1. U.S. Senate winds up grueling Supreme Court hearings on Ketanji Brown Jackson nomination
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Joe Biden’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court
Representatives of the American Bar Association reiterated their finding that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is well qualified to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, and law enforcement groups rebutted GOP accusations Jackson is soft on child pornographers during the final day of Jackson’s confirmation hearings Thursday.
Republicans, however, called in witnesses to continue hammering away at Jackson’s record, while the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee singled out Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ben Sasse of Nebraska for praise for not joining in attacks on Jackson. [Read more…]
Bonus content:
- What senators – including NC’s Thom Tillis – asked Ketanji Brown Jackson during the U.S. Supreme Court hearings
- Watch: Sen. Thom Tillis (NC-R) praise Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the end of Wednesday’s hearing (video)
3. Superintendent Catherine Truitt contends transgender swimmer had unfair advantage
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt has joined the roiling debate over whether female transgender athletes should be allowed to compete against cisgender women.
For Truitt, it’s a hard no.
At issue for the superintendent is transgender swimmer Lia Thomas’ recent domination of the NCAA women’s championship swimming competition. Thomas swims for the University of Pennsylvania.
Truitt said Olympian Emma Weyant, who swims for the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech University swimmer Reka Gyorgy, who represented her home country of Hungary in the 2016 Olympics, were “unfairly overshadowed” by Thomas after working hard to compete at the highest level of collegiate athletics. [Read more…]
4. On an important anniversary, sound advice for North Carolina from a conservative Republican (Commentary)
Sometimes, when discussing important topics of public policy, it’s useful to dispense with all the talk of data and budgets and legal fine print and get down to what really matters: the impact on human beings.
To his great credit, that’s what the former governor of Ohio, Republican John Kasich, did recently when he testified before a North Carolina legislative committee.
The subject of Kasich’s presentation was Medicaid, the American health insurance program for people of low income. This week marks the 12th anniversary of the enactment of the Affordable Care Act – a federal law that gave states the ability to expand eligibility for Medicaid to cover a broad swath of people with incomes too high to qualify under previous income thresholds and too low to afford insurance on the open market. [Read more…]
5. Rural healthcare providers feel the pain of North Carolina’s Medicaid gap
On her morning commute to work, Dr. Laura Ucik, a rural family physician in the northern Piedmont of North Carolina, thinks about the patients who could have avoided serious illness and injury had they qualified for Medicaid years ago.
One such patient with severe stomach pain couldn’t afford an ultrasound to identify whether or not they had gallstones.
Another arrived with a swollen leg, a common but urgent symptom of a blood clot. Unable to pay for imaging and blood thinning medication, they left without a diagnosis. [Read more…]
6. Caswell County judge dismisses mining company lawsuit against residents, citing free speech
A Caswell County judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Carolina Sunrock against opponents of a proposed mine and two asphalt plants, ruling that the defendants are engaging in constitutionally protected speech.
Last year Carolina Sunrock sued 58 residents who were petitioning Caswell County officials to stop the projects. The Thomas Holt Branch of the NC NAACP, Anita Foust and the Rev. Byron Shoffner are fighting a proposed asphalt plant, known as Burlington North, on the Alamance-Caswell County line; landowners near Prospect Hill are contesting a second asphalt plant and mine in the southern part of the county.
The judge’s ruling affects NAACP members, as well as Foust and Shoffner, who had asked the court to dismiss the suit. [Read more…]
7. What is the new COVID-19 variant BA.2, and will it cause another wave of infections in the U.S.?
A new omicron subvariant of the virus that causes COVID-19, BA.2, is quickly becoming the predominant source of infections amid rising cases around the world. Immunologists Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti of the University of South Carolina explain what makes it different from previous variants, whether there will be another surge in the U.S. and how best to protect yourself.
What is BA.2, and how is it related to omicron?
BA.2 is the latest subvariant of omicron, the dominant strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. While the origin of BA.2 is still unclear, it has quickly become the dominant strain in many countries, including India, Denmark and South Africa. It is continuing to spread in Europe, Asia and many parts of the world. [Read more…]
8. UNC-Chapel Hill makes list of 10 worst colleges for free speech
UNC-Chapel Hill is among the the 10 worst colleges in the nation for free speech, according to an annual roundup by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The non-partisan group, dedicated to free speech and academic freedom on campuses, cited last year’s controversy over the university’s botched hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones, a story first reported by NC Policy Watch. The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees appeared to resist a vote on tenure for the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist “based on Hannah-Jones’ viewpoint,” FIRE wrote. [Read more…]
9. Weekly Radio Interviews and daily micro-podcasts:
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The post Ketanji Brown Jackson shines, micro-plastic worries for the Neuse, what to know about the new COVID-19 BA.2 variant: The week’s top stories on Policy Watch appeared first on The Pulse.