United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain and top union leaders fired up some 400 hundred cheering Volkswagen Chattanooga workers and supporters Sunday as the UAW and Germany-based auto manufacturer begin historic contract talks this week following a successful union certification vote in April.
Fain vowed UAW will “earn a record contract and make history again” in a video of the meeting posted on the UAW’s website.
“You’re the backbone of this plant and the company,” Fain told members. “Are you ready to move another mountain?”
He warned Volkswagen executives will “pretend the sky will fall” and “they’ll try to spook you.” Declaring that North America is Volkswagen’s most important market, he said “their path forward runs through Chattanooga.”
The factory, which builds the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs and electric I.D.4 SUV, is the German company’s lone U.S. assembly plant. Volkswagen is currently constructing a second factory in South Carolina to produce its Scout vehicles.
Fain said recent news reports about Volkswagen potentially closing plants in Germany due to market conditions won’t impact the Chattanooga negotiations.
“You can’t operate out of fear,” he said.
The union won 73% of the plant’s 4,326 eligible voters after narrowly losing previous efforts in 2014 and 2019. Its victory came despite opposition from Republicans, including Gov. Bill Lee, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, top legislators, including several from Hamilton County, and others who opposed unions. They didn’t want Volkswagen to become the first foreign transplant automaker in the South to become unionized. There are some 5,500 workers at the factory complex.
The UAW, Fain said, has 800 demands. While he didn’t attempt to list them all, he said they include profit-sharing, cost of living adjustments, affordable health benefits and elimination of tiered wages.
UAW Vice President Chuck Browning told workers the battle won’t be easy.
“It will take everything we’ve got. But guess what — we’re one tougher,” he said.
Browning is taking the lead in the bargaining with the company. He previously was involved in successful bargaining with Ford Motor Co. on a contract where workers won improvements in wages and job security with the Michigan-based automaker.
“We did not back down,” Browning said. “We felt there was another $1 billion to get out of the company — and we got it.”
UAW leaders, as well as members of the 20-person elected bargaining committee, wore red polo shirts with the letters GOS on one sleeve, which members told Automotive News stood for “’Get Our Shit.”
Browning, said to be a tough negotiator who led UAW’s negotiations with John Deere in 2021 and later with Caterpillar and Case New Holland in 2023, is taking the same role on VW, along with the bargaining committee, according to Automotive News. Fain said it wasn’t a difficult decision.
Volkswagen, meanwhile, has hired Christena Wilson, a human resources and labor relations site director at General Motors’ assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, to head its negotiations with UAW in Chattanooga.
Browning told workers “you’ve seen a certain kind of battle and you’ve seen the kind of fight Volkswagen can mount.”
“Make no mistake, that fight is coming,” he said. “It’s going to take everything we’ve got. The whole thing about getting a union is to get that union contract that you deserve.”
Tim Smith, director of UAW Region 8, which includes the VW plant, warned company management will “try to break you down.”
“Don’t let them divide you,” he said. “The fight is for a first contract.”
Workers are seeking accountability, respect and time off, he said.
“You want a record contract with higher wages and better benefits. You want profit sharing. You want COLA. You want retirement security,” Smith said. “That’s just the beginning.”
Volkswagen, in a statement, said it is dedicated to having employee feedback “throughout this process so we can reach a deal that improves their experience.”
“We will work tirelessly and collaboratively to reach a fair agreement that takes into account the unique nature of our single U.S. plant, our employees and the Chattanooga community,” the company’s statement reads. “This will ensure a strong and successful future for Volkswagen Chattanooga with the UAW.”
The UAW president said Volkswagen made profits of $24.4 billion in 2023 while paying out $12.7 billion in shareholder dividends.
The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry has long been one of the lobbying heavyweights at the state Capitol. But after the initial euphoria of the Republican takeover at the Statehouse in the early 2010s, the association has occasionally found itself pushed aside as GOP lawmakers have pursued more populist initiatives.
The division was exposed most dramatically during a 2021 special session on COVID-19 mandates that left many in the business community seething about what they saw as undue interference in employers’ affairs and for creating a new avenue for workers to sue if they were fired for refusing to get vaccinated. Legislative leaders, meanwhile, were put out by the Chamber rallying allied groups to fight the measures tooth and nail until they finally passed in a narrower-than-usual fashion in a post-midnight vote.
The abrupt resignation over the weekend of Bradley Jackson after more than eight years as the Tennessee Chamber’s president and CEO presents the association with an opportunity for a leadership reset and a push for renewed influence among Republican lawmakers — and potentially in the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee in 2026. But if the choice to succeed Jackson as the head of the organization fails to strike the right balance with lawmakers, the 112-year-old Chamber could find itself pushed into the margins on Capitol Hill.
Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in the most recent print edition of The Tennessee Journal. Read the full newsletter here.
Before taking over the reins in 2016, Jackson was the Chamber’s chief lobbyist as Republicans took control of both legislative chambers for the first time since Reconstruction. Along with Gov. Bill Haslam’s election as governor in 2010, the new political reality provided an opportunity for the business community to pursue reductions in regulations, fight what it saw as abuse of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977, dial back workers’ compensation benefits, restructure corporate taxes and place caps on damages from lawsuits.
But the Chamber also mounted defensive battles against measures intruding on the rights of businesses, such as proposals to prohibit employers from banning workers from storing firearms in vehicles parked on company lots and imposing requirements to check new hires’ immigration status through the federal E-Verify system.
The advent of the tea party movement spawned Republican candidates who actively campaigned against the priorities of the business community, a trend that has blossomed alongside Donald Trump’s emergence on the national political scene.
COVID flash point
The disconnect between the business community and movement conservatives came into focus during the 2021 special session on COVID-19 mandates, when the supermajority charged ahead on a bill to ban businesses from requiring vaccines for customers or workers despite concerns from employers that the measure could place them in direct violation of federal rules, which they argued could open them up to costly litigation.
The Chamber early on began contacting lawmakers to register concerns about the state encroaching on private businesses’ authority over employees and customers entering their facilities. The lobbying effort outraged House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, because Chamber officials hadn’t informed his office of their plans to wade into the issue.
Meanwhile, the business lobbyists complained that much of the COVID-19 legislation was negotiated behind closed doors. Lawmakers were upset when what they considered to be the final version of the legislation wasn’t accepted as a fait accompli. “Where were they the last couple of months?” Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, demanded during a floor debate.
Sens. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, left, and Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, confer on the Senate floor on April 16, 2020. (Credit: Erik Schelzig)
After marathon negotiations, exemptions were built in to allow entities that could show their federal funding might be endangered — such as government contractors, hospitals and institutions of higher learning — to continue to require shots. But remaining in the bill were controversial measures allowing people fired for refusing to follow COVID-19 rules to collect unemployment benefits and creating a cause of action for workers to sue their employers for violating the new law.
The business community had been caught off guard because Lee — a member of the state Chamber when he ran his family’s HVAC company before being elected governor — told them weeks before that he opposed government interference into private companies’ affairs. The governor also suggested that if a special session became inevitable, he would issue the call so he could limit its scope.
But once it became clear that skeptics could no longer keep the COVID-19 session from happening, the governor decided he was better off staying out of the matter and deferred to fellow Republicans in the General Assembly. As it happened, lawmakers for just the third time in state history called themselves into a special session and left the door wide open to bills of all types.
During the debate, business lobbyists were stunned that their positions were most articulately expressed by Democrats like Nashville Sen. Jeff Yarbro, while Senate Republican Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin made the astounding acknowledgment that they were moving forward even though the bill ran “contrary to some of the tenets that we’ve held very sacred.”
When it finally came up for a vote on the last day of the special session, the omnibus (often mispronounced as “ominous”) bill passed with just 22 votes in the 33-member Senate and 58 of 99 House members — a far cry from the usual GOP margins.
