Good morning. Let’s get to it.
1. The General Assembly could ajourn this week.
Rep. Chuck McGrady says that the House and Senate’s budget compromise will probably be online tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, no one, including Speaker Tim Moore, knows if anything is going to happen with HB 2 by then.[Tim] Moore, the House speaker, said the House still hoped to end the session by the Fourth of July, “but we’ll just have to see what progress we make.” Moore put the odds at adjourning the session before the holiday at “50-50.” [Senator Harry Brown responded: “I think it’s better than that.”
“We’re going to be gone by then,” he said.
Check back here tonight or tomorrow for updates on the compromise is, which is sure to suck.House Speaker Tim Moore had little to say about the controversial LGBT law when asked on Thursday.
“There are a number of issues still being discussed, but I wouldn’t want to comment specifically,” he asid. “There’s clearly conversations still happening, but as far as what will happen, nobody really knows at this point.”
2. Achievement School District bill moves along.
A few weeks ago, we reported on the Achievement School District bill, which would turn over struggling public schools to charter school operators. Well, it’s barreling towards the finish line along with the end of the session, winning the approval of the Senate Education Committee on Friday. From NC Policy Watch:
Funny how that works.With just days remaining in the N.C. General Assembly’s short session, leaders on the Senate Education Committee have given their approval to achievement school districts, a GOP-backed model of school reform that may clear for-profit charter takeovers of low-performing schools.
Committee Chair Jerry Tillman, a Republican who supports the measure, declared the “ayes” to have won the vote Friday, although to some listeners, the voice vote appeared to be evenly split or favoring the opposition.
3. Stabbings at a neo-Nazi rally in California.
From CNN:
Ten people were injured Sunday after violence broke out between a white supremacist group and counter-protesters, said authorities in Sacramento, California. Two of the injured had critical stab wounds, Sacramento Fire Department spokesman Chris Harvey said.
The nine men and one woman were between 19 and 58, the fire department said in a tweet, and all had multiple stab and laceration wounds. One of the injured refused to go to the hospital, Harvey said. It was not clear how many remained hospitalized Sunday night.
The Traditionalist Worker Party, or TWP, whose leader describes it as a “white nationalist” group, had a permit for a noon rally near the state Capitol, said Officer George Granada, California Highway Patrol public information officer with the Capitol Protection Division. Another group showed up “to stop them from carrying on their permit,” he said.
Jillian Johnson, our “best local politician keeping it real,” got into some hot water last week. Barry Saunders has some thoughts on that.
That is what’s known in the social media world as a “hot take.” Scorching, even. Her Facebook post about taking guns from “dangerous people” has given critics ammunition to come after her and demand her resignation and an apology. They’re getting neither.
From the outrage generated by her post, you’d think Johnson had gone all N.W.A. – look it up – on law enforcement. She didn’t, but her displeasure with the military and the PoPo in their current forms was clear. The culture within both needs to be changed, she wrote and elucidated upon in a later posting and in a phone conversation.
People familiar with Johnson, especially those who voted for her, knew they were getting an intrepid, outspoken advocate. Theirs are the responses, no doubt, that are counterbalancing what she called “the racist and sexist” fusillade of invective being fired at her, the “ad hominem, inaccurate insults” devoid of substance.
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