There's a Special Place in Hell for a General Assembly that Encourages Giant Pork Corporations Spraying Pig Shit on Their Neighbors

Indebted to Jeffrey C. Billman for bringing us up to date on a new North Carolina Farm Bill, now moving through the Republican Senate in Raleigh:

...among other things, [it] carves out even more special protections for multibillion-dollar pork producers. Following a law passed last year that restricted the amount of money neighbors of hog farms can recoup in nuisance lawsuits — industry advocates tried but failed to make it retroactive, which would have negated more than two dozen pending cases against Smithfield Foods — this year's Farm Bill redefines the word nuisance itself.

If it becomes law, agricultural operations can't be sued for causing nuisances if they follow practices, methods, or procedures "generally accepted and routinely utilized by other agricultural and forestry operations in [the] region."

Translation: If everyone does it, it must be okay. (It's also okay with Republicans because it's mainly poor blacks who are suffering.

Wanna know what an environmental nuisance is? It was summed up by the headline in The Guardian: "A Million Tons of Feces and an Unbearable Stench: Life Near Industrial Pig Farms."

Wanna know what another environmental nuisance catastrophe is? Take a look at the power-mad and corrupt boy's club in Raleigh (President: Phil Berger; Vice-President in Charge of Sitting by the Door: Tim Moore) and what they've done -- or tried to do until stopped by judges -- since 2013.

Waterkeeper Alliance

Congressman Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) Has a Primary Today, and It's No Walk on the Appalachian Trail

Donald J. Trump endorsed Mark Sanford's Republican opponent today, with only three hours left for voting in the primary: “Mark Sanford has been very unhelpful to me in my campaign to MAGA,” Trump tweeted. “He is MIA and nothing but trouble. He is better off in Argentina. I fully endorse Katie Arrington for Congress in SC, a state I love. She is tough on crime and will continue our fight to lower taxes. VOTE Katie!”

Arrington has criticized Sanford primarily for criticizing Trump.

Curiouser and curiouser, because Arrington herownself has a history of dissing Trump: "In a March 2016 Facebook post, she praised Mitt Romney on the night that he delivered a rebuke of then-Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, whom Romney called 'a phony, a fraud' and someone who was 'playing the members of the American public for suckers.' 'LOVE MITT ROMNEY!!!!!' Arrington wrote that night. When challenged by someone about the posting, Arrington doubled-down, writing that she 'really has a problem with the moral and ethical issue of someone being president who has done nothing more than ... make fun of people'."

It appears that Arrington has had a change of heart. It also appears (again) that Trump doesn't read.

Whoever wins this Republican primary will have this guy -- Joe Cunningham -- as the likely Democratic opponent. We like Joe's chances, whether it's against Mark Sanford or finger-in-the-wind Katie Arrington.

"No One Is Breaking Into the Voting Booth"

Gerry Cohen, former special counsel to the N.C. General Assembly and our walking encyclopedia on North Carolina election law:

The line to vote at ASU
Photo Lonnie Webster

There are important questions to be resolved before the legislature votes to put voter photo identification in the state Constitution via referendum.

The ballot question says, “Every person offering to vote in person shall present photo identification before voting in the manner prescribed by law.” This language appears to not allow exceptions for those without ID or those who have lost them, as the 2013 law did. Will it be a “hard ID” like that struck down in federal court, or a “soft ID” like the 2013 House version that allowed student ID, public assistance ID or employer ID? Will there be a tedious provisional ballot process?

The referendum voter won’t know the actual proposal. Senate staffer Brent Woodcox tweeted, “Very few would read the details of the bill to make their decision on the amendment. Unless it passes, there will be no need for implementing language.” How cynical. Is the amendment just a blank check, as well as a sound bite to trap candidates? Is the actual reason to amend the constitution to end review on state constitutional grounds? Republicans control the legislature; the N.C. Supreme Court is now 4-3 Democratic and will remain Democratic next year.

What justification have proponents offered, other than voter confidence would be improved? Gov. Pat McCrory in signing the 2013 bill said it was common sense because you “need a photo ID to fly.” This is untrue; the Transportation Security Administration has many published workarounds for fliers with no photo ID. Other misconceptions: "The law requires photo ID to buy beer, wine and cigarettes." Not true. There is no law requiring this, but if merchants gets photo ID they have a safe harbor if it’s phony.

“You have to have a photo ID to get a prescription.” Most prescriptions have no legal ID requirement. Controlled substances require a government ID, but it doesn’t have to be that of the patient; others can pick up those drugs by showing their ID.

A large segment of society, especially the poor, don't fly and don't have checking accounts. Research has shown that the poorer the voter, the younger the voter, or if the voter is black, the less likely there is an acceptable photo ID. Also, why are we writing into the constitution 2018 technology, disallowing other methods that may develop?

I’ve seen attacks that people without ID could easily get one. For many, this isn’t true. Those of us in politics are privileged to be in the top 95 percent of society. We often don’t see the struggle of citizens who are un-banked, poor, homeless, mentally ill, with no car, or living far away from DMV in rural areas. The lesser among us deserve respect and honor, not baseless fraud allegations or artificial and unnecessary barriers to voting. This bill will disenfranchise voters and is poorly thought through. No one is breaking into the voting booth....

Voter ID Requirement Coming to Your Ballot This Fall

Tim Moore

NC House Speaker Tim Moore is the lead sponsor of a bill to put the question to voters in November: Don't you really think the state should require photo identification from voters, given all those illegals being bussed into polling places everywhere?

It's a political move, obviously, meant to gin up some enthusiasm among Republican voters by raising the specter once again of The Wrong People voting.

