NORTH CARO 2 bak

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SEE NC 3 12 24 ON PIVOTAL ELECTION

see main POPE}:

cfg seems very interested in both carolinas?

see voter fraud ID BS

which forbade use of term AGW?

no merri

SEE HURRIC 3 DISINFO

see mark robinson lt gov

xian incl moral mondays barber

went big for trump vs GA

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why so much fuckery?

an 8 25

Feds still withholding millions in funds for North Carolina as Hurricane Erin bears down

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'Throwing out votes': Trump DOJ sues NC elections board — recalling failed election lawsuit

AN 5 25

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In the 2024 election, many North Carolina voters were willing to split their ticket.

President-elect Donald Trump carried the state, but Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein defeated far-right GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson and will be sworn in as governor in 2025.

North Carolina, a swing state, will have two Democratic governors in a row. But outgoing Gov. Roy Cooper and other North Carolina Democrats are slamming Republicans in the state legislature for making a "power grab" via Senate Bill 382 — which limits Stein's powers as governor in a variety of ways.

READ MORE:[Mehdi Hasan rips Nikki Haley over Biden jab: 'You hated Trump'

For one thing, SB 382 prevents Gov.-elect Stein from appointing members of the North Carolina Board of Elections and moves that power to GOP Auditor-elect Dave Boliek.

Cooper, during a Tuesday, December 3 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," slammed the bill as an egregious "power grab." And Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern has been equally critical of North Carolina Republicans and SB 382.

In a scathing post on X, formerly Twitter, Stern wrote, "This is a hugely corrupt power grab by the North Carolina General Assembly's Republican supermajority, seizing authority from the governor and the courts to prevent any meaningful check on legislative abuses. Authoritarian stuff. A really dark day for democracy in N.C."

SB 382 also prevents Rachel Hunt, North Carolina's lieutenant governor-elect, from chairing committees on energy issues.

PFAW 11 24

11 24

Angela Alsobrooks is the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate from Maryland.
Joe Sheehan is a former school superintendent who flipped his Wisconsin State House seat to blue by 800 votes.
Mo Green defeated an opponent backed by Moms for Liberty and flipped North Carolina’s superintendent seat blue.
Kimberly Thomas expanded the Democrat’s majority on Michigan’s Supreme Court 5-2.
Sean Teare is a progressive prosecutor who won a tight race for District Attorney in Harris County, Texas – the state’s most populous county.

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an 11 24

The 2024 presidential election was particularly bleak for Democrats, as Republicans swept every battleground state in the Electoral College and even won the popular vote for the first time in 20 years. But at the state level, Democratic candidates notched several big wins that will allow the party to have a few extra arrows in its quiver over the next few years.

The Guardian reported that in multiple state legislatures — including statehouses in several key swing states — Democrats are now well-positioned to use their new gains to frustrate President-elect Donald Trump's agenda in their own backyards. In addition to keeping three governorships in Democratic hands, the party also managed to flip numerous Republican seats in both chambers of several state capitols.

Some of the bigger marquee wins include keeping their one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, despite Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.) losing at the federal level. In North Carolina, Democrats elected Attorney General Josh Stein to become the next governor. Stein dispatched Republican nominee Mark Robinson by a whopping 14-point margin despite Harris losing the Tar Heel State by more than 173,000 votes. North Carolina Democrats also managed to finally wipe out Republicans' legislative supermajority, meaning Stein's future vetoes can't be overridden.

READ MORE:[Mark Robinson on track for 'largest defeat in more than 40 years' of any NC gov candidate

Daniel Squadron, who is the co-founder of the States Project, told the Guardian that Democratic state legislative candidates outperforming Harris was likely due to both their reliance on face-to-face campaigning, and on the high quality field of state house and senate candidates across the country.

"That is the only way it was possible to hold the Pennsylvania house when the statewide results were so disappointing," Squadron said. "It’s the reason the North Carolina house supermajority was broken."

One of the most significant victories for Democrats on election night was in Wisconsin, where Democrats flipped 10 seats in the state assembly and four seats in the state senate. This win notably came a year after the Wisconsin Supreme Court — which has a 4-3 liberal majority — struck down Republicans' heavily gerrymandered state legislative maps in favor of fairer ones.

According to the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, Wisconsin's prior legislative districts were among the most unfair in the United States, with Princeton giving "F" grades to both the state assembly map and the state senate map in 2022. Vox writer Ian Millhiser referred to the Badger State's old maps "America's worst gerrymander" in 2023. Democrats are poised to make additional gains in the Wisconsin legislature in the 2026 elections, when the governor's mansion will also be on the line.

Andrew Whitley, who is the executive director of the Wisconsin senate Democratic caucus, attributed his party's gains to candidates' deep knowledge of local issues in their own respective districts. He also pointed out that candidates were able to use hot-button national issues like abortion bans to convince voters to send them to the capitol.

“It’s very rare when you have bottom-of-the-ticket state legislators over-perform Kamala and Senator [Tammy] Baldwin,” Whitley said. “They worked their a—es off.”

“It’s going to be truly historic,” he added. “Gone are the days where a manufactured majority can override vetoes and pass super-regressive policies. We’re actually going to have some balance, and we’re on the cusp of not only having a balanced legislature, but a trifecta.”

Click here to read the Guardian's full article.

READ MORE:[Ex-North Carolina GOP gov admits Republicans knew Mark Robinson was a 'ticking time bomb'

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MMA 10 24

Members of former President Donald Trump’s “inner circle,” including Lara and Eric Trump, are scheduled to appear at a North Carolina event featuring right-wing commentators who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was a controlled or manipulated weather event. The tour’s organizers, who have close ties to the Trump team, have claimed that “weather manipulation is real” and said the recent storm proves “the globalists are pulling out all the stops.”

The government did not control or manipulate the deadly hurricane. Such claims have caused significant harm to officials and first responders who are working on recovery efforts in North Carolina.

Clay Clark and Mike Flynn — who served as Trump’s national security adviser — are co-founders of the “ReAwaken America” tour. Their next stop is on October 18 and 19 in Selma, North Carolina. A promotional flyer for the event lists numerous Trump allies and surrogates as scheduled speakers, including Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Kash Patel, Peter Navarro, Alina Habba, Christina Bobb, Devin Nunes, and Roger Stone. (Clark said on October 11 that Lara Trump would be in attendance.)

ReAwaken America has a toxic history: Media Matters previously documented that the tour has featured at least five Hitler-promoting antisemites.

Clark, who organizes the tour, has billed the North Carolina event as featuring “basically President Trump’s inner circle.” He made similar remarks before, including saying that “Trump's inner circle is now going, they're all reaching out to our tour, to the ReAwaken America tour.”

Team Trump is sharing a stage with numerous speakers who have pushed the conspiracy theory that Hurricane Helene was the result of weather manipulation or control.

The following speakers are scheduled to speak in North Carolina, according to the ReAwaken America tour’s most recent promotional poster, and have promoted weather manipulation conspiracy theories.

Clay Clark is “a dear friend” of Eric Trump who said during an October 3 interview: “Weather manipulation is real, and the town or the area that was most devastated by the flood happens to be in a town that sits on America's largest lithium deposits.” He also encouraged people to look into HAARP.

Notably, Clark is also organizing another event in North Carolina this week: the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting, which is hosted by former President Trump.

Mike Flynn is Donald Trump's disgraced former national security adviser. Trump told Flynn last year that he would bring him back if he is reelected to the White House. On social media, Flynn shared a video on October 7 which claimed that “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation!” He also suggested that “the mountains of N.C.” show that “the globalists are pulling out all the stops. Don’t worry, the real storm is coming.”

Julie Green is a “prophet” who issues bizarre and pro-Trump commentaries. Eric Trump has told Green that she’s “so incredible,” called her a “warrior,” and thanked her for their “friendship.” She claimed on October 9 that the Lord told her that the recent hurricanes were “all man-made” and that the weather events were deliberately created or manipulated as a form of “election interference.”

Seth Holehouse is a podcaster who gained fame when Donald Trump boosted an election denying video featuring him. Holehouse spent his October 3 podcast pushing conspiracy theories about the hurricane, stating: “To me, it looks like the people controlling our government and controlling these officials, whoever it is — we’re not going to get into it on this show — that what they did is they created a massive storm or they took an existing storm and they amplified it. They steered it just over top of the region they needed to absolutely destroy. Then they seized control of all the aid to make sure that nothing could be salvaged there.”

Lara Logan is a widely discredited right-wing commentator. She shared a conspiracy theory-laden video on October 6 essentially claiming that Helene was the result of weather manipulation and control and wrote: “What happened in North Carolina with Hurricane Helene? Make up your own mind. But listen to everything.”

Jane Ruby is a health misinformer and podcaster who posted a video on October 5 supposedly proving that the government steers hurricanes and wrote: “HURRICANE HELENE IS A DIRECT ATTACK ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY OUR OWN GOVERNMENT”. She also wrote on September 26, “IS #Helene A GOVERNMENT OPERATION? SEE ENERGY BEAMS FROM THE GROUND SHOOTING AT STORM,” and later asked: “Were Direct Energy Weapons To Supplement Hurricane Helene?”

Sherri Tenpenny is a health misinformer who has shared numerous antisemitic claims, including Holocaust denial. On October 3, she wrote: “What do Maui and North Carolina have in common? Pesky residents who won't get out of the way of the lucrative deals our government wants. In Maui, it was land. In North Carolina, it is lithium.” She also shared a post claiming, “Cloud seeding or manipulating the weather is real. Think Hurricanes Helene and, now, Milton on its way. Kills Americans, catastrophic events JUST BEFORE AN ELECTION. Voting becomes impossible for many. October surprise??” She then commented: “Weather Warfare is next level Covid.”

Ann Vandersteel is a far-right podcaster. She promoted the conspiracy theory that the hurricane was an attempt to steal lithium deposits in North Carolina and wrote: “Just hide your weather manipulation in plain sight.”

an 10 24

US Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-North Carolina) on Tuesday issued a scathing rebuke of the misinformation and disinformation spreading across social media regarding the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) response to Hurricane Helene.

CBS News correspondent Scott McFarlane posted to X a screenshot of a letter the North Carolina congressman published to his website, debunking a list of myths repeated by Donald Trump and parroted by others online amid the hurricane's devastating impact on the Tar Heel State.

"Over the past 10 days, I have been proud of how our mountain communities have come together to help one another," the letter reads. "We have seen a level of support that is unmatched by most any other disaster nationwide; but amidst all of the support, we have also seen an uptick in untrustworthy sources trying to spark chaos by sharing hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and hearsay about hurricane response efforts across our mountains."

The Republican lawmaker continued, "While it is true, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Helene has had its shortfalls, I’m here to dispel the outrageous rumors that have been circulated online."

CBS News notes, "Some of the most bizarre conspiracy theories that have spread online claimed politicians manipulated the weather to target Republicans areas in the battleground state and that the federal government was trying to seize land in the town of Chimney Rock to mine lithium."

In his letter, Edwards debunked eight myths, including:

*1. Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock."

Edwards also emphasized, "Nobody can control the weather," before debunking seven more myths, including:

*2. Local officials are NOT abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze over Chimney Rock.

*3. FEMA is NOT stopping trucks or vehicles with donations, confiscating or seizing supplies, or otherwise turning away donations.

*4. FEMA has NOT diverted disaster response funding to the border or foreign aid.

*5. FEMA is NOT going to run out of money.

*6. FEMA cannot seize your property or land.

*7. The FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] is NOT restricting access to airspace for Helene rescue and recovery operations.

*8. FEMA is NOT only providing $750 to disaster survivors to support their recovery.

Edwards went on to explain, "The initial $750 provided to disaster survivors is an immediate type of assistance called Serious Needs Assistance that may be made to individuals in need as soon as they apply for FEMA assistance."

The North Carolina leader added, "The $750 is an upfront, flexible payment to help cover essential items like food, water, baby formula and medication while FEMA assesses the applicant’s eligibility for additional funds. This award is just the first step of a longer process to provide financial assistance to disaster survivors in need of federal support.

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an 9 24

Donald Trump has long attracted the evangelical Christian vote as the Republican nominee in 2020, and as the Republican nominee now.

Ahead of the presidential election, and of North Carolina's major gubernatorial election — in which the far-right, openly bigoted GOP candidate is backed by Donald Trump — Reverend Jay Augustine of Durham tells *Washington Post* columnist EJ Dionne Jr. that the critical swing state "is going to be ground zero for a faith war."

"The senior pastor of Durham's St. Joseph AME Church insists that "there is an ongoing struggle for the soul of American Christianity between brands of faith that embrace democratic inclusion and extreme forms — particularly white Christian nationalism — that promote exclusion." Dionne emphasizes, "It’s an argument that North Carolina might be called upon to settle for the nation."

Dionne notes that North Carolina "hosts a complex religious history: It’s home to a large evangelical right, but was also the site of Bishop William J. Barber II’s 'Moral Mondays' movement, a religiously inspired but deeply ecumenical focal point for social activism around civil rights, voting rights and economic equality."

Truth Tabernacle Ministries ' Senior Pastor Bishop Haywood Parker told Dionne, “There are White evangelicals who will utilize the gospel and twist it in a way that works to their advantage and gives them a way to support Trump. But there are lots of us who don’t feel that way. When I’m told that if I support Kamala Harris that somehow, I’m anti-church, anti-Biblical, that really bothers me."

The Post columnist writes:

*Religion has created a coalition management challenge for Democrats whose ranks include large majorities of Jewish and Muslim voters and an overwhelming share of voters — particularly among the young — who left organized religion altogether.

*But political scientist David Campbell, co-author of 'Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics,' argues that the party still has ample room for appeals to religious voters.

"We don’t see any evidence that [secular voters] are hostile to Democrats who use religious language," Campbell told Dionne. "It’s a myth that because they have a secular world view, they are hostile to religion. What they don’t like is the establishment of religion by government, government stepping over the line between church and state."

Pew Research Center's Gregory Smith told the columnist, "While most White Christian groups have trended in a Republican direction in recent years, significant minorities identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, including 4 in 10 white nonevangelical Protestants and 37 percent of White Catholics."

Dionne notes, "The battle for Catholics will be important in the northern swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, especially now that Joe Biden, only the second Catholic president in American history, is no longer on the ballot."

*Dionne's full column is available at this link (subscription required).

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North Carolina GOP says voters have no right to fair elections ELLSWORTH TOOHEY

BB 6 24 Gerry

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GOP nominee for NC public schools chief endorsed 'pay per view' execution of Obama: report - Alternet.org

// mark robinson gov cand

nazi cow 3 24

Republican public schools nominee supports political killings and ‘death’ to Bill Gates

Michele Morrow official campaign photo

Jordan GreenandRaw Story

March 08, 2024

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Michele Morrow, the newly minted Republican nominee for superintendent of public instruction in North Carolina, wishes “death” on Bill and Melinda Gates.

She’s advocated killing people she considers “traitors.”

Despite seeking to oversee public education in a state of 10.5 million people, she is herself a homeschooler.

She has no prior political experience.

She attended the Jan. 6 rally to support Donald Trump’s quest to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

She received candidate training alongside a Proud Boys member.

