1 big thing: 📉 Reputation is everything

💼 Fresh openings from our Job Board

🔥 Hot Job

2. Biz lightning round: Ted's power (lol) and other bites

3. 🎈 Happy birthday, Belk

4. 🚙 1 pic to go: Race day

nascar cars driving around a track as the sun sets

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Valerie Beck, Dustin Howie, Meagan Soffera, Crystal Sundaramoorthy, Robin Williams and Yolanda Williamson.

🇺🇸 Situational awareness: We won't have a newsletter tomorrow in observance of Memorial Day. While you're patting out those burgers, take a few moments and think of those who've died in service.

Today's newsletter is 611 words — a 2-minute read.

🙏 I'm rereading this from my friend and WBTV reporter Nick Ochsner, whose father Jim was killed during his fourth tour in Afghanistan in 2005, when Nick was just in high school.

Charlotte

Picture of the Charlotte skyline with CLT written across it.

Axios Charlotte, anchored by Michael Graff and Emma Way, gets you smarter, faster on the most consequential news and developments unfolding in your backyard.

Axios Charlotte

1 big thing: ⬇️ Make the prices fall

Illustration of a balloon in the shape of a question mark inflating. 

💼 Fresh openings from our Job Board  

2. ⚡ Biz lightning round

Level up your finance knowledge

3. Another city's plans to cap an interstate

rendering of a new park in Dallas Texas with people walking along trails and through trees, with the Dallas skyline in background

Hello, Sunday. It's Michael, who has no plans to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series.

Weather: 91° and sunny with a slight chance of rain.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Jenny Martella, Addison Schroeder and Richard Taich. 

And a special birthday wish to our own Ashley Mahoney, one of the hardest workers in the business, on her 30th today.

🔥 Situational awareness: ICYMI, Ashley has the details on York County suing Panthers' owner David Tepper's businesses over their "failed vanity project." Go deeper.

Today's newsletter is 567 words — a 2-minute read.

🙏 A quick note to thank everyone who submitted names of Gen Xers changing Charlotte last week. Sorry that I haven't responded to everyone — our house got slammed last week by a certain virus that's made headlines over the past 27 months. 

Doing better, though, and eager to go through your suggestions.

Meanwhile, I'm listening to this incredible new album and watching a lot of this.

1 big thing: Hello, co-workers

Illustration of a vintage postcard that reads "corporate retreat"

2. Biz lightning round: Fly through these headlines

Illustration of an airplane with a glowing lightning bolt on the tail

3. No rules, just right

4. Favorite chart of the week

🌦 Weather: Summery. High close to 90° with showers and thunderstorms possible.

🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Emily Cantrell, Kevin Creedon, Jeremy Giles, Caryn Lee, Karen O'Gorman, Marnie Sagraves and Mark Williams.

Situational awareness: Tickets go on sale Monday for Grandfather Mountain's Bioluminescent Evenings, a very neat event where you can witness synchronous and blue ghost fireflies.

The evenings are scheduled for June 26, June 29 and July 1. 

Today's newsletter is 593 words — a 2.5-minute read.

If you read one more thing today, make it this short story from my pal and Axios Tampa Bay author Ben Montgomery, who's a good and proud dad.

1 big thing: 💕 What Dad taught us

collage of pictures of young children with their fathers

2. 5 non-dad things we learned this week

spray ground with water flying and the Charlotte skyline in the backdrop

Level up your lunch 👇


3. 😎 What to do this weekend

Illustration of the June 2022 calendar with the Juneteenth flag filling the Monday the 20th square

4. 🥰 1 more Father's Day thing to go

three photos of a dad and son -- one of both frowning, one of both smiling, and one of both expressing surprise

Hello, Saturday. It's Michael, wishing a happy 87th birthday to Axios Charlotte member Hugh McColl, one of the fathers of modern-day Charlotte.

☀️ Weekend weather: 90° and sunny today, according to our partners at WBTV. Downright chilly at 86° tomorrow. 

