Pope

Article in News and Observer goes once over lightly relationship between Pope Art and the Kochs but sheds no light anywhere. Nowhere does it mention (1) Pope being a director for Americans for Properous or (2) the money most likely funneled via Pope from Kochs into NC politics, for Republicans. This article is on par with most "mainstream" media output on Kochs and Pope, and people like them.

The Koch brothers have stopped hiding in the background, they just bought the US House and part of the Senate.

The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no longer sit outside Washington's political establishment, isolated by their uncompromising conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of Republican power, a change most evident in the new makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

A while back, Momo took us on a tour of Jackson Hamlet, a small Black community surrounded by Pinehurst and Aberdeen but not in either's municipal limits. They, along with a similar community on the other side of Aberdeen, Midway, have been trying to obtain municipal services, especially water and/or sewer.

Without going too deeply into why these communities are surrounded by, but not in, municipal borders, it comes down to historic settlement patterns, NC annexation law, and the high costs of utilities extensions among other things.

Much progress has occurred lately and it appears Midway will be getting services soon thanks to a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) obtained by Aberdeen. Midway will soon be part of Aberdeen, through voluntary or involuntary annexation.

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I have been doing some research on Joe Boylan. After attending the debate between Boylan, Galloway and Shaver, there was something he said that piqued my interest.

“I believe that most of my contributions have come from individuals.” To find out if this was correct, I went to the State Board of Elections (SBOE) website. They have this really nifty tool there, “View Campaign Finance Reports”. You just fill in a name and go to their disclosure reports.

The “individual” contributions do in fact out number the PAC and "other" contributions. Let’s look a little closer. His total individual contributions add up to $77,933.59, of that sum only $19,091.52 were donated by Moore County residents.