tagged w/ North Carolina
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Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor in Winfall, N.C., in 1967. The state ordered that immediately after giving birth, she should be sterilized. Doctors cut and tied off her fallopian tubes.
“I have to carry these scars with me. I have to live with this for the rest of my life,” she said.
Riddick was never told what was happening. “Got to the hospital and they put me in a room and that’s all I remember, that’s all I remember,” she said. “When I woke up, I woke up with bandages on my stomach.”
Riddick’s records reveal that a five-person state eugenics board in Raleigh had approved a recommendation that she be sterilized. The records label Riddick as “feebleminded” and “promiscuous.” They said her schoolwork was poor and that she “does not get along well with others.”
“I was raped by a perpetrator [who was never charged] and then I was raped by the state of North Carolina. They took something from me both times,” she said. “The state of North Carolina, they took something so dearly from me, something that was God given.”
It wouldn’t be until Riddick was 19, married and wanting more children, that she’d learn she was incapable of having any more babies. A doctor in New York where she was living at the time told her that she’d been sterilized.
“Butchered. The doctor used that word… I didn’t understand what she meant when she said I had been butchered,” Riddick said.
North Carolina was one of 31 states to have a government run eugenics program. By the 1960s, tens of thousands of Americans were sterilized as a result of these programs.
Eugenics was a scientific theory that grew in popularity during the 1920s. Eugenicists believed that poverty, promiscuity and alcoholism were traits that were inherited. To eliminate those society ills and improve society’s gene pool, proponents of the theory argued that those that exhibited the traits should be sterilized. Some of America’s wealthiest citizens of the time were eugenicists including Dr. Clarence Gamble of the Procter and Gamble fortune and James Hanes of the hosiery company. Hanes helped found the Human Betterment League which promoted the cause of eugenicists.
It began as a way to control welfare spending on poor white women and men, but over time, North Carolina shifted focus, targeting more women and more blacks than whites. A third of the sterilizations performed in North Carolina were done on girls under the age of 18. Some were as young as nine years old.
For the past eight years, North Carolina lawmakers have been working to find a way to compensate those involuntarily sterilized in the state between 1929 and 1974. During that time period, 7,600 people were sterilized in North Carolina. Of those who were sterilized, 85 percent of the victims were female and 40 percent were non-white.
“You can’t rewind a watch or rewrite history. You just have to go forward and that’s what we’re trying to do in North Carolina,” said Governor Beverly Perdue in an exclusive interview with NBC News.
While North Carolina’s eugenics board was disbanded in 1977, the law allowing involuntary sterilization wasn’t officially repealed until 2003....
Continued at:
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=17473Elaine Riddick was 13 years old when she got pregnant after being raped by a neighbor... more
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Dagum
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I know how Copernicus must have felt. He's the fellow who first posited that the Sun, and not Earth, was at the center of the universe. For his trouble he was branded a heretic and ostrasized by the Catholic church. It turns out Nicolaus was right and the Pope, not so much. It's a familiar story. It has legs. It's still happening at the hands of the far right ignorati.I know how Copernicus must have felt. He's the fellow who first posited that the... more
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By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 28, 2012 12:10 EST
A Republican lawmaker from North Carolina is seeking a return to the days of public hanging, according to WRAL-TV.
Rep. Larry Pittman delivered an email this week to every member of the state’s General Assembly, describing that hangings needed to be reinstated as a “deterrent to crime,” including those who provide abortions.
“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out,” Pittman wrote. “Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner. If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”
Pitmman, whose radical position was driven by an inmate bragging about life in prison and delaying his execution date, said he intended the email to be sent to just one colleague instead of the entire chamber.
The last legal public hanging in America occurred in 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky.
(H/T Think Progress)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/28/nc-gop-lawmaker-calls-for-public-hangings-including-for-abortion-providers/
"I am all for public hangings... You know them folks at Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, Bankers etc, etc..."By Andrew Jones
Saturday, January 28, 2012 12:10 EST
A Republican lawmaker from... more
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KB723
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Greta Parker and her rabbit, "Flopsy" appear on North Carolina Channel 12 News, to educate people about their Non Profit organization, Baskets for Bunnies.
What a beautiful rabbit, and wonderful woman to rescue him, and to attempt to make the world a kinder place for some furry creatures!
