Truthful Politics

According to the 2008 Census, Alamance County in North Carolina has a population of 112,816 that are over 18. The Alamance County Election Statistics for the same year lists the number of registered Democrats at 41,421, Republicans 30,530, and 18,252 people are listed as Unaffiliated or Libertarian. That means that 22,613 people of the county population are either non-registered voters or not a citizen of the US. This shows that our political parties need to get active and start recruiting volunteers to go out and get more of their citizens registered to vote.

One way this is accomplished is by getting precincts in the county organized. This is accomplished by having the Precinct Chair, Vice and Secretary more active in their polling area and in organizing volunteers. Alamance County Democrats are having precinct meetings from February 27th through March 12, 2010.

Cathy von Hassel-Davies, Precinct Chair for the North Newlin District of Alamance County held her first precinct meeting on March 1st. She hopes to get more Democrats active in her precinct and to build a strong volunteer base. She was very active in the 2008 primary elections and noticed that her precinct areas voting list was very out-dated. This prompted her to get involved in her local precinct so that she can help clean up the voter database. This will also help volunteers who are giving of their valuable time to not waste it by going to homes that are abandoned, not there, or the occupant has moved.

There are 972 registered democrats in the precinct and there was about a 10% showing for the first precinct meeting of the year. This is a good way of becoming familiar with the people who are running in the local elections and to speak with these local politicians and finding out what their issues are. Jeremy Teetor, running for a two-year term of County Commissioner, Brad Allen running for District 15A District Court Judge, Ron Parrish who will be running for Alamance County Sheriff, James "Hunt" Johnson running for County Clerk were all in attendance. Unfortunately Pat Nadolski could not make it but he sent a representative who spoke for him at the meeting. Each one held our attention at they each spoke for about 10 minutes explaining their agenda and their hopes for the future of Alamance County.

If you want to be part of this mass organization of local Democrats in your area please check out the NC Democratic website and get in touch with one of your local representatives.

Democrats and Republicans are getting together for their annual precinct meetings throughout North Carolina.

Alamance County Democrat precinct meetings will be held between February 27, 2010 and March 12, 2010. Contact your local voter registration office or search for your county precinct. You can also contact your local party headquarters and they should be able to tell you when your precinct meetings will be held.

This is a wonderful way to get involved at the local level and see how grassroots politics work.

After two and a half days of deliberation the jury came back in the Robert Reaves murder trial of Latrese Curtis as guilty. After watching the trial for the past week I cannot figure out how they came to this conclusion as I would not have been able to convict him.

I will post more on the trials and evidence or lack thereof, and then we can all form our own ideas. In the meantime if you happen to have any information that can shed some light as to why all 12 said he was guilty please email me or call.

Thanks you.
Cathy

The state and defense attorneys rested their case today after 100 plus pieces of evidence was admitted and numerous witnesses and experts gave testimonies for the past 6 days. If I was on the jury I would have a very hard time deciding this case and Indo not envy them for the task ahead.

When the scene was first discovered by people on their way down I-540, until evidence was gathered, there were numerous cars and people on the scene. I was really not able to discern from testimony whether the scene was really kept pure from beginning to end. Tammy Malinowski, of the City County Bureau of Investigation (CCBI) sketched the scene and evidence, she also video-taped the path of the evidence leading to Latrese Curtis' body. However, there was a discrepancy in the sketch as it showed the cell phone was located differently than what the video showed.

In regards to Robert Reaves' (the accused) car it was not shown that Robert Reaves was actually behind the wheel. His boarder Steven Randolph also had access to the car and keys anytime he wanted to use it. Even though the car was reported on the scene other witnesses also said it was a white cargo van, one even stating that it had no windows on the side.

