Opinion Roundup: Searching for the truth behind Berger's gerrymandering claim

Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017 -- A roundup of opinion, commentary and analysis on the validity of Sen. Phil Berger's recent gerrymandering comments, one town's continued recovery efforts from Hurricane Matthew, the details behind President Trump's rollback of birth control rules and more.

FALSE: Berger says NC has the "strictest anti-gerrymandering" standards in U.S. (PolitiFact) – State Sen. Phil Berger claimed in a news release that North Carolina has the strictest anti-gerrymandering protections in the nation. While it may have strict rules for grouping counties and a unique formula for measuring compactness, the legislature didn’t require themselves to use that compactness formula, and other states have similar rules for the shapes of districts. Experts consider other states to do a better job of promoting fairness by mandating the inclusion of both parties or, in a handful of cases, strictly prohibiting mapmakers from favoring one party over another.

JORDAN ELLENBURG: How Computers Turned Gerrymandering Into a Science (New York Times column) -- Politics, some say, is a game where whoever’s ahead gets to change the rules on the fly. It’s about winning, not being fair. But this isn’t just a politics story; it’s also a technology story. Gerrymandering used to be an art, but advanced computation has made it a science.

DOUG CLARK: More messing with judicial elections (Greensboro News & Record column) -- The legislature just eliminated primaries for these important races.

N.C.’s Foxconn bid fell woefully short (Greensboro News & Record) -- The economic development deal was so big it was announced at the White House.

MIKE WALDEN: Should North Carolina bid for Amazon HQ2? (WRAL-TV/TechWire column) -- Does North Carolina have a chance of landing the new Amazon headquarters? Economic developers have already composed lists of metropolitan areas they consider as viable candidates, and many lists include Charlotte and Raleigh. This makes sense.

LAUREN OHNESORGE: HQ2 may be in the open, but Amazon moved stealthily in Kannapolis deal (Triangle Business Journal analysis) -- Even as Amazon sounds a very public RFP call for its massive HQ2, public records show that — in terms of smaller projects — Amazon is good at keeping secrets.

TAYLOR BATTEN: Cam, Jourdan and how hard it is to forgive (Charlotte Observer column) -- Cam Newton and Jourdan Rodrigue both apologized for their words. Is it time to forgive them both?

ANNIE HEILBRUNN: With Newton and reporter, did we condemn sexism but excuse racism? (San Diego Union-Tribune column) -- Racism is wrong, too, and Charlotte Observer reporter Jourdan Rodrigue received nowhere near the backlash that Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton did. She was mostly seen as a victim in this situation.

​DANIELLE BATTAGILA: Could've been any other Friday in Irving Park — except Trump was coming (Greensboro News & Record analysis) -- Dog walkers and joggers ran past a 10,900-square-foot house in Irving Park Friday morning that was bustling with activity. Those people paid little attention to the men in suits guarding the driveway of the home President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit.

ALESSANDRA STANLEY: Bunny Mellon Had Peerless Taste and a Penchant for Scandal (New York Times book review) -- Bunny Mellon made headlines late in life. When John Edwards’s 2008 presidential bid was derailed by a sex-and-money scandal, it came out that Bunny had given him upwards of $3 million. She was so smitten that she funneled another $725,000 into a slush fund for the candidate’s private use; the campaign used it to keep his mistress, Rielle Hunter, and their baby secret. Mellon wasn’t upset by her protégé’s infidelity to his dying wife, Elizabeth; however she did balk when the disgraced Edwards asked her for millions to create an antipoverty foundation.

LEONEDA INGE: Princeville Works To Save Homes, History Year After Hurricane Matthew (WUNC-FM analysis) -- It's been one year since Hurricane Matthew devastated the tiny town of Princeville. The mighty storm forced millions of gallons of water to swell past a levee along the Tar River, flooding most of the historic African-American community.

Change takes places on fracking panel from conservationists (AP analysis) -- North Carolina lawmakers are moving to shut conservationists out of guaranteed seats on the state panel responsible for fracking oversight and appointing two additional industry boosters to those spots.

JOHN DOWNEY: Duke Energy, solar industry at odds over new bidding process for N.C. projects (Charlotte Business Journal analysis) -- Solar advocates say the “competitive bidding” process Duke Energy proposes bears no resemblance to the independently administered system they thought had agreed to.

CASSIE COPE: 2 million NC women get free birth control coverage. Trump could change that. (Charlotte Observer analysis) -- The Trump administration’s Friday ruling to allow more employers and insurers to choose not to cover birth control could affect nearly 2 million N.C. women who have health insurance coverage of free birth control. The move allows more employers and insurers to exempt themselves from covering contraceptives based on moral or religious objections.

AMY FOWLER: Quality public pre-K best investment for closing achievement gap (Durham Herald-Sun column) – Singing, playing musical instruments, pretending or building things with other kids – sounds fun, right?