—FRANCINE’S IMPACT LIMITED: While it’s cold comfort to anyone who suffered damage, Hurricane Francine’s estimated cost to insurers of almost $1.5 billion is not expected to have a noticeable impact on the state’s property insurance market. Frontline insurers are expected to be able to cover claims without having to dip into their reinsurance. Also, following Hurricane Ida, many homeowners replaced their roofs, which made their homes less susceptible to damage, Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple said.
—CASSIDY CALLS FOR NFIP REAUTHORIZATION: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy took to the Senate floor Wednesday to urge Congress to “reauthorize and reform” the National Flood Insurance Program. He also urged lawmakers to roll back the controversial Risk Rating 2.0. “First, we must reauthorize the program so that it does not expire on September 30th at the end of the fiscal year,” Cassidy said. “Second, we must reform the program to make it affordable again.”
—HIGGINS ENDORSES EBR CANDIDATE: Though Baton Rouge is not in his district, Congressman Clay Higgins has announced his endorsement of Sid Edwards, a Republican running for East Baton Rouge Parish mayor-president with the backing of the local GOP. “The victory is in the fight. I stand with Coach Sid Edwards because it’s the right thing to do,” Higgins said. “Righteousness is its own reward, and Republicans who cannot see that might want to reevaluate their voter registration.”
—STATE ACCEPTS FIRST CRYPTO PAYMENT: Louisiana state government has accepted its first payment in cryptocurrency, specifically to the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Treasurer John Fleming announced. State residents now can pay for state services with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Lightning and USD Coin.
—STILL TIME TO APPLY: Residents of Louisiana’s Coastal Zone and of and of Lake Charles, Sulphur and Westlake have until 5 p.m. Friday to enter the lottery for one of 300 Louisiana Fortify Homes Program grants. The program provides up to $10,000 for homeowners to upgrade their roof, strengthening the home against severe storms, high winds and wind-driven rain. (More info)
—HOUSE TRANSPORTATION MEETS FRIDAY: The House Committee on Transportation, Highways and Public Works has scheduled a meeting for 10 a.m. Friday, where they plan to discuss the I-49 Connector Project among other topics. (Full agenda)
LaPolitics: Are you watching any potential future storms that might affect Louisiana?
State Climatologist Jay Grymes: Right now, I think we’re in the clear almost until the end of September. Historically, things really start to settle down for Louisiana during the second half of October. That said, something on the order of 10 percent of storms that have hit Louisiana were October storms, and you can go from nothing to a named storm in the Gulf in 48 to 72 hours. So it’s not time yet to let the guard down. If you’ve used up some of your hurricane resources, you might want to go ahead and restock those, especially if they’re storable resources that you can save until next year. [Editor’s note: This interview was conducted earlier in the week, prior to the progression of current tropical disturbances.]
How did you find your way to your current role?
I was the state climatologist from 1991 to 2003. And then in 2003, I crossed over to the dark side and did TV up until this summer. Late last fall and early this spring, both LSU and GOHSEP asked me if I was interested in working there. I’ve actually worked with three administrations as a weather and climate resource, but this is the first time that I’ve actually done it for pay. I got GOHSEP and LSU together and they agreed to make it a merged position, which is principally GOHSEP, but part-time with LSU as the state climate guy.
Every storm is different. What was unique about Hurricane Francine?
The Hurricane Center will tell you it stayed within the cone, even though it kept veering to the east. When it stays in the cone and it’s 3,000 miles out at sea, nobody cares. But when it stays in the cone and shifts 50 miles in Louisiana, that creates a big footprint for somebody and no footprint for somebody else. Initially we were concerned about this being a Baton Rouge issue, and Baton Rouge really fared pretty well. The rains on both sides of the tidal lake were probably the most memorable aspect. And the power outages certainly will fall within the top 10 when compared with past tropical events.
Why does it make such a big difference what side of the storm you’re on?
You take the wind speed in the core of the storm and you add the forward motion of the storm, so you get this sort of cumulative effect of stronger wind speed on the right side than on the left side. And the tropical wind field is much larger on the east side than on the west side. So in many cases, what’s happening is that on the west side of the track, you’re pulling in drier air from the north and northwest, which is part of what ate away at the eyewall of Francine as she was moving inland. So certainly being on the west side, the left side of the track is an advantage in terms of reduced impacts. That right side is also where we tend to see the greatest amount of storm surge. And it’s also the right side in that bigger wind field where you’re more likely to get tornadic development.
Some researchers have proposed adding a Category 6 to the Saffir-Simpson scale. What’s your take on that idea?
