As has so often been the case with a legislature that refuses to work and negotiate in good faith, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein had little choice last week but to sign the so-called mini-budget that state lawmakers approved a few days earlier.

With the new fiscal year already well-underway and numerous vital public programs and services in jeopardy, Stein understandably had no appetite for provoking a crisis by vetoing what he rightfully described as a “Band-Aid budget.”

All that said, the mini-budget bill is deeply and destructively flawed.

Among many other things: it fails to provide meaningful raises for teachers and state employees, fails to provide the minimum funding required to keep the state’s Medicaid program healthy, and fails to renew the hugely successful Healthy Opportunities Program that had slashed health expenditures and improved outcomes for low-income Medicaid enrollees.

The bottom line: The mini-budget is but the latest example of legislative leaders failing to fulfill their basic duties of governance. All North Carolinians should demand better.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The next time someone tries tell you that the North Carolinians with Medicaid health insurance are lazy slackers who participate in a wasteful program that warrants the massive bloodletting President Trump just approved, tell them talk to an actual frightened person who depends on the program.

Someone like Maddie Wertenberg. She’s a Wake County mom who had private health insurance, but who still only avoided being stuck with life-altering hospital bills for the care of her premature baby, because he was so tiny he qualified for Medicaid.

Or someone like Crystal Upchurch. She’s a lifetime Raleigh resident who is only alive because Medicaid covers the cost of the daily dialysis treatments she receives.

The bottom line: Proponents of Trump’s big bill may say they have no intention of cutting off people like Maddie and Crystal, but the massive funding cuts make it inevitable that vast numbers of people with similar stories will be sentenced to crippling debt and premature death. And the sheer cruelty at work here, and the terror its inflicting on millions of good people, is hard to overstate.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Early childhood education. Across much of the rest of the world, free, public early childhood education is a basic right.

At a time in which it’s necessary for almost all parents to work in order to make ends meet, these nations have long recognized that there’s no good reason to hold off on providing free public education until children enter Kindergarten.

If it hopes to continue to compete and advance, at some point, the U.S. simply must move to make free public education from birth a basic right.

Until that time, however, there are some obvious and commonsense steps that should be taken in order to make early childhood education more affordable, and to its credit, a state task force led by Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt recently recommended several – including raising state child care subsidies, establishing partnerships with North Carolina public schools and universities and creating a state child care endowment.

The bottom line: The current state child care system is broken. And the task force recommendations are an obvious first step toward constructing something much better.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Tax policy can be maddeningly complex and confusing. Indeed, keeping it that way is one tool the super-rich use to avoid paying their fair share.

As Alexandra Sirota of the nonpartisan North Carolina Budget and Tax Center recently observed, however, it doesn’t have to be that way.

As she notes, there’s a simple and commonsense solution that would dramatically improve our state’s regressive tax system and raise close to a billion dollars per year – a millionaire’s tax.

By raising the state personal income tax rate on annual incomes over a million dollars to seven percent – a rate that would still be lower than what millionaires paid as recently as 2013 – North Carolina would realize an annual boost in state revenue of around $980 million. That would be enough to help insulate the state from the massive cuts in federal dollars that are about to be enacted in Washington.

The bottom line: Right now, North Carolina taxes people of fabulous wealth and those living in poverty at the exact same rate. A simple millionaire’s tax would do much to cure this grave inequity.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There are many things that have changed for the better in North Carolina prisons over the last century.

That said, it’s also true that North Carolina summers have always been miserably hot and that commercial air conditioning was first introduced nearly a century ago — facts that render the lack of air conditioning in many of our state’s prisons today an absolute scandal.

The Department of Correction has been pursuing an initiative to finally end this tortuous situation, but there remains a long way to go as many facilities remain unairconditioned.

And that harsh reality is a threat to everyone in the facility – guards and incarcerated people alike – especially men and women prisoners who are elderly and in bad health.

The bottom line: As with the lack of adequate staff and so many other inhumanities in our prison system, it’s our cheapskate legislature’s refusal to appropriate adequate funds that is ultimately to blame. One wishes each lawmaker would have to spend a summer night in one of these facilities to experience the cruel and unusual punishment their inaction is inflicting.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Ever since North Carolina legislators established the so-called “Opportunity Scholarships” school voucher program, sponsors and proponents have pitched it as a means of helping low-income students escape struggling public schools.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, a new report from the Department of Public Instruction shows that this was all baloney. The DPI researchers found that just sixty-seven hundred of the state’s eighty-thousand-plus vouchers in the current school year went to students who had attended a North Carolina public school in the prior year.

And while the data for kindergartners

were not yet available, it’s clear that as much as ninety percent or more of new vouchers in 24-25 were for students who have never attended a public school.

In other words, the vast majority of voucher money is going to parents – most of them well-off – who never had any intention of sending their kids to public schools.

The bottom line: School vouchers in our state have nothing to do with quote “opportunity” and everything to do with undermining and privatizing public education. Other explanations are simply false.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s no surprise that State Rep. Carla Cunningham – a Democrat from Mecklenburg County — declined to speak with reporters this week after helping to override Gov. Stein’s veto of a mean-spirited and ill-conceived anti-immigrant bill.

That’s what often happens when a politician puts their foot in their mouth.

House Bill 318 will force local sheriffs – even when it makes their communities less safe—to cooperate with federal ICE officials in detaining people merely accused of criminal offenses.

It’s one of the ham-handed tactics the Trump administration has been using to terrorize immigrant communities and round up good people for deportation.

Unfortunately, all of this seems to have escaped Cunningham, who not only provided the decisive ‘yes’ vote, but who also gave an uninformed speech in which she accused immigrants of exploiting and abusing native born Americans and implied that immigrant cultures are inferior.

The bottom line: Cunningham embarrassed herself and her constituents – many of them foreign born – with her cruel rant. One prays she’ll awaken soon from her delusions.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

New research from the national news organization Stateline highlights some of the big flaws in the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

While the administration has made much of its supposed commitment to cracking down on violent criminals and blaming Democrats for failing to do so, the research actually reveals a significant decline in this realm under Trump.

Indeed, the numbers show that while Trump’s ICE has rounded up more people, the Biden administration did a much better job in capturing individuals convicted of serious crimes.

During the first half of 2024, 53% of the people arrested for being unlawfully present in the U.S. had been previously convicted of crimes. Under Trump, the number has dropped to 40% as ICE has resorted to mass roundups. Arrests for those not convicted of any crime have nearly tripled.

The bottom line: When combined with the practice of using terror tactics like masked officers and ignoring due process, these numbers reveal an immigration enforcement regime that is at once cruel, incompetent and un-American. The need for change is urgent.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has the potential to spur amazing advances in human society that are definitely worth pursuing.

That said, AI also has the potential to do dreadful harm that we must guard against.

As one of the nation’s tech leaders, OpenAI’s Sam Hartman, explained recently, for all of AI’s amazing potential, it’s also easy to envision a world in which foreign adversaries could use AI to take down the power grid, or break into financial institutions and steal wealth from Americans.

And it’s in light of this that North Carolina leaders should resist proposals from the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans to remove AI guardrails by eliminating safety and environmental regulations and prohibiting states from enacting consumer protections.

The bottom line: As Hartman admitted, there remains much we don’t understand about AI and a real possibility that it could cause society to quote “veer in a sort of strange direction.” Elected leaders should do all they can to maintain human control over this powerful technology.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Twenty years ago, investigative reporter Barry Levine started covering a wealthy socialite named Jeffrey Epstein. Five years ago, after he was convicted of sex crimes and died in jail, Levine published an acclaimed book on Epstein.

And last week, as the controversy surrounding mountains of FBI data and evidence about Epstein slowly consumed the government and threatened the Trump presidency, Levine penned a powerful essay in the New York Times detailing the questions to which Americans deserve answers.

His central message – quote “With the exception of redactions required to protect the innocent and materials that must be withheld while under court seal, the complete F.B.I. files should be released.”

And amazingly in these divided times, most North Carolina Democrats and Republicans agree. As Senator Thom Tillis put it succinctly, “release the damn files.”

The bottom line: President Trump, as well as many other prominent people were close to Epstein and for the good of the country, Americans deserve to know the full truth about whether any of them were involved in his criminality.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Like the rest of the nation, North Carolina faces some enormous policy challenges these days. Thanks to sustained disinvestments in an array of core public services, our state is fast becoming coarser, less healthy and more divided.

Unfortunately, Republican legislative leaders seem unconcerned. Rather than working with Governor Josh Stein to tackle our numerous outsized problems, they spent the recent legislative session advancing divisive culture war bills and failing even to pass a new state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

And now, rather than honestly owning up to and addressing their shortcomings, they’re returning to Raleigh this week to double down on them with a plan to override Stein’s vetoes of several destructive and hyper-partisan bills. And the overdue budget? It’s nowhere in sight.

The bottom line: Caring and thinking lawmakers of both parties should take a stand against this failed and divisive strategy by sustaining Stein’s vetoes and sending a message to legislative leaders that it’s past time to end the games and work together for the good of all North Carolinians.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Over the last 87 years – particularly during the 20th Century – few innovations in the American economy have done more to lift up average people than the minimum wage.

