NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, September 4, 2022
380TH WEEKLY EDITION
This is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. We hope this weekly platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please join us every week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads.
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POSTED COVID data 9/4/2022 1:00pm EDT North Carolina
Click here for Covid-19 data from Worldometer Real Time World Statistics.
Total Cases New Cases Total Deaths New Deaths Total Recovered Active
8/28 3,098,923 25,843 3,006,390 66,690
9/4 3,123,308 26,338 3,057,471 39,499
Track NC Covid Data Track NC Vaccine Data
Facing South, Sue Sturgis, 9/2/2022
Environmental, civil rights, and community groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Michael Regan for exempting hundreds of toxic coal ash dumps nationwide from a rule designed to protect the environment and public health.
The nonprofit legal group Earthjustice filed the federal lawsuit on Aug. 25 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The plaintiffs in the case are Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment in Tennessee, the Indiana State Conference and LaPorte County Branch of the NAACP, Hoosier Environmental Council in Indiana, Clean Power Lake County in Illinois, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Integrity Project.
"Power plant records reveal that about half of the toxic coal ash waste in the U.S. is entirely exempt from any federal health protections," said plaintiffs' attorney Mychal Ozeta with Earthjustice. "This is outrageous. The coal power industry is poisoning drinking water sources and the air we breathe while causing global warming."
Coal ash is the waste left after burning coal for power and contains toxic substances including arsenic, lead, mercury, and radium. The EPA has acknowledged that the risks to humans associated with coal ash exposure include cancers, neurological and psychiatric problems, cardiovascular damage, and anemia.
More in depth stories from Facing South last week
In 1881, tobacco mogul James Buchanan "Buck" Duke and his W. Duke, Sons and Co. of Durham, North Carolina, ventured into new territory for the South: cigarette making.
"The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America,"
WRAL, Michael Waldrum, 9/1/2022
When the new ECU Health brand was announced earlier this year, it was launched with a singular vision: To solve complex health care challenges preventing eastern North Carolina from realizing its immense potential. We know that a strong and vibrant health care system is necessary to grow and sustain healthy communities.
Our region, which is home to 1.4 million hard-working people, faces disproportionate rates of chronic conditions – conditions that, when not managed early, result in high medical bills and financial hardship, particularly for those without insurance.
I am proud of the work we’ve done here in the east to create a premier academic health care system and none of this is possible without the incredible work by our health care professionals. They are living the ECU Health mission each and every day by purposefully delivering health care in our communities and training the next generation of health care professionals.
While we have much to be grateful for, it is also necessary to recognize the current state of health care across the nation, within all of North Carolina and here at home. Health systems and hospitals are facing financial challenges largely driven by the pandemic, labor shortages, inflation and market disruptions.
Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin, 9/1/2022
Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball both rank the race for the open Senate seat in North Carolina as “Leans Republican.” But it by no means tells the full story of the current campaign.
The Republican candidate, Rep. Ted Budd — a staunch right-winger boosted by former president Donald Trump’s endorsement — has voted against everything from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill to access to contraception to the CHIPS Act. As Axios reports, Budd has also “left the door open to banning abortion in cases where a mother’s life could be at risk as well as in cases of rape and incest.” He is ahead of his Democratic opponent by less than three points according to FiveThirtyEight. Yet the race has been only lightly covered in the national media.
It might behoove political watchers to start paying attention. Democrats have nominated Cheri Beasley, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court. She would be the first Black senator from North Carolina (and only the third Black woman senator in U.S. history).
During a telephone interview, Beasley stressed: “North Carolina has 100 counties. I’ve visited them all. I’ve spent a lot of time in rural communities.” Her message is that she will represent the entire state and deliver benefits for North Carolinians, while Budd, she says, has “stood for corporate and special interests.” She argues that issues such as the CHIPS bill and reducing prescription drug costs are not “partisan.” “Republican farmers are feeling the impact of climate change on their income,” she notes. “If you cannot afford prescription drugs, these are not partisan issues.”
Business Insider, Beatrice Nolan, 9/2/2022
- Student-loan forgiveness is taxable income in North Carolina, the state's Department of Revenue said.
- The Biden administration's student-loan-forgiveness plan is exempt from federal taxes.
- The debt relief is triggering individual state taxes in North Carolina and Mississippi.
Student-loan forgiveness will be considered taxable income in North Carolina, the state's Department of Revenue said on Wednesday.
Although the Biden administration's student-loan-forgiveness plan is exempt from federal tax, the debt relief is triggering some individual state taxes.
In North Carolina, student-loan relief is taxable because the state has not fully adopted a specific section of the Internal Revenue Code. Congress used the provision — Section 108(f)(5) — to exempt forgiven student loans from between 2015 and 2021 from federal taxes as part of the American Rescue Plan Act.
Thanks for reading and contributing, I hope you enjoy a safe week.