WELCOME TO THE NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD FOR SUNDAY, july 10th.
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform will give readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from the extremists. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite and Act with our community of North Carolina Daily Kos members. You can also join the discussion in five other weekly State Open Threads.
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Please jump the fold for interesting North Carolina stories from the week.
Time 7/8/16
Conservative lawyer Ted Olson files the friend-of-the-court brief
Airlines, hotels and tech leaders are among the 68 leading companies that on Friday filed a friend-of-the-Court
brief opposing North Carolina’s
law that requires individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to their sex at birth.
Written by conservative legal dynamo Ted Olson, a veteran of Republican George W. Bush’s Administration, the filing urges the courts to strike down the North Carolina law as discriminatory and denies the legitimacy of transgender residents. The businesses assert that the bathroom provision runs counter to many of their non-discrimination policy and pro-diversity statements. Plus, they’re just bad for business and alienate LGBT customers and employees.
Among the companies signing the measure are American and United airlines, Hilton and Marriott hotels, and tech leaders Apple, Cisco, Dropbox, eBay, IBM and Microsoft. Big business has been vocal in opposition to such laws, and many firms have been successful in applying political pressure in places like Indiana and Alabama. But, to this point, they have been running into a wall against North Carolina’s law, known as House Bill 2, or HB2.
Tim Eakins 7/6/16
July 4 was a day the United States celebrated its independence from British rule, but also, in the case of North Carolina, from a toxic anti-immigrant bill called HB 100. The legislation, which steamrolled through the State Senate, ultimately died in the House Rules Committee on Saturday after meeting intense resistance from the immigrant community and law enforcement.
The battle against HB 100 showed many in North Carolina that we can succeed when people of good-will come together to protect the rights and dignity of all our residents. Indeed, during the last week of session, calls flooded into the offices of House Representatives from immigrants, allies, and numerous law enforcement officials, all with the same clear message: Vote No on HB 100.
However, it also showed us what happens when we stay at home. The North Carolina State Senate has 50 members – 33 of them are Republican, most of whom do not support our community. In fact, the vote on HB 100 was 31 – 18. Watching from the Senate gallery, it was clear that when voters who support our community and progressive values stay home, that’s what we get representing the state.
Sponsored by Representative George Cleveland, HB 100 would have outlawed the use of a local ID that is the primary way many undocumented immigrants identify themselves and a vital tool for public safety in nine counties across the state and major cities like Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Burlington, Asheboro, Chapel Hill, and Durham. Moreover, HB 100 would have turned the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office, for which chief zealot Senator Buck Newton is a candidate, into an Immigration Czar capable of withholding school and transportation funds from any municipality he deemed to be not hostile enough to immigrants.
Chris Fitzsimon 7/5/2016
884—number of days since a massive coal ash spill at an abandoned Duke Energy power plant near Eden contaminated the Dan River with 39,000 tons of toxic coal ash and 24 million gallons of ash-contaminated wastewater (“Year after ash spill, state of Dan River in dispute, WRAL-TV, January 30, 2015)
33—number of unlined coal ash pits that Duke Energy has at 14 sites throughout North Carolina (“Year after ash spill, state of Dan River in dispute, WRAL-TV, January 30, 2015)
100—percentage of these sites that leach contaminants into surrounding soil and groundwater (“Unlined and Dangerous: Duke Energy’s 32 Coal Ash Ponds in North Carolina Pose a Threat to Groundwater” National Geographic, March 5, 2014)
3 million—amount in gallons of contaminated water that coal ash ponds are leaking every day across North Carolina (“Duke Energy’s coal ash leaks persist across NC,” Charlotte Observer, January 31, 2015)
Please keep reading, the list goes on and on.
Danny Hooley 7/8/16
At a Friday morning press conference, N.C. NAACP President William Barber condemned the acts of "killers, murderers [that] hijacked a peaceful protest and used it as a staging ground to kill and target police. These police were doing their jobs. They were watching over children and families."
Barber's reaction to the Thursday night sniper attack at a Black Lives Matter protest in Dallas that left five police officers dead and seven people wounded also addressed the reasons for that protest: recent police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, outside Minneapolis.
From WTVD:
"In less than 72 hours, we've seen two lives, two souls, of black men dead. Now we see five lives, five souls of policemen dead and many others wounded," said Barber. "The sounds of bullets, the pictures of death and violence, we're seeing it too much. Rather than love and humanity we're seeing death and inhumanity."
Barber called for a return to one of the founding principles of the NAACP: nonviolence.
"Whether it's the violence and terror by those who misuse the badge or the violence and terror against those who wear the badge and are doing their sworn duty, it is wrong. Violence will only beget more violence," said Barber.
Paul Blest 7/6/16
If you were hoping the state legislature, chastened by the backlash over House Bill 2, might opt for a quiet short session focused on budget tweaks and eschewing hot-button issues, you're probably pretty disappointed right now.
Instead, over the last two months, lawmakers found new and sundry ways to move the state backward in areas like public education, police accountability, and the environment. And they once again failed to expand Medicaid, which means a quarter million people in this state have to go without health care so Republicans can beat their chests about the evils of Obamacare, and declined to repeal HB 2, which means the state's reputation remains a shambles.
So, with this year's short session having wrapped on Saturday—following an intense final week of lawmaking—let's take stock of what they did and how they hosed you. Remember, all of these guys are up for reelection November 8.
1. HB 2 Still Exists
2. The War on Public Schools Continues
3. So Much for Police Accountability
4. Don't Drink the Water
5. The Poor Pay More
The article has a thorough look at all five.
Thanks for reading, I hope you find something you didn’t know or needed more information on. Have a good week.