My first reaction is, why? Category 5 is catastrophic. Is there an adjective that’s more devastating than catastrophic? You’re not going to have anything historically to compare it to. I think in years to come, we’ll start to shy away from the Saffir-Simpson scale anyway. It sends messages to the non-meteorological audience that maybe aren’t very helpful and may even deter a response by people. They say, “Oh, it’s only a Category 1.” That’s not how we want people to be thinking about these storms. You want them to be listening to the professionals and looking at the footprint of the storm as it approaches. And don’t be thinking that just because it’s a Cat 1 or a tropical storm that it’s not going to have an impact. If it’s a tropical storm, somebody is going to lose a roof.
For a few months now, Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson has been calling for a special session to address Louisiana’s convoluted tax system.
The administration’s push to hold an August session fell through amid legislator pushback. But lawmakers seem to be warming to the idea, perhaps enough so that a November session could be in the cards.
But what about insurance? Legislators often cite the high cost of premiums as the top constituent issue.
Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple has been calling for an insurance-focused session since before taking office, and he’s not alone.
“I get asked almost every day by my colleagues when we’re going to have a special session to address our insurance crisis,” said House Insurance Chair Gabe Firment.
Firment would support a dual-purpose special session in the fall featuring both tax reform and insurance, though he doesn’t think that’s likely. A spring gathering next year prior to the regularly scheduled fiscal session is more plausible, he suggests.
During this year’s regular session, Temple, Gov. Jeff Landry and most legislators were on the same page when it came to addressing property insurance. It was on the automotive side where things fell apart, and that’s where Firment wants to focus next.
“I think the number of lawmakers that are interested in a special [insurance] session grows with each passing day,” Temple said.
While he agrees with Firment that auto insurance should be a major focus, he doesn’t think lawmakers should rest on their laurels on the property side. Other states are working on improving their property insurance markets, so Louisiana should try to keep up, he said.
While Temple said he would be OK with a double-barrelled tax/insurance session if that was the only option, he would much prefer an insurance-only session in March. He notes that relevant committees may already be laying the groundwork.
House Insurance, House Civil Law and Procedure and Senate Judiciary A have all met in recent weeks to talk about insurance cost drivers, and more rounds of meetings are planned. Once those meetings conclude in December, Temple said, there would be an opportunity to regroup and come up with a package.
And of course, he would want to get the governor on board. Beyond the fact that he would be the one to call the session, when Landry was backing Temple’s property insurance push, bills got over the finish line fairly quickly and easily, Temple notes.
For his part, House Civil Law Chair Nicky Muscarello doesn’t see the need for an insurance-focused session. He’s fully on board with holding a session on tax reform, which is what he feels should be the top priority.
But he is bullish on the progress the committees are making on addressing auto insurance costs. While he’s not ready to disclose his main takeaways just yet, he feels that everyone who makes money in the current system, including attorneys, insurers and the health care sector, will have to “come to the table and take a haircut” to solve the crisis.
Senate Judiciary C Chair Jay Morris sponsored a constitutional amendment during the last regular session that would have given the Louisiana Legislature the ability to move state jobs out of the civil service system, among other legal elements, which would have in turn made it easier to terminate the employment of public sector workers.
The proposed amendment, which had Gov. Jeff Landry’s support, failed on the House floor by a 68-30 margin, two votes short of passage. The instrument was far-reaching and would have allowed the governor to reshape the Civil Service Commission this year and created a state-level framework for greater control over New Orleans city employees.
The leadership of the Louisiana Civil Service League cheered the downfall and penned letters to the editor claiming the amendment “would have decimated and politicized one of the most successful reforms in the history of our state.”
The 2025 regular session, however, could be different for civil service champions. Morris, who has long advocated for the retirement of the entire civil service system, said he had at least two more votes from representatives who weren’t in the lower chamber when his amendment was parked.
In an interview with LaPolitics, Morris argued the current system promotes inefficiency. Plus, in an environment where the governor and many legislators would like to shrink the footprint of government, making it easier to fire underperforming workers or those from bloated departments and agencies is appealing.
Removing guardrails meant to shield public employees from political pressure could be a tough sell for the House, where a greater percentage of members voted in opposition. Additionally, the tens of thousands of state workers who feel their current protections are fair and warranted are unlikely to be helpful.
Morris wants to see Louisiana follow the lead of states like Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, where hiring and firing government workers is more akin to the private sector.
“I’m not going to name names, but I’ve had several agency heads over the last four or five years tell me that Civil Service runs their department,” Morris said.
