The fallout from the weekend removal of Confederate monuments outside the State Capitol – first by protesters and then by order of Gov. Roy Cooper to protect public safety – now includes a holdup on funding for monuments in downtown Raleigh to honor African-Americans. Lawmakers have sent two more bills pushing reopening during the pandemic – one for amusement parks and party venues and the other to prevent July 4th celebrations from being blocked – as Cooper weighs the next steps in the state's pandemic response. A bill directing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus stimulus funds, mostly to state and local government agencies, also includes a couple of earmarks for unrelated programs that failed to gain traction on their own before the pandemic.

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