Opinion Roundup: Mapmaker's files focus of NC redistricting hearing, loan program for rural hospitals clears Senate and more

Wednesday, July 3, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: GOP lawmakers don’t want their mapmaker’s files to be seen during gerrymandering case, how to break the NC Medicaid expansion stalemate, lawmakers could eliminate more than 20 state tests for students, wind favored over offshore drilling and more.

MICHELLE WAGNER: Perry and Murphy face GOP voters (Outer Banks Sentinel reports) -- The two Republicans vie to succeed the late Walter Jones.

WILL DORAN: GOP lawmakers don’t want their mapmaker’s files to be seen during gerrymandering case (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Republican lawmakers battled with anti-gerrymandering activists in court, arguing over previously secret files of the deceased Republican redistricting expert Tom Hofeller. Although the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of North Carolina Republicans last week, upholding the state's districts for its 13 U.S. House of Representatives seats, that ruling did not stop the state-level case that's challenging the lines used to elect members of the state legislature.

GARY ROBERTSON: Files from dead mapmaker focus of NC redistricting hearing (AP reports) -- Documents recovered from the house of a deceased Republican mapmaker that are part of a partisan gerrymandering lawsuit in North Carolina shouldn't be used in this month's scheduled trial because there's no way to authenticate them, GOP lawyers said.

MATTHEW BURNS: Lawyers fight over dead GOP strategist's files in NC gerrymandering case (WRAL-TV reports) -- Eleven months after he died, Thomas Hofeller, the go-to man for Republican lawmakers seeking to draw new congressional or legislative voting maps, was back in court Tuesday, as lawyers in a gerrymandering case argued over access to his computer files.

GINGER LIVINGSTON: Competing billboard messages vie for Smith's vote on budget and veto override (Greenville Daily Reflector reports) -- Dueling billboards — one supporting the state budget, the other supporting the governor’s veto of that budget — are being directed at state Rep. Kandie Smith. The first billboard, located right at the intersection, states “Kandie Save Brody! Vote Yes On State Budget!” Another image stated “Kandie Our State Employees Need Raises.” Kinston-based Riley Outdoor Advertising owns that sign. Its owner, Robert B. “Robbie” Moore Jr., told Smith “some concerned citizens” paid for the message but did not provide their names. Last week Moore was appointed to East Carolina University’s Board of Trustees.

How to break the NC Medicaid expansion stalemate (Charlotte Observer) -- Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the Republican-drawn state budget last week because it does not include Medicaid expansion. Senate leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) says Medicaid expansion will not be added. Period. Meanwhile, the fiscal year ended June 30 and the $24 billion proposed budget is in limbo. One way to solve the impasse would be to let the people decide. The General Assembly could agree to put Medicaid expansion to a vote in 2020. Among the 36 states that have expanded Medicaid, four — Maine, Idaho, Nebraska and Utah — have done so through ballot initiatives. North Carolina does not allow citizens to put issues on the ballot through petition, but the legislature could agree to abide by the results of a referendum.

Rural hospitals loan program passes Senate (AP reports) -- Struggling rural hospitals could get taxpayer-funded loans to help them stay open while they downsize or reshape services in legislation getting bipartisan support in the state Senate.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Hospital Loans (The Insider reports) -- Despite initially calling the plan a "government bailout" and a "weak fix," nearly all Senate Democrats voted Tuesday in favor of a rural hospital loan program pitched by Senate leader Phil Berger. Senate Bill 681 aims to address the trend of hospital closures in low-wealth rural communities.

TRAVIS FAIN: Loan program for rural hospitals clears Senate (WRAL-TV reports) -- Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger has pitched it as a way for hospitals with oversized and outdated facilities to right-size.

LUKE WEIR: Governor visits Ashe Hospital for Medicaid expansion roundtable (Ashe Post & Times reports) -- Gov. Roy Cooper visited Ashe Memorial Hospital to discuss Medicaid expansion with members of the hospital staff and board of trustees, the Ashe County Board of Commissioners, Rep. Ray Russell, D-Watauga, business owners, local hospitality and health care providers on Friday, June 28.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Certificate of Need (The Insider reports) -- A scaled-back plan to repeal Certificate of Need healthcare regulations from some outpatient facilities is headed to the Senate floor. After Senate Republicans stripped CON repeal language from another healthcare bill, they inserted a watered-down version into House Bill 126, which previously dealt with organ donations when it passed the House.

T. KEUNG HUI: NC lawmakers could eliminate more than 20 state tests for students. Will it happen? (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Lawmakers could eliminate more than 20 state exams before students return from summer break and overhaul the rest of the state's testing program. The state House and Senate have separately passed legislation that would reduce the number of standardized tests given in schools. Now House education leaders are pushing a plan that would merge parts of both bills and start reducing the number of tests given as soon as this fall.

TRAVIS FAIN: Absentee ballot security bill moves, but concern for some over changes (WRAL reports) -- Voters would have to request absentee ballots with a personal letter, and the names of ballot requesters would be confidential until Election Day under an elections security bill moving at the statehouse. The measure is an answer to last year's 9th Congressional District fiasco and the ballot harvesting operation that led to a do-over election that's still underway in NC.

Poor People's Campaign leader to speak about immigrants (AP reports) -- The Rev. William Barber will talk about political violence against immigrants and people of color in a sermon inspired by a speech that Frederick Douglass gave to mark the Fourth of July holiday in 1852.

JOHN WAGNER: Trump schedules a campaign rally in N.C. on same day Mueller testifies publicly to Congress (Washington Post reports) -- President Trump is planning to stage a campaign rally in N.C. on the same day this month that former special counsel Robert Mueller is scheduled to deliver highly anticipated public testimony to Congress. Trump’s campaign announced that he would return to Greenville on July 17, offering some counterprogramming to Mueller’s testimony earlier in the day before the Democratic-led House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.