It was far from the slam Sexton had expected when he led the charge for the special session, though the measure’s passage was seen as a key move toward giving Republican lawmakers political cover from voters who had come to oppose pandemic-related restrictions.
Mending fences
After Jackson took over leadership of the Chamber in 2016, he was credited with mending relations with both the chambers of the state’s four largest cities and those representing smaller communities around Tennessee. He also helped place the state Chamber in a leadership position vis-a-vis its city counterparts, which some critics have sometimes seen as doing the bidding of local government officials rather than the priorities of its member companies.
Jackson also presided over weekly Friday meetings with lobbyists for like-minded organizations ranging from the state chapter of the National Federation for Business to the Tennessee Road Builders Association. A focus of the gatherings was to present a united front on bills before the Legislature that they either supported or opposed. Attendees said Jackson was careful not to let the meetings become a forum for disagreements between the sometimes competing interests among the various participants.
Some members of the business community praised Jackson for making it a priority to seek the best possible relations with Republican lawmakers despite the occasionally adversarial mood. Others felt he was too willing to bend over backward to accommodate legislators instead of trying to take a firmer approach toward them when they were pursuing legislation at odds with the Chamber’s interests.
Union fighting
As Chamber president, Jackson took a leading role in the lobbying effort that placed a proposed amendment before the voters to enshrine the state’s 75-year-old “right to work” law into the Tennessee Constitution.
While anti-labor attitudes run deep among the Republican supermajority, wavering support among the rank-and-file had proponents sweating at the end of the 2019 session about whether the resolution would get the necessary two-thirds majority when it came up for a final vote in the House. A full-court press helped get 67 green lights on the board — just one more than the minimum needed. Jackson later served on the leadership committee of the 2022 campaign to get the measure approved at the polls, where it prevailed with 70% of the vote.
Union supporters celebrate the UAW’s win at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga on April 19, 2024. (Credit: Andy Sher)
But the Chamber and Republican politicians were unable to replicate their past successes in blocking the United Auto Workers from organizing the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. After narrow defeats in 2014 and 2019, the UAW won a historic victory there in April, its first among foreign owned automakers in the South. The union followed up the win by gaining recognition earlier this month at the $2.6 billion Ultium Cells plant in Maury County. The joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution had received $78 million in state grants in 2021.
Money matters
The Tennessee Chamber’s PAC has given $565,600 to state candidates since the 2010 campaign cycle, ranking it 48th among the biggest donors during that time frame. By contrast, the Chamber was just two spots and $33,700 ahead of the total given by former Comptroller Justin Wilson.
Meanwhile, 20 PACs gave more than $1 million, and 10 companies’ committees donated more than the Chamber: FedEx ($1.95 million), AT&T ($1.6 million), Advance Financial ($1.4 million), HCA Healthcare ($1.3 million), BlueCross BlueShield ($1.2 million), Jack Daniel’s ($1.2 million), Amazon ($903,700), Comcast ($901,300), Check Into Cash owner Jones Management Services ($645,500) and private prison operator CoreCivic ($611,000).
The Chamber could take a more active role in campaign contributions — a currency understood all-too-well by lawmakers — but it would be a potentially risky proposition to use the PAC to lob attacks at recalcitrant lawmakers. Outside groups like the Club for Growth caused great consternation by flooding the zone with millions of dollars’ worth of ads during the most recent primary. But the national outfit doesn’t have to deal with the General Assembly on a day-to-day basis, so it has little to lose by making enemies of those upset at its tactics. The Chamber and its donors don’t have the same luxury.
Dealing with Sexton
It remains to be seen whether Sexton decides to get behind a candidate to succeed Jackson as head of the Chamber. The House speaker has raised eyebrows for pursuing a legislative agenda that has included restricting the authority of third-party pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, that has resulted in federal litigation by McKee Foods, the Hamilton County-based maker of Little Debbie snacks. Sexton also unsuccessfully tried to add Centene Corp. as a fourth managed care organization for TennCare despite losing out on its bid.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, attend a House Republican Caucus meeting on Jan. 14, 2020. (Credit: Erik Schelzig)
Sexton doesn’t take kindly to lobbyists who work against his priorities, and he’s not averse to killing off unrelated bills to send a message. A Sexton ally in the Chamber might ensure smoother relations, but it could come at the cost of the association’s independence.
Who’s next?
The Chamber has yet to indicate who will serve on a search committee and what its criteria will be. Jackson’s two predecessors, Catherine Glover and Deb Woolley, were hired from out of state. Before that, former television journalist and onetime head of the Tennessee Business Roundtable head Dave Goetz was the organization’s president. Goetz, who liked to wear a pig lapel pin on his jacket (a reference to a long-ago quote by a state GOP chair denouncing “bizpigs” in the party), left the group to serve as finance commissioner for Gov. Phil Bredesen.
Before his time as a lobbyist for the Chamber, Jackson worked as a legislative liaison for the Finance Department and as a researcher for legislative finance committees. Jackson’s time with the Democratic governor’s administration (and briefly as a contract lobbyist for Bredesen deputy Dave Cooley) has led to muttering among Republicans — even though 96% of the association’s political donations have gone to GOP candidates during his tenure.
The Chamber’s board is large and not traditionally very heavily involved in the outfit’s day-to-day operations. Jackson’s departure came as a surprise, so there is no obvious succession plan. The Chamber is likely to want to hire an interim CEO while a wider search is conducted. There appears to be a recognition that the stakes are high.
“Roy Cooper is a good man, but sometimes has some bad ideas.”
House Speaker Tim Moore, on working with Gov. Roy Cooper throughout his legislative career. (The News & Observer, 9/15/24)4)
Absentee Ballots Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press, 9/13/24
North Carolina’s first absentee ballots for the November election will now be distributed starting late next week, the State Board of Elections announced Friday, days after appeals court judges prevented original ballots containing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from being sent.
North Carolina had been poised to be the first in the nation to send out ballots to voters for the fall elections. State law directed the first absentee ballots be mailed or transmitted to those already asking no later than 60 days before Election Day, or Sept. 6 this year. But on that day the state Court of Appeals granted Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name for president.
Kennedy had sued the board in late August to remove his name as the We The People party candidate the week after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision on Monday, left the lower-court decision in place. These rulings forced county election officials to reassemble absentee ballot packets, reprint ballots and recode tabulation machines. Counties had printed more than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots before last Friday’s court order, according to the state board. Alabama became the first state to mail ballots, on Wednesday.
The North Carolina state board on Friday revealed a two-tiered release of absentee ballots, which have been requested by over 166,000 voters so far.
First, ballots requested by more than 13,600 military and overseas voters would be sent Sept. 20, which would ensure that the state complies with a federal law requiring ballots be transmitted to these categories of voters by Sept. 21. Absentee ballots to the other conventional requesters by mail would then follow starting on Sept. 24. The board said in a news release it would give counties more time to ensure their vendors could print enough amended ballots in time and to ensure voter packers are prepared for mailing.
Counties must bear the ballot reprinting costs. A board news release said the expense to counties could vary widely, from a few thousand dollars in some smaller counties to $55,100 in Durham County and $300,000 in Wake County, the state’s largest by population. Wake elections board member Gerry Cohen said on social media Friday that his county’s amount included a 20% surcharge from its ballot printer for delays.
Early in-person voting starts statewide on Oct. 17. The deadline to request absentee ballots is Oct. 29. A law taking effect this year says mail-in absentee ballots for most voters must be turned in to election officials sooner — by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. [Source]
DEI Cuts Brianna Atkinson, WUNC Radio, 9/13/24
In the aftermath of the UNC Board of Governors DEI repeal, chancellors have closed at least seven central DEI offices, eliminated 59 DEI-related positions, and redirected nearly $17 million to “student success initiatives.”
