Richard Hart

The scene has become a familiar one for me: The dark, somewhat dank insides of the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro, band members on stage tuning and joking around, kids in the audience ready to rock. But this was 4 p.m. last Sunday afternoon, the kids weren’t old enough to drive, and the old folks around […]

If you haven’t read historian Tim Tyson’s recounting of the Wilmington revolt of 1898, you shouldnot just because it’s important social history for understanding North Carolina today, but because it is a gripping piece of writing. The Ghosts of 1898: Wilmington’s Race Riot and the Rise of White Supremacy was commissioned by The News & […]

Alison Aucoin hated that phrase the first time she heard it. “It sounded like Mr. Rogers does emergency management,” she says. Then, when she learned what this week’s Our Katrina Neighbors program was really about, “I absolutely fell in love with it.” It’s a presentation of audio, video and photo documentaries created by local artists […]

We’ve got an elections problem, and it has only slightly to do with distorted TV ads, harassing robo calls and a corrupt campaign financing system. The problem is how few voters go to the polls. Much ado was made about this being a “blue moon” election in North Carolina, a national, non-presidential year in which […]

You know President Bush is pulling out all the stops when he warns that “the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses.” We’re in one of those campaigns againthe ones where any dissent is called unpatriotic. Finally, though, it looks like a majority of Americans can see what […]

For years, the Independent has sent questionnaires to candidates in local and state race to help us make endorsements. And every year we remark how candid and thoughtful many of those responses are, and what a service it would be if readers could see them. Now you can. We’ve posted all the questionnaires candidates sent […]

With all the criticism major media have rightly received over the last few years for their failures to investigate issues ranging from the U.S. decision to invade Iraq to the corporate takeover of public policy, it was refreshing this month to see the payoff when The News & Observer put the time and resources into […]

Well, I asked for it. With downtown creative types annoyed about the marketing slogan developed by the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau (“Durham: Where Great Things Happen”), I asked readers last week to suggest some of their own. They did, mostly tongue-in-cheek. That’s just the way Durhamites are. The suggestions ranged from mocking the city’s […]