At this point, even for those who spend their days at the North Carolina General Assembly, it is hard to say what the Senate is doing with HB 88 Healthy Youth Act. Yesterday, the Senate Mental Health and Youth Services Committee took up HB 88, but not in a form anything like what we have seen in the past.

Due to weather, this afternoon's Racial Justice Act Press Conference will be held at 5:30pm at the NC NAACP State office located at 116 W. Parrish St - 5th Floor Conference Room, Downtown Durham (1 block from the Courthouse; above Mechanics & Farmers Bank). Please come and support the Racial Justice Act!

When the Racial Justice Act was heard in Committee on Wednesday, the Conference of District Attorneys commented that they oppose the bill. DAs from Durham and Orange Counties were there to speak against the bill, though there was not enough time to hear from them. In response, the NAACP has arranged a press conference tonight at 5:30 p.m. on the steps of the Durham Courthouse (201 E. Main St). We need a strong showing of support for the Racial Justice Act tonight. Please come out and support this important death penalty reform!

Senate Bill 461 North Carolina Racial Justice Act was discussed in the House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity Committee today, but no vote was taken. A new version of the bill was presented which strips out the Senate amendment to restart the death penalty. The Committee's discussion lasted about a half hour and a number of Committee members still had questions. We expect the bill to be brought in this Committee once again next week for a vote.

Keep calling your Representative and asking him or her to support the Racial Justice Act!

Senate Bill 461 North Carolina Racial Justice Act will be considered in the House Ways and Means/Broadband Connectivity Committee tomorrow. This bill would allow a defendant charged with a capital crime to use statistical and other evidence to show race played a significant role in his or her sentence of death or in the prosecutor's decision to seek death. This would help to address some of the racial disparity in the capital system. The bill passed the Senate, but was amended to try to restart the death penalty which has been on hold due to two court cases.

Two important bills protecting students moved forward today at the General Assembly!

In a somewhat incongruous action today, one Senate committee passed the ACLU-NC supported "Parent & Student Educational Involvement Act," while another was ordered not to take a vote on the "Healthy Youth Act."

The School Violence Prevention Act, commonly known as the anti-bullying bill will be heard in the House Education Committee today at 11. This bill requires local schools to adopt policies to deal with bullying and has a definition of bullying which all schools must adopt. The definition includes enumerated categories of students that are most at risk of and most affected by bullying from their peers and school administrators which research has shown makes these policies more effective.

H 88 Healthy Youth Act was put on hold again yesterday because the Committee Chair, Senator Malcolm Graham could not be present. However, the School Boards Association has also started raising objections to the bill saying that it will be too burdensome for small schools to offer both abstinence until marriage and abstinence based comprehensive sexuality education. This objection is truly making a mountain out of, at best, an ant hill. In many cases, schools can call in the Health Department or readjust existing resources to accommodate classes of all sizes.

Over the past weeks, H 88 Healthy Youth Act ping-ponged back and forth between the Senate floor and committee. Strangely enough, the concern was over the House amendment which changed the bill so that when a parent does not return the consent form selecting a sexuality health education track for their child, the child would not receive any sexuality health education. The bill as originally drafted would have placed those children in the abstinence based comprehensive sexuality track.