Opinion Roundup: 2018 fundraising ratchets up, sanctions over N.C. pastor, school vouchers used for religious doctrine and more

Monday, July 30, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Wesley Meredith crushing Kirk deViere in Senate race fundraising, DOT investigating after Trump flag flew on OBX ferry, Turkish leader dismisses US sanctions threat over pastor, disaster aid must get to victims faster, N.C. swimmer breaks world record and more.

Republicans in legislature passed law, now ignore it (Wilmington Star-News) -- Why play by the rules when you can change them in mid-game?

NC Democrats say they’re the party of principles. They should act like it (Charlotte Observer) -- But this month, Democrats have had an opportunity to stand behind the principles they trumpet. Instead, they’ve looked a lot like the lawmakers they’ve scorned. … For the sake of those voters, Chris Anglin should pull out of the Supreme Court race and get his name off the ballot. He shouldn’t have been on there to start — at least not as a Republican. We wish Democrats had said so, too. Have N.C. Republicans done worse, even in the past week? Yes. But if you want to persuade voters that you’d handle power better than the party that has it, you should act like it now.

Billy Ball: N.C. legislature has earned our distrust (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- In the first two paragraphs of state Rep. David Lewis’ ludicrous and lamentable plea for a special session this week, ostensibly to rescue the GOP-approved constitutional amendments from liberal “gamesmanship and politics,” the Harnett County Republican mentions the word “maneuverings” twice.

PAUL WOOLVERTON: Wesley Meredith crushing Kirk deViere in Senate race fundraising (Fayetteville Observer reports) — Republican state Sen. Wesley Meredith is far ahead of Democratic challenger Kirk deViere in fundraising in the District 19 race in Cumberland County. North Carolina Democrats have been hoping to pick off Meredith this year in their push to reduce, if not break, the Republican majorities in the General Assembly. Senate District 19’s demographics, which were altered for this year’s elections when the district’s boundaries were revised, gave the Democrats optimism.

DOT investigating after Trump flag flew on OBX ferry (WRAL-TV reports) -- The N.C. Department of Transportation is investigating after a Donald Trump campaign flag was seen flying on a ferry. Photos posted to Twitter show a “Trump 2020” flag flying above the ferry “Frisco” next to the state flag and American flag on an Outer Banks ferry. Andrew Barksdale, a spokesperson for the NCDOT, said they are working with the department’s Office of Employee Relations to investigate the matter and will take appropriate disciplinary action.

AARON MOODY: Trump campaign flag on NC ferry triggers social media squabble, DOT investigation (Fayetteville Observer reports) — A photo showing a Trump 2020 campaign flag flying atop a state-operated ferry on the Outer Banks has rubbed some people the wrong way since it hit social media. In response to several of the posts, the ferry system said it is investigating the matter along with the N.C. Department of Transportation Office of Employee Relations and “will then take the appropriate disciplinary action.”

TAFT WIREBACK: Money wins campaigns. That's why the 13th and 6th Districts are becoming an arms race (Greensboro News & Record reports) — Two U.S. House races are underway in the Greensboro area along with four, major-party candidates — and a pile of cash.

NATE COHN: 99 Days to Go, and the 2018 Midterm Battleground Is Not What Was Expected (New York Times analysis) -- On paper, the Republicans still have a big geographic advantage: There are only nine Republican-held districts that voted more strongly for Democrats in the last two presidential elections than the rest of the country did. But that advantage doesn’t seem to be helping the Republicans as much as it has in past cycles, when congressional election results were increasingly correlated with presidential results. Instead, Democrats appear highly competitive in many conservative districts. Already, there are polls showing Democrats ahead in North Carolina’s Ninth, Kentucky’s Sixth District, West Virginia’s Third, New York’s 22nd and Montana’s at-large district. Mr. Trump won each by at least 10 points. One possibility is that Democrats are unexpectedly putting conservative districts into play because the overall national political environment is more favorable to Democrats than the generic ballot polls imply. Another possibility is that a district’s presidential vote choice will play a smaller than expected role in determining how a district will vote for the House.

