Durham launches this fall
Pub crawls, food tours, a rolling party, a night of gallivanting: Downtown restaurateurs and entrepreneurs Seth Gross and Martha Philpott King are launching Biker Bar NC, a 14-seat human-powered bicycle with riders facing one another around a center bar area while a bike captain steers, brakes and provides a guided tour along your route. The […]
Some facts about guns and airports
What not to say at the airport “There are two pounds of C-4 in there, be careful …” a passenger joking while checking bags at the Lubbock, Texas, airport. He was arrested and the airport was closed for two hours. 33 guns were seized at all U.S. airports, July 19–25 24 were loaded 8 were […]