And yet, Morrow upset incumbent Catherine Truitt in the Republican primary on Tuesday.

ALSO READ: Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war

Morrow, who rallied for Trump in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, has repeatedly made false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, while calling for death to Trump’s political enemies — and to former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates and his former wife Melinda Gates for promoting vaccines.

Morrow could not be reached for comment for this story.

In a post on Twitter (now X) on Dec. 29, 2020, Morrow wrote: “I do support death to vaccine mongers like Bill and Melinda Gates.” (Raw Story reviewed the post on Wednesday, but it has since been removed for violating X’s rules. The post has been archived.)

In another post the same day, she wrote: “We need to follow the Constitution’s advice and KILL all TRAITORS!!!!”

Morrow livestreamed herself with other Trump supporters walking to the Ellipse on Jan. 6.

“We are here to take back America,” she said. “We are here to stop the steal. We are here to ensure that President Trump gets four more years.”

Morrow, who has worked as a Christian missionary, exhorted her livestream followers: “We need to fight back with prayer… May the people of God arise. May the Holy Spirit descend on D.C., and may souls be saved. And may the United States once again return to one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.”

In the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Morrow rebuked a call by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to prosecute those involved. Four people died during the attack — all Trump supporters — and dozens of police officers were injured.

“We do not condone violence and destruction,” Morrow wrote. Nor will we stand for treason and cowardice. Did anyone offer to talk with those entered? Or only force them out and threaten them? Thousands of us were here in Nov & Dec. We never heard from ANY Congressmen. Now you want to talk?”

Following President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, Morrow took part in the far-right shift towards focusing on public schools as sites for cultural and political struggle.

A post in the private Facebook group Education First Warriors shows Morrow attending a candidate training with a member of the Proud Boys in January 2022. The photo was posted by Sloan Rachmuth, the president of the Education First Alliance.

Proud Boy member John Fischer, who like Morrow would go on to lose a local school board race that year, later attended a rally with other Proud Boys wearing masks and paramilitary gear who harassed patrons at a drag show in Sanford, N.C.

Public schools are 'greatest threat to humanity'

Truitt, who Morrow defeated Tuesday to win the Republican nomination for superintendent of public instruction, has held the post for the past four years.

The person in this position is responsible for developing curriculum and administering state and federal funds in North Carolina K-12 schools.

Morrow’s primary win sets up what’s likely to be a spirited general election fight with Maurice “Mo” Green, formerly the superintendent of Guilford County Schools — the third largest district in the state — who won the Democratic primary.

Green received the endorsement of the NC Association of Educators, whose president declared the election to “be critical to the future of public education in North Carolina” while warning that “anti-public school politicians want to tear down our schools.”

Some of Morrow’s views on public education are outlined in a 2023 Newsmax opinion article that promotes a Christian nationalist vision for education, while claiming that preserving traditional gender roles is a matter of national security.

Morrow wrote that “government-run (read public) schools and medical systems” are “the greatest threat to humanity,” while arguing that removing God “from the classroom, the courtroom, and the public square” is opening “ourselves up to chaos and confusion.”

ALSO READ: Feds gave classified information to neo-Nazi defendant: lawyer

In the same article, Morrow claimed that the American soldiers who liberated France during World War II are being demonized as “toxic.” She also complained that society is “filling our children’s minds with the lie that gender roles are an oppressive, social construct to be rejected” and “telling them that it is ‘heroic’ to block the natural processes of development.”

Green, the Democratic nominee for superintendent of public instruction, is largely refraining from commenting on his opponent.

In a statement to Raw Story, Green said he will work to make the North Carolina public school system the best in the country by advocating for full funding, ensuring staff receives adequate pay and “celebrating the good in public education.”

Morrow, in contrast, has a history of negatively framing public education.

Speaking at a candidate forum during her unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Wake County Board of Education in 2022, Morrow said her children have been educated in public, private and home schools.

“And what worked best for my kids in preparing them to be critically thinking, hardworking and intelligent adults and prepared for entering into the adult world and following and pursuing a career that they are passionate about was homeschooling,” she said.

Morrow added: “I would be more than happy to put my last child, who is in fifth grade now — 10 years old — to put him in the public school system if I believed that the public education system was focused on academic excellence and preparing our children for the career of their choice.”

https://www.alternet.org/alternet-exclusives/michele-morrow/

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an 1 24

north Carolina's State Board of Elections has decided to allow Joseph Gibson III — a House GOP candidate and convicted felon with alleged neo-Nazi ties — to remain on the ballot, "finding that his citizenship rights had been restored," News & Observer reports.

State House GOP Caucus Director Stephen Wiley, according to the report, "first raised the alarm about Gibson after finding out he had been convicted of several felonies, including robbery, while living in Connecticut." He then found Gibson has "ties to a neo-Nazi organization," saying, "He's got pretty despicable views and doesn't have any room in polite society as far as I'm concerned."

News & Observer notes, "A report from the Anti-Defamation League describes Gibson as a 'white supremacist and anti-government extremist,' and "says that the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM) described Gibson as 'one of our members in NC' and supported his campaign online."

Gibson calls the GOP's opposition to his candidacy "political assassination."

The newspaper reports:

*Gibson was initially removed from the ballot by the Rockingham County Board of Elections on Jan. 3. The board found that he had been convicted of a felony in Connecticut and had not 'presented evidence that his rights have been restored.' The board also said that Gibson failed to appear at his own hearing. He appealed to the state board, which sent the case back to Rockingham, asking the board to determine if Gibson’s citizenship rights had been restored.

*The Rockingham board then approved Gibson’s candidacy on party lines, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. In the board’' decision, it said that Gibson had completed his probation in 2008 for crimes committed in Connecticut and had not been convicted of a felony in North Carolina since.

*Parnell then appealed back to the state board, which ruled in Gibson's favor on Tuesday.

News & Observer also notes, "Wiley anticipated this result," saying, "I fully expect us to lose and for Mr. Gibson to remain on the ballot — and then I fully expect Rep. Pyrtle will be able to handily beat him on the primary date."

*The News & Observer's full report is here (subscription required).

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an 12 23

president Joe Biden's reelection campaign has joined a lawsuit seeking to halt a law in a battleground state that could disqualify thousands of ballots in 2024.

Politico reported Friday that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is challenging a law New Hampshire's Republican-controlled legislature passed last year that requires voters who registered to vote on Election Day (which requires the signing of an affidavit attesting that they are a resident of New Hampshire) to produce a photo ID within seven days of registration, or else their votes would be tossed out. Senate Bill 418 stipulates that in addition to rejecting ballots, those voters' names would be referred to the New Hampshire Attorney General's office for investigation.

"President Biden and Vice President Harris believe that we should be making it easier, not harder, for every eligible American voter to participate in our democracy. New Hampshire’s law flies in the face of that belief, and is a chilling and unacceptable embrace of the election fraud hysteria championed by Donald Trump," Biden campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez told Politico. "In an election that could very well determine the fate of our democracy, it is our imperative to fight for the right to vote. This is just the beginning."

According to Politico, there were approximately 75,000 new voters who registered on Election Day 2020, though data on how many of those new voters had photo ID is unavailable. However, Biden won the Granite State by less than 70,000 votes in 2020, meaning the law has the potential to swing election results.

Even though New Hampshire has a Republican trifecta government (with the GOP in control of both chambers of the legislature as well as the governor's mansion) its representatives in the House of Representatives and US Senate are all Democrats, meaning the Granite State's four Electoral college votes are not guaranteed to either party. Having the challenge answered by the February 2024 primary is unlikely, but the Biden campaign aims to have the issue litigated in advance of the 2024 general election in November.

This marks the second such DNC lawsuit challenging a state's election laws, following an October challenge to North Carolina's Senate bill 747, which has similar provisions governing same-day voter registration and photo ID requirements. Democratic governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but the GOP-dominated legislature overrode Cooper's veto. The DNC filed the lawsuit shortly after the law took effect.

SB 418 has been previously challenged by the New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which called the law "unconstitutional," saying it would "diminish the secrecy of ballots and tie voter’s names to the candidates and issues for which they voted on their ballot." The suit was ultimately dismissed for a lack of standing.

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an 10 23

republicans in North Carolina appear poised to pass one of the most extreme redistricting maps in the US, with little in the way of opposition.

Last week, WUNC reported that Republicans' proposed new maps are much more favorable to the GOP than the court-drawn maps used in 2022, which split representation evenly with both Democrats and Republicans having seven House seats apiece. The new proposed maps would instead give Republicans 10 safe seats, carve out three safe seats for Democrats, and give Republicans the advantage in a red-leaning district. Cook Political Report senior editor Dave Wasserman posted on X that the new maps would effectively eliminate four Democratic districts.

In addition to the advantages the new proposed maps would give Republicans in Congress, the maps would also lock in Republicans' majorities in the North Carolina legislature, likely for the remainder of the decade. Democratic state representative Lindsey Prather responded to the new proposed maps by calling for an independent redistricting process.

"I want to take a second & acknowledge the sheer insanity that is #ncpol," Rep. Prather posted, using the hashtag for North Carolina politics. "We need nonpartisan, independent redistricting. We shouldn't be waiting w/bated breath for maps that were drawn in secret. This shouldn't be exciting. It should be a boring thing that happens every 10 years."

While Democratic Governor Roy Cooper is expected to veto the maps, Republicans have a large enough legislative majority to override him, meaning the federal judiciary is the only remaining hurdle the maps need to clear in order to go into effect.

Even though conservatives in the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has a 6-3 majority, the Court struck down a gerrymandered Congressional map in Alabama, forcing Republicans to have at least two House districts for residents of predominantly Black counties. Republicans initially attempted to resist the Court's order, but SCOTUS had a special master draw a map with two districts for its Black residents, who make up roughly 1/4 of the state's population.

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https://www.alternet.org/north-carolina-republicans-prosecute-librarians/

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12 22 kpfa

17 (so gop) states pass laws to prot dark $

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n March, TPM reported on several years of Facebook comments by North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson that spanned an impressive range of bigotry that targeted gay people, Black people, immigrants of many backgrounds, and Jews. At one point he even seemed to question the Holocaust.

And yet, Robinson remains the leading contender to become the Republican candidate for governor of his state.

Astoundingly, a new report in the conservative publication The Dispatch suggests that Robinson himself may believe the enormous pile of damning past comments that TPM and other news outlets have surfaced publicly is just the tip of an even more enormous iceberg of toxic material contained in Democrats’ opposition research file, which has yet to drop in full.

“I know there’s probably a lot of stuff out there swirling around … People are trying to put doubt in the air about our campaign, about me, but none of that stuff is true, I guarantee you,” Robinson said in a voicemail he left for a prospective Republican donor, according to The Dispatch. “We’re ready to take this challenge on. And I believe that we are the candidate.”

It’s super early. But the Dispatch report suggests that North Carolina Republicans think Robinson is virtually unbeatable:

“There’s a certain bit of desperation here that’s like: Well, why don’t we just try something new, and try something different?” said one senior adviser to a North Carolina state senator.

The dynamic among Republicans resembles last year’s Republican Senate primary in Georgia, when no GOP candidate was seen as a potential contender against former football star Herschel Walker for the nomination.

“Most of the legislators I’ve spoken to about this have essentially told me: ‘He’s gonna get the nomination. So what am I going to do, stand in the way?’” added the adviser, who said that concerns about Robinson’s general election viability have grown quieter.

It all sort of smacks of 2022, doesn’t it?

Herschel Walker in Georgia is a fine comparison. When it comes to far-right candidates who were just too weird for a swing-state electorate, 2022 gifted us plenty: Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, or nearly all of the statewide Republican candidates in Arizona and Michigan.

In 2024, Democrats face a terrible, terrible map. In the Senate, 23 seats currently held by Democrats are up for election, and only 11 held by Republicans are. Many of those Republicans are in safe, very red states; among the 23 Democratic senators, on the other hand, are some of the party’s most vulnerable. The picture is similar when it comes to governor races: all of the Republican-held governorships are safe seats, while three Democratic-held governorships are states in which Republicans stand a decent chance — including North Carolina.

Candidates like Robinson may play a small role (or, who knows, maybe a significant role!) in tempering Democrats’ grim outlook.

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an 3 23

no lnx

Why the GOP-dominated North Carolina Supreme Court is likely to uphold partisan gerrymandering: attorney

Alex Henderson

March 21, 2023

:{:{In February 2022, the North Carolina Supreme Court struck down a gerrymandered congressional map drawn by Republicans as a violation of the state's constitution. That case is Harper v. Hall, not to be confused with Moore v. Harper — a separate but related case that has gone all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.}:

Since February 2022, there has been a sea change on the North Carolina Supreme Court — which is now dominated by Republicans and has decided to revisit Harper v. Hall. Attorney Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor, fears that the justices are almost certain to restore the gerrymandered congressional map that was struck down 13 months ago.}:

In an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on March 21, Wu explains, "It’s still the North Carolina Supreme Court, but last year's state elections changed the Court's political majority from Democrat to Republican. Despite the fact that the political affiliation of judges is not a legal basis for overturning cases, that seems to be the only reason the case is being reheard. Sound familiar?"

READ MORE:The independent state legislature Supreme Court case could upend centuries of progress

:{:{Wu continues, "Recall the dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan in Dobbs v. Jackson, where the majority struck down the precedent of Roe v. Wade that had stood for a half-century…. The new Republican majority of the North Carolina Supreme Court is following SCOTUS' lead by doing the same thing…. Only twice in the past 30 years has the (North Carolina) High Court granted requests for rehearings."}:

In law, the Latin term stare decisis means respect for precedent. It means "let the decision rest." When Sen. Susan Collins voted to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, she insisted that he considered Roe v. Wade "settled law." But Collins was wrong. In 2022, Kavanaugh was among the justices who voted to overturn Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization; clearly, "stare decisis" was not a priority for Kavanaugh in that case.}:

On both the North Carolina Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, Wu argues, respect for precedent is falling by the wayside.

"The underlying rationales between the state and SCOTUS matters are the same: Republican majorities want the power to do what they please with election laws," the former federal prosecutor points out.

READ MORE:Robert Reich: Electoral College reform is 'urgent' as the Supreme Court considers 'bonkers' election theory

In Moore v. Harper, North Carolina Republicans are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the "independent state legislature theory" — a far-right fringe legal concept claiming that only state legislatures should be allowed to make decisions on elections. According to the most severe form of ISL, a state's judicial and executive branches should be excluded from election-related decisions — only state legislators are allowed.

"The position taken in the North Carolina rehearing — as well as the ILST argument before SCOTUS —would eliminate the state courts and the governors, leaving only state legislatures to make these decisions," Wu observes. "Recognizing the impact of the North Carolina Supreme Court rehearings, SCOTUS has asked for additional briefing from both the Justice Department and the parties petitioning the nation's highest court for additional briefings on how the decision to rehear the cases may affect the decision in SCOTUS."

READ MORE: How John Roberts may slow-walk American democracy right off the cliff

Read Shan Wu’s full op-ed for the Daily Beast at this link.

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The Other Side: Explore Offshore, Big Oil Front Group

Since the push to open the Atlantic Coast to offshore oil and gas drilling has run into serious opposition from the real grassroots America, Big Oil has decided to launch another artificial turf group: “Explore Offshore.”

This front group was just rolled out last week by its creator, the American Petroleum Institute (API). It’s billed by its industry parent as a “diverse” coalition of more than a hundred groups, businesses, and individuals in the South Atlantic states from Virginia to Florida. In fact, it’s populated by right-leaning political entities such as the Conservative Action Fund; business entities like Environmental Standards (a services firm with ties to the oil, gas, coal, and utilities industries); and other entities like North Carolina’s own notorious Civitas Institute (anti-regulatory “think tank” and regular critic of efforts to address climate change).

The North Carolina chair of Explore Offshore is Nat Robertson, who was defeated in his re-election bid for mayor of Fayetteville by almost 20 percentage points last November. Robertson is the title author of an article pitching the group and pumping for offshore drilling. It ran in June 9’s Winston-Salem Journal and is likely being flogged to other outlets around the state. Curiously, the article makes no mention of the group’s creation by the oil and gas industry itself. That’s surely because they’re well aware that revealing the connection would implode any public credibility for its message. Conservationists shouldn’t let our communities be fooled.

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1900$ chick fil a

https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/campaign-finance/

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an 121

Only days after a violent coup by supporters of Donald Trump came unspeakably close to murdering top U.S. leaders, including Trump's own vice president, Republicans are expressing outrage not over the coup attempt, the attempted murders, or the unforgivable lack of federal response, but over private companies deciding that they cannot continue to support the online tools used to help coordinate the violent attack.

Republican lawmakers have given only lip service to coup condemnations; instead, they have devoted the vast majority of their statements to insisting that "unity" demands taking no action to remove Donald Trump, even after he provoked an insurrection, and declaring that the greater travesty is online efforts to isolate and expel those that advocated for and planned the violence.

Trump's own handpicked leader of the Republican National Committee, in the meantime, a woman who willingly abetted malevolent hoaxes claiming that the United States elections that removed Trump from power were fraudulent and should be nullified, was reelected to lead the party by a unanimous vote.

That is evidence enough that Republican lawmakers and leaders have no remorse over their own parts in stoking, relentlessly, the fraudulent propaganda that domestic terrorists then used as justification for attempting to murder Trump's enemies in Congress. It is also the reason the acts of individual lawmakers should be investigated, by Congress, and expelled en masse if warranted. But further evidence can be found in the materials being distributed by Republican candidates and officeholders in the immediate aftermath of the murders.

They want constituents to know that their attacks on America's democracy and government will continue, and that they are proud of their actions to date.

In new campaign materials, recent North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Sandy Smith bragged of her involvement in an attempted overthrow of the government.

"[twt]I was at the March for Trump and the Stop the Steal Rally, supporting the President, fighting for our country and our Constitution!" says Smith, a fascist, seditionist and traitor. Of the participants in the event: "None were inciting violence," she claims.

Of "Republicans in DC": "To them, it's fine if Biden stole the election and takes office."

"No wonder the establishment cheated to get Trump out."

Sandy Smith, a Republican congressional candidate, is unrepentant in continuing to stoke the provably false propaganda claim that the United States elections were "stolen." Every court in the land has decried these claims; there is, literally, no evidence for them. Not a stitch. The claim is a lie, and it is a lie that Trump's fascist enablers signaled before the election he would pursue if he lost. It is a hoax intended to overthrow this nation's government, and Sandy Smith is a traitor knowingly peddling it.

In a pinned Tweet, Smith claims she herself won her election for North Carolina's 1st District seat, "if we audit" it. She did not. She lost. Her claims are false, and she is a traitor.

She is not the only Republican who has continued to claim that the elections that ousted Trump were fraudulent, of course. Over a hundred Republican lawmakers claimed the same, even as pooled blood continued to dry outside the chamber doors Wednesday evening. It is a false claim, explicitly demanding the nullification of an election based on a propagandistic hoax perpetrated by a deranged madman and his fascist allies. The Republican Party is a fascist movement. There are no "good" Republicans after Wednesday: There are only ex-Republicans or seditionists. The party has made clear what it stands for.

The Arizona Republican Party and other state parties, all of them stripped of any leaders perceived to be insufficiently loyal to their orange-hued tax-dodging rapist leader, have only doubled down on their support for a traitor, which is to be expected. It is a party with no remaining morals; it cannot be forced to condemn a coup it itself attempted to bring into being with anti-American lies.

This coup is not over. From Jim Jordan, Devin Nunes and Kevin McCarthy to Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, the party continues to claim the election that ousted Trump is invalid and that "unity" requires allowing the organizational tools of the coup, its party allies, and their own seditious rhetoric to go unmolested as they continue to push the same pro-Trump hoaxes that American fascists used to justify their attempted murder of top national leaders. This coup is not over, and its enablers fully intend to rebuild their hoaxes rather than abandon them.

---

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/charter-schools/

as the COVID-19 pandemic began closing school buildings and forcing schools to quickly ramp up online learning programs in April, an op-ed by Alex Medler, the executive director of the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers, made an appeal to Betsy DeVos's Department of Education to change the guidelines of her department's grants for new charter school startups to allow the money to go to existing charter schools. Medler justified the request to address "immediate needs during the pandemic." But when Chalkbeat broke the story that DeVos would agree with Medler and approve Florida's request to repurpose about $10 million in grant money for new charter schools to be redirected to existing charters, Medler made the curious admission to Chalkbeat reporter Matt Barnum that another reason for the need to change grant requirements was because "there aren't enough new [charter] schools being created across the country to spend all the… money on the one purpose of funding the start-up of new charters."

Is the charter school industry, even before the current crisis, really on the skids?

The annual rate of charter school growth nationwide from 2014 to 2016 was half of what it was between 2008 and 2014, according to a 2019 report from pro-charter nonprofit Bellwether Education Partners. And in some states where charters have proliferated, these schools are seeing student enrollments drop.

Many communities that have been reliable markets for the charter industry are now having fewer new charter school openings. Some of these cities are getting no new charters at all.

But this negative view of the charter market is contradicted by evidence of new charter schools proliferating in some places.

One of those places is northeast Wake County, North Carolina, a suburban sprawl outside Raleigh that includes Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wakefield, Zebulon, and other rapidly growing bedroom communities. The generally affluent region—the sixth-wealthiest zip code in the state—is now home to 11 out of the 24 Wake County charter schools. And more are scheduled to open.

In 2019, local school officials and school PTAs implored the North Carolina State Board of Education not to approve the two newest charters coming to Wake Forest, a community in northeast Wake County, arguing that charter "saturation" was adding to racial segregation in local schools and threatening to financially destabilize the district. The state board approved the schools anyway.

In 2020, Wake County parents have written letters to local news outlets saying new charter schools aren't needed, and they've protested at public hearings considering whether to open the new charters.

One of the charters the state had approved to open in Wake Forest, Wake Preparatory Academy, was rejected by the town's Board of Commissioners, the Wake Forest Gazette reported, because the board found the school's site plan and subdivision proposal had not met the town's requirements. The school is appealing the ruling to the state.

Why are new charter schools opening in northeast Wake County?

"Charter schools can open where they choose," Christine Kushner answered. Kushner, a Princeton graduate in public policy who has lived in Wake County for more than 20 years, has been on the school board of the Wake County Public School System since 2011.

In our phone conversation, Kushner asserted the schools are not needed, "academically or for capacity reasons." She disputed claims charter operators have made that the northeast part of the county "needs seats," and she called that claim, "not an accurate statement."

One reason why charter schools are expanding in northeastern Wake County seems to be because they can.

In 2011, when the North Carolina state legislature voted to lift the state's maximum limit of 100 charters allowed in the state, there was little to no consideration of where charters should expand to. Ten years later, with the number of charters nearly doubled, it seems that the charter industry itself has been allowed to determine that.

The state's light regulatory hand consists of a Charter Schools Advisory Board that receives and reviews charter applications and renewals and makes recommendations to the State Board of Education, which makes the final decision.

It is not uncommon for members of the advisory board to have close associations with charter schools,including Joe Maimone who co-founded a charter, NC Policy Watch's Progressive Pulse reported; Jeannette Butterworth who served on the board of a charter school, Blue Ridge Now reported; Cheryl Turner who was a principal of a charter school, Movement reported; and Lindalyn Kakadelis who was an employee of a state-based right-wing advocacy group that promotes charter schools, Nonprofit Quarterly reported.

Another member, Steven Walker, was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, who the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Courier-Tribune reported has repeatedly tried to squelch information from the state's education department showing charter schools serve disproportionately larger percentages of white and affluent students.

The Charter Schools Advisory Board sets "a pretty low bar" for new charter applicants to gain approval, Kushner told me, and the State Board of Education "often follows the advisory board's recommendations," according to NC Policy Watch.

A Policy Mystery

From a policy standpoint, the geographic placements of charter schools are murky.

The shifting policy justifications for charters—whether they're a civil rights cause, an agent for improving the performance of public schools, or a necessary choice for choice's sake—don't clearly explain why charter schools show up where they do.

If charters are necessary for equity, then why are they showing up in affluent northeast Wake County? If charters are needed in places where the state's public schools are the lowest-performing, then Wake County is well down the list of districts in need. And if choice for choice's sake is the goal, then the state's many rural school districts—where schools are often few and far between, and parents don't have the wherewithal for private school or homeschooling—seem much more in need of new state-supported education options.

Another reason the choice for choice's sake argument seems especially misapplied to Wake County is that the district already offers more choices than are typical of most school districts.

...

https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/qanon-supporters-win-seats-in-congress-city-council/

several politicians with ties to the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory have been elected to positions of power.

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene [pix w/ uzi ar15] was declared the winner in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, becoming the first QAnon supporter to win a U.S. House seat.She wasfollowed shortly thereafter by mixed martial arts fighter Tito Ortiz, a fellow QAnon supporter who was elected to Huntington Beach City Council.

Greene made headlines for her anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, and bigoted statements, reported on back in June. Videos :{acquired by Politico:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: appeared to show her comparing Black Lives Matter to the Klu Klux Klan, claiming that Muslims should be banned from serving in the U.S. government, and propagating anti-Semitic statements about billionaire George Soros.

The Georgia Republican also faced scrutiny for her support for QAnon, a :{far-right conspiracy theory:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: turned virtual cult that claims a cabal of elite pedophiles made up of Hollywood actors, Democrats, and other high-ranking officials, is behind a global child sex-trafficking ring. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has labeled the movement a “:{potential domestic terror threat:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:.”

“Q is a patriot, we know that for sure,” Greene :{said:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: in a 2017 video, which has since been deleted. “There’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the President to do it.”

Despite her controversial statements and tinfoil hat conspiracies, Greene received support from influential GOP donors, as well as from groups :{associated with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:.

As for Ortiz, the MMA fighter :{finished first among 15 candidates:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: in the Huntington Beach city council race, receiving 14.3 percent of the overall total (34,901 votes). He will serve a four-year term once he is sworn in.

Ortiz, known as the “Huntington Beach Bad Boy” during his MMA career, was elected without any previous political experience. A fierce Trump loyalist, the fighter used his platform to amplify the president, associate with far-right groups, and propagate dangerous conspiracy theories such as QAnon, all while campaigning with the Trumpian slogan of “Making Huntington Beach Safe Again.”

For a while, Ortiz sold apparel :{marked with QAnon slogans:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: such as WWG1WGA (short for Where We Go One We Go All) through his Punishment Athletics clothing line. (It appears that Ortiz has since removed the QAnon apparel from his site.) He also claimed that the coronavirus was “man-made” and a political scam devised to suppress protests around the world. “Once again, it’s population control by the left. They’re trying to get rid of all the older people who are getting Social Security,” Ortiz:{ }:{ }:during a podcast appearance.:{ }:

Ortiz, who ran as a conservative, was endorsed by the Huntington Beach Police Officers Association, the Republican Party of Orange County, former Huntington Beach mayor and convicted felon Dave Garofalo, as well as Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.

(Author note: Right Wing Watch covered Ortiz’s campaign, including his support for the QAnon movement, :{here:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:.)

It should also be noted that Lauren Boebert, the Colorado Republican who was criticized for supporting QAnon, won the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District on Wednesday.Back in May, Boebert joined QAnon conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel on her “Steel Truth” program, where she said she believed the conspiracy theory was “only motivating and encouraging and bringing people together, stronger—and if this is real, then it can be really great for our country.” Boebert was :{endorsed:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}: by the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual The Conservative Political Action Conference.

According to The New York Times, Boebert has since “:{disavowed:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:” the baseless conspiracy theory.

Republican Madison Cawthorn will also be heading to Congress as the youngest member elected in modern U.S. history. The 25 year old defeated Democrat Moe Davis for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. He came under scrutiny earlier this year for Instagram photos that show him :{visiting Adolf Hitler’s vacation house in Germany in 2017:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:. And while he reportedly disavowed QAnon, he repeated some of the child sex trafficking claims promoted by the far-right conspiracy theory.

“But what’s really going on is we are having a large group of cartels coming into our country, kidnapping our American children and then taking them to sell them on a slave market, on the sex slave market,” Cawthorn said in a :{campaign video posted on Instagram:(style="box-sizing:border-box;transition-duration:0.2s;transition-property:background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform;transition-timing-function:linear"):}:.

Tags: Lauren Boebert Madison Cawthorn Marjorie Taylor Greene Tito Ortiz QAnon

https://www.mediamatters.org/local-news/local-north-carolina-broadcast-news-not-covering-republican-candidate-madison-cawthorns

https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/madison-cawthorn/

liberals and progressives often attack far-right MAGA and Trumpian Republicans for "racist dog whistles." But sometimes, racism from the far right isn't subliminal, but rather, overt and in-your-face — for example, the congressional campaign of 25-year-old North Carolina Republican Madison Cawthorn saying, in essence, that Cawthorn's 62-year-old Democratic opponent, Moe Davis, is a self-hating White male for being too pro-Black.

Tim Miller, a Never Trump conservative and ex-communications director for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, slams Cawthorn's campaign in an October 22 article for The Bulwark. Miller notes that Cawthorn's campaign, on the anti-Davis website MoeTaxes.com, "takes aim at Davis over his purported association with a local journalist, Tom Fiedler. It says that Fiedler 'quit his academia job in Boston to work for non-white males, like (Sen.) Cory Booker, who aims to ruin white males.'"

Miller writes, "Putting the atrocious syntax aside: quitting one's job to work for someone who isn't White is a problem now? Booker's blackness is the issue that offends you? In Donald Trump's white grievance party, apparently so."

The Bulwark points out that after Miller's article was initially published, the overtly racist rhetoric at MoeTaxes.com was changed. The "non-white males" and "ruin white males" references were replaced with claims that Davis supports "left-wing identity politics."

Miller, in his article, explains that "Trump has made a feature of his stump speech a line about how Joe Biden plans to send Cory Booker, of all people, into the suburbs to somehow ruin everything for reasons that are a total mystery. Wink. But Cawthorn is happy to say the loud part even louder: Cory Booker, you shouldn't work for him because he's 'non-white' and 'ruining white males.' Horrific."

