Opinion Roundup: NC minimum wage, paddling in schools, student voting and more

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: Lawmakers push for doubling NC minimum wage to $15 an hour, banning paddling in schools, Mecklenburg sheriff writing tickets in a wealthy area causes backlash, customers rank Duke Energy low in new report, FTA rates Durham-Orange light-rail project and more.

JIM MORRILL: Pittenger retracts criticism of Dan Bishop after Bishop threatens to sue (Charlotte Observer reports) -- Former U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger retracted emailed comments about fellow Republican Dan Bishop — and acknowledged the comments were false — Tuesday night after Bishop threatened to sue. In an email endorsing former Mecklenburg Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour for his old congressional seat in the 9th District, Pittenger had strongly criticized Bishop for what Pittenger called his ties to former GOP candidate Mark Harris. Bishop and Ridenhour are among 10 Republicans running for the seat.

TRAVIS FAIN: Accusation, threat, retraction. 9th District saga just keeps going (WRAL-TV reports) --"I will allow you 30 minutes to publish a complete retraction of these lies by email to the same recipients. Failing that, I will sue you for libel not later than tomorrow," state Sen. Dan Bishop tells former Congressman Robert Pittenger.

JIM MORRILL: Pittenger backs former county official in Congress primary (Charlotte Observer reports) -- Former U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger is backing a candidate in the race for his old 9th District seat -- and making it clear who he's not supporting. In an email to supporters Tuesday, Pittenger announced that he's backing former Mecklenburg County Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour for the seat in the May 14 GOP primary.

COLIN CAMPBELL: Bladen Board of Elections (The Insider reports) -- The Bladen County Board of Elections is partially vacant after the State Board of Elections refused to reappoint Republican members of the old board, citing concerns about their 2018 election oversight. The N.C. Republican Party has declined to submit new nominations, meaning that the board can't take any action -- including a deadline this month to set an early voting schedule for the 9th Congressional District primary.

House budget-writers offer no-debt school construction plan (AP reports) -- Some key House Republicans are floating a plan to set aside billions of tax dollars for public education and state agency construction and for rural broadband without additional debt.

KRIS NORDSTROM & PATRICK MCHUGH: Current options to meet NC’s school facility needs fall short of sustainable solutions (EdNC/ N.C. Justice Center reports) -- The sorry state of North Carolina’s schools is a self-inflicted wound. Several rounds of tax cuts passed by the General Assembly since 2013 have reduced state revenues by approximately $3.6 billion a year and driven state spending as a share of personal income to a 45-year low. This rash of tax cuts has dramatically undermined our ability to deliver needed services for North Carolina’s growing population. Inflation-adjusted public school funding per student is down 5 percent from pre-recession levels, a clear sign that we have not kept up with the educational needs of a growing population.

LAURA LESLIE & MATTHEW BURNS: Lawmakers, worker advocates push for doubling NC minimum wage to $15 an hour (WRAL-TV reports) -- Democratic lawmakers and worker advocates got behind an effort to raise N.C.'s minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2024.

TRAVIS FAIN & LAURA LESLIE: After Larry Nassar, NC bill would toughen sex assault rules for doctors (WRAL-TV reports) -- Proposal includes a new duty to report suspected conduct and a new crime specifically for sexual assault on a patient.

LAURA LESLIE: Bill would ban paddling in NC schools (WRAL-TV reports) -- Now that all of the state's school districts have ended the use of corporal punishment, some legislators are trying to remove it from state law.

GARY ROBERTSON: Corporal punishment in schools would be banned with bill (AP reports) -- Spanking and other forms of corporal punishment would be permanently barred in North Carolina's public schools in legislation receiving bipartisan support on Tuesday now that the final two districts still allowing them have ended the practice.

Legislators advance tougher penalties for pharmacy break-ins (AP reports) -- Some lawmakers want more severe punishments for breaking into a building to steal drugs from a pharmacy.

