Opinion Roundup: NCGA impeachment push reeks of obsessive partisanship

SUSAN LADD: Republican regime pursues partisan revenge (Greensboro News & Record column) -- The Republican regime in Raleigh continued its scorched-earth policy toward political opponents on Wednesday by invoking the threat of impeachment against the secretary of state.

In North Carolina, what a political witch hunt really looks like (Charlotte Observer) -- Republicans in NC House recklessly move toward impeaching NC secretary of state, a Democrat.

N.C. Republicans overreaching on Marshall (Wilmington Star-News) -- Why doesn’t the N.C. General Assembly just go ahead and make it illegal to be a Democrat? Republican leaders mercilessly hacked the budgets of Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, both confessed D’s. Now, it looks as if they want to impeach Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. The House Rules Committee, on a party-line vote, ordered an investigation as the first step. For those who came in late, North Carolina’s secretary of state is not in charge of Tar Heel foreign affairs. Instead, the secretary is the state’s official record keeper, overseeing a number of important housekeeping functions, such as incorporating businesses.

ROSE HOBAN, LEAH ASMALASH & TAYLOR KNOPF: 2017 Health & Human Services Budget Final Comparison (N.C. Health News analysis) -- Just a day after the General Assembly overturned Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto, lawmakers wrapped up their work and headed home for an entire month.

ROSE HOBAN: Coal Ash Language Late Addition to Bill at NCGA (N.C. Health News) -- A provision could potentially reduce the number of plants dedicated to recycling the waste created by burning coal for power.

CLEVE R. WOODSON JR.: Rev. William Barber builds a moral movement (Washington Post analysis) – The Rev. William Barber’s admirers say his sermons and speeches, which have intertwined the religious tenets of love, justice and mercy that exist in all faiths with an American vision of morality baked into the Constitution, steal the moral high ground long claimed by political conservatives.

FERREL GUILLORY: High stakes for children and students in health debate (EdNC column) -- You would not automatically know it from the dominant headlines and the TV talking heads, but the outcome of the raging health-insurance debate in Washington will have profound consequences for millions of school children — and infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, too.

Enough Inaction on Woodlake Mess (Southern Pines Pilot) -- The current state of the development still called Woodlake — although it hasn’t had a lake for some months now — is nothing short of disgraceful. The impasse has gone on for way too long, and now it is time for cooler heads to step in and find a permanent solution.