Five-dollar movies: Spinning Dreams movie theater is showing $5 films on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays through March 6 for Black History Month. The theater is at 2 Centerview Drive, Pinehurst
Transit Program: 10 a.m. Feb. 2, Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum, 6134 Burlington Road, Gibsonville. Greensboro Transit Agency spotlights Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown, a trailblazing African American educator, orator, and advocate
When farmers in a tiny Mexican village last month hacked to death suspected drug cartel members who were squeezing them for protection money, it shone a harsh light on one of the country's biggest security problems: extortion. While the government has reduced murders, extortion is far higher now than when President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office in 2018, making it a major risk for the economy that has drawn relatively little scrutiny. Critics say Lopez Obrador's strategy of trying to contain violence by dialing down direct confrontation with gangs has fueled the malaise because it has given them more room to prey on businesses.