If Mark Robinson is your standard-bearer, you might reexamine your standards

A lot of people now know about Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina. Some national and international outsiders looking in were shocked at his Super Tuesday win. But I always thought the Donald Trump-endorsed Robinson was a shoo-in. That’s the red-versus-blue country we live in, when many times the “D” or “R” label means more than the person wearing it.

Yet, I find myself glancing side to side at my fellow North Carolinians, realizing that with Robinson’s win, they either don’t know much about the man other than his party affiliation, or they know him and approve of what he says and how he says it.

And as loud as he screams his repugnant views, there’s no excuse for anyone within state lines pretending he’s an unknown quantity. I swear you can hear him roar from the beach to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

His voters won’t be able to hide now, though, since national newspapers and cable networks are all doing their “Mark Robinson” stories in the same way gawkers slow down for a better look at a car crash on the side of the road.

So, what exactly has Robinson said to make national media finally notice? Take your pick, since the list of racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic comments and personal insults is long.

The civil rights movement that provided the path for Robinson, a Black man, to rise to his current post of lieutenant governor? He has said it was “crap,” called the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., an “ersatz pastor” and a “communist,” and disavowed being any part of the African American community. “Why would I want to be part of a ‘community’ that sucks from the putrid tit of the government and then complains about getting sour milk?” he wrote, employing every offensive stereotype that would be right at home at a white supremacist get-together.

Women? Robinson’s message to a North Carolina church was that Christians were “called to be led by men,” that God sent Moses to lead the Israelites. “Not Momma Moses,” he said. “Daddy Moses.”

Robinson reserves especially toxic rhetoric for members of the LGBTQ community, unapologetically, and often in sermons. “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth,” Robinson preached in one of them.

And though Robinson has tried to clean up his record with a trip to Israel, the Hitler-quoting candidate wrote in 2018 on Facebook: “This foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash.”

There is plenty more, but you get the idea.

Local News Roundup: Berger and Moore talk Charlotte transit and more; Matthews Town Commission meeting chaos; former City Council member Lynn Wheeler dies

North Carolina’s Speaker of the House Tim Moore and Senate Leader Phil Berger said during a visit to Charlotte this week that the city’s top transportation priority should be roads.

This is our last local news roundup before Super Tuesday — what do you need to know before you head to the polls? We’ll talk voter ID and more.

A Town Commission meeting in Matthews was derailed this week by racist and homophobic comments. We’ll break down what happened in the public comment section of that meeting.

And a former longtime member of Charlotte City Council, Lynn Wheeler dies at the age of 80 after a battle with cancer.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

GUESTS:

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal
Nick Ochsner, WBTV’s executive producer for Investigations & chief investigative reporter
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Steve Harrison, WFAE’s political reporter

Local News Roundup: complaints about UDO-approved triplexes; CATS ridership up; Tax rebate ahead for new owners of old Duke building

On the next Charlotte Talks Local News Roundup…

Residents near SouthPark are “concerned” and even angry about triplexes popping up in the neighborhood, bringing to fruition the City’s Unified Development Ordinance, put into place last summer. We’ll hear more.

The N.C. Local Government Commission has given the go-ahead to issue $2.5 billion in bonds for CMS renovation, replacement and expansion projects at schools across the district. We’ll discuss.

A property tax rebate may be in the future for the new owners of Uptown’s old Duke Energy building. We’ll talk about what was discussed by City Council on Monday.

And the Hornets’ losing streak continues.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

GUESTS:

· Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
· Steve Harrison, WFAE’s political reporter
· Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter
· Hunter Saenz, WSOC-TV reporter

Local News Roundup: Tepper fined; Pornhub blocked in NC; NYE violence Uptown; Charlotte banking magnate dies at 82

Carolina Panther’s owner David Tepper is fined $300,000 and issues a non-apology statement for throwing a drink on fans during last week’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The adult website Pornhub has shut down access in North Carolina in response to a new age-verification law that went into effect on January 1.

A mass shooting in Romare Bearden Park on New Year’s Eve left five people injured. It’s the latest subject in the ongoing conversation about safety in Charlotte.