As it was first conceived and applied, the federal minimum wage law assured that a person who worked full-time was paid enough to support their family. And for many decades, the minimum wage actually worked that way.

Unfortunately, in recent decades—thanks to opposition from the political right – the federal minimum wage has remained mired at the absurdly inadequate level of seven dollars and twenty-five cents per hour. Indeed, it was 16 years ago today that it was raised to that level.

And while many states and cities have gone ahead and raised their minimum wages to much higher levels in recent years, in most others – including North Carolina – it’s still legal to pay the pitiful sum of seven-twenty-five an hour.

The bottom line: It’s long past time to once again make the minimum wage a living wage, and the failure of Congress and the North Carolina legislature to do so is simply inexcusable.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There was always something that didn’t quite add up when American conservatives complained about federal budget deficits. Despite their supposed commitment to fiscal discipline, no factor has played a larger role in soaring deficits than Republican tax cuts enacted under presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Indeed, during the administration of President Bill Clinton, modest income tax hikes on corporations and the wealthy helped spur budget surpluses that began to retire the federal debt. Similar strategies during the Obama and Biden years led to declining deficits.

Unfortunately, as the Congressional Budget Office reported last week, the new megabill signed into law by President Trump will again cause the deficit to soar by trillions of dollars. Oh, and the CBO notes that it will also cause 10 million people to lose access to health insurance.

The bottom line: The only area in which Trump’s big bill is “conservative” is in the lack of care it extends to human beings. When it comes to fiscal policy, it’s an exercise in undisciplined runaway spending of the highest order.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

When state lawmakers first opened the door to school vouchers in North Carolina, they billed them as quote “opportunity scholarships,” and assured us that their only goal was to help low-income kids escape failing public schools.

Today, more than a decade later, it’s clearer than ever that that explanation was simply part of a deceptive shell game.

As a damning new report from the group Public Schools First highlights, the excuse that vouchers were all about helping poor kids has long been abandoned – along with all income limits on the program — and today vouchers are fully exposed for what they always were: a scheme to undermine public education and have taxpayers fund private schools.

Confirmation of this can be seen in the report’s finding that the state’s private schools (many of which are exclusive and discriminate) have raised their tuition to mirror the subsidy provided by vouchers.

The bottom line: The destructive impact of vouchers on public education in our state continues to be of a magnitude that’s matched only by the blatant dishonesty of the proponents who ushered them in.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

After almost 12 years, it’s familiar by now, but sadly, the pattern in which Senator Thom Tillis raises hopes that he’ll act with courage and then backs down at the last minute continues to repeat itself in maddening fashion.

The latest incident: Tillis’s utterly inexcusable vote last week to endorse President Trump’s nomination of an embarrassingly unqualified lawyer named Emil Bove for a lifetime appointment to a federal appeals court. Bove is so unqualified and has committed so many questionable acts that more than 900 former Justice Department officials weighed in to oppose him.

After Tillis broke with Trump recently on his disastrous megabill and announced his decision to retire next year, it raised hopes that he was now free – not unlike the late John McCain – to put the good of the country ahead of Trump’s demands.

The bottom line: Unfortunately, as his vote last week showed, Tillis is no John McCain. And that means North Carolinians will have to endure a continuing series of inscrutable votes and policy stances for the next 18 months.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s an article of faith on the political far right that the Trump administration’s mass immigrant deportation policies will be a boon to U.S. born workers.

A new report from economists at the Economic Policy Institute, however, finds the opposite to be true and that the net impact of mass deportation on employment – both for immigrants and U.S. born workers – is decidedly negative.

Indeed, the administration’s goal of deporting one-million people per year will lead to a loss of nearly six million jobs over the coming years – more than forty percent of them held by U.S. born workers.

To understand why, consider the following: When houses don’t get built because there aren’t enough immigrant workers to roof them, there are fewer jobs for the U.S. born workers who tend to handle more skilled professions like plumbing and electrical work. Other industries will experience similar phenomena.

The bottom line: The report is entitled “Trump’s deportation agenda will destroy millions of jobs,” and it’s a must read for anyone who cares about our economy. Check it out at epi.org.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The next time someone tries tell you that the North Carolinians with Medicaid health insurance are lazy slackers who participate in a wasteful program that warrants the massive bloodletting President Trump just approved, tell them talk to an actual frightened person who depends on the program.

Someone like Maddie Wertenberg. She’s a Wake County mom who had private health insurance, but who still only avoided being stuck with life-altering hospital bills for the care of her premature baby, because he was so tiny he qualified for Medicaid.

Or someone like Crystal Upchurch. She’s a lifetime Raleigh resident who is only alive because Medicaid covers the cost of the daily dialysis treatments she receives.

The bottom line: Proponents of Trump’s big bill may say they have no intention of cutting off people like Maddie and Crystal, but the massive funding cuts make it inevitable that vast numbers of people with similar stories will be sentenced to crippling debt and premature death. And the sheer cruelty at work here, and the terror its inflicting on millions of good people, is hard to overstate.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

At a time in which our nation continues to experience the regular horror of school shootings, it’s understandable that everyone grasps for ideas – anything – that seems like it might prevent or reduce the terrifying carnage.

The gruesome notion of a disturbed killer gunning down innocent children is enough to make anyone wish that they could be present with a weapon of their own to stop them.

Unfortunately, as understandable as that instinct is, it simply can’t be the basis of public policy. That should be based on a dispassionate assessment of the facts and data, and it’s for that reason that Gov. Josh Stein did the right thing last week by vetoing a bill that would allow private school personnel and volunteers to carry loaded firearms on campus while children are present.

The bottom line: As the Governor rightfully noted, it’s one thing to have armed law enforcement officers with hundreds of hours of training on campus. Turning security over to volunteers with just a few hours as the bill permits would be much more likely to compromise school safety than enhance it.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s no secret that bipartisanship is in short supply these days in state politics and that fact makes it especially tragic, as has happened recently at the state legislature, when opportunities for finding common ground are casually and cynically trashed.

See, for example, an important bill designed to prevent people from being victimized by revenge porn that passed the state House 113-0.

Unfortunately, when it got to the Senate, Republican leaders packed the bill with several right-wing culture war agenda items – including provisions to ban school books and deny health care to transgender people.

A similar thing happened to a bipartisan bill designed to target squatters on private property. It was amended to prevent local governments from regulating puppy mills.

The amendments forced Gov. Stein, rightfully, to veto both bills.

The bottom line: North Carolinians deserve better. If GOP leaders want to advance a conservative policy agenda, they should have the courage to let their proposals rise and fall on their own merit without hijacking important, consensus legislation.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Early childhood education. Across much of the rest of the world, free, public early childhood education is a basic right.

At a time in which it’s necessary for almost all parents to work in order to make ends meet, these nations have long recognized that there’s no good reason to hold off on providing free public education until children enter Kindergarten.

If it hopes to continue to compete and advance, at some point, the U.S. simply must move to make free public education from birth a basic right.

Until that time, however, there are some obvious and commonsense steps that should be taken in order to make early childhood education more affordable, and to its credit, a state task force led by Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt recently recommended several – including raising state child care subsidies, establishing partnerships with North Carolina public schools and universities and creating a state child care endowment.

The bottom line: The current state child care system is broken. And the task force recommendations are an obvious first step toward constructing something much better.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

North Carolina got yet another frightening wake-up call this week about global warming when a modest tropical depression suddenly exploded over the state.

Chantal dumped up to 10 inches of rain in some areas, causing widespread flooding and massive damage.

And while it’s true that there’s nothing new about bad weather, it’s also true that as scientists have repeatedly told us, the frequency and severity of modern storms (like Hurricane Helene) is being greatly worsened by climate change.

Simply put, warmer air holds more water and produces more frequent and intense downpours. And when this situation is combined with aging and obsolete infrastructure and warning systems, disaster often results.

Amazingly and maddeningly however, Republican leaders in Washington and Raleigh are not only doing nothing to address the crisis, they’re making it worse with laws that discourage renewable energy and promote more fossil fuel consumption.

The bottom line: the need for all Americans to rise up and demand an immediate reversal of these disastrous policy choices could not be more urgent.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

President Donald Trump may have only the faintest idea of what’s in the massive budget bill he signed into law last Friday, but sadly, the contents and the destructive impacts they’ll have are no mystery to the nation’s already beleaguered charities.

Last week, North Carolina food banks sent out an urgent alert explaining that the bill’s massive cuts to SNAP food assistance will have devastating effects.

While the state’s food banks provide over 250 million meals each year, they noted, SNAP provides nine times as many. And there’s simply no way for charities to fill the gap left by the impending federal cuts.

Meanwhile, at a gathering of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, advocates told NC Newsline’s Greg Childress that the bill will eliminate funding for more than 166,000 units of Permanent Supportive Housing at a time when homelessness is already spiking to new and alarming levels.

The bottom line: Hunger and homelessness in North Carolina are about to get much worse. And we can all thank Trump and his Republican allies in Congress for making it happen.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

When North Carolinians elected Gov. Josh Stein last fall by a wide margin over former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, they made clear they wanted to put a check on GOP lawmakers’ ambitions to take the state down extreme right-wing paths.

And in recent days, to his great credit, Stein has validated the trust that voters placed in him by vetoing a series of extreme and ill-conceived bills.

