SUPREME COURT JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG HAS PASSED AWAY: Ginsburg first made her mark in the 1970s, challenging laws and norms dictating that a woman’s place was in the home and a man’s place was in the workforce. As a lawyer, she litigated or contributed to more than 60 cases dealing with sex-based discrimination, including a dozen that reached the Supreme Court. Short in stature and known for her careful, halting manner of speaking, Ginsburg nonetheless became one of the most successful civil rights litigators of the last century. As historian Jane Sherron De Hart wrote in a 2018 biography of Ginsburg, “She showed Americans with intellectual rigor and precision that women’s rights are human rights.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article245848680.html

UNC BOG WANTS TO GIVE PETER HANS AUTHORITY TO SELECT UNIVERSITY CHANCELLORS: The UNC System Board of Governors is proposing to allow the system president to add two finalists to each chancellor search process and then to select a final candidate from that list. The board says the policy change would improve the succession of leaders, but professors at multiple campuses say it would be dangerous and would give UNC System President Peter Hans too much power in selecting chancellors. The biggest concern is the president handpicking a chancellor without input from an individual campus, which “erodes our practice of institutional autonomy and shared governance,” said Karin Zipf, a history professor at East Carolina University. “No matter how they want to spin it … ultimately it gives [Hans] absolute power,” Zipf said. “Not only is he bringing forward the people, but he’s also choosing the person.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article245772935.html

DONALD TRUMP IS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT NC, COMING TO FAYETTEVILLE SATURDAY: President Donald Trump plans to host a campaign event in Fayetteville on Saturday, his latest visit to North Carolina. The event is at 6 p.m. at Fayetteville Regional Airport. People can register for up to two tickets at events.donaldjtrump.com. Doors open at 3 p.m. The Republican president has visited Winston-Salem and Wilmington in recent weeks, in addition to a trip to Charlotte for the Republican National Convention. Gov. Roy Cooper has limited outdoor gatherings to 50 people in response to the coronavirus pandemic. His order exempts the exercise of First Amendment rights, but urges people taking part in such activities to avoid mass gatherings, follow social-distancing recommendations and wear masks.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article245737295.html

DEJOY IS MERELY A TOOL IN TRUMP'S EFFORT TO DISRUPT THE ELECTION: Louis DeJoy, the Greensboro businessman and GOP mega-donor, may think of himself as a big shot with a lofty federal government appointment – U.S. Postmaster General. But to President Donald Trump, DeJoy is just another convenient bit-player in his dangerous and unrelenting effort to disrupt the 2020 elections. So far in North Carolina, it appears that request for mail-in ballots are both being handled expeditiously by local Elections Boards and mail service has been delivering requested ballots in a timely manner. Regardless, President Trump is determined to concoct an election crisis and plant distrust. First, he raised unfounded suspicions of potential fraud in connection with mail-in voting. Then he comes to North Carolina and tells voters to break the law – calling on voters to cast ballots by mail and then on Election Day try to vote again – to see if efforts to double vote are detected. He’s sought to raise doubts about the legitimacy of counting votes cast whether those delivered by mail or cast in person at early voting sites.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-dejoy-is-tool-in-trump-s-effort-to-disrupt-the-election/19280490/

IVANKA SWOOPS IN AT NC FARMER'S MARKET, JUNIOR IN HENDERSONVILLE: Ivanka Trump visited the N.C. State Farmers Market in Raleigh Thursday to tout a U.S. Department of Agriculture program meant to provide hungry families with food boxes during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the 2020 presidential election less than two months away, the Trump campaign, and members of the Trump family, are showing a renewed focus on North Carolina, which is expected to be a swing state. Donald Trump Jr., one of the president’s sons, also was in North Carolina on Thursday, visiting Hendersonville. Thursday’s visits come on the heels of dual Trump family visits Tuesday, when the president held a rally in Winston-Salem, and Eric Trump, another son, visited High Point. Last week, the president stopped in Wilmington to name it the nation’s first World War II Heritage City. During a late August visit to Mill River, the president announced he was setting aside another $1 billion for the food box program, bringing its total to $4 billion.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article245623110.html