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Thursday, September 4, 2014
Comic Afterthoughts The Pull List (9/3/14): The beginning of the end for Wolverine
Posted By Andy Smith on Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 9:11 AM
It’s finally here. After months of promotion, the Death of Wolverine limited series has arrived with its first issue. The four-part, weekly series has the perfect set-up: self-contained, only a month long, but still sending shockwaves throughout the entire Marvel Universe. Now, it’s just up to writer Charles Soule and artists Steve McNiven and Jay Leisten to give him a fitting end.
First Drip First Drip (9/4/14): Writebol speaks about her battle with Ebola, cuts at W.H.O. affect fight against disease, more
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 8:12 AM
Nancy Writebol, the Charlotte missionary who battled Ebola after helping patients in Liberia, spoke before cameras yesterday about the ordeal, saying there were days she thought she wasn't going to make it. Also on Wednesday, the organization Writebol served announced a third American, a doctor, had contracted the disease.
U.S. Senate hopefuls Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis stuck to their usual talking points during their first debate yesterday. Tillis wasted no time tying Hagan to President Obama, and Hagan quickly brought up Tillis' hand in "failed policies" that have affected North Carolina. (Sounds like watching one of their commercials would have been more interesting and less time consuming.)
Budget cuts at the World Health Organization have affected its ability to treat the Ebola outbreak. "The W.H.O., the United Nations agency assigned in its constitution to direct international health efforts, tackle epidemics and help in emergencies, has been badly weakened by budget cuts in recent years, hobbling its ability to respond in parts of the world that need it most. Its outbreak and emergency response units have been slashed, veterans who led previous fights against Ebola and other diseases have left, and scores of positions have been eliminated — precisely the kind of people and efforts that might have helped blunt the outbreak in West Africa before it ballooned into the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded."
As ISIS becomes a more realistic threat, Republicans seem to have abandoned the anti-interventionist rhetoric they had adopted as of late.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
News / Environment What McCrory didn't mention in his praise of the new natural-gas pipeline
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 10:24 AM
On Tuesday Gov. McCrory’s office applauded a new natural-gas pipeline that will “bring hundreds of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of economic activity to North Carolina.” It was yet another opportunity for the governor to make a major announcment in his effort to “turn North Carolina around” and into a state that welcomes industry at the expense of transparency and, in many cases, the environment.
The Atlantic Coast Pipeline would transport 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day collected from fracking - a word curiously left off McCrory’s press release - the Marcellus and Utica shale basins in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The gas would travel through Virginia and end in Robeson County, North Carolina, which is in the east.
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Wednesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 9:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 3, 2014 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• You Me & Apollo at Visulite Theatre
• Charlotte Fashion Week: Emerging Designers Competition at Northlake Luxury Auto Mall
• Grouplove w/ Portugal. The Man at Uptown Amphitheatre
• Steve Hofstetter at The Comedy Zone
• Ghost Trees at Snug Harbor
First Drip First Drip (9/3/14): Innocent Lumberton brothers exonerated, mentally ill victims of Nazis memorialized, more
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 7:58 AM
A powerful story out of Lumberton, North Carolina today. A judge exonerated two brothers who had been behind bars for 31 years for allegedly gang raping and killing an 11-year-old girl after DNA tests showed neither of them had anything to do with the vicious crimes, which were actually committed by a known sexual predator.
The Islamic State released a video that shows another American journalist being beheaded, a tactic the group has used in response to the U.S. air strikes against its insurgents in Iraq and Syria. The videos also warns of another murder, against a British citizen. Here's a little more on who Sotloff was.
Some 300,000 mentally ill and intellectually disabled people who died at the hands of Nazis under Hitler - the first demographic targeted by the regime - have finally been memorialized, in Berlin. A 79-foot-long wall of blue tinted glass stands at the spot where doctors plotted to kill them through a program known as "operation T4."
Problems continue to plague Fukushima. Worker decommissioning the nuclear plant in Japan are suing Tepco, the plant's operator, over unpaid hazard wages. Four men are demanding the U.S. dollar equivalent of $620,000.
Some exasperating news for chronic dieters. Apparently it doesn't matter what kind of diet you are on - as long as you stick to it and exercise, you should be good.
