North Carolina

Clarification appended

Though the first GOP debate garnered a less than impressive showing of contenders, one unlikely candidate came out on top.

Herman Cain, a businessman and political newcomer, was the star of the Fox News network's television debate Thursday night. An online poll featured on the network's website showed, as of Friday night, that 54 percent of voters (1,103 voters) believed Cain won the South Carolina debate. more >>

Local religious skeptics, determined to undermine the May 5 celebration of the National Day of Prayer, have established a day of their own – the National Day of Reason.

The non-theists of the North Carolina Triangle Freethought Society have constructed a full day’s schedule of speeches, musical performances and social events meant to rival the many local and national prayer events being held in conjunction with NDOP.

“The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason … and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship,” NDOR organizers state on their website. more >>

Multiple tornadoes wreaked havoc on North Carolina over the weekend, leaving at least 22 people dead.

With winds estimated at 160 mphs, the confirmed eight tornadoes tore through central North Carolina leaving behind a trail of collapsed buildings, fallen trees, and damaged homes with chunks missing. The “family” of tornadoes is the most devastating North Carolina has seen in over 20 years.

State Director of Emergency Management Doug Hoell described the storm as “the most severe, widespread tornadoes we have seen since the mid-1980s,” according to Raleigh News & Observer. more >>

Organizers were forced to shut down an atheist concert scheduled to occur at a North Carolina military base after the military refused to endorse the event.

Sgt. Justin Griffith, a self-described "foxhole atheist" soldier stationed at Fort Bragg, has canceled the Rock Beyond Belief concert he was organizing after receiving notice that the concert would not be endorsed and/or subsidized by the base or the military.

Griffith says the military's reaction to the event fashioned after the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's Rock the Fort is "a giant step backwards." He is now threatening to sue with the help Michael Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. more >>

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is protesting a decision by an army post in North Carolina not to provide the same support for an atheist event that it did for a Christian one last fall.

The "Rock Beyond Belief," scheduled to take place at Fort Bragg next month, is currently in limbo.

In a letter Thursday, FFRF Staff Attorney Patrick Elliott accused Colonel Stephen J. Sicinski of "serious constitutional violations" for denying what FFRF claims was promised support for the nonreligious event. more >>

A whole new kind of festival is hitting one small town in February, hoping to accomplish essentially what Robert Redford sought to do with Sundance: “to broaden … minds, engage, provoke, inspire, and ultimately, connect” – only, with sex instead.

The Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Campaign of North Carolina (APPCNC) is hosting its first-ever “Sex Ed Film Festival” Feb. 19 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Three relevant films handpicked by teens – “Saved,” “The Education of Shelby Knox,” and “The Gloucester 18” – will precede a platform of panel discussions moderated by teens, with local leaders and experts in the field probing the problems and difficulties impacting the youth today in regards to sex. more >>