Shawn Lilyquist, also of the CCBI processed three vehicles; Latrese Curtis, Steven Randolph, and Robert Reaves. She collected evidence from Mr. Reaves vehicle but did not bag and tag all things in his car. She stated there was a screwdriver that she did not collect. All prints in Latrese and Robert's vehicles were there own. Here is where it gets sticky... over nine months later Robert Reaves' vehicle is again processed, but this time by Alfred Sternberg of the Wake County Sheriff's Office of Criminal Investigation. This time he found a knife in the rail under the back seat, he also found a fingernail, numerous papers, and another screwdriver among other things. Which made me wonder why didn't Ms. Lilyquist of the CCBI see and gather these things also. The defense asked Mr. Sternberg if he could tell if there was blood on any of the items and he stated that he could not tell. He was asked again by Mr. Kelly, Robert Reaves' attorney, and he said that he 'did not see anything overtly like a blood drop.' Defense then asked 'you collect not on your observation but on what SBI can find? Whereas, Mr. Sternberg replied that it is 'certainly an objective and his is to collect and preserve...' At no time did the defense ask if the vehicle was at all times in a secure area, at least not that I heard, I had made a notation ...if vehicle was secured from February '08 until October '08?

There were quite a few other things that made flags go up for me but I will not state them all here until after the jury has submitted a verdict. Tomorrow is closing arguments so we should hear from the jury sometime tomorrow.

September 29, 2009 was the first day at Wake County Courthouse for the murder trial of Robert Reaves. It is alleged that Robert Reaves murdered Latrese Curtis by stabbing her 36 times (according to the medical examiner's report) and leaving her body alongside Interstate 540 in Raleigh, near the Louisburg Exit.

This case is one where a score card is needed as there are threads of connections throughout.

Darin Curtis was her husband and he attended NC State while also working a part-time job.

Steven Randolph was Latrese's friend and lover who attended NC Central. He lived with the accused Robert Reaves in a basement apartment of Reaves' house. Also living in the house was Reaves' sister Wilma Mae Thorpe aka Poochie (spelling unknown as of this writing). Wilma, according to Wake County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Lindow's opening statement, will testify that her brother did not go to church that evening like he stated.

Velma (last name unknown as of this writing) is a friend of Steven Randolph and supposedly had minor run-ins with Robert Reaves. According to the opening statement made by Ms. Lindow, Velma received threatening phone calls and phone records show that Robert Reaves had made a call to Velma's number. Velma also had her tires slashed but they did not state that Robert Reaves was found to have done this.

Kimberly Parker a friend of Latrese Curtis received a call at 2 a.m. from Latrese. Latrese did not speak but Kimberly could hear the sounds of someone walking on what sounded like gravel and cars passing by.

Testimony given by Darin Curtis explains the day before when he last saw Latrese. He awoke at 6:30 a.m., Latrese left for school around 7:15 a.m. and he left for work about 10 minutes after that. He talked to Latrese later that day around 5:00 p.m. and he told her he had a Beta Alpha Phi meeting at 7:00, and she said she was going to go to the library. Darin left the meeting when it let out at 8:30 p.m. to go home. He again talked to Latrese at 10 p.m. when she said she was going to leave the library, grab a bite to eat and then head home. Mr. Curtis went to bed around 11:30 p.m.

The next morning at 6:30 a.m. he awoke to find that Latrese was not home. He called her cell phone but got her voice mail and did not leave a message. He did not think anything was wrong, he thought maybe Latrese went to her parents to eat and she spent the night there. On his way to work he took I-540 passing the crime scene. As he was passing and noticed the tarp, thoughts came to the back of his mind regarding Latrese. He then went back home where he made more phone calls looking for Latrese. He went online to AT&T's site to look up Latrese's call history. He found one number that was called a lot that evening so he tried the number and asked how that person knew Latrese. The man on the other end kept asking if Latrese was okay and Darin Curtis hung up the phone. Turns out that man was Steven Randolph.

When the defending attorney cross-examined Darin Curtis he asked, how long does it take to get home from Central? Darin estimated it to be 45 - 60 minutes. He asked Darin what time he went to bed, with Darin replying 11:30. The attorney then asked what time Mr. Curtis got up the next morning and Darin answered 6:30. Defense asked if Darin had seen his wife's car on the news and he stated he did not. Darin said he was on the scene at 7:45 a.m. when asked by the defense what time he initially arrived at the scene. Darin also responded to questioning that he went back home and then went back to the scene after making phone calls. He was asked by the defense if he went to GEICO.com at 8:58 a.m. to check on the car insurance of Latrese and Mr. Curtis denied this. He also was asked if he checked Latrese's voice mail and he denied that allegation. He also said he had no knowledge of Latrese's affair until it came about during the investigation.

