She’s a formidable candidate. Jocys’s 32-year career in law enforcement includes 24 years with the FBI, where she was a member of a global counterterrorism task force, and she later became the first woman to lead the agency’s Raleigh office. She was also a member of a federal gang-and-violent-crimes task force in Durham for five years before retiring late last year.

Incumbent Clarence Birkhead faces a formidable challenge in Maria Jocys.

Families at McDougald Terrace say they have been dealing with trash overflowing in the dumpsters at the Durham public housing complex for weeks.

Ashley Canady, resident president at McDougald Terrace said, “People are not cooking in their homes because of the flies.” “You wouldn’t want your grandchildren, your family members, or your loved ones having to deal with this on a day-to-day basis; why should anyone else?”

On Tuesday afternoon, some crews from the City of Durham’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department came out and picked up the trash on the ground next to some of the dumpsters.

Late Tuesday, crews could also be seen emptying some of the dumpsters at the complex. 

There is still more to do, however.

Click here to read more.

A Triangle-based firm wants to turn half of the city-owned Durham Centre parking garage into a towering apartment complex, but Durham's city council isn't so sure.

The redevelopment would replace the western half of the deck with The James, a towering complex with ground-floor retail space, 82 public parking spaces, and 308 market-rate rental units. The building would become the tallest building in Durham if approved.

The firm has offered to contribute $650,000 to the city’s affordable housing fund, but executives are opposed to designating affordable units within The James itself.

Durham City Council members are pushing back on the plan for not offering affordable housing units in the building.

Click here to read more...

Right to Work States, of which North Carolina is one, have had better job growth over the last decade. In fact, quadruple the job growth of Forced Unionism States. 

Right to Work laws prevent workers from being forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment. A worker can join a union if they desire, but they can’t be fired for non payment of dues to a union they don’t want to join.

Interestingly, public pensions in Right to Work States are better funded than other states. That means lower tax liability on residents.

View a compilation of the Right to Work statistics here: https://nilrr.org/spring-2021-right-to-work-benefits/

House Bill 805 has cleared the Senate committee. House Bill 805 sets increased penalties on parties involved in rioting or inciting a riot.

Summary:

More information:

nsjonline.com

Because of the rising rates of Covid infection, Durham has re-instituted the mask mandate beginning Monday, August 9th at 5 PM.

Further details can be found here: Mask mandate story

Checking the news today, we find that the City Council ignores what the Planning Commission and Durham residents want in regards to Parcel K. Parcel K is a proposed 800 unit development in southeast Durham. 

Some facts:

• The Planning Commission, with an 11-1 vote to not approve the proposed development, ignored.
• The Durham residents who attended the meetings and overwhelmingly expressed disapproval for the development, ignored.
• Plans to update roads to support the development, non-existent.
• The developer attended the meetings at which they provided previously unannounced verbal changes to the proposal, inconsiderate if not a shady practice. These last-minute additions did not give the commission time to review and comment on the developer's, obviously intended, changes. 

While Durham has a housing shortage and the developer did propose including 22 affordable units, there is no excuse for the City Council to rush through an overwhelming opposed proposal.

On July 14, the North Carolina Senate Education Committee began considering a proposed substitute for House Bill (HB) 324, a bill that passed the House on May 12, 2021, in a 66-48 party-line vote. HB 324 is a bill:

“…[that] demonstrate[s] the General Assembly’s intent that students, teachers, administrators, and other school employees recognize the equality and rights of all persons and to prohibit public school units from promoting certain concepts that are contrary to that intent.”

Such as critical race theory!

HB 324 prohibits explicitly public and charter school units from promoting the following concepts:

1. One race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex.
2. An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
3. An individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his or her race or sex.
4. An individual's moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex.
5. An individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.
6. Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress.
7. That the belief that the United States is a meritocracy is an inherently racist or sexist belief, or that the United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex.
   
   

According to the Carolina Journal, the new version of HB 324 mirrors the wording and intent of the original House version. However, the new version also creates new accountability mechanisms that require public school districts to notify the Department of Public Instruction and make public any plans to teach CRT or hiring speakers who actively promote the theory or have done so in the past.

