Opinion

Opinion Roundup: Damage mounts from Williams circus, college basketball woes, skyrocketing gas prices and more

Wednesday, April 25, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Turmoil surrounding Fayetteville City Councilman Tyrone Williams, Sinclair Broadcast Group to sell 9 TV stations, Commission to unveil ideas to fix college basketball's woes, Lawyers wrap up case blaming pork giant for ghastly smells, Triangle starts to feel skyrocketing gas prices and more.

Posted Updated
Fayetteville City Councilman Tyrone Williams
Wednesday, April 25, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Turmoil surrounding Fayetteville City Councilman Tyrone Williams, Sinclair Broadcast Group to sell 9 TV stations, unveiling new ideas to fix college basketball's woes, lawyers wrap up case blaming pork giant for ghastly smells, Triangle area starts to feel skyrocketing gas prices and more.
CAMPAIGN 2018
Chesser takes aim at Holding in primary (Wilson Times reports) -- Three years after the 9/11 attacks, Allen Chesser convinced his mom to sign a waiver so he could enlist in the Army at age 17. He credits the same sense of duty with launching his congressional campaign.
MARK JURKOWITZ: A controversial conservative-Beverly Boswell seeks re-election to N.C. House (Outer Banks Sentinel) -- In person, Beverly Boswell comes off more mild mannered than she does in her press releases.
3 Democrats competing for NC House 20 Democratic nod (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- Bauer, Cohen and Shipman looking to move to November for New Hanover state House seat
DAVID SINCLAIR: Boles, Byrd Locked in Battle for House Race (Southern Pines Pilot reports) -- State Rep. Jamie Boles and his Republican primary challenger Ken Byrd offer starkly differing assessments of the job the current representative is doing in Raleigh.
MARY KATE MURHPY: Michelle Lexo, Tom McInnis Compete in Senate Primary (Southern Pines Pilot reports) - -Whispering Pines Mayor Michelle Lexo will challenge incumbent Tom McInnis of Richmond County in the Republican primary election to represent a state Senate district that was redrawn last year to include Moore County.
DUSTIN GEORGE: Mixed drink ordinace back on Greene County ballots (Kinston Free Press reports) -- Greene County voters are being asked to decide if they want to allow restaurants to sell liquor and mixed drinks to customers. If approved, the ballot measure will give the Greene County Board of Commissioners the ability to craft local ordinances that let restaurants sell liquor and mixed drinks
POLICY & POLITICS
Damage mounts from Williams circus (Fayetteville Observer) -- The turmoil surrounding Fayetteville City Councilman Tyrone Williams has created just the circus we feared. He is the unseemly sideshow distracting the council from the important work it should be accomplishing, and an all-too-visible stain that is soiling the city’s reputation. His staunch refusal to step down from the council is inflicting damage that is likely to long outlive his own political career. That career may be coming to a dramatic conclusion in the next few months.
Senate votes to confirm Trump nominee for Appeals Court (AP reports) -- The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Kyle Duncan, one of President Donald Trump's nominees, to serve on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Republicans used their majority to push Duncan's confirmation through on a 50-47 vote over the objections of Democratic lawmakers and liberal advocacy groups that described him as a conservative culture warrior. Democrats questioned whether Duncan could be an impartial arbitrator given the cases he had worked on. The Congressional Black Caucus urged the Senate to reject his nomination because of his work defending a North Carolina voter ID law. Gay rights groups and organizations that support abortion rights also were critical.
NIRAJ CHOKSHI: Trump voters driven by fear of losing status, not economic anxiety, study finds (New York Times reports) -- Ever since Donald Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Trump, and a message, to Washington. Or so that narrative goes. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come. White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Trump because they felt their status was at risk.
CAMPBELL ROBERTSON: A Memorial Unlike Anything the U.S. Has Ever Seen (New York Times reports) -- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening in Montgomery, Ala., is dedicated to victims of white supremacy.
Sinclair Broadcast Group to sell 9 TV stations for $441.7M (AP reports) -- Sinclair Broadcast Group will sell nine TV stations, including one in North Carolina, to Standard Media Group for $441.7 million as part of its plan to meet regulatory approval for its pending $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media.