In North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, Cawthorn is running for the U.S. House of Representatives seat that was vacated by former Rep. Mark Meadows when he left Congress to become White House chief of staff in the Trump Administration.

Miller stresses that Cawthorn has been "claiming to represent a new generation of Republicans," adding that "like the rest of the young Generation Trump, Cawthorn has learned that Republican voters are less interested in the regulatory regime than in uncut white identity politics. In addition to targeting Davis for associating with someone who worked for a Black man, the microsite, (MoeTaxes.com) also smeared him as a 'terrorist defender' who commits 'perversion.' But, like the rest of Generation Trump, Cawthorn is also learning that while it's easy to dominate a Republican primary with this stuff, winning a general election is harder."

Miller notes that an internal Democratic poll found Davis leading Cawthorn by 3%. And considering that the district in question was conservative enough to send far-right Tea Party favorite Meadows to Congress, that is saying a lot.

Slamming Cawthorn's campaign with biting sarcasm, Miller writes, "If Cawthorn goes down in defeat, at least we know he won't go work for anyone who is Black, since his closing message against Moe Davis is Make America 1950 Again."

north Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis — viewed as one of the most vulnerable GOP senators in 2020 — has found himself in an uncomfortable situation after a staffer’s excessively honest comments to a constituent were caught on tape.

As first reported by WRAL, Bev Veals of Carolina Beach, a three-time cancer survivor, called her senator out of fear that her health insurance was at risk. She has previously faced medical bankruptcy and difficulty accessing care, WRAL said, andher husband was furloughed because of the pandemic. She wanted assurance that she’d have coverage if she lost her health insurance.

But Tillis’s office wasn’t helpful. While speaking to a dismissive staffer, Veals began to record their conversation, which was provided to WRAL and can be viewed above.

“You’re saying that, if you can’t afford it, you don’t get to have it?” she asked. “That includes health care?'

"Yeah, just like if I want to go to the store and buy a new dress shirt. If I can’t afford that dress shirt, I don’t get to get it,” the staffer explained.

“But health care is something that people need!” Veals said, clearly alarmed. “Especially if they have cancer.”

“Well, you got to find a way to get it,” the staffer said.

“So what do I do in the meantime, sir?” she asked, not hiding the irritation in her voice.

The response was snide: “Sounds like something you’re going to have to figure it out.”

Tillis’s office has apologized after Veals came forward about the exchange: “The way Mrs. Veals was talked to by a staff assistant in our Washington office was completely inappropriate and violates the code of conduct Senator Tillis has for his staff, which is why immediate disciplinary action has been taken.”

But the truth is that, insensitive and rude as the staffer’s comments to Veals were, they were simply a much more honest reflection of the Republican Party’s policies on health care than officials typically admit. But the truth isn’t hard to see. The Trump administration is currently arguing that the Supreme Court should overturn all of Obamacare, throwing millions of people off their insurance and invalidating protections for pre-existing conditions, along with other provisions that protect patients.

The unofficial Republican Party policy, though, is to lie about this fact. Trump is constantly telling voters that he protected pre-existing conditions — even though he has done nothing to ensure they’re covered — and that he’ll continue to keep these protections in place, even though he’s trying to destroy them.

The Tillis staffer, apparently, didn’t get the message. He has imbibed the attitude at the heart of the GOP’s policy preferences. His mistake was being honest with a member of the public about the policy.

Veals, for one, doesn’t seem deceived by the office’s apology. And that’s because she still hasn’t gotten the original answer to the question she called about.

“We need our legislators to listen to us and help us solve this problem because it’s not just my problem – not being able to afford health care,” she told WRAL. “It’s the problem of hundreds and thousands of North Carolinians.”

North Carolina is one of 12 states in the U.S. that has not adopted Medicaid expansion, a policy that would help cover people like Veals if they lost their insurance. Tillis opposes Medicaid expansion.

In a statement to WRAL, Tillis dishonestly defended his position:

“When he was Speaker of the House [in North Carolina],” the statement continues, “Senator Tillis inherited a Medicaid program that was mismanaged and plagued with overspending and inefficiency. Expanding Medicaid at the time would have been a promise that the state wouldn’t have been able to keep, requiring cuts to the program that would have harmed patients that states like New York and California have already been forced to make. Instead, Senator Tillis worked to strengthen the state’s Medicaid program to deliver quality health care to patients, and the reason the North Carolina is in a position to discuss expansion is because of Senator Tillis’ leadership.”

These claims are in spectacularly bad faith. Medicaid expansion has been wildly successful across the United States — it can even save states money. And claiming to be concerned about “cuts to the program” that harm patients is absurd when patients like Veals can be left with no coverage at all. It’s even more pernicious, though, because the recent stressed on state budgets in the wake of the pandemic come from the Senate Republicans’ refusal to provide recovery funds to state and local governments, as Democrats have sought to do.

It’s these comments — far more than a staffer’s rudeness — that should be the real scandal.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/postmaster-general-urged-to-immediately-step-aside-as-north-carolina-ag-backs-probe-into-campaign-finance-fraud-allegations/

w/ ith less than two months before U.S. elections in November and amid demands for his immediate firing, high-level Democrats in Congress and the Attorney General of North Carolina called for both state and federal investigations into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after explosive reporting Sunday afternoon contained allegations that the GOP megadonor now running the U.S. Postal Service criminally violated campaign finance laws.

First reported by the Washington Post, the story included claims from former employees of DeJoy, most notably from his human resources director David Young, who said DeJoy—a major donor to the Republican Party and President Donald Trump—would reimburse workers using payroll bonuses for political giving, an arrangement that is unlawful under both federal law and in North Carolina, where his logistics company, New Breed, is located.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein responded to the news Sunday evening by backing an investigation.

“It is against the law to directly or indirectly reimburse someone for a political contribution,” Stein said in statement on social media. “Any credible allegations of such actions merit investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities. Beyond this, it would be inappropriate for me as Attorney General to comment on any specific matter at this time.”...

A modest, practically harmless October Surprise. But it’s typically down ballot where the average Project Veritas video tends to have its most pernicious effects. Less well known than O’Keefe’s blunders on the national stage are the numerous documented instances in which his stings have been cited to justify new and more onerous voter I.D. laws or other election integrity legislation in state legislatures across the country.

In April 2012, Chris McDaniel, then Mississippi’s Senate elections committee chairman, cited a Project Veritas voter fraud video as evidence justifying the passage of the state’s “photo identification requirement” bill⁠, which the state’s Republican Governor Phil Bryant signed that May. Despite legal challenges, this law is still on the books today.

Also that year, a Republican Minnesota state representative, Steve Drazkowski, praised a locally shot O’Keefe video—in which Project Veritas undercover operatives requested ballot applications for their friends “Timothy Tebow and Thomas Brady”—during a floor debate for his party’s own draconian voter I.D. bill. While Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton vetoed a strict version of that voter I.D. legislation, and Minnesota voters backed his decision in a ballot initiative later that year, the state’s Republican Party still plans to revisit the issue again this year. (“We have had a number of studies that have been completed, there’s a lot of new data on this topic, and there are court cases that have been decided,” as Minnesota GOP State Senator Scott Newman ominously put it, “none of which we had in 2012.”)

O’Keefe’s “Primary of the Living Dead” stunts during the and primaries in 2012—in which his operatives requested but crucially did not actually attempt to use, the ballots of deceased primary voters—aided the passage of stringent voter I.D. laws in those states. After New Hampshire enacted a law in 2018 tightening the state’s voting statutes, partly in response to a new series of Project Veritas videos, Democratic legislators made repeated attempts to repeal them, only to be thwarted by Republican Governor Chris Sununu’s veto.

in oann plandemic clip?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/husband-of-reopen-nc-leader-willing-to-kill-people-in-resistance-to-emergency-orders/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/some-trump-supporters-say-theyre-willing-to-die-to-reopen-economy-when-its-my-time-to-go-gods-going-to-call-me-home/

basically TP?

no lnx

Some Trump supporters say they’re willing to die to reopen economy: ‘When it’s my time to go, God’s going to call me home”

Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story April 15, 2020

Supporters of President Donald Trump are getting antsy about stay-at-home orders — and they’re encouraging one another to openly rebel against strict measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

The Daily Beast reports that Trump supporters are sparking a “protest movement” against social distancing restrictions aimed at forcing governors to reopen their economies at a time when tens of thousands of Americans have died from the virus in the span of just one month.

North Carolina-based conservative activist Ashley Smith, who founded an anti-social distancing group called “ReopenNC,” said that she wasn’t worried about dying as long as it means the economy can reopen.

“When it’s my time to go, God’s going to call me home,” she tells the publication. “I think that to live is inherently to take risks. I’m not concerned about this virus any more than I am about the flu.”

Michigan activist Rosanne Ponkowski, meanwhile, said that the lower-than-expected projected death toll from COVID-19 justifies reopening the economy, despite the fact that the death toll has only been lowered due to social distancing restrictions.

“They were predicting huge numbers of people falling ill and dying, and that wasn’t the case,” she said.

Former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston, a longtime ally of Trump, summed up conservative anger over the restrictions like this: “The liquor stores and dispensaries are open but I can’t buy gun!”

poster child? for? EJ?

3rd koch bro: funded by North Carolina businessman and Republican mega-donor Art Pope,

9/18 corp run state ref, king canute sea level rise w/ hurr florence (but as mckib says, all connected eg gerrymandering)

many tags

cf EJ

with fla and __ outlawed (talking about) AGW,

offshore oil 11.15

918 capt

No outside spending groups threw their support behind Murphy, the top vote-getter at 22.5 percent. But Murphy had plenty of money himself, raising far more than any of his opponents — $317,994 through March 31. While some of his opponents invoked President Donald Trump and other national figures in their campaigns, Murphy stuck with his message of lowering taxes.

Perry raised $152,245 through March but also received support from several outside groups. Anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List made $86,853 in independent expenditures supporting Perry through its Women Speak Out PAC. Winning for Women Action Fund made its first appearance, adding another $201,351 in support of Perry.

The group, which intends to recruit and support Republican women candidates, cheered Perry’s second place finish, saying in a statement it “proves that voters have an appetite for electing qualified Republican women and that critical primary support will help get them there.”

Outside groups that bet on Perry can call her second-place finish a success. The rest — not so much.

Influential anti-tax super PAC Club for Growth shelled out $199,050 to boost public accountant Celeste Cairns’ campaign, but she finished ninth. Another super PAC, an obscure group called **Awake Carolina**, spent $104,350 to boost Cairns. The outside support wasn’t enough, as Cairns raised just $75,099 and collected only 1,462 of 68,593 votes cast.

----

2019

In the 2019 special election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed state senator Dan Bishop in the 10-candidate Republican primary field.^[195] Bishop advanced from the primary and defeated Democrat Dan McCready in the general special election on September 10, 2019.^[196]

In the 2019 special election in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed Fred Keller, who advanced to the general election.^[197] Keller won the general special election held on May 21, 2019.^[198]

In the 2019 special election in North Carolina's 3rd congressional district, the Club for Growth endorsed Celeste Cairns in the 17-person Republican primary field. Cairns did not advance to the run-off primary

https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/federal-judge-blocks-ncs-voter-id-law-cites-states-sordid-history-of-racist-voter-suppression/

12/18

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/north-carolinas-election-fiasco-about-voter-suppression-not-voter-fraud

1219

How the Daughters of the Confederacy Spoiled Christmas
The Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy marched for decades without a peep from public officials. Just asking about that was enough for two towns to cancel Christmas parades. By Kali Holloway The following was originally published on theDaily Beast. Click to read the article online. For several years, the town of Garner, North Carolina, has held a Christmas parade featuring—along with traditional marching bands, dance troupes and local politicians—floats sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The same is true of the nearby town of Wake Forest, where for more than two decades, SCV and UDC members in gray Civil War uniforms and antebellum hoop skirts have marched along the Christmas parade route while waving Confederate flags. That tradition was suddenly halted this year, after the activist group Move Silent Sam posted video and photos of the neo-Confederate groups in past parades, along with the question: “Is the Town of Garner trying to send the message that racism is welcome in the community?”

How the Daughters of the Confederacy Spoiled Christmas

The Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy marched for decades without a peep from public officials. Just asking about that was enough for two towns to cancel Christmas parades.

By Kali Holloway

The following was originally published on theDaily Beast. Click to read the article online.

For several years, the town of Garner, North Carolina, has held a Christmas parade featuring—along with traditional marching bands, dance troupes and local politicians—floats sponsored by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans. The same is true of the nearby town of Wake Forest, where for more than two decades, SCV and UDC members in gray Civil War uniforms and antebellum hoop skirts have marched along the Christmas parade route while waving Confederate flags.

That tradition was suddenly halted this year, after the activist group Move Silent Sam posted video and photos of the neo-Confederate groups in past parades, along with the question: “Is the Town of Garner trying to send the message that racism is welcome in the community?”

union leader duke univ/ hosp and textile

// 80's death squads

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/4/greensboro_massacre_40th_anniversary

take our country back from commies and nwords; willing to spill lots of bllod; death to klan chant; undercover cop car, infromant took pix, communicate w/ FBI; no cops helped hurt (arrented those trying to help) 40 yrs ago

Remembering the Greensboro Massacre of 1979, When :{KKK:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: & Nazis Killed 5 People in Broad Daylight

11/4/19 DN 2 trials all wht no convictions 5 kia 10 hurt

undreds gathered this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of the Greensboro massacre, when 40 Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis opened fire on an anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five anti-racist activists in a span of 88 seconds. Those killed were members of the Communist Workers’ Party. Ten other activists were injured. No one was convicted in the massacre, but a jury did find the Greensboro police liable for cooperating with the Ku Klux Klan in a wrongful death. Local pastors in Greensboro are now calling on the City Council to issue an apology for the events that led to the 1979 killing. We speak with Dr. Marty Nathan, the widow of Dr. Mike Nathan, who was killed in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/political-corruption-in-real-time-viral-video-shows-north-carolina-gop-sabotaging-democracy-in-effort-to-secure-corporate-tax-cuts/

dirty tricks on sched vote/ cf woamn rep yell BS recently (medicare)

an 919

The scene unfolding on September 17 in a drab conference room in Greensboro was a microcosm of the ongoing struggle for voting rights in America. Some issues brought up by Brown and others were descendants of the civil rights struggle that, in part, had begun two blocks away at an F.W. Woolworth lunch counter, where a historic sit-in unfolded in 1960. But other issues before its county BOE concerned the near future of what ballots and counting votes will be in their city and politically divided purple state.

“It’s become more and more frequent for voters to ask, ‘How do I know that the machines have my vote correct?’” Donna Peterson, a middle-aged white resident of nearby Jamestown, asked, turning to an immediate decision facing 23 North Carolina counties. What voting system will they buy and use for the 2020 presidential primaries and in the next dozen or so years?

“I understand that [with] the ones that I think Guilford County is looking at right now, there’s a bar code that’s going to be there that people can see,” Peterson continued, referring to a new form of ballot that presents votes in bar codes and text below. “There is no way that they know that the information in the bar code is indicative of the votes that have been cast.”