Check out Flopsy Parker on Facebook, and watch his television appearance online @
http://www.wxii12.com/r/29832999/detail.htmlGreta Parker and her rabbit, "Flopsy" appear on North Carolina Channel 12... more
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A convicted Wentworth, North Carolina Facebook is going back to jail after deputies say he sent a Facebook friend request to one of his victims.A convicted Wentworth, North Carolina Facebook is going back to jail after deputies... more
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"Incumbent Wake County school board member Kevin Hill defeated challenger Heather Losurdo in a runoff tonight to complete a Democratic election sweep that knocks Republicans out of power after a turbulent two-year reign.""Incumbent Wake County school board member Kevin Hill defeated challenger Heather... more
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"Wake County School Board has had a 5-4 Republican majority since low-turnout races in 2009 unseated some Democrats. Republican Ron Margiotta was then named chairman and he has not skipped a beat in terms of undoing decades of progress. One of Margiotta's main prerogatives since taking office has been to reverse public school integration policies, a nefarious plan which was approved by a 5-4 margin two months ago. One of the organizations pushing this was none other than the Koch Brothers themselves. Naturally, Chairman Margiotta became a big target for Democrats. He also happened to be up for re-election today in his Republican-leaning 8th district...""Wake County School Board has had a 5-4 Republican majority since low-turnout... more
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By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, September 12th, 2011 -- 7:05 pm
The North Carolina House of Representatives has approved an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as solely between one man and one woman.
The Republican-controlled House passed the proposed amendment in a 75 to 42 vote on Monday after a three-hour debate. If the state Senate also approves the proposed amendment, North Carolina voters would ultimately decide its fate in a statewide referendum on next May's primary date.
State law already defines marriage as between one man and one woman, but a constitutional amendment would protect the law from legal challenges.
"Things have changed in Iowa, California, New York, D.C. and Massachusetts," House Majority Leader Rep. Paul Stam (R) said. "We have now states with significant populations that are allowing same sex marriages to be legitimized and entered into. The question then becomes what happens when they come to North Carolina seeking divorce or equitable distribution?"
Stam previously said same sex marriage needed to be banned to protect children, and that any argument used to support same sex marriage could be used to support the practice of polygamy and incest.
Democrats have mostly opposed the amendment, and accused Republicans of having priorities that are "seriously out of whack."
"The reality is that this amendment will not put one person back to work, it will not help one small business keep its doors open and it will not assist one single citizen now trying to recover from the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Irene," David Parker, Chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party said in blog post.
"It is simply un-American to single out any group of law-abiding citizens to harass and torment," he added. "Every time we select a set of folks to exclude from America's dream of a better life, the results are detrimental to our nation."
The proposed amendment would allow companies to offer benefits to employees in domestic partnerships, but some law professors have warned that the language could invalidate domestic violence laws and disrupt child custody cases.
"We are going to be enacting language into the constitution that no one knows what it means and could hurt citizens of this state and that will take years of needless litigation to resolve the meaning," Maxine Eichner, a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill, told the Associated Press.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/12/north-carolina-house-approves-same-sex-marriage-amendment/
"Any surprise this was done by a GOP - led House???" Bigotry "O" Plenty, I take it!!!By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, September 12th, 2011 -- 7:05 pm
The North Carolina House... more
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KB723
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Hello all you capoeiristas out there. We are trying to generate buzz across North Carolina about the growing capoeira crowd in Fayetteville North Carolina. Come visit this page and leave a comment, recommend it to a friend, like it, or leave some insight.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Capoeira-to-Fayetteville-NC/173916112664204Hello all you capoeiristas out there. We are trying to generate buzz across North... more
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MrRah
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Ima BossClothing Men & women's urban fashion for go getters making success happen one day at a time.
The T Burton Collection
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KemetLight Media
Shirts (short)Ima BossClothing Men & women's urban fashion for go getters making success... more
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More than 6 inches of rain fell in some parts of Charlotte. Many area streams were above flood stage Friday afternoon, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services. Even after the last of the rain ends, streams may continue to rise for several hours.
More at the link.More than 6 inches of rain fell in some parts of Charlotte. Many area streams were... more
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Folks, this is what you get when religious wackadoodles are allowed to promote so many things that are contrary to American way of life as defined in the Consitution and upheld by the Supreme Court. You cannot post comments freely on the original article there, but please feel free to leave your opinion here - unfettered.
