Terrance Merriweather, deputy commissioner of the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, will oversee daily operations of the agency until the governor appoints a new chairman. The former chairman, A.D. Zander Guy Jr., resigned last week. The ABC confirmed the resignation but offered no additional information. Merriweather will conduct daily business and take any needed emergency...
ABC chairman A.D. Zander Guy Jr. has resigned as chairman of the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission. ABC spokesman Jeff Strickland confirmed the resignation to Carolina Journal on Monday, Sept. 20. He offered no additional information. Gov. Roy Cooper, who appointed Guy as chairman in March 2017, will name a replacement. Guy’s resignation comes amid...
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has signed House Bill 890, omnibus legislation to make changes to laws governing the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission. The bill, in large part, aims to level the playing field for distillers, making rules more consistent with those governing breweries and wineries. H.B. 890 was one of nine bills Cooper signed...
I was in Las Vegas, an assistant city editor for the afternoon daily newspaper, the Las Vegas Sun. I awoke that Tuesday morning to a clock radio, from which an announcer was talking about a plane flying into a building in New York City. He and another man were debating whether it was an accident....
The N.C. Senate has passed House Bill 890, an all-encompassing measure that could help distillers succeed in a crowded and burgeoning industry. The bill passed the Senate on third reading, 35-7, Wednesday, Sept. 8, with a couple of technical amendments. The bill, in large part, aims to level the playing field for distillers, making rules...
A form of art, growing and nurturing communities. A block on which to build neighborhoods, relationships. Simple phrases, lacking description but begging for illustration, detailed, contextual description. What’s coming is a common refrain from me, used many times in myriad fashions. Yet it’s always true. Places such as breweries, distilleries, wineries have taken the point...
Family members and lawmakers, in Washington, D.C., and Raleigh, representing N.C. residents are mourning the deaths of a Marine and soldier who died in a terrorist attack while helping Americans and others evacuate from Afghanistan. Thirteen service members, including a Fort Bragg soldier and Camp Lejuene Marine, died while supporting Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, the Department...
It’s around lunchtime on a Wednesday in mid-July, the bright remnants of the morning quickly morphing into the typical hot, heavy Carolina afternoon. A dozen or so people — diners and drinkers — survey downtown Chapel Hill from atop a third-floor balcony at Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery. It’s a neighborhood landmark, since...
The N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission and the company operating the state’s liquor warehouses are trying to offer a modicum of relief to local boards suffering from problems with the global supply chain. ABC chairman A.D. Zander Guy proposed dropping warehouse bailment charges from $2.75 per case of liquor to $1.50, for 120 days retroactive...
The “woke” movement — phenomenon, ideology, whatever it’s called — has gone too far, taking a hard left and then another sharp turn around the next corner. Veering out of control. To conservatives, libertarians, and even moderate thinkers, this is obvious. If the most irksome and unpleasant voices on the left — including Democrats at...
One time, during high school in Western Pennsylvania, about six of us got in a car and drove across the border to Wheeling, West Virginia, where the drinking age was still 18. Just one of us was actually 18, but it didn’t matter. It was 1981, and Pennslyvania still issued drivers’ licenses without photos. Just...
Things are quiet this week on Jones Street in Raleigh, even as work on a state budget plan, which the governor may or may not sign, looms in the legislature. The N.C. Senate on June 25 approved its budget proposal, supported by all Republicans and a handful of Democrats. The House, though, probably won’t take...