Opinion Roundup: A backwards attitude about immigration

Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on President Trump's immigration comments, Governor Cooper's talks with the Trump administration on offshore drilling, the return of the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program and more.

The president is racist – and that’s only part of the problem (Charlotte Observer) -- President Trump’s ‘shithole’ comment is racist and a backwards attitude about immigration.

It’s true. Trump can go even lower. (Greensboro News & Record) -- Just when you thought he couldn’t be any lewder or cruder than what we’ve already been forced to endure, our president has proven to us, yet again, that yes he can.

GARY ROBERTSON: Republicans ask Supreme Court to block redistricting order (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block enforcement of an order throwing out the state's congressional map because the lines were too partisan and directing a redraw almost immediately.

ZACHARY ROTH: Will the Court Kill the Gerrymander? (New York Review of Books column) -- Whether courts are empowered to block partisan gerrymanders—as opposed to gerrymanders involving racial discrimination, which just about everyone agrees are unconstitutional—is a question the justices considered in October when they heard Gill v. Whitford, a challenge to Wisconsin’s state assembly map. The fate of North Carolina’s map likely hangs on how the court decides Gill. A ruling is expected before the end of June.

SUSAN LADD: Beneficiaries of partisan gerrymandering protest too much (Greensboro News & Record column) -- “Frivolous lawsuits.” “Judicial activism.” Really, Mark Walker? That’s how the congressman from Greensboro described the court decision Tuesday that the congressional redistricting of 2016 was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. Come on, man. The members of the General Assembly who led the effort not only admitted it, they practically bragged about it.

TAYLOR BATTEN: Is Andy Dulin in trouble? A look at how redistricting matters (Charlotte Observer column) -- North Carolina redistricting can influence election outcomes, as Andy Dulin’s House District 104 demonstrates.

JIM MORRILL & MICHAEL GORDON: How fast-moving changes to the NC justice system could reshape the state’s courts (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- Giving politicians – not voters – a bigger say in selecting judges. Returning partisan politics to the justice system. Squeezing African-American judges off the bench. Those are among the charges that critics are leveling at North Carolina’s Republican legislators, and what drew hundreds of sign-waving protesters to rally outside the General Assembly this past week.

DAWN LIM: North Carolina’s Private-Equity Pledges Drop to Zero After Record Investment Year (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- The pension system’s one-year hiatus from new private-equity commitments could have unintended consequences. A drop in commitments created an investment gap in 2017 and raised concerns from staffers it would throw the broader portfolio out of balance with its policy targets, said people familiar with the matter. At North Carolina, the pacing slowdown, along with a stock rally that lifted the value of the pension’s assets, helped keep the pension’s private-equity allocation below target. The pension had 5.1% of its portfolio in private equity as of Sept. 30, below its target of 6%.

DAWN LIM: Folwell Started Tussle Over N.C.’s $96 Billion Pension Fund, Reduced fees but missed gains from record run in stocks (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- Dale Folwell promised a fight with Wall Street if he became North Carolina’s treasurer. Now, the elected official is clashing with employees as he rethinks how one of the largest U.S. public retirement funds should invest its $96 billion. His decision in 2017 to shift more than $7 billion from outside equity managers into cash and bonds put him at odds with his staff, said people familiar with the matter. Employees worried the action would throw the fund’s investment mix out of balance, two of these people said. The move reduced fees but cost the fund potential gains in a year the stock market rallied to new records.

Committee in place to examine governor's monument request (AP news analysis) -- Membership is set on a committee established to examine a request by Gov. Roy Cooper's administration to remove three Confederate monuments from North Carolina's old Capitol grounds.

JESSICA GRESKO: Supreme Court to hear sales tax collection case (AP news analysis) -- The Supreme Court agreed to wade into the issue of sales tax collection on internet purchases in a case that could force consumers to pay more for certain purchases and allow states like North Carolina to recoup what they say is billions in lost revenue annually.

BRIAN MURPHY: New voices, like Tillis’, clash with old guard on immigration reform (McClatchy Washington Bureau) -- Veterans with the scars of previous immigration reform battles and new voices hoping to make their mark by solving the vexing issue, such as North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, are battling over which bloc is best positioned to lead the ongoing negotiations.

TAFT WIREBACK: State Rep. Pricey Harrison responds to questions about residency (Greensboro News & Record analysis) -- State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, said her constituents should fear not, she actually does live in the Greensboro district that she represents. Harrison made her assurances in response to a complaint to the contrary by former Greensboro Mayor Bill Knight, a Republican who lives several doors down from the house on Ridgeway Drive that the veteran state legislator has owned since 2005. “I’m in Raleigh a lot,” Harrison said. “It’s my job, and I work really hard for my constituents.”

NANCY MCCLEARY: 4 women wanted in Godwin child labor scheme surrender (Fayetteville Observer analysis) -- Four women wanted for their involvement in a Godwin-based organization that lawmen said forced children to work for little or no money turned themselves in to authorities, leaving two suspects still at-large.

Cooper talks to Interior Secretary about offshore drilling (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has made a pitch to a Trump administration official about why Atlantic waters off the state's coast should be removed from the federal government's list of offshore drilling locations.

ADAM WAGNER: NC officials, environmentalists concerned over offshore drilling plan (Wilmington Star-News analysis) -- North Carolina’s inclusion on a draft five-year offshore drilling plan has state officials and environmental organizations concerned, while oil industry representatives are calling for the public comment and review process to be carried out.

Offshore drilling is still a damaging idea for Virginia and North Carolina (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot) -- Drilling for oil and gas off the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina remains as bad an idea now as when the Obama administration proposed — and then thought better of — offshore exploration in this part of the Atlantic.

Some utility rates could go down after US corporate tax cuts (AP news analysis) -- Public utility regulators from Oklahoma to North Carolina are considering lowering the rates that homeowners and businesses pay for electricity and natural gas after a federal tax overhaul signed into law by President Donald Trump reduced the corporate income tax rate by 14 percent.

Smaller bills from the PWC? But no help with school costs (Fayetteville Observer) -- For the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, which this week raised the possibility that it may cut its customers’ electric bills before long. When’s the last time you heard something like that? The real merit here, if this happens, will go to the federal tax reform bill that was just signed into law.

SARAH LINDENFELD HALL: N.C. Teaching Fellows Program back, looking for applicants (WRAL-TV analysis) -- The N.C. Teaching Fellows Program is back ... and is looking for some qualified applicants who are interested in dedicating their careers to teaching North Carolina's children. The program is a competitive, merit-based forgivable loans for service program that provides up to $8,250 a year for up to four years to highly-qualified students committed to teaching special education or a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) field in a North Carolina public school, according to the website. The loans can be used at five partner schools - N.C. State, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte, Meredith College and Elon University.