The New F Word–Fracking

North Carolina sits atop a treasure trove. Natural gas deposits, located in geographical formations, are buried less than a mile deep in Lee, Chatham, Durham, Wake and Orange Counties. So far around 1,400 square miles of natural gas has been confirmed, which could power the states energy needs for over 40 years.

"We think it's commercially significant," James Simons the state geologist said. "These deposits could extend further than we think. It could be a lot more."

As of right now it is illegal in North Carolina to participate in the practice of hydrolic fracturing or "fracking." This process is used to obtain the natural gas by pumping water, mixed with chemicals, under high pressure into the earth to open up fractures and release the gas.

The discovery of natural gas deposits in and around the Triangle has led the North Carolina Legislature to consider overturning the ban. North Carolinians have the potential to cash in to the natural gas craze but it could come at a cost.

Here are some articles that discuss the process of hydrolic fracturing and the impact, both negatively and positively, it could have in North Carolina if the ban were to be lifted.

• The News & Observer Article: This article is extremely helpful because it is written by a local newspaper in North Carolina. The main point of the story is about the natural gas deposits in North Carolina and the process of hydrolic fracturing. It does an excellent job of containing information that pertains to the state of North Carolina. In addition, when it brings in information from other states it directly relates to North Carolina.
• Daily Tar Heel Article: The DTH hits the nail on the head with this article. It discusses the conflict that has ensued, and could grow even larger, if North Carolina seriously considered overturning the ban on hydrolic fracturing. It includes quotes from those who support drilling for natural gas and those who believe that there are risks to the practice. 
• Reesenews Article: Reesenews provides facts and information about fracking and the impacts it could have on North Carolina. Similarly to the N&O article is contains information from other areas that pertains to NC.
• Huffington Post: The Huffington Post provides a series of pictures with blurbs at the bottom about the pros and the cons of fracking. It's short and to the point with its information, which is great for the reader to understand and grasp the topic. 
•   EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most trusted resources for facts, and the truth, about environmental issues. Although some would not agree with them, the EPA does what it thinks is best for Americans. This blurb talks about what the federal government defines as fracking and why it is exempt from the Safe Drinking Act and Clean Water Act. 
• CBS "60 Minutes": "60 Minutes" did a report on fracking. It is an excellent way to learn about the process if one does not feel like reading about it. As always "60 Minutes" attempts to show both sides of the story.
• University of Texas Austin: The University of Texas recently conducted a study on the environmental impacts of fracking. The report and the most basic findings can be found here.   

As always there are two sides to every story. There are benefits and consequences of fracking. North Carolina needs to seriously weigh the benefits of allowing fracking, and if it does be willing to mitigate as much as possible the negative effects. It is important as North Carolinians to pay attention to whats going on and to be informed citizens. 

153: Purdue Decides Not to Run

Governor Beverly Purdue shocked the North Carolina Democratic Party, and many other North Carolinian's, when she announced that she was not running for re-election in 2012 late last week.

"It is clear to me that my race for re-election will only further politicize the fight to adequately fund our schools. A re-election campaign in this already divisive environment will make it more difficult to find any bipartisan solutions," Purdue announced in a statement released last Thursday.

Her announcement has sent the Democratic Party into a scramble to find a candidate to run against Pat McCory, the former Mayor of Charlotte. The first female governor in North Carolina history,  Purdue narrowly beat McCory in 2008. Many attributed President Obama's success in the Tar Heel State as one of the contributing factors to Purdue's win.

Her decision to not run has also increased the stress level of the North Carolina Democratic Party because North Carolina is projected to be a very important state in the 2012 Presidential Election. President Obama surprisingly won in 2008, the first time the state was won by a Democrat since the 1976 election. In addition, the Democratic National Convention will take place in Charlotte later this year.

Democrats Look for a New Candidate

Purdue's decision has opened the door wide open for other Democrats to throw their hat into the race for the Democratic Nomination. Lieutenant Governor Walton Dalton and Representative Bill Faison D-Orange have already announced that they will seek the Democratic Nomination. Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Treasurer Janet Cowell have withdrawn have publicly declared that they will not run.

