TAKE THE MONEY. IT'S OURS. EXPAND MEDICAID: There are no good reasons for North Carolina not to expand Medicaid coverage to as many as 650,000 North Carolinians who now lack affordable access to health care. It remains irrational that the General Assembly continues the ban on such expansion – particularly in the midst of the worst health pandemic the state and nation has seen in a century. How many of the 11,552 heart-breaking COVID-19 deaths might have been avoided? North Carolina’s eight-year failure to expand Medicaid has cost the state about $15 billion in lost federal funds. That is money that North Carolina taxpayers are not getting brought back into the state that would have provided nearly 84,000 annual mammograms, helped support struggling rural hospitals and created more than 100,000 jobs. The federal COVID-19 relief legislation that appears to be headed to the president offers North Carolina between $1.7 billion and $2.4 billion in ADDITIONAL federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) funds over two years – that would be on top of the cost of covering Medicaid expansion.
https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/editorial-take-the-money-it-s-ours-expand-medicaid/19567219/

DEBATE ON GUNS IN CHURCH DETERIORATES QUICKLY: Rep. Terry Garrison, D-Vance, questioned the need for weapons. "If your faith is greater in a gun than in God, then so be it," said Garrison. "If you’re not willing to go into the house of the Lord and have faith that he will protect you, well OK, fine, you have that right. But that is not where I stand as a Christian." "My faith in God? Unshakable. But God gives me the right – as a matter of fact, God gives me the responsibility – to protect my family and my loved ones," Kidwell told Garrison. "God created man," Kidwell added. "Colt made him equal." Several others also took Garrison's dig personally. "For me, that’s not a bellwether of your Christian faith. That’s personal," responded Rep. Dean Arp, R-Union. "Please don’t accuse me of not being a Christian because I see evil in the world and can do something to stop it." "I don’t believe being armed means you don’t trust in the Lord," said Rep Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus. "You can trust him to guide your aim if need be."
https://www.wral.com/house-s-church-weapons-debate-turns-theological/19570288/

RICK GUNN SETTLES LAWSUIT OVER MARITAL AFFAIR: Former state Sen. Rick Gunn has settled a lawsuit filed by a man who accused him of a long-running affair with his wife, who was also the senator's legislative assistant. Arthur Johns says the affair destroyed his marriage and that he lost half his property in a divorce. He sued Gunn, an Alamance County Republican, for as much as $3 million. It was not immediately clear how much Johns would get in the settlement. His attorney confirmed the settlement to WRAL News but wouldn't provide details. In the lawsuit filed last summer, Johns alleges that his wife, Karen Johns, had an affair with Gunn for up to four years. General Assembly insiders told WRAL that their affair was a poorly kept secret. Arthur Johns said his wife began spending more and more time with Gunn over the years, going out for things that didn't sound like work. Eventually, the lawsuit states, she began treating Gunn more like a husband.
https://www.wral.com/former-nc-senator-settles-lawsuit-with-man-who-accused-him-of-breaking-up-marri...

NC'S POSITIVE TEST RATE FOR CORONAVIRUS DOWN TO 4.2%: At least 872,176 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 11,502 have died since last March, according to state health officials. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reported 2,027 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, down from 2,093 new cases reported the day before. At least 1,179 people in North Carolina were reported hospitalized with the coronavirus as of Saturday, down from 1,226 reported the day before. As of Thursday, the latest day for which data are available, 4.2% of coronavirus tests were reported positive. More than 1 million people in North Carolina have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine as of Thursday. A total of 2.7 million doses have been administered statewide.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article249767108.html

RALPH HISE IS TRYING TO SMOTHER RENTAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM: Hogshead said that H196, which passed the state House and Senate on Thursday, would essentially require the HOPE program to maintain 100 smaller rental programs — one in each county. “It will be chaos, which is the last thing we need in a program that folks are really counting on,” Hogshead said. “It’s about delivering these funds where the need is across the state, and yes, that’s going to require work,” Hise said in an interview with The N&O. Samuel Gunter, executive director of the N.C. Housing Coalition, a nonprofit affordable housing advocacy organization, opposes the provisions in H196. He told The N&O in a phone interview that the most important thing right now is speed. “When we come down with resources, we want to attach all of these strings and make it very difficult for individuals to access it,” Gunter said. “It becomes incredibly difficult for folks to access the help they need in a timely manner.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article249697408.html