Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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ELECTION Guide 2012 creating a stable, reliable and predictable legal "playing field" for all North Carolinians and their businesses. As your conservative candidate, I believe we achieve this through judicial restraint, not activism. I've been married for 20+ years to Sue Robinson and we have three teenage daughters. I have a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service and a law degree from George Washington University National Law Center. I am currently Special Counsel to Nexsen Pruet, PLLC, a 190-lawyer firm with eight offices throughout the Carolinas. I have provided pro bono representation for religious and charitable non-profi t organizations in the Triangle community and across the State; and I've assisted dozens of charities with obtaining non-profi t status. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Political Leadership. I am also a Fellow of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Healthy Community Institute, and have been an active volunteer with the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team. For more than two decades, I have been a signifi cant supporter of the Small Business Center at Wake Tech. I have voted in 34 consecutive elections in North Carolina. My endorsements include: Honorable I. Beverly Lake, former Chief Justice of the NC Supreme Court; Honorable Robert F. Orr, Former Justice of the NC Supreme Court, former Judge on the NC Court of Appeals, and former executive director at the Institute for Constitutional Law; Governor Jim E. Holshouser, Jr., former governor of North Carolina; and many small business owners across North Carolina. Please visit my website: www.robinsonfornc. com for additional information. Thank you for your vote. District Court Judge, District 12 I came to Fayetteville 23 years ago when I was first stationed at Fort Bragg in the U.S. Army. Since that time, I have served my local and national community to include in combat. I have also served in every court in our local district court. Lou Olivera I have not only the experience, but I have shown that I care for this community by striving personally to improve it for all our citizens. I joined the Army when I was 18-years- old and stationed at Fort Bragg in 1989 with the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion. In 1990, I deployed and fought in the Gulf War. I graduated in 1995 with a BA in Criminal Justice from Pembroke State University while living and working in Fayetteville. I continued to serve in the Army Reserves until 1997. Today, I am a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. In 1997, I attended Campbell Law School while living and working in Fayetteville. As president of the Men's Legal Caucus, I led an annual fundraiser for the Battered Women's Shelter. I served as chief judge of the Honor Court. In 2003, I became a prosecutor in our District 20 UCW OCT. 31 - NOV. 6, 2012 Attorney's Office. I prosecuted in District and Superior Courts and worked with the Violent Crimes Task Force and with the Operation Ceasefire Program aimed at taking guns off our streets. Additionally, I worked with the Child Advocacy Center, as the prosecutor's liaison to assist with child victims, and on the board of the Rape Crisis Center. In 2004, I entered private practice and opened my own firm. I was also personally asked to join the local Juvenile Bar to assist with our troubled youth and also represented clients in Civil, Criminal and Domestic Courts. Additionally, I have taught criminal justice and paralegal classes at Fayetteville Technical Community College and Methodist University. I have been a coach with the annual local high school moot court competition. I am a member of the Cumberland County Bar Association and I continue to provide pro bono legal services to the United Way. In 2003, the Fayetteville City Council nominated me to fill a vacancy on the Public Works Commission, where I served as chairman in 2006 and again in 2010. I also joined the board of the Cumberland County United Way and worked with the Hispanic Latino Center, the March of Dimes, Fayetteville Rotary and American Heartwalk. In 2004, I was accepted as a fellow with the bipartisan N.C. Institute of Political Leadership. In 2005, I attended and was voted class leader of Leadership Fayetteville. In 2006, the Fayetteville Observer named me one of "20 Individuals Under 40 Making a Difference in Our Community." We have 15 judges here in Cumberland County, not one is a veteran. Fort Bragg is the largest military installation in the United States in population. The U.S. Forces Command and XVIII Airborne Corps are stationed here along with many combat deployable sub units. The stress of combat deployment not only affects the soldier, but their family. With the recent creation of a Veterans Court here in Cumberland County, we desperately need a judge with the perspective of being a veteran, to include one who uniquely understands the stresses of serving in combat, especially with suicide rates of our combat soldiers above the national average. I have practiced in every court within our local district court, as both a prosecutor and a private attorney and I have given myself to our community. I believe strongly in what they say in the Rotary — "service above self." With my extensive experience throughout our local district court and my long history of service to our community, I ask that you allow me to be your next District Court Judge and continue to serve this great place we call home. District Court Judge, District 12 I am a candidate for District Court Judge. I am committed to the public's assurance of a kind of equality and justice that is not familiar to Steve Stokes I earned a dual master's degree in public administration and management, and graduated from The Florida State University College of Law, where I was a Virgil Hawkins Fellow. I am licensed to practice law in North Carolina and Florida, and am admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, U.S. District for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the U.S. Supreme Court. I possess the kind of judicial temperament and sense of fairness that will positively impact those who appear in my court. No one will walk away feeling that the court I presided over demeaned or disrespected them. For more than 20 years, I have worked as a lawyer in the private and public sectors as a prosecutor and defense attorney, in criminal, civil, military and administrative law areas. As an officer and kawyer, I honorably served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corp as a trial counsel, a Special Assistant United States Attorney, defense attorney in the 82nd Airborne Division and International Law Attorney for the U.S. Army Special Operations, Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Commands, respectively. some and stranger to others, but which is common to all. My education, training and experience exemplify what a well- qualified District Court Judge should have. I was Chief of the Army's largest legal assistance office. I was an Assistant State's Attorney. And I previously served as a platoon leader, executive officer and acting commander with the 82nd Military Police Company, 82nd Airborne Division. Additional law-enforcement experience includes serving as a deputy sheriff. I graduated from the U.S. Army Ranger and Advanced Airborne Schools, earning the coveted Ranger Tab and Senior Jump Wings, respectively. I also graduated from the Combined Arms and Services Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; the National Security Law Summer Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law; the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Advanced Course,U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. I obtained the rank of major before electing to leave the service to go into private practice. I served on the Cumberland County Education Foundation's Board of Directors, the Cumberland County Bar Association's Board of Directors, and am the 1st Vice-President, for the Cumberland County Bar Association, for whom I will next serve as President. A peer survey conducted by the North Carolina Bar Association ranked me the highest — in five rated categories — of the four non-incumbent judicial candidates in this race, and significantly higher than my opponent! I am a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Phi Omega's National Service Fraternity, and am also a Master Mason. I am married to Dr. Yvette Stokes, a pediatric dentist, and have four children and one granddaughter. We are members of First Baptist Church. Thank you for your consideration, and your vote. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM