Opinion Roundup: Florence damage estimates, Cape Fear considered 'insanely toxic,' partisan gerrymandering and more

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Florence road damage in N.C. tops $266M, Ivanka Trump visits Lumberton disaster relief site, UNC faculty asked to weigh in on Silent Sam during private meeting, Republican leader uses fake photo to mock Christine Blasey Ford, 80K pounds of Johnston County Hams recalled after Listeria death, environmentalists say Cape Fear ‘insanely toxic,’ anti-semitic graffiti found on App. State campus and more.

SCOTT SEXTON: Don't know about constitutional amendments? Questions stump even politically savvy (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- A friend sounded confused. Maybe it was the time of day. It was just after lunch when I rang, prime time for nodding off. He’s been known to cop a siesta in his office. Or perhaps it was simply the question lobbed at him: What do you know about these constitutional amendments on the ballot in November?

LYLE DENNISTON: A plea to end all partisan gerrymandering challenges (Constitution Daily reports) -- Reopening a deeply divisive controversy that has troubled the Supreme Court for 32 years, four N.C. legislators -- Robert A. Rucho (Ralph Hise) , David R.Lewis, Timothy K. Moore, and Philip E. Berger have urged the Justices to bar all constitutional challenges to partisan gerrymandering. … The only realistic remedy would be for the people of a state to take the task of drawing new districts away from the legislature, or — ultimately — for the nation to amend the Constitution.

What NC law really says about bathrooms and transgender people (Charlotte Observer) — In NC, unlike some other states, transgender people aren’t offered such protections under state law, which is why Charlotte tried to offer its own in 2016. That, of course, led to HB2, which eventually was replaced by HB142.

LAUREN HORSCH: Howard Tweets (The Insider reports) -- Old tweets posted by the N.C. Democratic Party's lead spokesman have raised some concerns about his views toward women. Communications Director Robert Howard, who was hired by the NCDP in June 2017, said he sent the tweets when he was trying to be a comedian. The tweets from 2011, 2012, and 2013 were posted in the years after he graduated from college while he worked for a Washington, D.C., public relations firm. The tweets include derogatory language about women, jokes about popular culture and fat-shaming. Howard has apologized for the comments.

NICK OCHSNER: Donor Investigation (WBTV reports) -- The N.C. Republican Party took nearly $2 million from a political donor who is now under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorney for the Western District.

SARAH REIDY-JONES: Woodhouse supported me as a rape survivor (Charlotte Observer column) — I am a rape survivor. I support confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh based on fact and empirical evidence (and six prior FBI probes). And I am one of Dallas Woodhouse’s best friends.

PAUL SPECHT & RASHAAN AYESH: NC Republican leader uses photo to mock Christine Blasey Ford. It’s not her. (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — Facebook post about Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of assault in the early 1980s, has triggered a war of words between a local Republican leader and a Democratic candidate for Congress.

ERICA HELLERSTEIN: A Triangle Resident Says if She’s Sent Back to Honduras, Her Ex Could Kill Her (IndyWeek reports) — One afternoon in September 2016, Carmen sat in the dimly lit living room of her home in Olanchito, Honduras, picked up the phone, and learned that her oldest daughter was running away.

Greensboro is 'Gate City' for immigrants (Greensboro News & Record) — When churches in Greensboro stepped forward — not one, not two, but three times — in recent months to provide sanctuary for local immigrants facing the threat of deportation, it was no fluke. This is who are we are. And these are among the values we hold dear.

VALERIE BAUERLEIN: Hurricane Florence’s Force Is Still Felt in North Carolina Weeks Later (Wall Street Journal reports) -- Though floodwaters have largely receded, the impact of Hurricane Florence is still being felt in nearly every aspect of life in eastern North Carolina.

EMMA DUMAIN: Washington sends $1.7 billion to the Carolinas in Hurricane Florence aid (McClatchy D.C. reports) -- Congress passed legislation Wednesday to send $1.7 billion in disaster relief aid to North Carolina and South Carolina after Hurricane Florence — the first influx of federal funding for long-term recovery efforts but not the last.

