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Midterms
Early Voting
Brunswick, Pender to have Sunday early voting for 1st time
Star News // Tim Buckland // August 6, 2018
Summary: Brunswick and Pender counties will each, for the first time, hold voting on a Sunday, according to early voting plans adopted on the counties’ behalf by the N.C. State Board of Elections. “From what I was told last night, both counties were forced to offer Sunday voting,” Pender County Elections Director Dennis Boyles said in an email. Brunswick County will offer voting on Sunday, Oct. 28 from noon to 4 p.m. at its five satellite locations: Navassa Community Building, Leland Cultural Arts Center, Brunswick Center at Southport, National Guard Armory and Southwest Brunswick Branch Library, according to a schedule provided by Brunswick County Elections Director Sara Knotts. Boyles said Pender County will offer voting on Sunday, Oct. 28, but that as of Monday he didn’t know the exact hours or location. For both counties, Sunday voting will be a new venture.
Const. Amendments
Wake judge declines to rule on ballot question challenges, calls for appointment of three-judge panel
NC Policy Watch // MelissaBouhgton // August 7, 2018
Summary: A Wake County Superior Court judge referred arguments Tuesday over the ballot language for four proposed constitutional amendments to a three-judge panel. Attorneys for Gov. Roy Cooper and the North Carolina NAACP and Clean Air Carolina challenged the ballot language in two separate lawsuits filed Monday. They appeared in court Tuesday to ask for temporary restraining orders to prevent four constitutional amendment questions from appearing on the November ballot.
Do the challenges to North Carolina’s proposed constitutional
amendments have a chance?
Charlotte Observer // Editorial Board // August 6, 2018
Summary: You might have noticed something if you looked closely at the challenges to four proposed Republican constitutional amendments that will appear on the North Carolina ballot this November: For the most part, those challenges don’t involve the actual amendments. There’s a reason for that: Such challenges usually fail across the U.S., and in North Carolina, the bar is even higher for success. Voters who want the N.C. amendments killed might be better off putting their hopes in something other than the courts. Some background: N.C. Republicans passed six proposed amendments to the constitution this year, including two that would give state lawmakers much of the governor’s power to appoint judges, regulators and members of state boards and commissions. On Saturday evening, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper challenged those two amendments, which he said would “take a wrecking ball to the separation of powers” in North Carolina. He’s right.
North Carolina tax cap measure draws legal challenge
Bond Buyer // Shelly Sigo // August 6, 2018
Summary: Two North Carolina nonprofit organizations and the governor plan separate legal challenges of proposed constitutional amendments on the November ballot, including one asking voters to cap the state income tax rate. Clean Air Carolina and the North Carolina NAACP filed a lawsuit Monday in the Wake County General Court Of Justice, Superior Court Division, contesting four of six amendments the Republican-led Legislature placed on the ballot. One amendment the groups want stripped from the ballot would “limit future, legitimately-elected legislatures’ power to set state income tax rates higher than 7%, which could limit funding for programs in support of those living in poverty, civil rights, and environmental protection programs,” the groups, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, said. Part of their legal argument that supports stripping four amendments from the ballot is based on the fact that the amendments were proposed by lawmakers who represent districts that the United States Supreme Court ruled illegal because of racial gerrymandering, the lawsuit said.
NC Supreme Court
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Politics NC // Thomas Mills // August 7, 2018
Summary: I must say, I’m having more fun watching Republicans whine about Chris Anglin filing to run for the Supreme Court. I could almost hear the howl when a judge ruled in his favor yesterday, ordering a full hearing on whether or not he can run as a Republican. Of course he can. Changing the rules after the fact won’t likely fly. To recap, Anglin filed to run for the Supreme Court as a Republican at the end of June after switching his registration to GOP at the beginning of June. He clearly followed the law as it was written. Republicans screamed foul saying he only did it to split the Republican vote in November, despite trying to recruit Democrats to do the same thing.
NC-9
Spending money on a NC race, Nancy Pelosi group becomes a target of the GOP candidate
Charlotte Observer // Jim Morrill // August 7, 2018
Summary: No congressional race in the state has seen more outside spending than North Carolina’s 9th District. And now the target of that spending, Republican Mark Harris, is using it to lash out at his opponent. On Wednesday the House Majority PAC, tied to Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, will report spending $227,600 against Harris. That’s the most outside spending by any group so far in North Carolina congressional races. Harris has criticized his Democratic opponent, Dan McCready, for taking money from a group tied to Pelosi.
In sermons, NC congressional candidate called on women to ‘submit’ to their husbands
N&O // Brian Murphy // August 7, 2018
Summary: Mark Harris, the Republican nominee for Congress in North Carolina’s 9th district, is again making news for old sermons about women and their role. Harris served as the senior pastor of Charlotte’s First Baptist Church, before resigning to run for the Charlotte-area congressional seat currently held by Rep. Robert Pittenger. Harris defeated Pittenger in May’s primary and will face Democratic candidate Dan McCready in November’s general election. The race is one of the most contested in the country. The 9th Congressional District stretches from suburban Charlotte to Fayetteville along the state’s southern border.
