Photo: Getty Images
A judge’s order curbs right of press and public to record county commission meetings
Matthew Sasser, editor of the Richmond Daily Journal, puts the finishing touches on the print version of the biweekly newspaper about an hour before the Richmond County commissioners’ meeting. Photo: Kelan Lyons
By Kelan Lyons
In Richmond County, where government has a history of constitutional issues, a judge jailed a reporter in 2021. The repercussions are still playing out today.
Willam Toler, managing editor of The Richmond Observer, craned his arm to stretch his phone’s vantage point, framing up a picture of a woman describing her concerns about animal ordinances to the Richmond County Board of Commissioners. After he took the photo, Toler returned his phone to the ledge beside the lectern, recording the rest of the night’s public comments.
Meanwhile, Matthew Sasser, the editor of the Richmond County Daily Journal, sat on the other side of the room, hunched over a spiral-bound notepad, scribbling furiously. Unlike Toler, Sasser did not use his phone. He didn’t even bring it inside the building in the early evening of Oct. 3.
That’s because Sasser isn’t allowed to bring a phone into the courthouse to cover Board of Commissioners’ meetings, which are open to the public. [Read more…]
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While 3,100 hurricane survivors lack permanent homes, ReBuild NC employees earn big salaries
Contractors knowingly installed a broken window on this home in Kinston, damaged in Hurricane Matthew. The homeowner has been living in a motel since Feb. 28, 2020. (Photo: Lisa Sorg)
By Lisa Sorg
Embattled agency “believes it has enough funding to cover its obligations to homeowners that have applied for assistance”
At a tense legislative oversight hearing in September 2022, desperate homeowners, lawmakers and emergency management experts lambasted ReBuild NC about North Carolina’s failed hurricane recovery program.
“Based on what I’ve heard today, ReBuild NC has issues with waste,” Col. J.R. Sanderson told the oversight committee on governmental operations. Sanderson is a senior government adviser with the Saint Bernard Project, national disaster and recovery nonprofit, Sanderson had previously overseen a successful disaster recovery program in South Carolina. [Read more…]
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Overriding Gov. Cooper’s vetoes, the NC legislature makes it harder to vote, easier to pollute.
Speaker Tim Moore presides over the House for the marathon session of veto overrides. (Photo: NCGA video stream)
By Lynn Bonner
The state legislature voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes of bills on elections, political appointments, and environmental protections on Tuesday, enacting laws that tighten voting rules, change election administration, and loosen pollution regulations.
Two of the new laws are already being challenged in court.
The Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party are suing in federal court over the new elections law, saying it make it harder for some people to register to vote or have their votes count. The law would also permit an “influx of intimidating and largely unconstrained poll observers into voting places,” the lawsuit says. [ Read more…]
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*Families, doctors file federal suit over transgender care ban
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Black scholars: Teachers shouldn’t cave to pressure to restrict lessons about U.S. racial history
Dr. Dudley Flood (Left) and Jerry Craft (Right) Photo: Greg Childress
Subversive ‘fugitive pedagogy’ must be revived in education system not designed for Black students
America’s educators must not cower before lawmakers attempting to restrict what they teach students about America’s racial history, author and education reformer Lisa Delpit told hundreds of teachers attending the annual Color of Education summit in Raleigh on Saturday.
Delpit, the author of the groundbreaking book, “Multiplication Is for White People” said teachers must engage in the kind of “fugitive pedagogy” that educators used during the Jim Crow era to get around mandated curricula that hid the truth about America’s racist past and the enormous contributions Black people have made to the nation. [Read more…]
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UNC-Chapel Hill’s controversial new school moves forward with new faculty
Faculty and leaders of UNC-Chapel Hill’s controversial new School of Civic Life and Leadership say they hope to define the new school without political intervention. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
By Joe Killian
Already facing criticism for an all-white faculty, professors and leaders say they’ll define the new school themselves
When UNC-Chapel Hill announced the inaugural faculty for its controversial new School of Civic Life and Leadership late last week, it was difficult to miss a through-line across the nine faculty members from various departments and disciplines: They are all white.