Out of all the institutions that gutted DEI programs, UNC-Chapel Hill’s administration cut the most. Six DEI offices are no longer at the university. This includes the university and individual departments’ DEI offices. Half of the shuttered offices were in the School of Medicine, which no longer has Offices of Inclusive Excellence and Community Engagement, Rural Initiatives, or Scholastic Enrichment and Equity. The remaining eliminations are from the Schools of Business and Pharmacy.
UNC-Chapel Hill makes up a third of the eliminated positions system-wide, with 20 DEI-related roles cut.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees pushed to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion programming, even before the UNC BOG repealed the system-wide DEI policy. Ten days before the BOG’s decision, the Board of Trustees voted to redirect $2.3 million of DEI initiative funding to public safety.
In his final report to UNC System President Peter Hans, Chancellor Lee Roberts certified that more than $5.3 million would be removed from DEI initiatives and redirected to student success programming.
Leah Cox is UNC-Chapel Hill’s former Chief Diversity Officer. She said that although there is no longer a central DEI office, “many of the programs and systems that were there before still exist.”
“Many of those programs have just been moved to other reporting structures,” Cox said in a conference call with reporters. “There’s no longer a central DEI or DNI office, but some of the programs are still standing.” This includes initiatives like Project Uplift, DEI fellows and dialogue programs for employees. It also includes events like MLK day celebrations and the Women center’s “Women of Worth” conference. Most of these programs now reside in student affairs or human resources, according to Cox.
However, some of the initiatives will have to undergo changes to meet the UNC BOG’s “institutional neutral standards.”
“(Student Affairs) is going to be working with them to still talk about ways in which that program can change a little bit, but still serve our students in terms of them learning about how to work in programs that support diversity and inclusion initiatives.” Cox said.
Cox’s role has also changed. She’s still a vice provost, but is now responsible for developing student success strategies. Cox defines student success initiatives as supports that help students have “a seamless experience from recruitment to graduation.” She has yet to develop that platform and new programs. “I believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion at any university is still about student success and access,” Cox said. “And so, while my focus and my passion is still there, the work that I’m doing in this position … is not the same.”
Cox will develop UNC-Chapel Hill’s “student success experience” alongside a “transformational manager.” The new position will be funded with $115,710 that was previously allocated to DEI programming.
A little over $800,000 of DEI funding will be redirected to existing staff. UNC-Chapel Hill administrators “realigned” 27 positions to non-DEI roles. These new responsibilities include roles in faculty and staff development, admissions, and “collective well-being.”
However, Cox said there is still a “difficult” human element to these changes. “When I arrived at this campus just three years ago, folks were worried about inclusive efforts around faculty and faculty hiring, and I think we started to move the needle,” Cox said. “This is one more sort of thing we’re going to have to work towards, but I think that we can be successful. I think the university at large wants to be supportive and move forward.”
UNC-Chapel Hill and other university chancellors will have to continually certify they are following the UNC BOG’s “institutional neutrality” policy. Those reports will be due to UNC System President Peter Hans annually, by Sept. 1. [Source]
Leadership Changes Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, The News & Observer, 9/15/24
As Republican House Speaker Tim Moore was finishing up his usual press gaggle on the floor after session on Wednesday, the News & Observer’s Dawn Vaughan asked him about Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. Vaughan quipped that Cooper, Berger and Moore sounds like a law firm. Moore said he’d be open to practicing law with them both.
North Carolina state government is approaching the end of an era. Cooper and Moore are in lame duck territory, and at least one of them will soon be headed to Washington.
Moore is running for Congress and expected to win the seat in a Republican-favored district. Cooper, if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency, may get a spot in her administration or run for U.S. Senate in 2026.
That leaves Berger to deal with the next House speaker and the next governor. The next governor will either be Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein or Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. And the next House speaker, assuming Republicans maintain control, is favored to be Republican Rep. Destin Hall.
The dynamic will be a significant change because Cooper, Berger and Moore — despite their differences, managed to lead a purple state in a way to bring significant economic development and population growth. And a change in that variable could change the trajectory of North Carolina.
Moore told me that he’ll miss working with Berger, and even with Cooper. “Roy Cooper is a good man, but sometimes has some bad ideas,” Moore said. “It’s just a part of the job. And I guess we’re all attorneys as well, so you’re kind of used to — you advocate for a client or advocate for a position, and you try to avoid it becoming personal. But I’ll tell you, we’ve had some great successes of a bipartisan nature,” Moore said.
Robinson came to the legislature to preside over the Senate session on Monday. He apologized to senators for being “rusty.” He hasn’t come to the Legislative Building in awhile, even though the job of the lieutenant governor is to preside over Senate sessions. He left immediately after session, while Berger talked to reporters as he usually does. Berger was asked about Robinson’s impact on other Republican candidates on the ballot, as well as his view of the governor’s race.
He said he was “concentrating on the Senate races.”
“We are running our Senate races, and we are very comfortable with the races that we originally thought would be competitive, that we needed to concentrate on. Our polling, and our view, of those races are unchanged as a result of anything that’s occurred in the gubernatorial race,” Berger said.
He also said that he hasn’t been able to go to any campaign events of former President Donald Trump and running mate U.S. Sen. JD Vance nor Robinson, but that was only because of his schedule so far, and he has “no problem attending those events.” [Source]
Investigators are questioning a Greensboro, North Carolina, man in the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. This comes nine weeks after Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Pennsylvania. Ryan Wesley Routh of Greensboro is in custody after the Secret Service spotted a gun barrel pointed at the former president while he was playing golf at his course in Florida. Routh, 58, has an extensive criminal history in North Carolina that includes convictions between 2002 and 2010 of felony possession of weapons of mass destruction and possession of stolen goods and misdemeanors carrying a concealed gun, hit and run and resisting law enforcement, among other charges.
Routh remains active in North Carolina’s voter rolls as an unaffiliated voter. In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can choose which primary they want to vote in. Routh chose Democrats when he voted this spring. Routh has also made small donations through ActBlue throughout the 2024 election cycle. ActBlue is an online platform used by Democrats for fundraising.
Routh studied Mechanical Engineering at N.C. A&T from 1995 to 1998, according to LinkedIn. In 1990 he registered Routh Roofing in Greensboro with the N.C. Secretary of State’s office. Secret Service is reported to have fired at the attempted shooter after spotting his weapon, an AK-47. The man ran, leaving behind two backpacks and a GoPro camera in the bushes of the golf course.
A witness took photographs of his black Nissan, with his license plate, which led investigators to Routh. Trump was not hurt.
North Carolina’s Congressional delegation was quick to react to news about Trump. Rep. Richard Hudson, a Republican from Southern Pines and chairman of the Republican National Congressional Committee, thanked the Secret Service for quickly responding, calling them brave. Sen. Thom Tillis wrote that he was grateful for the quick response from law enforcement who apprehend the suspect. Many offered prayers to Trump.
Others thanked God for his safety. “Political violence is a threat to our democracy — there is no place for this in America,” said Rep. Deborah Ross, a Democrat from Wake County. “I’m relieved that President Trump is safe and unharmed,” wrote Rep. Greg Murphy, a Republican from Greenville. “My prayers are with him and his family. Sadly enough, there are deranged individuals in this world, and threats of violence against public officials are despicable.” Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from Banner Elk, wrote that she was thankful that Trump was safe and unharmed. “We need answers immediately,” Foxx wrote. “Anything less is unacceptable.” [Source]
Republican Michele Morrow and Democrat Mo Green, candidates for state superintendent of public instruction, met virtually Thursday for their first debate.
