(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . North Carolina Open Thread: Durham lead, Burlington PFAS, Free voter ID cards, Book bans, Cotham (R) [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-08-06 This blog is a weekly feature of North Carolina Blue . This weekly 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. Authors of color are targeted, as well as books about the LGBT community NC Newsline, Greg Childress, 8/3/2023 North Carolina has become what demographers and political pundits call a minority-majority system of public schools. That means nonwhite students outnumber their white counterparts. This new dynamic, says Michelle Burton, a veteran school library media specialist with Durham Public Schools, has fueled a backlash against what’s taught about America’s racist past, as well as reading materials that school libraries make available to children. Despite the fact that most children attending the state’s public schools are Black and Latinx, conservative parents and activists are fighting to restrict access to books written by authors of color and members of the LGBTQ community, Burton said. “We want to go back to not providing people access to knowledge and the opportunity to learn about themselves, “Burton said. “We want to go back to a time when people of color were hidden.” News&Observer, T. Keung Hui, 8/4/2023 North Carolina public school employees will get up to two months of paid parental leave after having a new child, thanks to new rules adopted Thursday by the State Board of Education. The state’s new law limiting abortions also included a paid parental leave option for state employees, including those who work in public schools, the UNC System and community colleges. Employees are entitled to up to eight weeks of paid parental leave after a baby is born and up to four weeks after adopting a child or becoming a foster parent. The new temporary rules still need to be reviewed by the State Rules Review Commission. But the state law went into effect July 1. “Districts will still have to comply with this whether there’s a rule in place or not because it’s the law,” said Allison Schafer, general counsel to the state board. EXPANDED LEAVE ELIGIBILITY When the State Board reviewed the draft rules last month, members were told the leave would only cover children born after July 1. Under that interpretation, parents wouldn’t be entitled to the leave if their newly adopted child or foster child was born before. But Schafer said that the State Personnel Commission is interpreting the paid leave to also cover adoptions and placement of foster children after July 1 regardless of when the child was born. Old City Sign and Signal Shop at East End Park a hot spot; Lyon Park, Northgate in the clear NC Newsline, Lisa Sorg, 8/4/2023 Contractors hired by the City of Durham have found hotspots of lead-contaminated soil at two parks, as well as at the old Sign and Signal Shop, prompting officials to fence off the affected areas no later than today. According to an update from the City published last night, these parks have lead above the EPA’s action level of 400 parts per million for playgrounds: Eight soil samples taken at East Durham Park, 2500 E. Main St. Seven soil samples at Walltown, 1700 Guess Road Six soil samples at the old Sign and Signal Shop, next to East End Park, 1200 N. Alston Ave. The shop is fenced in and not publicly accessible, although it’s feasible that people could trespass there. Precise concentrations were not listed in the initial report, but are expected to be included in the final version. All of the neighborhoods where the parks contain lead are predominantly nonwhite, low-income or both. Lead is a neurotoxin. Chronic exposure can cause permanent neurological and brain damage in children, who are especially vulnerable because they spend time outdoors and often put their hands in their mouths. Adults with high blood levels of lead can suffer from brain, kidney, heart and reproductive disorders. The contractor’s sampling showed “no potential contaminant concerns” were found in soil samples taken from playgrounds at any of the parks. And none of the samples taken at Lyon Park or Northgate exceeded the EPA’s action level, according to initial results. Elevate Textiles, one of the city’s industrial customers, agrees into install new technology, phase out use of compound in some production lines NC Newsline, Lisa Sorg, 8/2/2023 Levels of toxic PFAS in Burlington’s wastewater have decreased more than 6,000% over the past three years and are expected to decline further, the result of a settlement agreement between the City and the Haw River Assembly finalized this week. The agreement requires Burlington ensure its current and future industrial sources control PFAS discharges before they enter the city’s treatment plants or the Haw River, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented the Haw River Assembly. The agreement requires new and expanding industrial sources to disclose their use or discharge of PFAS. It also requires the city and its industrial sources to conduct extensive sampling using the latest methods to detect all PFAS, including precursor chemicals that degrade into measurable PFAS. This data will be available to the public on the city’s webpage. Exposure to even very low levels of PFAS, short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been linked to multiple health problems, including thyroid and liver disorders, kidney and testicular cancers, immune system deficiencies, obesity, high cholesterol, and reproductive and fetal development problems. There at least 12,000 types of PFAS, and they are found in water-, stain-, and grease-resistant products, like furniture, carpeting, clothing, microwave popcorn bags and fast-food packaging. PFAS are also found in AFFF firefighting foam. The Haw River has long been a dumping ground for PFAS pollution from upstream textile and manufacturing industries, Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton said. WUNC, Associated Press, 8/3/2023 Add election offices in all 100 counties to places where North Carolina voters can obtain photo identification cards that comply with the state’s voter ID mandate taking effect with this year’s municipal elections. The State Board of Elections announced on Wednesday that county boards of elections are now able to produce free photo ID cards. These can help registered voters who lack other acceptable forms of ID. That list includes driver’s licenses, military IDs and scores of state-approved college student and public employer ID cards. Registered voters who come to their county election office must provide their name, date of birth, and the last four digits of their Social Security number to obtain an ID, which can be used for 10 years. Free IDs also are available at Division of Motor Vehicles offices. The legislature approved a photo ID law in late 2018, but implementation was blocked while it’s been challenged in courts. A state Supreme Court ruling in April opened the door for the rules to be carried out starting with this year’s local elections. NY Times, Kate Kelly and David Perlmutt, 7/30/2023 When Tricia Cotham, a former Democratic lawmaker, was considering another run for the North Carolina House of Representatives, she turned to a powerful party leader for advice. Then, when she jumped into the Democratic primary, she was encouraged by still other formidable allies. She won the primary in a redrawn district near Charlotte, and then triumphed in the November general election by 18 percentage points, a victory that helped Democrats lock in enough seats to prevent, by a single vote, a Republican supermajority in the state House. Except what was unusual — and not publicly known at the time — was that the influential people who had privately encouraged Ms. Cotham to run were Republicans, not Democrats. One was Tim Moore, the redoubtable Republican speaker of the state House. Another was John Bell, the Republican majority leader. “I encouraged her to run because she was a really good member when she served before,” Mr. Bell recalled in an interview. Three months after Ms. Cotham took office in January, she delivered a mortal shock to Democrats and to abortion rights supporters: She switched parties, and then cast a decisive vote on May 3 to override a veto by the state’s Democratic governor and enact a 12-week limit on most abortions — North Carolina’s most restrictive abortion policy in 50 years. Thank you for reading and contributing to this weekly effort to provide links to NC stories of interest. I hope you have a safe week. 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