Opinion Roundup: Voter ID referendum finalized, pork giant Smithfield slapped with $25M for nuisances, immigration rallies continue and more

Saturday, June 30, 2018 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Legislature goes home after finalizing voter ID referendum, GOP revives Saturday for early voting, Department of Public Instruction eliminates 61 positions, jurors slap pork giant Smithfield with $25M for nuisances, thousands expected at immigrant rights rallies and more.

After finalizing voter ID referendum, legislature goes home (AP reports) – State legislators have wrapped up their chief work session this year after finalizing their sixth constitutional amendment for ballots this fall in a voter ID referendum.

LAURA LESLIE: Plans hazy for November legislative session (WRAL-TV reports) -- When state legislators adjourned Friday, they didn't adjourn for the year. They're scheduled to return for a session Nov. 27, but the agenda for that session is unclear.

DEBRA MORGAN, DAVID MCCORKLE & HANNAH WEBSTER: 'Huge impact:' NC General Assembly intern with Down syndrome succeeds, inspires (WRAL-TV reports) -- Matthew Schwab, of Holly Springs, serves as an intern and an inspiration in the General Assembly.

Proposed amendments aren’t needed (Greensboro News & Record) -- Let’s be clear about this: None of these issues should be established as part of the state’s foundational document. If these ideas have merit, lawmakers should write, pass and enact laws. Don’t place these among the tenets of how our state will be governed, among your inalienable rights. These are not constitution-level topics. That’s all you need to know.

Lawmakers agree to pitch ID mandate to voters (AP reports) – N.C.'s Republican lawmakers are asking the public for a fresh mandate to block voting by people without certain kinds of photo identification, two years after their earlier attempt to make that a state law got thrown out by federal judges.

State senator who lost primary resigns seat (AP reports) -- State Sen. David Curtis of Lincoln County who lost his seat in the May primary has decided to resign from his position now, rather than wait until his term ends in six months. Curtis submitted his resignation — effective Saturday — on Friday, the final day of the General Assembly's chief annual work session. Curtis joined the Senate in 2013 but lost this year's 44th District GOP nomination to Ted Alexander.

MICHAEL WINES: Kennedy’s Retirement Could Threaten Efforts to End Partisan Gerrymandering (New York Times reports) -- For 14 years, as partisan gerrymanders across the country grew more extreme, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy came to symbolize hopes that the Supreme Court would eventually rein them in. His retirement this week did not merely dampen those hopes. Experts said it also presented a potentially crippling threat to growing efforts by voting rights advocates and Democrats to halt gerrymanders by legal and political means.

Jim Blaine, powerful Senate leader chief of staff and strategist leaving legislature (AP reports) -- The longtime top staff member for Senate leader Phil Berger who was also the political strategist who helped Republicans take over the chamber for the first time in 140 years is resigning from his General Assembly job.

In turnaround, GOP revives Saturday for early voting (AP reports) -- General Assembly Republicans have changed their minds and restored temporarily a popular day for early in-person voting eliminated in another measure that became law this week.

TRAVIS FAIN: Multiple names, but all one group behind attack ads (WRAL-TV reports) -- A dark money group with ties to prominent Democrats is funding attack ads around the state through various assumed names. Between these groups, the effort has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into television ads, Facebook ads and mailers. An entity called Fair Courts Now has been funding Facebook ads for months, targeting Republican legislators over changes to the state courts system that the GOP majority in Raleigh has passed or proposed. The group funded television commercials on similar issues earlier this year.

KELLY HINCHCLIFFE: 40 state education staffers laid off, 21 vacant positions eliminated (WRAL-TV reports) -- State Superintendent Mark Johnson announced Friday that the Department of Public Instruction is eliminating 61 positions - 40 employees and 21 vacant positions. The layoffs are in response to $5.1 million in budget cuts lawmakers made to the agency.

State superintendent announces layoffs at Public Instruction (AP reports) -- The state superintendent has announced 40 workers in the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will lose their jobs.

VALERIE BAUERLEIN: Pork Giant Loses Essential Legal Battle in Manure Case (Wall Street Journal reports) -- Chinese-owned pork giant Smithfield Foods lost a pivotal legal battle on Friday, as a federal jury awarded $25 million to a rural couple for the nuisance caused by living near a Smithfield contractor’s hog farm.

EMERY DALESIO: Jurors slap pork giant Smithfield with $25M for nuisances (AP reports) -- A federal jury on Friday punished the world's largest pork producer, deciding Smithfield Foods should pay two neighbors more than $25 million for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks after an industrial-scale hog grower expanded near their home.

REBECCA MARTINEZ: Thousands Expected At Immigrant Rights Rallies In NC (WUNC-FM reports) -- Thousands of people are expected to rally in cities across North Carolina Saturday to protest the Trump Administration's immigration policies. Among those are a ban on immigration from predominantly Muslim countries the separation and detention of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

RICK SMITH: Sources say Apple campus decision remains tied up in NC politics (WRAL-TV/TechWire column) -- For those of you wondering if and when Apple will announce a deal with North Carolina to build a new $600 million campus in Research Triangle Park, the wait may soon be over. What’s the hangup? Politics.

JOHN DOWNEY: Duke Energy’s Lynn Good is nation's highest-paid utility CEO (Charlotte Business Journal reports) -- Lynn Good was the highest-paid utility CEO in the United States last year, with her $21.5 million total compensation beating her nearest rival by almost $3 million.

Coastal fishing down in N.C. last year (AP reports) -- There were fewer fishing trips and fewer fish caught along the N.C. coast last year.

BRYAN MIMS: Editor killed in Annapolis shooting remembered by former Raleigh colleagues (WRAL-TV reports) -- Rob Hiaasen, who was killed in a shooting rampage Thursday in Annapolis, Md., was remembered Friday as gregarious, intelligent and a gifted writer by people he used to work with in Raleigh.

GUEST EDITORIAL: To our fallen colleagues & Reunite (Capitol Broadcasting/New York Times) -- We honor these men and women for the sacrifice they made in the name of a free press. They lost their lives for printing the truth. Please support your local media. Their work is vital, and as this week's events show, the stakes are high.

Horror in Annapolis won't daunt us (Greensboro News & Record) -- Fear of the sort of retribution that befell our colleagues in Annapolis, Md., on Thursday is a constant in journalism. Threatening phone calls, even more threatening emails and menacing visitors have been a part of this industry since the Hartford Courant began to publish in 1764.

‘They do their job’ (Winston-Salem Journal) -- Our hearts go out to our colleagues at The Capital Gazette, a newspaper in Annapolis, Md., where a gunman killed five people on Thursday. He has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder.