Opinion Roundup: Chancellor Carol Folt stepping down, 9th District probe, voter ID lawsuit and more

Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019 -- A round up of opinion, commentary and analysis on: UNC removes Confederate pedestal from campus overnight, Chancellor Carol Folt announces resignation, Mark Harris argues state board should certify 9th District results, group asks N.C. speaker be investigated further, Republicans seek to defend voter ID in federal court, Cooper says new law makes it harder to prosecute campaign finance violations and more.

NATALIE MATTHEWS: Folt to step down, orders removal of 'Silent Sam' pedestal, crews remove it from UNC campus (WRAL-TV reports) -- UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt said Monday she will step down following graduation in May. In a letter to the UNC-Chapel Hill community, Folt also said she has authorized the removal of the base and commemorative plaques from the "Silent Sam" Confederate monument site from McCorkle Place.

JONATHAN DREW: UNC leader announces resignation, plan to remove Confederate pedestal (AP reports) -- North Carolina's flagship public university plans to remove the pedestal where a now-toppled Confederate statue once stood on a main campus quad, its chancellor said Monday. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt also announced she will step down at the end of the school year. Folt's surprise order to put the pedestal in storage drew an angry response from the leader of the board overseeing the state's public universities, but he stopped short of saying he would seek to stop the removal.

JONATHAN DREW: UNC removes Confederate pedestal from campus overnight (AP reports) -- Crews removed remnants of a Confederate statue from North Carolina's flagship public university early Tuesday, hours after the school's outgoing chancellor ordered that the empty pedestal be put into storage because of safety concerns.

VALERIE BAUERLEIN: UNC Chancellor to Step Down Amid Silent Sam Rift (Wall Street Journal reports) -- The chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said late Monday she will step down at the end of the academic year, but will first use her authority to remove the base of a controversial Confederate statue.

SUSAN SVRLUGA: UNC chancellor says Confederate monument must go — and so will she (Washington Post reports) -- The chancellor of North Carolina’s flagship university said Monday that she had ordered the last remnants of a Confederate monument to be removed from campus to ensure student safety. In the same message, she announced that she would step down at the end of the academic year. It was a defining moment for the university and for its chancellor, Carol Folt.

RICK SELTZER: Stunning Departure at Chapel Hill (Inside Higher Ed reports) -- Faculty members in the University of North Carolina system voiced shock and concern Monday evening after the chancellor of the flagship Chapel Hill campus, Carol L. Folt, announced she will step down after graduation.

ANDY THOMASON & STEVEN JOHNSON: UNC Chancellor Steps Down and Orders the Removal of Silent Sam’s Remains (Chronicle of Higher Ed reports) -- Carol L. Folt, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is stepping down at the end of the academic year — and ensuring that what remains of the campus’s Confederate monument is gone before she goes.

N’DEA YANCEY-BRAGG: Folt resigns, approves removal of 'Silent Sam' Confederate statue (USA Today reports) -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt on Monday announced that she will resign and has authorized the removal of a controversial Confederate monument on campus.

JOHN NEWSOM: Folt to resign as UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor and remove Silent Sam's pedestal (Greensboro News & Record/Winston-Salem Journal reports) -- Chancellor Carol Folt announced Monday that she will resign from UNC-Chapel Hill after commencement in May. Folt also said the university will remove the base of the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam.

JUSTIN WISE: UNC chancellor orders removal of Confederate monument pedestal, resigns (The Hill reports) -- UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt is ordering the removal of a pedestal that once held a Confederate monument on the university's campus. Folt announced the decision in a statement posted on UNC's website on Monday. The statement included an announcement that she would be resigning from her post at the end of the school year.

JANE STANCILL, TAMMY GRUBB & JULIA WALL: Silent Sam pedestal removed after order from UNC Chancellor Carol Folt, who is stepping down (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt announced Monday that she will resign after graduation this spring.

TYLER DUKES & TRAVIS FAIN: In court documents, Harris argues state board should certify 9th District results (WRAL-TV reports) -- The campaign of Republican Mark Harris is moving forward with an effort to force the State Board of Elections to certify the result of the 2018 Congressional race by court action, despite ongoing investigations into absentee ballot irregularities in several southeastern North Carolina counties.