As the governor made clear in rejecting bills that would, among other things, roll back environmental protections and raise residential electric bills, invest new and unprecedented powers in the state auditor, effectively deregulate charter schools, and enact a virtually incoherent ban on diversity, equity and inclusion in state government, Republican lawmakers have lost their way.

The bottom line: At a time when teachers, law enforcement, and state employees need pay raises and people need shorter lines at the DMV, Stein observed, the legislature needs to get to work and pass a budget and stop wasting time with divisive culture war bills.

And the voters said: Amen.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Today is Independence Day – the holiday on which Americans celebrate the birth of our nation as a free country that’s untethered to any monarch or supreme ruler.

This year’s holiday seems especially important to lift up at a time in which President Trump continues to trash guardrail after guardrail in an unprecedented bid to exercise autocratic one-person rule.

One leader who should be especially attuned to this situation and the need for strong action to curb Trump’s ambitions is North Carolina U.S. Senator Thom Tillis.

Earlier this week, Tillis took the honorable path of voting against Trump’s disastrous mega-bill and then announcing he will not seek reelection next year. And this presents him with a unique opportunity for independence from the Trump machine in the 18 months he has left in office.

The bottom line: With both houses of Congress divided by razor-thin margins, Senator Tillis’s declaration of independence gives him the chance to be the most important and impactful politician for good from North Carolina in decades. One prays he rises to the challenge.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

A study released this week by researchers at NC State University highlights the destructive impact that a bill sent to Gov. Stein by the General Assembly last week will have on electric ratepayers.

The bill, which bears the inaccurate and misleading title “Power Bill Reduction Act,” would repeal a bipartisan 2021 law that committed our state to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 70 percent by the year 2030, as we move to achieve carbon neutrality by mid-century.

If the proposal were only about the environmental damage it will likely cause it would be bad enough, but as the NC State professors found, the bill will also significantly increase electricity bills for average households.

This is because it will incentivize Duke Energy to build more natural gas-fired electric generation plants—the price of natural gas is notoriously volatile—and shift the allocation of fuel costs from industrial to residential customers.

The bottom line: A bill this bad for consumers and the environment is richly deserving of a gubernatorial veto.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s a sad commentary on the power of the right-wing misinformation machine in modern America that simple and enormously positive concepts like diversity, equity and inclusion have been twisted so that some perceive them in a negative light.

What’s next on the hit list? Words like love, tolerance and common ground?

Tragically, however, as North Carolina Republican legislators made clear last week, they’re serious about this perverse crusade – so serious that they recently passed legislation that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion in state government.

The bill is so ill-conceived and poorly written that it would likely prohibit state agencies from recruiting employees at women’s colleges and HBCU’s.

Even programs to help accommodate the needs of veterans and people with disabilities would likely be unlawful.

The bottom line: The sponsors of this legislation claim that their attacks on DEI are about promoting equal opportunity. In truth they’re about promoting three words that are the opposite of DEI – call it UIE: uniformity, inequity and exclusion.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

In recent years, North Carolina Republican lawmakers have perfected the practice of rigging elections through partisan gerrymandering.

The situation has gotten so bad that they don’t even pretend anymore. They not only openly rig districts to disenfranchise voters who don’t vote Republican, they openly admit and brag about it.

And now, in a bill rammed through a House committee last week in record time, they’re bringing the same approach to election laws and the people who administer them.

Under a bill unveiled last week right before lawmakers commenced a summer break, the staff of the state Board of Elections – a group that’s always been scrupulously nonpartisan – would be transformed so that more than a third of existing staff positions would be converted to political appointees selected only by Republicans.

The bill includes other objectionable provisions too, including one that, –I’m not making this up– prevents local election boards from encouraging people to vote.

The bottom line: Election rigging through gerrymandering in our state is already scandalous. The new proposal is simply a travesty.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Tax policy can be maddeningly complex and confusing. Indeed, keeping it that way is one tool the super-rich use to avoid paying their fair share.

As Alexandra Sirota of the nonpartisan North Carolina Budget and Tax Center recently observed, however, it doesn’t have to be that way.

As she notes, there’s a simple and commonsense solution that would dramatically improve our state’s regressive tax system and raise close to a billion dollars per year – a millionaire’s tax.

By raising the state personal income tax rate on annual incomes over a million dollars to seven percent – a rate that would still be lower than what millionaires paid as recently as 2013 – North Carolina would realize an annual boost in state revenue of around $980 million. That would be enough to help insulate the state from the massive cuts in federal dollars that are about to be enacted in Washington.

The bottom line: Right now, North Carolina taxes people of fabulous wealth and those living in poverty at the exact same rate. A simple millionaire’s tax would do much to cure this grave inequity.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s not that often that floor debates in the North Carolina legislature shed much light on important subjects.

One impressive exception to this rule took place this week, however, when Durham Democratic Senator Sophia Chitlik addressed a bill that would ban diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in state government.

In her remarks, Chitlik pointed out a glaring problem that has afflicted numerous bills advanced by Republican lawmakers this year – bills that that they, the sponsors, claim are designed to end all discrimination and promote quote “equal opportunity.” Namely, they were all drafted and sponsored exclusively by white men.

As Chitlik’s remarks served to highlight, the Senate features several members from groups long targeted for blatant discrimination in our society – women, people off color, LGBTQ people – and it only stands to reason that any bill worth its salt on the subject would include at least some involvement from them. But of course, they don’t.

The bottom line: The anti-DEI bills aren’t about ending discrimination — they’re about protecting it. Arguments to the contrary are simply delusional.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There are many things that have changed for the better in North Carolina prisons over the last century.

That said, it’s also true that North Carolina summers have always been miserably hot and that commercial air conditioning was first introduced nearly a century ago — facts that render the lack of air conditioning in many of our state’s prisons today an absolute scandal.

The Department of Correction has been pursuing an initiative to finally end this tortuous situation, but there remains a long way to go as many facilities remain unairconditioned.

And that harsh reality is a threat to everyone in the facility – guards and incarcerated people alike – especially men and women prisoners who are elderly and in bad health.

The bottom line: As with the lack of adequate staff and so many other inhumanities in our prison system, it’s our cheapskate legislature’s refusal to appropriate adequate funds that is ultimately to blame. One wishes each lawmaker would have to spend a summer night in one of these facilities to experience the cruel and unusual punishment their inaction is inflicting.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

A new report from researchers at the national Commonwealth Fund finds that North Carolina has made enormous strides in assuring that people receive the right health care at the right time and are able to avoid hospital stays and emergency room visits by receiving timely care.

The percentage of North Carolina adults who reported that there was a time in the previous year that they didn’t go to the doctor when they needed to because they couldn’t afford it dropped by almost half between 2013 and 2023.

The main reasons for the progress – enactment of the federal Affordable Care Act and other improvements to the Medicaid insurance program.

Unfortunately, the report also notes that much, if not all, of this progress is placed in jeopardy by the Republican mega-bill making its way through Congress that would slash Medicaid funding and enact new and bureaucratic work requirements.

The bottom line: Now is the time to build on past success in improving health care access, not backtrack. Senators Tills and Budd should oppose the proposed cuts.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Bipartisanship is in precious short supply these days in politics and that makes it especially tragic when elected officials waste rare opportunities to advance it.

Unfortunately, that’s what’s happening in the North Carolina Senate.

In its original form, House Bil 805 was a commonsense proposal to crack down on the sexual exploitation of women and children. It passed 113-0.

Last week, however, Senate Republicans took this important bill and loaded it up with several deeply controversial and divisive items from the far right social agenda.

Among the changes: provisions designed to make it harder for transgender people to get the health care they need and a series of new burdens on public school teachers and librarians that will create banned book lists and allow parents to veto instruction in subjects (like evolution) they claim offend their religious beliefs.

The bottom line: The Senate amendments ruin an important bipartisan bill with divisive and ill-conceived changes. The House should reject them.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s summer beach season again. Over the coming months, millions of visitors will flock to the North and South Carolina coastlines and fuel a tourism-based economy that’s critically important to both states.

Unfortunately, powerful forces could soon jeopardize this amazing natural and economic resource by opening it to offshore oil and gas drilling.

Thankfully, a bipartisan chorus is pushing back. Recently, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Josh Stein and his Republican counterpart from South Carolina, Henry McMaster, called on the Trump administration to maintain the current drilling moratorium.

As the governors noted, quote “Because of the significant risks associated with offshore oil and gas exploration, every North Carolina and South Carolina coastal municipality has passed a resolution opposing offshore drilling and seismic testing.”

The bottom line: Especially as the global climate crisis worsens, offshore oil and gas drilling is the last thing our fragile coastline needs. Kudos to Governors Stein and McMaster for taking a strong stand.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

These are passionately divided times in our country.

And at such a moment, it’s imperative that all Americans – and especially our elected leaders – disavow violence or even the appearance of endorsing it.

And it’s in light of this that Wake County State Rep. Julie von Haefen was clearly in error recently for briefly posting an image on social media of a protester’s sign that portrayed a guillotine and a head resembling President Trump.

To her credit, though, von Haefen quickly realized her mistake, took down the image, and publicly apologized. Would that the conservative politicians attacking her in the aftermath of the incident would do likewise.

Indeed, that should start with Trump himself, who both as a candidate and president, has made violent imagery and threats targeting his opponents a central part of his speeches for years.