Thomas Mills warns that Democrats better not make a campaign issue of a voter identification constitutional amendment, for it will pass, and opposing it will only stir up the other side. Thomas Mills is probably right, especially about the likelihood that the voters will fall for a sham based on fraudulent rumors about voter fraud. Dunno about the other part of his warning, but it makes sense.

And here's the thing: If the amendment did pass in November, the next General Assembly would be tasked with writing the rules, and if Democrats keep their eyes on the prize and break the Republican super-majority, then Democrats will be in a position to influence those rules.

AppState Hires Itself a Lawyer (With Bonus Intercepted Email)

ASU Chancellor Sheri Everts announced on Tuesday that she had hired Paul Meggett, "a former law professor and interim dean at UNC-Charlotte," as her general counsel (following the retirement of former counsel Dayton Cole). Everts also said that Meggett "spent more than a decade in a dual, in-house counsel role as associate general counsel for the UNC Health Care System and as Assistant University Counsel for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill."

What she didn't say about Meggett appeared in an email from an ASU distinguished faculty member that went to several fellow faculty members:  

"Did you hear that the newly hired General Counsel at ASU - Paul Meggett - is coming from the position of Interim Dean of the Charlotte Law School, a for-profit school that closed last August due, in part, to multiple suits by former students and a suit from a former faculty member claiming that the school defrauded the government out of $285 million by "admitting hundreds of unqualified students, then manipulating records to keep them enrolled so the school could collect their government-backed tuition." Why is ASU hiring administrators - Terry Rawls was another - who come from for-profit institutions that have been in legal trouble? Something we should be concerned about?"

As a matter of record, while other law schools have closed in recent years due to declining enrollment and other difficulties, the Charlotte School of Law is the only one that has closed following actions by its regulators such as the NC Attorney General's office, the US Department of Education, and the American Bar Association. "Its parent company also owns two other law schools that are in the same death spiral."

Chancellor Everts' announcement said that Meggett was a "law professor and interim dean at UNC-Charlotte," implying (logically) that he was a law professor and interim dean of the law school at UNC-C. But UNC-C doesn't have a school of law.

Faculty at ASU are asking, "Was that deliberate obfuscation of Meggett's background" or an honest mistake? Or did Meggett misrepresent his background?

Atta Boy!

Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the new Republican budget passed out of the General Assembly because of its inadequate funding of public education.

...Cooper wanted to stop the implementation of another corporate income tax cut next year and freeze planned tax cuts on income that people earn above $200,000, using the extra revenue to give teachers a larger raise and also spend money on other projects.

Continuing to Build

Kathleen Williams won the Democratic
primary in Montana on Tuesday to face off
against Republican incumbent Greg Gianforte
who was sentenced for assaulting a reporter the
night before his election in May 2017

I haven't the time to do deep research of my own right now on the Democratic challengers mentioned below, and the Republican incumbents, but soon ... soon ... I'll be free again to sit at a computer.

From the WashPost:

Voters have cast primary ballots in 32 of the 56 Republican-held House districts most vulnerable to a Democratic takeover, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Of the 28 races that have been called, Democratic women have won in half the districts, with women leading the Democratic ticket Wednesday afternoon in one of the four remaining seats still being counted in California. The party’s nominees in these crucial districts also include six military veterans and seven nominees who are black, Latino or Asian.

The winners include new political stars such as Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot running in Lexington, Ky., and Mikie Sherrill, a Navy pilot and former prosecutor running in northern New Jersey....

Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to retake the House and have benefited from a playing field that is largely located in the suburbs of major American cities, where polls show swing voters, especially educated white women, are more likely to reject Trump’s conduct in office. Strategists consider only five Democratic seats, including two in Minnesota, vulnerable to a Republican takeover.

Head of NC Pork Council: Trump's Trade War Will Hurt Farmers

Twitterman announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from our closest neighbors and allies -- Mexico, Canada, and the European Union -- and they promptly threatened back, saying they'll impose tariffs of their own on North Carolina pork and tobacco. Andy Curliss, CEO of the North Carolina Pork Council, pointed out -- if anyone's listening -- that 25% of NC pork gets exported, and Mexico and Canada account for half of those exports.

Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau, chimed in: "Those countries are important customers for us. If [threatened foreign tariffs] come to pass and if it really happens, it could be devastating for the North Carolina pork industry."

Same for tobacco: "The European Union produced a 10-page list of products it would retaliate against, if the U.S. imposes the tariffs. Among the products: tobacco in all forms — cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, water-pipe tobacco and smoking tobacco. The state grows about 50 percent of the nation's tobacco and exports about 75 percent of what it grows, Wooten said."

Two Deaths From Landslide in Watauga County

Heavenly Mtn development, May 30, 2018
Photo Boone Police Dept.

Thing is, Watauga County was mapped for landslide hazards in 2007, and the area highlighted at that time as most landslide prone was in the Stony Fork precinct which takes in the Heavenly Mountain development. That area experienced devastating landslides in 1940 -- literally, hundreds of them -- and geologic science forecasts that a slope which experienced "debris flow" in the past will experience it again.

The Watauga County landslide hazard maps were presented to the Watauga County Planning Board in January of 2008. The mapping was prompted by the 2004 Hurricane Ivan event which killed five people in Macon County by landslide and devastated the White Laurel development in Boone's ETJ. Because of that, the state legislature said that all 19 mountain counties along the Blue Ridge escarpment needed to know the hazards, so it funded the research. Watauga County was the second county surveyed, and it was very nearly the last. As soon as the Republicans took control in 2011, they cut the funding.

Not that knowing the hazards necessarily saves lives. There's knowing, and then there's really knowing, and the land development community in vacationland never really wanted that information made public. It might have a negative impact on land values.

Those hazard maps are available, incidentally, via the Watauga County Planning and Inspections website.