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Hump-Day Handouts

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Once again Greg Lindberg is in hot water:

The regulator alleged that Lindberg, once North Carolina’s largest political donor, and an associate looted more than $75 million from Lindberg’s insurance companies, compromising the companies’ liquidity and leading to a state takeover of the insurers that has kept policy holders from receiving payments.

The money flowed through a Malta-based advisory firm through complicated schemes designed to mask the fact that Lindberg treated insurance company money as his own, SEC investigators said in their complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

I'm sorely tempted to label him the "Maltese Vulture," but those carrion fowl actually serve a purpose. Speaking of disgusting and contemptible people, the South Carolina House just passed a near-total abortion ban yesterday:

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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ILLEGAL LEGISLATORS CAN'T ENACT LEGAL LAWS: Should legislators, improperly elected from judicially ruled illegal racially gerrymandered districts, be able to enact laws that perpetuate racial discrimination? To most common-sense people -- even attorneys (such as state Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore) who learned the “fruit from the poisonous tree” concept in law school – the answer is an obvious “no.” And that is why Friday’s 4-3 State Supreme Court ruling says legislators likely lacked legal authority in 2018 to claim to be representing anyone and thus couldn’t enact legislation to amend the State Constitution. In the case at hand – it is Constitutional Amendments requiring presentation of a photo ID to vote and barring any increase in the state’s income tax rate above 7%. It is the job of the courts to review and determine if the legislature’s actions accord with the State Constitution. When those actions fall short, it is the courts’ job to negate those actions and apply appropriate remedies with which legislators must comply. That isn’t any infringement on anything. It is called the rule of law. That is what democracy is about in North Carolina and the United States. And their response is to attack that very authority that protects our Constitution, the state Supreme Court's oversight of the Legislature. That's what 3rd World dictators do, not responsible elected officials.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-illegal-legislators-can-t-enact-legal-laws/20427102/

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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HEALTH AND LIFE TAKING A BACKSEAT TO POLITICS IN NC ABORTION POLICY: What did North Carolinians learn late on Wednesday when federal judge William Osteen Jr. allowed enforcement of the state’s ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy? They learned that health and life are not the most important matters to House Speaker Tim Moore and state Senate Leader Phil Berger. To Republicans Berger and Moore it is all about politics, the fall elections and their machinations to gain a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly. In reacting to Osteen’s unsurprising ruling, Moore mainly attacked Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, who appropriately recused himself from personal involvement in the matter after stating he opposed the previously unconstitutional state law. Berger, similarly took up a partisan cudgel. “Democrats’ position on abortion can only be characterized as extreme,” he said. Yet, if Berger and Moore are looking for extreme positions on abortion, they need look no further than legislation their fellow Republicans have introduced, which is still pending in the General Assembly and that they’ve not renounced. Republicans want the State Constitution (House Bill -158) to declare life starts “at the moment” of fertilization. Anyone who willfully tries or destroys a life is accountable for attempted murder. Is that what Moore and Berger want? Do they back legislation (House Bill 31) banning abortions after a “detectable” fetal heartbeat? Are these the “protection for the unborn” that Moore and Berger are promoting? We won't get any solid answers to such questions until after the November Election, because Republicans fear "informed" voters more than anything else.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-health-and-life-taking-backseat-to-politics-in-n-c-abortion-policy/20...

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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NC CHAMBER PROTECTS BUSINESS TAX CUTS OVER QUALITY EDUCATION FOR KIDS: When dozens of the state’s most prominent business leaders signed onto a brief supporting full-funding of a consensus plan to assure every child has access to a quality education – a right guaranteed in the State Constitution – the state Chamber issued an over-the-top attack on the court order under the guise that the group’s current chair had not given her permission to have her name listed. Three former state Chamber chairs are among the signers and the current chair, according to Tom Bradshaw (one of those former chairs) Sepi Saidi, told him she agreed to be listed and offered to provide financial support for the effort. After release of the names last week, the state Chamber issued an over-heated statement saying she’d not given her permission while also denying – not that it had even been suggested – that the state Chamber supported the order. Quickly after she made it known that she did not want her name included among the signers, it was removed from the list. The N.C. Chamber knows the public education needs of the state but has chosen to ignore them and placed their financial gain above doing the best for our school children. This goes deeper than just a he said, she said issue; it reveals the corrupting influence of the NC GOP and the post-truth phenomena of Trumpism. But every time they rewrite history, their shaky facade of morality weakens.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-nc-chamber-protects-business-tax-cuts-over-quality-education-for-kids...