🎂 Happy birthday also to Hugh's fellow Axios Charlotte members Julie Adams, Summer Baruth, Ashley Cooper, Rachel Eldridge, Justin King and Art Riddick.

And happy early birthday to our members celebrating on Sunday: Steve Jegier, Jon Morris, Rich Robles, Emil Spiegel and Kelly Telljohann. And to those whose birthday falls on Monday: Irene Carroll, Jane Craft, MU Miller, Robin Nitsche and Brandon Smith.

Situational awareness: We're off tomorrow and Monday in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. Hence, all those early birthdays up there.

Today's newsletter is 734 words — a 3-minute read.

I'm listening to John Prine's "When I Get to Heaven," because the lyrics are all lines my old man would've said. No doubt, if there is a heaven, he's smoking a cigarette that's nine miles long right now.

1 big thing: Gen Xers (still) shaping Charlotte

2. Biz lightning round

Illustration of a pair of eyes with the pupils moving left to right.

3. Key intersection back open

sign at a roundabout that reads "Berryhill Road" with an arrow pointing toward the camera

AMA: Financial insights from a local business owner

Hello, Sunday. It's Michael, a person who graduated from high school 25 years ago yesterday. Oy.

☀️ Weather: Mid-80s, sunny and comfortable. Enjoy it before we head up into the 90s this week.

Happy birthday to Axios Charlotte members Maggie Brownrigg, Cal Mitchener Jr, Ryan Patterson and Angela Williams. And to ol' pal and photography great Logan Cyrus.

🏀 Situational awareness: Two players who graduated from Charlotte high schools are in tonight's NBA Finals — the Warriors' Steph Curry, of course, went to Charlotte Christian, and the Celtics' Grant Williams is from Providence Day.

Today's newsletter is 619 words — a 2.5-minute read.

I've been watching this recently, and over this weekend, I'll be listening to this, because I'm fairly sure it was our class song. 

National

Axios Generate

Data: NOAA; Map: Thomas Oide and Erin Davis/Axios Visuals

Climate change is often cast as a global issue. But in reality, it's already affecting each of us in our backyards.

Why it matters: The more people see the impact on their own lives, the more likely it is that they'll look for things they can do about it — from the candidates and policies they support to the personal changes they can make. 

The big picture: Whether it's increasingly common "sunny day flooding" in coastal cities like Miami and Charleston, South Carolina, or the growing frequency and severity of heat waves, or wildfires out west and in Appalachia, or beach homes tumbling into the ocean during an ordinary coastal storm — we are already being forced to adapt our lives to global warming.

Meanwhile, as Congress stalls on taking comprehensive action to limit global warming's severity, it is local policymakers — governors, mayors and city council members — who are acting with the most urgency.

As communities try to cut emissions, they're also working to prepare for future global warming, from road-raising projects along the shoreline to city roofs painted white to reflect incoming heat from the sun.

The danger isn't just over our heads. It's sometimes biting our ankles.

Consider, for a moment, the fire ant and its march through North Carolina.

The non-native species with the unforgettable sting was first discovered in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in the farthest southeastern corner of the state along the South Carolina line, in the 1950s, about 20 years after it arrived in the U.S. from South America.

Now 78 of North Carolina's 100 counties are under fire ant quarantine area designations, according to a North Carolina Agriculture report from January. 

The fire ants aren't migrating simply because the temperature is warming farther inland. They also float as colonies around their queen, hitching rides inland on floods from more frequent and intense rainfall events.

Meanwhile, farmers across the country, from Arizona to the northern Plains, are feeling the harsh effects of weather whiplash from drought to flood, and extreme heat to unseasonable cold. These shifts eat into their margins and disrupt the country's food supply, Axios' Torey Van Oot reports.

And golf course superintendents throughout the South were convinced of climate change in the 2000s and 2010s, when they started losing bentgrass greens during late summer. 

