Laura Hogshead, director of the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency, recently testified under oath before a legislative subcommittee that only 789 of 4,100 homes destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Matthew or Florence have been rebuilt or repaired.
The actual number is significantly lower – just 588.
NCORR, also known as ReBuild NC, included in its tally 201 homes that were finished by Robeson County’s locally run program in 2018 and 2019.
Policy Watch asked ReBuild NC to explain the discrepancy. “A great deal of information and data was provided to the subcommittee in advance of the Sept. 14 hearing, so members are fully aware of what the numbers mean,” a ReBuild NC spokesperson said via email. “NCORR reported out to the subcommittee following guidelines provided by legislative officials.”
If legislators on the Joint Oversight Committee on Hurricane Response and Recovery were aware of the distinction, they did not question Hogshead at the hearing about it. Nor would the public have known the difference. ReBuild NC’s slide presentation, shown during the subcommittee hearing, didn’t reflect the two figures. [Read more…]
2. ReBuild NC placed hurricane survivors at Fayetteville motel, which has now evicted some of them
Editor’s note: As of noon Friday, the woman and her son were relocated by ReBuildNC to a hotel in Lumberton. Policy Watch will continue to update this story as additional details become available.
The homeowners’ names have been withheld by their request for privacy reasons.
On Thursday around 11:30 in the morning, several Hurricane Matthew survivors living at an Extended Stay America motel in Fayetteville, in Cumberland County received a knock on their door. They had until 4 p.m. to pack up and leave. [Read more…]
3. Gerrymandering debate returns once more to the NC Supreme Court
Elections week continues at the state’s high court as justices weigh another appeal involving redistricting.
The North Carolina Supreme Court wrestled once again with the issues of redistricting and gerrymandering on Tuesday in a case in which Republican lawmakers contend they should be allowed to draw maps however they choose, regardless of whether they dilute the voting power of people casting a ballot in favor of Democrats.
“The court should defer to the General Assembly when it makes those policy decision unless they make obviously wrong decisions,” Phillip Strach, the lawyer representing the GOP, argued before the justices.
It is not the first time the state Supreme Court has heard the case. [Read more...]
4. Election deniers are primed to challenge votes in NC. Voting rights groups are on alert. 
As the Wake County Board of Elections neared the end of its first tally of mail-in ballots this week, Marian Lewin rose from her seat in the audience to ask about the totals.
How many ballots were approved? Were any “spoiled,” requiring ballots be reissued?
Lewin, first vice-president of the League of Women Voters of North Carolina, is committed to watching Wake election board actions as part of the organization’s plan to keep an eye on local boards statewide to make sure no legitimate ballots end up in the ‘reject’ pile.
The League wants to recruit volunteers who will report on ballot counts, challenges, and rejections.[Read more...]
5. NC Supreme Court hears voter ID case
The state Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in an appeal of a lower court decision from last year that struck down a state law requiring a photo ID to vote.
The Republican-led legislature passed the law in a 2018 lame duck session before they lost their supermajority, and overturned Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel of Superior Court judges said last year that law put a greater burden on African American voters and was motivated, at least in part, by an unconstitutional intent to target them.
This isn’t the first time that North Carolina Republicans have passed a law requiring voters show photo ID at the polls. [Read more…]
6. Biden to pardon all federal offenses for simple marijuana possession, review criminalization
President to issue landmark order addressing nation’s “failed approach to marijuana”
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced executive actions that would pardon thousands of people with prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession.
Biden then called on governors to follow suit with state offenses for simple marijuana possession, saying that “just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.” [Read more…]
Lowering standards to attract people of color to the teaching profession is bad policy, a national education expert told state lawmakers on Monday.
Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), said that relaxing standards for passing licensure exams “perpetuates the myth that racial diversity is equivalent to less skill.”
“So, when folks say we’re getting rid of licensure tests or that we’re lowering the bar because we want to diversify the workforce and this action is described as a tool to increase racial diversity, the tacit message there is that somehow people of color are incapable of meeting the standard,” Peske said. “This message is simply untrue and unacceptable.” [Read more...]
8. Five important policy reminders from a stormy week
North Carolina endured the wrath of yet another powerful hurricane last week. And while it comes as little solace to those who lost homes, businesses or, in a few tragic cases, loved ones, on the whole, the situation could have been much, much worse. One need only glance at the devastation that Ian inflicted on southwestern Florida to be reminded of what these storms can dish out and how fortunate we were in comparison.
And indeed, though life is carrying on for most North Carolinians while scarcely missing a beat, it would be an enormous mistake not to take a minute or two to reflect upon some of the powerful reminders Hurricane Ian delivered. Here are five of particular note:[Read more...]
9. New report details how much more likely Black people are to be wrongly convicted than whites
More than 3,200 people have been exonerated since 1989. Over half of them are Black.
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were sentenced to death in 1984 for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in Robeson County. The teenagers — half-brothers who were 19 and 15 years old, both Black and with cognitive disabilities — confessed under pressure from police, but there wasn’t physical evidence connecting them to the crime.
The North Carolina Innocence Commission started looking into the case in 2010. Thanks to a DNA analysis, they discovered that a cigarette butt left at the crime scene belonged to Roscoe Artis, a man who had been sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering an 18-year-old woman in the same county a month after McCollum and Brown confessed to killing Buie.
Artis, it turns out, had been a suspect in the Buie case back in 1984.[Read more...]
10. US history lesson: Taxes on rich people helped to beat inflation (and win World War II)
North Carolina lawmakers should learn from past national experience and rethink state’s fiscal policies
Did you know progressive taxes helped beat Hitler?
If not, don’t worry, you’re not alone. It’s worth looking back at how taxes helped tackle inflation during World War II and what lessons NC leaders still need to draw from that bit of economic history.
During and right after WWII, the Roosevelt Administration faced extraordinary inflationary pressures, driven by some of the same dynamics we see playing out right now.
In the current moment, supply chain disruptions, stimulus that could have been better targeted to people in need, and shifts in consumers’ purchasing patterns mean more demand for some goods and services than the market can easily meet, allowing companies to increase prices.[Read more...]
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The post ReBuild NC’s inflation problem, election deniers primed to challenge votes, and steps to building and keeping a strong, diverse teacher workforce: The week’s top stories on Policy Watch appeared first on The Pulse.