3 lessons from the City Council’s recruitment of the RNC (Charlotte Observer) — Elected officials will miss a valuable opportunity if they don’t examine the process leading to the Charlotte City Council’s decision to host the Republican National Convention. There’s much to learn from this experience.

PAUL PENZONE: Don’t flood this country with 3D-printed guns (Charlotte Observer column) — Imagine a world in which anyone - including terrorists, convicted felons and domestic abusers - has immediate access to untraceable guns. Now imagine that many of these guns are made entirely of plastic or other materials not recognized by traditional metal detectors.

LEONARD PITTS JR.: This is what gun violence means (Fayetteville Observer column) — Sometimes, numbers don’t really tell the tale.For instance, the FBI reports that in 2014, there were 8,124 gun murders in this country. And hearing that, you might feel that it gives you some grasp on the impact of gun violence. The truth is, there is only one number that can help you understand gun violence. It is the number one.

FRANK R. BAUMGARTNER, DEREK A. EPP & KELSEY SHOUB: The fears of Driving While Black in NC are true. The data prove it. (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — Though the state has dutifully collected the data, and provides a model of transparency by making the data available to the public, no thorough analysis of the nation’s largest running data collection project on traffic stops has ever been conducted. We just published a book, “Suspect Citizens,” that does exactly this. Our findings validate every concern expressed by those who pushed for the law.

MYRON PITTS: Pedestrian deaths too common (Fayetteville Observer column) — I tend to tune in closely when I hear about reports of fatalities involving bikers and walkers, because I ride my bicycle often along major roads. And it must be said: The overwhelming majority of fatalities I have read about in Fayetteville and the Cape Fear region involving pedestrians seem to be caused by an often inexplicable action by the pedestrian.

CELIA RIVENBARK: Don’t say it ... unless you’re Buzz Aldrin (Wilmington Star-News column) -- In the wee hours, when you have neither the energy nor desire to hide from your worst self, you can finally whisper the awful truth into the darkness: I really hate that expression “I love you to the moon and back.” Seriously. Hate. It. It’s the new “Not!” If you follow social media, everybody is out there proclaiming “love to the moon and back.”

PETER MURRAY: Our city’s chance for historic change (Fayetteville Observer column) — The $65 million question swirling around Fayetteville is this: whose history will be told at the North Carolina Civil War and Reconstruction Center? It is a vital question because it addresses directly community interest in the facility.

TIM WHITE: Fayetteville’s intellectual capital is growing rapidly (Fayetteville Observer column) — Durham and Chapel Hill, which share a metropolitan statistical area, are the fourth most-educated in the country. It’s a fair indication of what’s going on there, with Chapel Hill the home of some of the nation’s and world’s highest-powered academics and researchers and Durham attracting tons of high tech, both startups and existing. But here’s the little sentence near the end of the story that got my attention: Fayetteville moved from 102nd to 89th on that list.

JON HAWLEY: Currituck's tourism chief defends contract with lawmaker (Elizabeth City Daily Advance reports) — Currituck's tourism director is defending the county's sponsorship agreement with state Rep. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, despite some county commissioners questioning the value of the deal and the perceptions that come with hiring a state lawmaker.

Disaster aid must get to victims faster (Fayetteville Observer) -- As we head toward the second anniversary of Hurricane Matthew’s deadly flooding here, it’s astonishing to learn that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal relief aid has still not been distributed to flood victims. Most of that money has been in state hands since a few months after the hurricane hit. The first $236 million in block grant funds was awarded in January 2017 by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

STEPHANIE CARSON: NC Woman Fights Back Against Cyber Harassment, Impersonation (Public Press reports) -- When Jaclyn Brzezinski in May found a stolen image of herself with her parents next to anti-Semitic text on social media, she had no idea at the time that was the tip of the iceberg of what has become a long and stressful journey. Over the next few weeks, she received threatening messages, found a Twitter profile posing as her and even found interior and exterior photos of her home posted to her harasser's account. Brzezinski says the impersonation runs deep. … She is now seeking a change in state laws and action from Twitter.

