Shipping haz waste thru downtown Zebulon to a warehouse w/o a permit. Spilled petroleum products. Open barrels of sludge. Lauren Dalban & I wrote about the chronic haz waste violations at Braven Environmental, now closed & 1/4 mile from East Wake Academy insideclimatenews.org/news/1007202...

A Chemical Plant Mishandled Hazardous Waste for Years, Then Quietly Shuttered - Inside Climate News

Questions remain about cleanup at the North Carolina site, which had been hailed as a solution for dealing with plastic waste.

insideclimatenews.org

Great essay by @charleshughes2.bsky.social, reminded me in 1999 I somehow found myself engineering a tv performance by Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy (duo) playing some Mermaid Avenue. They were very kind and it was a fun session and really lucky I got to be there. youtu.be/SQ0a_LJ5tZ8?...

Rock.alt featuring Wilco, August 15, 1999

YouTube video by Austin History Center

youtu.be

David Cantwell@cantkill.bsky.social · last mo.

Great essay on Billy Bragg and Wilco's Woody Guthrie project Mermaid Avenue, on the occasion of their first live performance of the album together last month. By @charleshughes2.bsky.social for No Fences Review

new record "Exegesis at the End of Time" premiere streaming in full with review today on @decibelmagazine.bsky.social Release show Friday 6/12 at Cat's Cradle backroom with Tooth and Nathan Bowles. 🙂 www.decibelmagazine.com/2026/06/08/f...

Full Album Stream: Make - "Exegesis at the End of Time" - Decibel Magazine

Post-metal quartet Make debut their first album in 10 years, featuring new members and the heaviest songs of their career.

decibelmagazine.com

but light rail would have ruined everything....

Lisa Sorg@lisasorg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

13 acres on Duke’s Central Campus once had mill houses, then student apartments. Now the university is building a small data center on the neglected land insideclimatenews.org/news/2105202...

In the '60s and '70s, one of the biggest producers of drug paraphernalia and trippy blacklight art was the Houston Blacklight & Poster Company. But its history has been nearly lost. I wrote about its influence and the importance of saving artifacts like these: www.chron.com/culture/arti...

new record announcement: lead track "The End of the Night" from, Exegesis at the End of Time, out 6/12 on @accidentpronerecs.bsky.social, now streaming youtu.be/_f1GYLJM6Sc?...

MAKE - The End Of The Night [Official Visualizer]

YouTube video by ACCIDENT PRONE RECORDS

youtu.be

Google's data center has been in Caldwell County for 19 years, yet it's still a Tier 1 county -- a designation for the most economically distressed in NC I asked Microsoft and Google to disclose the amount of their tax exemptions. Crickets insideclimatenews.org/news/1004202...

Phil Berger didn't win a single precinct in Rockingham County, not even the one that includes his home in Eden.

Without Bob Sheldon, there wouldn't be a Firestorm Books. 35 years ago today, Bob was assassinated outside Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, NC. We still don't know who killed him, but the shooting took place in the shadows of the Greensboro Massacre and the Shelby gay bookstore murders. 1/

The legacy of Bob Sheldon, founder of Internationalist Books

The Internationalist commemorates Bob Sheldon’s life, 20 years after he was murdered, Monday, Feb. 21, 7-9 p.m., with speeches from old friends and a rousing march to the site of the old store with an...

indyweek.com

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition. Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology

She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

nature.com

This news makes me sad. I miss the location in Chapel Hill very much. www.wral.com/news/state/k...

K&W Cafeterias close all locations after 88 years in business

K&W Cafeterias, a beloved Southern restaurant for 88 years, has closed all its locations.

wral.com

campus whistler used to walk and forth between my building and the adjacent, because of the reverb I imagine, and even in my 9th floor office I could not get away from the off-key piercing tunelessness.

Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 9mo ago

I found a quiet nook at the foot of a tree in the arboreteum. And a man just planted himself 50 feet from me and…started whistling. I don’t have the hormone profile for this.

I wrote about public libraries as spaces of civic solidarity, common knowledge, and public infrastructure — all endangered by commercial and federal saboteurs

Extralibrary Loan: Making the Civic Infrastructure We Need

Amid a war on public knowledge, libraries are pushing outward, enlarging the commons through new configurations of civic and creative life.

placesjournal.org

The UN health agency found that one in six infections worldwide was resistant to the most commonly available antibiotics. “Antibiotic resistance is widespread and threatening the future of modern medicine,” one WHO official said.

W.H.O. Warns of Sharp Increase in Drug-Resistant Infections

The U.N. health agency found that one in six infections worldwide was resistant to the most commonly available antibiotics.

nyti.ms

Absolutely the case that viewers need to show that the networks should be at least as afraid of them as they are of the administration. But there's a longer-term dynamic with viewership and business models that's worth talking about: the inexorable decline in audiences. (1/n)

David Rothkopf@djrothkopf.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Disney and ABC need to feel serious consequences for their collaboration with Trump and MAGA in censoring Kimmel. Economic consequences. Same with the owners of CBS and other organizations that capitulate. The only thing they understand or care about are their own bottom lines.

Fuck these stupid fucks.

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 11mo ago

The FDA on Wednesday approved updated Covid vaccines for the fall season that limit who can get the shots, authorizing the vaccines for people 65 and older and those with medical conditions. It is the federal government’s most restrictive policy since the pandemic began.

I will die on this hill: it isn’t hard to say “at the height of the pandemic” or “at the start of COVID” during a podcast interview. Producers, hosts, don’t let your guests say “during COVID” like this thing is over. Correct them. Ask them to say the sentence again. This is your job.

My latest piece @thenation.com is the loving, heartfelt tribute you've been waiting for: "Real American Scumbag: Hulk Hogan Was a Racist, Liar, and Scab" www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Hulk Hogan Was a Racist, Liar, and Scab

In the 1980s, the professional wrestler portrayed himself as an all-American hero—but he was really a “jabroni” the entire time.

thenation.com

I wrote about John “Ozzy” Osbourne—a working class lad made good, who rose from a slaughterhouse killing floor to the highest echelons of rock stardom in spite of himself, who gave us heavy metal and left a more complex legacy than many realize—for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/cult...

Ozzy Osbourne, Rock God Despite Himself (1948–2025)

The Prince of Darkness, who gave us heavy metal as we know it, has been laid to rest.

thenation.com

Durham water supplies, Lake Michie and Little River Reservoir, are contaminated with PFAS, and the treatment plant can't remove the compounds below regulatory levels.

Sad news yesterday, the passing of Barry Poss, founder of the Bluegrass/Americana label Sugar Hill Records, Durham NC. Barry was instrumental (no pun intended) in introducing many artists that now dominate that genre. Did some work for the label years ago, and these portraits as well.

I saw the news over the weekend that Joseph "Jo Jo" Wallace, of the Sensational Nightingales had passed away. Wallace at age 98 was the last surviving member of the longtime gospel quartet, playing with them for over 70 years. I had the opportunity to photograph them for work a few years ago.