Now many courses in the region have made the expensive transition to warm-weather Bermudagrass, which thrives in heat and humidity. 

State of play: Climate change unfolds in the margins day to day until it becomes impossible to avoid. Perhaps one morning you realize the place you live experiences totally different weather conditions than when you first arrived there, or that your community has seen three so-called 100-year floods in the past two years. 

Miami, for example, now sees an average of 75 more 90-degree days each year compared to 1970, according to an analysis from Climate Central, a nonprofit scientific research organization.

Similarly, heavy precipitation events have become more frequent across the country, especially in the Midwest and Northeast. When Climate Central studied rainfall at 150 U.S. weather stations, it found that hourly rainfall intensity has increased since 1970 at 90% of them.

Yes, but: Climate change is hitting some areas harder than others, and it is playing out against the background of environmental racism. 

In the Bay Area, cities are developing strategies to deal with sea level rise. And there's little consistency, as wealthier cities beef up infrastructure faster than ones with lower income.

Miami officials are contemplating a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposal to build a 20-foot, $6 billion project that would protect downtown from sea level rise and hurricane-related storm surge flooding, but could harm lower-income areas. 

Climate change has long been an issue of equity. In Princeville, North Carolina, the oldest town in the country incorporated by African-Americans, a levee built in the 1960s was no match for Hurricane Floyd in 1999 or Matthew in 2016, when 450 homes were destroyed.

In Atlanta, city officials and environmental groups are trying to blunt the impact of increasingly severe heat waves on low-income communities by planting trees and helping to make housing more energy-efficient, Axios' Thomas Wheatley reports.

The bottom line: Our communities are already altered by climate change, often in ways we can't see, and local responses to those changes may determine our future as much as sweeping policies from world leaders.

Climate is a local issue now

From flooding to heat waves, coastal storms and wildfires, we're adapting our lives to global warming.

Climate truths

Climate Truths

Climate change is often cast as a global issue. But in reality, it&#x27;s already affecting each of us in our backyards.Why it matters: The more people see the impact on their own lives, the more likely it is that they&#x27;ll look for things they can do about it — from the candidates and policies they support to the personal changes they can make.

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

Raleigh

McCrae Dowless, one of North Carolina's most curious political characters, was buried in Bladen County over the weekend. He succeeded at his top late-in-life goal: never going to jail for election fraud.

About 75 people attended his service at Center Road Baptist Church in Bladenboro. He was remembered as a friend, brother, father and, as his grandkids call him, "Papa Crae."

Driving the news: Dowless died from cancer on April 24. He was 66 years old.

He faced state charges on counts related to a fraud scheme in which prosecutors alleged he illegally harvested votes in Bladen County in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional elections. He maintained his innocence until his final breath.

The Wake County District Attorney will still pursue cases against about six of his associates.

Between the lines: For cutthroat political observers, Dowless' death brought an unsatisfying resolution in the story of the 2018 election fraud scandal that put his tiny eastern North Carolina county at the center of America’s debate over election security. 

 The Bladen County commissioner who bailed Dowless out of jail in 2019

 And Stony Rushing, the Union County politician and gun range owner who impersonates "The Dukes of Hazzard" character Boss Hogg.

Mark Harris — the Baptist preacher who had his 2018 election to Congress overturned amid the state’s investigation into the legality of the absentee ballot program Dowless ran for him — delivered a seven-minute video prayer.

What they’re saying: “He believed in you, he loved you,” Rushing said. “It’s hard to know somebody and spend the time that I got to spend with McCrae, and see the persecution that he went through.”

The big picture: Axios’ Michael Graff and WBTV’s Nick Ochsner had numerous exclusive interviews with Dowless as part of their reporting for their book “The Vote Collectors.”

They attended the service and wrote an essay on the scenes from that day and Dowless’s life, in partnership with the statewide digital magazine The Assembly.

Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye

About 75 people turned out for the funeral for the famous political operative

photo of a man named McCrae Dowless sitting at a kitchen table with wood paneling behind him and cigarettes in an ashtray

McCrae Dowless sits in his kitchen in Bladenboro, NC in 2018. Photo: Justin Kase Conder/The Washington Post via Getty Images

North Carolina

McCrae Dowless, one of North Carolina&#x27;s most curious political characters, was buried in Bladen County over the weekend. He succeeded at his top late-in-life goal: never going to jail for election fraud.<ul><li>About 75 people attended his service at Center Road Baptist Church in Bladenboro. He was remembered as a friend, brother, father and, as his grandkids call him, &quot;Papa Crae.&quot;</li></ul>Driving the news: Dowless died from cancer on April 24. He was 66 years old.<ul><li>He faced state charges on counts related to a fraud scheme in which prosecutors alleged he illegally harvested votes in Bladen County in the 2016 and 2018 Congressional elections. He maintained his innocence until his final breath.</li><li>The Wake County District Attorney will s<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="till pursue cases against about six of his associates" data-vars-click-url="https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1518314495965384705?s=20&amp;t=gDcMTwe1fosj1PCbJ9Fa4g" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://twitter.com/NickOchsnerWBTV/status/1518314495965384705?s=20&amp;t=gDcMTwe1fosj1PCbJ9Fa4g" target="_blank">till pursue cases against about six of his associates</a>.</li></ul>Between the lines: For cutthroat political observers, Dowless&#x27; death brought an <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="unsatisfying resolution" data-vars-click-url="https://www.johnlocke.org/it-is-a-shame-that-mccrae-dowless-will-never-be-tried-for-ballot-trafficking/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.johnlocke.org/it-is-a-shame-that-mccrae-dowless-will-never-be-tried-for-ballot-trafficking/" target="_blank">unsatisfying resolution</a> in the story of the 2018 election fraud scandal that put his tiny eastern North Carolina county at the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="center of America’s debate" data-vars-click-url="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/09/voter-fraud-north-carolina-bladen-county-congress-222855/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/09/voter-fraud-north-carolina-bladen-county-congress-222855/" target="_blank">center of America’s debate</a> over election security. His pallbearers included:<ul><li> The Bladen County commissioner who bailed Dowless out of jail in 2019</li><li> And Stony Rushing, the Union County politician and gun range owner who impersonates <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="&quot;The Dukes of Hazzard&quot; character Boss Hogg" data-vars-click-url="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/27/gun-enthusiast-real-life-boss-hogg-takes-gop-mantle-congressional-race-tainted-by-fraud/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/27/gun-enthusiast-real-life-boss-hogg-takes-gop-mantle-congressional-race-tainted-by-fraud/" target="_blank">&quot;The Dukes of Hazzard&quot; character Boss Hogg</a>.</li></ul>Mark Harris — the Baptist preacher who had his 2018 election to Congress <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="overturned" data-vars-click-url="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/mark-harris-nc-voter-fraud.html" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/mark-harris-nc-voter-fraud.html" target="_blank">overturned</a> amid the state’s investigation into the legality of the absentee ballot program Dowless ran for him — delivered <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="a seven-minute video prayer" data-vars-click-url="https://www.facebook.com/centerroadbaptist/videos/5159375097500411" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.facebook.com/centerroadbaptist/videos/5159375097500411" target="_blank">a seven-minute video prayer</a>.What they’re saying: “He believed in you, he loved you,” Rushing said. “It’s hard to know somebody and spend the time that I got to spend with McCrae, and see the persecution that he went through.”The big picture: Axios’ Michael Graff and WBTV’s Nick Ochsner had numerous exclusive interviews with Dowless as part of their reporting for their book “<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="The Vote Collectors" data-vars-click-url="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665566/the-vote-collectors/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469665566/the-vote-collectors/" target="_blank">The Vote Collectors</a>.”<ul><li>They attended the service and wrote an essay on the scenes from that day and Dowless’s life, in partnership with the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="statewide digital magazine The Assembly" data-vars-click-url="https://www.theassemblync.com/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theassemblync.com/" target="_blank">statewide digital magazine The Assembly</a>.</li><li><a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Read the full essay. " data-vars-click-url="https://www.theassemblync.com/short-form/mccrae-dowless-last-spin/" data-vars-content-id="1a655a2f-cd9d-44fd-a6f3-bb03279c0cd3" data-vars-headline="Friends of McCrae Dowless say goodbye" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.theassemblync.com/short-form/mccrae-dowless-last-spin/" target="_blank">Read the full essay. </a></li></ul>

