I have no extra knowledge of this case, but WRAL has a great story on the possible stopping of the execution of Willie Brown. The gist of which is:

A federal judge said he will stop an execution scheduled for later this month unless state officials tell him by Wednesday how they will ensure the inmate is unconscious as he is being put to death.

I arrived at the Siler City Immigration protest at about 4:15 pm yesterday afternoon. There was a line of people walking from the highway starting about 1.5 miles away. People had signs and nearly everyone had an American flag. There were smiles on everyone's faces as we passed work crews, old couples, young people with their friends, and entire families, including babies in strollers. Nearly everyone was wearing white t-shirt. As we got closer to the protest site we could hear chanting in spanish, a nation divided can never be united. As we drove by the protest site there was line of policemen from siler city, chatham county, and surrounding cities lining the sidewalk. Also people were chanting Yes we can! in spanish. We pulled into press parking (some newspaper workers caught a ride with me( their article is here) and I joined the protest as the journalists went off to inverview and take pictures.

I ran across this little article on the N&O's website with the headline: "Who Says that Alternative Energy and North Carolina Don't Mix?". Seeing the headline, I was excited to learn about the great things that North Carolina is doing with alternative energy (I was also a little surprised because I had thought that were behind the curve in alternative energy). However, once I began reading the article, I realized this was a case of a completely inaccurate title.

The article was filled with information on how the state's programs did not stack up. First off was the only good news, the state offers lots of tax credits for alternative energy use. But then the reality of North Carolina's situation was exposed.

click here It's a poll in the Hendersonville Times-News, running 50/40 Taylor at this time.

From WautagaWatch:

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx will be interviewed live on Appalachian State University's campus radio station WASU 90.5 FM on Wednesday, April 12, from 7:30-8 p.m. She's supposed to answer questions from the audience during the program. Call in to (828) 264-4905.

I'll just add: Yes, they webcast.

Nothing gets white old rich men like Art Pope more activated than the possibility that they can't continue to buy elections. And no group in North Carolina is working harder to put him out of business than Democracy North Carolina. Their director of development, Molly Beacham, visited our political salon this weekend and made a compelling case for change. And the good news is this: you can help make the change happen. It's as easy as checking a box on your tax return.

Now you have a chance to support fair elections and fair courts -- and it won't cost you anything. Please mark "Yes" on the new check-off box on the N.C. income-tax form, called the Public Campaign Financing Fund. The Fund supports a public financing option for candidates for N.C. Court of Appeals and N.C. Supreme Court, and it pays for a Voter Guide for those elections.

Now you can do something besides bitch about the destructive influence of guys like the Puppetmaster on North Carolina elections. So go ahead. Take the first step for Voter-Owned Elections.

While North Carolina’s biggest counties raked in the most money during the lottery’s first week, residents of the state’s poorest counties bought a disproportionate share of the tickets, according to a Fayetteville Observer analysis.

Counties with the highest ticket sales per capita include 12 of the poorest in the state. Only three of the richest counties were among the biggest spenders.

The lottery’s whirlwind debut on March 30 had generated about $36 million by Thursday, according to N.C. Education Lottery officials. The Observer’s findings reflect what some critics of the games have long argued: A significant chunk of a lottery’s proceeds come from communities where residents can least afford to play the odds.

Tags for blog entries have been updated. I deleted a few and renamed a couple, but mostly I just put them all in one box and tried to make that box easier to use. My new... Easter's... resolution is to tag more fully. Carry on.

I was very glad to see this story about a retired general officer finally coming out about the disatrous tenure of Donald Rumsfeld. Read the whole article, which is a call for active duty military officers to go public in their disgust for AWOL George and his criminal war in Iraq.

"I retired from the military four months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy," General Newbold wrote.

It's about time.

If you're not familiar with a minor league Puppet named Chad Adams, who directs the John Locke Foundation Center for Local Innovation, you're in for a treat. Adams also serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Lee County Commission. He was first elected in 1998 and is now serving in his second term.

Now being a good Puppet, you'd expect Mr. Adams to be firmly opposed to any intrusions by government into the smooth functioning of the Holy Free Market, especially when such intrusions involve (gasp) economic development incentives. Indeed, railing against economic development is one of John Hood's favorite past times. Which makes it all the more surprising to discover that Chad Adams is a closet tax-and-spend librul prone to giving out public money for big, bad corporations. For example, consider this entry in the Lee County Commissioners minutes (attached) for June 6, 2005.