Those packing the courthouse hearing and spilling into the hallway demanded, pleaded and even prayed that their county BOE would “do the right thing” surrounding voting. They wanted student disenfranchisement to stop, but the chairman delayed that discussion for two weeks. And they wanted a voting system they could trust: one where voters, not printers, marked ballots.

“Please, please don’t manipulate the process,” implored Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown Jr. “Please don’t try to covertly keep people from exercising their constitutional right. I beg of you. Do the right thing. Let’s have a tracking mechanism by which we can see how people have voted, so we can have confidence in our system.”

Reinventing Ballots?

Across North Carolina and in many swing counties in swing states, locales like Guilford are racing to select and deploy new voting systems before 2020. Many are replacing the paperless voting systems that were acquired 15 years ago after Florida’s fraught presidential election and recount in 2000.

Ironically, as was the case then, the most critical and controversial issues revolve around the extent to which human actions and human judgments will be preserved and made more accountable—or will be replaced and masked by computer-driven automation.

Most of the new voting systems share comparable electronics that count votes, but there is one critical variable. Some allow voters to hand-mark a paper ballot, while others use software to mark their ballots for them. This decision point has serious repercussions.

This choice affects two key areas where human acts and judgments have been cornerstones in the voting process for many years. The first threshold is when voters record their choices: the ballot itself. The second is the finish line where election boards, acting like a jury, re-examine ballots in election challenges and recounts.

The starting line of this national debate is the ballot itself. It is indisputable that a hand-marked paper ballot is not the same as a computer printout that represents a voter’s intent. Human-made marks, while sometimes sloppy, are direct records tied to voters. Additionally, so-called canvassing boards, comprised of local election officials, reexamine ballots in post-Election Day challenges and recounts. As contentious as that process sometimes is, hand-marked paper ballots are an accepted baseline of voter intent—evidence linked to voters.

dem woman would not yield till cops

agreed no vote 9/11 then did it

Largest North Carolina paper denounces state Republicans as ‘connivers’ for attempting a ‘theft of democracy’

bit bummed that macready did not win redo, but no dem in 50 yrs and djt won by 12

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/secret-files-reveal-how-north-carolina-gop-operative-helped-systematically-stopped-black-people-and-students-from-voting

no lnx

Secret files reveal how North Carolina GOP operative helped systematically stopped black people and students from voting

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon September 11, 2019

Secret files found on a longtime Republican operative’s computer after his death revealed that he compiled racial data to help his party draw new political maps and impose voter ID laws.

Thomas Hofeller, who is considered the master of modern gerrymandering, left behind at least 70,000 files that were found by his estranged daughter after his death in August 2018. Some of those files have already been used to successfully challenge North Carolina’s gerrymander and the Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question to the census, which Hofeller argued would help “Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”

More files, obtained by former Salon editor David Daley at The New Yorker, show that Hofeller and his race research played a key role in Republican gerrymandering efforts in North Carolina and other states, as well as other efforts intended to make it harder for African-Americans and college students to vote.

Though North Carolina Republicans have argued that their maps discriminate based on partisanship and not race, Hofeller’s files show that he compiled maps with overlays of the black voting-age population by district, suggesting that racial data was a key part of the gerrymander, which is at the center of a years-long legal battle.

The files contradict claims Republicans have long used to defend their maps in court. Republicans had long denied that a congressional-district line that cuts right down the middle of the largest historically black college in the United States, North Carolina A&T State University, was intentionally drawn to dilute the black vote, even though it effectively guaranteed two Republican districts. But Hofeller’s files show that the effort clearly focused on the race of students.

Hofeller created “giant databases that detailed the racial makeup, voting patterns, and residence halls of more than a thousand North Carolina A&T students,” Daley reported. “He also collected similar data that tracked the race, voting patterns, and addresses of tens of thousands of other North Carolina college students. Some spreadsheets have more than fifty different fields with precise racial, gender, and geographic details on thousands of college voters.”

A spreadsheet found on Hofeller’s computer shows that the operative sorted students by the residence halls they lived in along with racial data and voting status information.

Hofeller also had dozens of “intensely detailed studies” of the racial makeup of North Carolina college students that was cross-referenced with driver’s license files to determine whether these students likely had a proper ID to vote, according to the report.

Emails on his computer also show that Hofeller billed North Carolina Republicans tens of thousands of dollars for his work. Federal Election Commission filings also show that the national Republican Party paid Hofeller more than $2 million for his work.

Other files show that Hofeller, a key player in the Trump administration’s push to add a citizenship question to the census, compiled data on the citizen voting-age population in North Carolina, Texas, Arizona and other states going back to 2011. In memos, Hofeller argued that drawing maps based on the number of citizens rather than the population would “clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and help “non-Hispanic whites.”

Hofeller also submitted memos to the Trump administration urging them to justify the census question with the dubious argument that it was necessary to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The New Yorker report shows that he also worked for a Massachusetts Republican who wanted to use the Voting Rights Act to turn Boston into a single district, so Republicans could contend for suburban Massachusetts congressional seats. Though Hofeller’s efforts were unsuccessful in Massachusetts, the files show he also compiled data on states like Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama.

Emails found on Hofeller’s computer also show that he advised top Republicans in Florida on gerrymandering effort, despite a state constitutional amendment that bars partisan gerrymandering. Florida officials have denied that Hofeller played any official role in the effort but a state judge later ruled that the Republicans “conducted a stealth redistricting operation that snuck partisan maps into the public process and made a ‘mockery’ of the state’s constitutional amendments,” The New Yorker reported.

The files show that Hofeller also traveled around the country to educate Republicans about redistricting and urged them to push for prison gerrymandering, which allows inmates to be counted as residents of the area where the prison is located, often helping Republican lawmakers.

Hofeller’s emails also show that he grew concerned that his maps would be undone by the anti-Trump wave that followed his election.

“Meanwhile the GOP continues to bury its collective heads in the sand or in other higher places. Trump is only a product to this stupidity,” he wrote to a Republican consultant in 2016. “Do not worry about us in North Carolina in terms of redistricting. Even in the coming political bloodbath we should still maintain majority control of the General Assembly. The Governor cannot veto a redistricting map, so the Democrats hope is that the Obamista judiciary will come to their rescue.”

Last week, a North Carolina court struck down the state’s legislative maps that Hofeller helped create, ruling that they violated the Constitution. The new map had been drawn after the Supreme Court struck down North Carolina’s previous map as a racial gerrymander.

The court ruled that Hofeller’s maps “deliberately minimized the effectiveness of the votes of citizens with whom they disagree,” arguing that the map amounted to “viewpoint discrimination” against Democrats and an effort to “retaliate against voters” for voting for Democrats.

The court said that the files on Hofeller’s computer showed evidence of “predominant focus on maximizing Republican partisan advantage in creating the 2017 Plans.”

“The evidence establishes that Dr. Hofeller drew the 2017 Plans very precisely to create as many ‘safe’ Republican districts as possible, so that Republicans would maintain their supermajorities, or at least majorities even in a strong election year for Democrats,” the court said. “Hofeller drew the maps with an intent to preserve Republicans’ control of the House and Senate.”

The court gave state lawmakers two weeks to draw nonpartisan maps. Republicans have sued to try to get a court to seal or destroy the files, arguing that they should remain confidential because they were obtained from his daughter and not from him.

The files could be a treasure trove for voting rights groups as they seek to challenge years of Republican efforts to gerrymander districts in order to gain an unfair advantage, as well as to impose voter ID laws to make it harder for certain populations to vote.

“We’ve already seen that these files have been instrumental in exposing lies around the effort to add a citizenship question to the census and around subverting a court’s order to redraw gerrymandered lines,” Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director of Common Cause, told The New York Times. “The Hofeller files are important because they’re the only thing that will allow the American people to know the truth behind the efforts to rig redistricting and elections.”

The files show only a fraction of the work Hofeller did, which stretches back to the 1980s. Files obtained by The New Yorker show that Hofeller continued to work to help Republicans even after he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“I still have time to bedevil the Democrats with more redistricting plans before I exit,” he wrote to a friend. “Look my name up on the Internet and you can follow the damage.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/major-victory-against-gop-gerrymandering-state-court-strikes-down-north-carolinas-legislative-maps/

===

https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/north-carolina-republicans-fight-to-keep-racial-gerrymandering-evidence-out-of-court/

Number of other Southern states where Republican politicians have also targeted alleged non-citizen voters using flawed methods: 2*

* Florida and North Carolina.

North Carolina election fraud: Leslie McRae Dowless indicted - Vox

https://www.vox.com/.../north-carolina-election-fraud-leslie-mcrae-dowless-indictmen...

:{:(style="border-color:#006621;;border-style:solid;border-width:5px 4px 0px;width:0px;height:0px;margin-left:3px;top:7.5px;margin-top:-4px;position:absolute;left:0px"):}:

:{Feb 27, 2019 - North Carolina operative indicted in ballot fraud scandal that led to new House election ... Mark Harris, the :{Republican:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: candidate in North Carolina's Ninth ... plot to :{tamper:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: with :{absentee ballots:(style="font-weight:bold"):}: in a US House election that remains ... But she insisted more than once that the :{GOP:(style="font-weight:bold"):}:candidate, Harris, had not ...:(style="overflow-wrap:break-word"):}:

**blow to 'usurper' elected officials in North Carolina**

A state judge recently struck down a voter ID amendment to the N.C. Constitution because the legislators who ratified it were elected in unconstitutional, racially gerrymandered districts. Meanwhile, two white sheriffs who ousted black sheriffs with the help of a suspected election fraudster are also facing legal problems. (3/12/2019)

Officials reveal new nefarious details in the apparent scheme to steal a North Carolina election for the GOP

https://www.alternet.org/election-03918/north-carolina-election-fraud-board-elections-meeting

Actual election fraud may have taken place in this North Carolina race — but it looks like it helped the Republican

There is a possibility the 9th Congressional District results will simply be thrown out and the election redone.

Friday, the North Carolina Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement voted 7-2 to hold a hearing before December 21 over the allegations of election fraud in the race for the 9th Congressional District. This follows the unanimous vote of every Democrat and Republican on the board to refuse to certify the results earlier this week.

Republican Mark Harris defeated Democrat Dan McCready by a razor-thin margin of 905 votes. But the result has been marred by reports of irregularities with absentee ballots in Bladen County.

Democratic attorneys presented multiple sworn affidavits to the Board of Elections from voters, including elderly African-Americans, who reported a young woman unexpectedly arriving at their house to take their ballots, in one case even saying she would fill in votes for offices that were left blank. Another voter reported seeing unauthorized people running election results after the polls closed, while yet another alleged to have overheard people saying that Leslie McCrae Dowless, Jr., a local political operative working with Harris' campaign on absentee ballots, would be paid a $40,000 bonus if Harris won the election.

On top of it all, the absentee ballot numbers in Bladen County are bizarre, with far more unreturned ballots than in any other county in the district, and with the Republican winning these ballots by 61 to 38 even though registered Democrats led Republicans in accepted absentee ballots by 42 to 19.

Taken together, it is unclear whether any of this was decisive in Harris winning the election, but the irregularities are serious enough that the Board of Elections cannot certify the results.

In the greatest twist of irony, Republicans in North Carolina have long used the specter of "voter fraud" to enact draconian identification laws that disproportionately impact people of color. The type of fraud they claim these laws fight — people showing up in person at polling places to cast multiple ballots — virtually never happens. Now, one of the most significant potential cases of fraud in the state appears to have been perpetrated to favor the Republican candidate — and no voter ID law would have prevented it.

This House race was one of the most closely-watched in the country. Harris, a controversial Baptist pastor from Charlotte who led the charge to legislate discrimination of trans people in public restrooms, has argued women should submit to their husbands, and thinks homosexuality should be criminalized. Earlier this year, he shocked observers when he unseated incumbent GOP Rep. Robert Pittenger in his primary. Though the 9th District is very conservative, Harris' liabilities as a candidate made it a close race against McCready, a Marine veteran and green energy investor.

It is unclear what happens now. Harris, who was already setting up shop in D.C., is now in a legal limbo that could prevent him from being seated in Congress. Ultimately, the Board of Elections could end up certifying the results after their investigation, or they could throw out the election entirely and do it over. Meanwhile, North Carolina Republicans are threatening to sue to force the election to be certified as is. And as if all of that were not enough, a bill passed by Republicans in the state legislature made partisan changes to the Board of Elections that will dissolve the current membership in a few weeks, creating the potential that their replacements will overturn all of this.

There is no telling what the end result of this process will be. But the whole affair is a test to the integrity of the democratic process — and to people's faith in it.

===

North Carolina is reporting the worst chickenpox outbreak since a vaccine for it was introduced more than 20 years ago. Ground zero for the outbreak is the Asheville Waldorf School, where 36 children have come down with chickenpox.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that "the percentage of children under 2 years old who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001," according to the Washington Post. Many of the parents who refuse to vaccinate their children do so under a religious beliefs exemption. "[T]he flare-up demonstrates the real-life consequences of a shadowy debate fueled by junk science and fomented by the same sort of Twitter bots and trolls that spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election."

The claim of an autism risk, though it has been debunked, has remained a rallying cry of the anti-vaccine movement.

“What’s the big deal with chickenpox?” one city resident, Amy Gordon, told the Citizen-Times.

Chickenpox is serious, warns the CDC, “even life-threatening, especially in babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.”

rev barber moral mondays EJ hurrican flo

Atlantic Coast Pipeline Work Restarts as Opponents Decry 'Rushed Decisions'

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled Monday that work could resume on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which opponents call "unnecessary and a boondoggle," the Charlotte Business Journal reported.

Work on the controversial pipeline halted last month after a federal appeals court vacated two permits required for the project to complete its 600 mile route from West Virginia, through Virginia, to North Carolina. ew

N carolina

pig, 1.x million dead chickens, coal ash

socialize cost, pvtize profit

https://www.alternet.org/hurricane-florences-surge-expected-hit-homes-already-cost-government-millions

Though the flooding from Hurricane Florence is predicted to be unprecedented, residents of the coastal North Carolina towns threatened by the storm surge know what it’s like to take on water. Some homes in these areas have been repeatedly flooded — and repeatedly bailed out by federal flood insurance.

ProPublica examined storm surge predictions by the National Hurricane Center, layering a map of areas expected to be affected by Florence over a map of the most flood-prone properties tracked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides most of the flood insurance for U.S. homeowners.

Critics have long argued that the program subsidizes risky development, but efforts at reform inevitably stall because raising premiums would make flood insurance unaffordable for lower-income residents. The insurance is required for federally backed mortgages of homes in flood-prone areas. The program is more than $20 billion in debt.

Looking at some of the towns, it’s easy to see why.

High-risk areas include communities along the Pamlico River and North Topsail Beach, which is on a barrier island near Wilmington. Homes there have gotten multiple flood payouts from FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program going back as far as 1978. One property in North Topsail Beach has received nine separate payments, totaling $77,000, though the building is worth just $37,125. Another in nearby Topsail Beach has received 10 payments worth $467,000. That building is worth $300,000.

FEMA places buildings like these — including 1,132 across North Carolina — on a special list called “severe repetitive loss” structures because they’ve been flooded and rebuilt again and again with FEMA flood insurance. Properties that qualify for the list have made at least four claims of more than $5,000 each since 1978, or two claims with a combined value that’s worth more than the building itself. There are more than 35,000 such properties nationwide.