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A jury found a North Carolina preacher guilty of stalking a Charlotte abortion doctor after passing out hundreds of "wanted" posters with the physician's name and photo on it.
Jurors deliberated about 90 minutes Friday before finding Rev. Phillip "Flip" Benham, director of Concord-based Operation Save America, guilty of misdemeanor stalking, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Benham, 62, was sentenced to 18 months of probation and ordered to stop any intimidating behaviors.
"I can't speak. I can't get within 500 feet," Benham said outside court, holding his Bible. "They've stolen from innocent babies a voice that has spoken for them."
Prosecutors said Benham distributed photos with the names and photos of several Charlotte doctors who perform abortions and the words "Wanted ... By Christ, to Stop Killing Babies."
Benham knew that doctors in other places had been killed after similar posters were made, Assistant District Attorney Kristen Northrup said.
"What would a reasonable person think if they saw `Wanted' on a poster with their picture on it?" Northrup said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/02/phillip-flip-benham-guilty-stalking-abortion-doctor_n_889273.html/Folks, this is what you get when religious wackadoodles are allowed to promote so many... more
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Imzadi
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More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children. Now, decades on, one state is considering compensation.More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a... more
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More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a eugenics movement that finished in 1979, aimed at keeping the poor and mentally ill from having children. Now, decades on, one state is considering compensation.
In 1968, Elaine Riddick was raped by a neighbour who threatened to kill her if she told what happened.
She was 13, the daughter of violent and abusive parents in the desperately poor country town of Winfall, in the US state of North Carolina.
While she was in hospital giving birth, the state violated her a second time, she says.
A social worker who had deemed her "feeble-minded" petitioned the state Eugenics Board to have her sterilised.
Officials coerced her illiterate grandmother into signing an "x" on an authorisation form. After performing a Caesarean section, doctors sterilised her "just like cutting a hog", she says.
"They killed my kids," Ms Riddick says. "They killed mine before they got to me. They stopped it."
Nearly four decades after the last person was sterilised under North Carolina's eugenics programme, a state task force is seeking the 2,900 victims of sterilisation officials estimate are still alive.
The group hopes to gather their stories and ultimately to recommend the state award them restitution. But with public coffers under severe pressure amid a flagging recovery, it is not clear the legislature will agree.
"I know I can't make it right but at least I can address it," said North Carolina state legislator Larry Womble. He hopes "to let the world know what a horrendous thing the government has perpetrated on these young boys and girls".
America's sterilisation movement was part of a broad effort to cleanse the country's population of characteristics and social groups deemed unwanted, an effort that included anti-race mixing and strict immigration quotas aimed at Eastern Europeans, Jews and Italians.
Beginning with Indiana in 1907, 32 states eventually passed laws allowing authorities to order the sterilisation of people deemed unfit to breed. The last programme ended in 1979.
The victims were criminals and juvenile delinquents, women deemed sexual deviants, homosexual men, poor people on welfare, people who were mentally ill or suffered from epilepsy. African Americans and Hispanic Americans were disproportionately targeted in some states.
'Coerced'
"In general it was the dispossessed of society," said Paul Lombardo, a historian and legal scholar at Georgia State University and editor of A Century of Eugenics in America.
The laws were plainly coercive, scholars say, though some incorporated a veneer of consent - illiterate farmhands given forms to sign, institutional inmates told they would not be released with their bodies intact, poor parents told they would be denied public assistance if they did not approve the removal of a wayward daughter's fallopian tubes.
Motivating the laws, Prof Lombardo said, was indignation at the thought that people who had violated sexual mores would subsequently end up needing public assistance.
"We have in this country have always been extremely sensitive to notions of public stories of inappropriate sexuality," he said.
"We exercise that most dramatically when it comes to times in which we think we're spending individual tax money to support people who violate those social norms. It's our puritanical background, running up against our sense of individualism."
Supreme Court approval
The racial context was inescapable as well.
"The fewer black babies we have the better, that's what some people said," Prof Lombardo said. "'They're just going to end up on welfare.'"
Also implicated in American sterilisation laws was the classical eugenic notion that as with horses, authorities could use genetic principles to improve society through selective breeding.
In a 1927 US Supreme Court decision that upheld the laws, storied jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: "It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind."
All told, scholars estimate more than 60,000 Americans were sterilised under eugenics laws in the 20th Century.
North Carolina's law stood out for the wide net it cast.
