Thursday, Aug. 30, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Exposing loopholes in campaign fundraising, Gov Cooper still not satisfied with wording on two proposed amendments, a fair approach to redistricting, helping college students across the finish line, a change in thinking for Medicare, the cost of rising seas and more.

Other WRAL Top Stories

CAMPAIGN 2018
TRAVIS FAIN & TYLER DUKES: CEOs gave heavily during legislative session, exposing loophole in NC's fundraising ban (WRAL-TV reports) — North Carolina law lets CEOs and other top executives contribute to campaigns during General Assembly sessions even as it bans donations from the companies themselves year round and forbids anyone who contracts directly with a lobbyist from giving during session.

TYLER DUKES: How we analyzed political donations during the legislative session ban (WRAL-TV reports) — To examine the effectiveness of North Carolina's ban on some types of political contributions during legislative sessions, WRAL News analyzed campaign finance reports filed with the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement for the first and second quarters of 2018 as of mid-July.

MATTHEW BURNS: Cooper tries again to block two proposed amendments (WRAL-TV reports) — Lawmakers say the new wording of the two amendments addresses the court's concerns, but Gov. Cooper insists neither of the revised amendments fully inform voters of their impact and don't meet the requirement that ballot proposals be fair and accurate.

STEPHANIE CARSON: Ballots Stalled After NC Supreme Court Decision (Public News Service reports) — The state Board of Elections says it will need at least 21 days to prepare ballots for the November election. The current delay is preventing absentee ballots from being sent out on schedule.

Reject the six amendments (Winston-Salem Journal) — Republican legislators have often clashed with the powers of the executive and judiciary branches — a division of power instituted to prevent abuses — and rather than be tempered by constitutional limitations, attempted to pull more power in their own hands.

Why not just try fair districts for a change? (Wilmington Star News) Although computer technology has helped the GOP master the art of the gerrymander, Democrats laid the foundation when they controlled the legislature, making it difficult for them to claim any ethical high ground. And if the Democrats were to win back control of the legislature, we have no doubt that they would return the favor. It’s a vicious cycle of “well, they did it to us,” which has become the battle cry of modern politics.

Judges are fixing gerrymandered N.C. They may cause mass confusion along the way (The Washington Post) — North Carolina, a state that votes about evenly for Republicans and Democrats, elected only three Democrats in its 13 districts in 2016. If North Carolina’s wholly unjustifiable gerrymander is legal, then practically any super-partisan redistricting scheme would be.

A good court decision for North Carolina shouldn't blow up November's election (Greensboro News & Record) — This isn’t the right time to employ a nuclear approach to doing the right thing. To change districts and election processes by November would be unfair to candidates who have crisscrossed thousands of miles, raised millions of dollars and stood before thousands to establish why they should be elected. An immediate change simply defeats the fairness and logic with which we have proceeded since election laws first were written.

POLICY & POLITICS
SARAH KRUEGER: Texts show police chief told Chapel Hill officers to stay back amid 'Silent Sam' protest (WRAL reports) — Police Chief Chris Blue instructed Chapel Hill officers to stand aside last week as protesters pulled down a controversial Confederate monument on the University of North Carolina campus. Following a public records request, WRAL News obtained about 400 pages of emails and texts sent to and from Blue on Aug. 20-21 – before, during and after the protest that led to the toppling of the "Silent Sam" statue.

MICHAEL GORDON: Family files lawsuit, says Keith Lamont Scott did not need to die (Charlotte Observer reports) — The simmering debate over the 2016 shooting of Keith Lamont Scott rekindled Wednesday with Scott’s family claiming in a lawsuit that his death resulted from negligence, excessive force and the failure of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police to avoid a needless confrontation.

The paper we’re printed on (Fayetteville Observer) — The import-export business isn’t a big player in Fayetteville’s economy, and we don’t often find reason for local commentary on the world of global trade. But here at the Observer, as at most other newspapers across the country, we got an up-close view of what tariffs can mean to a local business when early this year, the U.S. Commerce Department slapped tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada.

LEIGH TAUSS: This Summer, Bird Scooters Suddenly Appeared in Raleigh. This Fall, the City Could Regulate Them Into Extinction (IndyWeek reports) — As quickly as downtown Raleigh's love affair with Bird began, so could it end if the city council fixates on how to corral the scooters in the name of public safety instead of embracing their possibilities for residents.

EDUCATION
GILBERT BAEZ: School Angels program aims to boost Cumberland campus safety (WRAL reports) — With a new school year upon us, educators in Cumberland County are asking for volunteers to help patrol school campuses as a way to bolster safety on school grounds. The program is known as School Angels and it's a way of getting additional eyes and ears to identify any school threats.