The race has attracted national attention after Morrow, a former nurse and homeschool teacher, unexpectedly won the Republican primary over incumbent superintendent Catherine Truitt. The election on Nov. 5 will determine who supports the state’s more than 2,500 public schools and heads the Department of Public Instruction (DPI).
Green, former superintendent of Guilford County Schools, referenced his experience in educational leadership as the basis of both his vision for improving schools and his preparedness for the office. Morrow argued the opposite — she said her position as an outsider would provide her with an advantage in addressing challenges facing students and educators.
The candidates responded to questions on top education issues: teacher pay, teacher and principal recruitment and retention, early literacy, school performance grades, school choice, attainment, and parent engagement. They also argued for their abilities to lead DPI, administer a budget of $17.2 billion, and unite a variety of stakeholders with differing points of view.
A recording of the debate will be publicly available in the coming days. The debate was hosted by BEST NC, a nonpartisan coalition of business leaders focused on education advocacy, and it was moderated by Chris Williams, executive producer of Carolina Business Review. [Source]
Summerfield Land DJ Simmons, WFDD Radio, 9/12/24
The Guilford County Planning Board on Wednesday pushed off zoning the remaining portion of land de-annexed from the town of Summerfield. The planning board voted 4-3 to send the case back to staff to consider alternative zoning instead of the proposed General Business, or GB, because it included multifamily developments.
Planning Board Chair James Donnelly said he had some worries about limitations and would be more interested in considering a specific development, allowing members to assess its impact.
“The piece that I have a concern about is that where we have as a county in many places, multifamily development, we’ve got zones for a multifamily,” Donelly said. “And GB does not provide any framework.”
This is the latest step in a saga connected to the town of Summerfield and a controversial project that is currently being revamped. The state legislature de-annexed nearly 1,000 acres of land after a years-long back-and-forth between developer David Couch and town officials.
The Guilford County Planning Board will next meet on Oct. 9. [Source]
Sports Betting Brian Murphy, WRAL News, 9/13/24
The vast majority of North Carolina adults say they have not placed a single sports bet since the state launched legal online sports betting in mid-March. A new WRAL News Poll found that 64% of North Carolina adults are not betting at all, while less than one in 10 adults say they have bet five or more times. WRAL conducted the poll of 900 adults in connection with independent pollster SurveyUSA.
People in North Carolina have wagered nearly $3 billion in paid and promotional bets through the end of August, according to monthly revenue reports from the North Carolina State Lottery Commission.
Those bets are coming most frequently from younger men with children and with higher levels of income, the poll found. Among those who said they bet more than five times, the highest levels were found among urban men (17%), suburban men (14%), people aged 18-24 (14%) and 25-34 (11%), white males (11%), Black males (12%), registered Republicans (11%), parents (12%) and those earning more than $40,000 and $80,000 per year (11%).
Parents were much more likely to bet than those without children. More than 70% of respondents without children said they had never bet. Whereas, 51% of parents said they have never bet and the percentage of parents betting at each frequency in the survey more than doubled the percentage for non-parents. Nearly three in four women have not placed a single bet and just 5% of women say they have bet five times or more.
The low percentage of high-frequency sports bettors is in line with other polls — and it matches how frequently North Carolinians said they would bet in WRAL’s poll from March. In that poll, 7% of respondents said they planned to wager frequently and 53% said they did not plan to bet at all. [Source]
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democrats’ nominee for vice president, plans to visit Asheville Tuesday for a political event, according to a campaign official. His trip kicks off a week of North Carolina campaign events that includes visits from the Republican nominees, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, who will be in Raleigh the same day that Walz is in Asheville.
It will be the second time Walz has visited North Carolina since August, when Vice President Kamala Harris chose Walz as her running mate. Campaign officials have not yet provided further details about Walz’s visit on Tuesday.
During his last visit, to Raleigh, he stopped for milkshakes at Cook Out with Gov. Roy Cooper before visiting a campaign office and a fundraiser.
The Trump campaign said Trump and Vance plan to host rallies to focused on the state of the economy. Trump will visit Wilmington on Saturday.
Trump and Vance have increased their visits to the Tar Heel state since Harris became Trump’s opponent for president on July 21. When Trump faced off against President Joe Biden, he often led in North Carolina’s polls, sometimes by double digits. But when Harris launched her campaign, the polls began to narrow. Trump carried North Carolina in 2020 by the smallest margin of any state he won. [Source]
Harris Events The Associated Press, 9/12/24
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump launched campaign blitzes Thursday with dramatically different approaches to attracting swing-state voters who will decide the presidential contest.
In North Carolina, Democratic nominee Harris used rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro to tout endorsements from Republicans who have crossed the aisle to back her. She also promised to protect access to health care and abortion, while delighting her partisan crowds with celebrations of her debate performance Tuesday, taking digs at Trump and cheerleading for her campaign and the country.
“We’re having a good time, aren’t we?” Harris declared, smiling as her boisterous crowd chanted: “USA! USA! USA!”
In the border state of Arizona, the Republican Trump pitched a tax exemption on all overtime wages, adding it to his previous proposals to not tax tips or Social Security income.
In North Carolina, Harris took her own post-debate victory lap, and her campaign already has cut key moments of the debate into ads. But Harris warned against overconfidence, calling herself an underdog and making plain the stakes. “This is not 2016 or 2020,” she said in Charlotte. “Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”
She touted endorsements from Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, both of whom have deemed Trump a fundamental threat to American values and democracy.
“Democrats, Republicans and independents are supporting our campaign,” Harris said in Charlotte, praising the Cheneys and like-minded Republicans as citizens who recognize a need to “put country above party and defend our Constitution.” [Source]
Vance Visit Tom George, WTVD News, 9/15/24
With just 52 days before the election, Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance and his wife Usha made a surprise appearance at the ECU football game against Appalachian State. In the span of just 3 hours from wheels down to wheels up, JD and Usha Vance made the most of gameday in Greenville.
Vance said North Carolina is a must-win state for Republicans on their path to 270 electoral votes, and touted his own connection to our state. “I was stationed here, I’ve actually been in Greenville a lot as a Marine, so it’s really wonderful to be here. We’re thrilled that they’ve welcomed us so kindly, and we just got to win the state so we can get our country back on track,” Vance told ABC11. [Source]
Save the Date Please plan to be our guest as NC Insider / State Affairs Pro welcomes subscribers to Caffe Luna once more for delicious food and drink, great company and an interesting political conversation. Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, from 5:30-7 p.m. Caffe Luna, 136 E. Hargett St., Raleigh. Registration details to follow.
Tropical Storm Richard Stradling, The News & Observer, 9/15/24
The National Hurricane Center has issued tropical storm warnings for the Carolinas, from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Ocracoke Inlet. That includes Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Wilmington and Morehead City. Forecasters expect the storm to come ashore Monday, though they cautioned that they remained uncertain about its exact path. Bands of heavy rain were already pelting the Myrtle Beach area and Brunswick County in southeastern North Carolina on Sunday evening. The storm is expected to dump 2 to 4 inches of rain in the Piedmont and Sandhills and as many as 8 inches on the coastal plain. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for eastern South Carolina and most of central and eastern North Carolina from late Sunday through Tuesday morning. The weather service said flash flooding was possible, particularly in urban areas and places that drain poorly. Excessive runoff could cause creeks, streams and eventually rivers to jump their banks as well. The hurricane center referred to the storm as “potential tropical cyclone eight.” If and when it becomes a tropical storm, it will be named Helene. Tropical Storm Gordon, which formed in the middle of the Atlantic last week, has weakened to a tropical depression and does not appear to pose any threat to land. [Source]
Marijuana Dispensary Will Hofmann, Asheville Citizen Times, 9/12/24
Over 4,000 people visited the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. dispensary in Cherokee, North Carolina, as the marijuana industry run by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opened for adult-use sales on Sept. 7, dispensary officials said. In response to the overwhelming turnout the company has extended hours and placed temporary sale limits on products to meet demand.