Did we just lose HQ2? Most likely (Fayetteville Observer) -- We’ve long wondered about Raleigh’s chances to land what could be the biggest economic-development prize in that city’s history — Amazon’s second headquarters. The project, dubbed HQ2, a $5 billion project that will ultimately hire 50,000 well-paid workers. Raleigh made the list of Amazon’s 20 finalists, and a lot of people liked the city’s chances, even though it was one of the smallest finalists and lacking some key ingredients, like a good public-transit system. Yet we were cheering for our Triangle neighbors, because a project that big will have a positive economic impact that spreads out for hundreds of miles around it. Most of North Carolina would benefit. But last week, The Washington Post ran a story that shattered our daydreams.
EDUCATION
Commission to unveil ideas to fix college basketball's woes (AP reports) -- College basketball played an entire season amid a federal corruption investigation that magnified long-simmering troubles within the sport, from shady agent dealings to concerns over athletes who'd rather go straight to the pros.
JASON DEBRUYN: Even With Raise, NC Teachers Still 9.4 Percent Below 2009 Earnings (WUNC-FM reports) -- North Carolina teachers are expected to get a raise of $891 this year, on average, which would bump the state up two spots when compared to other states.
CAMMIE BELLAMY: New Hanover teachers: schools need more state dollars (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- Town hall focused on funding cuts since the Great Recession.
Mecklenburg County’s Matthews town council backs creating charter schools (AP reports) -- A North Carolina town council has voted to support legislation allowing it to create its own charter schools.
ROSE HOBAN: School Safety Committee Considers Mental Health Needs in Recommendations (N.C. Health News reports) -- A mental health working group met for the second time this week and made recommendations on staffing, licensure and programs, but didn’t commit to funding.
ADAM OWENS: Bomb threats cost schools, authorities time, money (WRAL-TV analysis) -- A morning bomb threat at Holly Springs High School turned out to be a hoax, but it delayed buses for three schools, cost teachers part of their class time and cost the school district and law enforcement time and money checking it out.
Study shows imbalance growing on police referrals of black pupils (AP reports) -- Black students are suspended from school, expelled and referred to law enforcement much more frequently than their white peers and the disparities are growing.
$58.1M federal grant to fund biomedical innovation at UNC, RTI, NC A&T, NCSU (WRAL-TV/TechWire reports) -- UNC-Chapel Hill, RTI International, N.C. A&T and new partner N.C. State have been awarded a five-year federal grant worth $58.1 million in a renewal of a program to deliver biomedical innovations available to North Carolina residents.
CFCC apparently doesn’t deserve best leader possible (Wilmington Star-News) -- By refusing to search for a new president, that’s the message the board is sending
REBECCA WALTER: NC superintendent tours schools, pushes workforce development (Hendersonville Times-News reports) -- Workforce development was a key focus of State Superintendent Mark Johnson’s first official visit Tuesday to Henderson County Public Schools since taking office. Johnson toured Innovative High Schools and Dana Elementary alongside local school officials, board members, Blue Ridge Community College staff and other local leaders.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
EMERY DALESIO: Lawyers wrap up case blaming pork giant for ghastly smells (AP reports) -- Industrial-scale hog producers knew for decades that noxious smells from open-air sewage pits tormented neighbors but didn't change their livestock-raising methods to keep production costs low, the lawyer for farm neighbors told jurors in a federal lawsuit.
GILBERT BAEZ: Triangle starts to feel skyrocketing gas prices (WRAL-TV reports) -- Gas prices across the country have been hitting their highest levels in almost three years.
VAUGHN HAGERTY: What Will GenX Health Studies Reveal? (Coastal Review analysis) -- Researchers hope to say this summer whether GenX and other compounds found in New Hanover County residents’ tap water are also in their bodies and what that means for their health.
GREG BARNES: Filters appear effective for GenX in water (Fayetteville Observer reports) -- Carbon filters appear to be effective at screening GenX from drinking water in private wells and municipal water systems near a Chemours plant in West Virginia, federal regulators say.
HEALTH
JEFF HAMPTON: 5 drug overdose deaths in Dare County in 2 weeks could be from "hot batch" of heroin (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports) -- Pasquotank also saw a drastic increase in overdose calls without any deaths. Responders are scrambling for more overdose antidote.

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