STATE NEWS BRIEFS
GUN SHOP BILLBOARD TARGETING FOUR ANTI-TRUMP CONGRESSWOMEN TAKEN DOWN
[MURPHY] A billboard sponsored by a local gun shop that targeted for anti-Trump congresswomen of color was taken down Monday after the double mass murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. Cherokee Guns had initially erected the controversial sign to protest the liberal and “socialist’ views of congresswomen Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tiaib (D-MI), also known as “The Squad.” The congresswomen had been criticized by Pres. Donald Trump for alleged speaking out against America. A spokesperson for the gun shop said the billboard was taken down because of death threats online.
SUSPECTS ARRAIGNED IN 9TH DISTRICT BALLOT FRAUD CASE
[RALEIGH] Seven suspects alleged to have illegally tampered with absentee ballots during the November 2018 elections in Bladen County, were formally charged in court Monday. The alleged ringleader, McCrae Dowless was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice and one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice, illegal possession of an absentee ballot, perjury and solicitation to commit perjury - all felonies. Dowless allegedly paid people working for him to collect the ballots, or complete filling them out for voters. Other suspects - alleged accomplices of Dowless - were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, and illegal possession of an absentee ballot.
COOPER DEMANDS GOP LEADERS END BUDGET IMPASSE
[RALEIGH] On Monday, Gov. Roy Cooper’s office issued the following statement: It has been 29 days since Governor Roy Cooper and Democratic leaders shared a balanced, reasonable compromise offer on the state budget to Republican legislative leaders. Republican leaders have still not responded to that compromise with their own counteroffer and they still haven’t been able to override the Governor’s veto despite their attempts to buy Democratic votes. The state budget veto and bipartisan Medicaid expansion remain stalled. Gov. Cooper’s compromise offer …would close the health care coverage gap, raise teacher pay, cut taxes for people and guarantee school construction while balancing the budget and saving money in the Rainy Day Fund.
By press time Tuesday, there was no response to Cooper’s challenge. The $23 billion state budget remains vetoed until either a deal is struck, or Republican leaders convince enough Democrats to vote to override the governor’s veto.
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GERRYMANDERING CASE CERTAINLY
HEADED TO STATE SUPREME COURT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Yesterday, August 7th, written concluding closing summary briefs were due from both sides in the controversial Common Cause v. Lewis partisan gerrymandering case by the three-judge panel which heard two weeks of testimony recently.
A court decision may be evident in weeks, or maybe even months. Plaintiffs are hopeful a decision comes in time so that if it’s a favorable decision, there’s time to redraw the voting districts for the 2020 legislative elections.
But what is more likely, legal and political observers agree, is that the court decision will be appealed to the state Supreme Court, which will render the final decision.
Whether that will occur in time for the 2020 elections…no one knows. But the implications are stark. Whoever wins the decision may be able to control who wins the 2020 legislative elections, and with them, the right to redraw the voting districts that will govern the next decade for the state House, state Senate, and the 13 congressional districts.
Democrats could retake the NC General Assembly for the first time since 2011, and keep it through 2030.
But again, only if the majority Democrat state rules that North Carolina Republican legislative leaders violated the North Carolina Constitution when they had a voting map drawn that was based on “extreme” partisan gerrymandering.
State Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), chair of the House Redistricting Committee, was sued by Common Cause NC, the nonpartisan redistricting reform organization, and the NC Democratic Party, both of which claimed that the Republican-led NC General Assembly’s 2017 redistricting maps violated North Carolina’s Constitution because the voting districts were deliberately drawn to deny Democrats any opportunity to ever win back the majority in either the state House or Senate.
The trial - which featured some of the now infamous Thomas Hofeller files of the now deceased Republican redistricting mapmaker who previously drew several racially-gerrymandered voting districts ultimately struck down by the federal courts - was highlighted by false testimony by a witness for the Republican defendants, testimony that was ultimately thrown out of court.
That witness was supposed to disprove claims by the Common Cause attorneys and witnesses that the GOP maps drawn by Hofeller violated the state Constitution. Republican lawyers claimed that Democrats basically lost in the 2018 elections in several districts because they just had lousy candidates, not rigged maps.
Furthermore, the Republican attorneys claimed, the courts really have no say in the matter, because in the political process, the voters decide.
Plaintiffs, however, argued that for voters to fairly decide, the rules governing elections must be fair. When those rules, in the form of redrawn voting districts that assure one party an absolute certainty of victory over the other, then the rules have been skewed, thus violating the rights of voters of the other party to ever have representation of their choice.
Because the state Supreme Court is six Democrats and one Republican - a Republican justice who has already taken his Democrat colleagues publicly to task for allegedly being “AOC” liberals - it is generally assumed that the majority will side with Common Cause and the NC Democratic Party.
“At least three of the Democratic-backed judges on the State Supreme Court would have to join the lone Republican-backed colleague in declining to overturn the state’s legislative maps, and I don’t see where those three votes would come from among the six Democratic-backed judges on the court,” Wake Forest University Politics and International Affairs Professor John Dinan told Carolina Journal recently.