CELIA RIVENBARK: Uncommonly mean — and kind (Wilmington Star-News column) -- Less than three weeks after Hurricane Florence came ashore nine miles from my house, it’s hard to think about anything else. What have I learned, I mean, besides how to operate a chainsaw without severing an artery or three? That’s easy: People are uncommonly kind. And people are uncommonly mean. And sometimes those are the same people.

PAUL WOOLVERTON: Governor signs Florence aid package, visits Harnett County (Fayetteville Observer reports) -- Gov. Roy Cooper signed into law $56.6 million of Hurricane Florence relief and expects more aid to come as the losses are tallied.

Ivanka Trump visits Lumberton disaster relief site (Fayetteville Observer reports) -- When Lisa Cummings of Parkton pulled up at Hyde Park Baptist Church on Wednesday, she was shocked to see the president’s daughter giving out food to victims of Hurricane Florence. After Cummings recognized Ivanka Trump, she got out of her sports utility vehicle and hugged the first daughter.

LAURA LESLIE: Florence road damage in NC tops $266M (WRAL-TV reports) -- State transportation officials told lawmakers Wednesday that road damage from Hurricane Florence will cost at least $266 million to repair at thousands of sites statewide. They also said technology played a bigger role in Florence than ever before, for better and for worse.

Florence damage to schools could exceed Matthew's (AP reports) – N.C.'s public school officials expect damage from Hurricane Florence to well exceed school losses after Hurricane Matthew two years ago, a Department of Public Instruction official told the state's board of education Wednesday.

Port of Wilmington sustained $50 million in Florence damage (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- Hurricane damaged warehouses, knocked over containers

Volunteers from Puerto Rico help feed NC hurricane victims (AP reports) -- They know what it's like to suffer from a devastating hurricane, so chefs and volunteers from Puerto Rico are helping out in a North Carolina city damaged by Hurricane Florence.

Environmentalists: Coal ash-related compounds found in Cape Fear (Wilmington Star-News) -- But Duke Energy pushes back against findings, saying its sampling shows the river water within safe standards

EDDIE FITZGERALD: Conflicting reports surface about migrants workers rescued from a Jones County farm (Kinston Free Press reports) -- The day after hurricane Florence hit Eastern North Carolina 40 migrant workers, who had been in Jones County picking tobacco, were left stranded after waking to flood waters rising to a level above the knees to waist high in their concrete housing facility. Emergency personnel tried to reach them after the workers called 911. During their attempt, even with a swift-water rescue team having difficulties getting through the quickly flooding county, the rescue was called off. None of the workers were injured and they were finally rescued by a field representative with the North Carolina Growers Association who is from Kinston.

JENNIFER ALLEN: Down East, Its Museum Work to Rebuild (Coastal Review Online reports) — Hurricane Florence lashed the communities of Down East Carteret County and the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum that celebrates their heritage, but folks from here and yonder are working together to rebuild.

GILBERT BAEZ: VA scrambles to reschedule veterans' appointments canceled because of Florence (WRAL reports) — Facilities in eastern NC that cater to veterans weren't spared from Hurricane Florence's wrath, and U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie toured the state Monday to assess the damage.

MARK PRICE: Family pays $11K for flag shredded by Florence to honor NC man. He died not knowing (Charlotte Observer reports) — The identity of the bidder who paid $10,900 Sunday for a U.S. flag famously ripped apart by Hurricane Florence’s 100 mph wind gusts was not released by eBay. But the seller, Richard Neal, says the new owner is an Ohio family in the produce business, and they bought the flag in honor of a man who died from cancer Sunday in Charlotte.

We need a second wind -- the good kind (Wilmington Star News) — In our experience, the toughest challenges can come when the storm is out of the headlines and life is starting to feel normal again for many.

SARAH NEWELL: Anti-Semitic graffiti found on App. State's campus condemned by organizations, university investigating the incident (Winston-Salem Journal reports) -- Anti-Semitic graffiti, including an image of a swastika, was spray-painted on the wall of a pedestrian tunnel at App. State University.

