Free Republic

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — From a perch on Main Street, the hometown of actor Andy Griffith looks this day like it was plucked right out of the television show that bears his name. And it was. Residents and tourists from farflung states mill along the thoroughfare, past the quaint low-slung shops made of Mount Airy's famous white granite and named, like Floyd's City Barber Shop, for references in "The Andy Griffith Show," the folksy comedy set in the idyllic fictional small town of Mayberry that first aired in 1960. And yet even as this city of about 10,000 nestled in...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Justin G. Liverman, 24, of Morehead City, North Carolina, pleaded guilty today for his role in a harassment scheme that targeted senior U.S. government officials. Liverman’s plea admits guilt to a conspiracy to commit unauthorized computer intrusions, identity theft, and telephone harassment. According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, beginning in November 2015, Liverman conspired to attempt to intimidate and harass U.S. officials and their families by gaining unauthorized access to victims’ online accounts, among other things. For example, Liverman publicly posted online documents and personal information unlawfully obtained from a victim’s personal...

Dear Professor Meinhold, Members of the Faculty Senate Steering Committee: It has been several weeks since I published my column “My Faculty Values and Your White Privilege” on Townhall.com. In that column, which I have linked here, I warned you about the dangers of a resolution you passed condemning faculty members for publicly commenting on the demographic characteristics of students. I specifically enumerated five problems with your statement, which was an overreaction to a free speech controversy involving a faculty member (yours truly). The problems I enumerated demonstrated that your committee did not think matters through before passing the emotionally...

A taxpayer-funded political science professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has concluded that political conditions in North Carolina are comparable to political conditions in totalitarian nations such as Cuba, Venezuela and Iran because Republicans are too politically successful. The professor, Andrew Reynolds, aired his 936-word grievance last week in The News & Observer, a newspaper out of Raleigh. North Carolina “can no longer be classified as a full democracy,” Reynolds declares, because the statewide Republican Party has been too successful at winning the state’s winner-take-all elections. The winner-take-all system — which is excessively common throughout the...

Catawba County was the biggest winner in last week’s announcement that GKN Driveline would bring 302 jobs and $179 million in investment to four of its N.C. facilities. A GKN Driveline facility in Maiden will get almost half of the jobs (143) and more than 60% of the investment ($110 million). It’s the second big expansion at the Maiden plant in two years as GKN works to meet demand for new technology in automobile drivetrain design. In 2014, the company added 228 employees and spent $114 million at the plant. Once the latest new hires are added over the coming...

In the just released EIP report, North Carolina’s overall electoral integrity score of 58/100 for the 2016 election places us alongside authoritarian states and pseudo-democracies like Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. If it were a nation state, North Carolina would rank right in the middle of the global league table – a deeply flawed, partly free democracy that is only slightly ahead of the failed democracies that constitute much of the developing world.

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. …

RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) -- The Charlotte City Council voted Monday to repeal a bathroom ordinance passed in early 2016 that led to the General Assembly convening a special session to pass North Carolina's controversial HB2 law. Within minutes of the repeal, Governor-elect Roy Cooper said the controversial state law will be repealed too in the General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory confirmed he will call for a special session for that purpose.

The next step in the 2016 presidential election isn’t happening without controversy as North Carolina’s presidential electors are gearing up to cast their votes in the Electoral College. Several groups, including Unite America, are calling on electors to vote their conscience after President elect Donald Trump won North Carolina. A spokesman for the state Republican Party ... press conference began that there would be no mystery in the outcome Monday. There will be 15 votes for Trump, but that didn't stop protesters from gathering to urge electors to change their mind. "We have decided that the electoral college will serve...

President-elect Donald Trump continued his "Thank You" victory tour on Tuesday, making a stop in North Carolina to tout his national security agenda and formally introduce his pick for Defense Secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis. Speaking in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump called Mattis the "living embodiment of the Marine Corps motto" — Semper Fidelis. "Mad Dog plays no games, right?" Trump asked, invoking the general's nickname, and added that the country was fortunate "that a man of this character and integrity will now be the civilian leader atop the Department of Defense."

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory will meet with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday, according to The Hill.The Trump transition team said the meeting will happen after a transition fundraising breakfast.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016: Live stream coverage of the Donald J. Trump Thank You Tour Rally in Fayetteville, NC at Crown Coliseum. Live coverage begins at 6:00 PM ET. Crown Coliseum Crown Coliseum

Immigration Group Claims NC GOP Governor’s Loss Was Due to Illegal Alien Voters Jim Hoft Dec 5th, 2016 2:21 pm 46 Comments North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory conceded the race today in North Carolina to Democrat Roy Cooper. Cooper defeated Governor McCrory by over 10,000 votes. Americans for Legal Immigration blamed Governor McCrory’s defeat on illegal alien voters. Republican North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory conceded his race today after failing to challenge ineligible voters that included illegal immigrant voters that cost him his race against Democrat Roy Cooper. “Governor McCrory won’t be the last Republican victim of illegal immigrant voters...

You Can Be a Certified Duke Marxist. Think about that.No, this is not The Onion, a joke, nor a smear.James Buchanan “Buck” Duke was an industrialist icon; a man who made a fortune in tobacco and textiles. He was a true capitalist that feared God, inspired faith, and was a titan of industry. He funded several of America’s great educational institutions and was a philanthropist beyond measure, but his endowment is now responsible for a program that will certify the next generation of Marxists.- Let that sink in.According to a recent Duke Chronicle article, “Duke has long been known internationally...

It was hook, line and sinker — literally — for a man who went out fishing over Thanksgiving. Equipped with only a small rod, Wilmington, North Carolina, resident Riahn Brewington struggled as he tried to pull out a fish from Cape Fear River last week. He caught a catfish, but not just any catfish: a giant catfish that weighed more than 112 pounds. The bloated fish was bigger than the top half of Brewington’s body. Brewington couldn’t believe his eyes, and neither could his friends when the fisherman posted his prized catch on Facebook. “Holy Catfish!!!” one Facebook user exclaimed....

Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN)The officer who fatally shot Keith Lamont Scott won't face charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday, closing a two-month investigation into the killing that led to heated protests and divided the city of Charlotte. Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said he didn't reach the decision alone; a total of 15 prosecutors unanimously agreed that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Brentley Vinson was justified in shooting Scott on September 20 in an apartment complex parking lot.

20-year-old Justin Nojan Sullivan pled guilty on Tuesday morning to a chilling terrorist plot in which he planned to use a silenced gun to murder hundreds of people in Virginia and North Carolina on behalf of the Islamic State. He has agreed to serve a life sentence in prison.

A North Carolina prosecutor has asked state and federal investigators to help determine if a 69-year-old Vietnam veteran was fatally shot because he supported Donald Trump. However, the local sheriff says there's no evidence yet to connect the drive-by shooting to the campaign sign in the victim's yard. Vance County Sheriff Peter White says Raymond Harrell died at a Durham hospital Tuesday, nearly a month after he was shot while standing in his doorway. The bullet struck near his rib cage. The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that District Attorney Michael Waters wants the case reviewed as a possible...

Formal protests are now being filed in 11 additional counties to challenge potentially fraudulent absentee ballots cast for Roy Cooper and other Democrats, according to Governor Pat McCrory's campaign.A formal protest was filed with the Bladen County Board of Elections to challenge several hundred absentee ballots, alleged to be fraudulent on Tuesday. The initial evidence laid out in the protest suggests a "massive scheme to run an absentee ballot mill involving hundreds of ballots, perpetrated by and through the Bladen County Improvement Association PAC," a political-action committee funded by the N.C. Democrat Party and other prominent statewide Democrats.  In addition to...