Free Republic

**SNIP** Senator Hagan released the following statement to ABC11: "When this law was written, we established a three-year transition period so that insurance companies had time to begin offering plans that met the requirements of the law for the 5 percent of people on the individual market. As I've made clear, I didn't know that some insurance companies would use that transition period to sell outdated plans without fully notifying consumers that they would no longer be available in 2014. But as soon as it came to my attention last fall when I heard from constituents who felt blindsided by...

LANDIS — A Rowan County school bus driver remains in jail today after Landis Police say he allowed students to smoke marijuana on the bus. Police say it wasn’t the first time he allowed students to smoke on the bus. Brian Davis Overcash, 30, was charged with four counts of misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The incident occurred Feb. 20 after Corriher-Lipe Middle School assistant Principal Matt Krome contacted authorities. Krome told officers with the Landis Police Department that Overcash, who drove bus No. 162, told the assistant principal that several students were on the bus smoking...

Guns Turned In at Phoenix Event Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will be having two gun turn in events in the next two months.   One on Saturday, March 15th,  and another at a second location on Saturday, April  12th.  While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term "buyback" the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them.  The rewards at this event: $100 for handguns, $75 for shotguns and rifles and $150 for "automatic weapons".  There is no limit to how many guns an individual may turn in.  The organizers want the guns to be...

**SNIP** Pressed on the question two more times as reporters followed her outside to the parking lot, Hagan did not answer. She offered this explanation without further details: “it wasn’t clear that insurance companies were selling substandard policies.” Blue Cross Blue Shield, the state’s largest insurer, responded by saying Hagan’s comments “are simply not true and she should know better.” Company spokesman Lew Borman said the insurer notified customers that they could keep a grandfathered plan. Customers were also given an opportunity to return to a grandfathered plan, Borman said. “The fact is that every step along the way, we...

The owner of a Rocky Mount convenience store shot and wounded one of three men suspected of trying to rob the store Sunday night, according to Rocky Mount police. Three men entered Mix Mart at 1522 S. Church St. about 9 p.m. police said. Two of the men were armed with handguns while the third suspect attempted to rob the 43-year-old man, but the store owner pulled a handgun and the two groups fired multiple shots at one another, police said. The three suspects then fled the scene.

Defying physics, ObamaCare has managed to create energies where none existed before: confusion over policies, anger over lost doctors, panic over costs. Most amazing has been the law’s ability to produce entirely new Washington life forces. The scientific formula goes like this: Another day + Another ObamaCare disaster = A New Kay Hagan. Back in 2008, North Carolinians were introduced to Bipartisan Kay, a hope-and-change candidate who argued that Sen. Elizabeth Dole was a lackey for a partisan George W. Bush. “It is time for someone to reach across party lines,” explained Bipartisan Kay. “Voting 92% of time with the...

**SNIP** A key part of the barrage against Hagan and other Democratic senators that Republicans perceive as vulnerable in 2014 is tying them to Obamacare, something Hagan defended. “The people in North Carolina have the fifth-highest signup on the exchanges, after Florida, New York, California and Texas, it’s North Carolina, so they’re very interested in this,” Hagan said. “We want to show that the Affordable Care Act is something whose time has come. It’s going to really change how the cost of health care will not have these huge increases that we’ve been seeing every year.” Hagan also referenced the...

Interstates remained gridlocked around the Raleigh-Durham area Wednesday night, creating eerily similarities to the traffic nightmare in Atlanta just two weeks ago. The trouble started around lunch as businesses and schools released early, just as the heaviest snow started falling. NCDOT online maps showed no one was moving on I-40, I-85 and other major roads. According to ABC 11 in Raleigh, police weren't even responding to minor accidents, instead telling drivers to exchange license and insurance information. Officers want to clear the roads as quickly as possible. One driver in Durham told The Weather Channel he'd only gone one mile...

On February 10th, the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners approved the Sheriff's Department trade of two highly collectible and desirable 1928 Thompson submachine guns for 88 AR-15 type Bushmaster rifles.  The vote was 6-1.  The trade had engendered some lengthy debates at board meetings over the last month. Because of restrictive gun bans passed in 1934, 1968, and 1986, only a limited number of these type of guns are available for sale to collectors.   The peculiar market conditions created by federal law have driven up the price from about $1,000 to the range of $30,000 - $50,000. Some questioned...

