Charlotte citizen. Husband. Lawyer. Dog dad. Book worm.
A push is underway in the Queen City to advance a kinder, hipper slate of GOP candidates for municipal office. But underneath self-consciously cool, mostly millennial packaging lurks a tolerance for the authoritarianism that defines today’s Republican Party. The contenders themselves told us so. When candidate filing opened in March at the Mecklenburg County Board […]
While darkness has enveloped much of American politics since Donald Trump descended his escalator to announce a bid for the presidency, one bright spot has offered some hope that decency would yet prevail in politics and the public square: the work of so-called “never Trump” Republicans. Faced with a candidate and president plainly unfit for […]
Big businesses like to showcase their expertly curated pro-LGBTQ bona fides — and those of us who very much want to believe in right-thinking corporate benevolence take them at their word. Who can blame us? The acts of symbolic support are everywhere: Skyscrapers glow in celebration of gay liberation. Business logos take on rainbow hues […]
Local television news reporter Joe Bruno put it nicely. After disgraced former mayor and convicted crook Patrick Cannon filed this month to run for an at-large seat on Charlotte City Council, Mayor Vi Lyles released a statement responding to his attempted political comeback: “There are a number of at-large city council candidates. As long as […]
Odd as it sounds, I just can’t shake the memory of a recent Charlotte City Council meeting — and the lesson it teaches about our broken politics and bankrupt public ethics. At the meeting, which occurred in November 2021, Council considered two items: First, it voted to award $75 million in tax breaks and other […]
A property dispute landed Messrs. Willis and Smith in the North Carolina courts in September 1789. The legal contest arose from Willis’s attempted purchase of land from the absent H.E. McCulloch, who had “carried … beyond the sea” the deed proving his ownership of the property. With the deed missing, how could Willis prove McCulloch […]
When hundreds of anti-choice zealots marched outside a health clinic last month, Charlotte’s noise ordinance limited the harassment and heckling they could heap on women seeking care. The city’s code prevented protesters from using amplified sound too close to the facility and cordoned off certain areas in front of the doctor’s office to create room […]
Law enforcement recently accused a dead man of committing a string of decades-old sex crimes, and Charlotte’s media unthinkingly went along, declaring the cases closed and the suspect guilty. “Genetic genealogy helping solve cold cases tonight in Charlotte,” WCNC anchor Fred Shropshire intoned earlier this month during an evening broadcast. “Charlotte-Mecklenburg police detectives have ID’d […]
Maybe Patrick Cannon spoiled us when it comes to spotting municipal corruption in Charlotte. In 2014, investigators captured video of the disgraced former mayor taking cash bribes of about $50,000 in exchange for promises to do favors for federal agents posing as developers. So egregious was Cannon’s behavior, which resulted in a resignation, federal charges, […]
When a jury recently handed him defeat, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather nonetheless declared victory — with the help of local media. The D.A.’s self-serving announcement came in a tweet from his office, accompanied by a press release and a news story from WSOC. “Jury convicts domestic violence offender in car chase, shooting,” the […]
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