At the same token, if the state High Court, led by Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, does come down against the Republican leaders, because several of them are also up for reelection in 2020, they will have to ensure that their legal decision is wholly legally sound and justified, given that the GOP would be sitting in wait to make political hay out of it if they lose.
Again, the three-judge panel has not made its decision yet, but when it comes, expect it to be immediately appealed to the NC Supreme Court for the ultimate decision.
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NORTH CAROLINA REACTS TO
WEEKEND GUN VIOLENCE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Top North Carolinians joined the rest of the nation this week in sorrow and outrage at the bloodshed last weekend that saw 22 Latino people killed in an El Paso,Texas Walmart Saturday morning, and nine people - mostly black - in a Dayton, Ohio entertainment district later Saturday evening - all the latest victims of two alleged mass murderers with semi-automatic high capacity rifles.
And because of the alleged white supremacist leanings of the El Paso alleged murderer, North Carolina’s Democratic leaders, and some in the civil rights community, were quick to assign blame to Republican Pres. Donald Trump.
“It matters that this president has devalued the worth of people of color and inspires homegrown terrorists to release their justified white rage on innocents,’ posted the African American caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party on facebook Sunday.
“The randomness of Alt-Right terrorist attacks is frightening and proves that all of us are at risk, especially minorities. As long as we have no gun control, and a racist president, the security of our nation remains at risk.”
Both of the accused shooters were white males. Only the El Paso gunman was taken alive, and later found to have white supremacist leadings towards Pres. Trump and against Latinos.
The double tragedy came on the heels of Pres. Trump attacking Congressman Elijah Cummings last week as coming from a “rat-infested” city of Baltimore, Md. , and presiding over a Greenville, NC campaign rally the week before where the crowd shouted “Send her back,” mimicking Trump’s tweeted admonition towards Somali-America Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from Minnesota.
“In 1963 George Wallace spewed his racist hate rhetoric and policies,” former NC NAACP Pres, and current co-convener of the Poor People’s Campaign; A National Call for Revival, Rev. Dr. William Barber, said on Twitter. “By [that September] racists emboldened by him were blowing up children in churches. President Trump is lying and spewing his racist hate rhetoric and policies. Now we have a mass shooter in El Paso. This has to stop.”
Rev. Barber continued, “Trump’s words and policies embolden white supremacy, but so does the silence of members of his [Republican] party and many religious nationalists. Their silence is complicity.”
Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC-12) agreed.
“I think he’s a hypocrite, “ Rep. Adams told Spectrum News’ ‘Capital Tonight” Monday after President Trump addressed the nation earlier, denouncing white supremacy, but blaming the media and mental illness for the shootings.
“He’s talking about what we should do, yet people are taking his example of hatred he’s talking about over and over again,” Adams bristled. ”So he’s setting a poor example.”
Her African American Democratic colleague, Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-NC-1), called on his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to cut short their August month-long recess, come back to Washington, D.C., and pass needed gun control legislation.
“The time for simply expressing our thoughts and prayers is over,” Butterfield declared in a terse statement. “After the 250th mass shooting in this year alone, now must be the time for action. I join Speaker Pelosi and Democratic Leader Schumer in calling for the Senate to immediately reconvene and, at the very least, pass the bipartisan legislation the House passed in February that will strengthen background checks.”
Rep. Butterfield continued, “Leader McConnell’s refusal to take up even the bare minimum legislation that could save lives and is supported overwhelmingly by the American public can longer be tolerated. The Senate needs to do its job and immediately come back into session to pass this legislation. The American people deserve better.”
Even Gov. Roy Cooper demanded, in light of the double tragedies, the NC General Assembly debate and pass two measures - HB 86 and HB454 - that could improve public safety across the state.
“The General Assembly should move quickly to debate the details of these bills so that we can end up with legislation to keep deadly weapons out of the wrong hands,” Cooper said in a statement Monday. “I am also directing my administration to ensure we are doing what’s needed to try to prevent these tragic events.”
“HB86, the Gun Violence Prevention Act, includes several provisions to improve background checks and encourage safe and responsible gun ownership. HB454, Allow ERPOs to Save Lives & Prevent Suicides, would create Extreme Risk Protection Orders, sometimes called a red flag law, and authorize family members and law enforcement to petition a court to restrict an individual’s access to firearms if there is evidence that person poses a danger to themselves or others. Fifteen states have already enacted this type of law.”
The governor continued, “Both HB86 and HB454 have been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. Neither bill has had a hearing.”
Though Republicans generally didn't react to the mass murders, two prominent North Carolina GOP'ers said they were "heartbroken" by the tragedies.
'Our hearts are broken today with the news of the deadly shootings in Ohio, just hours after the tragedy in El Paso," tweeted Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a 2020 candidate for governor. "As a nation, we must address the moral emptiness driving people to violence."
Congressman Ted Budd of Greensboro also tweeted, "It was a hateful act of domestic terrorism and must be condemned to the highest extent."
"We have to do more to end these mass shootings," Rep. Budd contused, vowing to work with his colleagues '...to do just that.'
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