State government has about 39,000 classified workers with civil service protections, most of whom work in the executive branch, and a little more than 31,000 unclassified employees. A majority of the latter, or more than 25,000, work in higher education.
Senate Health and Welfare Chair Patrick McMath, who formerly chaired the transportation committee, said there’s a unique challenge at the Department of Transportation and Development. Of the more than 4,000 employees at DITD, only a couple dozen or so are unclassified, he said, leaving top officials “with their hands tied behind their back.”
Moreover, states that have at-will employment rather than civil service protection tend to have a lower ratio of public employees to taxpayers, he added.
In order to have a more responsive and effective state government, “you have got to start with untangling and removing the barriers to acknowledging when you’ve got a good worker versus someone that’s been there a long time,” McMath said.
Anyone who has worked in or around state government knows well what McMath is communicating. According to the familiar stereotype, state government is full of people who push papers around a desk but aren’t in a hurry to accomplish anything, yet they remain entrenched in their positions and can’t be fired.
State Civil Service Director Byron Decoteau said that’s far from the case, though there is a due process that has to be followed; you can’t just fire people on a whim.
If a worker impairs an agency, and the agency follows the rules, “you can get rid of a state employee fairly quickly,” Decoteau said. Nonetheless, civil service leaders are eager to improve the system and have proposed changes internally that could make it easier for hiring authorities to see who isn’t pulling their weight.
The state Civil Service Commission is expected to take up the internal proposal at its next meeting Oct. 2. You can read more about it here.
Under the plan, Civil Service transitions from a paper-based performance method system to a cloud-based electronic system. Along with that shift, the system would move from a three-tiered to a five-tiered evaluation system, with “needs improvement” and “unsuccessful” as separate assessments at the bottom of the scale.
“Unsuccessful” employees would not be eligible for raises or promotions, and they would be reported to their appointing authority.
“Not to say it makes it easier to lay people off necessarily, but it makes it easier to identify the people who may be warranting scrutiny,” Decoteau said.
House and Governmental Affairs will conduct an oversight hearing of the Department of State Civil Service on Monday as part of the department’s reauthorization process. Chair Beau Beaullieu expects the hearing to be part of an ongoing discussion about how state government handles its civil service employees.
Decoteau said he’s looking forward to the chance to hear lawmakers’ concerns and explain how civil service works, particularly to those who may be newly-elected. While the governor’s top policymakers and their assistants and deputies should be unclassified, he said, civil service is meant to protect the rank-and-file workers from being replaced for political reasons.
Decoteau also noted that classified positions have salary caps, which he described as a taxpayer protection.
“Our number one [priority] is our taxpayers, and second is our agencies,” he said. “If there’s anything that we can do to improve, we are certainly open to that.”
For civil service critics, internal tweaks amount to little more than window dressing. The only path to reform, they argue, is through the Louisiana Constitution.
“They’re on the defensive,” Morris said. “They’re trying to get in front of this, to try to beat it back.”
Welcome to the Kansas Daily News Wire, your daily roundup of top state and political stories from newsrooms across Kansas. — Hawver’s Capitol Report/State Affairs
STATE
7 projects approved by Build Kansas committee: The Build Kansas Advisory Committee approved seven more projects Wednesday despite concerns from some lawmakers. (Stover, State Affairs)
Wildlife officials cite hunters for killing white pelicans: Three American white pelicans illegally killed by hunters at Milford Wildlife Area in Kansas appeared in a photo posted Tuesday on a Facebook site maintained by game wardens for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. (Topeka Capital-Journal)
Kansas State Fair releases 2024 attendance numbers: The Kansas State Fair released its attendance numbers for 2024 on Wednesday. Officials say 328,714 people visited the fair during the 10-day event. (KSN)
Annual summit sheds light on veteran mental health: The annual Veterans Affairs Eastern Kansas Health Care Systems summit aims to shed light on an issue prevalent in the veteran community and explore solutions to it. (WIBW)
A celebration of the 200th anniversary of American and Russian diplomatic relations took place at the U.S. ambassador’s residence at Spaso House in Moscow. Attending this 2007 ceremony were Sen. Richard Lugar, former Sen. Sam Nunn, Ambassador Bill Burns (now CIA director) and Pavel Palazhchenko, the mustachioed interpreter for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Lugar took the opportunity to pay tribute to the man who had held his Senate seat a century ago — U.S. Sen. Albert J. Beveridge — and will likely be held by U.S. Rep. Jim Banks after the November election.
