NORTH CAROLINA OPEN THREAD
Sunday, October 1st, 2023
WEEKLY EDITION #436
This blog is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue. The platform gives readers interested in North Carolina politics a place to share their knowledge, insight and inspiration as we take back our state from some of the most extreme Republicans in the nation. Please stop by each week. You can also join the discussion in four other weekly State Open Threads. If you are interested in starting your own state blog, weekly to occasionally, I will list your work below.
Colorado: Mondays, 7:00 PM Mountain Michigan: Wednesdays, 6:00 PM Eastern North Carolina: Sundays, 1:00 PM Eastern Missouri: Wednesday Evenings Kansas: Monday Evenings
Following are links to a few stories of interest.
NC Newsline, Clayton Hinkle, 9/28/2023
It might be easy to think the average person doesn’t know or doesn’t really care what legislative district they live in. But North Carolinians both young and old proved that was not the case Wednesday as they patiently waited their turn to speak up for democracy and reject efforts to further gerrymander the state’s voting districts.
Charles Bennett from the Sandhills urged lawmakers to draw the lines without giving in to the temptation of cheating, remembering that North Carolina is in fact a purple state.
Eric Willoughby, a 17-year-old from Huntersville, drove two-and-a-half hours, to speak out against maps that were being crafted out of the public’s views to further cement the majority party’s control on policy.
There was Karen Alexander from Johnston County. She was there to speak for her ancestors who were denied the right to vote, and her grandchildren who will be voting in the not too distant future.
Linda Archer from Guilford County told legislators she thought she had moved to ‘crazy town’ when she heard how often North Carolina’s maps were being redrawn for partisan gain. Just think of how the money could be put to better use, without having to litigate each new gerrymander, she advised.
Finally, there was Mahlaynee Cooper, the founder of Speak Ya Peace NC, who came from Wilmington to deliver an original anti-gerrymandering poem entitled ‘Enough is Enough’.
Meet seventeen-year-old Eric Willoughby.
Daily Kos, Pakalolo, 10/1/2023
Eric Willoughby is a seventeen-year-old from Huntersville, North Carolina. He traveled two and a half hours by car to a MAGA GQP final legislative redistrict hearing, where the maps they drew have remained top secret and have not been provided to the public for review.
Listen to his words, as he will likely become a rock star on social media for some good old-fashioned truth-telling to power. I see a lot of promise for this young man’s future should he choose social justice and politics as a career.
He was not the only citizen to speak at the hearing, but he gained most of the social media traction on the limited coverage of the GOP hearing to kill democracy in the state.
Why NC lawmakers are betting $3 billion on professors, sewers and NASCAR in new state budget
WRAL, Will Duran, 9/29/2023
Included in North Carolina's new $30 billion state budget is at least $3 billion for economic development. Megasites, NCInnovation, Global TransPark and infrastructure are among the biggest earmarks.
Like most of North Carolina’s 100 counties, Lenoir County is shrinking. But local leaders are hoping to reverse the trend with a massive, taxpayer-funded cash infusion in the Lenoir city of Kinston.
The new state budget spends $350 million in taxpayer dollars for Kinston’s Global TransPark, an airfield and industrial site. The goal? To turn the investment into thousands of high-paying jobs for Kinston and the surrounding area by building the facilities needed to land a big military contract.
North Carolina furniture makers hit with major layoffs
WUNC, Paul Garber, 9/28/2023
More than 400 workers in Taylorsville, N.C., suddenly lost their jobs last month when a furniture factory closed. It's not the only manufacturing loss for a state known for its furniture industry and craftsmanship. Paul Garber from member station WFDD in Winston-Salem reports.
PAUL GARBER, BYLINE: The layoffs happened without warning - a Saturday email announcing the immediate closure of the Mitchell Gold-Bob Williams factory. And suddenly all of its workers were without jobs, and an entire county was in scramble mode. Soon after, David Icenhour walks among the booths at the job fair he organized in a gym at East Taylorsville Baptist Church.
DAVID ICENHOUR: We were blindsided by the closure like all the employees were as well.
GARBER: Eisenhauer is the economic development director for Alexander County, N.C. There are about 40 potential employers at the fair but not nearly enough to absorb the hundreds of lost jobs caused by the closure.
(Listen to the interview by clicking the story title)
Federal judge blocks two provisions in NC’s new abortion law
NC Newsline, Lynn Bonner, 9/30/2023
A federal judge blocked provisions of the state’s new abortion law dealing with abortion pills and procedures in clinics.
US District Court Judge Catherine Eagles, in an order issued Saturday, said that provisions preventing doctors from prescribing abortion pills in the early weeks of pregnancy and requiring abortions after 12 weeks be performed in hospitals rather than clinics cannot be enforced until all constitutional challenges are resolved.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray, a Duke OB/GYN, had sued to block the entire law, but Eagles allowed most of it to go into effect on July 1. The issues of abortion pill prescription limits and limits on abortions in clinics remained outstanding.
“We will always fight for every inch of ground so that as many people as possible can get the health care they need in North Carolina,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in a statement Saturday.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Gray sued state Attorney General Josh Stein and local district attorneys. Stein, a Democrat running for governor, does not support the new abortion law.

Thanks for stopping by, wishing all a good week.