Opinion Roundup: N.C. political unity to be tested, price gouging after Florence, interpreting school performance grades and more

Monday, Oct. 1, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: NC State professor says Kavanaugh was ‘heavy drinker,’ local support keeps Veterans Court alive, the rising costs of hurricanes, studying bacteria in Florence’s wake, Frying Pan Tower flag sells for more than $10,000, High Point rug seller donates showroom to help Pakistani children, interpreting school performance grades and more.

GARY ROBERTSON: After Florence, NC political unity to be tested (AP reports) — As Hurricane Florence was thrashing NC earlier this month, Gov. Cooper's leadership amid the devastation won widespread praise, including some from Republican politicians who have been passing laws to undercut him ever since he was elected. But that was then — and as the immediate crisis gives way to rebuilding, with a key election just weeks away, the temptation to revive partisan rancor will grow.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Voter registration deadline extension proposed (The Insider reports) -- The voter registration deadline could be extended in counties affected by Hurricane Florence under a bill that House Elections Chairman David Lewis, R-Harnett, plans to introduce during this week's special session. Lewis aide Neal Inman outlined the proposal in an email to House legislators Friday afternoon. The current deadline is Oct. 12, but Lewis wants to extend it to Oct. 15 in counties that have a federal disaster declaration.

ALAN BLINDER: Florence Silenced NC’s Political Rancor. But for How Long? (New York Time reports) — Few state governments in America have been as divided in recent years as the one in NC, where Democrats and Republicans have regularly fought pitched battles over issues like redistricting, voting rights, bathroom access for transgender people, education, and executive authority.

COREY FRIEDMAN: State’s first lady rallies support for Farmer-Butterfield (Wilson Times reports) -- Re-electing state Rep. Jean Farmer-Butterfield will help Democrats churn a blue wave that will break the Republican legislative majority and strengthen Gov. Roy Cooper’s hand, first lady Kristin Cooper told supporters.

DARLENE SUPERVILLE & MICHAEL BALSAMO: Yale classmate recalls Kavanaugh as frequent, heavy drinker (AP reports) – N.C. State University history professor Charles ‘Chad’ Ludington and Brett Kavanaugh were classmates at Yale. They socialized together, Ludington says. In a statement Ludington said he is "deeply troubled by what has been a blatant mischaracterization by Brett himself of his drinking at Yale." Ludington said he was a friend of Kavanaugh's at Yale and that Kavanaugh was "a frequent drinker, and a heavy drinker."

ABBIE BENNETT: Kavanaugh was ‘heavy drinker,’ ‘often belligerent’ at Yale, NC State professor says (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- An NC State University professor who says he was a Yale classmate of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh released a statement on Sunday and planned to speak with the FBI about Kavanaugh’s drinking.

MIKE DEBONIS & JOSH DAWSEY: Fight over Kavanaugh intensifies amid confusion over limits of FBI sexual assault investigation (Washington Post reports) — Charles Ludington, a former varsity basketball player and friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale, told The Washington Post on Sunday that he plans to deliver a statement to the FBI field office in Raleigh on Monday detailing violent drunken behavior by Kavanaugh in college. Ludington, an associate professor at NC State University, provided a copy of the statement to The Post.

ABBIE BENNETT: Kavanaugh accuser is a ‘criminal’ and should ‘go to prison,’ NC GOP leader says (Charlotte Observer reports) — “This woman is a criminal,” N.C. Republican Party executive director Dallas Woodhouse tweeted on Sunday, referring to Julie Swetnick, the third woman to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of inappropriate behavior.

Local support keeps Veterans Court alive (Winston-Salem Journal) -- It’s a great relief to learn that supporters of the Forsyth County Veterans Court have found a way to keep this worthwhile endeavor up and running, especially after petty politics almost sank it.

RICHARD BARRON: Greensboro police chief: Facebook ads focused on recruiting women as well as men (Greensboro News & Record reports) -- In a memo written shortly after the American Civil Liberties Union sued the social networking company and named the police department as one of 10 employers nationwide that used Facebook advertising to target men to the exclusion of women, Chief Wayne Scott said "any allegation ... is false."

