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Judges Uphold Changes To State Legislative Maps

WFDD file photo

North Carolina judges are upholding changes to state legislative maps. Republicans were ordered to amend them after the court found them to overly favor the GOP. Now the judges have rejected an appeal from groups that weren't satisfied with those changes.

A three-judge panel declined Monday to agree to the demands of Common Cause, the state Democratic Party, and Democratic voters for a third-party expert to take over redrawing about 20 state House districts.

The decision means that barring an appeal, the nearly 80 legislative districts lawmakers redrew last month will be used in the 2020 elections.

The Democrats and Common Cause successfully sued Republicans in a partisan gerrymandering lawsuit, prompting the remapping. But the judges disagreed with the plaintiffs' complaints that their instructions for redrawing the maps were not followed.

The decision on legislative redistricting is not to be confused with another ruling on Monday, in which three Superior Court judges blocked the state's congressional map from being used in the 2020 elections.

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Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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