DISHONEST LEADERSHIP LEAVES OUR GOVERNMENT MISMANAGED: Don’t be distracted. This is not about good or bad; conservative or liberal policies. This is not about Democrats or Republicans. This is about sound management, doing the job, the security of the nation. This is about Donald Trump’s character. It is about his inability, not simply failure, to tell the truth and accept its reality. Without the truth it is impossible to earn the trust to be a leader. Leaders who lack trust cannot manage. The current white-hot crisis with Iran and Iraq is the latest example. An impulsive action – the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s security and intelligence forces – and the national security crisis that has ensued. Trump’s threats, including tweets about targeting Iranian cultural sites, result in advisers forced to follow deflection and justification. In this case, the Pentagon didn’t even try. In a starkly unequivocal pronouncement, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the “laws of armed conflict” prohibit attacking cultural sites and the armed forces had no plans to do so – despite the president’s declaration.
https://www.wral.com/editorial/18875376/

MARK JOHNSON CONTINUES ACCUSATIONS ABOUT 3RD GRADERS BEING PROMOTED WRONGLY: State Superintendent Mark Johnson charged Wednesday that thousands of third-grade grade students have been improperly promoted to the fourth grade when they aren’t proficient in their reading skills. But local school leaders argued against making policy changes that would force them to hold children back. State Board of Education members asked local superintendents and teachers in attendance Wednesday to describe how they implement the program. They argued they’re following the law while taking advantage of its flexibility to decide whether to promote students. “You have to have both flexibility and accountability,” Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore told state board members. “If you have one without the other, then you’re losing the impact of the ability to actually make a difference individually with children. So you need to find a way to do both.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article239050288.html

ONLY ONE CASE OF A VOTER IMPERSONATING ANOTHER VOTER: But while voter fraud is rare, it does sometimes happen. How much is an unknown question, since there’s no nationwide data, and almost no state data, either. North Carolina, in fact, is perhaps the only state in the country to track such data. North Carolina compiled a voter fraud audit after the 2016 elections. Officials didn’t repeat it after the 2018 elections — although they did stop an alleged fraud scheme in Bladen County to help a Republican congressional candidate. In the state’s audit of the 2016 elections, North Carolina documented 508 allegations of voter fraud. That’s about 0.01% of the 4.8 million votes cast. Officials said that even if every allegation turned out to be true, no election results would have changed. And only one case out of those 508 was of someone impersonating another voter at the polls — which is the kind of fraud that voter ID would stop.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article238913033.html

Joining the ranks of the chickenhawks:

Political Notebook: Tillis supports Trump’s airstrike decision https://t.co/FNXA5W3f21 #ncpol

— The Wilson Times (@TheWilsonTimes) January 7, 2020

Aside from the fact Trump didn't notify/confer with the Gang of Eight in Congress before doing this, which should have both houses up in arms, he put thousands of our military folks in the region in danger wagging this particular dog. Tillis should be calling for restraint, not cheerleading.

WORK TOGETHER TO MEET STATE'S CRITICAL 2020 HEALTH NEEDS: In 2019, the state watched as labor and delivery services closed in neighboring rural communities. This is tragic. No mother should have to worry about how she is going to get care or where she will deliver her baby. We see hospitals in rural parts of the country continuing to close their doors and North Carolina is not immune. This continues to be a crisis and we must do better. For eastern North Carolina, expanding Medicaid, designing a reasonable solution to resolve State Health Plan liabilities and funding a new Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University must be a priority for the state. Expanding Medicaid will improve access to care, something we desperately need not only in the East, but also throughout the state. North Carolinians are subsidizing care in 37 other states that have expanded Medicaid while too many North Carolinians struggle.
https://www.wral.com/michael-waldrum-work-together-to-meet-state-s-critical-2020-health-needs/18862608/