The bottom line: Emotions can run high in politics and sometimes people get carried away. Rep. von Haefen learned this lesson the hard way. Her honest admission and pledge to do better should inspire leaders of all parties to follow suit.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

One of the most disturbing developments of the second Trump administration has been the President’s clear effort to encourage U.S. military service members to endorse his political views and exhibit loyalty to him personally.

This pattern was on display last week at Fort Bragg where Trump inappropriately sought to engage the troops in booing former President Biden and other elected leaders.

This represents a deeply troubling break with 250 years of well-established law and tradition in which servicemembers swear loyalty to the Constitution – not any individual.

Fortunately, many veterans of all parties and persuasions are forcefully pushing back. Many were in attendance across the nation at last Saturday’s “No Kings” events where they loudly, proudly and repeatedly rejected Trump’s offensive impersonation of a would-be autocrat.

The bottom line: the United States is a nation of laws that no individual is above. And try as he might, our veterans have made clear this is not a principle that Donald Trump should or will succeed in destroying.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The first months of North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein’s administration have been marked by a striking lack of hostility and conflict. To his credit, Stein has worked diligently to build bridges and find common ground with Republicans – both in Raleigh and Washington. He’s yet to veto a bill.

Unfortunately, this move toward the center has won little reciprocation from the GOP and this fact is evidenced in a bill approved by the General Assembly last week.

Senate Bill 50 would, with few exceptions, allow any person in the state 18 and older to carry a concealed weapon without a permit of any kind.

Yes — you heard that right. Under the bill, most high school seniors would be entitled to carry a loaded, hidden handgun virtually anywhere they choose. No training of any kind would be required.

And you really can’t make this up.

The bottom line: The bill was approved by a large margin, but there were enough ‘no’ votes to indicate lawmakers can sustain a gubernatorial veto. Gov. Stein should issue such a veto and work to make it stick.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Americans have long maintained a healthy instinct to be skeptics. We pride ourselves on demanding proof.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the explosion of social media in which every person has a public platform has allowed this natural skepticism to fuel a situation in which distinctly unscientific conspiracy theories get way too much attention.

And this, tragically, has led millions of people to waiver in their faith in science.

This trend is on display right now in Washington where federal budget writers are planning to slash scientific research funding at a time in which the need in numerous realms — like combating disease and developing clean energy – has never been greater.

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And that would be a terrible mistake.

The bottom line: Science — genuine science — is the ultimate expression of a skepticism-based search for the truth. By forsaking it, we head down a very dangerous road indeed.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

As long as the United States is going to maintain immigration laws, it’s a given that unauthorized people will be subject to arrest and deportation. This fact is not terribly controversial.

That said, there should be enormous controversy over the way federal officials are now carrying out this work.

Simply put: we don’t have secret police in the United States. Or at least we shouldn’t.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to describe Trump administration immigration enforcement actions in any other way.

Time and again in recent months – here in North Carolina and around the nation — masked individuals in unmarked vehicles have swooped in and spirited people away to undisclosed locations.

And whatever the alleged status or crime of these arrested people – this is just plain wrong and un-American.

The bottom line: It’s a fundamental premise of the U.S. Constitution that no person in our country can be deprived of liberty without due process. When government starts evading this guarantee – even for non-citizens — it places all of our freedoms in grave jeopardy.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Ever since North Carolina legislators established the so-called “Opportunity Scholarships” school voucher program, sponsors and proponents have pitched it as a means of helping low-income students escape struggling public schools.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, a new report from the Department of Public Instruction shows that this was all baloney. The DPI researchers found that just sixty-seven hundred of the state’s eighty-thousand-plus vouchers in the current school year went to students who had attended a North Carolina public school in the prior year.

And while the data for kindergartners were not yet available, it’s clear that as much as ninety percent or more of new vouchers in 24-25 were for students who have never attended a public school.

In other words, the vast majority of voucher money is going to parents – most of them well-off – who never had any intention of sending their kids to public schools.

The bottom line: School vouchers in our state have nothing to do with quote “opportunity” and everything to do with undermining and privatizing public education. Other explanations are simply false.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

If North Carolinians lived in a perfect world, everyone would have easy access to plenty of healthy and affordable food, the self-control to resist junk food, and genes that would let them stay active, trim and fit throughout their lives.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in such a world.

And it’s in light of this that it was a no-brainer for state Health and Human Services officials to make prescriptions for weight-loss drugs a covered expense under the state Medicaid program.

As Jonathan Ray – a Charlotte physician assistant – wrote in a recent essay for NC Newsline, these medicines have helped thousands upon thousands of people to achieve significant weight loss, improve their metabolic health, and reduce the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.

Unfortunately, recent actions by state legislative leaders could end the funding for these essential medications.

The bottom line: In the imperfect world we inhabit, weight-loss drugs save health, lives and money. It would be cruel and foolish to end Medicaid coverage for these essential medicines.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

If ever there was a once controversial issue in modern society that has since become a settled matter, it is the question of cannabis legalization. While there’s no doubt that cannabis – that is, marijuana and THC products – raises important public health challenges, it’s also clear that this cow is not going back in the barn.

Indeed, with cannabis possession and sales now fully legal for most Americans, it’s absurd and unjust that a few states, including North Carolina, still criminalize possession – even for medical purposes.

And it’s in light of this simple truth that Gov. Josh Stein’s recent decision to establish a new task force on the subject is a welcome and overdue step.

As Stein notes, the current system that criminalizes some products and leaves other similar ones totally unregulated makes no sense.

The bottom line: It’s long past time for North Carolina to legalize cannabis. But it’s also essential that legalization occur in a way that protects consumers – particularly kids – and public health. Let’s hope Stein’s task force helps make it happen.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

One of the most encouraging public health initiatives to come along in several years is a state Department of Health and Human Services pilot program launched in 2022 called “Healthy Opportunities.”

The program is based on the simple premise that providing for food, transportation, housing, and other non-medical health-related needs of people enrolled in Medicaid would improve their physical health.

And you know what? It did. Program participants were healthier and ended up in hospital emergency rooms less. Indeed, when researchers compared health care costs in the 12 months before and the 12 months after enrollment in Healthy Opportunities, they found cost savings of 85 dollars per person per month.

Talk about improving health care system efficiency.

Unfortunately, neither of the recent budget bills passed by the state House and Senate would keep the program up and running and that’s a big mistake.

The bottom line: Healthy Opportunities is the kind of commonsense program the state needs more of, not less. Lawmakers should find the money to keep and expand it.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s hard to fathom in a proposal that includes billions upon billions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, but one of the most significant changes included in the massive budget bill approved by the U.S. House late last month was this: big cuts to the nation’s main anti-hunger program.

Under the legislation, millions of people would lose SNAP food assistance benefits. Meanwhile, states would be saddled with 14 billion dollars in new costs.

And the impacts will be felt in the stomachs of families across the nation.

As Raleigh-area Congresswoman Deborah Ross explained last week, in her district – one of the state’s more affluent ones  – 20,000 of her adult constituents will lose all of their SNAP benefits.

Statewide, a total of almost half a million people will lose benefits and the cuts will ripple through grocery stores and the economy as a whole.

The bottom line: Rep. Ross is right. The Republican budget will cause irreparable harm to the people of our state. All caring and thinking North Carolinians should support her effort to push back.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

If you get a chance, check out a recent essay authored by retired Legislative Fiscal Analyst Richard Bostic. It was posted by Raleigh’s News & Observer.

In it, Bostic, who spent 31 years advising state legislative leaders, issues a loud and clear warning about the fiscal cliff toward which our state is speeding.

His simple and straightforward message: it’s imperative that GOP lawmakers rethink their massive, planned cuts to corporate and personal income taxes.

And his reasoning is equally straightforward.

Several core public structures and services – schools, state employee pay and retiree benefits, infrastructure – are already inadequate even as our population is growing and aging.

Now add the looming threats of climate change, federal funding cuts and an economic downturn and the picture grows even more ominous.

The bottom line: As Bostic observes, delaying or repealing planned tax cuts isn’t just about balancing a spreadsheet — it’s about protecting our schools, our infrastructure and our people. State lawmakers should heed this insightful warning.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Among the most important public policy developments in North Carolina over the last several decades was the rise of one of the nation’s strongest networks of consumer advocacy nonprofits.

Together with elected leaders from both major parties, these advocates helped make North Carolina a state to avoid for predatory lenders who target consumers with high interest loans and fees and abusive collection tactics.

Indeed, the successes in this area were so numerous that following the Great Recession, they helped inspire the establishment of a federal government agency known as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Unfortunately, as you might expect, laws and lawyers that target scammers and predators are anathema to President Trump, and he and Republicans in the U.S. House are working hard to gut or abolish the agency.

The bottom line: Last week, a coalition of activists and small business owners pleaded with Senator Thom Tillis to help protect the agency. Their simple message: stand with the people of North Carolina, not the billionaires. Let’s fervently hope he was listening.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

North Carolina’s economy has undergone many important transitions over the last several decades. But in recent years there’s been no more promising arrival on the scene than the electric vehicle industry.

