The Annie E. Casey Foundation released a report last month [“Reducing Youth Incarceration in the United States”] that showed the number of incarcerated youth is at a 35-year low. Nationwide, youth confinement peaked in 1995 and has declined since. The report notes that while incarceration rates decreased in the U.S., so did the number of […]
Lisa Sorg
Bio: Lisa Sorg is the editor of INDY Week.Email: [email protected]: http://twitter.com/lisasorg
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Strike down the discriminatory driver’s licenses
I’ve been stopped at a few police checkpoints in my day: Northern Ireland, the state of Chiapas in Mexico, Mississippiand Durham. Although in each case I was innocent of any vehicular wrongdoing, I still felt uneasy about handing my driver’s license to a police officer just because he wanted to see it. Now I’m trying […]
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Wake County fish consumption advisories
Fishing season opens in March for many public lakes and rivers, but before you throw your line in the water, check out the current fish consumption advisories. Several Wake County creeks and reservoirs are off-limits because of pollution from Ward Transformer, an 11-acre Superfund site and former manufacturing plant on Mount Herman Road in Raleigh. […]
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Bill would eliminate straight-party voting; new survey shows McCrory down, gay marriage up
A crooked ticket Enjoy checking off D, R or L when you vote? Too bad. Senate Bill 82 would eliminate the option of straight-party ticket voting in North Carolina. The bill is co-sponsored by two Republicans: Buck Newton, representing Johnston, Nash and Wilson counties, and Thom Goolsby of New Hanover County. Coincidentally (not), those senators […]
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McCrory eyes revenue from oil and gas drilling, counts chickens before they hatch
Has Gov. Pat McCrory been hypnotized by The Beverly Hillbillies? Specifically, the opening sequence in which Jed Clampett Is “shootin’ at some food” when, as the ballad goes, “up through the ground came a bubblin’ crude.” Oil, that is, black gold, “Texas Tea.” You might think McCrory has drunk the Texas Tea if you heard […]
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N.C. DOT—finally—agrees to issue driver’s licenses to qualified undocumented immigrants
Certain undocumented immigrants will be eligible for driver’s licenses and ID cards, according to a press release issued today by the N.C. Department of Transportation. The department will also reinstate driving privileges to 13 immigrants whose licenses were suspending pending the N.C. Attorney General’s opinion and the N.C. DOT review. The decision affects immigrants who […]
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Climate change is so real even the feds are afraid
Coastal military bases, federal crop insurance and federal disaster aid: These government programs are vulnerable to the effects of climate change—enough that the Government Accountability Office has placed the fed’s financial vulnerability to climate change-related weather events on a “high risk” list. A report released today cites observations by the United States Global Change Research […]
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When nipples are outlawed, only outlaws will have nipples
On Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. in Room 415 of the Legislative Office Building, state lawmakers will tackle a pressing, if not urgent, issue: No, not the rollback of unemployment insurance benefits and Medicaid, not the dismantling of public education and oversight commissions. And not guns. They want to clarify the indecent exposure law to […]
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Some facts about exonerations
Document Download the full report 873 Total number of exonerations in the U.S. • 816 Number who were men 57 … women • 50% Amount who were black 38% … white 11% … Latino 2% … Native American or Asian • 87% Amount who were convicted by a jury at trial • 10,000 Minimum number […]
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Politics, not science, will influence legislation
Read the emails John Droz email Bill Price email Tom Thompson email Think of science as a seawall. The anti-science, anti-environmental movement washing down the halls of the Legislature is a powerful wave pounding the seawall, threatening to drown the people of North Carolina living behind it. The first wave hit in early January when […]
