Weekend reads: On protests, pipes and and power
May 05, 2024 | 8:50 am ET
Description
NC Department of Justice (Photo: Clayton Henkel)
Ratepayers plead with NC Utilities Commission to reject Duke Energy’s carbon plan
By Lisa Sorg
Bobby Jones, a founder of the Down East Coal Ash Environmental and Social Justice Coalition in Goldsboro, had been seated for less than five minutes when he bolted from his bench.
“This hearing is a farce!” Jones said, as a Durham County Sheriff’s deputy led him from the seventh-floor courtroom. “You’re in cahoots with Duke Energy.”
Jones was among several people who walked out in protest of the N.C. Utilities Commission, which held its final public hearing yesterday in Durham on Duke Energy’s updated carbon plan – a plan that few people like, except for Duke Energy. [Read more...]
North Carolina to receive $76m to replace drinking water lines that contain lead
By Lisa Sorg
North Carolina will receive an additional $76 million for utilities to remove and replace lead service lines that could be contaminating the drinking water, the Biden administration announced today.
The money is part of a $9 billion package for all states and U.S. territories, as well as tribal lands, through 2026, with $3 billion available each year. [Read more…]
DEI elimination, pro-Palestinian encampments loom large for faculty at UNC
In less than two weeks, the Class of 2024 will collect their diplomas at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and head into the real world.
But last week, UNC faculty members attending the Spring Faculty Council meeting expressed their concerns about the real world unfolding on their own campus. [Read more...]
Dan Bishop said the 2020 election was stolen. Now he wants to be NC’s attorney general.
By Kelan Lyons
How North Carolina’s next attorney general could impact voting rights
After the 2020 election, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina became an outspoken proponent of the lie that Democrats had rigged the results. He accused the rival party of running a national campaign to tie up the courts and disrupt the election’s administration, announcing that he would contest Electoral College votes in four states that were key to Joe Biden’s victory.
“The Democrats’ objectives were to weaken ballot security, undermine positive identification of voters, and provide opportunities for post-election ballot-box stuffing,” Bishop said at the time. “This has been a national, partisan attack on the Constitutional delegation of authority to regulate elections specifically to state legislatures.” [Read more…]
NC doesn’t pay dentists enough to treat Medicaid beneficiaries, new report says
By Lynn Bonner
Dental care is sometimes an afterthought when it comes to health, but untreated tooth decay can result not just in sore jaws but compromised physical health and lost job opportunities.
A report released last week by the Oral Health Transformation Task Force envisioned a future in North Carolina where oral health is “comprehensive and seamlessly integrated with overall health.” The task force report was prepared under the auspices of the NC Institute of Medicine and puts a focus on Medicaid beneficiaries and others with low incomes. [Read more...]
Bill to increase spending on private school vouchers scores key win in NC Senate
A bill to spend an additional $463 million on the state’s controversial private school voucher program over the next two years gained momentum Thursday, winning support in the state Senate. The bill was approved by a vote of 28-15 and will now return to the House for concurrence in Senate changes.
Republican supporters of House Bill 823 contend the extra money is needed to clear a wait list of more than 54,000 people for the state’s “Opportunity Scholarships.” The income-based program helps parents with private school tuition; awards range from $3,000 to $7,000. [Read more...]
Bonus read: Republican lawmakers back $463 million in additional spending on private school vouchers
Senate approves bill requiring sheriffs honor federal immigration requests to hold people in jail
By Lynn Bonner
The state Senate moved quickly to pass legislation requiring local sheriffs to hold people they arrest at the request of federal immigration agents.
Republicans supporting the bill say requiring sheriffs to hold people they arrest and whose legal status they cannot determine for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pick up would make communities safer. Opponents said such a requirement would make crime victims afraid to call police. [Read more.…]
Bonus read: NC Senate panel OKs bill requiring sheriffs to cooperate with ICE
‘This country lost four heroes’: NC Governor honors officers lost in Charlotte shooting
Governor Roy Cooper said North Carolina will never be able to fill the void or fully thank the families of the four law-enforcement officers who lost their lives in Charlotte Monday while attempting to serve a warrant.
Authorities identified the slain officers on Tuesday as:[Read more...]
NC needs to remove hurdles that keep former offenders from finding jobs, advocates say
By Lynn Bonner
A record of incarceration can prevent people from landing apartments or jobs. People who have been arrested but never convicted can have a hard time shaking that history when their mugshots appear forever online.
Advocates want previously incarcerated people to be able to rebound without the millstones of past mistakes acting as a constant drag. [Read more...]
New bill would grant regulatory power over crypto mining to three North Carolina counties
By Ahmed Jallow
A new bill in the North Carolina legislature would allow Henderson, Polk, and Rutherford Counties to prohibit or regulate crypto mining. Republican Sen. Tim Moffit, who represents the three counties, is the primary sponsor of Senate Bill 774.
If passed, the law would only apply to those three counties and their municipalities.
As NC Newsline reported previously in a series of reports about a proposed facility in Pitt County, crypto mining, the process that verifies bitcoin transactions and creates new coins, relies on a vast network of powerful computers. [Read more...]
How presidents make a real difference (commentary)
New Biden administration rules and regulations will dramatically improve the lives of millions
When most Americans think about what it is that a president does every day, they tend to think about the things that make the headlines: big speeches, bill signing events, the stances they take on high-profile controversies, the image they project to the rest of the world, and the gossip that surrounds their family and staff and their own personality quirks and inclinations.
Seldom, sadly, do they contemplate something that’s quite arguably much more important and impactful to the day-today lives of the nation’s 300-plus million inhabitants: the work of the people the president selects to run the day-to-day operations of the federal government.[Read more…]
Raleigh, NC
