Welcome. This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. The platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
I hope you find the following links interesting and relevant.
A total solar eclipse is coming to the U.S. this April in what's being touted as the biggest astronomical phenomenon for many Americans since the August 2017 total eclipse.
Weather permitting, it will be visible on a path from Mexico through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine before venturing into eastern Canada.
The eclipse won't be quite as spectacular for us in the Triangle as we aren't in the path of totality. We will see a partial eclipse. For point of reference, around 78 percent of the sun will be obscured at WRAL Studios on Western Boulevard in Raleigh, so most in the Triangle can expect a similar experience.
Since North Carolina is a state that runs about 560 miles east-to-west, there's a wide variance of outcomes for the eclipse. Western North Carolina will see a more obscured sun as Murphy will be at 86 percent obscuration. Meanwhile, Rodanthe, along the Outer Banks, will be at 72 percent obscuration.
The eclipse will first be visible in Mexico and Texas, then along a line north and east into Canada in Southern Ontario and through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton.
The eclipse then goes into Canada in Southern Ontario and continues through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton.
Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Charlotte on Thursday to announce the selection of recipients for $20 billion in federal funding for climate and clean energy projects across the country.
Most of the grant money, Harris said, will go to communities that have been historically underserved. “For the first time in history, we are providing tens of billions of dollars directly to community lenders to finance local climate projects,” she said. Harris described this as a novel approach that will empower communities to determine which projects will have the greatest impact in their hometowns. “We can invest in those projects in a way that will actually have value for the people who live there,” Harris said. “Instead of us from Washington, DC telling you what you need.”
The investment will support a wide range of climate and clean energy projects, including distributed clean power generation and storage, net-zero retrofits of homes and small businesses, and zero-emission transportation, according to a White House press release.
Harris announced that the administration has selected eight nonprofits to establish a national financing network that will help fund tens of thousands of climate and clean energy projects. The investment is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s first-of-its-kind, national-scale $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, funded through the Inflation Reduction Act.
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts hopes to have its eCourts system running in 49 counties by the end of the year.
There’s one big problem though: The NC Conference of District Attorneys wants the program halted.
On Thursday members of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Justice and Public Safety heard repeatedly how the technology intended to modernize the courts was making the caseloads for prosecutors much more difficult than when they relied on paper.
Johnston County was among the four counties to pilot the system in February 2023. More than a year later, District Attorney Susan Doyle said the amount of time it takes to access a case file and its contents in the new digital system is unacceptable.
Doyle said because of the increased time that it takes to complete a task or just to continue a case, the function of the job of a prosecutor has changed significantly.
As North Carolina spends tens of millions of dollars to overhaul how it teaches children to read, parents of children with dyslexia are spending thousands of dollars to educate their children outside of school.
When Leah Rumbarger adds up the dollars her family has spent on education services for her dyslexic daughters, she wonders how most people could ever afford it.
Her family spent $4,000 for two diagnoses, thousands more for private tutoring, and thousands more for private high school tuition — all just to get their daughters to read at grade level.
“If you don't have money, I don't know how people are able to get their kids help or even identified for that matter,” said Rumbarger, who works as a marketing manager.
It’s a common story among many North Carolina parents of dyslexic children: They struggle to get their children what they need at public schools, which can be inconsistent in their abilities to help students with learning disabilities. Specialized private schools can help, if families can afford them. But private schools aren’t required to provide special services or even accept children with disabilities, and many don’t. And even some families receiving useful in-school support are still paying extra for private tutoring.
Thank you for reading, wishing all a good week!