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  • 3 ways to beat ‘the winter blues’ in NC

    Plus: Saving Charlotte’s original Black social club Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. I’ll be honest: Winter is not my thing. There was a moment two weeks ago—sometime in between the second or the third day that my car was stuck in ice on my driveway—that I yelled curse words at winter. Like, the…


  • 🗞️ Please, we want to hear your opinion again

    What’s one thing you’d change about how you get news here? Dear reader, Thank you for being a part of the community we’re building here at Cardinal & Pine. As a reader supported news organization, you’re at the center of everything we do. Our audience grew significantly last year, and we’d like to learn more…


  • Crisis at one North Carolina hospital

    Plus: 3 things happening in NC this week Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. Kerri Wilson and Zoe Clarke are nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Wilson works in the cardiology wing, Clarke in the intensive care unit. Both of them spoke to Cardinal & Pine’s Michael McElroy recently for our ongoing Bad Medicine…


  • 🫎 Group fights for NC wildlife crossings

    Plus: Name this little NC downtown Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. If you want to know what makes North Carolina tick, there are a few places you can start.  For instance, Nash County in eastern NC. In addition to being the home of Roy Cooper, NC’s former governor and current US Senate candidate,…


  • HUGE news for North Carolina voters

    Plus: 3 things happening in NC this week Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. Really important news for anyone who plans on voting—which, I assume, is every one of us. North Carolina Democrats have reached a settlement with Republicans over the fate of about 73,000 voters that the GOP wanted to boot off the…


  • AI invades North Carolina

    Plus: Remembering the Greensboro sit-ins Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. This newsletter was not written by artificial intelligence.  Why? Because computers are a lot more intelligent than I am. But for my money, I’d rather hear a human voice any day. Speaking of AI, data centers are going up across the state of…


  • 🤯 NC life expectancy data will blow your mind

    Plus: The late Jesse Jackson, NC A&T alum Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. In the US, we have maybe the best physicians in the world. But the system that gets us in to see them is a mess.  It’s one of the reasons why in rural Halifax County, North Carolina, the life expectancy for…


  • 🏅 NC athletes showing out at the Olympics

    Plus: Name this North Carolina market Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. Happy Friday the 13th, or for the not superstitious Cardinal & Pine readers, happy Friday. We begin, as we often do on Fridays, with our Good News Friday roundup. We started making these columns weekly around the time that COVID-19 and the…


  • This NC street newspaper is made by homeless folks

    Plus: Primary election dates you need to know Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. None of this matters very much if we don’t vote. My take: Voting is the thing that makes powerful people give a damn about basic “Joe Schmoes” like me. They might not want to listen to us, but when we…


  • 3 new ICE facilities in NC?

    Plus: Bull fighting in Raleigh Share with a friend Hey, it’s Billy. The big news today is ICE, the federal agency in charge of enforcing immigration laws. Republicans funded a massive increase in the agency’s budget. But their aggressive tactics, including here in North Carolina, have cost them a lot of support in the last…