Congressman Brad Miller and Mike McIntyre and former Congressman Bill Etheridge have expressed interest in running. Additionally, state Senator Dan Blue and former Treasurer Richard Moore, who ran against Purdue in 2008 for the Democratic nomination, could possibly enter the race.

Bowles Declines 

To the dismay of Democrats this morning, the most viable candidate against McCory decided not to run. Erskine Bowles, the former President of the University of North Carolina school system, announced that he would not seek the Democratic nomination.

"I've spent a lot of time trying to think what is the right thing for me to do," Bowles stated. " I don't think anyone questions my love for North Carolina or my efforts to make our State a better place to live, work, or raise a family. I've done my best in this regard and I plan to continue to do so."

A statewide poll published by Public Policy Polling earlier this week showed that McCory leads Lt. Gov. Dalton and Rep. Faison by 19 and 15 percentage points respectively. Bowles, however, would have been in a statistical dead heat with McCory if he had decided to run with a 42 to 44 percent margin.

Bowles's decision has once again left the Democratic nomination for NC governor wide open.

McCory Sticks to the Same Game-plan

Pat McCory officially announced his candidacy for the Republican Gubernatorial nomination this ast Tuesday. At this time he does not face any opposition from fellow Republicans. Although, McCory is still awaiting his challenger in the general election, he has said that his game-plan will not change.

"Our schedule has not changed. Our message has not changed and our strategy will not change." McCory said. "This scenario is one that we potentially saw happening, so it did not come as a huge surprise because we knew she's been in trouble for various reasons, and part of it was me being a strong candidate."

Regardless of his opponent, McCory firmly believes that he is the best man for the job and for North Carolina. He believes that the Democrats rule in North Carolina under former Governor Mike Easily, and now Beverly Purdue, has significantly damaged the economy. Meanwhile, McCory has the advantage of a $2.6 million dollar war chest--with $2 million in cash on hand--and the fact that Democrats will spend three months fighting to win votes and campaign donations while he'll keep accumulating money and support.  

Gabriella's Take 

Needless to say, I was shocked one week ago today when Governor Purdue announced that she would not be running. I knew that Purdue would face a tough challenge against McCory, but I felt that she was well prepared. She had raised around $2 million dollars for her re-election, and she had stuck steadfastly to her beliefs even if she disagreed vehemently with the Republican Legislature.

 The US economy has been improving, albeit slowly, over the past couple of months and President Obama's approval ratings have improved. In addition, the Republican field this year has been underwhelming to many, including Republicans. Also, let us not forget the ever helpful incumbency advantage. People may not like her, but more likely than not they would know her name on the ballot.

I'll be honest, my initial reaction when she decided not to run is that she is that she is hiding something. Here is this woman, who has worked her whole life to achieve something, and one day she just decides to not go after it anymore? No, that's not right. Although, I do not always agree with Governor Purdue, I have great respect for her as a woman and as our governor.

There are a variety of reasons why Purdue decided not to run. Maybe she saw the writing on the wall and realized that Democrats had the chance of doing better without her. Maybe she was tired of fighting with the Republican Legislature. Or maybe she is telling the truth in saying that she wants to de-politicize the fight over education. My gut tells me that it is most likely a combination of all of these things and quite possibly some other things that we could have never guessed.

Let the race begin.



Credits 

http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/10665601/
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/01/31/1818715/perdue-out-dems-like-bowles.html
http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/story/10647166/
http://www.270towin.com/states/North_Carolina
http://www.wral.com/news/state/nccapitol/blogpost/10678711/

In Love with Africa

Trust me when I tell you. You will never forget meeting Cynthia Betubiza. Whether it's in the pit when she's dressed as a cow—with full blown utters— for UNC Dance Marathon or if she sits next to you in class. I've had the pleasure of knowing Cynthia for the past year and a half. We meet our freshmen year when we both lived in Hinton James, and she's one of my favorite people at UNC-CH. Why? Because she's authentic and totally true to herself. It's so refreshing in a world where people put up facades of who they think they should be. Cynthia is Cynthia and that's the most phenomenal thing about her in my opinion. 