News

Politics

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new congressional map imposed by the courts on Feb. 23 has reinvigorated liberals in this purple state, where GOP legislative dominance has reigned since former President Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008.

Why it matters: North Carolina has been the battleground for legal fights over disenfranchisement for the past decade, and its broader history in that area is among the most instructive stories of voting rights in the U.S.

The new maps show Republicans with seven mostly safe seats, Democrats with six, and one toss-up — a far cry from the 10-3-1 GOP edge after the Republican-led Legislature drew the initial maps in November.

Democratic Party leaders believe they need to seize this opportunity to add diversity to the 14-person congressional delegation.

Nida Allam’s political career was born out of grief. She was in her last semester of college on Feb. 10, 2015, when three of her closest friends — all Muslim, like her — were killed in what many believe was a hate crime in Chapel Hill.

Now Allam is 28 and a front-runner to become the Democratic nominee to replace longtime Rep. David Price — a white man retiring after more than 30 years — in the state's ultra-liberal congressional district around Durham. 

Across the state, at least 20 candidates of color filed to run as Democrats in congressional races in the nine days that followed the new maps. More than 75 filed to run for the Legislature.

“We're at the stage where for Democrats in North Carolina, at what level of urgency are we going to act with?” Allam, a progressive and daughter of Indian and Pakistani immigrants, tells Axios.

Brian Turner, the campaign co-chair for the Democratic state house caucus, agrees. “For far too long, our delegation hasn't looked like the rich diversity that is North Carolina,” says Turner, a white man who's an outspoken supporter of Allam. 

The big picture: A state that's 22% Black and 37% people of color overall has only two representatives of color in Washington out of 13 current House members and two senators.

One of those, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, is retiring, leaving Rep. Alma Adams as the only incumbent of color among the 14 congressional races this year. (The state added a seat after the 2020 Census.)

In the 12 years since Republicans gained control of North Carolina's Legislature, Democrats and voting rights groups have argued that gerrymandering not only hurts Democratic representation but Black representation.

Now, if the more equitable map doesn't produce a more diverse delegation after this primary season, Democrats likely have no one to blame but themselves.

"I'm concerned about African American representation, but I'm also concerned about Democratic representation," Butterfield told Axios in January. "And if we get fair Democratic representation, then African American representation will naturally follow. Right?"

Reality check: It's a safe bet that after the 2022 election, the state will have at least three elected officials of color in Washington, but a fourth will be a stretch. 

Adams' seat in Charlotte is safe — 64% of the district voted for President Biden in 2020.

In Butterfield's district, which now leans Democrat by about 7 percentage points, all four primary candidates are Black.

In the district Price is retiring from — the 4th — five of eight primary candidates are people of color.

The backstory: Few districts in the country are more symbolic of the racial representation in America than Butterfield's district. 

It's the 1st district now, but it essentially covers the same area as the "Black Second" district from Reconstruction.

George Henry White, the last Black congressman to serve during the end of the Reconstruction era, represented the Black Second.

White, a Republican, elected not to run in 1900 because North Carolina instituted a literacy test and grandfather clause that disenfranchised thousands of Black voters.

It would be 27 years before another Black person served in Congress in the U.S. It would be 92 years before another Black person from North Carolina did.

Before he left office, White gave an interview to the New York Times explaining his decision.

