Friday News: Vaguebooking

BERGER CRITICIZES "BLANKET" SOLUTIONS, WANTS FULL-TIME SCHOOLS: "If you're practicing the social distancing and doing all the other things, it just strikes me that that's not a higher risk situation," Berger said. Berger spoke with WRAL News Wednesday for a back-to-school special that aired Thursday night. He also discussed the state's mask mandate, saying businesses should have the option of requiring them but that a government mandate "seems to me to cut against the grain." He acknowledged COVID-19 as a serious public health crisis, but said "we have failed to address that problem in a way that really targets the more serious adverse consequences." "We've allowed sort of blanket solutions, and those blanket solutions, I believe, have missed the mark in probably a majority of situations," he said.
https://www.wral.com/nccapitol-interview-senate-leader-on-school-reopening-masks-covid-19/19192439/

Friday fracking video

NC private and charter schools rake in millions in COVID 19 relief loans

I don't think that word "struggle" means what they think it does:

A year’s tuition at Asheville School is more than $60,000 for live-in students, $35,000 for day students. In the last fiscal quarter, the school’s endowment was $43 million.

Yet the school’s leader said COVID-19 tested Asheville School finances in unique ways, making the $1.7 million it collected in federal pandemic relief necessary.

It's a simple fact, the wealthy live in a different world than the rest of us. And their world is more important to the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans than our world is. And of course Art Pope's education puppet Terry Stoops tries to rationalize this unnecessary funding:

Thursday News: Dodging a bullet

REPUBLICAN MARK HARRIS WILL NOT FACE CHARGES IN BALLOT FRAUD CASE: Republican Harris had hired Dowless, a longtime Bladen County political operative, to handle absentee ballot gathering, and had appeared to win the seat by a narrow margin over Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes. But the State Board of Elections refused to certify the election after receiving information that Dowless had manipulated absentee ballots. A special election was later held in which a different Republican, former state Sen. Dan Bishop, won the seat. Dowless, 64, faces three felony charges of obstruction of justice, two charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two charges of possession of absentee ballot. He also faces federal charges related to collecting Social Security disability payments while being paid to work political campaigns.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article244241467.html

Asheville approves reparation (steps) for slavery

Social justice can take many forms:

Asheville City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday night to provide reparations to black residents and their descendants. The resolution also apologizes for Asheville's role historically in slavery and discrimination. The resolution does not give direct payments to descendants of slaves, but instead allocates money to areas that traditionally see racial disparities.

Those areas include an effort to increase minority home ownership and access to affordable housing. Investments will also be made to increase minority business ownership and career opportunities. Other priorities include closing gaps in health care, education, pay and fairness within the criminal justice system.

This all sounds fantastic, but it will take action more than words to make it effective. And those actions, when they do take place, need to be monitored closely to make sure already well-off (white) people aren't reaping the benefits. Film at eleven.

Wednesday News: B or C

NC SCHOOLS WILL REOPEN IN AUGUST WITH LIMITED ATTENDANCE: North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students will return to school in August, Gov. Roy Cooper announced Tuesday, but it will be in a world where many children only attend in-person classes every other day or every other week. Cooper announced that K-12 public schools will reopen under a “moderate social distancing” plan that limits how many people can be on campus, forcing many students to get a mix of in-person and remote instruction. The reopening plan requires daily temperature and health screening checks, maintaining 6 feet of social distancing and face coverings to be worn by all school employees and students. Cooper said school districts can reopen with remote-only instruction if they determine that it’s best for students, parents and teachers in that area. He warned that the state may switch to requiring all schools to use online-only instruction if COVID-19 cases spike and they can’t safely reopen under the new health protocols.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article244212772.html

Tuesday News: 1,510 and counting

NC COVID 19 CASES ARE STILL ON THE RISE: At least 87,528 people in North Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus and 1,510 have died, according to state health officials. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services on Monday reported an additional 1,827 cases of the virus, down from 1,908 on Sunday and the record-high 2,462 on Saturday. Daily cases have been on an upward trend. The number of cases reported from July 7 to July 13 was about 17% higher than the number reported during the previous week. Officials also reported seven additional deaths Monday. On Monday, health officials reported completing 20,899 new coronavirus tests, for a total of more than 1.2 million. On Sunday, 10% of tests were positive. That number should be closer to 5%, health officials have said. State health officials say 67,124 people in North Carolina are presumed recovered from the virus, based on when they tested positive and if they were in the hospital. Data on recoveries is released once a week, on Monday.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article244204277.html

BlueNC