LAUREN HORSCH: Wildlife requests (The Insider reports) -- After the Wildlife Resources Commission lost $550,000 in revenue after Hurricane Florence, it realized it had to find ways to recoup the money. Ashton Godwin, legislative liaison for the commission, presented a slate of fee increases for hunting and fishing licenses, as well as some policy changes, that would help the commission make up additional non-appropriated revenue.

LYNN BONNER: Legislators disagree on the need to change NC’s voter ID law to help college students vote (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — Key legislators disagree on the need to change parts of the voter ID law that led the State Board of Elections to reject most UNC system schools’ requests to let their students use their university identification cards to vote next year.

Tillis’ flip-flop (Winston-Salem Journal/ Greensboro News & Record) -- Remember those bold pronouncements from U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis about standing up to an abuse of power by President Trump?

JEREMY BAUER-WOLF: Knocking Down Barriers for Student Voting (Inside Higher Ed reports) -- The House Democrats' election reform bill would remove many of the roadblocks students face in registering to vote and getting to the polls, experts say.

GILBERT BAEZ: Shotgun-wielding Hoke County commissioner says he held home intruders at bay during break-in (WRAL-TV reports) -- A Hoke County commissioner running for Lt. Governor had a frightening encounter over the weekend when he returned to his townhouse in Greenville and discovered that it had been ransacked and the suspects were still inside with him.

MATTHEW BURNS: Harnett Correctional officer stabbed by inmate (WRAL-TV reports) -- An inmate stabbed a female correctional officer Tuesday morning at Harnett Correctional Institution, authorities said.

Seeking Conviction: Sexual assault cases hinge on evidence gathered by police, nurses (N.C. Health News/Seeking Conviction Investigative Collaboration) -- Opting for a plea deal viewed as the best option when evidence seems weak. Part of an investigative series examining the issue of sexual assault prosecutions and convictions in North Carolina.

Seeking Conviction: Through the eyes of a sexual assault nurse examiner (N.C. Health News/ Seeking Conviction Investigative Collaboration) -- Specially trained nurses can take hours to collect the evidence from a person who's been sexually assaulted. It's invasive and intimate - and can be key in obtaining a conviction.

JORDAN HENSLEY: Through the eyes of a sexual assault nurse examiner (Hickory Daily Record reports) — About once per month, one of the two sexual assault nurse examiners at Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory receives the call: A sexual assault patient needs an exam.

BRUCE HENDERSON: NC’s child suicide nearly doubled in a decade, and Mecklenburg’s rate is state’s highest (Charlotte Observer reports) — NC children and teens are killing themselves nearly twice as often as they did just a decade ago, state data shows, with Mecklenburg County’s number the highest in the state by a wide margin in recent years.

What we’ll lose to fund Trump’s wall (Fayetteville Observer) — The Pentagon sent its hit list to Congress this week — specific projects across the United States and around the world that may lose funding leave town as the money heads south to build President Trump’s long-promised border wall. It’s a firm indication that the president no longer expects Mexico will pay for the wall. And it also confirms, in specific ways, how our military installations — and the people who live, work and train on them — will foot the bill.

ELY PORTILLO: ‘It’s about privilege’: Meck sheriff writing tickets in a wealthy area causes backlash (Charlotte Observer reports) — Residents in Cornelius were surprised last month on a Sunday afternoon to see a dozen Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office deputies writing tickets on Jetton Road. The speed limit on Jetton, which leads to wealthy lakeside neighborhoods like The Peninsula where homes routinely fetch more than $1 million, is 35 mph. In two hours, deputies ticketed 21 drivers going more than 10 mph over the speed limit.

TAMMY GRUBB: FTA rates Durham-Orange light-rail project ‘medium,’ calls financials ‘optimistic’ (Durham-Herald Sun reports) — A Federal Transit Administration report posted Friday rated the Durham-Orange light-rail project “low” for its cost-effectiveness as GoTriangle and elected leaders wrestle with a growing construction budget and reluctant partners. The project’s overall rating — for a second time — was “medium.”