Collectively, the buildings in North Carolina are worth at least $280 million, and they’ve received $164 million in payments, according to FEMA data provided by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. The list undoubtedly will grow after Hurricane Florence, placing additional strain on a debt-ridden program that experts say is in desperate need of reform.

The areas facing the worst impact from Hurricane Florence are among the most vulnerable in the country when it comes to sea-level rise; parts of North Topsail Beach, for instance, are eroding at 5 feet per year. And a team of scientists concluded on Wednesday that climate change had supercharged the storm — increasing its projected rainfall by roughly 50 percent and its size by 50 miles.

Rob Moore, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said these homes are “perfect examples of what we’ll see as sea levels continue to rise.”

North Carolina has a rocky history of confronting sea-level rise. In 2012, after scientific advisers for the state predicted up to 39 inches of rising sea levels over the next century, state legislators passed a law saying North Carolina would only base policies on studies that exclusively used historical data, effectively outlawing climate science. The current governor has backtracked, and North Carolina has joined a multistate effort to tackle climate change.

Moore said the government should fund more property buyouts to permanently remove homes from risky areas. Nationwide, a majority of the homes on the list belong to low-income and middle-class residents, he said, and since buyouts often take years to process, most homeowners can’t afford to wait and are forced to use insurance claims to rebuild in the same place.

The slow-moving hurricane will linger over the Carolinas through the weekend.

Potential Insurance Bill From Hurricane Florence Could Take Toll on Wallets Far From North Carolina’s Coast

by Abrahm Lustgarten and Talia Buford

Insurance companies retreated from some communities amid stronger storms, leaving a “last-resort” plan to fill the growing gap.

also coal ash

Will Hurricane Florence Flood North Carolina Factory Farms and Manure Pits?

When Hurricane Matthew hit North Carolina in 2016, it flooded more than 140 feces-strewn industrial-scale swine and poultry barns, more than a dozen open pits brimming with liquid hog waste and thousands of acres of manure-saturated fields. As Hurricane Florence—far bigger than Matthew—bears down on the state, Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Waterkeeper Alliance are prepared to again assess the impact on North Carolina's concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs.

...

https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-florence-climate-denial-2604542741.html

no many lnx

Climate-Denying Law Could Make Hurricane Florence More Dangerous

A 2012 law could make North Carolina more vulnerable to hurricanes like Florence, which is expected to approach the state later Thursday, CBS reported.

The law banned policy makers from using up-to-date climate science to plan for sea level rise, which is expected to make flooding from storms like Florence worse.

"Currently the unspoken plan is to wait until the situation is catastrophic and then respond. We must begin the retreat now," retired Duke University coastal geologist Orrin H. Pilkey wrote in a recent op-ed for Raleigh's News & Observer.

The law came as a response to a 2010 Coastal Resources Commission (CRC) report that predicted sea levels on the Carolina coast would rise 39 inches by 2100, putting 2,000 square miles of property at risk, The Charlotte Observer explained.

Real estate interests and some politicians worried the report could chill coastal development and increase insurance, so thestate legislature passed a law banning agencies from making sea level rise policies until 2016.

"By putting our heads in the sand, literally, for four years, we are not helping property owners. We are hurting them because we are not giving them information they may need to protect their property," Democratic Representative Deborah Ross said in 2012, according to The Charlotte Observer.

The bill, which became law when Democratic Governor Bev Perdue neither signed nor vetoed it, instructed the CRC to write a new sea-level-rise report that restricted its scope to the next 30 years, took into account scientific studies refuting sea level rise and assessed the economic cost of limiting coastal development.

It was sponsored by Republican Representative Pat McElraft, a former real-estate agent whose top contributors included the North Carolina Association of Realtors and the North Carolina Home Builders Association.

"You can believe whatever you want about global warming, but when you go to make planning policies here for our residents and protecting their property values and insurance rates ... it's a very serious thing to us on the coast," McElraft said in 2012, according to The Charlotte Observer.

However, others warned that the bill itself would be a "very serious thing" for coastal dwellers.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation warned at the time that the bill undermined years of work by emergency agencies "to help prepare the state for hurricanes," according to CBS.

This week, the Union of Concerned Scientists warned that the increased average sea level along the Carolina coast could make the storm surge from Hurricane Florence more dangerous.

Since the bill was passed, studies have continued to show that the Carolina coast is already being impacted by sea level rise.

One, published in August, found that five Southeast states including North Carolina had already lost $7.4 billion in home values to sea level rise.

High tides are already causing flooding on non-windy days on streets like Front Street in Beaufort, Bay Street in Morehead City and Memorial Street in Nags Head, Pilkey wrote in his op-ed.

He advised that, going forward, the state increase setback lines to limit coastal development, raise the height of buildings, move back threatened buildings, prohibit rebuilding of storm-destroyed buildings and initiate a planned retreat from the rising water line.

"The time has come for action on our shoreline," Pilkey wrote. "There is no question that the climate will change drastically. It already has. And with that changing climate will come big changes at the shoreline. We used to believe that we could hold the shoreline in place but clearly that is an economic and engineering impossibility."

happer tweet agw "cult"

FWS Proposal 'Dooms' Wild Population of Endangered Red Wolves

In April, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released a report saying that theonly remaining wild population of red wolves, in eastern North Carolina,could go extinct within eight years. On Wednesday, the FWS published a proposal that seems likely to speed that process along.

The proposal would limit protected territory to public lands and remove restrictions on killing or harming wolves on private lands.

"We're very disappointed in this plan," Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Ramona McGee told The Washington Post. "It's a plan that effectively dooms the red wolf in the wild. It's not enough to sustain a population, and if they wander off that [refuge] they can be shot and killed the moment they cross that boundary."

The FWS estimates there are approximately 35 red wolves left in the wild, a dozen of which live in the public lands that would be their only protected habitat under the new proposal: the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and the Dare County Bombing Range.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/us/north-carolina-gerrymander.html

A panel of federal judges struck down North Carolina’s congressional map on Tuesday, condemning it as unconstitutional because Republicans had drawn the map seeking a political advantage. The ruling was the first time that a federal court had blocked a congressional map because of a partisan gerrymander, and it instantly endangered Republican seats in the coming elections.

Judge James A. Wynn Jr., in a biting 191-page opinion, said that Republicans in North Carolina’s Legislature had been “motivated by invidious partisan intent” as they carried out their obligation in 2016 to divide the state into 13 congressional districts, 10 of which are held by Republicans. The result, Judge Wynn wrote, violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.

The ruling and its chief demand — that the Republican-dominated Legislature create a new landscape of congressional districts by Jan. 24 — infused new turmoil into the political chaos that has in recent years enveloped North Carolina. President Trump carried North Carolina in 2016, but the state elected a Democrat as its governor on the same day and in 2008 supported President Barack Obama.

The unusually blunt decision by the panel could lend momentum to two other challenges on gerrymandering that are already before the Supreme Court — and that the North Carolina case could join if Republicans make good on their vow to appeal Tuesday’s ruling.

Continue reading the main story

RELATED COVERAGE

Justices Reject 2 Gerrymandered North Carolina Districts, Citing Racial Bias MAY 22, 2017

Pennsylvania Lawsuit Says House Redistricting Is Partisan Gerrymander JUNE 15, 2017

In October, the court heard an appeal of another three-judge panel’s ruling that Republicans had unconstitutionally gerrymandered Wisconsin’s State Assembly in an attempt to relegate Democrats to a permanent minority. In the second case, the justices will hear arguments by Maryland Republicans that the Democratic-controlled Legislature redrew House districts to flip a Republican-held seat to Democratic control.

The Supreme Court has struggled without success for decades to develop a legal standard for determining when a partisan gerrymander crosses constitutional lines. The court once came close to ruling that such cases were political matters beyond its jurisdiction. But the rise of extreme partisan gerrymanders in the last decade, powered by a growing ideological divide and powerful map-drawing software, has brought the question back to the justices with new urgency. A Supreme Court ruling outlawing at least some such gerrymanders could reshape the political landscape.

Fights over voting rights and election procedures have often taken center stage in Raleigh, North Carolina’s capital, and Tuesday’s ruling noted that “partisan advantage” had been a criterion lawmakers used when mulling how to map the state.

Republican officials in the General Assembly said Tuesday evening that they intended to appeal the ruling, which many elected officials and political strategists were still scrambling to digest. Dallas Woodhouse, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, criticized Judge Wynn and accused him of “waging a personal, partisan war on North Carolina Republicans.”

In a separate post on Twitter, Mr. Woodhouse argued that Judge Wynn had concluded that North Carolina’s Republicans “should not be allowed to draw election districts under any circumstances under any set of rules,” an effort he called “a hostile takeover” of the General Assembly and legislatures nationwide. Republicans could ask the Supreme Court to stay the decision and allow the disputed map to be used this year.

But critics of the congressional map welcomed a decision that was notable for its tartness and urgency.

“Clearly, the courts have realized that they do need to step in and police extreme partisan gerrymanders, and the court recognized that North Carolina’s gerrymander was one of the most extreme in history,” said Ruth Greenwood, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center and a lawyer representing some of the map’s challengers.

The chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, Wayne Goodwin, said the decision was “a major victory for North Carolina and people across the state whose voices were silenced by Republicans’ unconstitutional attempts to rig the system to their partisan advantage.”

The judges issued their decision fewer than 24 hours before the General Assembly was to convene in Raleigh for a special session. The ruling unmistakably placed lawmakers on the clock, giving them two weeks to present a “remedial plan” and declaring that the court would institute its own map if it finds the new district lines unsatisfactory.

“Politically, this gives hope to Democrats,” said J. Michael Bitzer, a professor of political science at Catawba College, which is near Charlotte. “I can imagine the Republicans being furious, but they have to see political reality, and it’s not just in the next two weeks: It’s come November.”

Professor Bitzer, though, cautioned that the ultimate political fallout would not become clearer until the courts settled what could be a cascade of appeals and injunctions.

The ruling left little doubt about how the judges assessed the Legislature’s most recent map. Judge Wynn, who sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and was a member of a special panel considering the congressional map, said that “a wealth of evidence proves the General Assembly’s intent to ‘subordinate’ the interests of non-Republican voters and ‘entrench’ Republican domination of the state’s congressional delegation.”

Most federal lawsuits are first heard by a district court, and later — if needed — by an appeals court and the Supreme Court. But under federal law, constitutional challenges to the apportionment of House districts or statewide legislative bodies are automatically heard by three-judge panels, and appeals are taken directly to the Supreme Court.

In addition to Judge Wynn, an appointee of Mr. Obama’s, Senior Judge W. Earl Britt of the Federal District Court in Raleigh joined the opinion. Judge Britt was appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

Judge William L. Osteen Jr., who was appointed by President George W. Bush and sits on the federal bench in Greensboro, said he agreed that the existing map violated the 14th Amendment, but he disputed other parts of Judge Wynn’s opinion, including the decision to appoint an independent expert to begin preparing an alternative map.

North Carolina Trustees Would “Defend” Free Speech by Attacking It

Hank Reichman / December 12, 2017

BY HANK REICHMAN

This summer the North Carolina Restore Campus Free Speech Act, passed earlier in the year by the state legislature, went into effect. Directly inspired by a proposal by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank, the legislation’s premise is that free speech is under attack on American campuses. Among other provisions, the law mandates strict disciplinary measures against individuals accused of violating the free speech rights of others, says that universities ought to be neutral on public issues, and calls on public universities to issue annual reports on campus free speech.

On Friday, December 15, the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina system will vote on the policy to implement the law across the 17 campuses of the UNC system. It would make dissent unsafe, will chill healthy academic debate, and creates a preference for some forms of speech over others. As Michael Behrent, Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and Vice President of the North Carolina state conference of the AAUP, reported on this blog in November, the policy would create new restrictions not found in the law itself,notably by inventing such terms as “acceptable forms of dissent.” William P. Marshall, William Rand Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law at the UNC School of Law, called the proposed policy “overbroad and will work to chill constitutionally protected speech.”

The policy prohibits expression that “substantially interferes with the protected free speech rights of others,” a provision so broadly defined it could potentially be used to discipline any student who disagrees vocally with a speaker, anywhere on campus. As Behrent reported,

“Taken literally,” Professor Marshall explained, “this policy means that a student could be sanctioned for protesting (or maybe even just vehemently disagreeing) with an unscheduled speaker (which presumably could mean anybody including a fellow student) almost anywhere on campus—given that the word ‘speaker’ is not defined and most areas of college campuses are nonpublic fora. This means students could be disciplined if they attempted to shout down a speaker outside their dorm room or eating hall.”

Professor Marshall added that the “policy and statute are unclear as to what it means to interfere with the rights of others to “listen to expressive activity.’ Is speaking too loudly near an unscheduled speaker sanctionable? Is trying to talk over the speech of another person a possible subject of discipline? The policy discusses actual physical obstruction with access or egress to the location where the speaker is speaking but the language of both the policy and the statute reach far more than physical obstruction.” For these reasons, Professor Marshall fears the policy may be “inconsistent” with the First Amendment. “As the policy purports to recognize,” he says, “the first amendment protects both speech and counter speech. The approach taken by both the policy and the statute, however, creates a preference for only one type of speech that is inconsistent with first amendment principles and treads far too broadly into core first amendment expression.”

By focusing on disruption of speakers the policy demonstrates a marked preference for speech over counter-speech, in violation of the First Amendment. In a piece published today on NC Policy Watch, Behrendt and Jay Smith, Professor of History at UNC-Chapel Hill, note:

“All speech is free, but some speech is more free than others.” This seems to be the motto of the current members of the University of North Carolina’s Board of Governors and their General Assembly backers. Like the dictatorial pigs in Orwell’s Animal Farm—who declared “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”—the Board is putting a noble veneer on self-serving and disingenuous arguments. . . .

The Board . . . sees higher education as a hostile power. . . . But even as they champion freedom and diversity of opinion, they subscribe to the troubling notion that every social institution must be ideologically balanced. The idea of critical inquiry has undoubtedly attracted liberals to the academic profession. But academe is not the only institution with pronounced political sympathies. The military, for instance, overwhelmingly votes Republican. Should liberals insist on ideological balance among those to whom we entrust our protection? Yet this is precisely what the Board wants for UNC.

The great irony is that the very people who want to make universities “diverse” also embrace the conservative belief that the state always stumbles when it tells society what to do. The Board and the legislature are, in this respect, socialists—precisely in the sense that the Right uses the term. In attempting to inject the “correct” balance of opinion into university life, they are engaging in the kind of social engineering conservatives have always denounced. Reagan famously said that “government is the problem.” On the issue of campus free speech, the Board believes that government is the solution. When it comes to expressing your beliefs, the Board knows what’s best for you.

The North Carolina AAUP is collecting signatures from UNC faculty members and friends on an online petition urging the Board of Governors to reject the proposed policy. It may be accessed here.

https://www.facingsouth.org/2017/08/north-carolina-first-enact-controversial-model-bill-sanctioning-campus-protesters

Kurtz had high hopes for North Carolina, and it didn't let him down.