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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TELL US WHERE YOU STAND. BAN ABORTION? MORE LIMITS? VOTERS MUST KNOW NOW: Just this week in conservative Kansas, voters overwhelmingly rejected – 59% no to 41% yes --- an effort to amend the state’s constitution to so legislators could further restrict and even ban abortions in the state. Regardless of the issue, but especially in a matter that touches nearly every North Carolinian so personally and directly, offering broad platitudes and generalities won’t cut it. It is evasive and intended to mislead rather than dealing fully, honestly and plainly with those who will be most impacted by what legislators do. Voters deserve to know, and candidates are obliged to express in detail, where they stand. North Carolina voters must know, before they cast ballots this fall, in specific detail where every legislative candidate stands. Do they stand with extremes (Moore’s description) like the Republican legislators who want the State Constitution to say life starts at fertilization and anyone who willfully tries or destroys a life is accountable for attempted murder? No voter should wonder where their candidates for the General Assembly stand on Roe v. Wade and the rights of women to make critical decisions concerning their health and life. This is a "yes or no" question, and anything in-between should not even be printed or reported. Women deserve the truth, not calculated deception.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-tell-us-where-you-stand-ban-abortion-more-limits-voters-must-know-now...

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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COURT MUST AFFIRM LEANDRO ORDER AND PLAN, NC MUST FUND IT: CNBC recently lauded North Carolina as the #1 state in the country for business, yet we hear from business leaders that they struggle to find enough qualified candidates for the jobs in our state. Businesses need strong graduates from our K-12 programs, community colleges, and universities. We have countless research studies pointing to the importance of investing in public education for the long-term success of students and our economy. In North Carolina, it is the state’s responsibility to fund public education. Yet our state lawmakers make decision after decision failing to invest sufficiently in our future -- in our kids and their schools. It did not have to be like this. But years of imprudent policy and funding decisions have led to this point. The state has a significant budget surplus, $6.5 billion just this year. We have the money - and when considering the return on investment, is there a better way to spend our surplus than to invest in our students? And as long as Republicans in the General Assembly continue to low-ball education funding, NC's rural-urban divide will broaden. State funding can be the great equalizer, harmonizing the education quality of all 100 counties. But when you force those counties to supplement teacher pay, only the ones with a larger property tax base can afford to do so. Rural counties are forced to make do, and that was surely not the intent of those who wrote and approved our state's Constitution.
https://www.wral.com/mary-ann-wolf-court-must-affirm-leandro-order-and-plan-n-c-must-fund-it/20394060/

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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CANDIDATES, TELL VOTERS CLEARLY AND FULLY, WHERE YOU STAND ON ABORTION: It is a question every candidate for the General Assembly should be asked and one that every candidate – regardless of political affiliation – should answer in full and complete detail. Most Democratic candidates, including incumbents, have declared their support – at a minimum -- for laws that affirm the state’s current abortion laws and support for the standard in Roe v. Wade – essentially leaving the decision to the woman during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy. Voters need to demand and end equivocations and vagaries, like those offered up by Berger. On one hand Berger says he wants some period of “autonomy” for woman. But then, just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, said: “Senate Republicans will determine whether other steps are appropriate to strengthen our pro-life laws.” Further, Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore demanded that state Attorney General Josh Stein “take all necessary actions to lift the injunction currently barring full enforcement of our state’s abortion restrictions.” This is no time for vague sloganeering that offers pacification to the partisan base while hiding specifics from more skeptical voters. The sad truth is, most of those who historically vote Republican don't want to know. They would prefer the comfortable deniability that ambiguity provides, safely avoiding the moral crossroads. It's not so much the extremism we should fear as it is the apathy that allows it to fester.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-candidates-tell-voters-clearly-and-fully-where-you-stand-on-abortion/...

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

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IT'S TIME TO STOP. NOTHING "FICTIONAL" ABOUT JAN 6 INSURRECTION: Phil Berger can’t have it both ways – as he seems to try to do during his meandering reply to reporter Travis Fain’s question about the Jan. 6 committee hearings. In one breath, Berger says: “I generally steer away from fictional readings … What’s going on there is an effort to paint a picture that is an exaggeration, in many respects, of what happened. And, clearly, in many respects it is an exaggeration of what, or maybe even just a fictional account what someone’s perceptions is of people’s motivations.” He suggests that in 2000, Democrats did the same thing. While Democratic nominee Al Gore’s campaign sought a detailed recount of the close results in Florida, Gore also, on Dec. 13, 2000, conceded the election to George W. Bush. Democrat Hillary Clinton, in the early-morning hours after Election Day 2016, conceded to Trump. It was an act of faith in the law and our nation that American’s have yet to see from Republican Donald Trump. Aside from the fact that we all watched the insurrection as it took place, the most damning testimony dealing with "motivations" has come from within the Republican Party fold; a brilliant move by Congressional Dems. And just like with gerrymandering, Berger's, "Democrats did it too!" falls flat for lack of relevance.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-it-s-time-to-stop-nothing-fictional-about-jan-6-insurrection/20372563/

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