Susie is a 1-year-old pit bull-German Shepherd mix whose body still has the scars the horrific assault she endured. When she was eight-weeks old, Susie was burned beaten and left for dead.
The man who assaulted her was sentenced to probation. The law named after Susie would make such abuse a felony and give judges the option of jail time.
Chapman was the Charlotte man who sought psychiatric help at Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph, at one point telling staff he wanted to "kill his wife," but was released with medication for depression and instructions to call back for an appointment. Hours later, police say he had killed his wife, one child and a stepchild.
A government that spends hundreds of millions for capital projects and economic incentives, yet sends suicidal or homicidal patients back on the streets, can no longer lay claim to the title "Public Servant".
Could a 30-day waiting period for marriages performed by magistrates be in North Carolina’s future? Rep. Bill Current, R-Gaston, said he hopes the idea results in making marriages stronger.
“Most ministers won’t marry you unless they talk to you for a while,” Current said, explaining why the suggestion wouldn’t put a similar requirement on ministers. Current said that local and state officials spend a lot of time trying to fix problems that are a result of marriages falling apart.
Jack Betts asks the elephant-in-the-livingroom question:
Here's a question the moderators didn't ask Thursday night in the first of two televised debates between Senate Democratic candidates Elaine Marshall and Cal Cunningham: Does their race even matter against an incumbent with a $10 million war chest?
Just as a point of reference, by this time in 2008, Kay Hagan had amassed some $1.6 million for her campaign, and much of that was raised and spent pre-Primary.
The NC First Party's chosen candidate is waffling:
After a costly petition drive to put him on the ballot as an independent alternative to Democratic U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell, Concord resident Wendell Fant said Friday he's not sure he'll run.
"Right now it's a definite 'I'm not sure,'" Fant said.
A group called N.C. Families First delivered more than 35,000 signatures to election boards throughout the 8th Congressional District supporting Fant's candidacy.
Which should tell them something about their chances:
Cement-maker Titan America will be alone in appealing last month’s Superior Court ruling, the one that applied a lengthy environmental review to its proposed facility and rock quarry in New Hanover County. That is because the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office has decided not to join Titan in appellate proceedings.
Gov. Bev Perdue’s office announced the attorney general’s decision to step aside in a statement Thursday evening, in which a spokeswoman said the attorney general had reviewed the ruling and concluded it was too narrow a decision to contend.
In the Gulf, it's what we don't see that may be the most damaging:
Oil from what is now considered the nation's second-largest spill, 1989's Exxon Valdez mishap, slicked 11,000 square miles of ocean surface and 1,300 miles of pristine Alaskan coastline while killing hundreds of thousands of birds and marine mammals and untold numbers of fish and fish eggs.
But the impacts of the ongoing Deepwater Horizon leak in the gulf may be far worse given that much of the loose oil is actually in the water column, not on the surface. In fact, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently detected huge deepwater plumes of dispersed oil up to 30 miles long, seven miles wide and hundreds of feet thick.
"North Carolina is in a war,"..."If it takes going to the Supreme Court of this great country from Wayne County and for Wake County, and for other counties in North Carolina, so be it," the governor continued. "We will stand together, to make sure that all of the children of this state have a chance."
"From my position as citizen, not as governor but as a citizen of this great state, I applaud every single thing that [Rev. Barber] is doing, and I, for one, do believe that diversity does make for a better end product for children in this state," Perdue said.
Sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side:
The school has lost 53 of 77 faculty members recruited by universities during the last academic year, a retention rate of about 30 percent. Most years, it wins 55 percent to 60 percent of its recruiting battles by boosting pay or adding resources such as a coveted piece of lab equipment.
The losses are a gut shot for one of the nation's top public institutions, where leaders take pride in recruiting and retaining faculty members who might otherwise end up at elite private institutions. But this year, deep-pocketed elites such as Yale and Cornell are having their pick of Chapel Hill faculty.
Flanked by lawyers, Harold Johnson on Tuesday denounced a lawsuit by rival Tim D'Annunzio as "embarrassing and frivolous" as the war of words between the two Republican congressional candidates continued to escalate.
D'Annunzio sued Johnson for defamation Monday in Cumberland County Superior Court.
And it looks like D'Annunzio is bringing his fight to the comments section again:
BlueNC is dedicated to making North Carolina a more progressive and prosperous state. If your intention is to disrupt this effort, please find somewhere else to express your opinions.
