REPUBLICANS FILE INTENT TO APPEAL, BUT MAY REWRITE BLOCKED AMENDMENTS: Speaker of the House Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger asked to take that fight to the state Court of Appeals, where they'd try to overturn a three-judge panel's decision to forbid the state from putting a pair of constitutional amendments on the ballot as planned. Another path remains a possibility though: another special legislative session, held on short notice to rewrite the ballot questions in a way that will pass muster with the court. Cooper said Wednesday afternoon that the legislature should not come back into session, and that doing so with ballot deadlines looming in September would be "reckless." The State Board of Elections has said Sept. 1 is the latest it can finalize ballots and meet federal deadlines. Both amendments in question in Cooper's suit would shift appointment powers from the governor's office to the legislature.
https://www.wral.com/general-assembly-leadership-files-notice-of-appeal-in-constitutional-amendments...

CHEMOURS LOSES POLICY BATTLE ON GENX CONCENTRATION LEVELS: A state board of scientists threw its weight behind North Carolina's longstanding health goal on GenX Monday, signing off on a conservative amount of the chemical believed to be safe in drinking water. That threshold: 140 parts per trillion. The miniscule amount represents the best estimate state scientists can make on the amount bottle-fed infants and other potentially sensitive populations can drink without expecting health problems from a chemical whose health effects have not been heavily studied. State regulators first set this level in July of last year, soon after the public learned GenX was found in the Cape Fear River and municipal water supplies downstream from the Chemours plant. In backing that threshold Monday the Secretary's Science Advisory Board on Toxic Air Pollutants rejected Chemours' suggestion that the state adopt a significantly higher threshold.
https://www.wral.com/state-board-backs-low-threshold-on-genx/17782475/

THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY BEARS DOWN ON AMENDMENTS: James Madison, writing in the 1788 Federalist Papers No. 47, cited North Carolina for going too far at its outset in giving the legislative branch power to appoint the governor, as well as executive office-holders and judges. It was not until the 1835 state Constitution that North Carolina voters got the right to elect their governors. In the Federalist No. 48, Madison warned tartly that “the legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity, and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.” And he observed that “the danger from legislative usurpations, which, by assembling all power into the same hands, must lead to the same tyranny as is threatened by executive usurpations.” No doubt Jim Holshouser — and perhaps even James Madison of Virginia — would have joined former governors Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, Mike Easley, Bev Perdue, and Pat McCrory in defining for voters the long-term consequences of power-shifting amendments to their own well-being.
https://www.wral.com/ferrel-guillory-weight-of-history-bears-down-on-amendments/17777024/

ATTORNEY FOR BERGERMOORE ARGUES JUDGES HAVE NO AUTHORITY OVER AMENDMENTS: The courts don’t have a role in determining what constitutional amendments appear on the ballot, a lawyer representing North Carolina legislative leaders told a three-judge panel Wednesday. Martin Warf is defending House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, both Republicans, in lawsuits to stop proposed constitutional amendments from going to voters. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is fighting two amendments that he and others say would shift power from the executive office to the legislature. One amendment would strip governors from their power to appoint members to hundreds of state boards and commissions and give that power to the legislature. The other would limit governors’ abilities to appoint judges to court vacancies.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article216689835.html

BEAR POACHERS ARRESTED AFTER SHOOTING AT DEPUTIES: The Charlotte Observer reports 22-year-old Hunter Alan Wright, 21-year-old James Bradley Owen and Owen's father were arrested in the Saturday incident near Hendersonville. A Henderson County Sheriff's Office release says deputies were shot at while responding to a report of shots fired in an area known for wildlife poaching. Wright was charged with resisting an officer. Owen was arrested on charges including attempted murder and resisting an officer. He's also charged by the state Wildlife Resources Commission with baiting bears with processed food. Forty-nine-year-old James Gary Owen then arrived and was arrested for resisting deputies. Additionally, a dog bit a deputy and was shot. It's unclear if the men have lawyers.
https://www.wral.com/sheriff-deputies-fired-at-while-investigating-bear-poaching/17770007/