The air in Raleigh, North Carolina remains tense today as accounts of the police-shooting that took place yesterday continue to surface. According to Raleigh Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown, Akiel Denkins, 24, was fatally shot by a policeman during a foot pursuit near Bragg and East streets in Southeast Raleigh at about noon on Monday.
Many of you here at BlueNC may be familiar with the widely used software platform for digital grassroots activism called NationBuilder. For those of you who aren't NationBuilder is a combination CMS/CRM platform that fosters online organizing. Last election cycle North Carolina saw hundreds of progressive campaigns (at all levels) flock to the platform to run the online operations of their committees to elect. What is interesting is that hundreds more non-profits in the state rely on the software everyday.
Today I was able to speak with the North Carolina State Board of Elections' official public information officer - Joshua Lawson. Although it took some effort to get in touch with him, Mr. Lawson was extremely mannerly, and helpful in answering my questions about the recent allegations of Americans for Prosperity committing voter fraud. I was quickly provided with all the public documentation on record about the case including the official notice of complaint addressed to Americans for Prosperity from the NCSBE, the official complaint letter from the NCDP, as well as a copy of the mailer that is in question.
Posted on the AFP-NC site today was the long-awaited response to last week's information that Americans for Prosperity mailed out incorrect voter information to a number of North Carolinians. While waiting for the official response (and apology) from AFP, the story has gained significant traction in the media both locally and nationally.
There is a story developing where the NC-AFP mailed out hundreds of incorrect voter registration forms to NC citizens. More on the story can be found here:
What makes this even more ridiculous (than the fact that everyone involved should probably be in jail), is that one of these was mailed to a resident's cat. We're not sure yet where AFP got the data for these people, we are sure that what they did was unethical and illegal. Seriously though ... a cat?
A toxic slurry of selenium and arsenic can bubble discretely for decades only to spill out and imperil life along miles of rivers and lakes. So too can a conservative legislator lay low for more than a decade until the Tea Party waves of 2010 and 2012 allow him to express himself like a cold sore that arrives when the weather changes.
Moral Monday protests returned to the NC Capitol on the evening of May 20th, 2014. A variety of social justice organizations including the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and churches of all religions and denominations, were well represented in a crowd estimated by Capitol police to be around 1500.
Speakers began addressing the gathered crowd around 5 o'clock and represented a spectrum of political issues including racial and gender equality, income and wealth inequality, reforms to unemployment and public education, and environmental concerns. However, supporters of all these various organizations were brought together by the notion that the actions of the current Republican controlled legislature do not reflect the moral values that they claim to support.
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