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"Restricting the flow of forms would effectively disenfranchise many of these voters, as other registration options come with their own roadblocks."
Read more of Kate Fellman's column here:
"On February 27, citing budgetary constraints, the State Board instructed county boards of elections to stop distributing voter registration forms in bulk – a long-established practice all over the country."
"North Carolinians have a pivotal part to play in the midterms. Troublingly, our State Board of Elections is working to undermine them."
"Public schools in rural communities are more than educational institutions. They are community centers and large employers. They are gathering places on Friday nights and sources of pride year-round. When a rural school struggles, the entire community feels it."
Read more at buff.ly/Kvyzj95
"North Carolina ranks last in the country when it comes to “funding effort,” the measure of how much a state or district invests in K-12 public schools relative to its overall economic capacity."
Kimberly Jones comments that, "...rural schools are not struggling because of a lack of passion or talent. The reason they are struggling is a lack of resources."
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"Someday, Southern white homes [...] must hear the wisdom in many of the things Jackson said. The system isn't strictly anti-Black or anti-Brown. It is anti-working class, anti-poor. And no one group will make it better without the others, without the "patchwork quilt" Jackson spoke of."
Read more:
"In his marathon 1984 address at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Jackson promised that "the linchpin of progressive politics in our nation will not come from the North," but from the South."
Billy Ball writes: "In the years that followed his presidential campaigns, Jackson became a joke in white homes like mine, especially in his native South. This, even though he picked up 13 primaries and caucuses in the 1988 Democratic primary race — and came in a close second in North Carolina."
Mocked in the South but revered on the national stage, Rev. Jesse Jackson challenged the South and the Democratic Party to face hard truths about race, poverty, and power. His message still resonates more than 40 years later.
Preston Blakely and George Dalton write: "Our new show will shed light on what binds communities together, and it will challenge both of us and our listeners to think about what North Carolina is and can be. How will we do that? Storytelling."
Read full column at buff.ly/kXCA2Dn
#weliveherepod #nc
So starts the story from @rdrhoney.bsky.social and from our media partner @cardinalandpine.bsky.social about a college student from Cleveland County whose life was upended by ICE — who were looking for someone else. Read more: cardinalpine.com/2025/08/01/n...
"Allison Bustillo Chinchilla came to America as a child from Honduras and grew up to be a certified nursing assistant. Under President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy, she’s spent the past five months in ICE detention." /1
Melissa’s column is free to republish, along with all other Beacon Media NC columns.
Editors and publishers, check out our guidelines here: www.beaconmedianc.org/republish-ou...
Decades of bipartisan promises to undocumented immigrants are unraveling — and the message reaching migrant farmworker families is devastating: “Don’t get noticed. Don’t fill out the forms. Don’t get help,” writes Beacon Voice Melissa Castillo.
#ImmigrationPolicy #ICE #NCPol #NCNews
Beacon Media NC is a nonprofit opinion syndicate, and everything we publish is free to republish.
Editors and publishers, check out our guidelines here: www.beaconmedianc.org/republish-ou...
When it comes to AI in local journalism, Rose Hoban from N.C. Health News believes the human eye and mind still matter most.
“To be frank, the articles we write are so localized, AI generators would be hard pressed to find enough information to generate a story that would stand up to scrutiny.”
Beacon Media NC provides free opinion columns for local outlets anywhere — so every community can access diverse NC voices.
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Fletcher, N.C. Mayor Preston Blakely shares how his family's local civil rights legacy has shaped his path and purpose.
“The struggle for rights is a legacy I now have the power to influence.”
beaconmedianc.substack.com/p/preston-bl...
Duke Energy’s plans to build new pipelines and gas plants are concerning to many.
Crystal Barnes of Forsyth County also connects the dots between those plans and the utility bills, which also pose a serious strain on her family's budget.
open.substack.com/pub/beaconme...
“You cannot ask schools to solve every societal ill while refusing to fund the systems that make solutions possible.”
Read 2023 State Teacher of the Year Kimberly Jones' outgoing message to lawmakers, leaders, parents, and all North Carolinians:
open.substack.com/pub/beaconme...
The U.S. House budget reconciliation bill will slash Medicaid assistance for thousands of North Carolinians, writes Rev. Della Owens.
“As a preacher, I must stand up, speak up, and advocate for those who this immoral budget will most impact.”
#NCPol #NCNews #BeaconVoices
Rural America is home to about three million people in the LGBTQ+ community.
"Queerness is as old as humankind—so why are some people acting so surprised it's here?”
@gwenfulton.bsky.social reflects on Pride celebrations in this column from June 2024.
About a quarter of North Carolinians use Medicaid to pay for their healthcare, including Debbie DeWeese.
Now, cuts to Medicaid have DeWeese worried that she will lose her life-saving health coverage.
Read more: bit.ly/45D9vO8
#NCPol #NCNews
“Democracy is supposed to give us space to disagree. Democracy fails when disagreement turns dangerous, deadly, or personal.”
Mayor @prestonb-nc.bsky.social shares his concerns about the growing threat of violence for our local political leaders in his first column for Beacon Media.
#NCPol
“Don’t get noticed. Don’t fill out the forms. Don’t get help.”
That’s the message farmworker families are hearing in North Carolina and across the U.S. Melissa Castillo writes about how decades of bipartisan promises are being shattered.
#ImmigrationPolicy #ICE #NCPol #NCNews
“The U.S. Army deserved a real celebration of its history, not a disorganized attempt to service the fragile ego of a wannabe king trying to look tough.”
Army veteran Scott Peoples says we’re watching something dangerous unfold in Trump's recent military parade.
#NCPol #NCNews
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Thirteen percent of North Carolinians rely on the SNAP food assistance program to eat. Now, Congress is pushing the largest SNAP cuts in its history.
@gwenfulton.bsky.social shares about her own time at a food bank and the disconnect between lawmakers and the rest of us.