On Sunday, the Raleigh-based Sigmon Law Firm filed an amicus briefi.e., testimony from people who aren’t a party in a lawsuitin the ACLU’s case against North Carolina over House Bill 2. The briefwhose signatories include twenty-seven school administrators from across the country and the entire school district for Reno, Nevadarecounts administrators’ experiences with transgender students […]
Paul Blest
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Senator Fletcher Hartsell Indicted In Wake County Court, Under Federal Investigation
Senator Fletcher Hartsell (R-Concord), the longest-serving legislator currently in the Senate, has been indicted by a Wake County grand jury, on three counts of knowingly certifying incorrect campaign finance documents. From Lynn Bonner and Anne Blythe at the N&O: The state Board of Elections voted about a year ago to forward results of its lengthy […]
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Supreme Court Will Consider N.C. Redistricting Case
The Supreme Court’s last batch of opinions for this term are flooding out, including a 5-3 decision against Texas’ draconian abortion law. The Court is also deciding which cases to take up for the next term, and it turns out North Carolina’s awful Congressional redistricting back in 2011, which was ruled unconstitutional earlier this year, […]
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State Senate Candidate: Did Orlando Victims Deserve It?
Bob Diamond is a pharmacist from Charlotte who’s running for state Senate. Diamond fancies himself as a guy who tells it like it really is, and ask the questions everyone else is afraid to, such as: did the 49 victims who were pointlessly and tragically murdered in an Orlando gay nightclub “deserve it?” Over the […]
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The Morning Roundup: The Final Stretch
Good morning. Let’s get to it.1. The General Assembly could ajourn this week. Rep. Chuck McGrady says that the House and Senate’s budget compromise will probably be online tomorrow night. Republicans tell Colin Campbell that the GA will probably be out this week. [Tim] Moore, the House speaker, said the House still hoped to end […]
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Tillis: I’d Arrest Sit-In Participants “If That’s What’s Necessary”
Yesterday, Congressman Mark Walker (R-Greensboro) called the House sit-in to force gun control votes organized by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), civil rights legend who was beaten for organizing nonviolent protests, a “disgrace to Woolworth’s.” But this afternoon, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) did Walker one better by straight up advocating for the police to just start […]
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N.C. Congressman Explains Sit-Ins to Civil Rights Legend Who Has Been Beaten for Organizing Sit-Ins
You may or may not have heard, but the House Democratic caucus (and several Democratic Senators), led by U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-Georgia), are staging a sit-in today on the floor of the House to force a vote on the gun control measures rejected by the Senate. Republicans have been completely embarrassed by this all […]
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Meet N.C. Republicans’ Latest Plan to Lock In Trickle Down
Since the Reagan revolution, the organizing principle of Republican governance has boiled down to “lower taxes, better economy.” After Republicans took control of North Carolina in 2010, they hewed closely to this philosophy, flattening and (especially for those at the top) reducing the state’s income tax rate. Now, with Governor McCrory locked in a pitched […]
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Can N.C. Farmers Mistreat Their Guest Workers with Impunity?
When José Alberto Aguilera-Hernandez first arrived at the Jackson Farming Company in Autryville in 2011, the work was hard but good, better-paying and more consistent than he could find as a taxi driver in southeast Mexico. “You have to make a lot to make a little bit [in Mexico],” he says through a translator. “At […]
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Electoral Courage
The first time I ever felt anything about the American political system was November 7, 2000. I was ten, and it was utter pessimism. I was mad that George W. Bush had won the election and how he had won. To make matters worse, our kitten had climbed into our basement ceiling. Three hours and […]