EMERY DALESIO: N.C. asks let ballot probe proceed despite GOP lawsuit (AP reports) -- A judge should let a ballot fraud investigation play out in the nation's last undecided congressional race despite a Republican candidate's lawsuit demanding immediate victory, especially since Congress may ultimately decide the winner, attorneys representing North Carolina's elections agency said Monday.

JIM MORRILL & BRIAN MURPHY: Attorneys for Harris, McCready trade legal arguments in 9th District dispute (Charlotte Observer reports) -- In a new court filing, Republican Mark Harris asks a Wake County court to seat him in the 9th District. Lawyers for Dan McCready meanwhile asks the court to wait for the board of elections investigation to conclude.

Time for Congress to move on 9th District probe (Fayetteville Observer) -- Two weeks into this new session of Congress and we’re no closer to knowing who will represent North Carolina’s 9th District in the House of Representatives. Nor do we know who will make the final call on how the seat will be filled or who will fill it. Will it be the state’s board of elections, which will come back to life at the end of this month? Will it be the U.S. House of Representatives, which has the constitutional authority to determine who will be seated?

Time for a new election (Winston-Salem Journal) -- The 116th U.S. Congress is well under way, but a bit short-handed, thanks to the vacant seat that represents North Carolina’s 9th House District. That’s because of election irregularities — and ensuing complications — that prevented our state’s elections board from certifying the results.

Group asks N.C. speaker be investigated further (AP reports) -- A Washington-based nonprofit is asking again that N.C. ethics officials investigate whether state House Speaker Tim Moore got preferential treatment in a regulatory matter involving property his company owned.

MATTHEW BURNS: State Sen. Louis Pate resigns, citing health (WRAL-TV reports) -- Longtime state Sen. Louis Pate resigned Monday, a few months after acknowledging health problems and a week since getting sworn in for another two-year term in the North Carolina legislature.

Republicans seek to defend voter ID law in federal court (AP reports) -- North Carolina Republican legislators want to get formally involved in a federal lawsuit challenging the state's latest voter identification law because they say Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein can't be trusted to defend it.

MATTHEW BURNS: Legislative leaders want to be part of voter ID lawsuit (WRAL-TV reports) -- Lawyers for Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore filed a motion in federal court Monday to intervene in a lawsuit challenging rules to implement North Carolina's new requirement that voters present photo identification at the polls.

Wake County lawmaker lost his re-election bid but will make six figures in NC House (Durham Herald-Sun reports) -- Former Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary started a new job at the General Assembly on Monday — senior policy adviser to House Speaker Tim Moore.

Ex-budget chief Dollar joins speaker's staff (AP reports) -- The top budget-writer in the North Carolina House for the past six years will stick around the Legislative Building despite his defeat in November because he's been hired by Speaker Tim Moore.

KIRK ROSS: Era of ‘good feelings’ in Raleigh to face early tests in 2019 (Carolina Public Press reports) — After last week’s largely ceremonial opening of the 2019 General Assembly session, legislative leaders offered an upbeat assessment of the year ahead, but cautioned that the end of Republican’s supermajority status doesn’t mean an end to partisan battles over the direction of the state.

TRUE: Cooper says new NC law makes it harder to prosecute campaign finance violations (PolitiFact) – Gov. Roy Cooper said a bill passed by GOP legislators "makes it harder to prosecute people and groups that violate campaign finance laws." The new law will require complaints to be signed and sworn, the elections board to abide by a new statute of limitations, and the state ethics commission to weigh in on cases. Supporters of the law could argue that those additions to the process are relatively small obstacles to clear to prosecute someone for campaign finance violations. And they may have a point. But the new requirements are hurdles, nonetheless. We rate this claim True.

COREY FRIEDMAN: State Civil War sites ditching Confederate gear (Wilson Times reports) -- State officials say there was no marching order to yank Confederate battle flags from gift shop shelves at North Carolina’s Civil War battlefields, but they don’t deny reports of a gradual phase-out. Michelle Walker, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said the agency overseeing state historic sites “does not currently have a written policy that addresses the issue of the sale of Confederate battle flag merchandise.”