North Carolina GOP Candidate Preached Extensively on Wives Submitting to Husbands
Roll Call // Eric Garcia // August 6, 2018
Summary: Democrats were already targeting North Carolina’s 9th District before incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger lost his Republican primary in May. And they’re hoping that past comments from the former Baptist minister who defeated him improves their chances of flipping the seat this fall. Mark Harris on multiple occasions — as a preacher and political candidate — has said that women should submit fully to their husbands and that he believed homosexuality is a choice. Before venturing into politics, he was a pastor at First Baptist Church in Charlotte. Harris said in a Friday interview with Roll Call that a wife submitting to her husband does not mean that they are not equal. He said he regularly mentions that in counseling sessions and when he presides at weddings.
NC Education/ Teachers
State Funding Provides NC School Districts With New iPads For K-3 Teachers
WFDD // Keri Brown // August 7, 2018
Summary: Kindergarten through third-grade teachers in North Carolina Public Schools are getting a new tool to help improve student literacy. They’ll have a new iPad or similar tablet waiting for them when the school year begins. State Superintendent Mark Johnson says the devices have already been delivered to districts and charter schools across North Carolina. He says the goal is to provide a better way to track students’ reading progress through apps and to identify where students need help. The tablets were purchased with unused funds from the Read To Achieve program at a cost of $6 million. “The General Assembly began Read to Achieve because there is bipartisan consensus that early childhood literacy is a key metric for a student’s future success,” says Johnson. “Having more of these tools in each classroom will reduce burdens on teachers, giving them more time to focus on instruction.”
Editorial: Bill Cobey stands up for State Board and public schools
WRAL // CBC Editorial // August 7, 2018
Summary: Last week Chairman Bill Cobey, announced his resignation from the State Board of Education six months before the end of his term. "I want to move on so that others can lead," he said. We hope he’d serve his entire term, but we are not surprised that he is leaving. Who could blame Cobey, at 79, for taking a break from the daily attacks on our public education system by Senate Leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore. They have been unrelenting in their efforts to dismantle the State Board of Education. Cobey fought the good fight on behalf of the board and is still fighting.
NC residents went to Indian Land, elsewhere in SC, to save on school supplies
The Herald // Stephanie Jadrnicek // August 6, 2018
Summary: Store parking lots were packed as shoppers stocked up during tax-free weekend. Friday through Sunday, customers saved 6 percent on everything from computers and printers to linens, bath towels and bedding. But the most sought after purchases were school supplies. Brook Hammers drove across the state line from Waxhaw, N.C., to the Walmart in the Lancaster County panhandle for the savings since her home state doesn’t offer a sales tax-free holiday. South Carolina is one of only 10 states that provides the three-day tax break. “It definitely helps us out because my husband and I are both school teachers,” she said. “So with our budgets, this is a good opportunity to save some money as we send two kids back to school.”
NC Healthcare
Our view: Republicans undermine health care
Winston Salem Journal // Editorial Board // August 2, 2018
Summary: It’s unexpectedly good news that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina wants to lower some of its premium rates for 2019, as the Journal’s Richard Craver reported Wednesday. This is the first rate decrease in Blue Cross of North Carolina’s history since it entered the current individual market in 1993. But rates could be much, much lower, had President Trump and Republicans in Congress not been fooling around and undermining health care. To flesh this out a little: Blue Cross, which will offer plans in all 100 N.C. counties next year, requested permission from the N.C. Department of Insurance to lower premium rates by an average 4.1 percent for individuals signing up for 2019 coverage on the federal health-insurance exchange, aka Obamacare. Premiums would be increased in some areas, reduced in others.
Our Opinion: Blue Cross and Blue Shield's nice cuts could have been even kinder
Greensboro N&R // Editorial Board // August 1, 2018
Summary: In some unexpected good news this week, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina wants to lower its premium rates for subsidized coverage under the Affordable Care Act in 2019. This would be the first rate decrease since Blue Cross of North Carolina entered the individual market in 1993. But rates could be much lower, had President Trump and Republicans in Congress not undermined the ACA with spiteful policies intended to kill it, not to preserve or improve it. Blue Cross, which will offer plans in all 100 N.C. counties next year, requested permission from the N.C. Department of Insurance to lower premium rates by an average 4.1 percent for individuals signing up for 2019 coverage on the federal health-insurance exchange, aka Obamacare. Premiums would be increased in some areas, reduced in others.
Hog Nuisance Cases
Hog farm verdict raises the price of defiance
N&O // Ned Barnett // August 3, 2018
Summary: Hog farmers joke that the odor that sometimes wafts from their hog operations is a welcome one. “It’s the smell of money,” they say. After Friday, that carefree humor is gone. The odor is still the smell of money. But it’s the smell of massive jury awards going to neighbors of industrialized hog farms. They’re being compensated for enduring the stench, the swarms of flies, the buzzards, the rumbling trucks stuffed with hogs alive and dead, and the indifference of a huge corporation. About 500 neighbors filed 26 nuisance suits against Smithfield Foods and its pork subdivision, formerly named Murphy-Brown, for how the company oversees the raising of its hogs by contract farmers across eastern North Carolina. The company lost the first and second trials, both in federal court in Raleigh. But a total of $75 million awarded to the plaintiffs was sharply reduced by a state law that limits punitive damages to no more than three times compensatory damages.