Frank David a detective with Wake County Sheriff's Department for 14 years testified that he interviewed Mr. Darin Curtis that day and pictures were taken of Darin's head, torso, top and bottom of hands and there were no injuries to him. The pictures used during this testimony were State's Evidence 12-15.

Lunch break until 2 p.m. was called.

Saturday, September 26, 2009 at May Memorial Library from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. will be a local author fair. The Friends of Alamance County Public Library is sponsoring this event which will give you the chance to meet local authors, who will be reading from their books and answering questions about writing and publishing your book. You will also have the opportunity to browse and purchase their books.

May Memorial Library is located at 342 South Spring Street, Burlington, NC. For more information regarding this event you may call 336-229-3588,

Earlier this month I headed to San Diego, Ca., to attend the Creative Freelancer Conference. This was my first conference since my aunt passed away and I made the decision that I was going to get serious about my freelance writing business.

I was not sure what I was getting into but something told me that I was going to benefit immensely. I am glad that I listened to that little voice (something I need more confidence in doing), as not only did I get to meet some wonderful people, I heard awesome people speak, and I learned a lot.

I took away wonderful information from June Walker during her tax seminar. She explained about the myths regarding deduction for a home-based business during her session Money Saving Tax Solutions for Creatives. She was such a wealth of information that I bought her book Self-Employed Tax Solutions, a must read for any freelancer.

The Communicatrix aka Colleen Wainwright, was very knowledgeable and extremely funny. If you aren't following her please check her out, she has wonderful ideas on how to increase your communication skills.

Michelle Goodman, another great speaker, was a wealth of information. She gave a seminar on "Dealing With Nightmare Clients," and a round-table on getting your work out to mass media. Since she is a fellow writer and an author, I definitely had to pick up her book which has the same name as her blog Anti 9-5 Guide, and a wonderful read.

Petrula Vrontikis was hands down the best speaker at the conference. Okay that is opinionated but she really was great. Her session What Will Your Freelance Business Be When It Grows Up? on how to nurture your business and get it going in the right direction was the first session. It motivated not only myself, but many of the participants, and set the tone for a conference that beats all freelance conferences.

There were other wonderful speakers who were chock full of advice, Ilise Benun, Peleg Top, Lee Silber, just to mention a few more. The full list is on the Creative Freelance Conference site in the right hand column.

I stayed in San Diego for another two weeks after the conference visiting family. This conference had me so inspired and fired up that those feelings are still going strong today. So much so, that I created a home office and bought an office TV (to keep up with daily news), I am working every day researching articles along with questions asked in my comments. I am also in the midst of gathering names of publishers, editors and magazines to submit articles to. This conference has me not only motivated but thinking professionally regarding my business.

If you are a freelance designer, writer, fiber artist, photographer please check out CFC and join us next year.

After further research I found out that it was a contract company updating the signs. This means that our tax dollars were not used to pay overtime for a NC employee. It seems that the contract company is under deadline to put up the signs by October 1st.

Sunday September 13, 2009 we were driving down Interstate 40 around the Fayetteville Street exit when my husband happened to notice someone fixing a road sign. He immediately turned to me and said 'look someone working on a Sunday.' I turned to see someone wearing an orange pinny working on a road sign.

I called NC DOT's Communication Division and spoke with Bridget to see what division would be fixing the signs and if they are NC employees or contract employees. That would be the maintenance department and it turns out it could be either a state or contract employee.

If it is a state employee I have a question for our state officials, or better yet, head of maintenance; was there a potential dangerous situation regarding the sign that we needed a worker out there on a Sunday? Was it absolutely necessary that someone was out there on a Sunday? Was that person on NC payroll or do they work for a contract company?

I know NC received $735.5 million in formula funding from the federal government for Highway Improvement and if, only if, this was a NC state employee, do we really need to be wasting this money on Sunday pay?

