Friday, Aug. 16, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: costs of doing little on Jones Street; racist threats; keeping political jobs in the family; finding votes at gun shows; the professor and the sting; boosting investigative journalism; immunizations and more.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2019
NC legislators supporting Medicaid expansion hold hearing (AP reports) -- A health policy expert and residents struggling to find affordable insurance are planned speakers for a hearing before General Assembly members pressing for passage of Medicaid expansion this year.
COLIN CAMPBELL: Family Jobs (The Insider reports) -- Lt. Gov. Dan Forest's daughter and House Speaker Tim Moore's son have recently gone to work for political committees benefiting their dads. Campaign finance records show that Forest's daughter, Haley Forest, has been on the staff of his campaign for governor since March. Moore's 16-year-old son, Wilson, held a paid role earlier this year with the N.C. House Republican Caucus, the campaign arm of Moore and other House leaders.
RICHARD CRAVER: Taxpayers have spent more than $1M to keep General Assembly running as House GOP leadership holds off on veto override vote (Winston-Salem Journal reports) -- It has cost more than $1 million in taxpayer money to keep the N.C. General Assembly in Raleigh open for business after Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the Republican state budget plan passed by both chambers. Whether taxpayers are getting their money’s worth for the $1,008,000 spent through Thursday to allow for 24 House sessions in hope of a vote on overriding the governor’s veto is very much in the eye of the beholder.
LAURA LESLIE: Meter keeps running on legislative session as budget stalemate drags on (WRAL-TV reports) -- Fiscal year 2020 in N.C. is one-eighth over, and the state still doesn't have a budget. That doesn't stop lawmakers from collecting paychecks as the General Assembly's budget impasse with Gov. Roy Cooper drags on, however.
DAWN VAUGHN: What the state budget standoff is costing NC taxpayers (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Lawmakers get a per diem seven days a week for food and lodging, plus mileage home once a week, when the General Assembly is in session.
KATE MARTIN: Signs of life for NC sexual assault reforms after legislation declared dead (Carolina Public Press) -- Sexual assault reforms to close loopholes not dead yet, say NC House and Senate leaders, following rhetoric accusing them of blocking bipartisan legislation
POLICIES & POLITICS
DAN KANE: Rep. Mark Meadows to pay delinquent property tax bills (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows says he is in the process of paying roughly $6,200 in property tax bills on 83 acres of land in rural northeastern N.C. -- bills that have sat unpaid since as far back as 2013.
Trump nominates law professor for judicial vacancy (AP reports) -- President Donald Trump has nominated a law professor who previously worked as a prosecutor, defense attorney and journalist to fill the nation's longest federal judiciary vacancy.
HUNTER SAENZ: Charlotte mayor, other African American city and county leaders receive racist, threatening letter (WCNC-TV reportss) -- More than a dozen city leaders, all of them African American except for one, received a letter in the mail to their respective offices that was threatening and racist. Now, police are taking a close look.
JIM MORRILL: Mecklenburg Republicans recruit voters — at a gun show (Charlotte Observer reports) -- Two weeks after mass shootings claimed 30 lives, Mecklenburg County Republicans are having a voter registration drive -- at a gun show. The party has asked for volunteers to register voters at this weekend's Dixie Gun & Knife Show at Charlotte's Park Expo & Conference Center. "The Republican Party is hopelessly clueless," said Democrat Malcolm Graham, a City Council candidate and former state senator. "This is the reason why they are the minority party in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County."
HAYLEY FOWLER: NC sex sting nets charges against UNC professor, medical examiner and 12 others, cops say (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- A sex sting dubbed "Summer Special" by authorities in North Carolina resulted in charges against a university professor, a medical examiner and several others. The Alamance County Sheriff's Office released the names and occupations of 14 people caught soliciting prostitution -- including a tenured professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and a part-time medical examiner who is also an emergency services worker.
DEBORAH STRANGE: 14 men, including UNC professor and Durham County EMS worker, charged with soliciting prostitution (WRAL-TV reports) -- Fourteen men were arrested in a prostitution sting, the Alamance County Sheriff's Office said.
SETH GULLEDGE: Treasurer Folwell details why he lost the battle over State Health Plan (Triangle Business Journal reports) -- After his ambitious plan to force N.C. health providers to reveal contracts and be reimbursed for services based on Medicare rates fell through, state Treasurer Dale Folwell says the ultimate loser is the average employee – and citizen. Following his move to allow hospital systems to continue serving state employees through their existing Blue Options Network, Folwell says he was unsurprised that the hospitals refused to play ball with his plan in the end. "The association who led this boycott and the dark money that was behind it, they have never had any interest in getting rid of secret contracts," he says, referring to the North Carolina Healthcare Association.
State moves transgender inmate to female prison (WRAL-TV reports) -- The state Department of Public Safety moved a transgender inmate from an all-male prison to a state facility that houses women.
JOSH SHAFFER: Native American women can be ‘easy prey’ for violence. It’s a crisis in NC (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- As a Tuscarora, a tribe with centuries-old roots in N.C., Katina Locklear, who was raped and murdered in December of 2018, represents a group that's gaining nationwide attention: missing and murdered Native American women. On May 5, Gov. Roy Cooper declared a day of awareness for such crimes in North Carolina, which is home to roughly 122,000 Native Americans -- the largest population east of the Mississippi River. Of all its tribes, only one -- the Cherokee -- are recognized by the U.S. government, living largely on a reservation in the Smoky Mountains. The others are scattered across the state and assimilated into their neighbors' cultures, where they struggle for identity and a brighter economic future.