Coal Ash
Few MSW Landfills Taking Coal Ash: Will That Change?
Waste 360 // Arlene Karidis // August 7, 2018
Summary: In 2015, the federal government tightened regulations around how power producers manage coal combustion residuals (CCR), and the waste industry speculated that a fair number of municipal solid waste landfills (MSW) would begin taking these materials. But what happened is most utilities set up their own disposal sites to replace impoundments they were discharging to before. However, two recent federal milestones may mean more MSW landfills will move into this space, according to some industry experts. Individual states are tightening their rules, too. North Carolina, after a large unintended coal ash release, began prohibiting construction of new and expansion of existing CCR impoundments on or after July 1, 2014. It established timeframes for eliminating discharge of CCR and stormwater into impoundments. And it required facilities to convert to disposal of dry fly ash and bottom ash in lined, permitted facilities.
Gerrymandering
Republican gerrymandering wall is starting to crumble
ThinkProgress // Ian Millhiser // August 6, 2018
Summary: One of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy’s final acts as a sitting justice was to stare partisan gerrymandering directly in the eye and cry out a resounding “meh.” A pair of cases argued last term were supposed to deliver sharp blows to such gerrymandering. Instead, the Court punted, Kennedy retired, and there is no longer a plausible way to form a majority that could halt this anti-democratic practice. Yet, even as the Supreme Court refuses to enforce the Constitution, two of the most gerrymandered states dealt severe blows to partisan election rigging this year, and a third is likely to follow suit this November.
GenX
EPA to hold GenX Meeting in Fayetteville
Coastal Review Online // Staff // August 7, 2018
Summary: The public is invited to speak during the Environmental Protection Agency’s per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, community engagement meeting set for 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14. PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that include GenX. In 2017, news reports revealed that GenX had been found in drinking water in the Cape Fear Region. The event, to be held in the Crown Ballroom, 1960 Coliseum Drive, includes a working session that begins at 10 a.m., followed by a public listening session starting at 3 p.m. To speak during the listening session, register in advance by 10 a.m. Aug. 10. The public can also register to speak in person at the event. Registration is not required to attend or speak.
Our Opinion: We have to clean up Greensboro's water
Greensboro N&R // Editorial Board // August 3, 2018
Summary: It’s time we made one thing clear around here: our drinking water. If you have followed ongoing reporting by the News & Record’s Taft Wireback for the past year or so, you know that some dangerous stuff floating around in the water that many of us stream from our faucets in Greensboro. Mike Borchers, assistant director of the city’s Department of Water Resources, and his staff have noted with alarming regularity since 2014 the encroachment of emerging contaminants PFOS and PFOA at levels that were way too close to limits recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. And some public-health experts have argued that the EPA is being lax. Then on Wednesday we learned that Borchers has measured drinking water from the Mitchell Treatment Plant on Battleground Avenue to be about 14 percent worse than the EPA’s porous standards.
Gun Control Reform
Our Opinion: North Carolina is right to join a suit against the posting of plans for 3-D guns
Greensboro N&R // Editorial Board // August 6, 2018
Summary: Imagine a gun you could build in the privacy of your home in much the same way that you assembled model cars and planes as a youth. A few clicks of a mouse and — voila! — you’re in business. We have the know-how. We have the technology. And we should have the common sense not to use it. That’s why a number of states have joined a lawsuit against the State Department to block a company that wants to publish blueprints for the plastic guns, also called “ghost guns,” for free on the internet. Last week, a federal judge in Seattle issued a restraining order blocking the posting of the plans until a Friday court hearing. Eight state attorneys general filed the suit, and another 11, including North Carolina’s Josh Stein, had joined as plaintiffs.They are suing the State Department because it settled a previous lawsuit with a company called Defense Distributed to allow mass publication of the plans. The company’s founder, Cody Wilson, sued in 2015 on the grounds that banning the plans violated his First and Second Amendment rights.
NC Economic Development
Amazon could whittle HQ2 search down even further, New York Times reports
Austin Business Journal // Drew Hansen, Will Anderson // August 6, 2018
Summary: We could get an even shorter list of places in the running for the second headquarters of Amazon.com Inc. According to The New York Times, there is “widespread speculation” Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) could cut down its 20-city list of finalists for HQ2 as soon as this month. The company would then ask for “best-and-final offers” from the remaining cities, according to the report. Austin is one of the 20 finalists for the campus, which Amazon has said will have up to 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in capital investment. The Texas capital is considered a frontrunner by some and a dark horse by others. Amazon hasn’t offered any official updates since the short list was announced in January, and the company declined to comment to The New York Times for its story, which centers on the veiled nature of incentives being floated by municipalities in their bidding for HQ2.
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