Teaching CRT in schools is all over the board within the State.  The Cabarrus County School Board passed a non-discrimination resolution that mirrors the language of HB 324, while the Durham City Council unanimously voted to support its teaching.  Moreover, Lt. Governor Mark Robinson sees CRT as the pernicious fraud it is.  “Students should be taught how to think, not what to think.”

Consider writing to your State Senator in support of the passage of this bill.

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Like many cities, Durham has a gang problem. Durham County is currently seeking residents' input to help determine how to address the problem. If you are interested in helping to guide future recommendations on dealing with gangs in Durham, you can take the survey here: Durham Gang Reduction Survey. The survey will be active until August 31, 2021. By submitting the survey you will also be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate.

On June 10th, 2021, the North Carolina Senate passed Senate Bill 43, which allows citizens who hold a concealed handgun permit to carry a handgun with them while attending religious services on private property that is both a school and a place of worship, unless the property owner objects. On June 18th, 2021 Governor Cooper vetoed the bill. 

His veto response shows that he never read or did not understand the bill. You can see his veto response here: Governor's veto response

On June 10th, 2021, the North Carolina Senate passed Senate Bill 43, which allows citizens who hold a concealed handgun permit to carry a handgun with them while attending religious services on private property that is both a school and a place of worship, unless the property owner objects. The bill nows goes to the Governor for final approval.

On June 3rd, 2021, the North Carolina House passed Senate Bill 43, which allows citizens who hold a concealed handgun permit to carry a handgun with them while attending religious services on private property that is both a school and a place of worship, unless the property owner objects.

Senate Bill 43 gives private property owners the ability to set their security policy rather than the state imposing a one-size-fits-all solution.

On March 2nd, 2021, the North Carolina Senate passed Senate Bill 43 (S. 43) – “The Religious Assembly Security and Protection Act of 2021 – by a bipartisan majority of 31-18. Now that the House has passed the bill, it goes back to the Senate for concurrence on June 8th, 2021.

If concurred with, it is unclear if Governor Cooper will veto the bill and whether there are sufficient votes to override the veto.

If you believe property owners should decide who can carry a gun on their property, contact your NC Senator and express your support of Senate Bill 43.

The staff for the Durham County Website processed my request for the missing Criminal Advisory Board minutes. You can now find and read what that board has been up to here:

https://www.dconc.gov/county-departments/departments-a-e/board-of-commissioners/boards-and-commissions-minutes/criminal-justice-advisory-committee

I am continuing the theme of Durham County Boards and Commissions. Given Durham's high crime rate, I wanted to see what the Criminal Justice Advisory Committee has been doing.

Going to the board minutes, I found no updates since March of 2018! I sent a feedback request for the site to be fixed and am waiting to see if I need additional action.

Doing a web search to see if I could find the minutes another way, I found the Durham County Board of County Commissioners minutes here: https://www.durhamsheriff.com/home/showpublisheddocument/33862/637484773609370000
and on the Boards and Commissions site here: https://www.dconc.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/33862/637484773609370000. Not what I was looking for but I might as well read through these minutes.

As I mentioned before, I'm just starting to learn about the Durham government and the decisions made in what I always felt was a secret room somewhere. Reading through the latest Board of County Commissioners minutes for January 11, 2021, there is a discussion about the 2021 Durham budget. Below is shown part of the budget:

Looking through the proposed budget, you find a couple of odd items. Most noticeable to me is that the General Government line item increases the most by $2,745,305! As a concerned citizen, I want to see less government, not more. What is that budget increase going to do to help my fellow Durham citizens and me? The other line item that is worth looking into is the Public Safety increase of $1,906,367. With such high crime already in Durham, how are those funds going to be allocated to helping?

Time to start digging.

I'm beginning my journey into the world that is our Durham County Government. Reading up on the Durham news, I saw that a board member was recently let go, and I wanted to know a little more about this board. An excellent place to start in this day and age would be a Web search. My search led me to the Durham County Website for the Board of Commissioners. 

From there, I discovered that there are over fifty Boards and Commissions! I had no idea there were so many. There are boards for Health, Crime, Tourism, and Transporation, to name a few. 

The Board and Commissions Website also has minutes for all the meetings. From the minutes, you can read exactly what these groups have been doing and plan to do. You can find interesting information in these minutes. For example, did you know the Alcohol and Beverage Control has a "Bourbon Lottery" for rare items?

There is a lot of information to go through, and reading these minutes will be enlightening. I'll post as I learn more.