Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

PLAYING POLITICS WITH A VIRUS THAT HAS NO IDEOLOGY IS A DEADLY GAME: School boards have had to face irrational and angry protests. Threats shut down Moore County’s school board meeting this week. In some communities, out-of-control protests and un-schooled boards are prompting retreats on necessary protocols to fight the pandemic. “Without a universal mask requirement in Union County Public Schools, a 14-day quarantine period remains the best option to provide for the protection of students, teachers, staff and members of the community,” Union County Public Health Director Dennis Joyner told the school board in a Sept. 10 letter. As of last week, 480 students and staff in the school system tested COVID-19 positive while 7,285 – 15% of the district’s total enrollment – were in quarantine. The Union school board is having none of it. No masks, no contact tracing, no quarantining, the board ordered. Ignore the facts and the problem goes away? Is that the misguided lesson this board and others are teaching? It's one of the lessons, and another is that "feelings" trump scientific reasoning. Both represent negligence.
https://www.wral.com/editorial-playing-politics-with-a-virus-that-has-no-ideology-is-a-deadly-game/1...

Saturday News: Racism is Racism

3-JUDGE PANEL RULES NC VOTER ID UNCONSTITUTIONAL DUE TO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: Republican lawmakers in North Carolina wrote the state’s voter ID law with the intent, at least in part, to make it harder for Black residents to vote, a panel of state judges ruled on Friday. “In reaching this conclusion, we do not find that any member of the General Assembly who voted in favor of (voter ID) harbors any racial animus or hatred towards African American voters, but rather ... that the Republican majority ‘target[ed] voters who, based on race, were unlikely to vote for the majority party. Even if done for partisan ends, that constitute[s] racial discrimination.’” The ruling strikes down a voter ID law that lawmakers wrote in 2018, after voters statewide approved the general idea during the 2018 elections, on a ballot referendum for a constitutional amendment. That amendment passed with over 55% of the vote.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article254318478.html

Friday News: Leadership vacuum

bluenccup-1[1]_0.jpg

UNC SYSTEM PRESIDENT NEEDS TO GROW A PAIR: On Thursday, UNC System President Peter Hans defended the system’s position that it cannot legally require a COVID-19 vaccine at this time. He would not say whether he would want to mandate vaccines for students and employees if he could. “I think it’s best left in the hands of public health experts,” Hans said in a press conference. He then quoted a state law and said lawmakers clearly delegated the ability to add immunizations for children to public health experts through the North Carolina Commission for Public Health. And “that’s where those decisions best lie,” he said. Hans said they are following current public health guidance and flexibility for campuses given their particular situations, including local health conditions, capacities and cultures. But he has not given chancellors the go-ahead to mandate COVID-19 vaccines. “I can’t delegate legal authority I don’t possess,” Hans said Thursday. Then step aside for somebody who will.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article254278218.html

Thursday News: IOKIYAR

CONSERVATIVE BOOGEYMAN GEORGE SOROS INVESTED IN TED BUDD'S FAMILY BUSINESS: There are few people more maligned in ultra-conservative circles than George Soros, the Hungarian-born investor and philanthropist who has donated millions to Democratic causes and candidates. U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, a Donald Trump-backed candidate in North Carolina’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, has a loose business connection with the billionaire activist, according to records with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A Soros investment firm was the largest shareholder of AgriBioTech, a seed company led by Budd’s father that filed for bankruptcy in 2000, securities filings show. Budd was a shareholder but was not an officer. Right-wing zealots have accused me of being on Soros' payroll, to which I responded, "I wish!" :)
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article254257103.html

Wednesday News: Oxygen Thief

CAWTHORN IS NOW LEADING THE ATTACK-THE-SCHOOL-BOARD IDIOTS: Hundreds of people are expected to join U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn on Tuesday outside the Johnston County school board meeting to protest mandatory masks in schools. Crowds also are attending local school board meetings across North Carolina, which have become heated battlegrounds in recent weeks because of face mask mandates. At an August Buncombe County school board meeting, some parents “overthrew” the current school board and instated themselves into the positions. Critics of requiring masks hope Cawthorn’s presence will cause the school board to reverse its 4-3 vote in August to mandate that students and teachers wear masks indoors. Apparently David Rouzer doesn't mind being cuckolded by a juvenile delinquent...
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article254214428.html

Tuesday Twitter roundup

First person from the Piedmont Triad convicted on charges related to January 6 https://t.co/gdVO88eIJB #ncpol

— Brian Murphy (@MurphinNC) September 13, 2021

The Karma wheel is rolling:

Monday News: Fifteen thousand seventy five

OVER 900 COVID PATIENTS IN INTENSIVE CARE IN NC: At least 1,279,500 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 15,075 have died since March 2020, according to state health officials. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reported 5,877 new COVID-19 cases, down from 6,290 reported the day before. At least 3,756 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, the latest date for which data is available, including 909 who are being treated in intensive care units, health officials said. Roughly 67% of adults in North Carolina have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and about 62% have been fully vaccinated. State officials round vaccination numbers to the nearest whole number. Still not enough.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article254142913.html

BlueNC