NC SPIN Podcasts

This week Tom Campbell discusses Peter Hans starting the job as the new President of the UNC System.

Question to Chris Fitzsimon and John Hood – The Atlantic Coast Conference just released its fall football schedule. The conference is counting on fans in the stadium and big television audiences. Is it safe to play football this fall in spite of warnings that contact sports should be avoided?

Question to John Hood and Chris Fitzsimon – Students, faculty and Chapel Hill residents are expressing serious concerns that some 20,000 students will arrive to begin the fall term at UNC this week. What’s your take on the situation? Have enough precautions been taken to prevent a big surge in coronavirus cases? What happens if they have to close school because of the virus?

NC SPIN episode #1133 Air Date 07/31/2020

A look at the upcoming 2020 Elections:

Panelist:

Michael Bitzer, Professor of Politics at Catawba College, Old North State Politics blog

Susan Roberts, Professor of Political Scient at Davidson College

Chris Fitzsimon, Director, States Newsroom

John Hood, syndicated columnist and author

Tom Campbell, Moderator

This week Tom Campbell discusses an alternative plan for reopening schools using a pre-existing state-wide resource.

Question for John Hood and Chris Fitzsimon – The State Board of Elections issued an emergency order to deal with the November election. The order requires at least one early-voting site per 20,000 registered voters, and requires early voting sites open at least ten hours the two weekends before the election. The order didn’t satisfy Democracy North Carolina, which says it falls far short of guaranteeing fair and open elections. What do you think of the board’s orders?

Question to Cash Michaels and Becki Gray – The City of Raleigh has joined many other communities in establishing a curfew that halts the sale of alcohol at 11 p.m. in a desire to prevent people from congregating in large groups. Most of them are young people in the 21-40 age range. Do you think this will work? Any other curfews needed?

NC SPIN episode #1132 Air Date 07/24/2020

Topics:

COVID Recovery,

University cuts,

Public schools face uncertainty,

Tell Us Something We Don’t Know

Panelists:

Cash Michaels, journalist and filmmaker

John Hood, Syndicated columnist and author

Chris Fitzsimon, Director States Newsroom

Becki Gray, VP, John Locke Foundation

Tom Campbell, Moderator

This week Tom Campbell discusses how the loss of unemployment benefits for people put out of work by Covid-19 will impact us all in the greater economic picture.

Question to Rick Henderson and Chris Fitzsimon – One of our panelists on a recent show speculated what would happen if there was a hurricane or other emergency come election day. Let’s take that a step further and ask what the state should do if the COVID-19 pandemic rages and threatens the elections. What say you?