Poverty decline in Greensboro-High Point is good news, sad news (Greensboro News & Record) -- Positive economic news has been flowing in the years since the tap was turned following the Great Recession. Unemployment has fallen to record lows, and the stock market has rocketed to record highs. We hear that often.

Prisons’ real problems still unsolved (Fayetteville Observer) -- The core problems that have made our state prisons such dangerous places haven’t been adequately addressed. Prison employees, especially guards, are still poorly paid. They don’t receive enough training before they are sent out to oversee the prison populations. Their aren’t enough guards to insure safety, and many prisons have horrific turnover and chronic staff shortages that force other guards to work long hours. Until the state deals with those problems — quite simply, the General Assembly needs to give state prisons better funding — we’ll expect more violence in our prisons, more guards and inmates alike suffering injuries and sometimes death.

Inmate assaults staff member at NC prison (WRAL-TV reports) -- An inmate at the Scotland Correctional Institution assaulted a prison worker, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety.

CULLEN BROWDER: Many NC homeowners find insurance won't cover Matthew, Florence 'double hit' (WRAL-TV reports) -- Two so-called "500-year storms" have hit North Carolina in less than two years, and Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Florence have created unprecedented complications for homeowners.

YESENIA JONES: NC attorney general files lawsuit against tree company over alleged price gouging in Wilmington (WRAL reports) — State Attorney General Josh Stein has filed a price gouging lawsuit against a tree trimming operator who allegedly charged a customer in Wilmington more than double the quoted price for services. The lawsuit could be one of the first filed by state prosecutors that allege price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Florence.

700 price-gouging cases from Florence so far; what to watch for (Charlotte Observer reports) – N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein filed a lawsuit against tree removal companies for price gouging a Wilmington homeowner out of excessive money after Hurricane Florence. Here are tips to avoid scams.

GWEN FRISBIE-FULTON: The real problem wasn't Florence; it was poverty. (Greensboro News & Record column) -- Before the storm, I called Alyeesha — a friend of a friend. She had stayed at my house a few years ago when she was escaping a bad relationship. She lives Down East, back in her hometown in Carteret County, in a one-room house that was her grandmother’s sharecropping cabin. She rents the cabin from the man who now owns the land; it is not hers. I’ve been there once. She had a mattress on the floor, a sofa from a Rent-A-Center, and a picture of her grandmother on the wall. I wanted to let her know that if she was evacuating from the hurricane, there was a sofa waiting for her here.

Florence was bad; get ready for worse (Fayetteville Observer) -- The ray of sunshine in all of this is that government and nonprofit responders are getting better at what they do each time we’re struck by one of these storms. Federal officials have already awarded nearly $28 million in grants and loans for damaged homes and businesses in the 18 counties in the original 18-county disaster-declaration area.

KARA DAPENA: The Rising Costs of Hurricanes (Wall Street Journal reports) — Storms are getting deadlier and causing more damage as more Americans live on the coasts

New storm reality requires new protections (Fayetteville Observer) — Most of us thought of Hurricane Floyd’s dramatic flooding as the once-a-millennium event it appeared to be. But 16 years later, Hurricane Matthew forced us to consider the possibility that a new trend was developing. Two years later, and the evidence is persuasive.

KIRK ROSS: Flooded Again: Long-Term Fixes Needed (Coastal Review Online reports) — In the coming months, as policy makers look at a recovery effort that will in all likelihood overlap with those started two years ago after Hurricane Matthew, moving more people out of the floodplain will be an overarching goal. It’s much of what resilience boils down to in eastern NC.

ROSE HOBAN: Studying Bacteria In Florence’s Wake (NC Health News reports) — When Brett Froelich saw Hurricane Florence taking aim at the NC coast, he saw an opportunity. Froelich studies the kinds of bacteria that are present in water stirred up by hurricane winds and surges. The target of his current research is a species of the nasty pathogen known as vibrio, which is in the family of bacteria that includes cholera.

