Opinion Roundup: Kids protest, newspaper cutbacks, kids and rural health

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: kids on the march, fake news from Florida's legislature, more cutbacks in N.C. newspapers, prisons, kids health, rural health and commercial fishing battles.

ADAM OWENS: WCPSS addresses school security as group marches in support of stricter gun policies (WRAL-TV analysis) -- A large group called for stricter gun policies during a march from Pullen Memorial Baptist Church to the State Capitol building. Young people took to the mic, saying they do not want to live in fear and witness more mass shootings, or perhaps become victims themselves.

JOE DEXTER: Rockingham County sheriff, schools chief considering armed volunteer program for safety (Greensboro News & Record) -- Following last week's Florida school shooting, Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page says he'd like to place armed volunteer officers in schools that don't have a school resource officer. The officers would have to have prior law enforcement or military police experience, per the state law passed in 2014 that allows armed volunteers to be placed in schools.

STEPHANIE SAUL: Don’t Arm Teachers, Says One Who Stopped a Gunman (New York Times analysis) -- A national effort is underway to arm and train school staff members, but a former assistant principal who had a gun during a campus attack believes it’s misguided.

Florida lawmaker’s aide fired after saying outspoken Parkland students are actors (Tampa Bay Times) -- An aide to Florida state Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, was fired after emailing a Tampa Bay Times reporter with a stunning assertion: "Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen."

N.C. House school safety panel details released (AP news analysis) – N.C. House members with education, law enforcement and mental health policy backgrounds will serve on a special committee to examine K-12 school safety standards and recommend any changes.

No excuses, it’s time to act on mass shootings (Fayetteville Observer) -- Last week’s deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, may be the one in a long, troubling line of such mass murders that leads to political action. Students and parents are holding rallies across the nation, demanding that lawmakers act against our epidemic of gun deaths. No other nation on the planet is as blood-soaked as ours, and the typical legislative reaction — a helpless look and a shrug while repeating “Second Amendment” — is no longer an acceptable response.

Time to End This Assault Rifle Lunacy (Southern Pines Pilot) -- It’s been a good week to be a gun dealer. Sales always spike after a mass shooting, especially when the murderer’s weapon of choice has been the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

JOHN RAILEY: And now I must be going (Winston-Salem Journal column) -- Our fun and lively dialogue comes to an end. Today is my last day at the Journal, the paper I love where I spent the best 20 years, so far, of my life. But the time has come for me to seek new challenges. I arrived at the Journal in 1997 from The High Point Enterprise to be the religion editor. I am a wanna-be-Quaker with a spiritual side if not a religious one. But I learned much talking to sources, putting together the Saturday religion page and writing a weekly column for that page that I often tied into secular issues. I came to the opinion side as an editorial writer in 2004 and became editorial page editor in 2009. It was my dream job. I was raised by parents who taught me that this page is the heart and soul of any good newspaper, but that most any newspaper job was a good one for me.

Corporate donors and the rise of plutocracy (Fayetteville Observer) -- Greg Lindberg may become the poster child for campaign-finance reform in North Carolina. What he’s doing is one of the best examples we’ve seen of the kind of power that could distort the political process and create a government by highest bid.

NICHOLAS CONFESSORE & GABRIEL J.X. DANCE: On Social Media, Lax Enforcement Lets Impostor Accounts Thrive (New York Times analysis) -- Impostor accounts are still relatively easy to find on Twitter. The Times identified hundreds more of them through Twitter’s own automated “who to follow” feature: When a user views a known impostor account, Twitter routinely recommends other impostor accounts to follow. One real Twitter account, belonging to Jasmine Artis, a health care worker from North Carolina, was cloned dozens of times. At least 75 of those impostor accounts still exist — though some have recently been restricted — each using her picture, her name and a brief bio that refers to the school she was attending when her account was copied.

How not to respond to the Russia indictments (Charlotte Observer) -- President Trump made Robert Mueller’s Russia indictments about himself. Americans pointed fingers at each other. Here’s what everyone should be focused on.

TRAVIS FAIN: General Assembly leaders hint at subpoena over pipeline fund (WRAL-TV analysis) – Rep. David Lewis and Sen. Bill Rabon, GOP legislative leaders blasted Gov. Roy Cooper's administration for what they claimed was failing to answer key questions about a $57.8 million fund linked to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and they implied subpoenas are next if answers don't come soon.

LAURA LESLIE: DPS lukewarm to idea of using National Guard for prison security (WRAL-TV analysis) -- A proposal by a coastal lawmaker to use the North Carolina National Guard to bolster prison security is receiving a lukewarm response from state prison leaders.

Twin Counties will miss Sen. Bryant's commitment (Rocky Mount Telegram) -- When someone advocates for action at the state level, they often urge constituents to contact their "local" state representative or senator to join the cause. If you ask for that legislator in Rocky Mount, you might as well put a name on it – N.C. Sen. Angela Bryant.

REBEKAH BARBER: Latest Southern city to take on the cash bail system (Facing South analysis) -- This week, Southerners On New Ground continued its efforts to end the cash bail system with a public forum held in Durham, North Carolina, titled "Free from Fear," organized in cooperation with the People's Alliance, a local grassroots progressive group, and the Human Relations Commission. There SONG activists called on local judges and District Attorney Roger Echols, who attended the forum, to help reform the local pretrial detention system.

LIZ BELL: Governor’s education commission looks at school funding (EdNC analysis) -- Orange County spends more per student locally than the seven counties that spend the least per-student in the state combined, according to the Public School Forum of North Carolina. A commission of education stakeholders across agencies and industries delved into this funding reality and others Tuesday. The Governor’s Commission on Access to Sound Basic Education is studying how to ensure a “sound basic education” for all students — a constitutional mandate the ongoing Leandro lawsuit ruled the state failed to meet.

STEPHANIE CARSON: 2018 NC Child Report Card Shows Mixed Bag for Kids (Public News Service analysis) -- Here's hoping your child is doing better in school than the state is when it comes to its children. North Carolina gets an F for child poverty in the Child Health Report Card. The analysis is based on data from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) and NC Child – and tracked key indicators of child health and well-being. Among the findings, almost half of the state's children live in poor or low-income households.

DUSTIN GEORGE: High amount of vacancies, staff turnover found in rural hospitals (Kinston Free Press) -- In 2014, hospitals in 34 states were expected to need more nurses than they could find. Last year, that number shrank to just seven states, with many – including North Carolina – having a surplus of nurses. What that second figure doesn’t account for is where those nurses will be versus where they will be needed most. A study published by the N.C. Organization for Nurse Leaders in 2017 showed that while the state has a healthy balance of nurses per 10,000 residents, there are still high numbers of vacancies and staff turnover found in more rural areas.

NEEL KELLER: Critics blast MFC vote on fishing licenses (Outer Banks Sentinel analysis) -- In the wake of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission's decision last week to approve new criteria for licensing commercial fishermen, commercial fishing advocates condemned the action and vowed to carry the fight to the state legislature.

BRAD RICH: Our Coast’s People - Michael Murdoch (Coastal Review column) -- Michael Murdoch of Carteret County has long been committed to environmental protection, but lately his focus is on sparing his rural community from a roadway project that could bring big changes.