As a result of the high demand, purchase limits have been placed on products like marijuana flower, which is restricted to half an ounce, or around 14 grams, Qualla Enterprises General Manager Forrest Parker said. Total volume of flower and concentrates, which includes products like vapes and extracts, cannot surpass 42 grams.
“We don’t plan to do that long, but we’re going to be doing that for just a little bit here ’til we get a good handle on the data,” Parker said, who noted that employees “stepped up to the challenge” of the opening weekend.
The weekend opening marked the first time that anyone in North Carolina aged 21 and up could purchase adult-use marijuana in the state, despite the drug being illegal off the reservation. It’s made Eastern Band’s business unique in a region that has largely avoided the legalization of the drug.
With 24 states fully legalizing recreational sales and even more legalizing limited medical sales, the state of North Carolina has sat on the sidelines of the burgeoning marijuana industry despite a heavy push from legislators and predictions that a taxable marijuana industry in the state could eventually bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. [Source]
Shed Manufacturer Kevin Ellis, Business NC, 9/12/24
A Kentucky-based manufacturer of outdoor storage buildings will invest $7.4 million and create 51 jobs by locating a manufacturing facility in the Richmond County town of Marston. GP Portable Buildings, which is registered in Kentucky as Graceland Properties, has dealerships in about 20 states, including North Carolina.
“We are glad to see more jobs and investments being made in Richmond County,” said Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement released Thursday. “Through prior work with North Carolina contractors, Graceland Portable Buildings is confident in establishing its own manufacturing facility because of our skilled workforce, our robust transportation infrastructure, and the affordability of doing business in our state.”
GP Portable Buildings will operate in Richmond County as a manufacturer, distributor and installer of portable buildings and outdoor storage sheds for various applications. A performance-based grant of $150,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will help facilitate Graceland’s expansion to North Carolina. [Source]
Camp Sale Will Hofmann, Asheville Citizen Times, 9/13/24
The outdoor therapy camp Trails Carolina in Lake Toxaway is up for sale as the camp remains the subject of intense scrutiny following the death of a 12-year-old boy in early 2024, a sexual assault lawsuit and its recent loss of accreditation from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The camper’s death was ruled a homicide in June.
Originally posted on multiple listing services on Aug. 2, the 32-acre property at 500 Winding Gap Road in Lake Toxaway has been listed for $3.2 million by the Charlotte-based Nichols Company on behalf of the property owners. According to N.C. Business Registration files, the current property owner is Trails NC Holding LLC, a Utah-based land holding company.
Currently, Transylvania County records indicate the property still has an outlying balance of $3,712 on its 2024 property taxes.
The camp, which had been mandated to close by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, had only just recently appealed its closure after the early 2024 death that had been ruled as a homicide by local investigators.
The boy, who was from New York City, died on Feb. 3, less than 24 hours after his arrival at Trails Carolina camp in the Transylvania County community of Lake Toxaway. It took nearly five months to complete the autopsy, which was recently released and concluded he died of asphyxiation because of the way camp staff had him situated in a single-person tent called a “bivy.”
The camp had lost its accreditation in May after not meeting standards as a therapeutic program. The camp is also currently facing a lawsuit from a former camper claiming she was “made to suffer as a 12-year-old child because of the negligent, reckless, wanton and tortious acts and omissions of Trails Carolina” and the camp’s therapist.
The closed therapy camp claimed that N.C. DHHS’s move to revoke its license was “without a reasonable or sufficient basis” and is “detrimental to the health or safety of the children who would otherwise be in (Trails Carolina’s) care.”
Family Help and Wellness listed Trails Carolina as one of their “Outdoor Therapy” programs for all of 2023, according to internet archives, and Trails Carolina LLC, the company that ran the camp, lists Family Help’s CFO Wayne Laird as the managing agent for the company on N.C. Business Registration Records. The company is based in Oregon and has offices based in Asheville, according to its website.
The property had previously been directly owned by a Family Help and Wellness holding company, according to Transylvania County Property Records. According to its website, the company also runs Asheville Academy.
The Citizen Times has reached out to Family Help and Wellness, Trails Carolina founder Graham Shannonhouse and the property holding company for comment. [Source]
Email Scam Chase Jordan, The Charlotte Observer, 9/13/24
Atrium Health is apologizing publicly and notifying patients who may have been impacted by a malicious email sent to employees in April, the company announced Friday. Social Security numbers may have been among the personal information exposed to the criminals, Atrium said.
An unauthorized third party gained access to a group of employees’ emails through phishing, according to Atrium. Phishing occurs when an email looks trustworthy but deception is used to get information or access to online accounts. The incident occurred between April 29 and April 30, according to Atrium, a Charlotte-based health care giant.
Atrium said it investigated, took steps to secure the affected accounts and confirmed the third party no longer had access. A forensic firm assisted with the investigation in July and notified law enforcement.
Atrium did not provide a total number of patients or workers impacted in a public notice. But the email did not impact all of Atrium Health’s patients or employees, according to Atrium. It only reached people whose information happened to be in the email and/or files in the affected employees’ accounts, according to Atrium.
Atrium did not immediately say why it waited 4 1/2 months to make a public announcement of the security breach. [Source]
Jail Incidents Mark Schultz, The News & Observer, 9/15/24
A second worker has been charged with having sex last year with the same inmate at the Durham County jail. The worker, 41-year-old Lerin Burnette, was employed by a contract vendor at the Durham County Detention Center downtown, according to the arrest warrant and a Durham County Sheriff’s Office news release Thursday night.
On Monday, Sheriff Clarence Birkhead had announced that 27-year-old detention officer Jade Shanicia Lanique Robertson had been fired for an alleged sex act with an inmate. The encounter was not violent, according to the Sheriff’s Office, but consent is not a legal defense, The News & Observer reported. Sexual activity by a person having custody of a victim in a governmental institution is a class E felony. Both incidents are alleged to have happened on or about Aug. 1, 2023, and involved the same man, who is incarcerated on several charges, including murder, according to court and jail records.
The charges are part of a “continuing investigation into alleged sexual activity at the Durham County Detention Facility,” the Sheriff’s Office said in the news release. [Source]
Insurance Fraud Chris Day, The (Elizabeth City) Daily Advance, 9/15/24
Insurance companies are becoming more reluctant to provide homeowners insurance because of the growing number of roofing claims, many of them fraudulent, says NC Department of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.
“As any law enforcement officer knows, anytime there’s a hailstorm, hurricane, windstorm, any sort of big storm, what I call the ‘storm chasers,’ a lot of times from other states, … will go door to door offering to get people a free roof,” Causey said. “And there’s a lot of fraud with those roofing contractors and unfortunately too many (insurance) companies paid out the claims.”
Causey was speaking Thursday at the Pasquotank Center of N.C. Cooperative Extension as part of his Insurance Fraud Town Hall series. The series is an effort by DOI to raise awareness of the adverse effects that insurance fraud has on insurance costs paid by law-abiding citizens.
Causey said that insurance companies are paying out as much as $1.30 in claims for every $1 they receive in premium payments. Causey was joined by several DOI special agents, each of whom specialized in a different aspect of insurance fraud. For example, the department’s Criminal Investigations Division investigates arson, matters involving bail bondsmen, medical investigations and more. The types of fraud discussed Thursday included staged vehicle accidents, potential fraud perpetrated by bail bondsmen, roofing claims and public adjuster fraud. [Source]
Deaths Port City Daily, 9/14/24
A Pender County coastal community is grieving the passing of its top leader. Mayor Steve Smith has had ties to the Topsail Beach community for six decades. The town announced Smith died in his sleep on Friday, Sept. 13.