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Comic Afterthoughts What's in my comic bag?: Labor Day Edition
Posted By Andy Smith on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 4:19 PM
Holidays bring breaks from the daily work grind, new memories with the family, and for geeks, comic book deals at their local shops. Such was the case with Labor Day Weekend, when Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find once again broke out its $1 box offerings. In this column, we take a look at items found in local bargain bins. Here are a few gems I snagged when visiting the shop this weekend. What did you grab? Let us know.
Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown #1
Back in the '80s, Marvel started the “Epic Comics” imprint, which provided creator-owned stories and side-tales with popular characters. An unlikely pairing of Havok and Wolverine was the focus of 1988’s Meltdown, in which Wolvie must find his mutant friend. Walt Simonson is a celebrated scribe, but I picked this one up for the art.
The way Jon J.Muth and Kent Williams split their art between the characters, using different media and styles, is both unprecedented and gorgeous. I had read a collected edition (which takes out Havok’s name in the title), but never encountered the original issues to the miniseries. Recommended for folks who miss Wolvie’s ‘80s grit.
News / Opinion / Politics Happy Opening Day in North Carolina politics!
Posted By Jerry Klein on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 12:14 PM
If you’re sick of the negative political ads that have been dominating our TV airwaves for the past six months, we’ve got bad news for you — you haven’t seen anything yet. That’s because with the passing of Labor Day, we’ve reached the real Opening Day of the political season.
Everything that’s come to this point has just been pre-season training: raising money, calculating strategy, putting the teams in place. From this point on, though, things get serious. It’s too late for candidates to change up their game plans.
In North Carolina, the stakes are so much higher than anything we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Arguably the fate of the entire world, at least in part, is in the hands of North Carolina’s voters.
News Former state Senate candidate arrested during Labor Day Moral Monday
Posted By Enid Valu on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 9:45 AM
Under a bright sun on Monday in Marshall Park, the Rev. William Barber, head of the state’s NAACP and de facto leader of Moral Monday, and various union representatives spoke about the conditions of workers across North Carolina during a Moral Monday rally dedicated to Labor Day. MaryBe McMillan from the North Carolina AFL-CIO kicked off the event. “If ever a Monday needed a moral makeover, it’s Labor Day because too many workers are overworked and underpaid. Today, we make it clear the labor union is not dead, it is being reborn right here in the South.”
Arts / Today's Top Five Today's Top 5: Tuesday
Posted By Anita Overcash on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 9:00 AM
Here are the five best events going down in Charlotte and the surrounding area today, Sept. 2, 2014 as selected by the folks at Creative Loafing.
• Bingo at Philosopher's Stone
• Beer Ed at Growlers Pourhouse
• Country Tuesday at Snug Harbor
• Bill Hanna Jazz Jam at Double Door Inn
• Fight Night Comedy Competition at The Comedy Zone
First Drip First Drip (9/2/14): Woman says she was raped in Uptown, Texas voter ID law goes to court, more
Posted By Ana McKenzie on Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 7:58 AM
A woman says she was raped in Uptown this weekend. The 47-year-old told Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police a man forced her to have sex sometime between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. on South College Street. A suspect has not been named.
A man is in the hospital today after he fell from Crowder's Mountain on Labor Day. The man fell 15 to 20 feet off a training wall and is in the hospital with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
In the debate over voter IDs in Texas, both sides argue they are being discriminated against. Opponents of the measure say it will impede blacks and Latinos from voting, while the state argues the Justice Department is targeting Southern states with such a law on the books (including North Carolina). If Texas loses this battle, it would require federal approval for any changes to its voting laws, which goes against a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
The FBI says it is investigating a cyber attack that led to nude photos of dozens of movie stars and singers, including Rhianna and Jennifer Lawrence, to be leaked. Authorities believe hackers broke into the iClouds of the various performers for the photos.
Lawyers shut down two fundraisers for Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, to determine how to best use the $400,000 the GoFundMe pages have raised.
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Bank errors continue to cause wrongful foreclosures
Charlotte's Bank of America is all mixed up in this mess.
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5 Reasons To Buy Home Insurance Policy
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Marilyn Chambers found dead
Porn star Marilyn Chambers found dead at age 56.
