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Judicial, DA Boundary Line Changes Approved By House Panel

Rep. Justin Burr on Sunday posted on Twitter a proposed redrawn judicial map. Credit: Rep. Justin Burr

A North Carolina House committee has approved a plan to redraw the state's electoral boundaries for trial court judges and district attorneys. The bill appears to be on a fast track for a full House vote.

A House judiciary panel debated and voted on Monday along party lines for proposed districts drawn by Republicans for Superior Court, District Court and DAs.

Local prosecutors are elected in partisan races. Trial court races turned nonpartisan in the 1990's, but a new law reverts them to officially partisan affairs in 2018.

Bill sponsor Rep. Justin Burr of Albemarle says the measure is the first of many steps to make judicial and prosecutorial districts more uniform. But committee Democrats accused him of gerrymandering boundaries to benefit GOP candidates.

The bill now heads to the full House for a vote, despite requests from election reform advocates to study the matter further.

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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