Opinion

Opinion Roundup: Gauging voters' opinions on Trump, Cooper and more

Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on the first High Point University Poll of fall 2017, a hearing to address the Cardinal Health finances controversy, a set of maps showing the dangers of coal ash and more.

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Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on the first High Point University Poll of fall 2017, a hearing to address the Cardinal Health finances controversy, a set of maps showing the dangers of coal ash and more.
POLITICS & POLICY
Latest approval ratings for President Trump and Gov. Roy Cooper and more (High Point University Poll) -- A little more than half (51 percent) of North Carolina residents say they disapprove of the job Donald Trump is doing as president while 35 percent approve. Gov. Roy Cooper gets an approval rating of 44 percent. Meanwhile, a large majority continue to express concern that the country is on the wrong track.
TRAVIS FAIN: Cooper vetoes judicial bill, signs budget corrections bill (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed legislation Monday that would have canceled next year's judicial primary elections, saying he saw it as a precursor to a Republican push to appoint judges instead of having the public elect them.
KIRK ROSS: Cooper vetoes bill eliminating 2018 judicial primary (Carolina Public Press analysis) -- An elections bill passed in one of several legislative actions in last week’s brief session, has drawn the 13th veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, who objected to a provision eliminating next year’s judicial primaries.
Legislature shakes judicial elections (Greensboro News & Record) -- Last week’s brief legislative session delivered one of the strangest election changes yet. Gov. Roy Cooper wisely vetoed the measure Monday.
Republicans make another power grab -- this time, judicial seats (Wilmington Star-News) -- North Carolina Republicans gerrymandered their way into a hammer-lock on the state legislature, which they will control indefinitely, barring action from the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, they’re going after the state’s courts.
DARIN J. WATERS: Constitution, not a flag, is our greatest national symbol (Asheville Citizen-Times column) -- Whatever one’s position on the ongoing protests of professional athletes, the fact remains that the Constitution protects that right. The president would do well to remind the nation’s citizenry of this fact.
WALTER JONES, RO KHANNA & MARK POCAN: Stop the Unconstitutional War in Yemen (New York Times column) -- Imagine that the entire population of Washington State — 7.3 million people — were on the brink of starvation, with the port city of Seattle under a naval and aerial blockade, leaving it unable to receive and distribute countless tons of food and aid that sit waiting offshore. This nightmare scenario is akin to the obscene reality occurring in the Middle East’s poorest country, Yemen, at the hands of the region’s richest, Saudi Arabia, with unyielding United States military support that Congress has not authorized and that therefore violates the Constitution.
HUNTER INGRAM: Film grant program sunset date eliminated (Wilmington Star-News analysis) -- The state film industry has logged another legislative win that signals its grant program is here to stay.