JIM MORRILL: ‘You don’t poke the lion:’ CMS vote renews calls to break up the school system (Charlotte Observer reports) — Tuesday’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board vote has escalated tensions with many of the county’s suburbs — and the lawmakers who represent them. The board passed the “Municipal Concerns Act of 2018,” a measure that would effectively block future school construction in Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and Cornelius. Those are the towns authorized to create municipal charter schools under a bill the General Assembly passed this year. They wouldn’t get back on CMS’ construction priority list unless they agree not to launch a municipal charter for 15 years.

A reckless school board tries to bully the suburbs (Charlotte Observer) — School board members called Tuesday’s act a reasonable response to that bill, but it was bullying, plain and simple. Approve a 15-year moratorium on charter schools, the board said, or we’ll exile you and your families.

SARAH CRAWFORD: Helping students to the finish line (EdNC column) — Retention. In my work as National Education Director for Single Stop, I hear this word a lot. Retention is top of mind for community college leaders across the country. Every person I speak with on a college campus knows that their institution is focused on increasing retention.

North Carolina’s Jim Hunt on Priorities for a New School Year (The 74 Million reports) — Former NC Governor Jim Hunt sat down to talk about state-level education leadership under the Every Student Succeeds Act, how governors must realize that their economies are irrevocably linked to the performance — and the goals — of their schools, and how in a time of fractured national politics, classrooms could become the key intersection of bipartisan cooperation.

LIZ SCHLEMMER & JASON DEBRUYN: What Public School Finance Officers Want You To Know About School Funding (WUNC reports) — Educators across the state often complain of tight public school budgets that leave something to be desired. Two school finance officers explain what they want most: more flexibility and more funding

HEALTH
THOMAS GOLDSMITH: Medicare Advantage to Pay For Community-Based Help (NC Health News) — At a senior center in Asheboro, people dealing with diabetes can learn ways to manage the condition — from healthy eating to stress management — and have Medicare foot the bill. A doctor’s approval is required for the classes, which represents a change of thinking about how to help older North Carolinians receive Medicare-reimbursed services from sources other than clinics and hospitals.

ADAM WAGNER: What can employers do to help their staff members struggling with opioids? (Wilmington Star News reports) — According to a National Safety Council Survey, more than 70 percent of employers reported that prescription drugs had some impact on their workplace. According to the study, absenteeism and employee use of prescription medication at work were the leading impacts, with just under 40 percent of employers reporting each impact.

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
TRAVIS FAIN: Legislature promises deep dive on Cooper admin's hurricane response, gas pipeline deal (WRAL-TV reports) — The General Assembly created a pair of subcommittees Wednesday to take deep dives on a pair of problem areas for Gov. Roy Cooper's administration: The slow recovery from Hurricane Matthew and a fund his administration negotiated over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline natural gas project.

CRAIG JARVIS: Environmentalists ask judge to stop toxic discharges into Cape Fear River (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — State environmental regulators say their investigation has led Chemours to no longer discharge GenX into the Cape Fear, and that water quality is now within state health standards. But an environmental group says pollution is still occurring through smoke-stack emissions, leaking pipes, unlined pits, wastewater ditches and contaminated equipment.

A hog-waste settlement in the works? Let’s hope (Fayetteville Observer) — Smithfield has told growers it’s appealing the three verdicts that went against the company, but we’re hoping the company has already seen the futility of its case — juries aren’t likely to sympathize with a company that has rejected modern waste-disposal techniques and instead imposes an onerous burden on its neighbors.

CATHERINE KOZAK: Rising Seas: Park Managers Are Taking Heed (Coastal Review Online reports) - National parks on the NC coast are some of the most threatened by rising seas in the nation, but in the context of wildfires, droughts, invasive species and excessive rain events plaguing the parks in the interior states, coastal woes are hardly the only problem the National Park Service is facing from climate change.

AND MORE…
JANINE BOWEN: Attorney: Leader of Cumberland religious group accused of keeping children as slaves has died (WRAL reports) — John McCollum was the leader of a group that lived off McCollum Road, in a compound known as McCollum Ranch, and operated several John C’s Fish Markets and mobile grills in Cumberland County. Children of the members of McCollum’s group, some as young as nine years old, were forced to work full time in the fish markets with little or no compensation, lifting heavy boxes, keeping fish iced, cutting fish and cleaning, as well as performing construction and maintenance on the mobile grills after hours

RENEE CHOU: Through Raleigh auto shop, dogs find forever home (WRAL reports) — At Premium Imports auto repair, workers are pretty good at knowing what you need. A Volvo needs a serpentine belt. A Porsche needs an oil change, perhaps a new set of tires. But there’s something in the shop that needs something special: a forever home.