Weekend reads: Gerrymandered maps, new abortion ruling, and a NC prison staffer sounds the alarm
NC voters demand an end to gerrymandering at hearing on new election districts
Legislators are preparing to approve new congressional, state House, and state Senate districts for the 2024 elections. (Photo: NCGA videostream)
By Lynn Bonner
Voters told legislators Wednesday they are sick of gerrymandering because deeply partisan election districts erode democracy and make lawmakers unresponsive to residents’ needs and opinions.
Legislators are preparing to approve new congressional, state House, and state Senate districts for the 2024 elections. [Read more…]
Five standout speeches from North Carolina’s final public hearing on redistricting
Karen Alexander of Johnston County addresses the redistricting committee. (Photo: NCGA videostream)
By Clayton Henkel
It might be easy to think the average person doesn’t know or doesn’t really care what legislative district they live in. But North Carolinians both young and old proved that was not the case Wednesday as they patiently waited their turn to speak up for democracy and reject efforts to further gerrymander the state’s voting districts.
Charles Bennett from the Sandhills urged lawmakers to draw the lines without giving in to the temptation of cheating, remembering that North Carolina is in fact a purple state: [Read more…]
Federal judge blocks two provisions in NC’s new abortion law
L. Richardson Preyer Federal Courthouse in Greensboro (Photo: Lynn Bonner)
By Lynn Bonner
A federal judge blocked provisions of the state’s new abortion law dealing with abortion pills and procedures in clinics. US District Court Judge Catherine Eagles, in an order issued Saturday, said that provisions preventing doctors from prescribing abortion pills in the early weeks of pregnancy and requiring abortions after 12 weeks be performed in hospitals [Read more…]
Out of legislators’ sight, North Carolinians watched and waited for Medicaid expansion
Medicaid expansion will now launch Dec. 1st in North Carolina and the news has left many uninsured individuals very hopeful about the prospect of addressing long deferred healthcare needs. (Photo: Getty Images)
By Lynn Bonner
Evita Bass, director of a childcare center in Hillsborough, lives with constant pain from three wisdom teeth that need to be pulled and back pain from scoliosis.
Bass, 31, has not had health insurance since she was 26 and on her mother’s insurance. She has always made too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little for subsidized insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. High premiums make purchasing insurance on her own unthinkable. [Read more…]
More NC utilities are detecting PFAS in drinking water, but some aren’t telling their customers
Photo: Cavan Images/Getty Images
By Lisa Sorg
Lillington, Selma, Northampton-Lake Gaston, Jamestown the latest to report PFAS contamination
Nearly a dozen public water systems in North Carolina, including four that had never previously reported PFAS in their drinking water, have detected levels of the toxic compound above the EPA’s proposed maximum contaminant level. And there is no state or federal requirement that these public water systems inform their customers of the results, leaving thousands of people unaware of what’s in their drinking water. [Read more…]
NC prison staffer sounds alarm on overcrowding, neglect of basic prisoner health and safety
Scotland Correctional Institution, one of the largest prisons in North Carolina. Photo: Google Earth
By Kelan Lyons
Email describes disturbing, inhumane conditions at Scotland Correctional Institution
A game. An utterly cynical game that’s about nothing other than power, money and winning.
That’s clearly how North Carolina state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, House Speaker Tim Moore, and the minions with whom they surround themselves are treating the never-ending 2023 state legislative session over which they exert such complete and unmerited control. [Read more…]
Budget sets tight timeline, new specifics for controversial new school at UNC-Chapel Hill
The “Old Well” — symbol of UNC- Chapel Hill. Photo: www.unc.edu
By Joe Killian
Legislature mandates new dean by the end of the year and 10-20 tenured or tenure-track faculty
When the General Assembly’s Republican majority revealed and passed a new budget in a whirlwind 48 hours last week, it set an aggressive timeline for an unprecedented new school at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The budget provides $2 million in funding in each of the next two fiscal years for the new School of Civic Life and Leadership, described as early as 2017 by its supporters and architects as a “conservative center.” The budget provision also dictates a few specifics: [Read more.…]
Bonus read: Controversial new UNC-Chapel Hill school moving forward with $1 million private donation
Ratified and en route to the governor, House Bill 600 defangs state environmental law
Two hog lagoons and a spray field (File photo: Lisa Sorg)
By Lisa Sorg
It began as benign, but over the summer House Bill 600, the Regulatory Reform Act, transmogrified into a Medusa of environmental rollbacks and favors to pipeline companies, the hog and poultry industries and other special interests.
When the bill was filed in April, it contained an anodyne section requiring publicly funded animal shelters to keep records of surrenders and allowed them to participate in catch-spay-and-release programs.
However, by June, as NC Newsline reported, the bill sponsors began to signal their true intent, tacking on section after section to defang or eliminate environmental rules. [Read more…]
NC GOP lawmakers betray a surprising lack of confidence (commentary)
North Carolina General Assembly (File Photo)
By Greg Childress
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Hearings and Appeals has ruled that Cardinal Charter Academy in Cary engaged in illegal, retaliatory actions when it fired a math teacher who made “protected disclosures,” claiming the school did not provide students with the special education services their Individual Education Plans required.
Terri Schmitz’s firing violated the National Defense Authorization Act, which addresses retaliation by a federal grant recipient for whistleblowing, Administrative Law Judge Robert G. Layton said in a Decision and Order address dated Sept. 15.[Read more…]
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