The N&O’s former cartoonist just couldn’t sit out this legislative session, not with all the fun things to draw. He’ll be offering his view every Sunday in The N&O during the session. Here’s this week’s cartoon.

A: The private military contractor Blackwater.
On Thursday the state House has passed a bill to eliminate the use of Sharia law in North Carolina. Opponents of Sharia like Rep. John Blust of Greensboro say Islamic law threatens to how North Carolinians marry, divorce and determine child custody: “It’s creeping, but it is stated within those who are pushing it, that is their goal: to have this type of law rule the world."
Blackwater had a different aim in mind back in 2006. They wanted to use Sharia to escape responsibility for a botched flight that killed three soldiers and the flight crew. Under Sharia law, employers are not liable for harm done by their employees. Federal judges opted to stick with U.S. law, despite the company's entreaties.
Blackwater and its insurers settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

On Monday, a legislative committee is supposed to act on House Bill 628, Protect/Promote NC Lumber, which mandates that state government construction projects adopt a building code that treats timber equally, which would put more North Carolina timber to use in the state. Former Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan write about that means in a piece we received too late to print before Monday.

We have a rule against publishing Points of View submissions from elected officials, so you won't find this in the paper. But here's a look at the reasons four lawmakers – two Democrats and two Republicans – sponsored House Bill 944 or the Opportunity Scholarship Act.

Charlotte Observer editorial page editor Taylor Batten had a blog post this week on the interesting way some bills are moving through committees:

Here's Dwane Powell's take on General Assembly doin's this week:

Looks like a proposal to consider consolidations and closures among the 17 UNC campuses to save money has bit the dust this legislative session. It comes up perennially (read the story here
). We had a Point of View ready to go on the subject by John L. Sanders, a retired UNC system vice president and a former head of the Institute of Government.

Peter St. Onge of the editorial board at the Charlotte Observer wonders what happened to Pragmatic Pat.
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Long, long ago, in one of his final days as Charlotte’s mayor, Pat McCrory looked out the window of his 15th floor Government Center office, and he swept his hand toward all that had changed in his city.

Uptown had filled out and shot upward, its streets vibrant and busy. There was a new school out there – Johnson & Wales – a promising NASCAR Hall of Fame, an arena that might help bring bigger things. Each had happened, McCrory said, because he had brought together diverse teams of leaders who had different backgrounds and different political philosophies, but a common desire to make their city better.

It was good for Charlotte, and it was good for McCrory, and when the book on Mayor Pat was finished, it told how a Republican leader got things done in his New South city. It was the story of Pragmatic Pat.

So now he’s governor, and McCrory would surely like to keep that image intact. He’s called himself a moderate “Eisenhower Republican,” and when the New York Times featured him in a January front page article on GOP soul-searching, he emphasized problem solving and cooperation, not ideology. It’s the McCrory that moderates embraced last November.

So what’s our new governor done, less than two months in?

Read the rest
here

Here's a letter about the Penn State scandal that puts what N.C. lawmakers have done with budget cuts to our at-risk children in the same ballpark. What do you think?