And the man who grew Charlotte’s First Union into one of the largest banks in the country has died. Ed Crutchfield was 82.

Those stories and more on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

GUESTS:

Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter
Nick Carboni, WCNC sports director
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Nick Ochsner, WBTV chief investigative reporter
Ely Portillo, senior editor at WFAE News

BLACK ISSUES FORUM: Local and National Topics Leading to 2024 Elections

A look at topics impacting our decisions for 2024 elections. Plus, renewed debate about monuments and our country’s history of slavery raises a question: are we’re preserving history or our future? Host Kenia Thompson discusses these topics and more with Immanuel Jarvis, chairman of the Durham County GOP; columnist Mary C. Curtis (Roll Call); and Brett Chambers, lecturer at NC Central University.

Local News Roundup: Early voting begins in Mecklenburg; Possible new life for the Red Line; Social District vote Monday; Mecklenburg Commissioners support Israel

Early in-person voting started this week in Charlotte, just a few weeks before Election Day on November 7. What races will bring you to the polls? Be sure to bring your ID.

As President Biden visited Israel this week, Mecklenburg County Commissioners passed a resolution to support Israel and condemn terrorism.

Charlotte City Council’s vote on a new social district will happen on Monday. We give a preview.

Charlotte Area Transit System’s long-planned Red Line commuter train may have a future in Mecklenburg and Iredell counties. We’ll discuss the letter Norfolk Southern sent to the city.

Gov. Roy Cooper sued the North Carolina GOP members this week after an overhaul to the state’s election boards removed gubernatorial power.

And global soccer star Lionel Messi may play against Charlotte FC this weekend at Charlotte’s final home game. This has many fans very excited.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

Guests:

· Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal
· Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
· Joe Bruno, WSOC-TV reporter
· Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter

Local News Roundup: NC’s Patrick McHenry is interim Speaker of the House; CMPD and City Council talk ‘quality of life’ offenses; City works on response about CATS changes

In the aftermath of the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, North Carolina’s Patrick McHenry of Lincoln County, is now the interim House Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. We’ll talk about the role North Carolina’s delegates played in this week’s historical political vote.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police told City Council this week that it supports making offenses like public drinking and defecation arrest-able offenses. However City Council decided against that move. We’ll update what was said.

Charlotte Councilman Ed Driggs said on Monday the city is working to figure out a response to a letter sent by the mayors of Mecklenburg County towns who want to have a greater say in how Charlotte’s transit system is run. We’ll recap.

And in local sports, the Panthers continue their losing streak and go 0-4, Charlotte FC needs all wins in their final games to make the playoffs, and someone is once again whispering that Major League Baseball could come to North Carolina.

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.
Guests:

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal
Nick Ochsner, WBTV’s executive producer for Investigations & chief investigative reporter
Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”
Ely Portillo, senior editor at WFAE News

America’s two-tiered justice system isn’t new — just don’t talk about it

The Confederate monument outside the courthouse in Gaston County in North Carolina was not erected just after the Civil War ended. Like so many structures the United Daughters of the Confederacy promoted to prop up the lie of the “glorious” Lost Cause, the statue was raised in the early part of the 20th century.

And the intent was clear.

Then-state attorney general and future governor Thomas Bickett, at the 1912 dedication at the monument’s original site, listed what his North Carolina stood for, “the integrity of a whole civilization and a white race,” as reported in the Gastonia Gazette. Bickett praised white supremacy, criticized the right of Black men to vote and justified the Civil War.

Could any Black person entering that courthouse expect justice?

When a new courthouse was built in 1998, the monument was relocated to stand sentry, leaving North Carolinians of every race to wonder how much had really changed? It has been the subject of controversy, but every attempt to remove it, to perhaps assure African-Americans that the justice they receive in that Gaston County courthouse is indeed blind, has been a work in progress, complicated by a North Carolina law passed by a Republican majority legislature in 2015. It prohibits removal of monuments on public property, other than to a place of “similar prominence.”

Gaston County isn’t the only courthouse guarded by a reminder of North Carolina’s Confederate past, yet, raising the specter of observed systemic bias that still might haunt the state’s halls of justice has gotten state Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls in trouble.