This morning, Cynthia and I interviewed each other for our journalism class. The purpose of the interview was to get to know our classmates better and to find out where they get their news and information from. My interview with Cynthia did cover these topics, but it also became something much more.It became about her dreams for the future and how she wants to impact the world.

Cynthia rocking one of her Christmas sweaters. That smile says it all.

"As most people know, I love Africa. I might annoy people."  She laughs, but it's true. She loves Africa and it's palpable from the megawatt smile on her face whenever she talks about it. Cynthia's parents are from Uganda and she spent part of her summers growing up there. Her love of Africa is just one of the many things that makes Cynthia Cynthia. "I love music. I used to be in random choirs growing up." She also finds time to play soccer whenever she can. One of her newest hobbies is dabbling in kite-making, "one of my favorite things growing up was flying kites on the national mall." Today, she's making kites because buying them is too expensive, and she loves to do something that was a part of her childhood.

It would only be fitting that one of Cynthia's favorite books is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. When The Kite Runner was made into a movie, the book caught Cynthia's attention. "Whenever there is a movie based on a book, I try to read the book first because the book is always better than the movie."  She did, and she loved it. "I just thought it was such a beautiful story. It just ended so well." Another reason why Cynthia loves the book, it is the book that has "impacted [her] the most."

Cynthia being Cynthia

Cynthia will be the first person to admit that she does not always do the best job to stay informed, but when she does she makes sure to visit http://www.cnn.com/. CNN, in her opinion, has the headlines right there and easy to read. She also loves their coverage of international stories. When Cynthia really wants to learn about a topic, however, she makes sure to read the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/. The NYT has "a lot of cool articles, on a diversity of different topics." She can get a different perspective than she would anywhere else. When she's home, she also makes it a point to listen to NPR, which from listening to her talk would appear to be her favorite news source. "I think that they [NPR] have a lot of cool different programs." She also appreciates their unbiased reporting and the fact that NPR has fun and different stories. "I love Car Talk. I don't love or care about cars at all, but Car Talk is just so funny." To learn more about cars or to just laugh as Cynthia does you can listen to Car Talk at http://www.cartalk.com/player5/player.php?a=show.

Cynthia's greatest passion, however, is not in fact NPR. It's using stories to encourage people to change the world. It's why she's a journalism major here at UNC-CH. "I generally really want to know the skill of communicating." Her dream job would be "to communicate ideas, and perspectives about things to encourage people to change lifestyles and how they see themselves in the world." In her opinion more people would be willing to change the world if it was communicated to them properly. She wants people "to feel moved to actually want to do something about things. What's going to really move you is this story about a kid who couldn't eat." Her inspiration came from her involvement with the organization Invisible Children. "Their whole mission statement is using personal stories. Someday I want to be like them and to use stories because stories are such a huge part of whit it means to be a child." To learn more about Invisible Children you can visit their website at http://www.invisiblechildren.com/.

A totally random and cool fact about Cynthia is that she can speak UBI and Dubbi. She learned it from watching the TV show Zoom. "It was on PBS in the morning. It's a spinoff language, similar to Pig Latin." Her younger sister helped teach her and now she says, "it just rolls of the tongue."

In the end, it isn't UBI Dubbi or NPR that is the most important to Cynthia. It's "finding a story not many people know about." A lot of stories in her opinion fight for attention. She wants to bring these stories to light and find ways to show people that "anything that happens on this planet is relevant to everyone."

The infamous cow suit. For Halloween in 2010 she was a "Holy Cow."

