Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • A4

PAGE 4A 26,2017 ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES Integritycomesstandard. OntheHill 888-776-4551 www.harrysonthehill.com 2017BUICKENCOREPREMIUM AN-0100851054 5,193 BELOW MSRP ONTHIS2017ENCOREPREMIUM EXAMPLE: AnglicanProvinceofAmerica ALLSAINTS Sundays: (childcareprovided) 891-7216 ST.TIMOTHY’S 686-8505 ST.MATTHEW’S 11amEucharist 828-515-0191 SalvationArmy TheSalvationArmy 750HaywoodRoad PreachingtheGospelinthe WesleyanHolinessTradition St.Eugene CatholicChurch 72CulvernSt. 828-254-5193 MASSSCHEDULE 11a.m.,&1:30p.m. Baptist ChurchofChrist BILTMORE ChurchofChrist 823FairviewStreet JuicyLucy) and6PM Wednesday7PM AssembliesofGod Crossroads 20S.BearCreekRd. 828-254-5519 RejoiceRelateReconnect SundayWorship Websitewww.crossroadsasheville.com www.crossroadsasheville.com J.MichaelBrown, SeniorPastor AN-0100851344 828.252.4781-www.fbca.net Worshipservicebroadcast atwww.fbca.net JoinusonSundays.

RomanCatholic AN-0100852588 FREEMEDICAIDSEMINAR Learnmoreabouthowto: longtermcare teachthisseminar. Eventiscompletelyfreeandrefreshments providedatnocharge.Privateappointmenttimes willalsobeavailableatourdowntownoffice. Spaceislimited.Reservationsrequired. Call(828)258-0994byAugust29 toreserveyourseat. CONTACTINFO (828)258-0994 SheratonFourPointsHotel The districts in question stretch from the Charlotte area east through the Piedmont and eastern North Carolina.

Some districts bordering those the courts found unconstitutional will inevitably see changes, but mapmakers have so far been able to come up with new district lines without altering WNC districts. Sen. Terry Van Duyn, a Buncombe County Democrat who is a member of the Senate Redistricting Committee, said recently that tinkering with mountain districts would make whatever maps the Republican majority adopts more vulnerable to a legal challenge. The state Constitution says districts should not be redrawn at times other than after the census taken every 10 years without a compelling reason, she said. Whatever district maps the General Assembly agree to are likely to be challenged in court.

The results of deliberations in Ra- leigh could have a major influence on state politics. Republicans hold enough seats in the House and Senate now to override a veto by Cooper, a Democrat, if they maintain party unity. But if Democrats pick up three seats in the 120-member House or six in the 50- member Senate during the 2018 elections, when the districts now being discussed would be in use, they would be able to sustain Cooper vetoes. That would dramatically change the balance of power between the governor and the GOP majority. Sen.

Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, heads the Senate Redistricting Committee. Districts Continued from Page 1A sured that racial gerrymanders are adequately addressed. Republicans who voted against the plans called the boundaries an effort to erode current GOP majorities and place more pairs of Republican incumbents into the same district. to me this is a political said Rep. Nelson Dollar of Wake County, a House redistricting committee chairman.

But House Democrats said the GOP strategy, which did allow incumbency protection and partisanship to be considered, was misguided. Recent statewide election results attached to the Republican maps indicate they could retain their current supermajorities under the plans. solution of completely ignoring race violated the Voting Rights House Minority Leader Darren Jackson of Wake County said. Four House districts would contain a majority black voting-age population under the GOP plan, according to data provided by Democrats, compared to 23 districts in the 2011 maps. In the Senate, the number would fall from nine in 2011 to one.

Many majority-black districts were eliminated, according to Blue, through legal requirements designed to minimize district boundaries crossing county lines. Two Senate Republicans voted against the proposed Senate map Friday. One was Sen. Deanna Ballard of Watauga County, who would be placed in the same district with another incumbent. The other was first-term GOP Sen.

Rick Horner of Wilson County, whose proposed district is strongly Democratic. an outside expert. court says that we have discriminatory Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue of Wake County, said during floor debate on the Senate maps. just is anti-intuitive that you can fix a problem without addressing the problem and it might be that sending a message to this three-judge panel that you take judicial orders very The chairman of the Senate redistricting committee said Republicans are respecting and responding to the ruling. have a solution for that.

We will not use race in the creation of said Sen. Ralph Hise, a Mitchell County Republican, before the Senate approved the GOP plan in a 27-16 vote. have answered the questions with these maps and we are prepared to move forward now with elections under these maps (but) I think anybody thinks the legal fight is Almost all of the 28 maps that were tossed had majority-black populations. While Republicans point out it led to a record number of black legislators being elected in North Carolina, critics say the power of black voters actually decreased because Republicans won more surrounding districts that contained more white voters. Republicans currently hold veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.

Senate and House Democrats offered alternative maps, some of which were drawn by attorneys for the voters who successfully sued to strike down the 2011 districts. Democrats said these plans en- RALEIGH- In drawing new boundaries for General Assembly districts, North Carolina Republicans keep defending their decision to ignore racial data to ensure that complying with a federal court ruling that found sections of the maps from six years ago were illegally race-based. Despite warnings that such an approach will ultimately cede remapping duties to judges, GOP lawmakers voted Friday in the Senate to give tentative approval to their proposed remap. A House committee also approved proposed House districts. The voting, which resumes Monday, marked key steps in approving maps prior to a three-judge deadline Sept.

1. Over Democratic objections, Republicans approved criteria for redrawing new lines that purposefully left out the racial composition of voters. This decision came after the judges threw out 19 House and nine Senate districts from the 2011 maps as illegal racial gerrymanders. Democrats, who voted against the maps Friday, cautioned that judges may strike down these sets of maps, too, because Republicans be able to explain how some districts still contain majority-black populations. If the judges reject the new maps, which would take effect for the 2018 elections, they could decide to redraw the maps themselves or send the job to GOP redistricting passed despite doubts GARY D.

ROBERTSON ASSOCIATED PRESS DURHAM- A North Carolina public school system has revised its dress code to prohibit the Confederate flag, Ku Klux Klan symbols and swastikas. Local news outlets report the Durham Public Schools board voted unanimously Thursday to make the change. The Herald-Sun of Durham reports that board members had expressed support for the change during a work session last week. Durham, home to Duke University, is where protesters toppled a Confederate statue in front of the old county courthouse Aug. 14 following a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that erupted into deadly violence.

things, historically, were meant for hate, or at some point in history, meant board chairman Mike Lee said. In addition to the dress code, the board also voted 7-0 to remove the name of Durham industrialist and philanthropist Julian Shakespeare Carr from the middle school building at Durham School of the Arts. The building once housed an all-white high school. At the 1913 dedication of the Confederate memorial at UNC Chapel Hill, Carr, a Confederate Civil War veteran, spoke about the purity of the Anglo- Saxon race and detailed how he beat an African-American woman because she had insulted a white woman. Protesters gathered at the memorial Tuesday to call on officials to take it down.

Workers began removing some of the plaques bearing name from the building Friday. Durham Public Schools Superintendent Bert said the administration will review the names of all of its schools and school buildings. Carr supported local black leaders and provided financial support to help launch now known as N.C. Central University, a historically black college also located in Durham. for all of his contributions, the values he espoused and the brutal actions he claimed to take in no way reflect the safe and inclusive community that we are building in Durham Public said.

are under no requirement to continue to name any of our school buildings after white Public school system bans Confederate flag ASSOCIATED PRESS.