Welcome to North Carolina Open Thread For Sunday, May 31st. This is a new weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform will give readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight, inspiration and connections as we work on taking back our state from the extreme, money blinded powers that pull the levers here.
Please join us below and every week as we try to Connect, Unite and Act with our community of North Carolina Daily Kos members. Listed below are NC issue diaries from the previous week and they include DocDawg's invitation to come to Winston Salem on July 13th, a few looks at Governor McCrory's veto of a same sex discrimination bill, and Lamont Cranston's article on drastic program cuts to the North Carolina University system.
This is the first Daily Kos weekly open thread for a state. For those in other states, please join us as we strive to establish state open threads in all fifty. Please drop me a line if you are interested in hosting an open thread in your state.
North Carolina Open Thread 5/31/15
These are diaries from last week with North Carolina tags. This rescue covers NC related diaries published between 12:00 AM 5/24 to 11:59 PM 5/30. If you know of other North Carolina diaries from last week, please link them below and start a discussion. I hope to gather North Carolina diaries through the week and give them another shot at visibility by re-linking them here.
Weren't alive in '65? Then this July 13th could be your lucky day by DocDawg
...or maybe you just weren't alive to the awesome power and the awful responsibility of fusion politics back then. I know I sure wasn't.
Perhaps you've admired North Carolina's Forward Together Moral Monday Movement from afar? Then join us! This will be not 'just another' Moral Monday, and not merely a Tarheel affair, but rather an historic nationwide gathering. Please consider standing side-by-side with us on July 13th in Winston-Salem, NC to demonstrate your commitment to defending the right to vote.
Republican governor vetoes North Carolina 'right to discriminate' bill by Laura Clawson
North Carolina magistrates won't be allowed to refuse to officiate all marriages as a way of getting out of officiating the same-sex ones, after Republican Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed a billthat would have legalized such discrimination.
“Sincerely held religious beliefs” N.C. anti-gay marriage bill vetoed by McCrory by windsong01
A bill that essentially allows “Sincerely held religious beliefs” to trump Constitutional lawhad a quick turn-around with a veto only a half hour after reaching the office of a governor that had said in a written statement referring to this bill, “we are a nation and a state of laws”.
Breaking:North Carolina governor Pat McCrory says he'll veto gay marriage objections bill
by windsong01
Earlier today, May 28th, the NC house cleared a gay marriage objections bill that allows court officials to opt out of same-sex marriage duties based on religious Objections “sincerely held”. This bill is unusual in the fact that should court officials opt out of performing same sex wedding they would have to stop all marriage duties – for both straight and gay couples.
Whole towns will disappear. ~ STDDs Week 40
by JoanMar
My heart goes out to the residents of the areas affected by tornadoes and flooding in Texas, Oklahoma, and Mexico. I have heard some heartbreaking stories of loss of lives and of destruction of property. People have been washed away right in front of the eyes of their loved ones. That's the type of horror from which one cannot ever recover; at least not anytime soon.
Free Solar for Low-Income Homeowners in Disadvantaged Neighborhoods & Other Energy Assistance Progs
by mettle fatigue
UPDATED 5/29
This intro focuses on a specific California solar program, then below the fold is information on an extraordinarily comprehensive and up-to-date dot-org website (run by N.C. State Univ, funded by DOE) for finding state by state and by US territories (how often do they get remembered, right?), and "Federal"/nationally the incentives and assistance programs for energy, efficiency and renewables. (And of course there's always energystar dot govalthough that serves more the folks with discretionary income.)
My 9 year old son took his high stakes test this morning by Intheknow
All around North Carolina-
This morning I kissed my 9 year old son on the forehead and whispered that I loved him. He headed with my wife to school today. This was not an ordinary school day. This is a day that could make or break my son's future educational career. Failure to meet a score on a standardized reading test could force my child being retained instead of going to fourth grade.
OH, GA, MO, AZ, NC, IA & SC-Sen: The GOP Senators Who Took The Most Corporate Cash To Fast Track TPP by poopdogcomedy
The Guardian has a great article out about which U.S. Senators took the most corporate cash to help fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Three of them are Democratic U.S. Senators up for re-election, (Patty Murray (D. WA), Michael Bennet (D. CO) and Ron Wyden (D. OR)) and they took in a combined $105,900. That's pretty bad but the list of GOP U.S. Senators up for re-election next year is much linger and took a lot more corporate cash. Here they are:
46 Degree Programs Eliminated Across UNC College System by Lamont Cranston
I guess the North Carolina Board of Governors educational planning committee for the University educational system didn't think these programs were important to our education of our young adults, or warranted due to "market forces"...
“We’re capitalists, and we have to look at what the demand is, and we have to respond to the demand.”
- Board member Steven Long.