153: My Favorite Websites

Supposedly, I use my computer to do schoolwork. But as many of you well know that does not always happen. I spend a lot of my free time putzing around the internet. Here are some of the ways I waste utilize my time: 

The New York Times 

I read the New York Times online everyday. There is seriously no better way to stay informed than to read the NYT. My motivation is two fold: first, to see what's going on in the world. Secondly, as a journalism student, the New York Times is the golden standard. So, I can kill two birds with one stone by staying informed and becoming a better writer one article at a time.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/

Politico

Politico is one of my favorite political websites. Politico is politics. It's a hotbed for political opinions and everything that is going on in politics. Seriously, these people stalk Congress more than I would ever want to. One of my favorite parts of Politico is their 2012 Candidate Tracker, which has hourly updates of the presidential candidates schedules and campaigns. Want to know where Mitt Romney was this morning at 8:30? Well, he was hosting a rally at the Florence Civic Center in Florence, South Carolina. He will also be in New York City by six o' clock tonight for a fundraiser. If you want to stay political informed, then this is the site for you. 

Link: http://www.politico.com/

2012 Candidate Tracker: http://www.politico.com/2012-election/candidate-map/

CNN

Sadly, I cannot watch the news all day. I do actually have to go to class and do my schoolwork. That's where CNN.com comes in. It's the best news website in my opinion because it's super easy to read and the most important information is at the top. I know the world's breaking stories in about ten seconds. These are not just political stories, but any breaking news. CNN also has uplifting videos that I will watch and opinion articles that I read. It's a great overall website to stay informed on a myriad of topics, not just politics. 

Link: http://www.cnn.com/

ESPN

ESPN is about a synonymous with sports as "Go to hell Duke" is to UNC-Chapel Hill. As an avid sports fan, there is not better way to brush up on my sports knowledge that to check out ESPN daily. ESPN is not just score updates. It's everything sports and then some. I can read about how Tim Tebow visited with a young girl dying of cancer after one of his games. I can then go read about what UNC's crushing loss to Florida State means to college basketball. If you're interested in sports in any capacity, this is the website for you. 

Link: http://espn.go.com/

TSN

No offense to ESPN, but they stink at covering my beloved game of hockey. ESPN is America's sports network, and America does not have the love and appreciation for hockey that our northern neighbor, Canada, possesses.  TSN is ESPN's equivalent in Canada. This website is my go to for anything related to hockey. TSN updates hockey as Politico updates politics. I use TSN to supplement the lack of hockey news and information that ESPN does not provide me. So, if you want to know more about hockey and get a different perspective on sports, check out TSN.

Link: http://tsn.ca/

Pinterest 

Last, but certainly, oh certainly not least, is Pinterest. It is my guilty pleasure, and what I waste (yep, I said it) the most time on. It's addicting. I'm warning you all now, but it's totally worth it. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, where people can pin things that they see on the internet. There is everything on Pinterest from clothing, shoes and accessories to food recipes, cute puppies and advice on losing weight. I can literally spend hours just looking at everything that has been pinned. It never ends. It seriously never ends. I have gotten ideas for new outfits from Pinterest and new workouts to try. It's so broad, but yet perfect because everything is right there at your fingertips. If you have some free time or just want to do something else with your brain, get on Pinterest. I'm telling you, you won't regret your time spent or ah, wasted on it. 

Link: http://pinterest.com/

And here are two of my favorite videos if anyone is in need of a good laugh. The first one is a political spoof courtesy of Saturday Night Live and Funny or Die and the other is just well, funny. 

 

 

153: 2012 Republican Nomination Process

Currently the Republican Party is in the midst of selecting its candidate to run against President Barack Obama in the general election. Through a series of caucuses and primaries across the country, Republicans will choose a candidate. This process is extremely long, and at times can be exceptionally complicated. In order to make it less complicated, we're going to simplify it as much as possible. 

The goal of the nomination process is to, well, win. In order to achieve that, a candidate must accumulate at least 1,144 delegates out of a possible 2,286 delegates to secure the nomination. A candidate will receive delegates as he or she wins primary elections and caucuses. For instance, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary, and thus received 12 delegates to count towards his total. 

