CHARLOTTE – A 55-year-old Charlotte driver died Thursday morning when she collided head-on with a pickup truck on Eastfield Road in north Charlotte. Read the full story

Updated Thursday, Feb. 20
HUNTERSVILLE – Huntersville police are looking for suspects in the Wednesday night shooting death of a 19-year-old Cornelius man at The Landings at Northcross apartments, off I-77 Exit 25, east of Birkdale Village.

Police were called to 16916 Landings Drive, Apt. G, at 6:06pm for a report of a gunshot victim. They found Peter Michael Jordan, 19, with multiple gunshot wounds. Read the full story

CONCORD – The new $10 million Sea Life Charlotte-Concord Aquarium at Concord Mills will celebrate its grand opening on Thursday, Feb. 20, with exhibits featuring 5,000 creatures, including sharks, stingrays, an octopus, seahorses, jellyfish and thousands of colorful fish. Story in PETS & ANIMALS»

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net/CorneliusNews.net

It was a rare scene Tuesday night in Davidson: Political activists from right and left sharing a stage and actually agreeing on something. They were talking about efforts to pass “fair redistricting” legislation that would end gerrymandering in North Carolina.

About 50 people assembled at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church for the nonpartisan forum organized by the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying & Legislative Reform. The coalition’s Jane Pinsky moderated the discussion, saying the time has come to change the way district boundaries are drawn.

“Meaningful reforms are needed right now. We’ve seen citizens on both sides of the political aisle disaffected,” Pinsky said.

State legislatures must revise voting district lines after the federal census every 10 years, to adjust to shifts in population and ensure comparable-sized districts. In recent years the parties in power – both Democrats and Republicans – have become even more bold in their efforts to shape districts that favor their parties.

Some states have begun to address the issue, putting redistricting in the hands of temporary independent commissions. Several speakers cited Iowa as a model, saying the process there now is fast, efficient and fair.

In North Carolina, the last redistricting in 2011 left most voting districts uncompetitive from a party standpoint, and sparked lawsuits. Twelve of the state’s Congressional districts and 159 of 170 legislative districts are so lopsided in voter registrations one way or the other that candidates from the majority party can win by 10 points or more.

Such wide margins of victory make it difficult for challengers, and often leave voters with no choice. With filing for the fall legislative elections open right now, most statehouse incumbents in Mecklenburg county as of Wednesday had no challengers, including state Rep. Charles Jeter (R-Huntersville) and state Sen. Jeff Tarte (R-Cornelius).

“Fair redistricting” supporters have had limited success in changing the picture. A bill passed the state House of Representatives last year, but never made it to a vote in the Senate. Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting said they think the bill could pass again easily in the house, but the Senate remains a big question mark.

Jeter was among those who came to speak in support of the the legislation Tuesday night. He pledged if re-elected to make a “fair redistricting” bill the first he introduces in the 2015 session. He decried gerrymandering and said: “The easiest way to solve that problem is to do away with safe districts. Both parties do it, everybody’s guilty.

“There’s ways to do this, and I think it’s something we have to do, or else we’re going to continue to have situation were we don’t listen to each other,” Jeter said.

As a Republican, he believes in his party, and doesn’t think it needs to use gerrymandering to hold power, he said. “I believe we can win on the issues,” he said.

Others on the panel included Marcus Bass of Common Cause; Becki Gray of the conservative John Locke Foundation; Dawn Moretz, a teacher and independent voter; and Harry Taylor of Charlotte, a former congressional candidate and author of “You Can’t Get There From Here,” which addresses the issue through his own tale of running as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district.

Pinsky said fair redistricting advocates favor a bill like the one that died in the General Assembly last year. She said the problem can be solved with a process that creates districts that:

Are compact, as close to a square as possible

Are contiguous, where precincts actually touch and are “not connected by an off ramp on I-95.”

Follow state and federal law, and keep counties as whole as possible

Respect communities of interest.

She said reformers hope to have a bill reintroduced and passed in 2015, and to hold a referendum on a state constitutional amendment that would ensure the reforms are carried out.

Meetings such as Tuesday’s are part of an effort to build a “core of citizen activists to pressure the state Senate to act.

“It’s clear the House is behind the bill. The only way the Senate’s going to move on this is if they hear from citizens,” Pinsky said.

Taylor said redistricting reform is critical to our political system. “It really care about democracy,” he said. “I don’t apologize for being an idealist. … We’re supposed to be the country to follow in the world. Instead we’ve got a system that’s rigged, to prevent people like me from having a vote that counts.”

RELATED LINKS

EndGerrymanderingNow.org – N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform page

NCLobbyReform.org, redistricting issue page

Oct. 16, 2013, WFAE.org, Charlotte Talks program on “Fair Redistricting,” which included Harry Taylor, Jane Pinsky and Mitch Kokai of the conservative John Locke Foundation

NCLeg.net, 2013 House Bill 606 – “Nonpartisan Redistricting Process,” which was approved in the House, but wasn’t considered in the state Senate. That bill would use non-partisan legislative staff to draw maps, under a tight time frame. Public hearings would be held by a citizens’ advisory commission, and the legislature would vote yes or no within 14 days.

Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce
Thirty-six states including the Carolinas have “Certificate of Need” laws, which are intended to control expenses on health care services and facilities and ensure access to services for all. But the laws are under increasing attack by some who see them as limiting competition and driving up costs. Read the full story

The Davidson Fire Department responded to a larger-than-normal number of medical calls over the past week and experienced slowdowns caused by last week’s snowstorm. With cooperation from the Davidson Police Department, the department was able to respond to all calls for assistance. Other calls included a gas leak on Hagen Knoll Drive, an electrical problem at Davidson Landing and a variety of alarms at Davidson College.  Read on for those and other incidents, as well as a summary of this week’s medical calls. Read the full story

Is there a better way to draw legislative and congressional districts? Supporters of a new “fair redistricting” bill think so, and they’re pushing North Carolina state legislators to end gerrymandering, the current practice that lets the party in power draw boundaries to maximize its election chances. The N.C. Coalition for Lobbying & Legislative Reform will host a nonpartisan forum on the topic Tuesday night, Feb. 18, at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church. Read more on our ELECTIONS PAGE»

The skies cleared Thursday afternoon and Friday, throwing sunlight onto the freshly fallen snow in Davidson. Friday was another day off from school for the kids, and offered beautiful scenes around town. Our readers sent more photos of what they saw during and after the storm. Read the full story