Opinion roundup: Electoral chaos, economic reshuffle, Medicaid expansion and tennis court turmoil

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis: Chaos in N.C.'s elections, economic tiers reshuffle, Medicaid expansion, tennis court turmoil, hemp buildings and more.

MARGARET NEWKIRK: N.C. Mismanaged Itself Into Electoral Chaos (Bloomberg BusinessWeek analysis) -- The U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 18 decision to pause a nine-day-old federal court ruling against North Carolina’s congressional map was the latest turn in a legal war that has made the state’s electoral system the most chaotic in the U.S. What sets North Carolina apart, though, is the breadth of institutions that have been thrown against a wall. As the state prepares for 2018 campaign filing deadlines in February, congressional and Statehouse maps and even the district boundaries for the judges who handle garden-variety divorces and drunken driving cases are all in flux. Candidates for North Carolina’s 13 U.S. House seats are poised to run for the fourth election cycle in a row under maps deemed unconstitutional by federal courts. State legislature candidates don’t know who their voters are in at least nine districts. Judges have had their primaries canceled and are threatened with a constitutional amendment throwing them out of office at the end of this year. Meanwhile, the state elections board charged with overseeing voting in the state has been vacant for seven months.

MICHAEL WINES: Like Abstract Expressionists, They Draw the Free-Form Political Maps Now Under Scrutiny (New York Times analysis) -- In a big partisan gerrymandering case that will come before the Supreme Court in March, lawyers, and judges have already devoted thousands of words to the question of why some of Maryland’s eight congressional districts are so, ah, creatively drawn. In another case, out of Wisconsin, the best answers may come from those who helped draw them. “I liked working for them in ’02,” said Keith Gaddie, a University of Oklahoma political scientist, “because I’d sit down with a lawyer and they’d say, ‘I like competitive maps. When a map is competitive, we can win on the merits.’ By the time I get around to 2011, they’ve changed. I can’t defend this crap.”

Flurry of Courts Have Ruled on Election Maps. Here’s What They’ve Said (New York Times analysis) -- Judges in a number of states have recently thrown out election maps, arguing they are gerrymandered to the point of being unconstitutional. … The statewide congressional district map of North Carolina.

MARK BARRETT: Mark Meadows, Thom Tillis, Art Pope spend time with conservative Koch donors (Asheville Citizen-Times analysis) -- Two of North Carolina's most prominent politicians and another who is less known but still quite powerful spent time with the conservative industrialists Charles and David Koch and their network of high-dollar campaign donors over the weekend.

ERIK SPANBERG: Business-focused Charlotte candidates target 2018 races (Charlotte Business Journal analysis) -- Republicans hold super-majorities in both chambers of the legislature, but Democrats see an opportunity for gains in November. Morgan Jackson of Raleigh-based Nexus Strategies, a consultant to the governor, said district seats held by Sens. Bishop and Tarte and Reps. Bradford, Dulin and Stone will be pivotal for Democrats’ statewide ambitions.

Saving target means hundreds of millions more dollars needed (AP news analysis) -- North Carolina government's top fiscal analysts have officially set a goal for the state's rainy-day reserve fund that once met should help fill large shortfalls encountered during most recessions.

KIRK ROSS: Legislators may tinker with state’s economic tier system (Carolina Public Press analysis) -- Legislators are considering options to shake up a tier-based economic development incentive system that doesn’t seem effective at bringing jobs to communities that need them the most. Lawmakers reviewing the system are questioning not only its effectiveness but also its basic assumptions about how the state should categorize counties.

STEPHANIE CARSON & CYNTYHIA HOWARD: NC Mayors to Trump: Help Us Pave Way to Progress (Public News Service analysis) -- North Carolina mayors are joining others across the country to let Washington know about roadblocks in their pursuit of growth due to a lack of funding for infrastructure and transportation projects. Mayors from Asheville, Rocky Mount, Durham, Raleigh and other North Carolina cities spent last week in Washington for the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors annual conference.

D.G. MARTIN: Developing strong leaders (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- We need good leaders more than ever.

