Good morning, one and all. Away. We. Go.
1) Charles Murray avoids calling blacks inferior during his lecture at Duke University Tuesday.
Amazing when the headline is about somebody not making the horrific comments he’s become kind of known for. But his lack of blatant racism begs the question: Is our buddy Charles, a man labeled a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center, evolving? We doubt it.
But anyway, INDY reporter Sarah Willets burned some of her remaining hours on Earth last night having to listen to this guy do his thing. Click here to read all about it. Oh, and just in case you’re one of those people who keeps a list of people to avoid, here’s a picture of Murray.
2) Trump not happy about flailing Obamacare replacement, so he threatens Republicans, including one from the Old North State.
If the vote were held today, the GOP’s health care overhaul would fail. But the president isn’t giving up hope. That’s not his style. Instead, he’s threatening the opposition, including members of his own party. From the New York Times:
But at a private meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, the president also delivered a blunt warning that many of those present would lose their seats in next year’s midterm congressional elections if the effort failed.
“I’m going to come after you,” Mr. Trump told Representative Mark Meadows, Republican of North Carolina, a prime holdout and the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, a hotbed of concern about the legislation, according to several people in the room who described his comments on condition of anonymity because the session was private. “I believe Mark and his group will come along, because honestly, a loss is not acceptable, folks.”
Who knows? Maybe Meadows stands his ground and does something, you know, human, on behalf of his constituents.
3) Goodbye Earth. We hardly knew ya.
Speaking of the NYT, they wrote a pretty depressing piece about Trump’s plan to reverse former President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy. Here’s a taste, but you should really read the story by clicking here. And make sure you have a stiff drink handy.
President Trump is poised in the coming days to announce his plans to dismantle the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s climate change legacy, while also gutting several smaller but significant policies aimed at curbing global warming.
The moves are intended to send an unmistakable signal to the nation and the world that Mr. Trump intends to follow through on his campaign vows to rip apart every element of what the president has called Mr. Obama’s “stupid” policies to address climate change. The timing and exact form of the announcement remain unsettled, however.
The executive actions will follow the White House’s release last week of a proposed budget that would eliminate climate change research and prevention programs across the federal government and slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31 percent, more than any other agency. Mr. Trump also announced last week that he had ordered Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. administrator, to revise the agency’s stringent standards on planet-warming tailpipe pollution from vehicles, another of Mr. Obama’s key climate change policies.
4) Chapel Hill company buys Garner apartment complex, plans to evict some disabled residents who were living in soon-to-be chopped subsidized units.
Happy Fair Housing Month, everybody. No. For real. This is set to happen during Fair Housing Month.
Veteran east Raleigh activist Octavia Rainey quickly got the word when residents of a Garner apartment complex learned that their subsidized rents would quintuple to market rates by April 1—which meant, in short, that they were facing eviction. On Monday, she headed a delegation of more than two dozen residents of Forest Hills Apartments during Wake County commissioners’ public comment period.
Rainey and dozens of people who live in the Garner complex said they recently received letters from owners EPC LLC, of Chapel Hill, telling them they would have to pay market rent on April 1, and that they could be evicted if they weren’t out of their subsidized apartments by April 30.
Here’s a bit of INDYreporter Tommy Goldsmith’s report—a story that is creating a LOT of chatter on social media.
Among the Forest Hills residents facing eviction are people with significant disabilities, including some placed there by Alliance Behavioral Healthcare, a provider that contracts with Wake County to treat people with mental, developmental, and substance-abuse problems.
So. Enjoy a feel-good Wednesday on us, everyone. Bye for now.