JEANNETTE PIPPIN: Tillis says base housing issues impact military readiness (Jacksonville Daily News reports) -- As U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis listened to military families with concerns about living conditions and issues with privatized base housing, he said their circumstances are not just personal.
Responsible gun ownership (Winston-Salem Journal) -- What is it with guns and Walmart? The two have dovetailed in several recent news stories, with varying degrees of consequence, since the terrifying and deadly incident in an El Paso Walmart on Aug. 3 that took the lives of 22 people and left 24 seriously wounded. One incident occurred in nearby Wilkesboro on Saturday, where Jimmy Roger Minton, 29, threatened a police officer with a pellet pistol in a sporting goods store. He then retreated to the Walmart on U.S. 421, where he was arrested. Minton “said he has seen what had happened at the recent shootings in El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH, and wanted to go to Dunham’s and Walmart to kill a bunch of people,” according to the police report. He has been charged with two counts of felonious assault with a deadly weapon against a government employee, six counts of misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and two felony counts of terrorism, among other charges.
NED BARNETT: A wary Democrat backs impeachment inquiry (Durham Herald-Sun column) -- If the U.S. House is going to succeed with an impeachment inquiry on President Trump, it will need the support of members like veteran congressman David Price. Yes, Price is a Democrat from Chapel Hill ensconced in a safe district, but so is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the one who’s holding back the impeachment tide. Both are long-serving members of the Democratic establishment who are wary that impeachment might backfire and hand Trump four more years in office.
EDUCATION
GRAIG MEYER: It’s time for another talk about race and schools (EdNC column) -- There are education debates in the legislature that don’t break down along racial or political party lines, but it didn’t surprise me that this one did. Frankly, my perspective after the debate was that the Republican majority struggled to understand the perspective of African-American Democrats during this debate, and in my comments on the floor I called for us to do better at communicating with one another across difference. To my surprise, the conversation changed before the third reading of the bill on the following day.
CRAIG HORN: We have sold our kids too short (EdNC column) -- I am especially pleased to note that this report stresses quality and opportunity and does not continue to beat the worn-out drum of more money, more money. The report’s introduction clearly points out that money, albeit critically important, is not the key issue. Programs such as “No Child Left Behind,” “Race To The Top,” and now the “Every Student Succeeds Act” have appropriated nearly $25 billion over just the last 20 years, and still we struggle in this state and in this country to be in the top tier for education outcomes (based on recent PISA data).
NCSU says vice chancellor, dean for student affairs resigns (WRAL-TV reports) -- N.C. State University has confirmed its vice chancellor and dean for student affairs has resigned, effective Friday.
KELLY HINCHCLIFFE: UNC journalism school announces new affiliation with Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting (WRAL-TV reports) -- The UNC School of Media and Journalism on Thursday announced a new affiliation with the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, an organization dedicated to increasing and retaining reporters and editors of color in the field and to educating news organizations and journalists on how the inclusion of diverse voices can raise the caliber, impact and visibility of investigative journalism as a means of promoting transparency and good government.
HEALTH
JASON DEBRUYN: Across NC, More Parents Are Using Religious Exemption To Avoid Vaccinating Children (WUNC-FM reports) -- Across the state, numbers of unvaccinated children have been creeping up. While numbers for the 2019-20 school year won't be available for months, looking at data for the past eight years suggests the trend is not likely to reverse. North Carolina requires students be vaccinated to attend any kind of school, including charter or private schools. But parents may obtain one of two kinds of exemptions. The first is a medical exemption, which requires a licensed physician to attest that the child is unable to obtain a vaccination, perhaps because of an allergy. The law also allows an exemption for "bona fide religious beliefs."
KATJA RIDDERBUSCH: How the Eastern Cherokee took control of their health care (N.C. Health News/Kaiser Health News) -- Casino profits have allowed the N.C. tribe to opt out of the national Indian Health Service, and helped them create model health care in WNC.
WAYNE COATS: Fighting America’s drug epidemic requires new law-enforcement tools (Fayetteville Observer column) -- There was a time when we could blame America’s drug epidemic on prescription medicine manufacturers that made and distributed addictive painkillers. But through regulation and better industry policing, the number of overdose deaths from prescription drugs has declined dramatically in many places, including North Carolina.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
JENNIFER ALLEN: Lake Mattamuskeet Plan Gets State’s OK (Coastal Review reports) -- The state has approved the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, an effort to address water quality and flooding issues that’s taken more than two years to develop.
N.C. extends comment period on proposed methyl bromide rules (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- New regulations would require capture of 90 percent of the neurotoxin
Trail funding is a breakthrough (Hendersonville Times-News) -- The news for supporters of healthy outdoor recreation, tourism and economic development couldn’t have been better. The N.C. Board of Transportation on Aug. 8 approved $6.4 million to purchase the rail line between Hendersonville and Brevard that’s been languishing without freight traffic for 17 years.
... AND MORE
AMANDA LAMB: Novelist Nicholas Sparks: Ex-school headmaster started 'unnecessary fires' (WRAL-TV reports) -- Novelist Nicholas Sparks says problems at the private Christian school he founded in his North Carolina hometown were claiming too much of his attention before cutting ties with a headmaster four months after he started.
New publisher named for GateHouse's Fayetteville Observer (AP reports) -- Mike Distelhorst was named the Fayetteville Observer's publisher as part of a consolidation effort by GateHouse. He also works as group publisher of the StarNews in Wilmington, the Jacksonville Daily News, the New Bern Sun Journal and the Kinston Free Press. He replaces Bob Gruber, who has been the Observer's publisher since August 2016. Gruber's last day at the newspaper will be Sept. 3.