Opinion Roundup: The steep cost of justice

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on the escalating court costs in the criminal justice system, a potential revamp of federal student aid programs, the continued coal ash cleanup debate and more.

​SUSAN LADD: Justice for the wealthy or justice for all? (Greensboro News & Record column) -- Escalating court costs often lead to additional prison time or lifelong debt for indigent defendants.

​LAURA LESLIE: Redistricting expert: No 'racial targeting' in map fixes (WRAL-TV analysis) -- The expert who federal judges asked to redraw some North Carolina House and Senate district lines defended his final recommendations Friday, rejecting Republican arguments that he created boundaries with racial population quotas and helped Democrats.

​TAFT WIREBACK: 'Special master' submits final N.C. redistricting maps (Greensboro News & Record analysis) -- Nathaniel Persily's final recommendations would disentangle most of Guilford County's "double bunking."

​Arguments set in February on 2016 N.C. special session (AP news analysis) -- A panel of state judges wants to rule early next year on the legality of a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly and the laws approved during that session that scaled back incoming Gov. Roy Cooper's powers.

​TAYLOR BATTEN: Jennifer Roberts offers candid look at her time as Charlotte mayor (Charlotte Observer column) -- Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts reflects on Keith Scott, HB2 and other issues.

​HEATHER LONG: As tax bill evolved, benefits for corporations and the wealthy grew (Washington Post analysis) -- The disproportionate benefits represent a belief by Republican leaders that providing deep tax cuts to business owners will pump up the economy, ultimately helping voters.

​HEATHER LONG: A running list of winners and losers in the tax bill (Washington Post analysis) -- America's largest companies are about to get the biggest tax cut ever. The GOP tax overhaul also makes it a lot easier for wealthy parents to pass property and money to their kids. Here’s how the tax bill will impact people with money in the stock markets, rich kids, poor people and President Trump.

​Historic Tax Heist (New York Times) -- In which Republican donors pick your children’s pockets. Future generations will bear the cost of this terrible bill.

​CARL HULSE and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG: Will This Win Give Republicans a Needed Political Lift? (New York Times analysis) -- The tax cut is a much-needed victory, but it remains to be seen whether it raises the Republicans out of their political ditch.

​Trump alienates even closest ally (Greensboro News & Record) -- As British prime minister, Theresa May is custodian of her country’s “special relationship” with the United States. So she was put in a terrible position by the U.S. president this week.

​City settles lawsuit by exonerated rape suspect for record $9.5 million (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- The city of Charlotte has reached a record $9.5 million settlement with a man who spent 25 years in prison for an 1989 rape he didn’t commit.

​GOP Proposing Revamp of Federal Student Aid Programs (AP news analysis) -- House Republicans are proposing to revamp federal student loan programs by putting caps on how much students and parents can borrow even as they call for simplifying the application process. The student aid provisions are part of a massive rewrite of higher education legislation introduced by Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, chair of the House Committee on Education.

​GARY ROBERTSON: N.C. a leader in state vouchers for private school (AP news analysis) -- More than 30 states now offer some assistance for parents to send their children to private or religious schools or to pay for outside services. North Carolina, where Democrats prevented such programs for decades, has quickly jumped near the head of the class. "I wouldn't say that North Carolina is a pioneer but it's also, I would say, ahead of the curve," said Jason Bedrick, policy director at EdChoice, a school choice advocacy group.

​DOUGLAS BELKIN: For Colleges, A Rural Reckoning (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- Recent surveys show mounting skepticism, especially among President Trump’s constituents, about the cost and worth of college. Republican lawmakers have also proposed cuts to federal funding and tax breaks for higher education. In response, some institutions are redoubling their efforts to court students from rural—and politically conservative—areas, much as they have long sought out minority students from inner cities. In January, the North Carolina university system approved a plan to increase enrollment of rural students by 11% by 2021.

​Who pays for sludge cleanup? (Hendersonville Times-News) - A lawyer representing manufacturing companies that are heavy electricity users said Fountain’s comparison breaks down because the company wants to charge customers now for a problem that has built up over generations. “The tire company is not going to accumulate 40, 60, 100 years worth of tires before they do something about recycling it,” attorney Robert Page said. “The tire company is not going to allow those used tires to stack up and up and up and up before it gets those used tires off of its property.” That’s true. We hope the N.C. Utility Commission takes this into account and does not allow Duke to put the cleanup costs totally on the shoulders of its customers.

​Why Duke Energy says customers should pay for nearly $2 million in bottled water (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- Duke Energy based in Charlotte, NC, said it has provided bottled water to homes near coal ash storage sites to comply with 2016 North Carolina law.

​Halting any GenX flow into river is obvious solution (Wilmington Star-News) -- N.C. State professor Detlef Knappe doesn’t hide away in a lab focusing on theoretical research. In fact, the expert on the stew of industrial chemicals in the Cape Fear River is not a chemist -- he’s an environmental engineer, focused on practical solutions. And even though he understands the complex methods needed to get dangerous chemicals out of our water, he knows there’s one very simple strategy -- don’t put them in the river to begin with.

​VAUGHN HAGERTY: DEQ seeks access to Chemours’ data (Wilmington Star-News analysis) -- Incomplete responses, secret information may stymie probe

​JEFF HAMPTON: Duck businessman, surfer seeks public beach access there like other OBX towns (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot column) -- “No trespassing,” the sign by the beach said. Bob Hovey hates that sign.

​Grandfather Mountain pushes back against proposed park rules (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- The nonprofit foundation that cares for a North Carolina state park has expressed concerns over proposed changes designed to improve public safety and animals' quality of life at state zoos, parks, education centers and rehab facilities.

​The hurricane season is over, but here comes the drought (Fayetteville Observer) -- Merit: For the welcome end of the 2017 hurricane season, which concluded on Thursday. It was a tough one, a season that brought 17 named storms, 10 of them becoming hurricanes. And three of them — Harvey, Irma and Maria — were massive and powerful, wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Florida and Texas. It will be years before all the destruction is cleared and life goes on as usual.

​JOHN HINTON: Yadkin County sues drug manufacturers and distributors for opioid crisis in the county (Winston-Salem Journal analysis) -- Yadkin County is suing drug manufacturers and distributors, accusing them of causing the county’s opioid crisis by deceptive marketing of painkillers and failing to report suspicious orders to federal authorities.

​REBECCA MARTINEZ: Group Calls For HIV-Positive North Carolinians To Enroll In Health Insurance (WUNC-FM analysis) -- The North Carolina AIDS Action Network is encouraging people who are at risk of HIV or who are HIV positive to enroll in health insurance during open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act.

​JOAN SIEFERT ROSE: The collision of life science and tech in finding cures (WRAL-TV TechWire column) -- What do scientists need most to prove their hypotheses and advance their clinical work? Valid data. So it’s no surprise that the medical field increasingly is turning to data science to accelerate the path to meaningful discoveries in the lab and the clinic.​​​​

​Charlotte man wins $1 million in NC lottery (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- A Charlotte man won $1 million in the N.C. lottery’s Ultimate Millions second-chance drawing.