In 1901, Beveridge was filmed with the great radical Russian author Leo Tolstoy but had the tape destroyed for fear it might hurt his future presidential ambitions.
“He was an insightful observer of his times,” Lugar said of his predecessor, “but he could not have predicted the twists and turns of the 20th century, any more than we can predict what will happen 100 years from now.”
Beveridge was a complex figure. In addition to serving two terms in the U.S. Senate, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Chief Justice John Marshall. Beveridge backed U.S. territorial expansion overseas with the annexation of the Philippines but was opposed to statehood for New Mexico and Arizona after Oklahoma was admitted, fearing they weren’t “white” enough.
Beveridge opposed President Woodrow Wilson’s proposed League of Nations following World War I but evolved into a reformer who championed child labor legislation and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. In 1908, he refused the vice presidential nomination to run with GOP nominee William Howard Taft. He served as the chairman of the 1912 Bull Moose Party convention that nominated former President Theodore Roosevelt, who would finish third to Democrat Wilson and President Taft.
Lugar would win the Beveridge Senate seat by defeating Democratic incumbent Vance Hartke in 1976. It had been a seat held for two terms by Republican William Jenner, who was a dedicated isolationist and a key ally of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s in the 1950s Red Scare era.
Thus, this Senate seat has been held in an internationalist tradition of Republican Lugar, then-Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Mike Braun following the example of 1940 GOP presidential nominee Wendell L. Willkie, the native Hoosier who refused to oppose President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the Lend-Lease Act as well as the draft during their campaign. Willkie ended up traveling 31,000 miles around the globe as an emissary for FDR and authored the manifesto “One World.”
“When you fly around the world in 49 days, you learn that the world has become small not only on the map, but also in the minds of men,” wrote Willkie, who based his 1940 presidential campaign in Rushville. “All around the world, there are some ideas which millions and millions of men hold in common, almost as much as if they lived in the same town. There are no distant points in the world any longer. Our thinking in the future must be world-wide.”
Sen. Jenner was an isolationist. Sen. Beveridge was both. Now the seat is poised to be passed on to U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, who is heavily favored in his race against Democrat Valerie McCray and perennial Libertarian candidate Andrew Horning.
That raises the question: What kind of senator will Jim Banks be?
Banks has opposed the past three rounds of funding for Ukraine’s efforts to thwart the Russian invasion.
“No more money to secure Ukraine’s border until we secure our own,” Banks said in a keynote speech at the Indiana Republican Party’s 2023 state dinner, prompting a standing ovation.
Banks voted against a $40 billion Ukraine aid package in May 2022. He told WOWO Radio’s Pat Miller after that vote: “I’ve heard from our listeners from northeast Indiana loud and clear. They’re saying, ‘Enough is enough. We can’t give a blank check to Ukraine without solving problems at home first.’ I’ve always said America can’t lead around the world when we’re so weak at home.”
In a 2023 interview with The Daily Signal, Banks said, “The crisis at the border is the number one issue that every group of Republicans who I speak to across the state of Indiana asks about. Hoosier voters want to know that they’re electing leaders to Congress who are more focused on solving our problems.”
Banks sent a letter in June to Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee asking them to end U.S. support for the Data Journalism Agency, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization that released a list of “opponents of Ukraine.” Rep. Banks and 115 other House Republicans are on the list.
“I was just designated an ‘opponent of Ukraine,’ after being sanctioned by the Russian regime,” Banks said in a statement. “I’m not bothered by what foreign nations think of me. But it’s shameful for our agencies to be using Hoosiers’ tax dollars to collaborate with foreign groups that attempt to intimidate U.S. citizens and lawmakers.”
Senior Indiana Sen. Todd Young has taken the exact opposite position on Ukraine.
“Vladimir Putin is attacking the democratic, rules-based order that has benefited countless Americans and millions around the globe since World War II,” Young said of the Russian president on Feb. 24, 2022, two days after the invasion. “The stakes extend beyond Europe, as China is watching us and clearly has the same ambitions for Taiwan. It is essential that America sends an unequivocal message: Invading sovereign, democratic nations will never be tolerated.”
Speaking at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition in Indianapolis last November, Young added, “We live in a perilous world. This is the most dangerous time in my lifetime, from a geopolitical standpoint. Believe it or not, all of these hotspots are connected in multiple ways. They are connected because [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping], Putin and Iran collaborate on their major activities.
