Chapel Hill

Abbey Court is probably the poorest community in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. It’s a complex of condominiums rented out for cheap to a large community, mostly consisting of immigrant families. Every school day it’s common to see entire school buses full of kids empty out into the complex so that they can all return to their respective homes.

The N&O is demanding an apology? They should be filing a lawsuit.

When police approached the building, they ordered everyone to get on the ground, but they allowed Ferral (an N&O reporter) to continue to shoot photographs. After a few more minutes they told Ferral to get on the ground as well. Ferral told them she was a member of the media. She was wearing her press photo badge around her neck.

She remained face-down on the ground for about 15 minutes before she was cuffed with plastic zip ties and told to sit in a line with about 12 other people who had been detained.

I can understand this happening in China. But Chapel Hill? There will be hell to pay.

The statewide Pride event is happening all this weekend. There is a full schedule of events from Thursday through Sunday across the state, but of course the big event is the rally and parade in Durham.

11: 55am National Anthem for Opening Ceremony
NOON "Pride Rally with Speakers and Dignitaries, Parade Marshall and special performances"
12:45- 2:15pm PARADE LINE UP TO MARCH with Bagpipes
1pm Parade Begins (Official Reviewing Stand at Madhatter's Cafe at the corner of Main and Broad St.
1pm - 4pm Viewing Party

As y'all know, our Vice President was at the Carolina Inn last night.

Last night, I went to the DNC fundraiser at the Carolina Inn featuring our titular politician, so I'm bringing you the full report. I'm happy to return with some positive news: Joe Biden is doing a great job as Vice President of the United States.

Exactly 23 months ago today Joe Biden was announced as the veep nominee. On Kos, I made this prediction in a diary:

So the Sierra Club is hosting some great activities this weekend. I want to take a moment and mention them, and hopefully encourage you all to come out and participate.

On Saturday the 20th, Bill Bracey and a number of devoted Sierra Club members and neighborhood groups are going to work on the Bolin Creek Habitat Restoration Project off Hillsborough St. in Chapel Hill. Since the fall, this group has been working to remove invasive shrubs like Chinese Privet, Bittersweet, and Wisteria from the trail. Its a long term plan that will hopefully reintroduce a number of native species to the habitat. If you're up for some rewarding hard work, you should come lend a hand. For more information call Bill Bracey at 919-942-9934 or by email at arbornet@mindspring.com

Congratulations Mark Kleinschmidt, Chapel Hill's next mayor. In the early days of BlueNC Mark posted about death penalty cases and kept us current on actions we could take to help end state sponsored killings in North Carolina. He is smart, kind and progressive. He will make a great mayor of Chapel Hill.

Congratulations also go out to Jake Gellar-Goad, Mark's Volunteer Coordinator. He did an excellent job and in a race this close and with so little money spent those highly organized volunteers more than likely made the difference. Good work, Jake. Glad you're on our side.

GOTV efforts are especially critical tomorrow for Chapel Hill's mayoral candidates. Mark Kleinschmidt trails Matt Czaikowski by one point. Tom Jensen does note that the polling does not include cell phone only users which means a lot of students aren't being polled. For full results go to PPP's blog.

There's still time to knock on doors and make phone calls and volunteer to greet voters at the polls for Mark. I'm sure Jake will be here momentarily to provide us with all the particulars.

UPDATE 2011: Someone came across this old post and found an old campaign website and asked me to update the website for this time around for 2011. It is: mayormark.org
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I'll refrain from going into much background since I have already done so in other blog postings. Here is where you can find background info on the campaign:
http://bluenc.com/mark-kleinschmidt-mayor-campaign-endgame

What I'm asking for now is for volunteers to help by passing out campaign literature at busy polling sites at busy times of day in Chapel Hill so that we can elect the only democrat/only progressive in this close race to Mayor of Chapel Hill. Here is where we stand now. I need your help if I'm going to fill up the 9 remaining high turnout locations. Please post on the facebook event wall if you can volunteer at any of these locations/times (if you don't have a facebook account you can also e-mail me at ******** to sign up)

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154902879398

Shifts are approximately:
OPENING SHIFT- 6:30am to 9am, LUNCH SHIFT - Noon to 2:30pm, AFTER WORK SHIFT - 5pm to 7:30pm

If you are in favor of electing progressive democrats to office in North Carolina, then please take the time to back those thoughts with action. Shift details can be found inside.

With Early Voting starting at the Planetarium in Chapel Hill tomorrow (Oct 19th - along with our on campus rally at noon at Polk Place) and the election only about 2 weeks out (Nov 3rd), I wanted to take this opportunity to share a little information about the campaign and most importantly let you know how you can help by volunteering during the next couple of weeks.

In case you aren't familiar with him or the campaign, here is a brief intro:

Follow me below the fold for more information about Mark & what he stands for, to learn why he's earned the endorsements & support of the Sierra Club, the Indy Weekly, the UNC Young Dems, & a former Chapel Hill Mayor Ken Broun, and learn how you can help with the campaign during the final weeks!

As tired as we all may be about listening to environmental organizations preach about the need to reform our outlook toward global climate change, their message has still not fully been heard. The problems that climate change has placed on this world are very real, and are becoming more and more apparent everyday. Yet still, most Americans are content either giving in to apathy or ignoring these important issues all together.