ERIN LEVENSON: Who is Andrew Brunson, the detained pastor central to the US-Turkey dispute? (CNN reports) — Brunson, 50, is a native of North Carolina and an evangelical Presbyterian pastor who worked in Izmir on Turkey's Aegean coast, where he was a pastor at the Izmir Resurrection Church. He has lived in Turkey for more than 23 years with his wife and three children, according to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an organization led by attorney Jay Sekulow that has advocated for his release. But in October 2016, several months after a failed coup attempt in Turkey, Brunson was arrested and accused of plotting to overthrow the Turkish government.

ADAMOU MOHAMED: In fire's aftermath, concerns and questions persist (Greensboro News & Record column) — Two months ago, our community mourned with the Mugabo family, which lost five children in an apartment fire on May 12. This family had fled war in the Democratic Republic of Congo and arrived in our community as refugees seeking safety, only to become victims of a preventable fire in an apartment complex that had been found “dangerous and unfit for human habitation” by the city of Greensboro’s Minimum Housing Standards Commission, just a few months before they moved in.

TODD WETHERINGTON: ‘Use your talents for good’ (New Bern Sun Journal reports) —The fourth annual African-American Male Summit drew attention to the plight and concerns of African-American men while showcasing their skills and success stories. The event’s keynote speaker was Michael Morgan, a New Bern native who serves as an associate justice on the state Supreme Court. Morgan told the young men in the audience to identify their strengths at an early age and cultivate them for success.

FRAN DANIEL: Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office creates pilot program aimed at reducing number of inmates and addicts in jail (Winston-Salem Journal reports) — The Forsyth County District Attorney’s Office hopes to start a pilot program in August focused on helping qualifying inmates in the Forsyth County jail with their addictions to opioids, heroin and alcohol while reducing the number of inmates in the jail. DATA, which stands for District Attorney’s Treatment Alternatives, is believed to be the first program of its kind in North Carolina that is incentive-based where inmates can work off their low-level offenses.

Keep the veterans court alive (Winston-Salem Journal) — We’re pleased to learn that there’s a slim but increasing chance that the Forsyth County Veterans Treatment Court will survive. The court, designed for veterans facing minor criminal charges, was based on the understanding that treatment for exacerbating conditions could be more beneficial for the vets — and for society — than throwing them in jail. Veterans face a variety of challenges, often accumulated during their service, from mental illness and PTSD to substance abuse.

CAROL SAWYER: School vouchers use tax dollars to teach religious doctrine (Charlotte Observer column) — According to a League of Women Voters study, more than 75 percent of students receiving vouchers use curriculum teaching a literal biblical wordview. The Duke study shows that a whopping 93 percent of voucher students receive Christian, Islamic, or other religious educations at taxpayer expense.

JESSIE POUNDS: Guilford school board members discuss better time management at retreat (Greensboro News & Record reports) — The Guilford County Board of Education still isn’t spending enough of its time tracking progress toward academic goals, consultants shared with members at a retreat on Saturday. A.J. Crabill, a consultant from the Washington, D.C.-based Council of the Great City Schools, walked board members through a discussion about how they use their time during meetings.

LISA PHILIP: Questions Raised About Search For New Western Carolina University Chancellor (WUNC reports) — UNC system officials are fielding questions after a search for the next chancellor at Western Carolina University fell apart. A member of the UNC Board of Governors released the name of a leading candidate to an outside firm, but the candidate later dropped out.

GREG BARNES: Advocates: Better VA care, not privatization (Fayetteville Observer reports) — The Veterans Choice Program originally was designed to ease the burden by allowing veterans to see private physicians if they lived more than 40 miles from a VA hospital or had to wait more than 30 days for a VA appointment. But the program has been fraught with problems. In Fayetteville, an audit last year found, veterans had to wait an average of 94 days to see a health provider in the Choice network.

SARAH OVASKA-FEW: Families Still Pushing for Access to Autism Therapies (NC Health News reports) — Provider shortages and Medicaid delays preventing many from enrolling in therapies proven to help those with autism. After NC Health News investigated, however, some children started getting the treatments.

