Opinion Roundup: Early voting in N.C., shoreline property value plummets, honoring the 'Old Hickory Division' and more

Thursday, July 26, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: N.C. board to resolve early voting in 15 counties, Orange sheriff and ICE square off over release of inmates in US illegally, Carolina beach property value plummets by $1.6 billion, Democrat drops out of House race over online post and more.

MATTHEW BURNS: Democrat drops out of House race over online post (WRAL-TV reports) — Democrat running for a state House seat in Alamance County ended her campaign Wednesday amid an uproar over an online post she made 12 years ago criticizing Mexicans. Cathy von Hassel-Davies has apologized several times, but the N.C. Democratic Party said the apologies haven't been enough to repair the rift between her and Latinos in Alamance County.

N.C. board to resolve early voting in 15 counties (AP reports) — Early-voting locations this fall in at least 15 counties must be settled by the state elections board because local boards couldn't agree on the details. The state board is expected to meet early next month and approve plans for Wake, Buncombe, Durham, Orange and the other deadlocked counties.

New election law is clumsy and unfair (Winston-Salem Journal) — It wasn’t enough for the Republican-led state legislature to undermine public information about its proposed constitutional amendments during its special session on Tuesday. The legislature also passed a new law concerning judicial races that was clumsy and unfair and may lead to legal action.

TIM BUCKLAND: New Hanover to have Sunday voting (Wilmington Star News reports) — The county’s voters will have the option of voting on Sunday during the one-stop early voting period in the weeks before the November general election.

Struggle between governor, GOP back in court (AP reports) — The extended power struggle between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and the Republican-dominated legislature is back in court. Cooper's lawyers are asking a three-judge panel Thursday to throw out laws that restructure the state elections board. Cooper say the laws prevent him from ensuring election rules are carried out effectively.

FELICIA SONMEZ, MIKE DEBONIS & DEVLIN BARRETT: Conservative lawmakers seek to impeach deputy A.G. overseeing the Russia probe (Washington Post reports) -- The move, spearheaded by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), marks a dramatic escalation in the battle over Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein and the special counsel probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

GREG BARNES: Director defends NC’s slow hurricane relief: ‘We’re learning’ (Fayetteville Observer reports) – N.C.’s emergency management director acknowledged that getting federal funding to Hurricane Matthew victims who need to repair or rebuild their homes has been a slow and tedious process. But Mike Sprayberry defends the job he and his staff have done, despite mounting criticism from state and federal lawmakers

THEODORE JOHNSON: Truman Used the Military to Fuel Racial Equality. Trump Is Doing the Opposite (New York Times analysis) -- July 26 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9981, Truman’s landmark directive to desegregate the United States military — and the signature achievement of his nascent civil rights program. He declared it was his administration’s policy that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” Truman took this action despite significant resistance from defense leadership. North Carolinian Kenneth Royall, then secretary of the Army, argued that the Army shouldn’t be used as an “instrument of social evolution.” The Marine Corps commandant, Clifton Cates, complained that “the problem of segregation is not the responsibility of the Armed Forces but is a problem of the nation,” and that it was dangerous to use the military to change the nation’s racial politics. Overruling the Pentagon, Truman employed the military in a racial-desegregation social experiment in hopes of improving the American one. His use of executive powers signaled a commitment to a more inclusive version of the United States.

AMANDA LAMB: Orange sheriff, ICE square off over release of inmates in US illegally (WRAL-TV reports) -- Immigration officials fired back at the Orange County sheriff during a battle over his jail releasing a man who was supposed to be deported. In a news release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials accused the Orange County Detention Center of improperly releasing Udiel Aguilar-Castellanos, who had served his time for a child sex offense but had a federal immigration detainer.

MATTHEW BURNS: Raleigh marketer, DC burger chain apologize for tweet with slain journalist's image (WRAL-TV reports) -- A hamburger chain and a marketing company are apologizing over a tweet that featured an image of a journalist who was killed by the Islamic State group.

TIMOTHY TYSON: Justice unlikely in the reopening of the Emmett Till case (Durham-Herald Sun column) — For more than a week, my phone has been ringing like an ice cream truck on an August afternoon. This was because an A.P. reporter recently learned of Department of Justice plans to reopen the 1955 Emmett Till lynching case.

JESSICA PATRICK: Former Durham Tech president dies at 70 (WRAL reports) — Phail Wynn, who recently retired as vice president of Duke University and served as president of Durham Technical Community College, died on Tuesday at the age of 70. According to Duke officials, when Wynn was named president of Durham Tech in 1980, he became the first African-American community college president in the North Carolina system.

ANN HELMS: CMS needs nearly 500 teachers. How a new program is helping find some of them (Charlotte Observer reports) —About a month before students report to school, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has more than 450 teacher vacancies posted. This summer CMS has launched a six-week crash course for career-changers and nontraditional college graduates who want to become teachers.

BRIAN JODICE: Public money for private school scholarships is working, and will soon expand dramatically (Charlotte Observer column) — Five years in, here’s what we know for sure: School choice is working. It’s working for Janet Nunn and Nariah. It’s working for thousands of other low-income parents, who now have the freedom to choose the right school for their child. That’s what we celebrate today. Progress. And possibilities.

JASON DEBRUYN: State Health Plan Quits QuitlineNC, Switches To CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic (WUNC reports) — The State Health Plan will change vendors for its smoking cessation program. The plan, which provides health insurance coverage to 727,000 North Carolina public sector teachers, current and former lawmakers, and retirees and their dependents, will switch from QuitlineNC to CVS Caremark’s MinuteClinic.

