UNC PROFESSOR WILL TESTIFY ON CONSTITUTIONALITY OF IMPEACHMENT: Michael Gerhardt, a distinguished professor at the UNC School of Law, recently published “Impeachment: What Everyone Needs to Know.” He will testify Wednesday as the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeaching President Trump. House Democrats, led by Adam Schiff, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, have been investigating Trump and his actions with Ukraine. The president denies what he did was improper. But Gerhardt won’t be on Capitol Hill to talk about what Trump said or didn’t say. He’s an expert on constitutional law and will be joined by three other law professors to discuss what the Constitution says about impeachment.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article238001664.html

ORANGE COUNTY CHURCH SETS UP BAIL FUND FOR THE POOR: People have been incarcerated before trial after being accused of littering, trespassing and stealing a a rotisserie chicken from a grocery store. Some have pleaded guilty without due process so they could go home and go about their lives, according to a new group Orange County Bail/Bond Justice. The group is the latest organization in the Triangle area trying to change that by establishing a rotating $50,000 bail fund. Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist Church in Chapel Hill launched the project in January 2019. The bail fund will post a maximum bail of $3,000 for those who cannot afford to pay it. When these people show up for their court dates, the money will be returned to the fund for other people to use. The fund will only cover Orange County residents charged with crimes in Orange County, and the nonprofit will consider previous failures to appear in court when deciding whether or not to fund a person’s bail.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/orange-county/article237628324.html

OUTSIDE GROUPS PREPARE AD BARRAGE FOR TILLIS: Earlier this month, the U.S. Chamber began airing a television ad touting Tillis’s co-sponsorship of a bill intended to aid veterans’ employment opportunities. The Chamber spent more than $7 million to help Tillis’s 2014 campaign, its largest contribution of the cycle. Americans For Prosperity, funded by the Koch brothers, launched ads last week, arguing against government spending and praising Tillis for his vote for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. AFP Action, the group’s political action committee, is engaged in grassroots activities for Tillis, reaching nearly 70,000 voters through phone calls and knocking on doors so far this cycle. It endorsed Tillis in June. Tillis has the lowest approval of any incumbent senator at 33%, according to Morning Consult polling.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article2...

JUDGE GIVES SILENT SAM STATUE TO CONFEDERATE GROUP, ALONG WITH A HEFTY BONUS: Silent Sam, the Confederate statue that stood on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus before it was torn down by protesters in 2018, is now in the hands of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And the organization will have access to up to $2.5 million to transport and preserve the monument through a charitable trust set up by the UNC System. The allowed expenses could also include a facility to house and display the monument. The money is coming from accruing interest from the UNC System’s endowment that’s built through donations, not tax-payer money. The agreement came when a judge entered a consent judgment Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina Division Sons of Confederate Veterans, Inc. against the UNC System and the UNC Board of Governors over the monument’s placement.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article237809039.html

TRUMP'S ACTING HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF BRINGS ANTI-IMMIGRANT BIAS TO RALEIGH: President Donald Trump’s top immigration official met Republican officials Monday in Raleigh to talk about how the sheriffs of some of North Carolina’s largest counties are no longer cooperating with federal immigration agents. Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is in charge of federal agencies like ICE, TSA and FEMA. It was the immigration side of the job that brought him to North Carolina, where he and several conservative politicians criticized Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper for vetoing a bill that would have forced sheriffs to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “There are a handful of sheriffs in North Carolina who have chosen for political reasons — purely political reasons — to shirk their responsibility as law enforcement officers of upholding the law,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a Republican, who is planning on running against Cooper for the governor’s office next year.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article237750644.html