Tuesday, May 5
  • GOVERNOR COOPER announced that the state would begin phase 1 of a three-part reopening plan on Friday at 5:00 p.m.
  • Attorney General Josh Stein filed the first PRICE-GOUGING LAWSUIT of the coronavirus pandemic against a Charlotte towing company. 
  • The Raleigh City Council, facing a $36 million budget shortfall, agreed to pay a consultant $72,000 to help it figure out how to replace the CITIZEN ADVISORY COUNCILS it disbanded in February. 
  • The Latinx group MIJENTE celebrated Cinco de Mayo by launching a voter registration drive in North Carolina. 
Wednesday, May 6
  • ProPublica reported that, in February, on the same day SENATOR RICHARD BURR unloaded his stock portfolio just before the COVID-19 panic crashed the market, his brother-in-law sold off a bunch of stocks, too. 
  • Donald Trump picked top donor LOUIS DEJOY, the husband of former North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services secretary Aldona Wos, to be the next postmaster general. 
Thursday, May 7
  • SENATOR THOM TILLIS said he believes that Americans will have forgotten the Trump administration’s botched response to COVID-19 by August, when there will be more testing and signs of economic progress. “And I think all those things will benefit the president and they’ll benefit me.”
  • The U.S. Department of Labor reports that more than 85,000 people filed initial jobless claims in North Carolina the previous week. Since the pandemic began, more than 1 MILLION NORTH CAROLINA WORKERS—a fifth of the state’s workforce—have sought unemployment benefits. 
Friday, May 8
  • Phase 1 of the reopening plan goes into effect. Most parts of Durham’s STRICTER STAY-AT-HOME ORDER remain in place through May 15 except for the state’s guidelines for retail stores. 
  • The NORTH CAROLINA DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES closed its Raleigh office after an employee tested positive for coronavirus. 
  • Labor and farmworker advocacy groups seek protections for North Carolina MEAT-PROCESSING-PLANT WORKERS after the number of cases rises among plant employees. 
  • New Hanover County sheriff’s deputy JORDAN KITA was charged after leading an armed group of white vigilantes to a black teenager’s home. Kita has since been fired. 
Saturday, May 9
  • A dozen VERY TOUGH WHITE DUDES with very big guns walked around downtown Raleigh to protest the state’s stay-at-home order (nope, that can’t be it; protesting with guns is illegal, and the Raleigh cops would have definitely arrested them, right?) get a sandwich at Subway. 
Monday, May 11
  • The number of CONFIRMED CORONAVIRUS CASES in North Carolina surpassed 15,000, a surge driven primarily by increased testing. 

Contact editor in chief Jeffrey C. Billman at jbillman@indyweek.com.

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