SUZANNE BLAKE: Muslim Students Association receives hate mail (Daily Tar Heel reports) -- When Amira Mustafa, the UNC Muslim Students Association community service chairperson, saw the contents of an envelope addressed to the MSA on Sept. 18, she wasn't fazed. Inside the envelope was a collection of small comic booklets espousing several negative stereotypes about Muslims. Mustafa said that in a way, this is something to be expected. But still, the specific ignorance caught her off guard. “People have a hard time accepting that Muslims can be American, too, and that a lot of us are, in fact, American," Mustafa said.

ANALISA SORRELLS & YASMIN BENDAAS: Nikole Hannah-Jones keynotes inaugural ‘Color of Education’ summit (EdNC reports) -- Educators, policymakers, students, and philanthropists gathered for the inaugural Color of Education summit — “An evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones.” Using the lens of history, anecdotes from her own reporting, and a discussion of her decision to send her own child to a majority-minority school, Hannah-Jones made the case for school integration as the only way to close the racial achievement gap and provide equal opportunity to students of color. Between candid remarks and periods of silence, Hannah-Jones allowed the audience to feel the full weight of her message: We should be ashamed, but we have the power to do something about it.

EDDIE WOOTEN: Plaques at UNC's Kenan Stadium to be changed, will honor son instead of father (Greensboro News & Record reports) -- UNC will change plaques inside Kenan Memorial Stadium that honor the donor's father, William Rand Kenan, whose involvement in a historic 19th-century race riot in Wilmington was recently brought to light. The plaques, instead, will focus on his son, William Rand Kenan Jr., who made the donation for the stadium that was built in 1927.

JANE STANCILL: UNC faculty asked to weigh in on Silent Sam during private meetings (Charlotte Observer reports) — UNC-Chapel Hill faculty began private sessions Wednesday to offer their ideas for what to do with Silent Sam, the toppled Confederate monument.

BILLY BALLY: Superintendent Mark Johnson’s new website may have broken NC law (NC Policy Watch reports) — Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson’s publicly-funded site launched last month without vetting by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), an agency that, under state law, is expected to review the financing and contracts for any state agency web page.

T. KEUNG HUI: Legislators rejected this NC school board nominee. So the governor appointed him (Charlotte Observer reports) — J.B. Buxton, an education consultant from Raleigh and former deputy state schools superintendent, was sworn onto the State Board of Education on Wednesday to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former board chairman Bill Cobey.

CAMMIE BELLAMY: Pender County’s first charter school wants to open in 2020 (Wilmington Star News reports) — TeamCFA, a Charlotte-headquartered network of public charter schools, has applied to the N.C. Office of Charter Schools to open TeamCFA: Pender. Another TeamCFA school, Coastal Preparatory Academy, opened in 2017 in New Hanover County near the Pender County line.

JANINE BOWEN: 80K pounds of Johnston County Hams recalled after Listeria death (WRAL reports) — Johnston County Hams has recalled more than 80,000 pounds of meat after at least one person died as a result of ham that was potentially contaminated with Listeria, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

A landmark for children with autism (Winston-Salem Journal) — A new activity center for children with autism that opened last week is a landmark achievement for our area. Built by the nonprofit group ABC of NC, this $6.5 million, 26,000-square-foot center on Friedberg Church Road will provide, along with other activities, hands-on, practical experience with some of the everyday activities that most of us take for granted but that can be challenging for children with autism.

JOHN MURAWSKI: Environmentalists say Cape Fear ‘insanely toxic’; Duke Energy calls claim ‘outrageous’ (Charlotte Observer reports) — Environmental organizations said Wednesday they have measured “insanely toxic” contamination near Duke Energy’s flooded ash ponds in Wilmington. Charlotte-based Duke dismissed the announcement as an “outrageous claim” designed to promote an “extreme agenda.”

NC man to be first male president of American Nurses Association (Greensboro News & Record reports) — For 36 years, Ernest Grant has flourished as both a nurse, teacher and administrator at UNC Hospitals’ renown Jaycee Burn Clinic in Chapel Hill. But, come January, he’ll have a new job as the first male president of the American Nurses Association, a position his fellow nurses voted him into.