Free Republic

A North Carolina legislator best known as the architect of the state’s so-called bathroom bill three years ago is racking up contributions and endorsements as he runs in the repeat of a congressional race marred by a ballot fraud scandal. State Sen. Dan Bishop of Charlotte is a leading contender among 10 candidates in next week’s GOP primary in the 9th Congressional District special election. The state elections board unanimously ordered the new election after Mark Harris, the Republican in last year’s race against Democrat Dan McCready, used a political operative accused of improperly collecting mail-in ballots. Harris opted not...

<p>Acadiana lost $26.6 million in proposed construction projects with the stroke of Gov. John Bel Edwards veto pen Wednesday.</p> <p>Twenty-nine projects were part of the 40 items struck from the state’s annual construction budget by Edwards using his line-item veto authority.</p>

The GOP’s business-first leadership has expanded the H-2B visa-worker program, so reducing marketplace pressure on companies to offer higher wages to Americans just months before the November election. The pre-election giveaway is buried on page 1760 of the 2232-page 2018 omnibus bill, where language allows the Department of Homeland Security to greatly expand the size of the H-2B visa-worker program up to roughly 100,000 imported workers: SEC. 205. Notwithstanding the [66,000] numerical limitation set forth in section 214(g)(1)(B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1184(g)(1)(B)), the Secretary of Homeland Security, after consultation with the Secretary of Labor, and...

Attorney General Xavier Becerra won’t lift a ban on publicly funded travel to North Carolina even though the Southern state repealed the law that California Democrats condemned as discriminatory against gay and transgender people. North Carolina’s repeal of its House Bill 2, the so-called “bathroom bill,” late last month persuaded the NCAA to lift its own ban on sponsoring championship collegiate sporting events there. Becerra found the repeal inadequate, noting that North Carolina’s new law bans local governments and universities from passing their own anti-discrimination laws. A number of civil rights organizations, such as Equality California, denounced North Carolina’s repeal...

North Carolina lawmakers filed a bill on Monday that would pull North Carolina and NC State from the Atlantic Coast Conference if the conference boycotted the state again amid the fallout of House Bill 2. House Bill 728 says that if a college conference boycotts North Carolina, then state schools that are a part of that conference would be prohibited from extending the grant of media rights to that conference. The ACC and NCAA had pulled championship events out of North Carolina until HB2 — known as the “bathroom bill” — was repealed. The bill, which was widely decried as...

Despicable. Faithless. Conniving. Liberal. As was reported earlier this week, a deal was struck between North Carolina’s lawmakers and the Charlotte City Council to mutually repeal both HB2 – the “bathroom bill” – and the Charlotte ordinance that made the bathroom bill a necessity, for the safety and privacy of the state’s citizens. Outgoing Governor Pat McCrory had announced that he would call a special session to repeal HB2, pursuant to Charlotte repealing the ordinance – and agreement that all parties seemed to agree with.

North Carolina legislators will repeal the contentious HB2 law that limited protections for LGBT people and led to an economic backlash, the state’s incoming governor said Monday. Gov.-elect Roy Cooper made the announcement shortly after the Charlotte City Council voted to repeal its own local ordinance enacted in early 2016. It was that ordinance that Republicans blamed for the statewide law. …

Internal emails show that city and state officials blame a North Carolina law limiting LGBT protections for a company’s decision to pick another state for a new project that includes 700 jobs. The Charlotte Observer reports it obtained emails showing the law known as HB2 was cited as a key factor in CoStar Group’s decision not to put its hub in Charlotte. …

There’s a famous old fable known as “Belling the Cat.” For those who haven’t heard it, it goes like this: A bunch of mice are threatened by a vicious cat, and they call a council to figure out how to solve the problem. One mouse proposes that they place a bell around the cat’s neck. That way, they’ll hear the cat approaching and have plenty of time to run and hide. The mice applaud the plan. They love the plan. It’s a great plan. One mouse asks who’s going to volunteer to place the bell around the cat’s neck. Suddenly,...