Telling their stories
Most states would only order sterilisation of institutional inmates or patients, North Carolina's allowed for people within the community - typically social workers - to petition the state to have someone sterilised.
Of the 1,110 men and 6,418 women sterilised in North Carolina between 1929 and 1974, state health officials estimate about 2,900 could still be alive.
In the decade years several states have re-examined their forgotten legacies - prodded in some cases by newspaper investigations - and extended officially apologies.
North Carolina did so in 2003, but Mr Womble has continued to push for monetary compensation to the victims.
This month, a state task force created by his legislation will hold a public session at which with surviving victims are expected to tell their stories.
The group will eventually make a recommendation for compensation to the governor - $20,000 per person has been suggested.
But the state is facing a $2.5bn (£1.5bn) budget shortfall. The conservative Republicans in control of the state legislature are already poised to slash transport, healthcare and education funds, so it seems unlikely lawmakers will authorise as much as $58m in reparations.
"My hope is that the state will recognise that there's never going to be a good time for compensation," says Charmaine Cooper, executive director of the Justice for Sterilization Victims Task Force, the state body.
Among those expected to testify is Ms Riddick, who now lives in Atlanta. She describes the prospect of a $20,000 payment as an insult.
"I am very angry," she says. "God said be fruitful and multiply. They did not only sin against me, they sinned against God."More than 60,000 Americans were sterilised, many against their will, as part of a... more
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pdy
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Sandra Louise Christensen, 41-year-old woman from Wake County, North Carolina, has been arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with a 15-year-old boy.
Christensen, a married mother, faces three counts of statutory rape, according to arrest warrants. The alleged offenses took place between June and August of last year in Wake County and on Christmas Day in Martin County. The boy was 15 years old at the time.
http://femalesexoffenders.com/fso/index.php/the-news/317-sandra-christensen-arrestedSandra Louise Christensen, 41-year-old woman from Wake County, North Carolina, has... more
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b2r
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After reading my recent column "Obama's Libyan War," a liberal friend took me to task. "Jack, you just don't understand," he began as he explained the important humanitarian reasons for the president's recent intervention.
I stared at him and asked, "If Bush had gone to war in Libya, would you have supported it?" He winced and replied, "Well, I would like to think I would."
"You're lying," I said, a charge which he eventually admitted. I then added that any liberal who says they would have supported Bush doing in Libya what they now support Obama doing is lying. And they know it.
If there's one thing worse than hypocrites, it's partisan hypocrites. And with this new Libyan war, Obama Democrats have again proven themselves to be virtually identical to the Bush Republicans they once despised. I distinctly remember syndicated talk radio host Sean Hannity arguing with antiwar Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul that it was a moral imperative for America to invade Iraq to liberate its citizens from Saddam Hussein's "genocide" and "rape rooms." At the time, virtually no one on the Left accepted these purportedly humanitarian reasons as justifications for the invasion of Iraq.
Today, many conservatives, including Hannity, either oppose or are highly skeptical of Obama's "humanitarian" Libyan intervention, while those in favor of it are either the same neoconservatives who were the most enthusiastic about Iraq or the liberals who are most loyal to Obama. As neoconservative godfather and Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol told Fox News, "His sound policies are more like the policies people like me have been advocating for quite a while. I'm happy to support them. He's a born-again neo-con."
Kristol is right. Virtually every argument Obama Democrats now make in support of Obama's intervention — it's a humanitarian mission, it will only take a few days or weeks, it's in America's interest — are identical to parts of the Bush administration's case for the Iraq war.
But there are some significant differences, all of which are negative for Obama. Bush at least claimed that Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the United States. Obama has said up front that Moammar Gadhafi does not. Bush officials claimed that Iraqis would become natural allies who would greet our soldiers as liberators. Obama officials admit that we don't really know who these Libyan rebels are, and it has been reported that some have connections to Al Qaeda. The Bush administration promised Iraq would be a short war or a "cakewalk." The Obama administration promises a short war with no boots on the ground, even though CIA shoe leather has hit the Libyan road and Gadhafi remains firmly in power. If we are to measure our foreign policy by a proper defense as opposed to an irrational offense, this makes our current president's Libyan war potentially worse than Bush's Iraq debacle. Welcome to "quagmire" Obama-style.