“[Journalist] Anne Applebaum has characterized this collaboration as ‘Autocracy Inc.,’” Young said. “Unlike in the Cold War where you had collaboration because of ideological reasons, they invested themselves in Communist ideology and their aim was to coordinate activities and foment a global revolution to ensure their side wins. This is different in the sense that there is no ideology underneath it.”
Banks has supported the Israel Security Assistance Support Act. In a Jerusalem meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August, Banks said, “The U.S. must remain steadfast in its support of our closest ally, Israel, and I will continue to fight to provide the backing Israel needs to triumph over terrorism.”
Banks has authored legislation enforcing the MAHSA Act on U.S. sanctions for Iran’s supreme leader.
During the 1950s, Jenner was joined in the Senate by Republican Homer Capehart, who began his Capitol Hill career as an isolationist who opposed President Harry S. Truman on postwar Germany, President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the creation of a “modern Republican Party,” only to moderate into a more mainstream posture. He called for a “crackdown” on Cuba during the missile crisis. Weeks later, in 1962, he was defeated for reelection by Indiana House Speaker Birch Bayh.
Since Bayh’s upset of Capehart, the modern Hoosier senator has been in the internationalist camp.
Two former senators — Republican Dan Coats and Democrat Joe Donnelly — served as important diplomats following their first full terms in the Senate. Coats arrived in Berlin just hours before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Donnelly’s stint at the Vatican came in the context of the Ukraine and Gaza/Israeli wars.
Stationed in the “internationalist” camp doesn’t mean automatic establishment support.
In the 1960s, Democrats Bayh and Hartke broke with President Lyndon B. Johnson in support of the Vietnam War. In 2003-05, Sen. Lugar raised cautionary flags following President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, ostensibly to eliminate an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that never existed.
Bayh broke with LBJ in late 1967 after visiting the war zone just weeks before the devastating Tet Offensive.
“I came to think we should never have gotten involved in that war in the first place,” Bayh told Politico in 2009, saying of Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara: “I’m not sure they fully comprehended the kind of struggle we faced in Vietnam. He did the best he knew how to do. He had no military experience himself and was relying on people on the ground. They gave him very bad information and he acted on it. But who do you turn to at that point?”
On Jan. 8, 1965, Hartke was the first Democratic senator to break with President Johnson on Vietnam.
“It hurt me back home,” Hartke told Howey Politics Indiana at French Lick in 1986 shortly before he died. “People have not forgiven me to this day in Indiana for breaking with my own party. They said it should be, ‘My country, right or wrong,’ and I would say, ‘No, that’s not the phrase. It should be, “My country, right or wrong. May she always be right, but if she is wrong, put her right.”’ Now, look, even McNamara says it was wrong.”
In 2005, U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh said he regretted his 2002 authorizing vote for the Iraq invasion.
“I did what I thought was right. Some of the facts I relied on were inaccurate,” Bayh said at a news conference. “Of course I would do things differently knowing what I know today. Unfortunately, that’s not how life works. The important thing is what we do going forward. There were no weapons of mass destruction; we didn’t realize this undertaking would be carried out … as incompetently as it’s been carried out. So knowing what we know today, of course we’d do things differently.”
Sen. Lugar, who also voted for the Iraq War resolution in 2002, was critical of President Bush as the insurgency spread three years later.
“This is a situation right now that is extremely crucial and the turnaround is not certain,” Lugar told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in December 2005, urging President Bush to gather “some Democrat and Republican senators and congressmen and reveal to them really what the strategy is, and take their criticism and constructive advice from them, and do so frequently.”
Where Braun, Donnelly stand
The two senators preceding Banks in the Senate are Republican Mike Braun and Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Mike Braun before his watch party on May 7, 2024. (Credit: Jarred Meeks)Ambassador Joe Donnelly speaks at the University of Notre Dame. (Credit: U.S. Embassy to the Holy See)
“We can never give up our international leadership,” Braun told Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs at Indiana Republican headquarters earlier this month. “Then it’s a question of whether the framework that has been in place for the last 50 years made sense in terms of how we paid for it, how we exercised leadership, and to me you’ve now got a current regime that has always been standoffish.”
Braun continued, “We can never give up our relationship of being a world leader. We’ve got to look at it differently. If you keep doing the same old thing, that’s not working. It’s especially on display when [Presidents] Obama and Biden display and project weakness and then they want to remediate with expensive solutions. Ones they could have prevented, probably, were Crimea, and they could have prevented Russia from coming into Ukraine. I think President Trump probably would have done that. Those are all issues we need to do better at.”
Ambassador Donnelly told Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month that he considers Banks “a friend” and added, “I wish him only the best and will do anything to help him.”
