Richard Hart

It has been a surreal couple of weeks to live in Durham. As the dogwoods bloomed and the early spring air wavered between crisp and sublime, filled with the perfume of wisteria, the nightmare on Buchanan Boulevard invaded our every hour. Each time we inhaled a vista of Durham’s cottaged streets or winding country roads, […]

Most people may think this is the hottest time in college hoops, the coolest days for baseball or the calm before the primary election storm. But journalists know differently. To us, it is the outwardly disdained (but secretly anticipated) days of prize announcements. So indulge us, please, a moment to tell you how we’re doing. […]

The last time someone went through downtown Chapel Hill committing an act of random violence, no one focused on his name, his religion or his nationality. Wendell Williamson was seen as sick or depraved or just a criminal after he walked down Henderson Street carrying his father’s semiautomatic rifle and a backpack full of ammunition, […]

There will be a lot of talk this week about the importance of this year’s Mardi Gras to New Orleans, to reviving its spirits, of boosting its economy, of proclaiming its resolve to survive. I’m sure it will do some of that, but much of it is false hope–kind of like the 11,000 mobile homes […]

Lobbying scandals are erupting all around us. There are the outrages of megalobbyist Jack Abramoff and the Republican K Street Project, forcing some Republican members of Congress (and their lawyers) to explain golf trips to Scotland and visits to his sky box. Closer to home, there’s the unfolding tale of Democratic N.C. House Speaker Jim […]

The news this week that after an exhaustive search, Progress Energy decided to put its next two nuclear reactors next to the existing Shearon Harris plant in Wake County came as no surprise. The utility telegraphed its choice for weeks as it fended off reports (including in the Independent) about security guards’ complaints that economizing […]

Schadenfreude (a German word defined as “a malicious satisfaction in the misfortune of others”) is a relatively recent phenomenon in the journalism world. The word–and the feeling–started popping up when big newspapers like The New York Times were embarrassed by scandals like the Jayson Blair fiasco. People at smaller papers, accustomed to being reminded by […]

There are lessons for the Triangle in Peter Eichenberger’s story this week about activists in New Orleans blocking bulldozers and racing to court to protect residents’ interests in the Lower Ninth Ward. I don’t think I ever set foot there in 20 years growing up in New Orleans–that’s how distinct from the rest of the […]

This is from one of our favorite bloggers, Eschaton (www.atrios.blogspot.com). 2005 was the year that the president of the United States declared proudly that he had broken the law repeatedly and with full intention, that he had the power to do so whenever he wanted to, and that he would continue to do so whenever […]