Much of his frustration wasn't directed at the overt white supremacists who passed discriminatory laws, but at his own party of supposed liberals.

"The white Republicans of North Carolina are Republicans in order to get the Negro vote to maintain them in office," he told the publication, "but they do not want the Negroes to hold office."

The bottom line: If all of that seems like distant history from 120 years ago, consider this: After White's departure, the next Black person elected to public office in that part of eastern North Carolina was a dentist in Wilson, who won a seat on the town board in 1953.

His name was G.K. Butterfield Sr., and his son, G.K. Jr., was 6 at the time.

Editor's note: This story was produced in partnership with The Assembly. A longer version will appear on The Assembly site next week.

North Carolina's lessons for U.S.

A new congressional map reinvigorates liberals in the battleground for legal fights.

Photo illustration collage of Alma Adams and the state shape of North Carolina

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela. Photo: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Deep Dive: Hard Truths - Voting

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A new congressional map imposed by the courts on Feb. 23 has reinvigorated liberals in this purple state, where GOP legislative dominance has reigned since former President Obama narrowly carried the state in 2008.Why it matters: North Carolina has been the battleground for <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="legal fights" data-vars-click-url="https://apnews.com/article/759cff36bb3740708a706debf8d30773" data-vars-content-id="5aff1788-423d-4480-9f5a-87aefe76cddf" data-vars-headline="North Carolina&#x27;s lessons for U.S." data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://apnews.com/article/759cff36bb3740708a706debf8d30773" target="_blank">legal fights</a> over disenfranchisement for the past decade, and its broader history in that area is among the most instructive stories of voting rights in the U.S.

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

Axios Raleigh

Eight minutes, 46 seconds: Two years ago on May 25, that length of time was burned into America's mind. 

That was how long Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's neck. 

A jury would later find Chauvin guilty of multiple counts of murder.

In the days that followed, people filled the streets in Raleigh and around the world, chanting Floyd's name and calling for change.

Zoom out: Floyd's death catapulted local and state leaders into action, and, in a rare show of unity in North Carolina's divided state legislature, rallied them around a common cause. 

Two years later, progress has happened in spurts, here and everywhere. 

In Raleigh, several statues came down in June 2020, including a confederate monument at the Capitol and one of Josephus Daniels, the former News & Observer editor who promoted the white supremacist campaign of 1898. 

Policy changes took longer. Statewide, the legislature passed, and the governor signed, three criminal justice reform bills in a rare bipartisan effort in late summer 2021.

The largest was SB300, which created a statewide database that monitors police officers' backgrounds, essentially to make it more difficult for officers fired for misconduct from one department to find work in another.

The bill also established a statewide duty to intervene, meaning an officer who sees a colleague using excessive force must step in to prevent it and report it within 72 hours.

It also expanded mental health training for officers and allowed families of people severely hurt or killed by police to request body-camera footage and receive an answer faster from a judge.

Worth noting: George Perry Floyd — known by his family as "Perry Jr." —was from North Carolina, born in a hospital in Fayetteville and raised in Raeford, just an hour and a half south of Raleigh.

His uncle, Roger, who now attends regular racial equity meetings around the state, said he was the third person to hold Perry Jr. in the hospital after he was born. 

"That's so vivid right now in my mind and in my spirit," he once said.

What's next: The George Floyd Memorial Center, based in Raleigh and set up by Floyd's family in the state, is hosting a "weekend of enlightenment." 

The golf tournament is already sold out, but there's a virtual conference on Saturday, beginning at 11am, to discuss moving "from perpetual trauma to transformation." (Tickets)

Reflecting on the two years in N.C. since George Floyd's murder

What's happened in Raleigh and beyond since George Floyd was murdered two years ago.

