Opinion Round up: Elections open, harassment allegations, gun protests and more

Thursday, March 1, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on:election season opens, legislature faces harassment allegations, untested rape kits, school gun protests, power bill rate debate, flu season lingering.

GARY ROBERTSON: Competition in North Carolina legislative, Congress races (AP news analysis) -- When the filing deadline to run for North Carolina's congressional and legislative seats arrived, Democrats made good on their plans to compete in every corner of the state.

BILLY BALL: Top Dems call on Duane Hall to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations (NC Policy Watch analysis) -- behind the scenes, N.C. state Rep. Duane Hall has a reputation for more than his political prowess. Five sources detailed persistent sexual innuendo from the three-term legislator and, in some cases, repeated, unwanted sexual overtures. The allegations include claims that the lawmaker harassed a woman and kissed her without her consent and that he kissed a party official without her consent at a Democratic function in summer 2016. Top North Carolina Democrats called on Hall to step down.

TRAVIS FAIN: Democrats call for Wake lawmaker to resign after sexual harassment allegations (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Top Democratic leaders called for state Rep. Duane Hall, D-Wake, to resign Wednesday after a left-leaning news site reported sexual harassment allegations against him.

Ex-sheriff Gerald Hege convicted of obstruction of justice seeks post (AP news analysis) – Gerald Hege, former Davidson County sheriff known for painting his jail cells pink and hosting a cable television show before pleading guilty to felony obstruction of justice announced he wants his old job back.

NAACP Press Conference Denouncing Federal Court Nominee Thomas Farr (Livestream video) --Strong opposition voiced at livestream of press conference.

MATTHEW BURNS & AMANDA LAMB: Thousands of untested rape kits sit in evidence rooms in NC (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Law enforcement agencies across North Carolina have more than 15,000 rape kits in evidence that have never been tested, according to a report released by Attorney General Josh Stein.

MARTHA WAGGONER: Audit shows N Carolina has 15K untested sexual assault kits (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina has more than 15,000 untested sexual assault kits, a backlog that national advocacy group described as "significant."

GILBERT BAEZ: 16 months after Hurricane Matthew, Fayetteville still waiting for FEMA relief to repair dam (WRAL-TV analysis) -- It's been 16 months since Hurricane Matthew roared through the state, cutting a path of destruction, but Fayetteville city leaders and FEMA are still working on a deal to repair the Devonwood Dam that was heavily damaged by the storm.

Taking care of business (Fayetteville Observer) -- This is one set of raises that definitely aren’t linked to the tax cuts that took effect earlier this year. But they’re beauties. Gov. Roy Cooper has treated his cabinet members very well indeed. All 10 of them got raises averaging 10 percent at the first of the year, pay bumps ranging from $13,000 to nearly $22,000 a year. And those aren’t the only raises cabinet members have gotten in the year they’ve been in office.

Charlotte’s mayor vowed to get to the bottom of CIAA week violence last year. And now? (Charlotte Observer) -- As the 2018 CIAA tournament begins, Charlotte officials have been been quiet about the delicate issue of CIAA week violence and gun incidents.

ERIK SPANBERG: Charlotte organizing costs for RNC could almost double from DNC in 2012 (Charlotte Business Journal analysis) -- Leaders of the state Republican Party spoke to a local GOP group on Tuesday and said they are confident Charlotte has a good shot to bring the national convention to town in 2020.

KEN SMITH: Nearly 2,000 walk out of class at Green Hope to protest gun violence at schools (WRAL-TV analysis) -- About two thousand students at Green Hope High School in Cary walked out of class as part of a nationwide protest against violence at schools.

ANDRE TAYLOR: Protesters rally in Greensboro to support victims of Florida school shooting and better gun control laws (Greensboro News & Record analysis) -- On the day classes resumed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., one Triad-area group offered support for those students and teachers affected by the mass shooting that killed 17 people at the school.

HOWARD CRAFT: It’s not about the Second Amendment (Durham Herald-Sun column) -- I’ve never been enamored with guns, but I know through my family history that guns are sometimes necessary. I also know the damage guns can do. I know people who have been killed with guns. I know people who have injured themselves in gun accidents.

LIZ BELL: Republican leaders support Rockingham County volunteer school resource officer program (EdNC analysis) -- Amid national and statewide conversations on how to make schools safer, Rockingham County’s school system and sheriff’s office hope to use former law enforcement and military police as volunteers to supplement gaps in school resource officer funding. Top Republican state legislative leaders attended a news conference Wednesday to support the program.

Legislative leaders back volunteer school officer program (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina's top legislative leaders believe communities should consider a 2013 state law allowing retired police officers to provide additional armed protection at schools.

MELISSA KORN: Elite Colleges Expand Efforts to Enroll and Support Low-Income Students (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- After 28 years without transfer students, Princeton University next fall will begin taking students from community colleges. Several hundreds miles south, Davidson College recently began keeping dining halls open during fall break, Thanksgiving and Easter, an acknowledgment that not all students could afford the trip home from North Carolina.

GRACE BIRD: UNC Asheville offers free summer tuition to those who need course or 2 to finish on time (Inside Higher Ed analysis) -- Many students no longer enjoy summers off, and some colleges are seeing this months-long break as key to promoting on-time graduation. But the cost of attending classes may discourage students from enrolling in the summer. UNC-Asheville has come up with a remedy: free summer courses. The university is offering students who are one or two classes shy of junior or senior status (60 or 90 credits) free summer courses to encourage them to complete the 120 credits required to graduate in four years.

School-safety issues demand new thinking (Wilmington Star-News) -- With the pall of Parkland still weighing heavy and a rash of threats at local schools, we now have a recent “Teacher of the Year” charged with more than 30 felony counts related to sexual exploitation of minors, several of whom were students at schools where the suspect worked.

College basketball needs a new set of rules (Greensboro News & Record) -- College basketball officially is a broken mess. We offer these suggestions that may help to head off future scandals.

STEVEN DOYLE: Scuffed up college basketball needs a scrubbing (Greensboro News & Record column) -- College basketball is in the midst of a huge scandal involving shoe companies, agents and the highest profile programs in the sports. It's time to address that.

JOHN DOWNEY: Duke Energy agrees to cut more than $140M from proposed rate hike (Charlotte Business Journal analysis) -- The agreement Duke Energy and the state's utility customer advocate filed contains no specific figures, but calculations show it would cut the rate hike to 10% from Duke's 13.4% proposal.

STEPHANIE CARSON: ClimateCon is First-of-Its-Kind Conference Coming to NC (Public News Service analysis) -- There's ComicCon and CiderCon ... and now there's ClimateCon – coming to North Carolina, where business leaders and climate scientists will converge later this month. The state – specifically Asheville – is home to the world's largest collection of climate data, and in two weeks people from around the country will talk about how the economy can advance as the world faces a changing climate. The event is a project of The Collider, a nonprofit climate innovation center, and executive director Megan Robinson says this will go beyond a discussion of policy.

ROSE HOBAN: Flu Season Serious, and Lingering (N.C. Health News analysis) -- This year's flu season got started early, has peaked higher than in prior years and has featured a virulent strain of the disease.

MARK HIBBS: Wells Test Positive for Emerging Compounds (Coastal Review analysis) -- Twenty-six private drinking water wells in the unincorporated Atlantic community in Carteret County have tested positive for compounds in the same chemical family as GenX, and the Navy is asking more airfield neighbors to allow their water to be sampled.