As experts at the national Electrification Coalition pointed out last week, federal EV tax credits have helped spur the creation of more than sixteen thousand jobs and over twenty billion dollars in investments in the state in recent years. And, of course, these are jobs and investments that are not only good for the state’s economy, but for the world as it struggles to end its heroin-like addiction to fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, the massive budget and tax bill approved by the U.S. House last week places all of this in jeopardy by eliminating several tax credits supporting the industry.

The bottom line: Our nation currently spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. The least North Carolina’s congressional delegation can do is help to retain some modest subsidies for an industry of the future that helps our people and our planet.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s a universal rule of local government that nobody likes their property tax bill or the way their property is assessed. By any measure, the assessors have a tough and thankless job.

That said, it’s also true that there are unjust assessments and sometimes they’re the byproduct of historical bias and discrimination that affect large numbers of property owners. And right now, that appears to be the case in some North Carolina communities.

As NC Newsline reported last week, advocates in Orange County recently provided compelling evidence that residents of some historically Black neighborhoods are experiencing this injustice.

The advocates say newer larger homes in those neighborhoods – typically owned by white investors — are undervalued while older homes owned by longtime Black residents are systematically overvalued.

And that results in genuinely unjust tax bills.

The bottom line: To their credit, Orange County officials say they will review the data. Let’s hope they do so quickly and carefully and that the work inspires other counties across the state to follow suit.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

No one ever said our state prisons would or should be cushy places to live and work. But neither should they be decrepit dumps in which an underpaid and understaffed workforce struggles to cope with an inmate population that is at once aging and unhealthy, and increasingly hopeless and prone to violence.

Unfortunately, as a recent legislative hearing made clear, that’s pretty much where things stand today.

As Department of Adult Correction secretary Leslie Dismukes told lawmakers, thanks largely to low pay and lousy working conditions, at least 13 prisons have an employee vacancy rate of over 50%.

Meanwhile, the system now has a running tab of 1.4 billion dollars in deferred maintenance. Indeed, fire suppression systems are outdated or completely inoperable in 23 prisons and several lack air conditioning – a fact that guarantees more illness and violence.

The bottom line: As with so many other problems plaguing state government, the solution to this crisis is no mystery—lawmakers simply must appropriate better funding. And their ongoing failure to do so is inexcusable.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Sometimes, it’s hard to keep track of the wild policy swings that are the signatures of the second Trump administration. From tariffs and trade to Russia and Ukraine, it often takes just hours for supposedly strong policy stances to be contradicted or abandoned by the president or his aides.

And now, this chaotic pattern is directly impacting North Carolina.

Both last fall and this past January, Trump blasted the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene and made bold promises that he would rebuild storm-ravaged areas better than ever.

Unfortunately, that was then and this is now. This fact was made clear last week when the administration abruptly turned off the federal funding spigot by rejecting Gov. Josh Stein’ request to continue providing matching funds for the state’s Helene recovery appropriations.

The decision leaves the state on the hook for $200 million or more in additional expenses for debris cleanup and other emergency work.

The bottom line: Once again, the president has said one thing and done another, and sadly, North Carolinians will pay the price.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s a trend that’s been advancing at a breakneck clip for years now, but according to a new report from the global nonprofit OxFam, the vast and immoral inequality that dominates the U.S. economy has reached truly stunning levels.

As the report notes, over the past year, the richest ten Americans increased their wealth by 365 billion dollars.

It would take ten average U.S. workers a staggering 726,000 years to make that much money.

But wait, it’s about to get worse.

Under Republican budget bills advancing in Congress and the North Carolina legislature, new and regressive tax cuts along with big reductions in services will assure that the gap between the super-rich and everyone else grows even wider.

It’s a situation so corrupt and toxic that it’s quickly undermining the fabric of a country founded on the premise of equal opportunity.

The bottom line: Elected leaders must confront and reverse these trends right away lest our once great nation soon becomes unrecognizable.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There are many things that state leaders should do these days to improve the UNC System. Providing adequate funds to hire and retain topflight faculty and reining in out-of-control professional sports programs would be a good start.

Unfortunately, at present, the emphasis in Raleigh is on advancing a right-wing political agenda, and so it is that state House Republicans have approved a bill to give a local far right propaganda outfit — a group founded by conservative financier and activist Art Pope known as the Martin Center for Academic Renewal — a role in crafting university admissions policies.

And it’s hard to overstate just how big a mistake this is. For more than 25 years, the Martin Center has spewed a steady stream of far right attacks on almost all of the best aspects of modern higher education in an effort to turn back the clock on progress.

The bottom line: As is the case in so many areas of higher education, lawmakers should leave admissions to the professionals and tell conservative advocacy groups to stay in their own lane.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Today is Memorial Day – the day on which we honor the memory of the servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

All caring and thinking people should take at least a moment today to lift up these heroes.

And today would also be a good one to help assure that the government supports the heroes who are still with us.

And sadly, the need here is great.

As recent news reports have recounted in painful detail, Trump administration budget cuts are decimating the already understaffed and underfunded Veterans Administration and VA hospitals. More than 80,000 employees are being fired and that’s sure to wreak havoc with the services upon which millions of military veterans depend.

At a Voices for Veterans event in Fayetteville last week, several vets blasted the cuts as cruel, shortsighted, and sure to cause enormous pain and suffering.

The bottom line: Memorial Day is about remembering those we’ve lost – that’s for sure – but we also honor their sacrifice by doing everything in our power to spare living veterans from an early grave.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

North Carolina House Republicans unveiled their version of a new state budget this week, and while it included some improvements over the Senate version – a somewhat slower approach to cutting taxes, slightly better salaries for new teachers – the plan swings and misses by proposing to slash 3,000 state government jobs.

The authors of the plan say most of the positions are vacant anyway, but of course, that’s something that’s mostly attributable to lousy pay, benefits, and working conditions.

As Charles Owens — a health care technician at the Cherry Hospital psychiatric facility in Goldsboro – explained at a Raleigh press conference, the state’s mental health facilities are already down hundreds of essential positions.

And that reality presents a big daily safety problem for him and the other workers who remain. The same is true for guards and other employees throughout the state’s prison system.

The bottom line: North Carolina is a big and fast growing state that needs more state employees to provide essential public services – not fewer. State lawmakers need to wake up to this reality.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The efforts of North Carolina Republican lawmakers to transform the state Board of Elections into a partisan puppet show continue apace.

First, was the absurd move that placed MAGA state auditor Dave Boliek over the board instead of the Governor.

Then came Boliek’s appointment of a pair of ultra-partisan GOP politicians as board members.

And last week, Republican legislators slipped a provision into the state budget bill that would politicize the board’s professional staff.

The change would allot the board seven new staff positions – all of them political appointees. This represents a huge and troubling shift for an agency in which staff have long been nonpartisan civil servants.

Now, add that the budget gives the board 1.5 million dollars so it can hire private attorneys rather than rely on the state’s nonpartisan civil servant lawyers, and the blatant and disturbing partisanship of the move becomes even clearer.

The bottom line: there is no governmental function for which nonpartisanship is more vitally important than running elections. All North Carolinians should be outraged by these changes.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

North Carolina’s gun violence crisis continues to grow more dire by the day. According to the most recent data, someone dies in our state from a gunshot wound every five hours. Think about that for a minute: that’s more than four lives lost every day.

Amazingly, however, state legislative leaders are determined to pour more gasoline on the fire.

As the latter days of the 2025 session approach, four bills on the fast track would make it even easier than it already is for just about anyone to carry a hidden, loaded weapon.

Two would allow concealed weapons in private schools. Another would make concealed carry permits good for the rest of the owner’s life. And another would allow anyone 18 or older to carry without a permit.

The bottom line: As a group of community leaders made clear last week in an event organized by North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, these bills are a recipe for even more deadly mayhem. It’s essential that lawmakers stop, listen to their constituents, and find an offramp from the dangerous road they’re headed down.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Everyone knows the state legislature must operate under a set of parliamentary rules and procedures. After all, maintaining order in a large group of opinionated and talkative politicians is no easy feat.

That said, when the rules become so numerous, complex and restrictive that they make majority rule effectively impossible, they’ve gone too far and right now, that’s the case in the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Last week, House leaders rolled out their new state budget proposal in a series of appropriations subcommittees and, at least in theory, opened it up to debate and amendment.

Unfortunately, there was catch: a long list of restrictive rules that barred even the consideration of most meaningful amendments.

For example, no amendment to spend additional dollars was allowed unless it reduced another line item from a very restricted list by the same amount – even if a majority of lawmakers wanted to do so.

The bottom line: In representative government, the majority is supposed to rule. In the North Carolina House a list of anti-democratic restrictions make sure that’s not the case.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Among the most worrisome bills under consideration in Raleigh this year is a Senate proposal that would weaken the state’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. By removing a 2030 target for a 70 percent reduction in carbon emissions, the bill takes another big step backward in confronting the global climate crisis.

But as Tom Ervin, a former judge and South Carolina Public Service Commission member noted in a recent op-ed for NC Newsline, there’s another reason for concern: the legislation’s likely impact on ratepayer electric bills.

As Ervin explained, under the proposal, utility giants Duke and Dominion would be allowed to charge their electric customers upfront for the costs of building new plants.

And when this happened in his state, consumers were left stuck with billions of dollars in sunk expenses to cover when a planned power plant went belly up.