Court: Online free speech rights trump stalking conviction (AP reports) — A NC man imprisoned for stalking had his conviction overturned Tuesday when a state appeals court ruled the social media posts that prompted the charges were protected by free speech rights.

LISA PHILIP: UNC Board of Governors Member Calls For Chairman's Ouster (WUNC-FM reports) -- A member of the UNC Board of Governors is calling for the ousting of the board’s chairman, Harry Smith, saying his continued leadership will further damage the state’s public university system. Board member and Raleigh attorney Steve Long alleges Smith is the reason behind East Carolina University Chancellor Cecil Staton’s upcoming departure, announced Monday, and former UNC System President Margaret Spellings’s departure earlier this year.

SETH THOMAS GULLEDGE: NC business leaders: UNC Board of Governors "bullying" university officials (Triangle Business Journal reports) -- Some of the Triangle and North Carolina’s most notable business and educational leaders are coming out in protest of the UNC Board of Governors, alleging its heavy-handed approach to governance is harming the system – and state – by tarnishing its reputation and sabotaging its ability to attract talent.

JANINE BOWEN: Proposal would fill Nash schools' budget gap by reducing teacher supplements (WRAL-TV reports) -- Administrators in Nash County are trying to reduce a $2.4 million budget gap, and one idea on the table involves taking the money from teachers.

TRAVIS FAIN: Republicans move on Board of Governors appointments over Democrat's complaint (WRAL-TV reports) -- Republicans move on Board of Governors appointments over Democrat's complaint -- House Republican leaders pushed forward Tuesday with a half-dozen nominees to the UNC Board of Governors despite complaints from a leading Democrat that they were acting in bad faith and decreasing diversity on a board that sets policy for the state's public university system. The six names are mostly re-appointments, but a black Democrat would come off the board, replaced by a white Republican.

LIZ FARMER: Despite Teachers' Strike Success, Their Schools Are Still Funded Less Than a Decade Ago (Governing Magazine reports) -- Four of the five states with widespread teacher strikes in 2018 have significantly increased education funding this year, according to a new analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The increases have ranged from 3 percent in North Carolina and West Virginia to 9 percent in Arizona to 19 percent in Oklahoma. Kentucky is the lone state that kept funding flat.

SCOTT JASCHIK: At Wake Forest, Apologies Not Accepted (Inside Higher Ed reports) -- Arts and sciences faculty vote overwhelmingly to condemn university's response to discovery that two admissions leaders -- while students in the 1980s -- posed in front of Confederate flags.

KASEY CUNNINGHAM: WCPSS approves day off for Muslim holiday, asks county for $5M to address bus issues (WRAL-TV reports) -- Wake County school officials are asking county commissioners to release $5 million from the reserve budget to help address transportation issues.

Wake Forest to redirect $50K from scandal to program (AP reports) -- Wake Forest University says it will redirect $50,000 it received from a California foundation linked to a national college admission bribery scandal.

RUPEN FOFARIA: Senator uses Charter School Advocacy Day to call attention to equity (EdNC reports) — Charter School Advocacy Day was planned as a convening of leaders, parents, teachers, and students to speak out against reinstating a cap on charter schools in NC, but it kicked off with Sen. Erica Smith, D-Northampton, joining her constituents in voicing concern over the state of equity among the state’s public charter schools.

ALEX GRANADOS: House education committee tackles school performance grades (EdNC reports) — The House K-12 committee tackled the ever-present issue of what to do with the state’s school performance grades today. A suite of bills in the committee focused on the formula that makes up the grades, the grade scale used, and the definition of low-performing schools which stems from the grades. All of the bills in committee today received a favorable vote from the lawmakers and will go now to the House rules committee.

SLOANE HEFFERNAN: St. Aug's chairman: 'You can't have two presidents' (WRAL-TV reports) — The chairman of the St. Augustine’s University Board of Trustees denied Wednesday that former President Everett Ward was forced out of office last week, despite the board asking him to resign four months before his planned retirement.