STEPHANIE CARSON: Cost, Ineffectiveness of NC Death Penalty Drives Decline (Public News Service analysis) -- The human and financial cost of the death penalty is taking its toll on the punishment. Death sentences have declined by 90 percent in North Carolina since the 1990s, and data and feedback from district attorneys suggest capital punishment has had its day in the Tar Heel State.
HEALTH
RICHARD CARVER: Legislators get chance to question state health officials on Cardinal finances (Winston-Salem Journal analysis) -- State legislators will have the opportunity to ask the state health secretary and regulators how they plan to manage the financial issues noted in two high-profile audits of Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions.
ALEXANDRIA BORDAS: Deadly new drugs emerge in N.C.'s opioid crisis (Asheville Citizen-Times analysis) -- The toxicology report mailed to her home would show medical examiners found no traces of heroin in the 34-year-old's body. What the toxicologist did find were multiple strains of fentanyl mixed with other substances. Similar mixes have been blamed for an increasing number of deaths in North Carolina's opioid crises. In some case, those mixtures have replaced the use of heroin and include opioids potent enough to kill in even tiny doses.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
TYLER DUKES: Coal ash dam failures would impact hundreds, maps show (WRAL-TV analysis) -- Maps released by Duke Energy late last week reveal for the first time that nearly 300 individual structures - homes, businesses and town infrastructure - could be in danger of flooding as a result of dam failures at the energy firm's coal ash pits scattered across the state.
NC gives qualified no to 3-state natural gas pipeline (AP analysis) -- North Carolina has said "no" to an interstate pipeline to carry natural gas, marking the first decision of any state or federal agency on the project.
TAFT WIREBACK: Majority of respondents see climate change behind storms (Greensboro News & Record analysis) -- A significant majority of North Carolina residents think climate change plays a major role in tropical storms and hurricanes, according to a statewide poll. On a day when federal officials announced plans to scrap the nation’s Clean Power Plan to fight air pollution linked by scientists to climate change, a new High Point University/News & Record poll found that 57 percent of state residents believe climate change has a hand in the frequency and strength of storms.
LISA FRIEDMAN & BRAD PLUMER: E.P.A. Says It Will Repeal Key Obama-Era Climate Plan (New York Times analysis) -- The rollback of the Clean Power Plan, which limits greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, sets up a bitter fight over United States climate policy.
EPA to Withdraw Power Plant Rules (Wall Street Journal analysis) -- The Trump administration is set to withdraw federal limits on carbon emissions at power plants, triggering the next stage of what is likely to be a long fight over President Obama’s centerpiece for slowing climate change.
Storm warnings (Fayetteville Observer) -- If you’ve got the feeling that hurricanes lately are more severe and deadly, you’re right. It’s getting more dangerous out there — and here, too, far from the coast. The Associated Press analyzed 167 years of federal storm data and found that no 30-year period in our history has seen this many major storms as we’ve seen in this era. It’s been especially dangerous since the millennium.
Helping hands (Winston-Salem Journal) -- They didn’t do it for the recognition, but they deserve it. Almost 50 Winston-Salem residents took a 34-hour roundtrip bus ride to Texas last month to help in communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the Journal’s Jenny Drabble reported recently. This was no light undertaking. It was strenuous for all of them.
Bolster building rules on slopes (Hendersonville Times-News) -- Property rights should mean not only protecting the rights of residents and developers to build on mountainsides, but also protecting the rights of folks who live below not to have their properties buried in mudslides. The more proactive local governments can be, the better they will be able to protect life and property when major storms arrive.
EDUCATION
JIMMY WILLIAMS: Onslow School Celebrates Solar Achievement (Coastal Review column) -- Faculty, students and former students of Queens Creek Elementary School in Onslow County recently dedicated a 5-kilowatt solar array, a project that’s been years in the making.
ANDREW DUNN: Mecklenburg considering a $77 million in public preschool. How would it work? (Charlotte Agenda analysis) -- The plan would first help more low-income families pay for daycare and eventually create a universal pre-K program. There's a lot still unknown — like where all the new classrooms would be — but it's pretty clear that a substantial tax increase would be needed to pay for it all.
AND MORE
RICK SMITH: N&O parent McClatchy puts digital future in hands of NCSU/Duke graduate (WRAL-TV/TechWire column) -- McClatchy, which owns the News and Observer in Raleigh and daily newspapers in Durham as well as Charlotte, is putting its future digital strategy under the guidance of a N.C. State and Duke University graduate who lives in the Triangle.
Y.A. Tittle, Quarterback Who Led Giants to 3 Title Games, Dies at 90 (New York Times obit) -- The Giants were leading, 14-0, by the second quarter when Tittle, deep in Giants territory, dropped back to pass. From the right side — Tittle’s throwing side — John Baker, a 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive end, saw an opening and smashed into Tittle, 6 feet and 190 pounds or so, as he was about to pass. The ball floated loose and into the arms of Steelers tackle Chuck Hinton, who ran it back for an easy touchdown. … John Baker, the huge Steelers lineman who pummeled Tittle, died in 2007 after serving for 24 years as sheriff of Wake County, N.C., where he was wryly known as Little John. When Baker first ran for the office, his supporters printed posters with the photo of the battered Tittle and the caption “This is what Little John is going to do for crime in Wake County.”

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