The mayor was serving his second term in the position, though his time as a public servant goes back a decade. Before becoming mayor in 2019, Smith served as a Topsail Beach Commissioner.
“In addition to being a true friend and dedicated public servant, he was also a loving husband, father and grandfather who was adored by his family,” the town said in a release, adding Smith’s “wisdom and compassion” will leave a void.
Smith’s funeral arrangements are being made; he is survived by his wife, Dr. Edna Cascioli Smith. They owned property on the island since 1968. Topsail’s Mayor Pro Tem is Morton Blanchard. [Source]
HOUSE CALENDARWednesday, Oct. 9, 2024House Convenes at 12 p.m.SENATE CALENDARWednesday, Oct. 9, 2024Senate Convenes at 12 p.m. HOUSE & SENATE: Reconvening allowed under provisions of SB 916, if no sine die adjournment previously adopted.Tuesday, Nov. 19 to Friday Nov. 22Wednesday, Dec. 11 to Friday Dec. 13
Legislative Studies and Meetings LB: LEGISLATIVE BUILDING. LOB: LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING
N.C. Government Meetings and Hearings BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS
Tuesday, Sept. 1710 a.m. | The North Carolina Partnership for Children Board of Directors meets. You may contact Yvonne Huntley at 984.221.1242 or email at [email protected] for additional information.Wednesday, Sept. 1810 a.m. | The Energy Policy Council meets, 512 N. Salisbury St, Raleigh.10 a.m. | North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission meets, 400 East Tryon Road, Raleigh.Thursday, Sept. 1910 a.m. | North Carolina Department of Labor – Public Hearing-NCDOL OSH Division Amendment to 13 NCAC 07F. 0101, 4 W Edenton St, Raleigh.1 p.m. | North Carolina Sheriffs Education and Training Standards Commission – Final Agency Decisions Meeting, The Lodge at Flat Rock 42 McMurray Road, Flat Rock.Friday, Sept. 208:30 a.m. | North Carolina Sheriffs Education and Training Standards Commission – Final Agency Decisions Meeting, The Lodge at Flat Rock 42 McMurray Road, Flat Rock.12 p.m. | Citizen Advisory Committee meeting for HUD Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding, The Harrelson Center, 20 N 4th St Ste 214, Wilmington.Tuesday, Sept. 2411 a.m. | Economic Investment Committee – Regular Meeting, 301 N. Wilmington St, Raleigh.12:30 p.m. | Governor’s Environmental Justice Advisory Council, 141 College Drive, Albemarle.Wednesday, Sept. 2510 a.m. | North Carolina Rules Review Commission, 1711 New Hope Church Road, Raleigh.3 p.m. | NC Department of Administration – NC Martin Luther King Jr. Commission Meeting, 116 West Jones St, Raleigh. 3 p.m. | NC Innovation Council – Regular Meeting, Virtual Meeting.Friday, Sept. 2710 a.m. | NC Domestic Violence Commission Quarterly Meeting, TBD.
Thursday, Oct. 17Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.Wednesday, Nov. 13Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.Thursday, Nov. 14Meeting of the Board of Governors, TBA.
Monday, Sept. 161 p.m. | Public and Expert Witness Hearing – Application Pursuant to G.S. 62-133.2 and Commission Rule R8-55 relating to Fuel and Fuel-related Charge Adjustments for Electric Utilities | E-2 Sub 13411 p.m. | Public and Expert Witness Hearing – Application pursuant to G.S. 62-133.9 and Commission Rule R8-69 for Approval of Demand-Side Management and Energy Efficiency Cost Recovery Rider | E-2 Sub 13421 p.m. | Public and Expert Witness Hearing – Application Pursuant to G.S. 62-133.8 and Commission Rule R8-67 for Approval of CEPS Compliance Report and CEPS Cost Recovery Rider | E-2 Sub 13431 p.m. | Public and Expert Witness Hearing – Application pursuant to G.S. 62-110.8 and Commission Rule R8-71 for Approval of CPRE Compliance Report and CPRE Cost Recovery Rider | E-2 Sub 13441 p.m. | Public and Expert Witness Hearing – Application pursuant to G.S. 62-133.2 and Commission Rule R8-70 relating to Joint Agency Asset Cost Recovery Rider | E-2 Sub 1345Tuesday, Sept. 1710 a.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837Wednesday, Sept. 1810 a.m. | Expert Witness Hearing – Application for General Rate Increase for Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. | G-9 Sub 837Monday, Sept. 237 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application of Old North State Water Company, Inc., for Authority to Adjust and Increase Rates for Sewer Utility Service to the Briar Chapel Subdivision in Chatham County; and Carolina Plantations, Horse Creek Farms, and Stateside Subdivisions in Onslow County, North Carolina | W-1300 Sub 100Wednesday, Sept. 257 p.m. | Public Witness Hearing – Application of Dominion Energy North Carolina for Adjustment of Rates and Charges Applicable to Electric Service in North Carolina | E-22 Sub 694
Other Meetings and Events of Interest BOLD ITEMS ARE NEW LISTINGS
It took two years before Gov. Laura Kelly and the Legislature in June finally agreed on a comprehensive tax relief package.
It’s taken about two and a half months to reveal that Kelly and lawmakers are likely again to disagree with potential tax relief proposals in the 2025 session.
“While we are seeing collections higher than the estimate, we likely won’t see the impact of the income tax cuts from Senate Bill 1 on monthly collections until the beginning of next year,” Kelly said. “Because of that timing, we must continue to be fiscally responsible for our long-term outlook.”
Grace Hoge, Kelly’s press secretary, added in a statement that it’s important to “exercise caution with any potential future tax cut proposals.”
House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, responded in a separate news release, calling for property tax legislation next year.
“To help get Kansans’ taxpayer money back in their hands where it belongs, House Republicans are already working on legislation for the 2025 session that would help ease the burden of rising property taxes,” he said. “These revenue numbers provide even more proof that additional tax relief, especially property tax relief, is not only needed but can be implemented responsibly. We’re ready to get back to work in January to ensure that happens for Kansans everywhere.”
Rep. Adam Smith, R-Weskan, told State Affairs the discussions are starting with property tax elements discussed but not implemented during this past session. They include reducing the statewide mill levy from 20 mills and an additional increase of the residential exemption.
“Nothing really flashy or complicated,” he said.
Although disagreements between a Democratic governor and a Republican Legislature aren’t new, the tax debates this spring revealed a split between Kelly and House Democrats.
The House contingent largely supported tax bills later in the session that Kelly would ultimately veto, which paved the road to June’s one-day special session. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats stayed on message with the governor.
If comments from two prominent Democrats mostly represent their respective caucuses, the two camps still appear to have two different outlooks.
Like the governor, Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, also expressed caution.
Sykes told State Affairs the Legislature produced tax relief “on a major level” in June, but she’s willing to look at any plan next session as long as it’s sustainable.
“I still think probably Republicans will try to push something through that’s irresponsible,” Sykes said. “I think they could push for a flat tax again. We’ve seen in the past that they’re looking at the immediate instead of the long term and sustainability of tax proposals.”
Miller and Haswood, who both sought Senate seats, lost to Patrick Schmidt and Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, after the political action committee endorsed Schmidt and Francisco.
But Rep. Tom Sawyer, the ranking minority member on the House Taxation Committee, told State Affairs he’s hoping to “bring the governor on” as legislators look to move forward with property tax relief.
Sawyer, D-Wichita, said he was encouraged by August’s tax revenue.
“If we can keep running that way, I think it will ease a lot of the governor’s concerns,” Sawyer said. “She’s worried about the long-term budget aspect, but even last session, we could have done more on property taxes if she hadn’t limited so much what the total tax bill could be.”
