Government
at Monday night's Town Council meeting if that's what it takes to demonstrate Chapel Hill's commitment to gay and lesbian rights.
My intro is glib but the issue is serious, especially in the aftermath of the recent attack on a gay UNC student. The Herald reports today that "A Christian activist group plans to bring 200 to 500 people to Monday night's Town Council meeting to protest the council's stance on same-sex marriage." Groups like this live off and in turn breed the intolerance that leads to hate crimes.
As I discussed in my Chapel Hill Herald column of 4/3/2004, there are over 1000 automatic federal protections, benefits, and responsibilities that come with a marriage license, many more at the state level. All Americans, and all North Carolinians, should have an equal right to these privileges and responsibilities.
Here is Equality NC's action alert:
Many entertaining theories were hatched in an attempt to explain what happened to the almost 5,000 pounds of marijuana that disappeared while in the custody of the Chatham County Sheriff's department in 2001. Just to give you a sense of scale, that's 80,000 oz. Most recreational users buy a quarter of an ounce at a time. Maybe someone had a party and generously smoked out every single person in Chatham, Orange, and Durham counties. Probably not, but they could have with that much pot!
When it comes to our wild theories, it appears that the truth may be stranger than fiction.
...former Chatham County Deputy Dan Phillips is suing former Chatham County Sheriff Ike Gray for wrongful termination.
Phillips claims the sheriff fired him Jan. 18, 2001, because he tried to bring attention to racism at a Chatham County high school and because he took an informant to the FBI who had information about thousands of pounds of seized marijuana that went missing from the Chatham County Sheriff's Office.
- Chapel Hill Herald, 2/26/05
Pop the Cap has been lobbying since at least last summer's World Beer Festival in Durham (which I highly recommend) to remove the 6% alcohol cap on all malt beverages produced in or imported to the state of North Carolina.
Currently only 5 states (Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina) have this limitation, and removing it, as the argument goes, shouldn't contribute to underage or binge drinking due to the expense and rarified taste of these beers. Several establishments in Orange County stand to benefit, including Tyler's Taproom, Carolina Brewery, and Top of the Hill as well other "progressive" bars, breweries and restaurants with a hankering for Scottish Ales, German Bocks, Russian Imperial Stouts, and Barleywines.
Those who hold out the hope that local government can have a progressive impact beyond its immediate and often parochial borders must have been pleased with last night's Town Council meeting.
At Sally Greene's initiative, the Council placed the repeal of GS 95-98 on its legislative agenda. This is the unfortunate law that prevents collective bargaining by public employees.
This is not a case of liberal Chapel Hill taking a stand on its own. While Chapel Hill is the first, UE-150 is taking its campaign statewide and expects other communities to also stand up for the repeal. It make take years to prevail on this issue but a growing NC labor movement may ultimately succeed.
Bill Strom also deserves credit for encouraging UE-150 on this issue. He, along with Greene, was a member of the worker's rights board that took testimony at December 4 hearing on the union's International Worker Justice Campaign.
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