Appeals court upholds fraternity's dismissal in pledge death (AP reports) — An appeals court agrees a fraternity should be dismissed from a lawsuit alleging a pledge at a private NC university died from hazing. The state Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday the mother of Robert Eugene Tipton Jr. didn't offer sufficient evidence that Tipton's 2012 death was likely caused by activities of Delta Sigma Phi at High Point University

STEVE DEVANE: Cumberland County’s health factors get worse, rankings show (Fayetteville Observer reports) — From 2018 to 2019, Cumberland County went from 75th to 73rd among NC’s 100 counties in health outcomes and from 62nd to 65th in health factors.

CATHERINE KOZAK: The risks from our rising seas -- what the science tells us (Outer Banks Sentinel) -- Scientists warn that, before the Outer Banks would be inundated with water, erosion on sound and ocean shorelines will increase to the point where beach nourishment will no longer be effective at holding back storm surge. Tidal flooding will become more frequent, rain will increase as the ocean gets warmer and storms will intensify. Indicators of what is to come from climate change are already apparent here. Beach erosion and flooding is worsening, the planting season is earlier, freshwater wetlands are getting saltier, the ticks, mosquitoes and fleas are hatching sooner and the fish and birds seem to be coming and going differently. But the rising sea level is the most serious challenge in the Outer Banks’ future.

DEON ROBERTS: Customers rank Duke Energy low in new report. Here’s how it’s working to improve (Charlotte Observer reports) -- Duke Energy has again ranked near the bottom among big electric utilities in the U.S. for residential customer satisfaction, according to a report released on Tuesday. Charlotte-based Duke's score of 70 also represents a 4 percent decline from last's year report, according to the results released by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a Michigan-based firm that tracks customer satisfaction across a range of industries.

TRISTA TALTON: Support For Terminal Groins Erodes (Coastal Review Online reports) — When the long-standing state ban was lifted on terminal groins, a handful of beach towns jumped at the chance to build a case for why a hardened erosion-control structure would be their best line of defense against losing sand.

REBECCA MARTINEZ: NCSU Researchers Want YOU To Help Count Urban Birds (WUNC reports) — NC State University researchers are seeking volunteers to help conduct a bird population survey in the Triangle's urban centers. Urban ecology graduate student Deja Perkins who is leading the Triangle Bird Count says most established bird population surveys depend on volunteers to go wherever they want and report what they see.

Gray’s Creek thumbs up for water (Fayetteville Observer) — It’s no surprise to learn that Gray’s Creek residents favor a project that would run public water lines down to the unincorporated township that sits near the Bladen County line. That’s because Gray’s Creek also abuts the Chemours Fayetteville Works, the big chemical plant that has spread GenX and related chemicals across the land around it, leading to pollution of hundreds of drinking-water wells with substances that may cause cancer and other serious health problems.

Humpback whale found dead on NC Outer Banks (AP reports) — A dead humpback whale has been found stranded on the NC coast. Video taken from Whalehead Beach in Corolla last Sunday by BeachPosts showed the whale in the surf.

REGGGIE NADELSON: A Beloved Restaurant Where Fried Chicken Achieves Its Highest Form (New York Times reports) – North Carolina native Charles Gabriel has been serving up sublime soul food for decades in Harlem, even as many of the neighborhood’s most cherished restaurants have closed.

SARAH LINDENFELD HALL: It's a baby chimp! NC Zoo welcomes new addition to its chimpanzee troop (WRAL-TV reports) -- The N.C. Zoo has a baby announcement! Gerre, the chimpanzee, delivered a baby, Monday. Both mom and baby are doing well, and the baby, whose gender has not yet been determined, started nursing quickly, according to a news release.

JEFF HAMPTON: Pirate weapons excavated from Blackbeard's ship show life was violent on the high seas (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reports) -- Pirates like Blackbeard used an array of weapons to take their prey or battle enemies in a fight to the death.