The justice who was elected — yes, elected — is one of just two Democrats on the seven-member court, and the only African-American woman, and she is in danger of losing her seat. She is being investigated by the state’s Judicial Standards Commission, the judiciary’s ethical body, for comments she made in the legal journal Law360.com; the investigation could end in sanctions or removal from the bench.

Talking about the need for diverse staff among clerks and court personnel, mentioning out loud her observations that bias may exist in the court system, well, it’s all a step too far for some who have been questioning Earls since she was elected.

Earls took care not to accuse colleagues of any intentional action, merely noting the “implicit biases” we all share. And that the majority of those making oral arguments to the court have been white is just a fact, one that minorities with business before the court can see with their own eyes.

It’s also true that Chief Justice Paul Newby, a Republican, never faced such scrutiny after speaking quite freely about politics and his colleagues. He told an audience in 2019, before he was the chief justice, that Americans who find fault with the country could “just leave.” And in what was seen as a swipe against Earls, who had won a seat on the court, accused the left of spending $1.5 million “to get their AOC person on the court,” as reported in NC Newsline, an apparent reference to New York progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Newby has never recused himself in cases when he has expressed clear opinions about the issue presented to his court. Newby also has come awfully close to endorsing a fellow conservative running for the court, without rebuke.

But North Carolinians who elected Earls are apparently not supposed to notice such double standards.

Ever since Republicans regained the majority on the state Supreme Court, they have revisited issues such as voter ID requirements and redistricting, and there are moves to get the GOP supermajority in the legislature more involved in picking the people who judge the judges.

If it all sounds familiar, you’ve been paying attention to moves across the country, as Republicans find new ways to rid themselves and the voters of duly elected officials whose politics they abhor, with the judiciary being a prime target.

Local News Roundup: NC school performance results released; NC legislature considers Sunday alcohol sales and continues casino debate; Panthers set to play Atlanta

There’s still no budget for North Carolina, but state lawmakers are looking into allowing liquor sales on Sundays at ABC stores. We’ll talk about a bipartisan alcohol deregulation effort — and an update on other movements in the legislature, including some opposition to the effort to legalize casinos.

North Carolina released school performance grades and test scores this week. Pandemic recovery remains an issue, but we’ll talk about small gains being made.

Interim chief of the Charlotte Area Transit System Brent Cagle said this week that the cause of derailments inside the CATS rail yard could be less experienced operators. Is this cause for alarm? Cagle says not. We’ll discuss.

Jaywalking now comes with a fee in Davidson — follow the rules or pay a $30 citation. We’ll talk about what led the town to its new pedestrian safety campaign.

And the Carolina Panthers begin their season with a game against Atlanta. What should we expect from the game?

Guest host David Boraks from WFAE and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more, on the Charlotte Talks local news roundup.

Local News Roundup: CMS complies with NC Parents’ Bill of Rights; Fentanyl overdoses are up; Mark Robinson speaks in Charlotte; Panthers prepare to host Detroit

This week, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools became one of the first North Carolina school systems to comply with the new North Carolina Parents’ Bill of Rights. We’ll hear parent reactions and get an update on “back to school” since CMS starts classes on Monday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says overdose deaths in Mecklenburg County have gone up 20% so far this year, and the fentanyl crisis continues to grow.

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican candidate for governor, visited Charlotte this week to speak to the Charlotte Rotary.

Might Charlotte finally be home to a social district? Smaller cities around the area have already made the move to social districts, but none have happened yet in Charlotte — but that soon could change. We’ll discuss Plaza Midwood’s efforts to form a social district and when the city might decide on approval.

Amid the vetoes, overrides, the lack of an approved budget and other issues, North Carolina Republicans are currently divided as lawmakers consider allowing casinos in the state.

The Carolina Panthers play the Detroit Lions in the preseason finale at Bank of America Stadium on Friday. Will we see a different outcome?

Mike Collins and our roundtable of reporters delve into those stories and more.

GUESTS:

Mary C. Curtis, columnist for Rollcall.com, host of the Rollcall podcast “Equal Time”

Erik Spanberg, managing editor for the Charlotte Business Journal

Ann Doss Helms, WFAE education reporter

Ely Portillo, WFAE senior editor