The bottom line: According to our neighbor, big and expensive trouble is on the way for North Carolina unless lawmakers reject the utility industry gift. Let’s hope they’re listening.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Few initiatives of modern American conservatives have been more successful than the crusade to take control of the courts. From the U.S. Supreme Court on down, big dollars and a commitment to hardball politics have helped give Republicans large majorities on several courts where the partisan divide should be about even.

Notably, however, Republican Jefferson Griffin’s recent effort to overturn his loss to Justice Allison Riggs in a North Carolina Supreme Court election by tossing thousands of ballots, may have flipped the script.

Griffin’s sore loser refusal to concede has angered so many people of all stripes that it’s greatly altered the environment surrounding state judicial elections.

Meanwhile, thanks to her energetic defense of her candidacy and the voting rights of all North Carolinians, Justice Riggs has emerged as a minor political rock star.

The bottom line: Things can still change quickly, but for now, Democrats’ chances of reversing recent patterns in state judicial elections have brightened considerably. And all those concerned can thank Jefferson Griffin for the shift.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The list of Trump administration cuts to vital public services has become so long and destructive that it’s easy to get overwhelmed, but as North Carolina anti-poverty advocates continue to remind us, it’s important to hold the cuts up to the light, to document their cruel illogic.

Take, for instance, the disastrous scheme to eliminate the AmeriCorps program. As the North Carolina Housing Coalition reported last week, it’s suing over the planned elimination of this program that will cause thousands of dedicated young people and seniors to be summarily fired.

Here in North Carolina, AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps Senior volunteers serve at more than 700 locations across the state, including schools, food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics, veterans’ facilities, and other nonprofit and faith-based organizations.

The bottom line: The Trump administration is gutting scores of vital programs like this, all so that it can dispense more big tax cuts that chiefly benefit the top one percent. And the cruel shortsightedness of it all is hard to overstate.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Why are so many conservative politicians obsessed with denying the existence of transgender people? Several years ago, it was the infamous bathroom bill that sought to micromanage the public restrooms trans people used.

Now, the same forces are at it again with bills targeting transgender youth. Under legislation approved by the state House last week, charges of abuse and neglect against parents who refuse to acknowledge their child’s gender identity would be barred.

Supporters say the bill is about validating parental rights, but if that’s so, why did they defeat an amendment that would protected parents who acknowledge and support their transgender kids?

After all, some politicians have promoted attacks of precisely this kind on parents who love and celebrate their trans children.

The bottom line: Gender dysphoria is a long-established medical condition for which gender transition frequently amounts to lifesaving care. By denying this reality, lawmakers are assuring that some young people will be denied care and that their lives will be cruelly and needlessly endangered.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Fears about the trouble that lies ahead for North Carolina now that judges have okayed the scheme to give auditor Dave Boliek control over the state Board of Elections, were confirmed last week by the cruel and classless behavior of Boliek’s new right-wing appointees.

After firing longtime elections board executive director Karen Brinson Bell – a rigorously nonpartisan professional who worked miracles on a shoestring budget and won national acclaim for her work to help western North Carolinians vote after Hurricane Helene – the new board members wouldn’t even allow her to say farewell.

When she asked to say a few words at her final board meeting, Boliek’s new appointees adjourned before she could say a word and walked out of the room.

Unbowed by the shabby treatment, Brinson Bell stayed behind to deliver a powerful message to the news media and other witnesses.

The bottom line: For nearly six years, Karen Brinson Bell dedicated her career to strengthening our democracy and exemplifying public service at its finest – two concepts about which the men who fired her haven’t a clue.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

No modern political leader has done more to undermine science and research – both by slashing funding and directly spreading myths and disinformation — than President Donald Trump.

Whether defunding everything from cancer studies to the National Weather Service or placing a troubled conspiracy theorist like Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in charge of the nation’s health, Trump has recklessly endangered millions of lives and wreaked havoc that will take many years to repair.

And sadly, Trump has also spurred state and local government in a similar direction. Last week, North Carolina House Republicans advanced a bill to ignore the Food and Drug Administration by allowing the sale of a drug used to kill parasites in horses — ivermectin – without a prescription.

Though touted by some right-wing pundits as a miracle cure, peer reviewed scientific research has repeatedly shown such claims to be bogus.

The bottom line: Ivermectin advocates may be sincere, but by overturning established, science-based drug approval laws, they are setting a very dangerous precedent indeed.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The nation’s last unsettled election contest has finally been decided. On Wednesday, Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin conceded to incumbent Democratic Justice Allison Riggs.

It was a long overdue act that many observers, including Justice Riggs (who prevailed in two separate recounts), are rightfully celebrating as a victory for democracy.

That said, Griffin’s challenge – which called for trashing thousands of ballots cast by voters according to the rules in effect last November – has done tremendous damage.

Not only did it waste vast sums of money and further undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary, but one fears that it will inspire copycat losers in future elections who will try to overturn their losses by retroactively altering election rules.

God help us if this were to happen in a presidential election.

The bottom line: a federal judge dismissed Griffin’s shameless challenge as unconstitutional, but several of Griffin’s GOP pals on the state courts were ready to go along with it. And that’s a red flag that should alarm us all.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

While it’s no surprise that President Donald Trump is undoing years of hard won national progress in combating discrimination, the decision by many corporations to cowardly follow suit is shameful.

Take North Carolina-based Duke Energy.

As researchers at the Energy and Policy Institute recently reported, Duke once held itself out as a leader in fighting injustice. Its former CEO led her presentation at a 2020 earnings call by stating quote “issues surrounding racial equity and social justice are front and center, as they should be.”

“Now, more than ever” she continued, “we are relying on these values to cultivate a workplace rooted in diversity and inclusion.”

What a difference a few years make.

Today, the report notes, Duke has been busy scrubbing numerous references to diversity and inclusion from important corporate documents.

The bottom line: While some corporations are proudly reenforcing their commitment to fight discrimination, Duke bosses have sadly but predictably folded like a cheap suit. One suspects it’s a sign of their true colors.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Like many seemingly inexplicable practices that just sort of happened over time, designers of our state government could probably never have imagined something like “crossover week” at the North Carolina legislature.

“Crossover” is an artificial semi-annual deadline by which bills must be approved by at least one body – the Senate or the House – in order to remain eligible for passage that year. This year’s deadline is this Thursday May 8.

While the reasoning behind crossover deadline –to  cull hundreds of bills and spur lawmakers to action – probably makes some sense, the practical result is that scores of bills will be approved this week in an absurdly rushed fashion.

Indeed, large numbers of dramatic state law changes will be brought closer to enactment with, quite literally, just a few minutes of discussion and scarce – if any – public input.

The bottom line: The crossover deadline has become obsolete. In a large, diverse and fast growing state of 10 million people, lawmakers ought to be serious and disciplined enough to get their work done without having to cram like college students.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

As anyone who steps outside of a gated community these days is aware, the number of impoverished and homeless people living on the street is, thanks to our unjust and top heavy economy, way up.

What’s more, providing useful assistance to these people – many of whom struggle with disabilities, mental and physical health challenges and just plain hopelessness — is extremely tough.

Here, however, is one thing we do know from the experts who do this heroic work: passing laws to make life on the street even tougher isn’t a solution.

Unfortunately, that’s where the North Carolina legislature is heading with a bill that would force local governments to criminalize camping or sleeping on public property.

As a Methodist pastor told lawmakers, quote “How can we push down folks who are already down? Seems like it’s impossible, but this bill has figured it out.”

The bottom line: As several advocates told lawmakers, the solution to homelessness lies in a sustained commitment to building a genuine social safety net and ending poverty, not criminalizing people who have no other place to go.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s a pretty remarkable situation when elected leaders feel compelled to share their own intimate personal health stories in hopes of passing legislation that would save the lives of others. And it’s even more remarkable (and troubling) when the leaders doing the sharing are all women and the officials blocking action are all men.

But that’s what happened this week at the state legislature when a trio of female lawmakers who are also breast cancer survivors demanded action on legislation that would require health insurance companies to cover the cost of diagnostic imaging for the disease.

Amazingly, many insurers don’t cover those tests and even more amazingly, the male legislators who run the General Assembly have repeatedly blocked bipartisan bills to require it.

It’s an outrageous situation that, as Senator Val Applewhite of Cumberland County rightfully observed, should leave all women, quote “as mad as hell.”

The bottom line: The all-male crew behind the breast cancer screening blockade should be ashamed. Let’s hope their mothers, wives and daughters let them know about it.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There are many factors that go into the overdose epidemic of opioids and other drugs that kill thousands of North Carolinians each year.

As a pair of law and medicine experts explained, however, in a recent NC Newsline op-ed, there are some increasingly successful strategies that deserve public support.

And topping the list is the urgent need for everyone – health care providers, law enforcement, elected officials – to recognize that substance use disorder – is just that: a medical disorder, not merely an addiction or personal weakness to be frowned upon.

Fortunately, polls show that an overwhelming majority of North Carolinians have come to understand this truth and strongly favor what experts describe as “a health-first approach” to the problem, that includes funding for non-judgmental, evidence-based treatment programs.

