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Gov. Cooper Ready To Present Full 2-Year Budget Plan
Gov. Roy Cooper is ready to offer his ideas on how to spend state money for the next two years.
Cooper will unveil on Wednesday the details of his state budget proposal through mid-2021. His spending plan comes with more weight compared to the past two years because Republicans in charge of the legislature no longer can override his vetoes on their own.
The governor revealed some budget provisions Tuesday. He's pitching a $3.9 billion bond referendum package, most of which would go to public education. He also said his proposal will include a Medicaid expansion plan and a rural economic development program.
Cooper: Ruling Voiding Voter ID Amendment Has 'Sound Basis'
Gov. Roy Cooper says a trial judge's ruling striking down North Carolina's new constitutional amendment mandating photo identification to vote "has a sound basis" in the law but ultimately will be resolved by higher courts.
Cooper told reporters Tuesday that Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins wrote a "well-reasoned opinion" recently that voided a pair of amendments approved by voters in November.
Collins agreed with the state NAACP that two amendments had been put on the ballot last year by a General Assembly that had been "illegally constituted" because of racial bias in House and Senate districts.
House Members Taking Close-Up Look At Televising Sessions
North Carolina House members say their proposal requiring daily sessions be televised online is about promoting transparency through modern technology.
A measure heading to the full House following a committee vote on Tuesday would install video equipment so daily floor sessions could be broadcast on the General Assembly website and footage archived.
The bill also would direct the University of North Carolina's public television network to air House sessions of "particular public importance." A House committee also would be created to study whether a new UNC-TV channel should be created to broadcast all sessions.
Bill sponsors say they'd like to see the Senate air session broadcasts, too.
Board Taking More Time To Decide On UNC Confederate Statue
The board governing North Carolina's public universities is giving itself more time to decide the fate of a Confederate statue toppled by protesters.
The Board of Governors is now expected to receive recommendations for the statue in May, two months later than previously planned, according to an email by board Chairman Harry Smith.
Smith had previously asked five members to develop and submit a plan to the full board by March 15.
Hoods Found On Monument To Confederate Women; Man Charged
Authorities have accused a man of placing white hoods on a Confederate statue depicting a woman and a young boy on the grounds of North Carolina's Capitol.
Forty-two-year-old Jon Williams of Raleigh was arrested Monday and charged with misdemeanor littering.
Williams posted a picture of the Monument to North Carolina Women of the Confederacy on Twitter, showing hoods often associated with the Ku Klux Klan over the pair's faces. An arrest warrant alleges that Williams made the hoods and put them on the monument.
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