Lawmakers from both parties have acknowledged any legislation is contingent on continuing to receive good news from monthly revenue reports and the Consensus Revenue Estimate in November.
“We’ll just have to see how much we can afford,” Smith said.
Neosho County Sheriff Greg Taylor spent more than two years compiling a mountain of evidence related to misconduct and corruption allegedly perpetrated by Linus Thuston, the now jailed former Neosho County Attorney.
Thuston, who presided over the rural southeastern Kansas county as its top prosecutor for the past 12 years, had long been under intense scrutiny after myriad accusations that included the solicitation of nude photos from dozens of women. He allegedly received the photos as a payment for representing the women in his private practice.
Thuston was also under investigation for financial impropriety tied to his office. In April 2022, the Neosho County Commission suspended use of all county-issued credit cards used by Thuston’s office.
State Affairs reached out to Thuston for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Taylor also noted that Thuston was accused of divulging confidential information related to individuals who were targets of potential drug raids.
But Taylor’s collaborative effort with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation resulted in what he felt was an exceedingly light punishment after Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach‘s Office struck a plea deal with Thuston that sidestepped the sexual extortion allegations, considered to be the most serious of the potential crimes.
“We sent evidence to the AG’s office for several felony charges,” Taylor said in an interview with State Affairs on Thursday. “I’ve been in law enforcement for 26 years and I’ve never seen anything handled the way this has been handled.”
The judge presiding over the case, Merlin Wheeler, diverted from the precise terms of the offer, criticizing the agreement, according to a court transcript of the plea and sentencing hearing.
While the two misdemeanor charges remained intact, Wheeler imposed a 120-day jail sentence and a roughly $3,000 fine for the allegations stemming from financial impropriety by Thuston’s office. Thuston is eligible to be released from jail after serving 30 days — followed by 12 months of supervised probation. If he violates the terms of the supervised release, the 120-day jail sentence would be reimposed.
“The concern I have in looking at this plea agreement and deciding whether or not to follow it, is my view of what the perception of this plea agreement is,” Wheeler noted. “And to be perfectly blunt, looking at this plea agreement, looks to me like someone decided to put a price on what freedom is.”
The handling of the case by Kobach’s office, Taylor said, has the “appearance of preferential treatment.”
“I don’t recall any time ever that somebody gets to pick their charges before any charges were filed by the prosecutor’s office,” he said.
Taylor said he had worked to set up a meeting with the Attorney General’s Office to discuss the specifics of the evidence, but the Attorney General’s office “didn’t seem interested.” It wasn’t until after Thuston’s initial court appearance last month that Kobach’s office reached out to Taylor. Kobach was not present for the meeting and was not personally involved in the case.
“They were pretty much trying to sell me as to their reasoning for how they came up with their decision on what to charge [Thuston] with,” Taylor said. “And my response to them was, ‘I don’t know how anybody in the justice system couldn’t feel dirty about this deal.’”
Taylor said he has “an incredible amount of respect” for Wheeler after the judge pumped the brakes on the plea deal.
“He didn’t just do the status quo because Thuston is an attorney,” Taylor said in a separate email statement. “It was apparent that the state would have preferred this to have been a quiet plea and sentencing with little consequence.”
Taylor also noted that the Attorney General’s Office “had the bulk of the case” for more than two years, which extended back to former Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s tenure. Taylor also theorized that Thuston’s state retirement plan came into focus as part of the plea offer.
“My understanding is that Linus only became eligible for [Kansas Public Employees Retirement System] retirement in July of this year,” Taylor said in the email. “So, it appears that they allowed him to continue serving as the Neosho County prosecutor, knowing of the issues, including those involving a Neosho County homicide case which the AG’s office is prosecuting, until he had enough points to retire from the county. His resignation was effective the day before his initial August hearing.”
Thuston was removed from the murder case due to a conflict of interest.
Taylor concluded that Kobach’s office was merely satisfied with a guilty plea and “swept the rest under the rug.”
“In my opinion, if this is what occurred then the entire deal with the AG’s Office is a mockery of our judicial system,” Taylor said. “Linus had bragged numerous times that as long as certain individuals were in office at the AG’s office he would never be prosecuted.
“People need to trust that those of us in a position of authority who learn that someone is abusing [their office] and committing public corruption — that we do our job and not allow it to continue.”
During his hearing, Thuston referred to himself as “a recovering sinner.”
“Similar to those who go through a 12-step program, the first thing you have to do is admit,” Thuston told Wheeler. “I admit that I have made mistakes and I admit that I’ve been a sinner, but I’m a recovering sinner.”
Thuston also said his actions “tarnished” his legacy and brought “embarrassment” to his family.
“I have, as I told my children, not to do anything to embarrass the shield of the Thuston name,” he said. “I failed to do so myself.”
Kobach breaks silence
In an interview with State Affairs last week, Kobach, for the first time, publicly addressed the Thuston case — staunchly defending his office’s handling of it.
“The decisions made by our prosecutors were based on the evidence available, and what we could achieve a conviction on,” Kobach said. “Our prosecutors charged where they believed they had indisputable evidence and the basis for bringing that. So I back our prosecutors.”
State Affairs reached out to a spokesperson in Kobach’s office for additional comment regarding Taylor’s assertions, but did not receive an immediate response.
Despite the collection of evidence amassed by Taylor and forwarded to the KBI for review, Kobach indicated that he believed Thuston’s punishment fit the crimes.
“I think it’s important for every prosecutor in every part of the country to never overcharge, and to make charges that are all supported by the overwhelming preponderance of evidence,” he said.
Matt Resnick is a statehouse reporter at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected]
Georgia has ordered 256 new school buses to relieve the aging fleets in public schools around the state, but most of those new buses won’t be on the road until the end of this school year.
What’s Happening
“We’ll be looking at springtime before those buses start rolling,” said Ken Johnson, pupil transportation program manager for the Georgia Department of Education.
Johnson said that when the new buses get on the road, they will go throughout the state — “rural Georgia to downtown Atlanta” — with the greatest need likely in fast-growing metro areas where “some of our oldest buses are probably running.”
Meanwhile, school districts are facing more immediate problems: finding and retaining bus drivers for school buses already on the road, Johnson said.
School systems have consolidated routes, adjusted school day schedules and ramped up recruitment, retention and pay to address the shortage, which has helped in many areas of the state, state education spokesperson Meghan Frick told State Affairs.
Ja’Quan White, 22, works as a substitute driver for Burke County Public Schools. His workday starts around 5 a.m. and ends well after 5 p.m.
White fills in for drivers unable to make it to work, picking up students in the morning, dropping them off in the afternoon and transporting them to field trips and sporting events. When he’s not behind the wheel of his 2012 bus, he’s in the classroom helping teachers. He makes $3,000 a month.
White said his pay has improved and the school appears to have enough drivers but, he added, “We’d still be short-staffed if it wasn’t for the teachers and coaches.”
Why It Matters
The Richmond County school system in Augusta is facing a severe bus driver shortage, with the number of needed drivers doubling to 40 from 20 due to failed drug screenings after a bus safety meeting July 22, according to Yolanda Brown, president of the Transport Workers Union of America Local 239.
Some of the departures were the result of “lead drivers talking to [bus drivers] like they were children,” Brown added.
Brown said more competitive pay would help attract and retain bus drivers. Although pay has improved, she noted Georgia bus drivers make comparatively less money than those in neighboring states.
The shortage has led to long hours for drivers, with some covering entire schools alone, causing delays and resulting in students missing breakfast and classes, Brown said.
State Affairs was unable to reach Richmond school officials for comment.
Some 200 miles south in Valdosta, Dianne Hogan-Thrower, a single mother of three, detailed the overcrowding on the bus, with her children having to stand in the bus aisle due to the driver’s need to cover multiple routes. Her children attend the Valdosta City School District.