JASON BOYD: President Trump making campaign stop in Greenville on July 17 (WRAL-TV reports) -- President Donald Trump will be making a campaign stop in Greenville on July 17.

N.C., US mottos on new state standard plate (AP reports) – N.C. vehicle owners now have another option from which to choose when it comes to the state's regularly priced license plate.

N.C.’s largest city tops homicide total for 2018 (AP reports) -- A woman who was stabbed to death inside a home has pushed North Carolina's largest city past the number of homicides it recorded for all of 2018.

RICHARD STRADLING: The NC Railroad is a private, state-owned company. Are its records public or private? (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- An environmental organization is asking a Wake County court to declare that the public should have the same access to information from a private, state-owned railroad as it does from state agencies. The Southern Environmental Law Center sued the N.C. Railroad on Monday, saying that the company that owns the 317-mile rail line from Morehead City through the Triangle and the Piedmont to Charlotte should be subject to the N.C. Records Act.

Border Patrol agents’ Facebook comments reveal deeper problem (Fayetteville Observer) -- Border Patrol agents with Customs and Border Protection, an agency already under scrutiny for how it treats migrants trying to receive asylum in the United States, gave the agency a major black eye with the public release of what had been a private Facebook group.

THOMAS EDSALL: Trump Needs His Base to Burn With Anger (New York Times column) -- As last week’s debates made clear, most of the Democratic presidential candidates, partly in response to Trump’s incendiary provocations, are doubling down on what appears to be, in traditional political terms, a risky strategy: identifying with just those constituencies Trump loves to paint in the harshest terms. But Democrats may be on to something. A measure of the mood of the electorate based on a compilation of large amounts of poll data developed by James Stimson, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina, portrays a landscape that is currently favorable to Democrats. The Policy Agendas Project at the University of Texas, which has adopted and regularly updates Stimson’s survey measure, reported last month that The annual estimate for 2018 is the most liberal ever recorded in the 68 year history of Mood, just slightly higher than the previous high point of 1961. It represents the expected leftward movement in thermostatic reaction to the presidency of Donald Trump.

You’re hired! Trump right on apprenticeship overhaul (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- When Donald Trump headlined “The Apprentice,” we never thought that a reality TV show could be the basis for a practical workforce policy. Apprenticeship programs are available to a tiny portion of the workforce, mostly skilled, unioned trades. But apprenticeship programs also carry a stigma as a route to nonprestigious jobs.

EDUCATION

JOE DEXTER: State Auditor clears Rockingham Community College, RCC Foundation wants more answers (Rockingham Now reports) -- For at least 10 years, Rockingham County Community College received $39 million in federal aid -- erroneously using a financial code belonging to its affiliated non-profit RCC Foundation. A recent audit investigation showed that the college had used the wrong number since at least 1995. The five-year review by the Office of the State Auditor cleared RCC of financial wrongdoing in its placement of $17 million of education-related funds since 2014. Still, the RCC Foundation has more questions about the unexamined balance of $22 million the college dispersed in prior years. A complaint to the state by an unnamed source, alleging RCC had improperly used the foundation's identifying information to secure grants and direct payments, triggered the investigation.

New Hanover school board must reassert power, oversight role (Wilmington Star-News) -- Something’s institutionally broken at the top levels of the New Hanover county school system, and the board of education has failed to provide adequate oversight of the administration it hires to run the schools.

SARAH OVASKA-FEW: Some managed care groups wanted to get a piece of N.C.’s Medicaid pie, but a judge is saying ‘No’ (N.C. Health News reports) -- Billions of dollars in Medicaid contracts are at stake for companies looking to become providers in the state’s transformed system.

Poll finds Wind Favored Over Offshore Drilling (Coastal Review reports) -- A poll on behalf the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce, Environment North Carolina and NRDC Action Fund, finds that more than half of those in the state’s 3rd Congressional District say offshore drilling is too risky. In addition to finding that 52.8% of those surveyed say offshore drilling is too risky, 62.8% want the government to reduce regulation in order to allow for more offshore wind development.

MATTHEW BROWN: US won't impose rule to protect against coal ash spill costs (AP reports) -- The Trump administration said it won't require electric utilities to show they have money to clean up hazardous spills from power plants despite a history of toxic coal ash releases contaminating rivers and aquifers. Environmental Protection Agency officials said Tuesday that modern industry practices and recently enacted regulations are sufficient to shield taxpayers from potential cleanup costs.

CATHERINE KOZAK: Event Recalls Drama of Lighthouse Move (Coastal Review Online reports) -- Twenty years ago, there was little agreement on how to save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, but common ground was the theme during Monday’s celebration of the 23-day “Move of the Century.”

LUKAS ALPERT: Are Local Papers Beyond Saving? (Wall Street Journal reports) -- For the past 18 months, the owners of the Youngstown Vindicator tried to sell the struggling family-run newspaper in northeast Ohio’s Rust Belt. But last week, the paper announced that it couldn’t find a buyer and would shut down at the end of the summer. The Vindicator’s collapse marks a turning point in the decline of local papers, industry watchers fear. … Last year, the UNC School of Media and Journalism published a seminal study that determined that between 2004 and 2018 some 1,800 papers—including weeklies—had closed, opening up so-called “news deserts” all around the country. The study found that 200 counties were left without a newspaper, and roughly half the counties in the country had only one. Since the report’s publication, the university’s researchers found that another 200 papers have disappeared.