NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD for Sunday, May 26, 2019
210th Weekly Edition
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this regular platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we work on taking back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week as we try to Connect, Unite, Act with our North Carolina Daily Kos community. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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Thanks for reading and contributing, have a great week! Jump the fold for NC stories you might have missed.
Restoring the “Silent Sam” Confederate monument to its original place at UNC-Chapel Hill is “not the right path,” UNC Board of Governors Chairman Harry Smith said Wednesday.
His thinking has undergone an evolution, Smith said at a press conference following a full meeting of the board of governors.
“My original view and opinion, which I think was probably quick and uneducated, was just to put it back up,” Smith said. “Having taken the time, energy and effort and talking to a lot of people I have tremendous faith and trust in, it’s my view and opinion as one member that that’s not the right path.”
Earlier this month, Smith announced a second delay in unveiling a potential plan for the statue, which was toppled by protesters last August. Controversy over the statue and its future played a part in public conflicts between the board and former UNC System President Margaret Spellings and UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt. Both women resigned their positions in the turmoil after the statue’s toppling and the struggle over whether it would return to campus. Interim UNC System President Bill Roper and Interim UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz have both gone on record as saying the statue should not return to the campus at Chapel Hill.
That sleek flat panel TV with the ultra high-definition screen — or the anvil of an ancient model that can still muster a picture — are safe when hanging on your living room wall. But crush them in a landfill and their contents are toxic.
A controversial provision in the state legislature’s Regulatory Reform Bill would allow local governments to opt out of the statewide ban on disposing of electronics in landfills. The Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee gave the bill a favorable report Thursday, although the measure will likely change significantly before the end of the session.
Sen. Norm Sanderson, an eastern North Carolina Republican and the committee’s co-chair, said the supply of old electronics exceeds the demand. “Go out back of any nonprofit resells this stuff, and they don’t know what to do with it,” he said. “We’ve got to handle this problem.”
In 2010, the state legislature passed a law prohibiting televisions, computers, monitors, printers, scanners and scanner-fax machines from being disposed of in landfills. In 2015, lawmakers amended the ban to allow keyboards and mice to be thrown away and not recycled
A federal judge has formally issued his decision striking down North Carolina's ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, except in a medical emergency.
U.S. District Judge William Osteen signed his judgment dated Friday — 60 days after issuing a memorandum explaining why he declared the law unconstitutional. He wrote in March the 20-week limit prohibited some abortions before a fetus could live outside the womb. The judgment means some women could now obtain abortions later but prior to viability.
Osteen wrote the 60-day delay was designed in part to give legislators time to replace the law. That hasn't occurred.
The state now has 30 days to appeal the ruling. The state Department of Justice says it's reviewing the case and will confer with legislative leaders before deciding.
And it's only going to get worse over the next 10 months:
“Like other conservatives I had my doubts about Mr. Trump,” Tucker said. “Without a policy record, I questioned whether he would govern as a conservative. . . . I could not be more delighted, and frankly amazed, at how he has transformed this country in the last two years.”
Tillis allies don’t buy it. “It is laughable that a charlatan like Garland Tucker thinks he can make this race into a question of who can better support our booming economy under President Trump,” said Jack Pandol, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund. “North Carolina needs a senator who will work with the president – not one . . . now lying to cover his tracks.”
Oh, the irony. Tucker is lying alright, but he's lying about Trump's "transformation" of the country. He has brought us about halfway to the United States depicted in Idiocracy, and clawing back from that is going to be damn near impossible. Also, I kinda hate to see Carter Wrenn devolve once again:
In his statement, Tucker said Tillis “has publicly opposed the president numerous times.” Among other things, he pointed to Tillis’s February op-ed in the Washington Post in which he said he opposed Trump’s emergency declaration to build a border wall. The next month he voted for it.
“When people learn about his voting record, his support collapses,” said Tucker strategist Carter Wrenn.
Tillis boasts a record of voting with Trump 95% of the time, according to 538, an analytics website owned by ABC News. Wrenn dismisses 538 as a liberal site. He points to Heritage Action, a conservative group that gave Tillis a 59% conservative voting rating. Walker’s rating is 96%.
Thanks again, Happy Memorial Day.