* Buy local. More of the money you spend at a locally owned store stays local (e.g., Quail Ridge Books, vs. Borders). So err on the side of local. For a list, check out the Raleigh Independent Business Alliance (”Raleigh Unchained”).
* Buy from a fair-trade store. If it’s really cheap, chances are it’s from a […]

… as do the efforts by some good folks in Raleigh & hereabouts to call attention to the Triangle’s role in the Bush torture schema. N.C. Stop Torture Now has been holding protest demonstrations in Johnston County all year. But tomorrow — Saturday, 2-4 pm — they’re bring their message to Crabtree Valley Mall, a […]

Some thoughts on the Wake elections:
1) The $970 million school bond is just the down payment. (But thank goodness it passed.) Remember, the school board was testing numbers between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion to meet current need, with a projected decade-long tab for new schools and renovations to old ones of more than […]

Some said it was doomed to failure. The N&O’s polls said it had no chance. (The last poll had it losing by 19 points.) On the other hand, props to Dean Debnam’s Public Policy Polling, which consistently said it would win — by 8 points, in its most recent poll. And sure enough, the $970 […]

In downtown Raleigh at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences & the NC Museum of History. All the films are about water & proceeds benefit the Neuse Riverkeeper program. Tickets on sale at 4, opening ceremony at 5 featuring “Crawdad’s Conundrum,” performance art by the Paperhand Puppet Intervention about a crayfish determined to save her […]

It’s raining, it’s pouring …
So remind me –
Why do we vote on a single Tuesday in mid-November (and then only until 7:30)?
I know, we have early voting — in a few places.
But if we really wanted people to vote — you know, like more than the 42 percent of us who were gonna vote today […]