Donnelly continued, “What I know is that when we look at Lafayette, we have Subaru. We have a partnership with a Japanese company that grew and developed. We have such an integrated economy with all of our friends overseas. We want to make sure we never go back to the time when one job after another left Indiana for China because they could save a nickel here and a nickel there and destroy a life back in Connersville in Morgan County at the same time.
“We never want to go back to that, so we want to be a great economic partner so we can bring great jobs, great opportunities to our state,” Donnelly said. “We have to be engaged in order to do that.”
Donnelly pointed to his recent role as U.S. envoy to the Holy See at the Vatican.
“When I was with the embassy it’s not an exaggeration to say when I sat with my colleagues from other countries in regards to Ukraine or any other issue, they’d say, ‘What are you guys gonna do? Because it’s really important for us to know so we can calibrate off of that.’
“Everybody looks to the United States for leadership,” Donnelly continued. “When the world looks, the first question asked is, ‘What’s America going to do?’ It’s even more so these days than ever because in Ukraine, in Gaza, I remember when the funding was being held up to Ukraine, one country after another would come up and say, ‘Get this done because if you don’t, Ukraine can’t make it.’ I said, ‘Look, we’re working on it. W’’re doing the best we can. Have faith.’”
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the dedication of the Lugar Monument in Indianapolis on Sept. 5: “I’ve known a lot of Hoosiers, but none quite like Dick Lugar. If I would use one word to describe him, I would say ‘influential.’ But then I would have to say, why? How does one become influential in a place like Washington, D.C.? With all of those egos and all of those agendas. And yet, Dick Lugar was influential.
“Together with names like Biden and Nunn and Warner and McCain, Richard Lugar would become known as one of the national security senators,” Rice said. “If anybody had a question, you went to those folks.”
“It was to make the world safe at a moment when it was decidedly unsafe,” Rice said. “We know the story of the Nunn-Lugar legislation that got money so we could assist the Soviet Union in the dismantling of those weapons. They always talked about his service to his country in the Navy. They talked about his humility, where he grew up, and he never forgot it. And that humility characterized Dick Lugar throughout his career. It was one of the sources of his influence. He put humility and servant leadership well above ego.”
Rep. Banks did not attend the Lugar Monument ceremony, having scheduled a defense industry summit in Fort Wayne that day.
Sen. Jenner’s isolationism
A common thread runs between Sen. Jenner and Rep. Banks. Both have allied with two of the most controversial politicians of the past century: Jenner with Sen. Joe McCarthy and Banks with President Trump. A key adviser to both McCarthy and Trump was New York attorney Roy Cohn.
“I decided long ago,” Cohn told Penthouse in 1981, “to make my own rules.”
“If you can get Machiavelli as a lawyer,” Cohn once said, “you’re certainly no fool of a client.”
Matt Tyrnauer, who produced the documentary “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” described to Politico the attorney’s modus operandi thus: “Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear.”
Jenner formed the core of GOP Senate isolationism with Sen. McCarthy as they hunted Communists within the federal government. When the Senate censured McCarthy in 1954 over his tactics for harassing federal employees, Jenner ardently defended the Wisconsin Republican, suggesting it “was initiated by the Communist conspiracy.”
Jenner was a strident opponent of Gen. George C. Marshall, who was appointed secretary of defense in 1950. Jenner accused the Truman administration of “bloody tracks of treason” and called Marshall “a living lie” who was “joining hands once more with this criminal crowd of traitors and Communist appeasers.”
When Gen. Marshall was informed of Jenner’s speech, he responded, “Jenner? Jenner? I do not believe I know the man.”
In 1951, after President Truman dismissed Gen. Douglas MacArthur for insubordination, Jenner gave a Senate floor speech: “I charge that this country today is in the hands of a secret inner coterie, which is directed by agents of the Soviet government. Our only choice is to impeach President Truman and find out who is the secret invisible government.”
In the Red Scare era, Republicans such as Jenner and McCarthy often claimed Democrats “don’t love their country,” similar to Banks’ rhetoric today. Banks has likened Vice President Harris to a “Marxist” and a “Communist.” The ironic twist is that Banks’ patron, Donald Trump, has consistently lauded Communists such as China’s Xi and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un, as well as anti-Democratic autocrats such as Russia’s Putin and Hungary’s Orban.
And since the Civil War, none of Indiana’s senators has backed the kind of coup d’état that Trump attempted in 2021.
