Opinion Roundup: RBG speaks; legislative lies and deception; Blue Cross turmoil; Burr's silence; Ocracoke recovering and more

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: legislative lies and deception; video disclosed; remap and mapmaker machinations; RBG at Meredith; cheerleading politics; Blue Cross leadership turmoil; Burr's silence shouts; privitzation of public schools; Ocracoke clean-up and more.

RICHARD CRAVER: Top Democrat accuses GOP of lying about Sept. 11 vote. GOP calls response a 'publicity stunt' (Winston-Salem Journal reports) -- The top House Democrat on accused House Republican leadership of lying about the circumstances surrounding the chamber’s controversial Sept. 11 override vote of the state budget veto. “House Republican leadership lied about the session ... and they have continued to lie about it since, including in press statements,” Rep. Darren Jackson, D-Wake, said in a press conference.

Democratic leader revives budget override vote complaints (AP reports) -- The Democratic leader in the state House said Republican counterparts have misled him and the public on how an unexpected override vote on Gov. Roy Cooper's budget bill veto came about earlier this month. But Republicans counter that he is the one who is slanting what happened.

PAUL SPECHT: NC Republicans: We didn’t lie about 9/11 vote. Democrat: Prove it with ‘lie detector’(Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Republicans have said they did nothing wrong by voting on their proposed state budget on Sept. 11, when many Democrats were absent from the House floor. Now, the top House Democrat wants to put those claims to the test. Rep. Darren Jackson, the Democratic leader in the NC House, on Monday challenged top Republicans to take a polygraph test to prove they didn’t intentionally mislead him in order to approve their budget.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Procedural Claims (The Insider reports) -- Republicans have said they were told to attend an 8:30 a.m. House session on Sept. 11 in case Democrats tried to call for votes on redistricting matters, but the top House Democrat said said such a scenario was never a real concern. Only two bills -- non-controversial "mini-budget" proposals -- were on the calendar other than the override vote, but lawmakers from both parties have indicated they expected those two votes to occur in the afternoon. House Speaker Tim Moore confirmed that those votes were "always planned for later in the day."

House Leadership Spars Over Budget Veto Override (WFAE-FM reports) -- The fight among state Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly over an unexpected veto-override vote of the state budget continues. House Minority Leader Darren Jackson, D-Wake, insisted to reporters yesterday that Republican Speaker Tim Moore's top lieutenant told him no votes would be taken the morning of Sept. 11. "They were a deliberate dishonest assault on the democratic process and the integrity of this chamber on the morning of 9/11, which makes this shameless act even more tasteless," Jackson said in a press conference

Dem, GOP leaders spar over call for lie detector test on veto override vote (WRAL-TV reports) -- Calling the veto override two weeks ago "a deliberate, dishonest assault on the Democratic process," House Minority leader Darren Jackson is challenging House Republican leaders to take a lie detector test to prove they did not intentionally deceive House Democrats.

LAUREN HORSCH: Security footage (The Insider reports) -- General Assembly police chief did something unusual. At the direction of House Speaker Tim Moore he let members of the press watch security footage from the Sept. 11 veto override votes on the House floor. Reporters in the room were not allowed to record or take photos of the footage. Chief Martin Brock said the footage isn't public record and wouldn't be released. The footage is the only visual record of what happened that morning that wasn't filmed by a lawmaker, because no television cameras or reporters were on the floor, and there is no public video feed of the chamber.

NC Republicans make case for new remap to be upheld (AP reports) -- Republicans leading the General Assembly say state judges should sign off on new legislative boundaries that the judges directed be drawn when they ruled 2017 maps were skewed illegally by GOP bias.

Decisions on GOP mapmaker's files shifted to single judge (AP reports) -- One trial court judge will decide whether more computer files from a late Republican consultant who drew N.C.'s electoral districts this decade can be made public. A three-judge panel ordered legal conflicts over additional disclosure of documents from Thomas Hofeller's computer hard drives is being transferred to Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier.