The NCAA will move seven championship events this academic year from the state of North Carolina, including the first and second round of the 2017 NCAA men's basketball tournament, because of the state's controversial HB2 law. The NCAA's Board of Governors made the announcement late Monday night. The decision comes on the heels of the NBA moving the all-star game in February from Charlotte to New Orleans.

Conspiracy theories about the birth of Charlotte’s so-called “bathroom law” have ranged from tales of political payoffs to a viral internet rumor of a gay sexual predator who duped the council into passing the law. Some even accused the City Council of being in league with Satan. But the idea for the law actually first took root quietly during July 2014 as two Charlotteans sat at Nova’s Bakery on Central Avenue, considering what more Charlotte might do to protect lesbians, gays and bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. It lasted less than 30 minutes, and the two men – City...

OAKLAND, Calif. — Adam Silver has steadfastly refused to set any deadlines for when the NBA would decide on moving the 2017 All-Game in Charlotte if a hotly debated North Carolina law hasn't been changed. In a way, he did before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, even as he said he's been pleased by the direction of the discussions. Silver said the NBA would need to see definitive progress toward changing the law by the end of summer to ensure that All-Star weekend remains in Charlotte. "I don't see how we would get past this summer...

North Carolina's senior U.S. Senator, Richard Burr, says the state should make changes to the controversial new law known as House Bill 2.... "It's now time," Burr told ABC11 after a Raleigh event, "for the General Assembly to take the opportunity that if we can roll this back, that it's probably in the best interests of North Carolina."...

About 40 preachers, mostly African-American, rallied on the State Capitol grounds on Tuesday to take offense at comparing the fight for LGBT protections to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Babylon Rises By Philip Cottraux I normally avoid controversial topics, preferring Bible teachings to divisive political issues. However, I have addressed gay marriage, church shootings and abortion, and now a particular firestorm has come against my state in recent weeks that I can no longer ignore. God is calling His people to take a stand. As homosexual fascism has swept America into embracing immorality under the phony guise of “civil rights,” ethical dilemmas have been created for local governments to deal with. North Carolina recently passed House Bill 2, which states that a transgendered person should use the restroom of...

Burr calls NC GOP governor 'off base' for seeking congressional action North Carolina's senior senator said his state's Gov. Pat McCrory is "off base" in calling for congressional intervention to resolve a state dispute over restroom access for transgender people. "I've never seen Congress get involved in judicial matters and this is turned over to the court system now," Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr said Tuesday. "So, I think the governor's off base."... Burr said he would rather see the issue remain in the courts. "That's where they chose to put it,” he said. “I would have preferred that they...

By adding to an already challenging legal environment in North Carolina, HB2 could cost the state almost $5 billion a year, according to a new report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. "The repeal of HB2 would not only reverse the threat to over $5 billion in economic activity for the state, but would also begin to bring North Carolina some of the economic advantages that come when a state embraces diversity and its LGBT citizens," said Christy Mallory, Senior Counsel at the Williams Institute and co-author of the new report. While prior reports have focused on...

A poll released Friday afternoon by the conservative group North Carolina Civitas showed Gov. Pat McCrory has the lowest approval ratings of his administration and trailing Attorney General Roy Cooper in the race for governor. The poll of 600 likely voters was done April 23-25 and has a margin of error of 4 percent. The poll shows 49 percent of North Carolinians have an unfavorable view of McCrory, the highest percentage since he has been governor. Only 39 percent have a favorable opinion, the lowest number of his time in office. In an October poll, by comparison, McCrory had a...

Duran Duran, an English band out of Birmingham, UK, considered canceling their Charlotte show over House Bill 2. Band member Simon Le Bon took to twitter Thursday to share the band's viewpoint on playing in North Carolina. Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article72009507.html#storylink=cpy

A major porn website has announced that it is blocking North Carolina users in protest of HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.So, North Carolina decides to keep its bathrooms and locker rooms safe from sexual predators and a porn company gets morally indignant.Oh, the irony. (For the bathroom side of the bill, see my questions to Bruce Springsteen; for the religious protections side, see the points made by Ryan Anderson; for Gov. McCrory’s partial compromise, while standing strong on other key points, see here.)An internet porn company, by definition, is not only immoral but literally traffics in immorality,...