Rep. Banks in power
When Rep. Banks was a freshman in Congress, Howey Politics Indiana joined him and then-Indiana National Guard Maj. Gen. Courtney Carr on a tour of Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Training Center. It was part of a routine where Banks was regularly available for coffee or a beer.
Rep. Jim Banks and then-Indiana National Guard Maj. Gen. Courtney Carr tour Camp Atterbury-Muscatatuck Training Center. (Credit: Brian A. Howey)
Howey Politics Indiana reported that Banks “has been an ambitious Republican, moving from president of the Indiana University Republicans to chairing the Whitley County GOP and then to the Indiana Senate in 2010. At times, Banks seemed restless and potentially reckless, as early in his Indiana Senate tenure he seemed to foment leadership change. By the time he ran for Congress, Senate President Pro Tempore David Long was an early and emphatic backer.
“Entering Congress, many thought Banks would follow [U.S. Rep. Marlin] Stutzman’s footsteps into the Tea Party Freedom Caucus. Instead, Banks has insisted that his priority membership is the Republican conference. While he has gained conspicuous national media early in his career, with the seasoned help of his chief of staff, Matt Lahr, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, Banks comes off as thoughtful and less a firebrand than many had forecast. Banks is in study mode these days.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump’s “Access Hollywood” interview was widely regarded as a huge faux paus. A northeastern Indiana journalist described Banks’ reaction as one of “outrage” from the father of daughters.
But in the following years, Banks has become one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, insisting the former president would be the “best” 2024 nominee despite Banks’ Indiana ties with another candidate, former Vice President Mike Pence. Banks no longer reached out to so-called mainstream reporters and commentators in Indiana. Despite his overwhelming advantage in the general election, he is distracted by issues a seasoned candidate would ignore.
Since then, Banks has been hyper-supportive of Trump. In January he erroneously claimed on X that “Donald J. Trump is the only candidate who qualified for the Indiana GOP presidential primary. Nikki Haley didn’t get enough signatures. It’s over. She needs to do what’s best for America and call it quits.”
Not only did Haley qualify for the ballot, but also Banks joined Trump when it came to the May primary undervote.
More than 1 in 5 Republicans (21.7%) voted for the zombie candidacy of Haley over Trump, who defeated her 461,663 to 128,168 in the presidential primary despite the fact that she had dropped out of the race more than two months earlier. Rep. Banks ran unopposed in the Senate race, receiving 475,555 votes in a primary where 596,000 voted.
Trump now has a suburban dilemma in Indiana, as 33.6% of Republicans in Hamilton County, 31.7% in Boone, 25.2% in Hendricks, 23.2% in Hancock and 22.8% in Johnson voted for Haley. In Banks’ home county of Whitley, 18.2% voted for Haley, while in former Vice President Pence’s home county of Bartholomew, 27.6% voted for her.
Last October, as House Republicans grappled to elect a new speaker after jettisoning Kevin McCarthy, Banks initially backed Rep. Jim Jordan (who former Speaker John Boehner had labeled a “legislative terrorist”). Banks said at one point of House Republicans: “We don’t deserve the majority if we go along with a plan to give the Democrats control over the House of Representatives.”
After Jordan flamed out, Banks quickly sided with eventual Speaker Mike Johnson, who The New York Times described as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” following the 2020 elections that led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Banks said, “Mike Johnson is a man of integrity and a principled conservative. I will be proud to cast my vote on behalf of northeast Indiana for him on the floor tomorrow to make him the next speaker of the House!”
In the Oct. 26, 2023, edition, Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs observed, “It’s been said that Hoosiers tend to elect ‘Senate lions.’ U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh authored two of the 26 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as Title IX. Richard Lugar helped save Chrysler Corp. in 1979 and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Act. Dan Quayle was elected vice president and Evan Bayh was nosed out of the 2008 veepstakes by Joe Biden. Dan Coats became ambassador to Germany on Sept. 10, 2001, and was President Trump’s director of national intelligence. Joe Donnelly is the U.S. envoy to the Vatican.”
As for Banks, Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs wrote, “A Senate lion? No, Jim Banks has become a House laughing hyena.”
When Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs asked to interview Banks for this article, his deputy chief of staff, Buckley Carlson, responded, “Hey, Brian, don’t think he’s going to want to participate in your piece given you’ve already published your conclusion.”
Epilogue
Although Banks wasn’t available for this story, several prominent Republicans commented about where he’ll likely end up on the Senate spectrum.