A conservative commentator and senior fellow at the faith-based Ethics and Public Policy Center, Kurtz co-authored sample legislation for the Goldwater Institute, an Arizona-based libertarian think tank, to limit protests on college campuses. He was responding to so-called "shout-downs" where protesters have forced controversial speakers visiting colleges to leave the stage (as in the case of "The Bell Curve" author Charles Murray at Middlebury College in Vermont) or prevented their speaking at all (as happened to conservative political provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos at Berkeley).

Writing in the conservative National Review, Kurtz argued that the last few years have seen a rise in incidents involving leftist students emboldened by sympathetic faculty to shut out conservative voices. But some critics say the Goldwater legislation goes beyond limiting student interference, defining punishable protest too broadly to protect student's free speech rights. Others take issue with thebill's expansion of government control over universities, with its provisions requiring them to remain neutral on public controversies and to create a free-speech oversight board.

North Carolinahas not been the site of any high-profile shout-downs, and in fact the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education — a libertarian group that supports the Goldwater bill — recently rated it as the best state for free speech on campus. But back in March, its Republican-controlled General Assembly became the nation's first to bring a version of the Goldwater bill to the floor. [relates to horowitz bill how?]

In fact, North Carolina played a special role in the crafting of the proposal. For more than a year before the model bill's release, Kurtz had worked with the office of Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest on campus free speech issues. Kurtz says that Forest's team "provided critical early encouragement and support for the approach that eventuated in the Goldwater proposal."

The version of the "Restore/Preserve Campus Free Speech" bill filed in the N.C. House and Senateon March 29 resembled the Goldwater Institute's model legislation in that it prevented public universities from disinviting controversial speakers and required them to "strive to remain neutral … on the public policy controversies of the day." The bill also called for the creation of a "Committee on Free Expression" to be elected from the majority-Republican UNC Board of Governors to publish an annual report on the state of free speech on UNC campuses.

But it differed from the model in the penalties imposed. Rather than requiring a mandatory one-year suspension or expulsion for students who had twice been found guilty of violations, as Kurtz proposed, the original version of North Carolina's bill charged the state's public universities to develop a range of sanctions that would apply to "protests and demonstrations that infringe upon the rights of others to engage in or listen to expressive activity."

Among those supporting the bill were Jenna Robinson, president of the conservative nonprofit James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, and John Hood, chair of the John Locke Foundation, a conservative think tank. Both Raleigh-based groups were founded and are funded by North Carolina businessman and Republican mega-donor Art Pope, whose influence network has long criticized UNC for discouraging conservative viewpoints. One of the bill's primary sponsors, Rep. Jonathan Jordan, served as the Locke Foundation's research director in the late 1990s.

Concerned about the bill's reach, the North Carolina ACLUworked with its sponsors to make sure the final version didn't infringe on anyone's constitutional rights. Amendments were added that scrapped the requirement that universities remain neutral on controversial issues and replaced it with a clause prohibiting them from requiring students or faculty to publicly express a certain political view. And while the bill still requires universities to come up with disciplinary sanctions for those found to have obstructed free speech, it significantly narrowed the definition of which actions are punishable; now, only someone who "disrupts the functioning of the constituent institution or substantially interferes with the protected free expression rights of others" will face disciplinary action. The general counsel for the UNC system told the House Committee on Education that these changes had alleviated UNC's "major concerns" about the legislation.

The General Assembly passed a final version of the bill in late June and sent it to Gov. Roy Cooper (D). Calling it "much improved," the ACLU did not ask for a veto. But Cooper did receive a joint veto request from the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Association of University Professors. The groups cited concerns that the Committee on Free Expression, which given the Board of Governors' composition would almost certainly be Republican-dominated, "would inject political considerations into the administration of speech policies and sanctions."

The July 30 signing deadline came and went without word from Cooper's office. The legislation had passed both chambers with a veto-proof majority and would likely have become law no matter Cooper's response. By not taking action by the deadline, he allowed the bill to go into effect without taking a public stance.

Since Kurtz's model bill was first introduced in North Carolina, it's also been taken up by legislatures in California, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

In Tennessee, the legislature passed a proposal nicknamed the "Milo bill" that was inspired by the Goldwater legislation but neither specified disciplinary sanctions nor set up an oversight committee — changes significant enough that Kurtz said the measure was "not primarily Goldwater based."

The Virginia House passed a resolution that was inspired by Kurtz's bill but was significantly altered. For example, the Virginia legislation does not mandate disciplinary sanctions, instead merely asserting that it is "not proper" for public universities to shield students from offensive speech.

In Louisiana, a version of the bill that Kurtz supported passed the state House and Senate with bipartisan support but was vetoed by Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), who said it was a "solution in search of a problem" and "would only frustrate the goals it purports to achieve." While the procedures required for an override make it unlikely, Rep. Lance Harris (R) said he plans to reintroduce the bill in Louisiana's next legislative session.

When the North Carolina bill became law this week, Kurtz celebrated what he called the first enactment of his proposal — and suggested that its departures from the model could be reversed down the road.

"We are at the beginning of a new state-legislative era, and that beginning is auspicious," he wrote. "The North Carolina Restore Campus Free Speech Act accomplishes the lion's share of what the Goldwater model proposed, including important steps forward on discipline for shout-downs. Goldwater-based bills are under consideration in several states, with more likely to follow next year. And any state bill can be strengthened in a second legislative round if universities continue to abuse their powers.

https://www.ecowatch.com/north-carolina-youth-climate-petition-2509734433.html

North Carolina Youth File Climate Petition to Protect Their Futures

Tuesday, three teenagers filed a climate change petition for rulemaking with the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission. The petition calls on the commission to reduce North Carolina's CO2 emissions to zero by 2050, in accordance with the best available science.

Youth petitioners argue that the commission has statutory, public trust and constitutional obligations to protect North Carolina's essential natural resources, including the atmosphere, for present and future generations. As detailed in the petition, the proposed rule could create jobs, reduce energy costs and avoid billions in climate damages.

With the support of Our Children's Trust, Alliance for Climate Education and represented by Duke's Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, the petitioners are the latest group of young people from across the country to file legal action seeking science-based action by governments to secure a safe climate and healthy future.

"With a family history of lung disease and a love for hiking, I have personally experienced both the negative health impacts of pollution and the steady destruction of our most important natural resources, our national and state parks, due to climate change and higher CO2 emissions," Arya Pontula, 17-year-old petitioner and Alliance for Climate Education fellow from Raleigh, said.

"I hope this petition pushes our state to take concrete steps to reduce CO2 emissions, thus ensuring cleaner air for all generations. The bottom line is that, when it comes to our health, we have no other choice but to set our differences aside and work towards a common goal for cleaner, breathable air and preservation of our natural resources," Pontula added.

"North Carolina's laws declare that the Environmental Management Commission must protect water and air resources for the benefit of all, not shield polluters through delaying tactics," Ryke Longest, Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic director, said. "It is long past time for the commission to act on the best available science and commit to reducing carbon dioxide emissions to zero in time for the climate to stabilize."

The North Carolina petition is one of many related legal actions supported by Our Children's Trust and brought by youth in several states and countries, including Juliana v. United States, seeking science-based action by governments to secure a safe climate and healthy atmosphere for present and future generations.

moral mondays

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/06/29/woe-unto-those-who-legislate-evil-rev-william-barber-builds-a-moral-movement/

https://www.ecowatch.com/dobbins-heights-north-carolina-2475851589.html

180?!

https://www.ecowatch.com/north-carolina-energy-bill-2435815592.html

Red States Lead on Renewables

A sweeping bipartisan bill to reform energy policies and encourage the growth of renewable energy was introduced by conservative lawmakers in the North Carolina legislature this week. The consensus bill, the result of months of negotiations, would grant utilities' request to reform various renewable energy laws, but includes incentives for the solar industry, including solar rebates and third-party leasing.

The bill will go to a full vote in the House this week, where it could face blowback from climate change skeptics despite its significant Republican support. North Carolina isn't the only red state pushing the envelope on renewable energy: as a new piece in the New York Times points out, "some of the fastest progress on clean energy is occurring in states led by Republican governors and legislators, and states carried by Donald J. Trump in the presidential election."

The measure passed House Finance Tuesday, shortly before Gov. Roy Cooper issued a statement supporting it:

"This legislation will help North Carolina stay ahead with lower cost renewable energy that protects our environment and grows our economy. I urge the Legislature to pass it and I commend everyone who worked so hard to get this agreement," Cooper wrote.

Over the last four years, North Carolina has become the nation's second largest solar market, with California first.

As reported by WRAL:

"Among other things, the measure would lift the state's ban on third-party leasing, allowing customers to rent the equipment for rooftop and community solar arrays, substantially reducing the upfront cost. It would also promote net metering, which gives the owner of a residential or commercial property with solar panels a bill credit for the retail cost of energy he or she puts back onto the grid, and it would include a solar rebate program for residential customers. And it would mandate a study on energy storage technology for intermittent sources like solar and wind."

For a deeper dive:

NC bill: AP, WRAL, News & Observer, Charlotte Business Journal, North State Journal. Red states & renewables: New York Times

~ RPS

5/17

'Put Up or Shut Up': North Carolina Meteorologist Calls Out Climate Deniers

Frustrated by non-experts taking to the internet to dispute the science behind human-made climate change, North Carolina meteorologist Greg Fishel issued a challenge to climate deniers, urging them to "put up or shut up" and "submit your work the way real scientists do, and see where it takes you."

The News & Observer highlighted Fishel's challenge, which he posted on Facebook, in a May 22 article, reporting that Fishel "went off on people who question the science behind climate change."

The article noted that for most of his career, Fishel, who is the chief meteorologist for NBC affiliate WRAL in Raleigh, did not believe that humans contributed significantly to global warming. "But several years ago, he says he decided he wasn't being open-minded about the issue and began to study what climate scientists were saying about it. He now approaches the issue on the air and on social media with the zeal of a convert."

Indeed, Fishel is among a growing number of meteorologists who acknowledge that human-caused climate change is real. Some of those meteorologists are urging their colleagues to discuss climate change on the air...

fac so ss

no link

(ALEC), a controversial and powerful group that brings together state legislators and corporate representatives to promote conservative policies, has been pushing to repeal state renewable energy standards -- and now lawmakers affiliated with the group have filed legislation to do just that in North Carolina.

This week, the Affordable and Reliable Energy Act (H298) was introduced to repeal the state's renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS), which currently requires 3 percent of all electricity sold in the state to come from renewable sources, with that portion rising to 12.5 percent by 2025. North Carolina was the first state in the Southeast to adopt a REPS law, with the General Assembly passing it with broad bipartisan support in 2007.

The move to scrap the REPS comes despite research showing that the law has been responsible for significant job creation in North Carolina, which was recently found to be among the top states for clean-energy project announcements.

The North Carolina REPS repeal bill has four primary sponsors -- and three of the four have known affiliations with ALEC. The primary sponsors, all Republicans, are:

* State Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford, Burke). First elected to the state House in 2010, Hager is an engineer who worked for 17 years for Duke Energy, which under H298 would be allowed to recoup from its customers the costs of contracts it has entered for renewable power. Though Hager says he is now retired from the utility, his economic disclosure form does not report any income from the utility giant. However, it does report that he received $1,000 from ALEC to attend a conference in 2011.

The head of the Public Utilities and Energy Committee, Hager has also been a key leader in the push to allow fracking for natural gas in North Carolina, even attempting to have a key vote taken on the matter when a Democrat momentarily left the floor during debate.

The top industry contributor to Hager's campaign is electric utilities, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics' FollowTheMoney.org database. In the most recent election cycle, he received $8,000 from Duke Energy, $5,500 from the N.C. Association of Electric Cooperatives, $4,000 from Progress Energy, and $2,000 from Dominion.

* Rep. Marilyn Avila (R-Wake). A chemist who once worked for the North Carolina-based textile giant HanesBrands, Avila was elected to the General Assembly in 2006. Before that, she spent 15 years working as the administrative director and event coordinator with the John Locke Foundation (JLF), a Raleigh think tank that was founded and is funded primarily by leading conservative financier Art Pope, who is now the state budget director.

JLF has been a leading voice of climate science denial in North Carolina, and it has been working to repeal the REPS with representatives of ALEC and the American Tradition Institute, another climate science denial group with fossil-fuel industry connections. Avila is among the North Carolina lawmakers who attended ALEC's 2011 annual meeting.

In the most recent election cycle, energy interests were among her top 10 biggest donors, according to FollowTheMoney.org.

* Rep. George Cleveland (R-Onslow). A former Marine and assistant security officer for the State Department, Cleveland was elected to the state House in 2004. He filed legislation to repeal REPS during the last legislative session, but it didn't go anywhere.

Earlier this year, Cleveland sponsored a talk at the legislature by John Droz, a fellow with the American Tradition Institute, that attacked renewable energy and purported to show that global warming is a scientific hoax. In 2010, Cleveland was among the state lawmakers who signed an ALEC letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opposing plans to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Electric utilities were fourth among Cleveland's biggest industry contributors in the latest election cycle, according to FollowTheMoney.org.

* Rep. Jeff Collins (R-Nash, Franklin). A financial consultant and the founder of Rocky Mount Bible Church, Collins is the only one of the four primary sponsors of the REPS repeal bill who does not have documented ties to ALEC. He is a member of the Public Utilities and Energy Committee chaired by Hager.

Electric utilities were sixth among Collins' biggest industry contributors in the latest election cycle, according to FollowTheMoney.org.

Of the 21 co-sponsors of the bill, five also have known ties to ALEC: Reps. Hugh Blackwell (R-Burke), Rayne Brown (R-Davidson), Justin Burr (R-Stanly), Sarah Stevens (R-Surry), and Mike Stone (R-Lee). In addition, House Speaker Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg), who will play a key role in advancing the legislation, recentlyjoined ALEC's board of directors.

ALEC claims that renewable energy standards increase energy costs, but research has shown just the opposite: A recent study conducted by RTI International and La Capra Associates for the N.C. Sustainable Energy Association showed that the state's REPS law was not only a key driver of clean energy development and job creation but that the law will also lead to lower electricity rates over time by avoiding the construction of costly new fossil fuel and nuclear power plants. By 2026, the state's clean energy program will have resulted in a total of $173 million in cost savings for electricity customers, the study found.

ALEC's modus operandi has drawn widespread criticism, with the watchdog group Common Cause filing an IRS complaint last year accusing the group of violating its tax-exempt status by lobbying state lawmakers.

Almost 98 percent of ALEC's budget is raised from sources other than legislative dues, including corporations, trade associations, and corporate foundations, according to the Center for Media and Democracy's ALEC Exposed project. ALEC has also gotten significant funding from foundations controlled by the billionaire brothers behind the Koch Industries oil and chemical conglomerate, who have also been major funders of attacks on climate science and renewable energy.

Duke Energy is on the record as supporting North Carolina's REPS law, but at the same time it's a paying member of ALEC (despite calls to resign) and helped finance the group's conference held last spring in the company's hometown of Charlotte, N.C. That's where the Electricity Freedom Act -- ALEC's model bill to repeal REPS -- was drafted by the Heartland Institute, a prominent climate science denial group that's received significant funding from fossil fuel interests including the Kochs and Exxon Mobil, another major funder of climate disinformation.

