Record #:

8414

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Environmental pollution and hazardous waste remain a problem at the local, state, and national levels. Much pollution is legal because of state and federal permits granted to businesses. Still, there are businesses that violate the law. The INDEPENDENT examines eight Wake County pollution sources. The facilities profiled were selected using three main criteria: the number or egregiousness of the violations; proximity to population centers; and fines assessed since 2003.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 23 Issue 44, Nov 2006, p15-16, map Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Hazardous wastes--Wake County; Pollution--Wake County

Record #:

8449

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

There are 40,000 abandoned mobile homes in North Carolina, according to information compiled by the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. By 2020, the number is expected to double. County officials, lawmakers, and housing advocates are concerned about the problems they present, such as public health, environmental, and safety issues. At present there is no uniform state law under which counties can seize them. Money is also an issue because disposal of a mobile home can cost from $800 for a single one to $1,500 for a doublewide. A state law to give the counties seizure rights is currently stalled in committee because of objections from the manufactured housing lobby.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 23 Issue 49, Dec 2006, p14-15, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Mobile homes

Record #:

9162

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

In the spring of 2007, volunteers working on cleaning up the first fifty miles of the Neuse River pulled 22,000 pounds of trash from its waters, including fifty-six tires, two toilets and a boat trailer. Sorg discusses how surging growth, projected to reach over one million people alone in Wake County in the next twenty years, and development will threaten the river.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 24 Issue 20, May 2007, p5, 7, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Environmental protection--Neuse River--Citizen participation

Record #:

10496

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

The state of North Carolina owns the Umstead Research Farm near Butner. The Department of Homeland Security is considering 240 acres there for its new $450 million Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. Should the facility be built, scientists will study some of the world's most contagious and potentially lethal diseases. Sorg discusses public reaction.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 25 Issue 30, July 2008, p5, 7, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Department of Homeland Security; Biological laboratories

Record #:

13926

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

The Food Safety Modernization Act is the most sweeping overhaul of the American food system since the 1930s. The new law regulates and inspects more tightly farms and food processors in hopes of reducing food-borne illnesses which kill over 5,000 people a year and sicken thousands more. Sorg discusses how the law affects small farms.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 28 Issue 2, Jan 2011, p12-15, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Farms, Small--Government policy; Agricultural products--Laws and legislation

Record #:

15543

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Inside/Out is a youth led group supports LGBT, questioning, and straight students affiliated with Queer/Straight Alliances at local high schools. The group's objective is to offer a safe environment for teenagers to discuss LGBT issues, especially May's vote on the Defense of Marriage Amendment.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 28 Issue 38, Sept 2011, p5, 7 Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Gay-straight alliances in schools

Record #:

15621

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Visitors to Jordan Lake are finding the beaches littered with dead fish after the largest die-off of striped bass in the history of the reservoir. More than 5,000 striped bass have died since August 1st due to what biologists call a dissolved oxygen and temperature squeeze. The affected area includes Haw River near Robeson Creek to the main basin of the lake near the U.S. 64 bridge.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 28 Issue 32, Aug 2011, p7 Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Striped bass--Jordan Lake

Record #:

15638

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Flaming water, explosions, toxic spills; despite the dangers of fracking, North Carolina lawmakers want to legalize it.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 28 Issue 19, May 2011, p17-21, map, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Fracking (Engineering)--North Carolina

Record #:

15868

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Every 20 minutes on most nights in the 1950s, two telescopes in the New Mexico desert took pictures of the sky. When the Harvard-Smithsonian Meteor Study shoot ended in the late 1950s, thousands of pictures had documented that wedge of the universe. More than 40 years later, North Carolina astronomers Bob Hayward and Mike Castelaz of the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) began examining the 40,000 images and found unexpected novae.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 3, Jan 2012, p5, 7, 9, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Astronomy; Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI)

Record #:

15871

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Since 1984, Clean Water for North Carolina has built alliances with disadvantaged communities, which lack the power and influence of lobbyists and lawmakers. Their latest concern: fracking and its economic, social, and environmental costs.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 3, Jan 2012, p15-17, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Water quality

Record #:

15944

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Astronomers from the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute are studying photographs taken from two New Mexico telescopes. Photographs taken as part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Meteor Study remained in New Mexico archives until North Carolinian scientists Bob Hayward and Mike Castelaz began looking at some of the 40,000 images. Already, after viewing just the first hundred photos, the men discovered documentation of an exploding star, a rare sight to be caught on film.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 3, Jan 2012, p5-9, por Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Astronomy

Record #:

16287

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Sorg details the difficulties facing undocumented immigrants in North Carolina.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 10, Mar 2012, p7, 49, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Immigration--Laws and legislation

Record #:

16417

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Although new houses in the Brightleaf subdivision in Southeast Durham are pristine and new, the ownership of natural gas, oil, geothermal heat, hydrocarbons, and even water belongs to DRH Energy, a subsidiary of D.R. Horton, one of the nation's largest homebuilders. For the past two years, D.R. Horton has sold the mineral rights, and the right to drill, mine, stored and explore them to its Colorado-based energy company on at least 425 of its lots in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Coincidentally, the transactions began around the time the push began to legalize fracking in North Carolina.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 14, Apr 2012, p7, 9, map, f Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Mineral deposits

Record #:

16618

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

Installation of an outdoor globe being called Daily Plant just finished at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. Visitors will see the Southern Hemisphere displayed prominently and with a high degree of accuracy. The State Employee's Credit Union Foundation funded the project which is part of the new Nature Research Center at the Museum of Natural Sciences.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 15, Apr 2012, p8-9, por Periodical Website

Subject(s):

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Record #:

16779

Author(s):

Sorg, Lisa

Abstract:

A summation of election results and complaints are presented for Wake, Durham, and Orange County. Some statewide concerns are addressed, especially those centered on the controversial Amendment 1. In several counties, ballots were distributed that did not include the amendment.

Source:

Independent Weekly (NoCar Oversize AP 2 .I57 [volumes 13 - 23 on microfilm]), Vol. 29 Issue 19, May 2012, p7, 13, il Periodical Website

Subject(s):

Marriage--Laws and legislation