NC Politics to be a focus of a Bill Moyers program Jan. 3, 2014

Preview: State of Conflict: North Carolina
December 19, 2013

First it was Wisconsin. Now it’s North Carolina that is redefining the term “battleground state.” On one side: a right-wing government enacting laws that are changing the face of the state. On the other: citizen protesters who are fighting back against what they fear is a radical takeover. This crucible of conflict reflects how the battle for control of American politics is likely to be fought for the foreseeable future: not in Washington, DC, but state by state.

Airing January 3, 2014, “State of Conflict: North Carolina” offers a documentary report from a state that votes both blue and red and sometimes purple (Romney carried it by a whisker in 2012, Obama by an eyelash in 2008). Now, however, Republicans hold the governor’s mansion and both houses of the legislature and they are steering North Carolina far to the right: slashing taxes on corporations and the wealthy, providing vouchers to private schools, cutting unemployment benefits, refusing to expand Medicaid and rolling back electoral reforms, including voting rights.

At the heart of this conservative onslaught sits a businessman who is so wealthy and powerful that he is frequently described as the state’s own “Koch brother.” Art Pope, whose family fortune was made via a chain of discount stores, has poured tens of millions of dollars into a network of foundations and think tanks that advocate a wide range of conservative causes. Pope is also a major funder of conservative political candidates in the state.

Pope’s most ardent opponent is the Reverend William Barber, head of the state chapter of the NAACP, who says the right-wing state government has produced “an avalanche of extremist policies that threaten health care, that threaten education [and] that threaten the poor.” Barber’s opposition to the legislature as well as the Pope alliance became a catalyst for the protest movement that became known around the country as “Moral Mondays.”


For more info: http://billmoyers.com/segment/preview-state-of-conflict-north-carolina/#.Ur2WP782pLY.facebook


If you're like I am, though, I didn't know that UNC-TV has several channels in NC. If you try to find when the program airs
through the billmoyers link, it will tell you the program isn't being aired on UNC-TV.

BUT----Go here to UNC-TV website: http://www.unctv.org/content/program_listings/moyers-company-41

and you'll find that it is airing on the UNC-MX channel.

For us, Time Warner Cable customers in Chapel Hill, it's channel 172

Great color in the sky tonight as the moon was rising here in Chapel Hill!

I have a travel photo running in a contest sponsored by our newspaper

that I took on our recent trip.

If you'd like to see the photos--and maybe vote for me!--here's a link, although you will have to register to vote.

This is the photo titled: Night Lights of Salzburg







http://triangle.upickem.net/engine/ApprovedSubmissions.aspx?PageType=APPROVED&ContestID=108144#SubmissionDisplay

Yummy smashed pumpkin

I thought about using this photo for the Autumn contest, but decided against it. Thought I'd share, though.
Last year I threw our front yard pumpkin off our back deck--onto the hillside--to provide some food for squirrels,
birds, etc. I did it again this year when I put the Christmas wreath on our front door. Several days ago
I noticed this young deer nibbling on it, but my dog, Snowy, scared it away. When it came back, late one cloudy
and overcast afternoon, I sneaked out on the deck to grab some photos.