That wasn’t by design, said Sara Treul Roberts, a political science professor named interim dean and director of the new school last week. [Read more...]
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A toxic combination of the shameless, delusional and opportunistic threatens our democracy (Commentary)
From Left to Right: Donald Trump, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, Rep. Keith Kidwell, Senate President Phil Berger, and House Speaker Time Moore. (Trump photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images. All others NCGA video stream.)
Donald Trump knows he did not win the 2020 presidential election. The man has long displayed a malignant and all-consuming narcissism, but he’s no dummy. Uttering statements and making claims that sound at least plausible to some and that he wishes in his heart were true (but that he knows to be false) has always been his stock-in-trade.
Like a charlatan preacher who promises healing and salvation to those with credit cards handy, Trump is and has always been a master at selling to anyone who will listen to him – usually the corrupt and the gullible – in order to maximize the size of his image, wealth and power.
Not surprisingly, Trump’s impressive command of sales and manipulation has helped give rise to a formidable wave of copycats. [Read more…]
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State Treasurer Dale Folwell (Photo: Screen grab from media availability)
State Treasurer Dale Folwell said efforts by the Republican-controlled General Assembly to restrict access to important public records reduces confidence in all levels of government.
Folwell, a Republican who is running for governor in 2024, addressed the controversial budget provision Tuesday in an open conversation with members of the media.
Last month, when legislative leaders rolled out the state’s $30 billion budget, they inserted language in the 625-page document giving lawmakers the power and discretion to decide whether work documents should be shared publicly, or could be sold or destroyed. [Read more…]
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There’s still no speaker of the U.S. House. Could Patrick McHenry be the solution?
U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., arrives to a House Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. The House Republicans continue to debate their pick for speaker after their initial candidate, Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., appeared to lack the majority of the needed votes on the floor. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
By Jennifer Shutt, Ariana Figueroa and Ashley Murray
WASHINGTON — Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise stepped into a closed-door meeting at the U.S. Capitol Thursday to negotiate with more than a dozen holdout Republicans in his quest to become the next speaker of the House, though dissent only seemed to grow following the three-hour session.
On Thursday night, Scalise announced he was dropping out of the race.
No vote on the House floor for a speaker had been scheduled as of Thursday night, with the weekend looming. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session next week.
As Scalise’s support eroded, a push began among some in the House GOP to give Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry of North Carolina more legislative authority… [Read more…]
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Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson proclaimed the next seven days as “Solidarity With Israel” week, even though he has a history of antisemitic remarks. (Photo: Lisa Sorg)
By Lisa Sorg
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who on social media has peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories, denied the Holocaust (“Hitler disarming MILLIONS OF Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash”), claimed a character in the “Black Panther” movie was “created by an agnostic Jew,” and then in the same Facebook post used a Yiddish pejorative for Black people “Schvartze,” and an antisemitic term for Israeli currency “shekels” — attempted to atone Thursday.
In what seemed almost to amount to a form of cosplay, Robinson, a leading Republican candidate for governor, performed his first deed today as “Acting Governor,” while the real governor, Roy Cooper, is on an economic trip to Japan. [Read more…]
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Solitary confinement, staffing vacancies, job training focus of prison reform conference
Outside Raleigh’s Central Prison a banner offers open interviews to would-be job seekers. The vacancy rate of North Carolina’s corrections officers is now 40%. (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
By Kelan Lyons
October 1st was the sixth anniversary of perhaps the most horrific mass shooting in American history. As if it were a war zone, 58 people were killed and almost 900 more were wounded as a sniper opened fire on attendees at a music festival.
And sadly, as has been the case with other mass shootings in our country, the tragedy gave rise to little in the way of meaningful action, and even spurred the spread of outrageous lies and conspiracy claims from an array of gun rights defenders and cynical political opportunists – including in some instances, prominent and aspiring public figures. [Read more…]
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