NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD Sunday, June 25th, 2023
WEEKLY EDITION #422
This blog 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 stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain
Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern
North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern
Missouri: Wednesday Evenings
Kansas: Monday Evenings
Please jump the fold for NC news you might have missed.
Half of all NC wetlands in jeopardy because of state legislation, court ruling
NC Newsline, Lisa Sorg, 6/23/2023
The removal of these protections would mean “more severe flooding for homes, roads and businesses, and dirtier water for our people, especially in eastern North Carolina,” his veto message read. “The General Assembly has allocated tens of millions of dollars to protect the state from flooding, and my administration is working to stop pollution, like PFAS and other contaminants. This bill reverses our progress and leaves the state vulnerable without vital flood mitigation and water purification tools.”
Roughly 2.5 million acres of wetlands composing 7% of North Carolina’s land mass could lose environmental protection, the fallout of a one-two punch by state lawmakers and the U.S. Supreme Court.
The figures are based on preliminary estimates by the NC Department of Environmental Quality, which show that another 367,000 acres are at moderate risk of losing protection. That means the wetlands could be filled in, paved and polluted without penalty.
Grady McCallie, policy director for the NC Conservation Network, issued a statement about the governor’s veto: “Gov. Cooper’s rejection of S582 — a bill that would strip protection from at least half of North Carolina’s wetlands — is a sensible use of his veto power. Losing these wetlands would worsen future floods, threaten drinking water, and put lives and property in harm’s way. We urge members of the NC General Assembly to take the responsible course and let the veto stand.”
bluenc, 6/19/2023
We've discussed shutting down this blog several times over the years, but due to a confluence of events the time has come to say our goodbyes. Our website hosting situation has become untenable, and neither James nor I have the desire to pursue alternatives. As you probably are already aware, James suffered some strokes recently and is struggling with some functional issues, and my work hours leave me very little time (or energy) to produce content, at least not at the level that would keep this site as a viable information source. The site itself may remain live for weeks; we are not turning off the switch, but it will be turned off when GoDaddy realizes they are no longer going to be paid for doing nothing. But we didn't want to leave without giving readers some good alternative information sources, so follow me below the fold and prepare to bookmark some stuff:
(Please read the story for more)
I’ve depended on bluenc for over a decade while pulling together news stories that I thought would be useful for readers of this blog. They will be sorely missed.
News&Observer, Ryan Oehrli, 6/24/2023
Vice President Kamala Harris told a crowd of supporters Saturday in Charlotte that the Biden administration will stand firm for abortion rights amid Republican challenges nationally and in North Carolina. “We, all of us, are now called upon to advance the promise of freedom, including the freedom of every woman to make decisions about her own body,” Harris told the crowd. She likened the cause of abortion rights to those taken up by past generations, including Civil Rights activists in Greensboro.
Harris spoke at the Grady Cole Center on the one-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and weeks after North Carolina’s Republican-led General Assembly voted to ban most abortions in the state after 12 weeks. Republicans overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of Senate Bill 20 this month. They were making last-minute changes to it on Thursday, the Raleigh News & Observer reported. The new restrictions will go into effect July 1.
“Next week, overruling the will of the people, North Carolina will be the latest state with an extreme ban, in spite of the best efforts of Gov. Roy Cooper,” Harris said.
Thank you for reading and contributing, I hope your week is safe and good.