While the language of the North Carolina bill differs from that in the model legislation, the measures would have the same effect of ending renewable energy purchase requirements for the state's investor-owned utilities.

It's uncertain how North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R), a longtime Duke Energy employee who holds substantial investments in the company, would respond to the bill should it pass the legislature and end up on his desk. McCrory has been particularly supportive of offshore wind, embracing it as part of his all-of-the-above energy strategy.

The News & Observer of Raleigh, N.C. reports that McCrory is currently discussing the future of North Carolina's renewable energy program with his advisers and cabinet and said it was important to be clear with investors about the state's long-term plan.

burr justin alec POW

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/North_Carolina_ALEC_Politicians

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-04-28/north-carolina-house-votes-to-protect-drivers-who-hit-protesters

also traffic cam 500$ fine

The North Carolina House of Representatives approved legislation in a lopsided 67-48 vote Thursday that would shield drivers from civil liability if they collide with protesters.

Opponents say the legislation is unnecessary and may give drivers the false impression they can maliciously run over activists. One Democrat warned it would make the state the butt of jokes about being full of “dumb rednecks.”

But Republican proponents, who sent the measure to the state Senate by a veto-proof margin, say recent encounters between activists and drivers makes the reform both sensible and necessary.

Last year, people protesting the fatal shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte police officer blocked roadways during at-times chaotic protest-related activities.

“These people are nuts to run in front of cars like they do … and say, ‘Me and my buddy here are going to stop this two-and-a-half-ton vehicle,’” GOP state Rep. Michael Speciale said in support of the bill, The News & Observer reports. “If somebody does bump somebody, why should they be held liable?”

Democratic state Rep. Henry Michaux, however, points out North Carolina is one of just four states with a pure contributory negligence rule, which means it's already impossible to collect a payout if the injured party is even 1 percent at fault for an accident.

Michaux, an African-American attorney, tells U.S. News the bill therefore would not give drivers additional protection from liability. Instead, he sees it as an unconstitutional invitation to mow down protesters or weave through parades, and he feels the motivation behind the bill may be racial.

“Who demonstrates more than people of color?” Michaux says. “It would give some folks the idea,” he says, to intentionally run over people “because you’ve got a group of black folks out here or a group of Latinos out here.”

The idea of immunizing drivers appears to have originated in North Dakota, where state Rep. Keith Kempenich proposed a similar bill in January after his mother-in-law allegedly was swarmed on a roadway by protesters opposed to construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The measure was rejected in a 41-50 vote in February.

Tennessee lawmakers also took up the cause after a driver ran into protesters opposed to an action by President Donald Trump and wound up with "five or six" on his hood. Sponsors were tight-lipped amid negative press and the bill failed in committee in March.

The potential for bad press did not deter lawmakers in North Carolina, who passed the bill over a warning from Democratic Rep. Graig Meyer that it was inviting jokes about “those dumb rednecks” in the state.

The bill says drivers are not protected from liability if they are "willful or wanton" in plowing over pedestrians, but are protected if they are exercising "due care" and hit someone who is "participating in a protest or demonstration and blocking traffic in a public street or highway."

The measure includes language barring immunity if a driver strikes a pedestrian who has “a valid permit” allowing a protest in the public street "where the injury occurred."

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's office did not respond to a request for comment, nor did thebill's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Justin Burr,or the state Senate's Republican majority leader, Harry Brown.

Republicans hold substantial majorities in both chambers of the state legislature and could make the bill law by overriding a potential gubernatorial veto. They overrode vetoes on two bills this week.

One Democrat voted for the protester-collision bill on Thursday, and three Republicans voted against it.

Michaux believes the legislation is likely to become law through an override vote and sees a lawsuit as the only way to keep it off the books. He looks to the 1969 Supreme Court ruling in Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, which says it’s not always necessary to have a permit to march in the street....

3rd world election rank report

https://www.democracynow.org/2016/12/27/headlines/report_north_carolina_no_longer_a_fully_functioning_democracy

https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/10/guide-outside-political-groups-spending-north-carolina-elections

Billions of Gallons of Animal Waste From Factory Farms Poses Health Risks in Wake of Hurricane Matthew see climate change and Food and Water 10/16.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/factory-farms-are-putting-north-carolinians-risk-interactive-map

NONPROFIT LOSES FIRST ROUND IN FIGHT WITH N.C. OVER THIRD-PARTY SOLAR SALES: North Carolina regulators ruled against NC WARN after it installed solar panels on the roof of a church and sold it the electricity, saying the arrangement violates the state's private utility monopoly system. The nonprofit says it will take the case to court. (4/18/2016)

ez to make fun? "agenda" but track recd of biz not good?

http://ecowatch.com/2015/12/14/solar-farm-rejected/

... Pork Council’s voicemail doesn’t mention any of those problems, preferring to focus on jobs and wages instead. But even there, the message rings hollow. In Duplin County, North Carolina, where there are more pigs per capita than anywhere else in the country, median household income is only about $34,000 (that’s household income, not individuals’ wages), and more than a quarter of the population lives in poverty. Meanwhile, the handful of corporations that control U.S. pork production are raking in billions of dollars in revenue every year. You can bet that that money isn’t staying in the local economy—especially since Smithfield Foods, which runs the world’s largest slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was purchased by a Chinese holding company in 2013.

The consolidation of the pork industry hasn’t been good for the family farm. As is true in most of the country, the number of farms and farmers in North Carolina has been steadily decreasing, while the average size of farms has gotten larger and larger. The number of North Carolinians employed by hog farming makes up less than one half of one percent of the state’s population (9.94 million people as of the 2014 census).

In part, the decline is occurring because it’s harder and harder to make a decent living as a farmer, thanks to the dominance of big agribusinesses. These days, most hog farmers don’t own the hogs they raise. Rather, the farmer is under contract with a multinational corporation, which owns the hogs from conception to slaughter and dictates exactly how the farmer must raise them. In this scheme, the farmer does most of the work and bears most of the costs and risks, but the corporation gets most of the profits.

The North Carolina Pork Council probably wouldn’t be paying for thousands of robo-calls if they weren’t desperate to make a bad industry sound better than it is. Don’t believe the hype—North Carolinians deserve better. That’s why Earthjustice is partnering with state and local organizations to stand up for clean air, clean water and accountability from these so-called “integrator companies” that own the hogs “from squeal to meal.” We’re also taking on the hog industry on civil rights grounds for the impact hog feces and urine have on nearby low-income communities of color. Join us in sending the pork industry’s propaganda out to pasture. earthjustice 12/15

Charles Koch gave $90 million to influence higher ed in the South

Last month, the provost of Western Carolina University in North Carolina asked the public school's chancellor to approve an academic center funded by the Charles Koch Foundation, a private nonprofit run by the billionaire chairman, CEO, and co-owner of the Koch Industries oil and chemical corporation. The foundation funds academic programs, professorships, scholarships, conferences, lecture series and economics centers, all for the purpose of promoting the free-market agenda embraced by Koch and his brother David.

The chancellor has come out in support, and on Dec. 4 the school's trustees will vote on the fate of the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise, which would launch with $2 million from the Charles Koch Foundation over five years and $1.4 million from the university.

The proposed agreement has come under fire from the school's faculty senate, which voted 21-3 to oppose the center's creation. The group raised concerns about academic freedom, cost, reputation, and the lack of peer review.

"The Charles Koch Foundation has previously set forth explicit expectations in line with their political views in exchange for monetary gifts to universities," the faculty senate said in a statement, "thereby constraining academic freedom by influencing and interfering with the development of new knowledge."

The proposed center at WCU is part of a long campaign by Koch to influence higher education. The Charles Koch Foundation along with three other groups led by Koch gave nearly $108 million to 366 colleges and universities from 2005 to 2014, finds an Institute for Southern Studies investigation, building on research by Greenpeace. The other groups are the Fred and Mary Koch Foundation, the Claude R. Lambe Foundation, and the Charles Koch Institute. (For more about these groups, see "The Koch-led charities funding higher education" at the end of this story.)

Eighty-five percent of the donations — or $91 million — went to 147 Southern colleges and universities.

The bulk of the money given by the four nonprofits — $77.7 million — went to George Mason University, a public school in Fairfax, Virginia. Much of that went to the school's Mercatus Center and Institute for Humane Studies, nonprofits housed at the university that focus on teaching and promoting free-market economics. But even when the GMU donations are excluded from the total giving, Southern schools received 45 percent of the remaining contributions.

Besides GMU, the other schools that received the most money from the Koch foundations are all in the South:Florida State University at $2.3 million, West Virginia University at $1.3 million, Clemson University of South Carolina at $1.3 million, and Troy University of Alabama at $1.1 million...

fac so

INSTITUTE INDEX: The big money behind the latest attacks on renewable energy

Date on which North Carolina state Rep. Mike Hager (R-Rutherford) told the audience at an event in Wilmington sponsored by Americans for Prosperity — a front group for the billionaires behind the Koch Industries oil refining and pipeline conglomerate — that he will continue his fight to freeze the state's renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS) during next year's legislative session: 11/12/2015

Under North Carolina's REPS, percent of electric utilities' retail sales that must now come from renewable sources: 6

Percent the REPS says must come from renewable sources by 2021: 12.5

Number of legislative proposals to freeze the REPS at current levels that Hager, a retired Duke Energy engineer and vice chair of the Public Utilities Committee, championed in this year's legislative session, and which passed the state House with AFP's backing and are pending in the Senate: 2

Hager's rank among the North Carolina legislature's top recipients of Duke Energy's campaign contributions: [1](http://www.followthemoney.org/show-me?s=NC&y=2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009&f-core=1&f-fc=2&d-eid=856#[{1|gro=c-t-id)

While Duke Energy claims to be "neutral" on North Carolina's REPS, amount it has contributed to a group called Consumers for Smart Solar, which is challenging a proposed pro-solar constitutional amendment in Florida: $60,000

Amount Duke Energy spent to help elect Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R), who has campaigned against pro-solar policies: at least $600,000

Amount contributed to Consumers for Smart Solar by the 60 Plus Association: $100,000

Between 2008 and 2013, amount 60 Plus received from five Koch-connected nonprofits: more than $40 million

Date on which Florida voters will go to the polls to vote on a pro-solar ballot initiative, as well as a competing anti-solar measure put forward by Consumers for Smart Solar: 11/8/2016

Amount invested in clean energy development in North Carolina since it adopted its REPS in 2007: over $2.6 billion

Number of full-time jobs that development supported in the state annually: 37,100

Monthly REPS charge for the average Duke Energy Carolinas customer, which Hager and his allies claim is excessive: $.39

Amount REPS is expected to save North Carolina electricity customers through 2029 by avoiding the need for expensive new power plants: $651 million

(Click on figure to go to source.)

A few years ago, as anti-immigrant sentiment roiled the country, Arizona enacted a draconian law, SB 1070, that expanded the role of local police in enforcing federal immigration policies, requiring them to determine someone's immigration status if there was "reasonable suspicion" they were not in the U.S. legally. Several states including Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina soon followed Arizona's lead with laws targeting immigrants.

At the end of October, North Carolina joined the ranks of states with harsh immigration policies when Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed into law HB 318. The new law expands requirements to verify employees' immigration status and invalidates consular IDs and other alternative forms of identification except in certain situations with law enforcement. It also bans local ordinances limiting police involvement in federal immigration enforcement — what are known as "sanctuary city" or "community trust" policies since they're intended to foster cooperation between local police and immigrants.

North Carolina's law was passed amidst a conservative backlash against community trust initiatives nationwide sparked by this summer's murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant who had been released by local police in accordance with city policies. The news of her death led to the introduction of federal legislation banning such policies, including a version that passed the U.S. House but was blocked last month in the Senate. Steinle's story was also referenced by North Carolina legislatorsduring their discussion of the local ordinance ban, which was added to the bill in late September a few months after her death.

But language in North Carolina's sanctuary city ban predates Steinle's death: It comes from a model bill, titled "No Sanctuary Cities for Illegal Immigrants," crafted in 2009 by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit that brings together corporate representatives and conservative state policymakers to craft model state legislation that member lawmakers then introduce in their home states. While ALEC is officially tax-exempt, its 501c3 status has been challenged by good-government advocates who say it operates more like a corporate lobby than a charitable nonprofit.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/activists-urge-north-carolina-gov-mccrory-veto-sweeping-anti-environmental-bill

nvironmental advocates in North Carolina are stepping up pressure on Gov. Pat McCrory (R) to veto a bill they say is the most anti-environmental of the 2015 legislative session — and possibly of McCrory's tenure.

Dubbed the "Polluter Protection Act" by opponents, House Bill 765 started out as a one-page technical corrections bill tweaking regulations on highway transport of sand, gravel and rock. But after passing the House, the Regulatory Reform Act of 2015 was transformed in the Senate into a sweeping 61-page wish list for polluting industry — with some of the provisions being added in closed-door conference sessions. Lawmakers passed it in the chaotic last days of the session.

During an Oct. 20 press conference about the legislation held by environmental groups, Dr. Jonathan Kotch*, a maternal and child health specialist with UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, called it a "paradigm example of special-interest legislation."

Among other things, the bill would:

* Offer immunity and confidentiality for companies that self-report pollution, making it harder for communities to identify potential environmental health threats;

* Repeal idling restrictions for heavy-duty vehicles, allowing them to emit more health-damaging air pollution;

* Reduce water-quality regulations on intermittent and small headwater streams, which account for more than 50,000 stream-miles in the state;

* Allow incomplete cleanup of soil and groundwater contamination; and

* Reduce the number of air-quality monitors across the state, which people with asthma and other health conditions rely on to help protect themselves from excessive pollution.

"These provisions were inserted by the Senate into a one-page House bill through a process that minimized opportunities for public involvement," stated a letter sent to McCrory last month by an alliance of 15 environmental advocacy groups. "The provisions drew bipartisan opposition in the legislature; yet, they have arrived at your desk, and now can be stopped only by your veto stamp."...

North Carolina’s four Clean Air Heroes are Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Reps. Brad Miller (DNC13),

David Price (D-NC4) and Melvin Watt (D-NC12).

And now a pair of anticlimactic updates: Last week North Carolina’s Republican governor vetoed a law targeting agricultural whistleblowers, but this week his party overruled that veto.

And last month I wrote that Bunge shareholders had the opportunity to push the company to a more aggressive position in ending deforestation. What happened? The shareholders said no.

http://insideclimatenews.org/todaysnews/08062015/tide-turning-against-alec-renewable-energy-battle

6/15

Powerful interests are facing off on the future of renewable energy in North Carolina.

A bill to freeze the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) — a mandate on how much clean energy utilities have to use — was shoved through committee last month, but despite a wide Republican majority (34-16), the bill hasn’t been brought to the Senate floor. Similar legislation has been introduced and shot down in past years.

Environmental and business groups fighting the bill say that reintroducing the same bill until it passes is a classic American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) tactic. The North Carolina bill was brought by a legislator affiliated with ALEC, the conservative group backed by the Koch brothers, whose billion-dollar enterprise is built largely on fossil fuels.