DAVID MEYERS: HB2? Gerrymandering? Get with it, NC legislators (Charlotte Observer column) -- HB2 and gerrymandering show NC legislators don’t focus on key issues

ETHAN JOYCE: App State tennis player suspended from team indefinitely; accused of 'derogatory and offensive' behavior (Winston-Salem Journal analysis) -- Appalachian State University indefinitely suspended freshman Spencer Brown from its men's tennis team on Monday after finding he acted exhibited "derogatory and offensive" behavior during his match a day earlier against a player from N.C. A&T State.

Programs Help Young Drug Abusers Through Recovery (WUNC-FM analysis) -- Walk down Franklin Street in Chapel Hill on a Friday night and you're sure to run in to groups of college kids having a good time. For many, drinking is a part of the college experience. For some, however, drinking can lead to more serious problems, including opioid abuse.

Prison staff needs safer conditions (Greensboro News & Record) -- The assessment by the National Institute of Correction couldn’t be anything but harsh after a bloody escape attempt at a North Carolina prison left four employees dead last year.

Reddest states show us the way on Medicaid (Fayetteville Observer) -- The guns are nearly silent now. The Obamacare debate ended mostly unresolved. The Affordable Care Act is still on the books, but it’s been beaten to within an inch of its life. The quiet that replaced all the thunder from the left and right in Washington comes from the unsettling recognition that nobody really won, but a lot of people lost. Congress somehow managed, after all the ado, to neither repeal it, replace it nor fix it.

JOHN DOWNEY: Cooper intervenes to help Duke Energy, developers resolve solar dispute (Charlotte Business Journal analysis) -- Gov. Roy Cooper helped Duke Energy and the solar industry resolve a dispute that threatened to block more than 100 late-stage solar projects from final development.

LAURA LESLIE: State science panel nearing safety recommendation for GenX (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Scientists appointed to advise the state on GenX say they're getting close to a recommendation on safety levels.

JEANNETTE PILLIN: Opponents gearing up for stand against offshore drilling (Jacksonville Daily News) -- Opponents of offshore drilling along the North Carolina coast are gearing up to take a stand in advance of a public meeting later this month in Raleigh on the federal government’s new proposal that would open oil and gas exploration and seismic testing off North Carolina’s coast.

JENNIFER ALLEN: Our Coast’s People, Beaufort Mayor Rett Newton (Coastal Review column) -- Beaufort Mayor Everette “Rett” Newton, a doctoral student and program manager with the Duke Lab’s drone program, hope to use new technology to help make the town and local waters cleaner.

ADAM POPESCU: High Times Beckon for Using Hemp to Build Houses (New York Times analysis) -- Now that several states have legalized the use of marijuana for some recreational and medical purposes, one of the biggest untapped markets for the cannabis plant itself — at least one variety — could be as a building tool. The most sustainable building material isn’t concrete or steel — it’s fast-growing hemp. In the United States special permits are needed to build with hemp, and the requirements can vary by county and state. The first modern hemp house was constructed in 2010, in North Carolina. There are now about 50 such homes in the country.

State must address growing river concerns (Fayetteville Observer) -- It’s hard to overstate the importance of the victory recently won by the Fayetteville Public Works Commission. It protects everyone who depends on the Cape Fear River for drinking water. It’s one of many protections that we urgently need. The PWC, joined by several other communities in the Cape Fear Basin, last week settled a longstanding disagreement with Triangle communities over the “interbasin transfer” of water.

MIKE MCHUGH: Few details released after Wounded Warrior CO relieved of duty (New Bern Sun Journal analysis) -- Marine officials are releasing few details after the commanding officer was relieved of command and two staff members were placed on leave within Wounded Warrior Battalion East.

ZEYNEP TUFEKCI: The Latest Data Privacy Debacle (New York Times column) -- Did you make a New Year’s resolution to exercise more? Perhaps you downloaded a fitness app to help track your workouts, maybe one that allows you to share that data online with your exercise buddies? If so, you probably checked a box to accept the app’s privacy policy. For most apps, the default setting is to share data with at least the company; for many apps the default is to share data with the public. But you probably didn’t even notice or care. After all, what do you have to hide? For users of the exercise app Strava, the answer turns out to be a lot more than they realized. Since November, Strava has featured a global “heat map” showing where its users jogged or walked or otherwise traveled while the app was on.