To say the least, we’re in a very teachable time on gay rights here in North Carolina:
Today, state Sen. Kay Hagan announced that she’s a candidate for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination. The fact that the only other announced candidate, Jim Neal, is gay has absolutely nothing to do with her decision, Hagan told the […]

U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal, the only Democrat running against Republican incumbent Liddy Dole so far, confirmed over the weekend that he is gay — openly, proudly so. He said it in a live-blogging session on BlueNC, portions of which are now posted on Neal’s campaign website. More below.
Update: There’s a summary up at Pam’s […]

Our underdog opera was a smash hit last night. I’m not an opera critic, buff or anything — before last night, I’d never been to an opera. But after writing about Raleigh’s Capital Opera company in the Indy this week, I had to see La Traviata for myself, if for no other reason than to […]

Several people have written to ask, What happened to Dr. de Gama? Where’s Lunsford Lane? Is BTB really mort?
To which I answer: I don’t know. I do not know — never knew — who wrote BTB. Like all its faithful readers, no doubt, I’ve made my guesses. But all my suspects denied it, and […]

If you’re like me, you’ve had Tuesday, October 16 circled on your calendar as the day when the therapist facilitator was coming to help City Council deal with its CAC issues. That’s Citizen Advisory Councils for short — citizens trying to influence city bidness, in other words. Since the elections turned two Council members into […]

BlueNC has the scoop. Nothing against Jim Neal, but if the Democrats were trying make Liddy Dole sound invincible, they couldn’t have done it better. (Update: As in this.)

In the only City Council race not settled Tuesday night, District B incumbent Jessie Taliaferro has called Rodger Koopman to concede defeat. Koopman led by 44-33% in the first round of voting, with Angel Menendez getting the rest. Koopman says Taliaferro was gracious when she called. He’s looking forward to joining a Council that now […]

There are now 87 House Democrats telling President Bush that they will not support additional funding for the war UNLESS Bush commits, as part of the bill, to get our troops out of Iraq by the end of his term. I squinted at the list, and I see Mel Watt and G.K Butterfield included from […]

Raleigh very nearly had a sea change election tonight — and when all is said and done, it almost certainly was a sea change election. Here’s why. Take the prevailing 5-3 majority in favor of development interests on the current City Council. Subtract one from the majority: District A incumbent Tommy Craven lost his re-election […]

The mayor doesn’t endorse candidates for City Council. But this is mere semantics. He’s supporting Nancy McFarlane and Russ Stephenson. As between Rodger Koopman and Jessie Taliaferro, Meeker’s neutral on them — officially. But they’re not neutral on him. More below. A month ago, when the Sierra Club announced its endorsements, Mayor Meeker was there […]