The State of Things

Recent changes to state law have turned the battle for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court into a highly-anticipated contest. The General Assembly eliminated judicial primaries, and for the first time in years, judicial candidates will list their party affiliation on the ballot.

When Alfredo Hurtado signed up to become a member of an Army military police unit, he figured he would be eating donuts and sitting in cars all day. Then the Sept. 11 attacks happened. Hurtado found himself guarding the twisted, dark corridors of the Pentagon, then detaining prisoners in Afghanistan. On his next deployment, to Iraq, his convoy hit an improvised explosive device that left Hurtado injured and in pain.

How will the disappearance of a Saudi journalist and dissident affect the relationship between the United States and oil-rich Saudi Arabia? Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Turkey over two weeks ago and hasn’t been seen since. Turkish officials say they have audio and video recordings proving a gruesome death.

After most fans had retired their copies of “Ziggy Stardust,” John Elderkin whipped out his pen and decided to write a sequel to the legendary David Bowie album. This desire to tell stories along with his love for music would meet in a band called Mad Crush.

In occupied France, one sister travels to Paris to audition for a spot at a conservatory, while two others stay behind at the family home in Normandy. The D-Day invasion that leaves one of them dead and the others traumatized in their various ways shapes the entire family for multiple generations and across two continents.

News deserts are cropping up across America. A new report shows nearly 1,800 papers have shuttered or merged since 2004, and 171 counties across the U.S. have no local newspaper. This decline has deep implications for civic participation and government accountability, which become even more critical around election time.

As a boy in a boring Pennsylvania town, Justin Schmidt could not help but investigate how biting ants, stinging wasps and other insects would react when he sat on their mounds or knocked down their nests. These escapades won him no love from the bugs he bothered, but Schmidt did develop an enduring adoration for them.

More than 500 women announced they will run for governorships and Congressional seats around the country this year, and some pundits have predicted there will be a pink wave in this midterm election cycle. But the Status of Women in North Carolina Politics 2018 report shows that there is no pink wave in North Carolina.

The bedrock of American democracy is the right of every citizen to vote. But exercising that right can sometimes prove complicated. During the 2016 election, three old friends headed to Fayetteville to volunteer at polling stations, accompanied by a single camera they hoped would capture their efforts to ensure everyone who wanted to carry out their civic duty could do so.

Six proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot could impact key aspects of state government. But there is not much information available about how these amendments would be implemented.