BYRAN MIMS: Hundreds of military vets seek help with benefits in Harnett County (WRAL reports) — Hundreds of people showed up Wednesday in Harnett County for day one of a three-day event designed to give local military veterans a chance to meet face-to-face with Department of Veterans Affairs representatives to discuss the care and benefits process.

MARK TOSCZAK: Pending Mission Sale to HCA Raising Questions and Concerns in Western NC (NC Health News reports) — Bill O’Connell is one of thousands of retirees who have chosen western North Carolina to retire. For O’Connell and others, though, one of the most important draws is Mission Health, the six-hospital, $1.8 billion nonprofit health system that is, at least by some measures, one of the best hospital systems in the nation. So when Mission announced in March that it planned to sell itself to HCA Healthcare Inc., the nation’s largest for-profit hospital operator, O’Connell and many others were surprised.

MARK PRICE & ABBIE BENNETT: 'Fake' Facebook photos of a cliff that formed on NC's Outer Banks aren't fake (Charlotte Observer reports) -- One of North Carolina’s popular Outer Banks beaches abruptly closed, not for deadly rip currents or sharks, but for a 10-foot cliff that seemed to come out of nowhere. The town of Nags Head said it was closing Gray Eagle Beach Access until the newly formed escarpment could be “leveled out.” However, photos posted on Facebook of the site were instantly labeled fake on social media, including one that showed an umbrella-topped life guard tower teetering above a nonexistent beach.

JANINE BOWEN: State officials warn swimmers to stay out of OBX waters because of high bacteria levels (WRAL reports) — Vacationers in the Outer Banks were warned Wednesday about swimming, due to excess bacteria in the water. State officials said high rainfall and flooding from recent storms resulted in many towns in Dare and Currituck counties pumping floodwaters into the ocean.

ABBIE BENNETT: NC beachgoers form human chain to save swimmers from deadly Outer Banks surf, video shows (Charlotte Observer reports) — People on an Emerald Isle beach lined up arm-in-arm, forming a long chain to try to rescue swimmers from rough surf and dangerous ocean currents Wednesday, a video shows. The Town of Emerald Isle announced on social media Wednesday that a person had drowned at an Emerald Isle beach and that red “no swimming” flags were still in place at the beaches.

ABBIE BENNETT: Sea level rise has already sunk Carolinas beach property values — by $1.6 billion, study finds (Charlotte Observer reports) — Sea levels are rising and the southeast has already lost billions in property value, a recent study shows. Scientists have found $7.4 billion was lost in home values across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Florida because of sea level rise flooding from 2005 to 2017.

NANCY McLAUGHLIN: Fighter of racism. Mentor to many. J. Kenneth Lee 'stood at the front of the line all the time' (Greensboro News & Record Column) — Lee, who had come to Greensboro to attend N.C. A&T, tread a trail of firsts in a life that charts the progress of civil rights in America, notably the dismantling of Jim Crow laws. Lee loved his country and felt that improving the lot for black people only strengthened what America could be.

ANINE BOWEN: Bishop Curry, who delivered royal wedding homily, diagnosed with cancer (WRAL reports) — The former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, who recently made international headlines when he delivered the homily at the royal wedding, announced Wednesday that he has been diagnosed with cancer. The Most Rev. Michael Curry, who served 16 years as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina before his promotion to presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said he was diagnosed with prostate cancer during an annual physical several months ago

TIM FUNK: Was she denied Communion because she’d been chewing gum — or because she’s transgender? (Charlotte Observer reports) — Lilliana Redd’s daughter, who is transgender, was refused Communion during a Sunday Mass this month at St. Vincent de Paul, one of Charlotte’s more conservative Catholic churches.

Army is way overdue in honoring Old Hickory Division (Greensboro News & Record) — Give the Army’s 30th Infantry Division its Presidential Unit Citation, and, please, do it soon. That Army National Guard division, nicknamed Old Hickory for Andrew Jackson, was cited as the best-performing infantry division in the European theater of World War II. Its troops, mostly from the Carolinas, where Jackson was born near the state line, and Tennessee, where he rose to prominence, fought heroically and achieved crucial results

MAXIM TAMAROV: Montford Point Marines honored with Congressional Gold Medal (Jacksonville Daily News reports) — Twelve Montford Point Marines were given a Congressional Gold Medal Wednesday night. Though many of them were honored posthumously, family members of the late Marines feel the honor of being recognized is essential. “Being one of the originals and being an all-black unit — we felt it was important and that he deserved it,” Dorothy Howard said of her uncle, Montford Point Marine Private First Class Willie H. Rushton who died in 2008. The $1.8 million memorial is part of Lejeune Memorial Gardens, the second largest memorial site outside of Washington, D.C.

ZEYNEP BILGINSOY: Turkey: American pastor on trial for terror let out of jail (AP reports) — An American pastor who had been jailed in Turkey for more than 1 ½ years on terror and espionage charges was released Wednesday and will be put under house arrest as his trial continues. Andrew Craig Brunson, 50, an evangelical pastor originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, was let out of jail to serve home detention because of "health problems," Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said.

LIZ BIRO: Hush Puppies Have Strayed Far From Coast (Coastal Review column) — Folks in St. Marks, Florida, have claimed that the late City Cafe, established in 1929 and later renamed Posey’s, was the hush puppy’s native home. “Important deals were made over baskets of fried fish and (co-owner) Birdie (Coggins’) famous, secret-recipe hush puppies,” Bruce Hunt wrote in “Visiting Small-Town Florida” (Pineapple Press, 2013). Meantime, up in N.C., Harkers Island fishers said they were the first to spare a little fish-frying batter for dog treats.