One of the few liberals willing to point out the Democrats' hypocrisy on Libya is The Daily Show's Jon Stewart. Said Stewart of Obama's argument for a no-fly zone: "Stop the violence against the civilians, I kind of like that. But see, there are other civilians in other countries protesting, and they're being killed too, and for them, we're enforcing a 'not-even-gonna-try zone."
As for our "new allies," Stewart noted, "So it seems like we've just taken sides in a civil war. And if that's the case, I'd love to hear more about our new allies. What are their likes, dislikes? Is one of their dislikes, I don't know, us? Do they believe America [is] the Great Satan or just your average run-of-the-mill Satan?"
Stewart also demolishes the popular liberal defense that Obama has successfully handed over this Libyan mission to NATO. He said, "We turned over the mission to NATO! Man, I feel bad for whoever the sucker is that's the main driving force financially and weapon-wise in that organization, because those guys are ... wait a minute. We're NATO! That's like Beyonce saying she's ceding control to Sasha Fierce."
Perhaps the most amusing example of liberals trying to avoid their foreign-policy hypocrisy came courtesy of Sen. Rand Paul. The president intervened in Libya without consulting Congress, which he is constitutionally required to do. Paul recently proposed the Senate take an up-or-down vote on the following now-famous 2007 Obama statement: "The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." The National Review wrote, "Paul's proposal flummoxed Reid, who does not want his members to have to weigh in on Obama's dusty quote about congressional authority ... If he allows a vote, Democrats are forced to either disagree with then-Sen. Obama or with President Obama. [Reid] may do anything to avoid a vote on Paul's amendment."
Reid is obviously and desperately attempting to obfuscate his party's blatant hypocrisy. But his fluster is not unlike that of most of his fellow liberals, who continue to rationalize what they once denounced in order to avoid admitting they've become what they once despised.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/democrats-make-the-same-arguments-for-war-republicans-once-did/Content?oid=3263387After reading my recent column "Obama's Libyan War," a liberal friend... more
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I arrived at Lexington's Bluegrass Airport early and was able to get some exclusive footage as thousands showed up to greet the UK Wildcats. Watch as the crowd grows and grows until all of the airports parking lots are full including the car rental lots. Footage includes the plane arriving and the team showing off their trophy. Josh Harrelson, known in Kentucky as Jorts, climbed on top of a bucket truck to give the crowd a good view of the trophy.
Do you think Kentucky will win the Championship?
Christopher Hignite
All rights reserved. Copyright 2011
MonkeyFilms on YouTube and Current.comI arrived at Lexington's Bluegrass Airport early and was able to get some... more
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RALEIGH -- Wisconsin's battle over collective bargaining rights spilled over into downtown streets Saturday, producing a noisy clash of pro- and anti-union demonstrators.
Hundreds of supporters of Wisconsin public employees in a dispute with Gov. Scott Walker waved signs, chanted and heard speeches on the south lawn of the Capitol, while a smaller, loudly outspoken group of opponents shouted their own slogans from the other side of Fayetteville Street.
The pro-union rally was organized by the State Employees Association of North Carolina. SEANC doesn't have formal negotiating rights, because North Carolina is one of two states that ban collective bargaining for public workers.
"If Wisconsin goes, everything goes!" Linda Suggs, a special education teacher in Wake County, said to the crowd that gathered facing Fayetteville Street.
Rallies supporting the Wisconsin employees also took place in Minneapolis; Denver; New York City; Topeka, Kan.; Lansing, Mich.; Harrisburg, Pa.; Columbus, Ohio; and elsewhere, the Associated Press reported.
Some among the crowd of about 150 opponents to the pro-union group said they were affiliated with the tea party movement.
Many in the anti-union group waved flags, and one was dressed in the uniform of a Revolutionary War soldier.
"We're trying to get all the sickness out of this country so we can get back to the foundation," said Roy Musser, who traveled from Morehead City for the rally.
Said Wake County resident Bruce Morris, gesturing toward the pro-union demonstrators, "These people are socialists; that's all it is."
State Capitol police kept order and maintained the distance between the groups. Heated exchanges between the two factions erupted occasionally as the events broke up.
"These people don't really understand whose side we're really on," said Laurie Gengenbach, an employee of N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro.
"We are fighting for them against greedy banks and greedy corporations and greedy governors," Gengenbach said.RALEIGH -- Wisconsin's battle over collective bargaining rights spilled over into... more
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