Most of the time when we hear about a retail employee being photographed doing something other than their jobs, it’s bad news, if not downright creepy. But here’s a pleasant change of pace. [More]
north carolina
North Carolina May Be Next To Get Google Fiber
By 1.23.15
It’s been nearly a year since Google announced plans to expand its Google Fiber broadband and pay-TV service to new markets around the U.S., but the company has yet to say which of the 34 eligible cities would be the next to benefit from much-needed competition, but there are some indicators that folks in North Carolina may be getting on the Google fiberwagon. [More]
How ISPs “Compete” With Municipal Networks: Lobbying and Campaign Donations That Block Them
By 8.28.14
Say you’re mayor of a small city. Your city is small enough and far enough away from other cities that the big cable companies don’t want to spend what it would cost to run wires through your town, because the amount they will make in return isn’t worth it. That’s reasonable, from a business perspective. So you and the residents of your city get together and come up with a plan to make a public broadband utility instead. Makes sense, right? You’d happily pay someone else to do it for you, but since they don’t want to take your money you’ll do it yourself. Only — surprise! In come those self-same cable companies to block you from doing that, too, and they get your state’s legislature and governor to pass a law against you for good measure, so you can never try again. [More]
Now You Can Tell The FCC What You Think About Bans On Municipal Broadband
By 7.29.14
Last week, a pair of city-operated utility companies petitioned the FCC, daring Commission Chair Tom Wheeler to make good on his promises to overturn ridiculous, industry-backed state laws that ban or severely limit municipal broadband. The FCC has opened the issue up for public comment, so it’s time to make your opinion heard. [More]
FCC Chair Now Has Two Chances To Overturn Bans On Municipal Broadband
By 7.25.14
Thanks to deep-pocketed telecom lobbyists, 20 states in the U.S. have laws that either ban or heavily restrict local governments from creating or investing in public broadband networks, and more states are trying to jump on that ban-wagon. For months, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler has been saying that his agency could use its authority to preempt these anticonsumer laws and give municipalities the ability to invest in Internet infrastructure if they want. Now it’s time for Wheeler to put up or shut up, as the FCC ponders petitions from groups in two states. [More]
Waffle House Sort Of Sorry For Refunding Waitress’s $1,000 Tip
By 6.11.14
Yesterday we told you about the Waffle House waitress in North Carolina whose $1,000 tip was automatically refunded to the customer who’d left it because of a policy at the restaurant chain. After being shamed in the media for keeping one of its employees from keeping money that would have greatly improved her life, Waffle House is now saying that maybe it should reconsider things. [More]
Waffle House Policy Keeps Waitress From Keeping $1,000 Tip
By 6.10.14
If you’re looking to leave a very special tip for your Waffle House server, do it with cash. That’s the lesson learned from the story of one WH waitress in North Carolina who couldn’t keep the 4-digit tip left by a generous customer. [More]
Walmart Toe-Sucker Sentenced To 60 Days In Jail
By 4.11.14
Last month, we told you about the North Carolina man who misled a Walmart customer into letting him help her try on shoes, and then crossed a big line by sucking on her toes. Yesterday, the faux podiatrist was in court to hear his fate. [More]
Man Sues Wells Fargo Over Robocalls Intended For Other Person
By 2.11.14
It’s bad enough to get endless collections call from your mortgage servicer over missed loan payments, but it’s next-level annoying when you’re not even a customer of the bank that won’t stop calling your phone day and night. [More]
This McDonald’s Hosts Candlelit Valentine’s Dinners, With “Musical Selections By Ron”
By 2.6.14
If you’re looking for a relatively cheap and brief Valentine’s Day dinner and also happen to live near Southport, NC, then there’s a McDonald’s that is calling your name. [More]
Verizon LTE Phones & Time Warner Cable Set-Top Boxes Are Not Playing Nicely With Each Other
By 12.6.13
Some Time Warner Cable customers in Raleigh, NC, who also have Verizon Wireless phone service have noticed that whenever they get an e-mail, text, or otherwise use their phone, the TV signal can go squirrely on them. This is apparently what can happen when a cable company broadcasts channels on the same broadband spectrum used by wireless service. [More]
Nike Pulls Panthers T-Shirt Because North Carolina Is Not Shaped Like South Carolina
By 7.18.13 — Updated: 7.17.13
States come in all kinds of funny shapes and sizes — that one’s squiggly, that one’s a rectangle and that one is a mitten, see? — so we can see how someone just eyeballing a state’s outline could get it wrong. Perhaps someone at Nike forget to check a map before printing up a batch of Carolina Panthers T-shirts with the team logo and an “NC” inside a the outline of a state. [More]
At Least Three People Shot By Gunman Outside North Carolina Walmart
By 6.21.13
There’s tragic news coming out of Greenville, NC, this afternoon. A man has been taken into custody after opening fire outside an area law firm and then in the parking lot of a nearby Walmart, shooting at least four people. [More]
Man Looking To Thank Anonymous Time Warner Cable Worker Who Helped Stranded Wife
By 2.22.13 — Updated: 2.25.13
A man in North Carolina is hoping to find the Time Warner Cable employee who was the only person willing to lend a helping hand to his wife when her car ran out of gas this morning. Maybe you folks can help. [More]
Raleigh Government: Flushable Wipes Aren’t Flushable And Clog Sewers, So Cut It Out
By 1.30.13
Sewer lines in Raleigh, N.C. keep getting clogged. What’s to blame? Aging infrastructure? Rapid population growth? Massive sale on prunes at a local grocery chain? Well, not really: officials say that the latest clog, and a few previous ones, are allegedly due to huge wads of non-flushable paper in the pipes. They point specifically at non-flushable “flushable” wipes marketed for cleaning home surfaces and people. [More]
UNC Denies In-State Tuition To Veteran Because Her Husband Was Stationed In Texas
By 10.16.12
Anyone who has attended a public university probably knew at least one or two out-of-state students who gamed the system to get the much lower in-state tuition price. But an Army vet who has owned a home in North Carolina since 2006, says the state’s university system told her she had lived outside the Tarheel State for too long to qualify for the discounted education. [More]
Lawsuits Accuse Bank Of America Of Helping Developer Trick People Into Buying Worthless Land
By 8.15.12
Fifteen separate lawsuits recently filed in U.S. District Court accuse Bank of America of defrauding homebuyers by allowing an insolvent developer to take their money for properties in a subdivision that were not only never built, but also had no roads, sewers, or other utilities. [More]
Blocking The McDonald's Drive-Thru? That's A Tasering
By 2.6.12
A North Carolina woman is probably still feeling the sting — at least the sting of public humiliation — from being Tased by police for refusing to budge from the McDonald’s drive-thru. [More]