EAST HAVEN >> Supporters of Edgar Javier Marin, a New Haven activist facing deportation, claim he was abused by police for no reason during a 2011 incident, but his arrest report tells a different story. Last week, roughly 35 demonstrators stood on the steps of Town Hall to protest Marin’s detainment at the hands of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. According to a press release from New Haven-based Unidad Latina en Accion, the pro-immigration advocacy group to which Marin belongs, “although Javier (Marin) is a legal resident and has never done anything wrong, ICE wants to deport him and...

RALEIGH — State NAACP President William J. Barber II laid out goals for a diverse coalition of groups Saturday afternoon at a rally attended by thousands of people from all over the state and the nation who marched, sang, chanted, cheered and even danced through downtown Raleigh. Organizers said the “Mass Moral March” was intended to push back against last year’s Republican-led legislation in North Carolina. Barber called for well-funded public education, anti-poverty policies, affordable health care for all that includes the expansion of Medicaid, an end to disparities in the criminal justice system on the basis of class and...

Leftist activists, including members of North Carolina NAACP, are in Raleigh, North Carolina, today for the so-called Moral March. Their mission? To screech about everything from abortion restrictions to fast-food wages. North Carolina blogger extraordinaire Sister Toldjah has a must-read Moral March primer on the Moral Monday movement and its hateful organizers. As bused-in protesters and professional agitators prepared to promote their progressive causes — including oh-so-racist voter ID requirements — the state NAACP told participants make sure to have photo ID handy “at all times.” According to the “Important Dos and Don’ts for Marchers!!!” you should bring a “driver’s...

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan had a terse response Tuesday to another wave of TV ads that a conservative group is running against her. “The big agenda that people need to be asking is, who is it who’s funding these ads and what is their real agenda?” she said, adding that their agenda includes tax cuts for the wealthy. Hagan responded to a question about the latest attacks by Americans for Prosperity, a group started with support of the conservative Koch brothers. The ad attacks Hagan over her support for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

The man pretended to be drunk long enough to get to his safe and pull out a gun. One suspect ran away and the victim held the other suspect at gunpoint outside his apartment. He then told the suspect to leave.

Courtesy of Lauren Carroll/Journal myfox8.com When politicians attempt to ban things with regulations and taxes, weird results follow naturally.   In this example, the stage was set with the bizarre National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, which was upheld by the infamous U.S. v. Miller decision.  In the NFA of 1934, a $200 tax had to be paid, and full auto firearms had to be registered with the Federal government, if they had crossed state lines.  The "tax" was the equivalent of $4,000 today, on items that varied in value from 1/10th the amount of the tax to roughly equivalent...

North Carolina’s Kay Hagan is becoming the country’s most vulnerable Democrat even after distancing herself from President Obama during his recent visit to the state. A new Rasmussen poll reveals that Hagan is trailing her likely Republican opponent by the largest margin yet.

Someone apparently donated a live grenade to Goodwill about a week ago, but police detonated the grenade without mishap Thursday after store personnel told them about it. **SNIP** The report didn’t say how many times the grenade may have been handled at the store or why it took a week for someone to call police. Thomas Royal, a spokesman for Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina, said Thursday night that the grenade appeared to have been modified, and the store employees initially didn’t think it was dangerous.

State officials have agreed to pull the plug after spending $85 million on a tax computer system project that was supposed to handle the processing of tax forms and other tax information for years ahead. A contract between the state and the CGI Group was canceled Friday. The state and CGI “mutually agreed” to a final $5 million payment for unbilled work not yet paid and that will close out the contract, according to Trevor Johnson, a Revenue Department spokesman. CGI had previously received $63.8 million for its work on the tax software project, which had been handling some aspects...

North Carolina Democrats and African-American leaders are calling on Gov. Pat McCrory (R) to schedule an earlier special election for the seat of former congressman Mel Watt (D-N.C.), who was recently confirmed as head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. McCrory has said the special election for the remainder of Watt's term will be held on the regular Election Day, Nov. 4, with the winner serving until the 114th Congress is sworn in early January.

**SNIP** In recent weeks Sen. Hagan has attempted to distance herself from President Obama and his administrations failed policies.