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Mary C. Curtis

Mary C. Curtis, an NPR contributor based in Charlotte, N.C., was previously a writer and editor for The New York Times and the Charlotte Observer... more

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Published: 12/11/10

Elizabeth Edwards 'a Lighthouse to All of Us,' Says Daughter Cate at Funeral

RALEIGH, N.C. – Elizabeth Edwards was remembered as a loving mother and loyal friend in a memorial service that acknowledged the turmoil she confronted with "grace and strength," in the words of her daughter, Cate Edwards. Politicians with headline names joined the public in saying goodbye Saturday at Edenton Street United Methodist Church in this city she called home years before she became a national figure and symbol. On Tuesday, Elizabeth Edwards, 61, died of cancer. On a gray, rainy Saturday, lifelong friends and family gathered to mourn and remember Edwards' intelligence, sense ...

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Published: 12/6/10

Obama Calls for a New 'Sputnik Moment' for America

WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina -- President Barack Obama couldn't escape the East Coast cold snap on his short trip south on Monday. ("What's snow doing on the ground in North Carolina?" he jokingly asked.) But his warm welcome at Forsyth Technical Community College was far different than the cold shoulder he's been getting from Republicans in Congress. The president came to a state whose economy has been transformed by the departure of the textile and furniture industries that once provided reliable employment for high school graduates. And he came to Forsyth to celebrate the 50th anniversary ...

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Published: 12/4/10

Sarah Palin in South Carolina: Book Event Now; Politics in 2012?

Columbia, S.C. -- South Carolina is one of the first states on the 2012 presidential primary calendar. On Friday, it was the last stop in Sarah Palin's book tour. Mere coincidence? Barbara Cauthen hopes not. "I would vote for her five times if I could," she said. Cauthen, 63, of Camden, S.C., was smiling even though she had just gotten laid off from her job as a process server. She already has other job offers. But the mother of four, grandmother of 10, great-grandmother of two just wanted to talk about Sarah Palin. "She's a down-to-earth person," she said. "She has a child with Down ...

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Published: 12/2/10

Tom Daschle on Health Care, Obama and Raging Partisanship

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- In 2007, Tom Daschle – with other former Senate majority leaders – formed the nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center to "engage top political figures, advocates, academics and business leaders in the art of principled compromise," according to the group's website. Good luck with that. Despite all evidence that the country's political scene is becoming more divisive, Daschle and the center's other founders -- Howard Baker, Bob Dole and George Mitchell – believe that while "electoral politics are partisan, policy should not be." On Wednesday night, Daschle, ...

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Published: 12/1/10

Bill Clinton Expects WikiLeaks Disclosures to Cost Lives

Former President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that he expects people to lose their lives over the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic documents, and he doesn't believe the website's founder will succeed in evading authorities, according to the Associated Press. "I'll be very surprised if some people don't lose their lives," Clinton said during an appearance at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C. "And goodness knows how many will lose their careers." Clinton said WikiLeak's Julian Assange is trying to evade authorities because he knows what he did was criminal. "That doesn't mean that he did ...

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Published: 11/30/10

Obama Hails Passage of Settlement for Native Americans, Black Farmers

As congressional leaders and the White House continue efforts to reach a compromise on issues ranging from the expiration of tax cuts to tweaks in the U.S.-Russia START arms treaty, the House approval of the Claims Settlement Act of 2010 brought praise from President Obama and the Departments of Justice, Interior and Agriculture. In a statement Tuesday, the president said: "I am pleased that today, the House has joined the Senate in passing the Claims Settlement Act of 2010. This important legislation will fund the agreements reached in the Pigford II lawsuit, brought by African American ...

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Published: 11/29/10

White House: Now Is Time to Pay Claims of Black Farmers, Native Americans

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and other Obama administration officials on Monday urged the House to act on long-delayed settlement claims to Native Americans and African American farmers. In a conference call with reporters, Vilsack -- with Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes and Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli – called the settlements historic. "The president has been very clear to me" that at USDA, "we are to treat farmers, ranchers and growers equally and fairly," said Vilsack. "That means not only making sure we're doing the right thing today but also ...

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Published: 11/24/10

Mike Easley, Former N.C. Governor, Convicted on Felony Campaign Finance Charge

Former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley was convicted on Tuesday of knowingly filing a false campaign report, becoming the state's first governor to admit to a felony. The plea by Easley, a Democrat who was governor from 2001 to 2009, halts state and federal investigations that lasted nearly two years. The 60-year-old former prosecutor and two-term attorney general admitted that he failed to indicate on a required campaign disclosure that he took a $1,600 helicopter ride with a supporter -- McQueen Campbell, the former chairman of the board of trustees at N.C. State University -- in October ...

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Published: 11/19/10

For Women in and Out of Politics, Gender Doesn't Matter (Except When It Does)

Sure, I am a strong, independent woman, someone who's been working since my teen years, and doing chores long before that. I don't ask for any favors because I'm a woman. But I have to admit, I'm not above using charm and a smile to clear those little daily hurdles. Rather than see it as a contradiction between my actions and ideals, it's just the way the world works, like it or not. So I don't hold it against female politicians who say gender doesn't matter while taking the stage in fashion-conscious mufti. They know the rules: No one will listen to what a woman is saying if her slip is ...

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Published: 11/17/10

Do Americans Fail to Listen to a Variety of 'Arab Voices'?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- James Zogby, founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Arab American Institute (AAI), joked that he is "the son of a Lebanese merchant, and I've got a book and it's for sale." But in the rest of his speech to the World Affairs Council of Charlotte on Monday, he got serious about the message of that book. "Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why It Matters," based on polling by Zogby International (of which James' brother, John, is president), hopes to change "how we write about and talk about other parts of the world," he said. You "start with the hard ...

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