Opinion

Opinion Roundup: Child detainees; absentee ballots; solar tax breaks; UNC and the NCAA and more

Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: housing child detainees; "Red Flag" laws; absentee ballot plans; UNC and the NCAA and more.

Posted Updated
ICE Raids in Mississippi Leave Fear and Uncertainty in Their Wake
Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: housing child detainees; "Red Flag" laws; absentee ballot plans; UNC and the NCAA and more.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019
TRAVIS FAIN: 'Red flag' gun laws get GOP support in concept, not practice (WRAL-TV reports) -- Little chance for gun control movement in N.C. despite growing sentiment among Republicans.
TRAVIS FAIN: Proposal offers new absentee ballot security, tweaks early voting hours (WRAL-TV reports) -- The House bill also includes another reprieve for touchscreen voting.
House offering own changes to address absentee fraud (WRAL-TV reports) -- The state House has offered another version of legislation designed to prevent mail-in absentee ballot fraud that prosecutors say occurred last fall and caused officials to require a new congressional election.
POLICY & POLITICS
TYLER DUKES & TRAVIS FAIN: State denies license for company that wants to house migrant children in NC (WRAL-TV reports) -- The state has denied a key license to a company that hopes to house dozens of migrant children in Scotland County, further endangering the group's hold on a $3.9 million federal grant. The denial was expected, and it can be appealed.
ANGELA STUESSE: The poultry industry recruited them. Now ICE raids are devastating their communities. (Washington Post column) -- On Wednesday people across the U.S. were shocked by the news that ICE raids at a handful of Mississippi chicken plants had resulted in the largest single-state immigration enforcement action in U.S. history, with nearly 700 people detained. As surprising as the news was, coming on the heels of a deadly mass shooting that targeted Latinos, perhaps just as surprising was the location of the raids in the deep, rural South. The prominence of Latinos in Mississippi’s chicken plants and communities today was not accidental. It was calculated, strategic and intimately related to deeply rooted structures of labor exploitation in the region. Beginning in the 1990s,
AMANDA LAMB: As law enforcement nationwide faces scrutiny, cameras protect both public and officers (WRAL-TV reports) -- After Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, police departments across the country rushed to purchase body cameras for their officers in an effort to quench the public's outcry for more transparency in policing. Five years later, departments in the Triangle who have them say the cameras protect both officers and members of the public.
AARON THOMAS: Siler City restaurant owners, customers defiant following racist message (WRAL-TV reports) -- Customers at a Siler City restaurant are standing up to racism by filling the tables after the owners received hate mail that included numerous racial slurs this week.
GILBERT BAEZ: Thousands of soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg to be deployed to Middle East (WRAL-TV reports) -- Hundreds of soldiers and their families gathered at the Crown Theater in Fayetteville for a ceremony before they are deployed to Kuwait.
More ride-hailing requirements become law in N.C. (AP reports) -- N.C. has a new law focused on ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft that supporters contend will improve safety for both passengers and drivers.
RICK SMITH: Indian vehicle manufacturer puts NC on shortlist for new $1B plant, 2,000 jobs (WRAL-TV/Techwire reports) -- N.C. is in the running for a vehicle manufacturing plant, this time by India-based Mahindra Automotive. Also under consideration are Michigan, South Carolina, Texas and Arizona,
CELIA RIVENBARK: Moscow Mitch? Be sure to use Russian vodka (Wilmington Star-News column) -- In these terrible times we must cling to things that restore joy to our world-weary souls...visiting a waterfall, picking daisies in a meadow with a giggling grandchild, sharing a banana split with a sweetheart, watching Mitch McConnell’s jaw clench til his molars turn to sand when protesters call him “Moscow Mitch.” Yes, it’s the little things.
EDUCATION
DAN KANE: NCAA drops proposed academic fraud reform (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- This recommended reform would have given the NCAA more authority to handle the kind of academic misconduct that left dozens of athletes at UNC-Chapel Hill with subpar educations.
DREW WILSON: Pitching in for the Peace Corps: Greenfield grads return from Mongolia teaching stint (Wilson Times reports) -- Greenfield School graduates Griffin Creech and Stephanie McCormick met with former teachers and friends to report on their Peace Corps adventure teaching English in Mongolia. Creech, remembers that the class sizes were always small at Greenfield, especially when compared to Mongolia. Teaching in Mongolia, the average was 38 to 40 students to a class. Creech and McCormick, both UNC-Chapel Hill graduates, spent two years teaching with a Mongolian English teacher in a Mongolian school.
BRIE HANDGRAAF: Pitching in for the Peace Corps: Wilsonian to boost development in Ukraine (Wilson Times reports) -- When Olivia Ingram told her parents she planned to join the Peace Corps, the Wilson couple was stunned. “Disbelief. Shock. Fear. I think I was in denial for a while... thinking, hoping, it wouldn’t all work out. But it did and we’re coping,” Cindy Ingram admitted through tears. “We are proud of the strong, young woman she has become and are amazed every day by her determination and commitment. She is such a great blessing to us and now we send her off to be a blessing to others.” And they planned to send her off today as the 24-year-old is scheduled to board a plane to the Ukraine, where she’ll spend three months getting acclimated with a host family before being assigned to work on economic development in a Ukrainian community. Her Peace Corps assignment is in line with what she’s has done for the past few months alongside her mom, the assistant director of the Wilson Economic Development Council.
ROBBIE VAGLIO: Hoke County schools to provide free breakfast, lunch meals to all students for 2019-20 school year (WRAL-TV reports) -- All Hoke County students will receive free breakfast and lunch during the 2019-20 school year as part of their United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) federally-funded program, Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), according to their website.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
LYNN BONNER: NC wants to collect some of the $1 billion it gave in tax breaks for solar farms (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Tax breaks and political donations feature in the dispute over solar energy tax credits.

Related Topics

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.