STATE LAWMAKERS EXTEND BUDGET EMPASSE 45 DAYS [RALEIGH] With both houses of the NC General Assembly at loggerheads over a compromise budget, the state House and Senate agreed to a 45-day extension just before the July 1st deadline, allowing for conferees to hash out details for a 2015-16 spending plan. Gov. Pat McCrory signed the continuing resolution to extend the period into law, allowing state government ...

The event, featuring hip-hop activist Talib Kweli, will be held at the Duplin County Events Center on April 25. The project – aptly called the Orlando Jones’ Foolish Desperado Fund – aims to galvanize the public into action. ...

In a nation where millions of working families still can't earn enough to pay rent, pay the bills, and put food on the table at the same time—and where in fiscal year 2013 there were 4.9 million households with no income but SNAP including 1.3 million households with children—relying on the charity of PB and J Day is not a substitute for justice. ...

    I was standing in Jacksonville, Fla. airport awaiting a flight home when I looked up at the television at the gate. CNN was repeating the story that President Obama and Cuba’s President Raul Castro were to have a one-on-one discussion and were also to speak to the press. This was a sight that, until a few months ago, I had never expected. The change in U.S./Cuba relations has been a long time ...

  When the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act nearly two years ago in Shelby County v. Holder, many of us suspected that Chief Justice John Roberts in particular was distorting the severity of voting violations in jurisdictions covered by the act. As a popular GEICO commercial says, now we know. We now know because of extensive research conducted by William R. Kenan, Jr. ...

“Who can I turn to, when nobody needs me? My heart wants to know, and so I must go where destiny leads me.” Listening to an old album by the Temptations, “In a Mellow Mood,” made me think about the political trick-bag Black folks are in now that Barack is on his way out and the focus is on 2016 presidential candidates. I thought about how Black folks are nowhere in the political conversation, neither on th ...

By Ann Seymour, Events Coordinator, UNCW Department of Music   WILMINGTON, N.C. (March 16, 2015) -- Spring is on the way and so is UNCW’s annual festival celebrating the rich tradition of jazz and its future. The festival features two evenings of guest concerts and a closing concert by high school students.   Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson, an alumnus of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and charter member ...

Willistonians return to Williston gym to celebrate ...

  BY ALMA GILL NNPA COLUMNIST Long distant lover I am a 50-year-old field service engineer who travels 75 percent of the year for work. I love my job and appreciate the opportunity that I am able to travel around the world. No, I’m not in the military, so I can pick and choose where I decide to reside long term. Basically, the problem is maintaining long distant relationships with my family, friends a ...

BY DR. BENJAMIN CHAVIS   In recognition of the 75th Anniversary of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), I believe it is important to emphasize both the historical and contemporary mission, value and success of the Black Press in America. For the past 188 years Black Americans have labored diligently and responsibly to publish and distribute Black-owned newspapers in the interests of m ...