Photo illustration: Allie Carl/Axios. Photo: Chandan Khanna/Getty Images

Police

Eight minutes, 46 seconds: Two years ago on May 25, that length of time was burned into America&#x27;s mind. That was how long Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd&#x27;s neck. <ul><li>A jury would later <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="find Chauvin guilty" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2021/06/25/derek-chauvin-sentenced-george-floyd-murder" data-vars-content-id="ba5dbb7c-815f-4cd7-b32e-02e43c230d39" data-vars-headline="Reflecting on the two years in N.C. since George Floyd&#x27;s murder" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cities/2021/06/25/derek-chauvin-sentenced-george-floyd-murder" target="_self">find Chauvin guilty</a> of multiple counts of murder.</li></ul>

For much of the past two decades, the news around golf was grim. The sport saw a 22% drop in the number of recreational golfers from 2003 to 2018, and more than 1,200 courses closed.

Traditional and stuffy courses were suddenly allowing people to wear jeans, play music — anything at all to attract a new generation to the limping sport.

The pandemic, however, has driven a resurgence in the game, Axios' Michael Graff reports. 

What's happening: Golf, the sport of social distance and fresh air, is blowing up. 

In 2021 a record 3.2 million Americans played on a golf course for the first time in 2021, according to the National Golf Foundation.

Women golfers drove the surge, jumping 8% from 2019 to 2020.

Why it matters: Courses throughout North Carolina went from struggling to find golfers to struggling to keep up with demand. Pinehurst Resort, the state's golf mecca located about two hours east of Charlotte, saw 400,000 rounds played on its nine main courses in 2021, up from about 340,000 in 2019.

"It's almost gotten to the point where, is that too many rounds?" Matt Barksdale, the head professional at Pinehurst Resort, told Axios. "Are we able to maintain the integrity of the golf courses such as the turf conditions and the green conditions?"

Driving the news: North Carolina is entering a period when it will become an even bigger fixture in the world of golf. 

This ​​weekend, Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., is hosting the U.S. Women's Open. And the Korn Ferry Tour comes to the Country Club at Wakefield Plantation for the REX Hospital Open. 

Quail Hollow in Charlotte will host the Presidents Cup in the fall. 

And the USGA is moving some of its operations to Pinehurst No. 2, which will host U.S. Opens in 2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047.

It's not just Pinehurst, though, that is seeing a surge in tee times. Courses across the state have seen more golfers. 

Hillandale Golf Course, a public course in Durham, saw a 32% increase in rounds played in 2021 compared to 2018, Karl Kimball, director of golf operations at Hillandale, told Axios. 

However, like many businesses, golf courses are feeling the effects of inflation, Kimball said. 

Employee wages have increased by approximately 15% at Hillandale and rising fuel prices are impacting its ability to keep costs down. 

"Short answer is this, the pandemic has increased rounds and activities," Kimball said. "Long answer is operators are trying to ensure facilities can be successful without making the game unaffordable for the lovers of our game due to the ever increasing costs we are facing."

Fun-ish fact: It isn't the first time golf in North Carolina has seen a bump from a sweeping illness. One of the main reasons Pinehurst exists at all is tuberculosis.

Golf rides a pandemic comeback in North Carolina

People have returned to the golf courses in droves since 2020.

For much of the past two decades, the news around golf was grim. The sport saw a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="22% drop" data-vars-click-url="https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2020/july/implications-of-the-rise-and-decline-of-golf/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_charlotte&amp;stream=top" data-vars-content-id="db71e57e-49fd-47ed-b14e-e7961437adae" data-vars-headline="Golf rides a pandemic comeback in North Carolina" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nrpa.org/parks-recreation-magazine/2020/july/implications-of-the-rise-and-decline-of-golf/?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter_axioslocal_charlotte&amp;stream=top" target="_blank">22% drop</a> in the number of recreational golfers from 2003 to 2018, and more than 1,200 courses closed.<ul><li>Traditional and stuffy courses were suddenly allowing people to wear jeans, play music — anything at all to attract a new generation to the limping sport.</li></ul>The pandemic, however, has driven a resurgence in the game, Axios&#x27; Michael Graff reports.

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