WILL DORAN: Who leaked the Hofeller files? NC gerrymandering battle spawns new court case (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- After Republican operative Thomas Hofeller died in Raleigh last year, his secret personal files made their way into the national media. They showed the extent of his involvement in gerrymandering North Carolina and other states, as well as in the Trump administration’s efforts to add a controversial question about citizenship to the U.S. Census. Now, the question over how his files ended up in such public view — introduced as evidence in court, and splashed across the pages of national publications — is subject to new courtroom oversight in North Carolina. Hofeller’s company asked this month for an investigation of the latest leaks from the files, and judges laid out the process for how the courts will deal with the request.

DAVID DALEY: GOP gerrymandering mastermind participated in redistricting in more states than previously disclosed (The Intercept reports) -- The reach of late Republican gerrymandering mastermind Thomas Hofeller may be longer than previously known, according to a review of thousands of documents and emails culled from his hard drives, obtained by The Intercept. While Hofeller was known for drawing maps to give Republicans an advantage and to limit the impact of voters of color in North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, and Virginia, the new documents reveal he also participated in the 2010 redistricting cycle in Alabama, Florida, and West Virginia.

Anesthesiologist Perrin Jones selected as Murphy's replacement for N.C. House (Greenville Daily Reflector reports) -- Pitt County Republicans want to see another doctor in the state House. Anesthesiologist Perrin Jones was selected to fill the state House District 9 seat vacated by Greg Murphy, a urologist, when he was elected to Congress.

RBG inspires new generation in Raleigh appearance (WRAL-TV reports) -- U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wowed a packed audience in Raleigh on Monday, speaking about her life new frontiers for women and where she wants the court to go.

WILL DORAN: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says politicization of court is a trend that should stop (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a packed crowd in Raleigh Monday night that the politicization of the Supreme Court is a trend that needs to stop. In 1993, when the U.S. Senate confirmed her to fill a seat on the Supreme Court, only three senators voted against her, she said, including the late North Carolina Republican Jesse Helms. Today, most confirmations are bitterly divided. “I hope I live to see the day when we go back to the way it was, and the way it should be,” said Ginsburg, who is 86.

Richard Burr has a duty to speak out on Trump and Ukraine (McClatchy N.C.) -- Sen. Richard Burr isn’t big on news conferences or public statements. Sometimes his profile can seem as cloaked as the agencies he oversees as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But now that President Trump appears to have again invited a foreign country to meddle in U.S. politics and the acting director of national intelligence is balking at a requirement to tell Congress about what happened, North Carolina’s senior senator should speak out.

Granville sheriff suspended while case against him plays out (WRAL-TV reports) -- Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins has agreed to step aside while he faces criminal charges of obstruction of justice. Wilkins, who is accused of urging someone to kill a deputy he thought was about to expose his alleged use of racially offensive language, said through his attorney that he "looks forward to exoneration and resumption of his duties."

NIRAJ CHOKSHI: Cheerleaders With Trump Banner Set Off a Controversy in N.C. (New York Times reports) -- A photo of high school cheerleaders holding a Trump banner ignited a heated controversy in North Carolina that drew in a congressman and an alleged member of a far-right group, showing how local skirmishes can both fuel and be fed by the nation’s broader culture wars.

CHANTAL ALLAM: Why did Cree ditch a chip plant in NC in favor of NY? Incentives, says CEO (WRAL-TV/TechWire reports) -- he Triangle just lost out on a sizable chunk of Cree’s $1 billion planned expansion project. Cree’s CEO Gregg Lowe said the Durham-based tech firm had originally planned to invest all the funds in Durham when it announced the project this May, building a “megafactory” that included a new chip plant alongside a materials factory. But in a sudden turnaround, the semiconductor and LED firm has decided to ditch plans for the chip factory in the Bull City. Instead, it will build it in Marcy, New York as part of its drive to increase production of silicon carbide chips.

JIMMY VIELKIND: New York Reels in High-Tech Chip Maker With $500 Million in Incentives (Wall Street Journal reports) -- The state will spend $500 million to help a North Carolina company build a chip manufacturing plant outside Utica, capping a yearslong effort by state and local officials to develop high-tech industry in one of the state’s most economically challenged regions.

Semiconductor company Cree to invest $1B in upstate NY plant (AP reports) -- Cree Inc., a Durham-based semiconductor manufacturer, will invest $1 billion in a new factory in upstate New York, company and state officials announced.