MAC MONTGOMERY: EPA and DoD are downplaying dangers of poisoned water (Charlotte Observer column) — While the DoD has acted on some of the contamination, reports show that there is much more work to be done in reporting and regulatory compliance. As a veteran and longtime resident of North Carolina, I can say honestly that this problem warrants far more attention than it has been given. At Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, three-quarters of a million people were poisoned with toxic drinking water for over 30 years

SCOTT SEXTON: Pilot Mountain celebrates 50 years as a state park (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- If not for the foresight of a group of civic-minded visionaries who 50 years ago made certain that Pilot Mountain would be preserved as a state park, that soothing view might today be marred by high-rise condominiums or chairlifts.

YEN DUONG: Horseshoe crabs save our lives. What are we doing to help save theirs? (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — Next time you spot the smooth helmet-like shell of a horseshoe crab by the beach, you might want to say “thank you.” Horseshoe crabs ensure the safety of every vaccine, pacemaker and biomedical device in the United States. with their bacteria-detecting blood.

Aesop’s Fable trumps science (Fayetteville Observer) — How can it be that a fictional character born more than 2,500 years in Aesop’s Fables is still guiding state and federal policy? But how else to explain the demise of the red wolf population in eastern North Carolina and the apparent resumption of a federal war on wolves across the nation? In the minds of some of our environmental policymakers, the Big, Bad Wolf appears to be alive, well and still ferocious.

TRISTA TALTON: Topsail Beach Board Upholds Building Permit (Coastal Review Online reports) — The Topsail Beach board of adjustment has upheld a decision by town officials to issue a building permit for an oceanfront lot, the first since Topsail commissioners repealed the town’s longstanding dune ordinance more than a year ago. The board of adjustment’s unanimous vote July 17 denied an appeal by property owners who argue that building on the oceanfront lots would increase the risk of flooding on their land. Those property owners have 30 days to appeal in Pender County Superior Court.

JACK IGELMAN: Fire key to restoring longleaf pine in Croatan National Forest (Carolina Public Press reports) — A change in forest management techniques, including fire, is helping restore the once-pervasive longleaf pine in Croatan National Forest along North Carolina’s central coastal region. The success of ongoing efforts holds promise because the trees are hardier against wildfires and extreme storms than other species.

NC swimmer breaks world record, qualifies for world championships (WRAL reports) — A swimmer born and raised in Winston-Salem is on her way to worldwide acclaim. Kathleen Baker won the women's 100-meter backstroke even at the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships with a world record time of 58 seconds.

DAVID WORONOFF: Ethos of the Pilot is Due To Work of Dave Jones (Southern Pines Pilot column) -- Much of what The Pilot is today can be attributed to the guidance and wisdom of legendary newspaperman Dave Jones, who died last week at age 91. Dave was a friend and mentor, whom I admired greatly.

MARK PRICE: Feud between NC neighbors escalates with huge fence of used tires from landfill (Charlotte Observer reports) — Two feuding North Carolina families took their dispute to the next level this month, with the creation of a fence between them made entirely of used tires from the local landfill. It’s more than 200 feet long and contains between 150 and 250 tires, depending on which of the two families is doing the talking.

WRAL anchor injured in beach mishap (WRAL-TV reports) -- WRAL morning anchor Jeff Hogan was in the hospital Sunday night. He was injured while body surfing Saturday at Wrightsville Beach and had to be rescued. Jeff is pretty banged up, but he's in good spirits, and the prognosis looks good.

PAUL WOOLVERTON: Archaeologists unearth Fayetteville history at Arsenal… (Fayetteville Observer reports) -- A ceramic shard of a smoking pipe. Melted glass. Nails of various sizes and kind. Screws from more than 150 years ago that look like they could have been purchased at a 21st century hardware store. And lots and lots of brick, mortar, sandstone and slate. These are some of the artifacts a team of archaeologists from New South Associates Inc. has found since Monday in an archaeological dig underway on the grounds of Arsenal Park in Fayetteville, the site of the 19th-century Fayetteville Arsenal.