NC HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAME CANCELLED OVER MAGA RALLY: Ahead of a planned rally to support a cheerleading team on probation over a pro-Trump photo, a North Carolina high school has canceled its Friday night football game due to security concerns. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association previously placed the cheerleaders on probation over a picture that was taken of them in uniform with a Trump 2020 banner during a football game. Some community members, who feared the teens’ First Amendment rights were being infringed, had planned to wave a large flag with supporters before the game Friday. The district said it canceled the North Stanly High School football game because “Stanly County Schools has been notified of additional information that could compromise safety measures our schools have in place for sporting events.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/article235315902.html

ANALYSTS SAY NEWLY REDRAWN MAPS STILL FAVOR REPUBLICANS: The new political maps approved by the North Carolina General Assembly this week would likely still favor Republicans in the 2020 elections, numerous experts say. The legislature was ordered to redraw a number of the districts used to elect its members earlier this month, after a panel of judges ruled the Republican-led legislature had violated voters’ constitutional rights with their 2017 maps. And those unconstitutional maps were themselves drawn to replace different maps, from 2011, that had also been ruled unconstitutional. “If you go back and analyze the maps, you can see the maps have a Republican bias,” said Sam Wang, a Princeton University neuroscience professor who is also a gerrymandering expert and leads the Princeton Election Consortium.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article235176992.html

NC SENATE PASSES NEW MAP, WITH SOME DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION: Raleigh Sen. Dan Blue, the top Democrat, vouched for the maps as well as Hise. Blue, a former N.C. Speaker of the House, has been involved in numerous redistricting efforts in past decades in North Carolina and was in the thick of this one as well. “I think it was a remarkable experience, especially when you consider the current political climate,” he said. Of the state Senate’s 50 members, 21 are Democrats. Most followed Blue’s lead and joined their Republican colleagues to support the new maps. But eight voted against the maps. A common refrain from the opponents was that they simply don’t think politicians should be able to draw their own maps in the first place. “These are the fairest maps, and this was the fairest process, in North Carolina in my lifetime,” Charlotte Democratic Sen. Jeff Jackson said. Still, Jackson said he was voting against the maps because “independent redistricting would look just like the process we just went through, except it wouldn’t be politicians doing it.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article235159817.html

NC REPUBLICANS' SHAMELESS THEFT OF DEMOCRACY: The verdict is now plain. North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders — not actually leaders, but connivers — are beyond shame. In a stunning display of contempt for democracy, House Speaker Tim Moore, a Cleveland County Republican, called a surprise vote to overturn Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the state budget just after a session opened at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. Democratic lawmakers and the media had been told by Republican leaders that there would be no vote in the morning. Most Democrats were absent. Enough Republicans, aware of the secret plan, were there. When Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican, made the motion to reconsider the state budget, the handful of Democrats on hand objected strenuously. “This is a travesty of the process and you know it,” said Rep. Deb Butler, D-New Hanover.
https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article234966387.html

HARDISTER SENT TEXT MESSAGE ALERTING REPUBLICANS TO "BE IN YOUR SEATS AT 8:30": A GOP leader in the N.C. House of Representatives says he sent a text message to some party members before Wednesday morning’s veto override vote, telling them to be in their seats by 8:30 a.m. Rep. Jon Hardister, the GOP’s second-in-command, told The News & Observer Thursday the text message was routine and that he regularly reminds members to be present for sessions where votes will be held. In this case, he said, he sent the note to 10 members who have long commutes to Raleigh, reminding them to be on time. But House Minority Leader Darren Jackson said he thinks the text message is proof that Republicans planned in advance to hold the controversial vote Wednesday morning without telling Democrats. Jackson said Thursday that Rep. Larry Yarborough, a Republican from Person County, showed him a text message he received from someone in Republican leadership. Jackson said the text to Yarborough suggested that Democrats were planning some sort of action related to redistricting.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article235034672.html