Check back to see if I can discover if this person was a contract or NC employee.

I will be attending a conference Wednesday through Friday in San Diego. It is the Creative Freelancer Conference and I will be writing my posts from there.

In the works:
Health care costs and who is going to pay for it?
Under Medicare/Medicaid doctors only take so many patients. Will this happen under the new health care bill if passed?
I also will be posting about the conference.

Please notice the city change.

A health care town hall meeting will take place from 6:30-8 PM in Greensboro, NC on August 19, 2009 at the Teamster's Union Hall on Sandy Ridge Road.

This meeting is to make your voice heard now that health care reform is closer than it has ever been, as proclaimed on the flier. I do hope this is for us to make our voices heard and not to have a screaming match as has been the norm at most town hall meetings lately.

I want to know what is being done in Washington and Raleigh to make my health care more affordable and to report on what was asked and said at this meeting so I will be attending.

If you are interested in attending, the flier invites everyone to bring a friend and to please RSVP to Heather Welborn - Call: 704 609-5906 or email her at hwelborn@seanc.org.

Look for my follow up post on Friday the 21st.

6 tornadoes touched down in North Carolina over the weekend. Godwin in Cumberland County was hit with an EF-0 while Sampson County's Spivey Corners had an EF-1. Meanwhile Johnston County had two tornadoes strike, an EF-0 in Pine Level and an EF-2 struck Kenley with wind speeds up to 130 miles an hour. Minutes later Wilson County saw a tornoda hit in Elm City with an EF-3 and winds up to 140 miles an hour.

Unfortunately Kenley and Elm City each lost one of their own during these storms. Maryland Gomez, 51, and Joshua Wiggins, 11, respectively, died in their homes. Joshua Wiggins' funeral will be held on Saturday in Wilson at the New Beginnings Community Church at 1PM; meanwhile, Maryland will be cremated with a service date to be determined but will probably be held
in Goldsboro at St. Mary's Catholic Church.

Sixty homes were either damaged or destroyed with about 120 people displaced by the destructive weather. The Red Cross reported that they only had to find hotels for about 10 people, the remaining homeless were with family and friends.

October 29, 2008 Truthful Politics journalist Cathy von Hassel-Davies went to Raleigh, North Carolina, where she met with fellow blogger Ilina from Dirt and Noise. They headed to a private house located in Raleigh's historical Five Oaks disrict for a meet and greet with Edie Falco, Carmella from The Sopranos. Cathy discovered she had a unique bond with Edie Falco, they both lived in the same small town in upstate NY. Edie Falco was in NC stumping for Obama and making sure that everyone would go out and vote preferably early.

You can click on photo to enlarge.

Afterwards Ilina and Cathy headed downtown for the Obama Rally. We are still gathering, viewing and editing all the videos and pictures, but unfortunately Cathy is an extremely active volunteer with one of the presidential campaigns and these next four days are crazy busy for her.

Cathy overcame her fear of heights and went up on a scissor lift with the lift operator and two other journalists so she can get this amazing picture of the gathering crowd with downtown Raleigh in the background.

A huge typographical errors has been made on Rensselaer County NY absentee ballots sent out to at least 300 voters. On row 1A it lists Senator Barack Obama as Barack Osama. Is this really a mistake or was it intentional? As a typist and someone who has typed many books for publishing firms I have confused neighborhing letters, I have transposed letters, but I have never confused the letter B with the letter S or any other letter keystrokes away from each other.

What happens to those ballots sent in with the Osama name on it - will they be discarded as inaccurate? Will the vote actually go for Obama? or will it perhaps count as a vote for Osama? I called the Rensselaer County Board of Elections and spoke to a women who refused to give her name, she said that "they are typograpical errors and because of the errors they will be counted as votes for Obama."

My question would be to those receiving the ballots - absentee voters in Schodack, Nassau, Brunswick, Schaghticoke and Sand lake - Will this raise a question in your mind before you mark your ballot and send it in? Will you automatically assume the vote will go for Barack Obama or think otherwise and either not send it in or vote for someone else?

Cathy von Hassel-Davies