Unlicensed fishing costs $1.2 million

Here’s a story for my “law & fishing” file. Bonus points because it happened in North Carolina. The crew of the Citation thought they were sitting pretty, having pulled in the biggest fish in the annual Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in Morehead City, N.C., an 883-pounder. This would have netted (pun intended) them over [...]

North Carolina’s Little River Among America’s Most Endangered

The Little River, in Wake County, NC, ranks No. 4 on American Rivers’ 2010 list of the nation’s most endangered rivers: The Little River, home to an abundance of fish and wildlife, provides drinking water, irrigation, and recreational opportunities to the surrounding communities. A proposed water supply dam would not only cost taxpayers millions, it [...]

Scenes from the Post-Racial Society

Someone in Lowell, North Carolina didn’t get the memo. Allen McGee & Cyd McDaniel, an inter-racial couple, have been the targets of an ugly harassment campaign. First someone left a brick with a noose and an angry note on their front porch. Then someone defaced the house with threatening graffiti. According to the official municipal [...]

Today in Redneck Demagoguery

North Carolina State Senator Jim Forrester claims the state legislature is under the thumb of “Slick city lawyers and homosexual lobbies and African American lobbies“. Predictably, he then claims he “didn’t mean to offend anybody.” No, I’m sure he meant to compliment the “homosexual lobbies and African American lobbies” on their political prowess.

How Now, Clown Yow?

The local paper reports that incumbent Rep. Howard Coble (in whose district I currently reside) will face a GOP primary challenge from the delightfully named Billy Yow, currently a Guilford County Commissioner. As a relative newcomer to Greensboro, I was previously unfamiliar with Yow. He seems like a charming fellow: In 2004, Yow sold shirts [...]

Stokes County Courthouse

Danbury, NC is a pretty little town along the Dan River, just about an hour’s leisurely drive northwest of my home. I passed through there today, and stopped to take some pictures of the Stokes County Courthouse (built in 1904). In front of the courthouse stands this memorial to local Confederate war dead. A central [...]

Lowgap, NC

More evidence that Duke is full of wankers

Meanwhile, at the Northwestern of the Southeast, the controversy du jour concerns a study of sex toys. As part of the study, female students are invited to attend a “one-hour party” at which they will “view sex toys and engage in sexually explicit conversation with other female Duke students.” The director of the campus Catholic [...]

Commission votes to save Stripers from increasing commercial fishing

The Striped Bass (a.k.a. Rockfish) is among the glories of the Atlantic coast. Thanks to sound regulation and management, the population recovered from a severe crisis some years ago. But another crash remains all too possible. Fortunately, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a multi-state agency that oversees this valuable resource, has denied a proposal [...]

McElree’s Wine of Cardui

Washington, North Carolina “Wine of Cardui” was a patent medicine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marketed as a cure for “female diseases”.  In 1916, the Chattanooga Medicine Company, which made Wine of Cardui, won a libel suit against the American Medical Association, which had published an article in its Journal calling the [...]