Hogan-Thrower’s 9-year-old son is on the bus before 7 a.m. Because she has to be at work by 8, Hogan-Thrower has resorted to using Uber a couple of times to get her two daughters to middle school by 8:30 when their bus is delayed.
Hogan-Thrower said she has spent over $30 for her daughters’ 10-minute Uber ride to school since the academic year began Aug. 2.
“It’s a big inconvenience,” she said. “I’m hoping things get better. If not, I guess I am going to have to rearrange some things, and I’m going to have to drop them off early. It’s a lot, especially if transportation is provided.”
Valdosta and Richmond counties may be extreme cases. Efforts to reach school officials there and in Burke County were unsuccessful.
Public schools in Catoosa County are using a staggered school day schedule to deal with its bus driver shortage.
“Overall, most school districts are coping. They’ve had to change how they do their routing, maybe do different tiers. They don’t necessarily report that to us,” Johnson, head of the state education department’s pupil transportation, said.
Meanwhile, Johnson noted, “We’re in the final phase of a three-year project that came out of the amended fiscal year 2022 budget.”
That project has provided new buses to districts based on the age of their fleet.
“There’s been opportunities for districts to update their bus fleet. Local districts are buying a lot of new buses,” Johnson said, often with the help of local Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, money.
The amended fiscal year 2022 budget called for 1,700 buses being purchased over three years, Johnson noted.
“So that was really where we saw a great uptick in bus replacements,” Johnson said.
The Chattooga County School District has 30 routes, 29 drivers and 45 buses serving 3,000 students in rural northwest Georgia. The district started the school year in late July down three drivers. It has since added two more drivers but has no wiggle room if they get sick or don’t report for work, James Baird, the district’s transportation director, told State Affairs.
Nonetheless, the district is better off than many, Baird said, having added a dozen new buses to its fleet over the past three years with the help of state money that’s paired with local funds. More gas-fueled buses are replacing the system’s diesel buses for environmental and maintenance benefits, Baird added.
“The state’s bus-buying program has been crucial in alleviating the bus shortage,” Baird said.
Similarly, nearby Floyd County School District has 140 buses serving about 9,500 students. Nearly half — 68 — of those buses have been acquired since 2018, Trevor Hubbard, the district’s transportation director, told State Affairs. Hubbard said the district has 95 drivers, one over the state-allotted number.
“We’re in good shape with drivers. Like everybody else, we can always use a few more,” Hubbard said.
What’s Next?
A lot of the money in the 2024-25 budget was allocated for state transportation department operations, Johnson said, including maintenance, fuel and driver salaries — key elements school districts needed.
In April, state lawmakers in the House and Senate agreed to keep $205 million of the proposed $210 million increase for student transportation recommended by Gov. Brian Kemp, which more than doubled the state’s annual funding for school bus operations.
“Typically, we’re using buses that are 15 years old or so,” Johnson said. “We’re still kind of recovering from the economic downfall we had several years ago where very few buses were purchased. So we’ve still got some work doing that. But we’re much better off today than we were three years ago.”
Heap excused his absence from the Maricopa County Recorder debates this week in a post on X, saying he’s been “getting to talk with voters from across the political spectrum” and sharing a photo that appears to be taken at a meeting of LD3 Republicans. After his opponent, Tim Stringham, and others criticized Heap for not attending the two debates scheduled for this week, including Thursday’s Citizens Clean Elections Debate, Heap said in the post that he spent the day “like most days,” talking to voters. Despite saying he enjoys speaking with voters from all parties, in the photo Heap posted, one of the voters he’s speaking with is wearing a Trump shirt and hat. The event in the photo appears to be a Thursday meeting of the LD3 Republicans, according to a reply from fellow Freedom Caucus lawmaker Chaplik. The post has echoes of a similar statement Heap made a few weeks ago, when he asked the “Independents and Democrats in the room today” at the Trump rally to consider voting for him. Both debates turned into Q&As with Stringham, giving him 40 minutes of free airtime to denounce Heap and others critical of the recorder’s office like Trump and Lake.
After the primary election, LD9 GOP House candidate Mary Ann Mendoza expressed some skepticism about the other Republican, Kylie Barber, running for the House in the district. Mendoza appeared on a Rumble video on July 30 to discuss the election and said she believes Barber is a “Democratic plant.” She said the “power brokers” of the state that are aligned with former Republican Governor Doug Ducey and former gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson have endorsed Barber. Mendoza criticized Robson Taylor for endorsing Donald Trump and Kari Lake. She said Robson Taylor “hates” Trump because Trump wouldn’t endorse her as a gubernatorial candidate in 2022. “(Robson Taylor is) helping a candidate who knows nothing, who is nothing, who is a Democratic plant,” Mendoza said. Barber is campaigning as a business-friendly Republican. Her campaign website includes photos of her with Wilmeth and Shope, and she’s been endorsed by the Greater Phoenix Chamber of Commerce. Mendoza lost in 2022 and was removed as a speaker at a Republican National Convention event in 2020 after she shared anti-Semetic conspiracy posts on social media, although she apologized and said she didn’t read every post in the then-Twitter thread that she shared. Her campaign also received negative attention in 2022 when photos from 2011 and 2012 of Mendoza appearing to do blackface surfaced before the election. Mendoza received more votes than Barber in the primary election by just under 1% of votes. Austin and Blattman got more combined votes in their respective uncontested primary race to Mendoza and Barber by about 1,000 votes. Barber got about 50 more votes than Blattman total, while Austin received 1,000 more votes than Mendoza. In 2022, Blattman beat the third-place runner-up, Kathy Pearce, in the LD9 House race by 0.7% of votes in the district. LD9 of West Mesa leans Democratic in the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission’s competitive analysis of the district with a 2.6% vote spread favoring Democratic candidates. Mendoza also said she supported Mark Lamb in the U.S. Senate primary against Kari Lake because he “doesn’t have an ego behind him and doesn’t get loud, and abrasive and confrontational” like Lake does. “I don’t think she’s got the personality to do the job,” Mendoza said.
City of Surprise Councilman Jack Hastings plans to make a motion to remove the council’s rule that prohibits complaints against elected officials and city staff members while giving public comment, he announced in a post on X Friday. The city is facing a lawsuit and an investigation after Rebekah Massie spoke in opposition to a proposal to increase the city attorney’s salary at an Aug. 20 Surprise City Council meeting and was subsequently arrested after Surprise Mayor Skip Hall accused her of violating public comment rules. “I support the freedom of speech and people should be able to voice their concerns and criticize their government and elected officials,” Hastings wrote. The Republican incumbent is running for reelection as councilman for the Surprise District 5 seat. Hastings will make a motion to vote on removing the rule at the council’s next meeting Tuesday, according to his post.
Rogers sent a records request to Fontes’ office on Thursday to ensure he “isn’t skirting the law by using state resources” to promote Prop. 140, or the Make Elections Fair Act. She announced the records request in a post on X, where she told her followers that Fontes is a “team member” behind the initiative, describing it as the “California-inspired Ranked Choice Voting initiative.” “I initiated a records request to ensure SOS Fontes isn’t skirting the law by using state resources to promote this radical initiative to upend Arizona’s election system,” Rogers wrote in her post. Rogers cited a portion of state statute that prohibits the use of state resources to influence an election. Her records request asked for documentation of all communications within the office or with third parties relating to Prop. 140. This accusation is reminiscent of one in which Democrats lodged against GOP lawmakers in March of the 2024 legislative session. The entire Senate GOP caucus, including Rogers, urged voters not to sign the Arizona Abortion Access Act through a proclamation on the floor, led by Bolick. In a post on X, Rep. Ortiz claimed this tactic violated the same law that Rogers alleges Fontes could have broken, which sets up a $5,000 fine for each violation.
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