Community-focused posts
There are 773 posts filed in Raleigh (this is page 70 of 78).
Jason Ray is still touching lives. The UNC student who performed as the UNC mascot Rameses (and of whom I wrote about before) may have died in March but parts of him live on. Ray’s organs have been distributed to over 80 people, according to the Charlotte Observer this morning.
Tonight ESPN will air the story of Jason Ray, called “Ray of Hope.” I hope his story inspires more people to become organ donors.
I’m an organ donor. Are you?
What a short, strange trip its been. I guess I can tell you now what has stolen my blogging time for the last few weeks.
It was a little after noon when I got the call from Esther, Rodger Koopman’s campaign manager, telling me that Jessie Taliaferro had conceded the race for Raleigh District B city councilor. The call marked the end of five weeks of intensely hard but curiously satisfying work to help get him elected.
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Its official now: Rodger Koopman will be Raleigh District B’s new city councilor! At noon today Jessie Taliaferro announced she is not seeking a runoff.
Man, I can’t tell you how happy I am. Rodger’s team worked very hard for this. We took on an established,formidable candidate and won against all odds. Its a huge victory for Raleigh’s grassroots – everyday people who care enough about our city to get involved.
Congratulations to Rodger. Kudos to Jessie Taliaferro as well for her classy decision. While I’m at it let me offer my apologies for my rather harsh previous post.
How many thousands of gallons of fresh water are being wasted on the current Cary gas line fire? And for what? The drilling truck involved has long ago burned off its fuel, the truck (and road) is a total loss anyway, there is nothing around it that can catch fire (or that hasn’t already caught fire), and firefighters aren’t trying to extinguish the fire but are letting it burn out. Can some of my firefighter buddies tell me what these guys hope to accomplish by aiming hoses at it, other than practicing their aim?
On a related note, is there a reason firefighters must use fresh water to fight fires? Can’t they use reuse water just as easily and safely?
Bonus link: Check out the fire from the perspective of the N.C. DOT traffic camera on the scene.
When the CIA’s ghost planes aren’t ferrying innocent men like German citizen Khaled El-Masri to faraway places to be tortured, they’re apparently ferrying cocaine into the United States as the recent crash in Mexico’s Yucatan of a cocaine-filled, Guantanamo-connected jet (tail # N987SA) seems to suggest.
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Yesterday was a huge victory for Raleigh’s grassroots as District B city council candidate Rodger Koopman not only put Jessie Taliaferro on notice, he thoroughly cleaned her clock – coming within five percent of booting her out outright. As a volunteer for the Koopman campaign I have relished the chance to put our citizens back in the driver’s seat when it comes to deciding Raleigh’s future.
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Looks like the tide is turning towards Rodger Koopman being the new District B city councilor, booting Jessie “Needs to Listen More” Taliaferro from office. I’m hitting the streets again today to get the word out about Rodger.
The election is Tuesday. Will you be voting?
Greg has alerted me to opposition forming against the BNAF, the Butner pathogen lab I wrote about earlier this summer. I can’t find any other links to the opposition, though. Bummer.
According to Greg’s post, the DHS will hold a public meeting at 7 PM on Tuesday, September 18th at South Granville High School. Wouldn’t it be great to see biohazard suits in the audience?
It all makes me wonder … is Ebola drought-resistant?
I thought today’s date looked familiar. Today’s the anniversary of the morning after Hurricane Fran came ashore. For some like me, the night it came ashore and the following day blended together, as I didn’t get much sleep after a tree came to rest 3 feet away from my once-sleeping head.
(I blather about this every year, don’t I? A sign of geezerhood?)
There’s a weak storm churning off of Wilmington now which hopefully will bring rain to the parched state. Let’s hope it stays weak, but brings the rain.
On my last deployment to the Persian Gulf, a pair of TAD (temporary assigned duty) guys joined my ship for the countless doughnuts we did there (the Persian Gulf, in spite of its fearsome reputation, is unbearably dull 99.9% of the time). One of these guys was Chuck, a wet-behind-the-ears E-4 who thought he knew it all. We delighted in proving him wrong with the typical “new guy” pranks.
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