The bottom line: To his great credit, Governor Josh Stein has voiced strong support for committing the state to just such an approach and ending the stigma that too often attaches to substance use disorder. All state policymakers and providers should follow his lead.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield

North Carolinians are generally of two very different minds on the gun violence that plagues our society. While polls consistently show that most favor stronger laws to regulate firearms, a loud and determined minority opposes virtually any regulation.

Here, however, is at least one simple prevention step that all sides should be able to endorse: installing inside locks on the doors to college classrooms.

As NC State professor Walter Robinson explained in a recent NC Newsline op-ed, he and his faculty colleagues have repeatedly asked school leaders to install locks in all classrooms and lecture halls so that instructors and students can shelter in place in the event of a campus shooting.

Unfortunately, and amazingly, however, the requests have been rejected. The reason: cost.

And it’s hard to overstate just how absurd this is.

The bottom line: In a multi-billion dollar system, it’s ridiculous that university leaders didn’t long ago invest in such a simple and basic safety precaution. Further delay is inexcusable.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

For the second time in recent weeks, a North Carolina Republican judge has courageously put the constitution ahead of their political party.

First, it was Supreme Court Justice Richard Dietz who rightfully dissented when his four Republican colleagues okayed a GOP effort to change election rules after the election in last fall’s disputed Supreme Court contest.

And last week, Superior Court Judge Lori Hamilton helped strike down a law passed by the Republican-dominated legislature last fall to seize powers from Gov. Josh Stein.

The law would have placed the auditor – in effect, the state’s accountant – in charge of appointing the state Board of Elections.

In rejecting the scheme, Hamilton wrote that the duty to faithfully execute the laws has been exclusively assigned to the governor and cannot be reassigned without violating the constitution.

Good for her.

The bottom line: In this time in which a handful of politicians are trying to seize and monopolize more and more power, courageous judges are a bulwark against despotism. North Carolina is fortunate to have two of them.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Enough! That’s what a large, growing and bipartisan chorus of legal experts, government watchdogs and average North Carolinians are saying right now in response to Judge Jefferson Griffin’s farfetched effort to overturn his Supreme Court election loss last fall to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs.

It’s been almost six months now since Griffin was narrowly defeated – a fact confirmed by two recounts – but nonetheless, he persists in his brazen effort to have thousands of ballots cast according to the rules in place at the time of the election thrown out. It’s a remarkable stance that, if somehow validated, would invite all kinds of post-election mischief in the future and further undermine faith in our democracy.

Fortunately, an end to this absurd situation could be in sight as earlier this week, a federal appeals court granted Justice Riggs’ request to put a stay on confusing lower court directives.

The bottom line: For the sake of our democracy, let’s hope the court’s action is a signal that it’s ready to take control of and put an end to a dispute that’s gone on way too long.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Flood insurance. It’s something that most people have heard of and that many probably have a notion they should look into as the climate warms and severe storms grow more frequent.

To their credit, some have done more than think about it. As NC Newsline’s Galen Bacharier reported this week, about 10 percent of businesses and five percent of homeowners in western North Carolina actually had flood insurance prior to Hurricane Helene and were, quite understandably, counting on their policies to help them rebuild in the aftermath of the disaster.

Unfortunately, as Bacharier also reported, that’s often not been the case. In numerous instances, it’s taken several months for the policyholders to collect and even then, many payments have been only partial. Many other claims have been denied outright based on technicalities and other questionable grounds.

The bottom line: the industry’s failure to aid people and businesses in need cries out for better government oversight of flood insurance policies to protect consumers. If state and federal policymakers are serious about their pledges to aid disaster victims, they’ll make it an immediate top priority.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

There’s a vicious downward cycle that’s been at work in North Carolina state government in recent years. And here’s how it worked:

First, conservative politicians blast quote “government bureaucracy” and enact big tax and spending cuts in response.

Next, core services like schools, mental health, transportation, and public safety – plagued by funding cuts and staff reductions — all struggle mightily to keep up with rising demands in a fast-growing state.

Next, besieged by constituent complaints, the same politicians who imposed the big cuts decry the decline in services and move to turn agencies over to private interests and/or lower standards – so that for example, class sizes can rise, or driver’s licenses have to be renewed less frequently.

Finally, claiming to be motivated to improve quote “efficiency,” the same politicians impose more tax cuts and start the whole process over again.

The bottom line: slashing funding for basic public services does no more to improve outcomes than scrimping on the upkeep of your car or home. And it’s long past time for our state to break this vicious cycle.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

At first blush, the idea that eviction is the solution for landlords when residential tenants fall behind on their rent or otherwise violate terms of a lease seems obvious.

And, indeed, in many situations, it is the only realistic path.

As new research from landlord-tenant law experts at the national Legal Services Corporation shows however, there are actually relatively few situations in which evictions end up being a win for landlords.

The study found that eviction proceedings seldom result in landlords recovering back rent and often end up costing thousands of dollars.

So, what should landlords do?

The researchers found that by working together — rather than merely as adversaries — landlords and legal aid providers can reduce financial losses, improve stability for all parties, and minimize costs and disruptions.

The bottom line: At a time in which so many renters are cost-burdened, there is no magic solution. But data show that, often, landlords can achieve better results for everyone by thinking outside of the box.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield

There are many shortcomings in the new proposed state budget approved by the North Carolina Senate last week – the inadequate pay raises for teachers and state employees, the failure to invest in numerous core public services that have been reeling from staffing shortages, the giveaways to unaccountable special interests.

But if there’s an overarching flaw that lies at the heart of the proposal, it is the plan to plow ahead with new and regressive tax cuts at a time when state economists are warning of significant budget shortfalls in the near future.

Republican Senate leader Phil Berger – a smalltown lawyer with no credentials in economics – says the consensus forecast of the state’s economists is wrong. He claims the state’s fiscal picture will remain rosy even with new corporate and personal income tax cuts taking effect and massive new reductions in federal aid from the Trump administration.

It’s a remarkably oblivious stance.

The bottom line: North Carolina public services are already running on a shoestring and the Senate’s decision to pull that string even tighter is a huge mistake.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield

Sometimes, you have to wonder what century it is that some of our state lawmakers inhabit.

For a classic example of how detached from reality some have become, check out a new proposal advancing in the legislature to establish censorship boards in every school district charged with banning books that quote “include descriptions of sexual activity” or are quote “pervasively vulgar.”

First of all, the definitions are impossibly vague and will invite all kinds of destructive meddling from people who are no more skilled in evaluating literature than they are at teaching physics or chemistry.

But even setting aside the offensiveness of establishing government-run censorship boards, the notion of banning books – of all things — because they discuss sex in a society in which most kids are regularly online and vast numbers while away their days playing hyperviolent video games, would be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

If only kids could be inspired to read books.

The bottom line: Appointing censorship boards to ban books has always been a bad idea. In 2025, it’s downright ridiculous.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Americans have many big and important differences these days, but if we can’t come together to agree on a handful of fundamental ideals and human rights that have been baked into our Constitution and way of life for over two centuries, we’re in big trouble.

And one of those fundamentals is the simple idea that government cannot suddenly seize and imprison any person — much less deport them to a foreign gulag — without due process and the right to defend themselves in open court.

Tragically, however, the Trump administration has been trashing this fundamental right of late by, quite literally, empowering masked and armed officers to simply seize people on the street and whisk them off to unknown sites.

Such disappearances represent a despicable betrayal of everything our nation supposedly stands for.

The bottom line: Whatever their disagreements on other issues, it’s imperative that all North Carolina elected leaders of both major parties stand up, speak out and demand an immediate end to these outrageous and unconstitutional acts. Our nation’s status as a free country is on the line.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s been almost six months since state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin narrowly lost last year’s election to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs. Two recounts confirmed the result.

Unfortunately, Griffin’s effort to overturn the election based on the farfetched theory that thousands of registered voters should have their ballots thrown out continues.

And last week, four Republican state Supreme Court justices endorsed the scheme — ruling that the votes of numerous military and overseas voters will be trashed unless they can somehow provide a photo ID in short order. This despite the fact that state rules required no such thing at the time of the election.

It’s a remarkably dangerous ruling that Republican Justice Richard Dietz blasted as an invitation to losing candidates of all kinds to engage in post-election meddling.

The bottom line: If there’s any fairness left in the world, Justice Riggs will prevail in her appeal to the federal courts. But even if she does, the damage done to the legitimacy of our judiciary and our democracy by the Supreme Court ruling will be immense and long-lasting.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The use of economic tariffs to promote fairer trade and better outcomes for workers, consumers and the environment is not a new or bad idea.

In a world in which some countries rely on slave labor and treat the earth’s air and water like a garbage dump, thoughtfully designed and implemented tariffs can be a useful policy option.

Unfortunately, President Trump has been doing no such thing. Instead, he’s imposing tariffs in a chaotic and likely unlawful way based on little more than his daily whims.

And the outcomes have been disastrous.

North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis is typical of the Republican politicians who could help but lack the guts to do so. He’s co-sponsored a bill rein in Trump, but as he well knows it has no chance. Once again, his mission is to seem rather than to be.

The bottom line: Trump’s half-baked tariffs are wreaking economic havoc for millions of Americans and lining the pockets of his billionaire pals. And so long as politicians like Senator Tillis continue to enable him, the chaos will continue.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

If there is one American elected official who you’d think would make disease prevention among their highest priorities, it would be President Donald Trump. Just five years ago, Trump’s dreadful response to COVID-19 helped unleash one of the nation’s worst public health crises.