MARK DOROSIN & ELIZBETH HADDIX: It’s time to hit reset on the privatization of public education (EdNC column) -- Opponents of traditional public schools are scrambling to defend the diversion of public funds to charter and private schools. They argue that since education itself is a public good, it shouldn’t matter where a student is educated: any school, regardless of its mission, quality, curriculum, student composition, staff experience, or student outcomes supports the public good, and therefore should be financially supported by the state. This attempt to redefine “public good” to include schools that are segregating students by race and economic status, or that are completely unaccountable for the curriculum or the educational outcomes, betrays the role of public education in a democracy.

NC, nation need more than ‘code red’ drills to address gun violence (Fayetteville Observer) -- On Monday, children in Cumberland County Schools, from pre-kindergarten up, participated in what are known as code red drills. They train children what to do in case of emergency and a lockdown is enacted — such as if an active shooter invades the schools.

COLLIN BINKLEY: UNC denies claims of bias in Middle East studies program (AP reports) -- UNC is disputing the Trump administration's accusations of bias in a Middle East studies program that the school operates with Duke University. In a letter sent to the department and obtained by AP, UNC's research chief defends the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, saying it has been a leader in Middle Eastern language studies for years.

BRIAN MURPHY: Duke-UNC program defends instruction on religious minorities, aspects of Christianity (McClatchy D.C. reports) -- The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies provides "positive appreciation" of Christianity and Judaism and organizes or assists with programs that detail the persecution faced by religious minorities in the Middle East, UNC-Chapel Hill said in a defense of the embattled program sent to the U.S. Department of Education.

Dorian-flooded NC school to get iPads for displaced students (AP reports) -- The state will send hundreds of iPads to students and teachers on an island damaged by Hurricane Dorian.

SARAH OVASKA-FEW: Foster care case numbers continue to climb in NC, as opioid crisis affects families (N.C. Health News reports) -- Record numbers of children, almost all of whom have trauma of their own, are entering the foster care system as a result of abuse and neglect.

ANNA MATTHEWS, LESLIE SCISM & VALERIE BAUERLEIN: Insurance CEO Took Leave After June Arrest Following Traffic Incident (Wall Street Journal reports) -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Chief Executive Patrick Conway went on leave after he was arrested in June in the wake of an allegedly alcohol-related traffic accident, according to the company and the state’s top insurance regulator.

HARRISON MILLER: Blue Cross CEO Conway took 30-day leave privately; N.C. insurance commissioner slams board (Business NC reports) -- Patrick Conway, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina CEO, went on a temporary leave following his June arrest in Randolph County for driving while impaired, but has returned to the the company's helm, the Durham-based insurance company said Monday. Conway was involved in a crash with a truck on Interstate 85 on June 22 and faces charges of driving while impaired and two charges of misdemeanor child abuse because his two daughters, both minors, were with him in the car at the time. He refused a breathalyzer test at the scene of the accident.

Preserving our beautiful state (Winston-Salem Journal) -- N.C. is a state of natural and sometimes fragile beauty. People come from across the country and around the world to experience our mountains, our shoreline and other parts of the state for themselves. We’re grateful for the many concerted efforts put forward to preserve that beauty for residents, for tourists and for the future. In a joint effort, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and Three Rivers Land Trust recently purchased 2,463 acres, including 45 miles of shoreline along the Yadkin and South Yadkin rivers in Davie, Davidson and Rowan counties, to preserve for future generations, the Journal’s Richard Craver reported Sunday. The two organizations paid $7.7 million to buy the land from Alcoa Power Generating Inc. under a 2007 relicensing settlement agreement.

JEFF HAMPTON: Debris piles up higher than porch roofs as governor visits flood-soaked Ocracoke (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports) -- The mountain of refuse collected there was more than 20 feet tall and roughly 100 yards long, equaling 11,000 cubic yards, said Justin Gibbs, Hyde County Emergency Management director.

Ocracoke recovery coming slowly after Dorian (WRAL-TV reports) -- More than two weeks after Hurricane Dorian swamped Ocracoke Island, recovery is moving slowly but steadily.