Opinion Roundup: Charges of conspiracy

Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on a new twist in a high-profile voting defamation suit, the effect ragged governance is having on public education issues, some promising strategies for addressing opioid abuse and more.

TRAVIS FAIN: Voting defamation suit seeks to widen net, accuses GOP attorneys of conspiracy (WRAL-TV analysis) -- The attorneys who brought a defamation lawsuit over voter protests filed in the wake of last November's election want to add former Gov. Pat McCrory's legal defense fund and the attorneys who helped file those protests to their suit.

TRAVIS FAIN: General Assembly back in session next week (WRAL-TV) -- Signals from Jones Street indicate the General Assembly will be back at it early next week to overturn a veto and cancel 2018 judicial primaries.

GARY ROBERTSON: Legislature returning next week for veto override (AP analysis) -- North Carolina Republican legislative leaders are asking lawmakers to return to Raleigh early next week to consider overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of a bill that would cancel primaries for 2018 judicial elections.

TRAVIS FAIN: Former state Rep. Brawley sent to jail in bail bonds company fight (WRAL-TV) -- Former state Rep. Robert Brawley, who represented Catawba and Iredell counties and ran a long-shot campaign for governor last year, was sentenced Friday to 15 days in jail on a contempt of court charge tied to a civil case brought against him by his business partners. Brawley, 73, was taken into custody immediately following the hearing in a Guilford County court room, according to attorneys on both sides of the case.

RICK SMITH: Can RTP win Amazon HQ2? Studies all over map, from good to little chance (WRAL-TV/TechWire column) -- Is the Research Triangle a legitimate contended for the massive Amazon HQ2 project? Various studies are all over the map with RTP ranked a contender to having no chance.

AMES ALEXANDER, FRED CLASEN-KELLY & WILL DORAN: Deadly year for NC prison workers shows need for better security, critics say (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- The deaths of two North Carolina prison employees – coming just six months after a third employee’s death – should shine light on unsafe working conditions within the state’s prisons, the group representing state employees said. Working inside the prisons has long been a dangerous job. Once every eight hours, on average, a North Carolina prison officer was assaulted last year. But 2017 is shaping up to be particularly deadly.

HANNAH WEBSTER: N.C. Public Safety Dept. takes action to improve safety after prison employee deaths (WRAL-TV analysis) - -The Department of Public Safety will take immediate action to make prisons safer following the attempted escape Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City that killed two prison employees and injured others. Secretary Erik A. Hooks and state prison leaders met with Governor Roy Cooper Friday, who told them to improve prison safety in the wake of the attack.

JEFF HAMPTON: Pasquotank escape attempt turned into deadliest in N.C. prison history (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot) -- Authorities have not said how the 2 correctional officers died, or how another 10 prison employees were injured. Two remained hospitalized and in critical condition.

PETER GALUSZKA: The women who erected Confederate statues are stunningly silent (Washington Post column) -- The United Daughters of the Confederacy’s mission is to lend grace to the Southern cause.

DUSTIN GEORGE: Last but not least (Kinston Free Press analysis) -- Four months ago, North Carolina became the last state in the union to raise the age at which juvenile offenders could be tried as adults for low level felonies and misdemeanors. Beginning in 2019, teens under the age of 18 will no longer be charged as adults for all crimes.

Vigilance prevents terrorism (Hendersonville Times-News) -- A bomb planted at Asheville Regional Airport that might have resulted in wanton death and destruction shows why the public should stay alert, even here in our seemingly safe corner of America.

FERREL GUILLORY: Public education in a time of ragged governance (EdNC column) -- Public education is a function of state and local governments, and the current array of governance issues bears on the effectiveness of schools, colleges, and universities. The failure to find a fix on class-size reduction without threatening arts and music instruction is indicative of jagged policy-making. The governance issues are both structural and political.

JEFF GRAVLEY, MANDY MITCHELL, RANDALL KERR & CULLEN BROWDER: NCAA: No punishment for UNC athletics in academic scandal (WRAL-TV analysis) -- The NCAA Committee on Infractions found that it was more likely than not that student-athletes benefited from paper classes, earning grades which kept them eligible, and that it was likely that some UNC personnel knew about those courses and used them to keep athletes eligible. But, because the courses, when offered, did not violate UNC's internal standards, the NCAA could not find academic fraud.

JASON DEBRUYN: The UNC Academic Scandal By The Numbers (WUNC-FM analysis) -- The NCAA report released Friday closes a chapter for the University of North Carolina. Here's a look at the three-and-a-half year investigation by the numbers.

ANDREW BEATON: UNC Escapes Penalties in Academic Scandal (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- A years-long probe resulted in no major sanctions from the NCAA after the school’s novel legal strategy paid off.

MARC TRACY: N.C.A.A.: North Carolina Will Not Be Punished for Academic Scandal (New York Times analysis) -- The academic fraud case involved fake classes that U.N.C. athletes were steered into over two decades.

With NCAA ruling in UNC case, ‘student athlete’ is officially dead (Charlotte Observer) -- The NCAA’s ruling in the UNC case shows where academics ranks compared with athletics.

UNC teams win; academic integrity takes a loss (Wilmington Star-News) -- There’s cheering, no doubt, in Chapel Hill, now that the NCAA has essentially given the Tar Heels a pass on fake courses. The NCAA Committee on Infractions concluded that it could find no major violations arising from UNC-Chapel Hill’s well-publicized academic scandals.

NCAA surrenders academic interest (Greensboro News & Record) -- One of the NCAA’s supposed core values is that intercollegiate athletics should play a “supporting role” in the mission of higher education.

A bittersweet decision (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The NCAA didn’t absolve the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in its report released Friday. What the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions hearing panel said was that it could not conclude that the school “violated NCAA academic rules when it made available deficient Department of African and Afro-American Studies ‘paper courses’ to the general student body, including student-athletes.”

SUSAN LADD: Some strategies show promise for addressing opioid abuse in N.C. (Greensboro News & Record column) -- Implementing programs such as Project Lazarus and rapid-response teams can begin to make a dent in the opioid epidemic.

US Regulators OK Atlantic Coast, Mountain Valley Pipelines (AP) -- A divided panel of federal regulators granted approvals Friday evening for the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley natural gas pipelines, major East Coast projects.

JOHN DOWNEY: Tariff case hurting Carolinas solar industry, panel says (Charlotte Business Journal) -- Executives of solar developers and industry vendors say proposed tariffs could kill 80,000 of the 250,000 jobs in the U.S. solar industry — and hit North Carolina particularly hard.

JEFF HAMPTON: Three N.C. counties call for end to solar tax incentives (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot analysis) -- At least three eastern North Carolina counties want to end local property tax breaks for solar farms that could stunt the industry’s rapid expansion in the region. Last month, Currituck County passed a resolution – and was joined by Pasquotank and Chowan counties last week – calling on state lawmakers to end the 80 percent tax discount on solar projects.