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News, Top Stories July 18, 2019 9:05 am

‘Scare tactics’: Istation, company awarded controversial state K-3 reading contract sends cease and desist letters to critics

Another cease and desist letter was sent Monday to Justin Parmenter, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg teacher who has been chronicling the Istation and Amplify controversy on his blog, “Notes from the Chalkboard.” In his blogposts, some of which have been shared 15,000 times, he says the change to Istation will result in “increased screen time” and “reduced human interaction” for K-3 students who are tested on reading.

News, Noteworthy, Top Stories July 18, 2019 1:30 am

GOP maps, racial data consume third day of redistricting trial

After slogging through a mass of statistical data and redistricting jargon, day three of Common Cause v. Lewis brought the court back to the fundamental questions: the constitutionality of Republicans’ gerrymandered maps and the legal implications of the controversial Hofeller files.

News, Top Stories July 16, 2019 1:36 am

First day of redistricting trial raises questions about court’s role in the matter

The case is about how lawmakers — both Republican and Democrat — abuse power to stay in power, said Stanton Jones, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

News, Top Stories July 15, 2019 4:00 am

In Common Cause v. Lewis, courts will again take on partisan gerrymandering

This lawsuit challenging partisan gerrymanders of legislative districts drawn in 2017 is expected to draw national attention as similar lawsuits move forward across the country. Common Cause NC, the N.C. Democratic Party, and a handful of individuals last year filed a redistricting lawsuit against the N.C. General Assembly. Republicans violated the state constitution by carving out voting districts to their advantage, disenfranchising voters, plaintiffs said. GOP lawmakers denied any legal wrongdoing.

News, Noteworthy, Top Stories July 11, 2019 11:57 am

‘A risk to democracy’: North Carolina law may be violating secrecy of the ballot

When the secrecy of the ballot is compromised, the threat to the privacy of the voter is not a small one. It was discovered last year that North Carolina has preserved millions of ballots that can be traced to individual voters.

News, Noteworthy, Top Stories July 10, 2019 8:56 pm

‘Poor people generally don’t vote for your party, so you want them to die’: Cone Hospital exec tells state health board to ‘burn in hell.’

Cone’s assistant director of finance Frank Kauder said in a July 1 message to the health plan’s mostly volunteer board of trustees that changes they made in hospital reimbursement were driven by insensitive, partisan political considerations.

Living, Noteworthy, Press Releases, Top Stories July 10, 2019 10:27 am

News Release: Local Parks Departments Launch Piedmont Discovery App

The City of Greensboro, the City of High Point and Guilford County have partnered to launch Piedmont Discovery, a mobile phone app where residents and visitors can search for hundreds of local parks, trails and recreational opportunities. The app is available in the Google Play Store and the Apple Store.

Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories July 8, 2019 1:01 am

Redistricting should favor voters

Republicans should see what happened to the previous Democratic majority as a cautionary tale. If the Democrats of 2009-10 had advanced reform themselves, in particular by submitting for voter approval a constitutional amendment governing the redistricting process, that would have placed constraints on what Republican line-drawers could have done in 2011. Of course, Democrats didn’t think they’d lose the 2010 elections. Politicians are often overconfident.

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