Democrats won elections for governor in both Kentucky and Louisiana. In Virginia, which has a Democratic governor, Democrats won control of both chambers in the legislature for the first time in more than two decades. It’s too much to say that recent elections in the South turned only on education; rather, education fit into the package of factors that led to Democratic victories, which relied heavily on a strong turnout in major cities and on gains against Republicans in suburbs.
Bolding mine, because suburban voters hold the key in both state-wide elections, and in apportioned districts (federal and state). Urban voters are solidly blue while rural voters are strongly red, but the suburban vote is a huge enigma. Well-educated, middle-middle to upper-middle, suburbia also boasts a surprising number of registered Democrats. That doesn't guarantee their vote (trust me), but outreach can generate a positive response. You can also trust me when I say, the GOP spends a lot of time and money blowing smoke up suburban voters' arses. Back to the teachers:
SECRET SERVICE INVESTIGATES NC HIGH SCHOOL IMPROV JOKE ABOUT TRUMP? A complaint about a North Carolina student’s joke went all the way to the Secret Service, officials say. A high school improv club was performing when a student made “inappropriate comments,” Surry County Schools said. “The improvisation was not rehearsed, pre-planned, or meant to be taken seriously, however, the joke was in poor taste,” the school district said in a statement. The comment was forwarded to the Surry County Sheriff’s Office, which teamed up with the Secret Service to review the case, according to the post. Capt. Scott Hudson said his department had received “several complaints” about the performance, the Winston-Salem Journal reported last week. “We will take any appropriate disciplinary action once we have all of the facts,” the district said earlier this week. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article237632269.html
After a couple of explosive weeks of impeachment hearings, it's hard to wrap your mind around anything else going on in Washington, but there's still plenty going on in Congress that needs our attention.
Speaker Pelosi's "Lower Drug Costs Now Act" is expected to be voted on in the coming weeks. We can all agree that the cost of prescription drugs is something that must be addressed by Congress. We need our elected leaders to find work together on healthcare reform, but there's a significant part of this bill that could risk patient access to care in a substantial way.
From what I can tell about impeachment, the Congress has wide latitude in determining what constitutes an impeachable offense. There's no point getting into the quagmire of legal obfuscation: An impeachable offense is whatever Congress says it is. Which puts the spotlight squarely on the US Senate, and especially Thom Tillis.
One person's economic gain is another person's health problem:
The state is failing low-income communities with large African-American and Native American populations by allowing polluting industries to concentrate in their counties, a group of residents said Wednesday as they demanded that an environmental justice advisory board do more to advocate for them.
Opponents of Enviva, a company that produces wood pellets by the ton for export, the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, coal ash disposal sites, and industrial agriculture said the DEQ is watching out for industries and not the people who live near those operations.
Environmental justice issues have plagued minority communities since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and very few improvements have been made to this day. Government has, for the most part, ignored the formula industry uses in site selection (cheap land, powerless people). And in many cases has actually taken an active role in the unfair process, via zoning and permitting practices. While I do support both Governor Cooper and Michael Regan, I also support this message:
JUDGES DELAY CANDIDATE FILING IN NC CONGRESSIONAL RACES: Candidates wanting to run in North Carolina’s newly redrawn U.S. House districts may have to wait a bit longer than they thought to file for office. The filing period for candidates running for statewide office in 2020 opens Dec. 2 at noon. But a panel of state court judges will meet that day at 9 a.m. to consider the next steps for North Carolina’s congressional map. The court said Wednesday evening that no one can file to run for U.S. House until the court says so. The state’s primary election is scheduled for March 3. Republicans hold 10 of the state’s 13 seats in the U.S. House. Under the new map, Democrats are expected to gain two additional seats, making an 8-5 split. But challengers in the court case indicated immediately after the maps were passed that they would challenge them again. https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article237598754.html
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