ANNA FESMIRE & SUE STINSON: Making the poor pay fees doesn’t make cents (Greensboro News & Record column) -- If government can’t be fair, then at least it shouldn’t waste money. Historically, funding for the court system was provided by taxes collected from all North Carolinians. In recent decades, however, the legislature has shifted the cost of running the judicial system from taxpayers to court system users.

ANTIONETTE KERR: Shutdown: Nat'l. Parks Rely on Donations for Maintenance (Public News Service reports) — Visitors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park and others across the country have seen trash, overflowing toilets and damaged property during the government shutdown. Some park advocacy groups want the Inspector General to investigate an Interior Department decision to keep some parks open, even without enough staff to ensure visitors and natural resources are protected, calling it "reckless."

CULLEN BROWDER: Wake sheriff fires whistleblower deputies, promotes administrator who made homophobic comments (WRAL reports) — Two deputies who reported inappropriate comments by a supervisor during "sensitivity training" sessions two years ago have been fired by new Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker, who also promoted the supervisor who made the comments.

RUPEN FOFARIA: Governor Cooper addresses the Governor’s Teacher Advisory Committee (EdNC reports) — Governor Roy Cooper met with the Governor’s Teacher Advisory Committee yesterday to talk about some of his priorities ahead of the 2019-2020 legislative long session. In its second year after he established the committee with Executive Order No. 16 in August 2017, the committee continues to serve as his eyes and ears in the classrooms and advises him on education issues.

ROB THOMPSON: The 2019 opportunity workplan for NC’s children (EdNC column) — Access to strong early childhood programs is critical for NC’s working families. It provides children with the social and emotional skills they need to enter kindergarten ready to learn. It also provides parents with the ability to keep their jobs.

YEN DUONG: NC gets a ‘F’ on how equally it treats mental and physical health issues (NC Health News) — 49 out of 100, or a solid F. That’s the grade that NC received on a report card in October on how well its laws support federal laws passed more than a decade ago calling for mental health to be treated on par with physical health.

Concert drug abuse and overdoses should concern city (Greensboro News & Record) — When a local doctor called in before his shift in the intensive care unit at Moses Cone on New Year’s Day, he was told, in so many words, that hell was breaking loose. “They said it was a crazy night with a lot of overdoses coming in and that swamped things,” said Brent McQuaid, a physician at Cone Health and LeBauer Healthcare.

ADAM WAGNER: DEQ could grant Duke extension to close Sutton coal ash basins (Wilmington Star-News reports) -- The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) could grant Duke Energy three to six additional months to close a pair of coal ash basins at Wilmington’s L.V. Sutton Plant, DEQ officials said Monday. Under 2014′s Coal Ash Management Act, the state gave Duke until Aug. 1, 2019, to close a pair of “high priority” basins at Sutton. In November, Duke cited permitting delays, Hurricanes Matthew and Florence and other unforeseen challenges to request an additional six months to close the basins.

TRISTA TALTON: Law Tweaks Coastal Barrier Resource Act (Coastal Review Online reports) — A portion of North Topsail Beach is being removed from a longstanding designation that exempts property owners from receiving federal aid. H.R. 5787, The Strengthening Coastal Communities Act of 2018, recently signed by President Donald Trump, amends the Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, to create more accurate digital maps of units of the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System, or CBRS.

JEFF HAMPTON: Frequent flooding causes Nags Head to get creative about resolving problems (Virginian-Pilot reports) — Engineers are trying different ways to drain neighborhoods that flood frequently, including pumping water from below ground before a storm arrives. Nags Head rain totals have surpassed normal levels by nearly 20 inches two of the last three years, inundating streets and homes that used to stay dry even after hurricanes.

PETER ST. ONGE: 10 years after the Miracle on the Hudson, he’s soared (Charlotte Observer column) — In the 10 years since he was a passenger on Flight 1549, Clay Presley has been asked one question more than any other: What has he accomplished in his life since that day Capt. Chesley Sullenberger skimmed an Airbus 320 safely on the Hudson River? Presley figures he’ll get that question today, too, so he pulls out a notepad and places it on his lap. “I made a list,” he says.

JESSICA PATRICK: Corolla Wild Horse Fund announces death of stallion (WRAL-TV reports) -- The Corolla Wild Horse Fund in the Outer Banks is mourning the death of one of their stallions.