Tragically, however, by all indications, he hasn’t learned a thing. Instead, he’s appointed charlatans to head important public health agencies while also slashing their funding — thereby putting millions at unnecessary risk.

As NC Newsline reported this week, officials across the country fighting a historic measles outbreak have found themselves repeatedly undermined by the Trump administration as they struggle to provide crucial vaccinations and overcome disinformation.

Here in North Carolina, state health officials report that Trump cuts have resulted in the loss of key staff whose job is to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats like measles.

The bottom line: Just like five years ago, many Americans will die this year because of Trump’s dreadful public health policy choices. Surely our nation can do better.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Many North Carolinians have been rightfully angered in recent months by Republican efforts to overturn Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin’s election loss to Justice Alison Riggs by seeking to throw out thousands of legally cast ballots. But sadly, there are other equally treacherous efforts underway.

The most obvious are bills from GOP lawmakers that slash the powers of two Democrats who won convincing victories last fall – Gov. Josh Stein and Attorney General Jeff Jackson.

Rather than respecting the will of the voters, Republicans have sought to, in effect, overturn their decisions by seizing powers long assigned to those offices.

But wait, it gets worse.

Lawmakers are also seeking to transform the state auditor – an obscure office long held by a series of apolitical accountants – into a powerhouse with unprecedented duties. The reason: simple, a Republican won last fall.

The bottom line: North Carolina voters had no inkling of these radical changes when they cast their ballots last November, and by pursuing them now, Republicans are once again thumbing their noses at them.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

What could the tragic 19^th Century Irish potato famine have to do with modern Medicaid work requirements promoted by North Carolina Republicans?

As author Padraic Scanlan documents in a powerful new book, the parallels between what the men running the British Empire did to the peasants of Ireland nearly two centuries ago and the policies North Carolina legislative leaders are pursuing today are quite striking.

As Scanlan documents in horrific detail, one of the chief contributors to the famine — a disaster that caused more than 1.5 million people to die or flee the tiny country — was the refusal of the British politicians and landowners who ruled Ireland to distribute relief because they thought it would violate rules of the free market and encourage laziness among the peasants.

Sound familiar? It should.

The bottom line: Medicaid work requirements won’t kill as many people as the pro-starvation policies of the British in Ireland, but some will die and the maddening arrogance of the policy makers in the two situations is essentially indistinguishable.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

As part of their ongoing effort to manipulate and capitalize on irrational white voter fears, state Republican lawmakers are advancing legislation this session that purports to attack quote “DEI” in public education.

Under the bill, state law would spell out a long list of supposedly “divisive concepts” that would be banned from public schools. For example, the bill says it will be illegal to teach that a quote “meritocracy” — whatever that is — is inherently “racist” or “sexist” — two words that are also not defined.

Of course, the purpose of this impossibly vague language is no mystery — it’s to discourage educators from discussions of America’s grim past on matters of race that might make white students uncomfortable.

And that would be a tragic mistake.

A simple amendment would help. Lawmakers should add a word to the bill to make clear that teaching divisive concepts is banned, but only if they are untrue.

The bottom line: Discussion of hard truths is an essential part of education that our kids can handle. Would that GOP lawmakers could as well.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s now been more than five months since North Carolina voters elected incumbent Justice Allison Riggs over challenger Jefferson Griffin to a state Supreme Court seat, but amazingly, Republican efforts to overturn the election continue.

Last Friday, a pair of GOP state Court of Appeals judges accepted Griffin’s ridiculous theory that sixty-five thousand registered North Carolina voters who complied with all voting rules, including providing a valid photo ID, must still nonetheless come forward and again prove their identity, or have their votes thrown out.

The ruling is a stunning assault on democracy. As Judge Tobias Hampson wrote in a long and scathing dissent, quote “changing the rules by which these lawful voters took part in our electoral process after the election to discard their otherwise valid votes – in an attempt to alter the outcome of only one race among many on the ballot – is directly counter to law, equity, and the Constitution.”

The bottom line: Hampson is right. The voters have spoken in the Riggs-Griffin contest, and this rogue ruling cannot be allowed to stand.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

North Carolina legislators continue not to “get it” when it comes to the state’s ever-worsening plague of gun violence. The latest disturbing example: a bill making its way through the state House that would allow private schools to arm teachers and, conceivably, even some students.

Bill sponsors say their intent is only to facilitate schools having armed security guards, but the bill is actually much broader than that.

As currently written, the legislation would allow anyone lawfully entitled to carry a concealed handgun to carry it on the premises of a private school, so long as they have the school’s permission.

Meanwhile, another bill advancing in Raleigh would allow anyone 18 or older to carry a concealed handgun without any kind of permit — an idea that polls show most North Carolinians think is a dreadful idea.

And together, in a state in which private school leaders have almost complete autonomy, the two measures are an invitation to tragedy.

The bottom line: One prays no school would ever head down this deadly road, but why lawmakers would even consider making it a possibility is impossible to fathom.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

As North Carolina’s top lawyer, Attorney General Jeff Jackson has many important jobs — handling important criminal prosecutions, protecting consumers, representing state agencies in litigation. But if there’s a duty that is clearly his Number One priority, it has to be defending North Carolinians from unlawful attacks on their rights and well-being.

And it’s in light of this obvious fact that Jackson should be commended for his recent action challenging the Trump administration’s unlawful scheme to cancel billions of dollars in Health and Human Services grants already allocated by Congress.

In bringing suit along with 21 other attorneys general, Jackson rightfully blasted the move by Trump and his right-hand man Elon Musk to slash more than $230 million in critical health care funding for North Carolina as both unlawful and dangerous.

The bottom line: In standing up for our state, Attorney General Jackson is doing precisely what voters elected him to do. Trump apologists in the legislature who are currently seeking to prevent Jackson from challenging presidential orders, are dead wrong.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

The hypocritical double standards at work on the modern political right these days are often enough to make your head spin. Just think what Fox News shouters would be saying right now if a Kamala Harris administration had committed an outrageous breach of national security like the one Trump’s defense team did recently by divulging details of planned military operation.

And the same hypocrisy would undoubtedly apply closer to home as well.

Just imagine if Gov. Josh Stein — who controls the state budget office — did what Trump is doing by issuing directives to budget officials to simply cancel government funded programs authorized in a duly enacted budget.

Funding for school vouchers and crisis pregnancy centers? Gone. New programs at council of state departments led by Republicans? Canceled.

Republican lawmakers loyal to Trump would be apoplectic.

The bottom line: Gov. Stein would never take such action because he’s an honest and responsible leader who believes in the rule of law. Would that Trump and the political puppets he controls were of the same character.

For NC Newsline I’m Rob Schofield.

The issue of how best to provide services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities is, admittedly, a challenging one.

Complex questions about the roles played by institutions and sheltered workshops, and the leeway given to families to chart their own courses in finding services, give rise to many competing and legitimate opinions.

That said, there’s one simple truth about IDD services in North Carolina that’s indisputable: they are inadequate.

Thanks to chronic underfunding by state legislators, the waiting list for coveted slots in the Innovations Waiver program is absurdly long. Indeed, there are more people waiting — over seventeen thousand — than there are people enrolled. It takes years to get through the waiting list and many people die before they ever do.

The bottom line: Several factors may feed into this scandalous situation but ultimately, they’re all rooted in the fact that our state’s cheapskate legislature refuses to appropriate the funds that would make it possible to attract and hire enough support workers. And until it does, thousands of families will continue to suffer.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

It’s been two decades since state legislators bowed to tourism industry lobbyists and passed a law forbidding local school districts from starting the traditional calendar school year prior to the last week of August.

It was a familiar case of industry campaign cash trumping recommendations of education experts and the wellbeing of children.

In the years since, local school districts — anxious to take advantage of completing their first semester prior to the Christmas break — have repeatedly tried to buck the rule and often gotten into hot water for doing so.

Now, thankfully, it looks like legislative leaders may be backtracking a bit. Under a Senate bill introduced last week, the permissible start date would be set a week earlier — the Monday closest to August 19 — and it’s a welcome proposal.

The bottom line: The bill isn’t perfect as local districts would prefer more flexibility and tourism special interests are still being given way too much say-so in the matter, but in a legislature that so often ignores the best interests of kids, it’s better than nothing.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.

Consider the following situation. You’re a middle-aged transgender man who transitioned decades ago. You’re balding, have a beard, and would never in a million years be confused for a woman.

Unfortunately, and bizarrely, however, this makes some North Carolina Republican state legislators uncomfortable, so they want to force you to use women’s restrooms.

Seriously. That’s what they’re seeking to do in a recently introduced Senate bill that would reprise the disastrous HB 2 debacle from a decade ago.

Under the bill, among other things, if a public facility allows a trans person to use a restroom that doesn’t match the gender on their birth certificate, it can be sued for damages and forced to pay untold sums of money.

And it’s hard to overstate just how cruel and ridiculous this is.

The bottom line: It’s been years now since North Carolina last ventured down this road and the opponents of trans rights have yet to document a single credible harm that legislation like this would address.

If ever there was ill-conceived proposal in search of a non-existent problem, this is it.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.