(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . North Carolina Open Thread: Cooper veto, Pay-to-play, Lead in Durham parks, “Abolitionists”, Kitten [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-09-03 NC Newsline, Kelcie Moseley-Morris, September 2, 2023 The first time Tina Marshall heard anti-abortion protesters call themselves “abolitionists,’” she said she burst out laughing. Marshall, a Black woman who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, was counter protesting at an abortion clinic when a mostly white group — save one Black woman — surrounded her and told her they were abolitionists. “I rolled my eyes and said, ‘Can’t you people ever think of anything original? Do you guys have to steal everything?’” Marshall said. Anti-abortion demonstrators have told her she hates her own people. She’s seen the mostly white men and women put their fists in the air and say, “Black Lives Matter.” Marshall started volunteering as a clinic defender, as abortion rights groups call it, about two years ago, so she was unfamiliar with some of the rhetoric around abortion until recently. Much like the rest of America, in her view. “They’ve been doing this for years, and nobody cared, and it’s only because of Roe now that everybody’s antennas are up,” she said of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that ended the federal right to abortion. “Even before that, I’ve been out here over two years, and nobody cared about all the jeering and heckling of Black women.” North Carolina lawmakers legalized mobile sports gambling this year. They're considering new casinos and legalization of the long-ostracized video poker industry WRAL, August 30, 2023 Donors tied to gambling and marijuana businesses gave North Carolina lawmakers more than $500,000 during the first six months of the year as the General Assembly weighed proposals to expand each industry, according to a new analysis by a campaign finance watchdog. Most of that money came from out of state, according to Bob Hall, a former executive director for Democracy North Carolina who analyzes North Carolina campaign donations. Many of the donations came from donors who have been sanctioned in the past for questionable operations or from people who hadn’t donated to a North Carolina state legislator’s campaign before last year. “Suddenly, they’re writing checks for $2,000 or $5,000 to a legislator,” Hall said in his report. “It looks like a lobbyist or somebody told them that this is a pay-to-play state — ‘You need to put in the money if you want your bill passed this year or next.’” The $530,650 Hall cataloged in his report is in addition to $885,000 in video poker industry donations that Hall laid out in May as part of a complaint he filed with the State Board of Elections. Those donations came between 2019 and 2022, with nearly $100,000 of Hall’s total arriving after last November’s legislative elections, suggesting donors’ interest beyond helping certain lawmakers win elections. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/3/2191291/-North-Carolina-Open-Thread-Cooper-veto-Pay-to-play-Lead-in-Durham-parks-Abolitionists-Kitten Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/