In most primary seasons, a clear front runner will emerge by gaining early momentum from early contests. As of right now, Mitt Romney is considered the front runner because he won the Iowa Caucus, by eight votes, and the New Hampshire primary. However, candidates such as Congressman Ron Paul from Texas and former Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum are nipping at his heels. Romney leads the delegate count with 14. Paul and Santorum are behind him with 10 and 8 respectively. The next contests, such as the South Carolina primary on January 21st and Florida's primary on January 31st, will be indicative of whether Romney will continue with his momentum or if he faces a significant threat  from other candidates. 

Important Definitions 

Caucus: e.g. the Iowa Caucus, which is known as a "gathering of neighbors." Registered Republicans and Democrats will gather at their local designated precinct, which can be at schools, churches, or even at a private residence. Supporters will stand up and speak on behalf of their candidate. Voters will then vote by secret ballot. 

 A primary is an election where party members select their candidate for the general election. There are three types of primaries: 

1. Closed Primary-- only registered party members can vote, unaffiliated voters (Independents) cannot participate. 

2. Open Primary--all voters regardless of party affiliation can vote. 

3. Semi-Closed--only registered party voters can vote. However, unaffiliated voters can participate by either registering with a party on election day or by declaring in the election booth. North Carolina has a semi-closed primary. 

Superdelegates: delegates who are not bound by their state's primary or caucus. They are selected instead on their loyalty and importance in state Democratic and Republican Parties. To see the current delegate count for the Republican Nomination you can read further on this link http://www.democraticconventionwatch.com/diary/4726/republican-superdelegate-endorsement-list. 

To see a list of state primaries and caucuses: http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-republican-primary-schedule/. 

Gabriella's Straight Talk

First off do not worry about trying to pronounce or spell my last name. It's hard enough for me sometimes. I am currently a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am double majoring in Political Science and Journalism, with a minor in history (hopefully!). I was born and raised in Raleigh, NC right down the road from Chapel Hill. My mom has been involved in politics my whole life, and her love has been passed down to me. I grew up talking about politics and heading with my mom to the North Carolina General Assembly. Today, my family still has heated political discussions at the dinner table or pretty much anywhere.

The other great love of my life is because of my Dad. He instilled in me a vast knowledge and appreciation for sports, especially hockey. I am that person at the hockey game who yells at the Referees and boos when the opposing team hits the ice. There is nothing better to me than that indescribable elation that I feel when my team scores. I have had the privilege of attending two Stanley Cup Finals, including watching my beloved Carolina Hurricanes win Lord Stanley in 2006. That is a memory that will forever be etched in my memory.

Besides politics and sports, I love to watch the news. When I was younger, my cousins and I created our own production company called M&MK for our last names. We would do skits and short movies whenever we would get together. I would host my own talk show called Straight Talk, hence how I got the name for this blog. On my show I would talk about politics and news stories. I'll never forget this one Christmas where I kept called Vice President Dick Cheney, Chick Cheney. My Uncle still teases me about it to this day. My love for politics lead me to watch the nightly news every night at 6:30. Peter Jennings on ABC was my favorite. I would also wake up early to watch Good Morning America with Charlie Gibson before school. Today my busy schedule prevents me from watching the news daily, but I still find time to read the New York Times.

153: About the Blog

I love American politics. There's no if, and, or buts about it. Throughout my life, I have realized that there are many who do not share my passion. However, I have also encountered many who actually want to have some comprehension about politics, but for some reason or another they lack a basic understanding. I realized the full ignorance of some Americans when watching Jay Leno's segments called American History. The majority of people who he interviewed were not able to answer basic questions such as when America declared independence. The answer is 1776, when Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. This blog is aimed at educating the uninformed sections of the American public. I will be focusing on Congress and the presidency, including the 2012 Republican Presidential race. In addition, we will be discussing the Constitution, elections, and important events in American political history. So if you want to become an informed American citizen, then this is the blog for you!

If you want to watch one of the Jay Leno segments called American History, you can find one here at http://www.hulu.com/watch/266150/the-tonight-show-with-jay-leno-american-history?c=0:0