Another stinging gift from Florence (Fayetteville Observer reports) — If those mosquitoes get any bigger, they’ll be showing up on radar as C-130s. We’ll be calling in Army antiaircraft units to shoot them down. And when some of them get through the air defenses and score a direct hit, we’ll be needing transfusions to offset the blood loss.

MATT DOBRA: An old law magnifies Florence’s pain (Fayetteville Observer column) — The Jones Act has been around for nearly a century, having been passed in 1920 in the aftermath of World War I. The Jones Act is protectionist legislation that has primarily served to insulate the American shipbuilding and shipping industries from foreign competition.

Sold: Frying Pan Tower flag sells for more than $10,000 (WRAL reports) — After the flag, which went viral during the height of the storm, was damaged by Florence, Frying Pan Tower owner Richard Neal donated it o the American Red Cross, which put it up for bid on ebay, where it sold for $10,900.

EDUCATION

More reasons to worry about public education’s future in NC (Fayetteville Observer) — Why, we wonder sometimes, would anyone want to become a teacher? It’s hard to imagine a more demanding job that rewards trained professionals less. Our teachers need at least a college degree and most are encouraged to have a master’s as well. There are strict licensing requirements. And since the recession, resources and pay for teachers in NC have diminished to the point that most of them would be better off in just about any other state.

Time to halt campus sexual assault (Winston-Salem Journal) — Two events related by theme dovetailed on the Wake Forest University campus last week: the founder of the #MeToo movement visited just as a fraternity was suspended after allegations of sexual assault.

ALEX GRANADOS: Interpreting the school performance grades (EdNC reports) — School performance grades mean one thing to journalists: a story. They mean something else for state education leaders and legislators. For educators — teachers, principals, and superintendents — they mean still something else. But what do they mean for parents? What about parents whose kids aren’t in school, but soon will be?

LIZ BELL: Are kindergarten entry assessments worth the trouble? (EdNC reports) — For the fourth fall, NC’s kindergarten teachers are collecting developmental information for an assessment the state hopes will help shed light on the experiences of students during crucial early years of transition and learning. Some teachers are not seeing the benefit to a process meant to improve their instruction and relationships with students.

Outspoken charter school leader is named chief of staff overseeing NC public schools (Charlotte Observer reports) -- NC Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson named Joseph Maimone as the new chief of staff at the state Department of Public Instruction. Maimone led a charter school for 20 years and is a member of a state board that advises on charters.

Gillian Welch’s songs are like tiny novels, illuminating complex characters and rich storytelling (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Gillian Welch’s musical storytelling and its literary bent will be recognized at UNC when she receives Thomas Wolfe Prize for Literature. She’s the first musician ever to receive the award.

‘Dangerous’ bears on the rise prowling Blue Ridge Parkway camp sites, rangers warn (Charlotte Observer reports) -- ‘Dangerous’ bears are on the rise prowling camping sites on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the N.C. mountains, the National Park Service said. The warning comes as fall foliage season arrives.

STEPHANIE CARSON: State Park Expansion to Bring Beach to the Mountains (Public News Service reports) — New River State Park in Ashe County has been the source of adventure for paddling and outdoor enthusiasts for decades, and now a planned expansion will bring a beach to the mountain community.

NANCY MCLAUGHLIN: High Point rug seller donates showroom so charity can help Pakistani children (Greensboro News & Record reports) — When Zaki Khalifa came to the United States in 1976, he opened a store with 40 small rugs. Today, his 100,000-square-foot showroom is worth $17 million and covers a city block.

ADRIA FOCHT: Let’s remember all of Charlotte’s history - even the struggles (Charlotte Observer column) — With music, images and a moving narrative, the bygone lives of Piedmont textile workers were brought to life Thursday night through a multi-media collaboration among the Charlotte Symphony, The Charlotte Museum of History and the great-granddaughter of a textile worker killed during a famous 1929 mill workers’ strike.