FEARRINGTON VILLAGE CANCELS GOP FUNDRAISER TO RAFFLE AR-15: The Chatham County GOP still plans to raffle off firearms this election season, just not at The Barn at Fearrington. The Republican Party had announced plans to sell 100 $50 tickets to win either a Ruger 5.56 rifle or a Mossberg 12 gauge shotgun during a Sept. 10 meet-the-candidates event at Fearrington Village outside Pittsboro. Some people criticized the raffle for offering the Ruger, the same type of rifle used to kill 26 people in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, two years go. “Chatham County is a southern rural county and many of its citizens — Republican, Democrat, or Independent — have and use firearms for target shooting and for hunting,” it said. “The two kinds of firearms in our raffle, a modern sporting rifle and a shotgun, are widely owned. Many Chatham citizens would like to win one of these firearms.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/chatham-county/article234089967.html

TILLIS AND BURR, SHOW YOU STAND WITH NC, NOT THE NRA: Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis need to let the North Carolinians know who ranks at the top of their priority list. Is it the 10.3 million residents or 6.7 million registered voters in the state? Is it the $6.9 million the National Rifle Association donated to Burr’s campaigns? Is it the $4.4 million the NRA donated to Tillis’ campaigns? If their priority is the people of the state they represent, they must be in the forefront of demanding the U.S. Senate take up and pass two bills the House of Representatives passed last February – the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and the Enhanced Background Checks Act. There has been NO Senate activity on the bills. Additionally, they should be leading voices for adoption of “red-flag" laws that allow public safety officials and family members, following due process and a court order, to temporarily prevent firearm possession by a person who is a threat to themselves or others.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-tillis-and-burr-show-you-stand-with-n-c-not-the-nra/18563629/

DAILY PER DIEMS MOUNT AS TIM MOORE'S OVERRIDE GAMBIT CONTINUES: House Speaker Tim Moore says he's working on getting the Democratic votes he needs for an override. Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Darren Jackson insists Moore's mission will never succeed, and he and all but a few House Democrats sent Moore a letter to that effect this week. Republicans are basically playing a numbers game, putting the override vote on the floor calendar every day in hopes that enough Democrats will be absent to allow them to get the override the votes they have. "They're just paying for us to sit around and not talk to each other. Honestly, that's what's going on," said Jackson, D-Wake.
https://www.wral.com/meter-keeps-running-on-legislative-session-as-budget-stalemate-drags-on/18571225/

ENVIRONMENTALISTS FILE PETITION WITH DEQ TO REVOKE PIPELINE PERMIT: The North Carolina Climate Solutions Coalition and Friends of the Earth filed a petition with the state Department of Environmental Quality to revoke the permit the agency issued last year to the pipeline's developers under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. The groups say the facts that were presented in the application for the permit were incorrect and are no longer accurate. The 600-mile pipeline is expected to carry natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina, crossing eight eastern North Carolina counties from Halifax County to its terminus in Robeson County. Activists for low-income and Native American communities in North Carolina have been protesting the pipeline since state regulators approved it in January 2018. They claim the pipeline will put dangerous, dirty natural gas infrastructure in the middle of one of the largest Native American communities east of the Mississippi River.
https://www.wral.com/environmental-activists-seek-reversal-of-nc-permit-for-atlantic-coast-pipeline/...

ACTIVISTS RALLY IN HILLSBOROUGH AGAINST RACISM AND VIOLENCE: Saturday’s rally — held by the Hate-Free Schools Coalition, local NAACP chapters, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence and other groups — was a culmination of a week of national mourning, after two mass shootings in the U.S. A local conflict also was on their minds, one that involved Hillsborough business owner Matthew Shepherd and pro-Confederate demonstrators. Hillsborough has been a target for pro-Confederate protests for the past few years after Orange County officials took steps to limit Confederate flags and symbols in the area. And late last month, after encountering a pro-Confederate demonstration near his chocolate shop, Matthew’s Chocolate’s, Shepherd put out a sign that read: “Burn a Rebel Flag… Get a Free Chocolate!” The sign went viral after three Confederate flag bearers stood behind it and posted it to social media. Shepherd later received death threats.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article233747937.html