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Jim Banks at the Republican National Convention. (Credit: Banks campaign)
“I have always found Jim Banks to be a pragmatic yet distinctly pro-American public servant,” former Howard County Chairman Craig Dunn said. “I would expect Jim to serve in the mode of a Sen. Tom Cotton. I believe Jim will be a senator for Indiana much more than just a senator from Indiana. While Sen. Young and Sen. Banks may have a few differences in style, I believe they will both continue to serve the people of Indiana well.”
Evansville attorney Joshua Claybourn, an HPI contributor and longtime friend of Rep. Banks’, observed, “Jim Banks’ impending senatorial tenure is indeed a compelling subject, especially when contextualized within Indiana’s rich political lineage.
“I can understand why some might place Banks closer to the William Jenner archetype — a figure marked by fervent isolationism and a skepticism toward international entanglements, since MAGA has likewise embraced this position,” Claybourn said. “This stance contrasts sharply with the internationalist tradition embodied by figures from Birch Bayh to Dick Lugar to Todd Young. However, I’m not convinced that isolationism really drives Banks the same way it does many on the New Right.
“Albert Beveridge’s legacy offers a nuanced template — a statesman who managed to straddle both camps of isolationism and internationalism,” Claybourn added. “I can envision Banks finding himself navigating a similar middle ground, especially as global and domestic challenges become increasingly intertwined. One could argue that Banks has defined his own brand of conservatism, blending traditional Indiana values with the populist currents of MAGA. By embracing the populist undercurrents of the MAGA movement, he’s tapped into the genuine anxieties of blue-collar workers who feel alienated by globalization and ignored by the political establishment.”
Chattanooga has unveiled a new logo that officials say presents a “unifying visual identity” for the Scenic City.
Mayor Tim Kelly, a political independent who was elected to office following a career selling cars and motorcycles, said the new logo gives the city an opportunity to better identify city services to residents and visitors.
Chattanooga’s old seal. (Credit: Chattanoogan.com)
“One of the things I learned in 30 years of business is the power of good branding,” Kelly said.
Chattanooga’s seal, which features a cannon on a ridge overlooking the city and Tennessee River, will remain in use on official documents. The new logo will appear on city vehicles, signs, vehicles and buildings.
The logo features an arrow signifying forward movement and progress, a leaf to represent clean air after Chattanooga was once considered one of the country’s dirtiest and water and waves to highlight rivers and lakes and “the community’s dynamic energy and ongoing pursuit of unity.”
Williamson County seal. (Credit: Williamson County)
Chattanooga is the state’s fourth largest city by population. The current seal was introduced in 1975 to replace one featuring a locomotive, according to TheChattanoogan.com. Officials at the time felt the old seal was antiquated, not least because passenger rail service to the city had ended five years earlier.
Chattanooga’s government isn’t the only one to grapple with changes to official imagery. Nashville Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal ruled last month that the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act doesn’t apply to the Williamson County seal, meaning local officials can change it to remove a Confederate battle flag from one of its quadrants. The Sons of Confederate Veterans are mounting an challenge with the State Court of Appeals.
Tennessee lawmakers in 2023 voted to add “Send Me” as a second official motto for the state. The existing one, “Agriculture and Commerce” is emblazoned on the state seal. The measure sponsored by Rep. Clay Doggett, R-Pulaksi, and Sen. Page Walley, R-Savannah, passed unanimously.
(Credit: State of Tennessee)
The General Assembly in 2018 considered legislation aiming to require redesigned license plats to feature the tri-star symbol at the center of the Tennessee flag. But disagreements between the House and Senate couldn’t be ironed out in a conference committee and the bill sponsored by Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, and then-Rep. Kevin Brooks, R-Cleveland, failed for the year.
But all was not lost for tri-star fans, as Gov. Bill Lee’s new blue tag design unveiled in 2022 included the image in a roundel between letters and numbers.
North Carolinians would fare better economically under a second Trump administration than they have under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Wednesday during a rally at Raleigh’s Union Station.
Vance acknowledged that he is a former critic of former President Donald Trump and said it would be impossible for the running mates to be in 100% lockstep agreement on every issue. But Harris, he said, has abandoned the agenda she ran on during her 2020 presidential campaign.
“She has flip-flopped on literally every single proposal that she ran on in 2020 and now she says she doesn’t believe,” Vance said. Harris, he continued, could walk into the room and put on a red “Make America Great Again” hat, because she is “running on a Trump agenda.”
“I actually stand in front of the American people and explain why [“I’ve changed my mind on certain issues],” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind in this country, but when you change your mind, you ought to explain to the American people why.”
An oft-cited criticism of the Harris campaign has been her lack of scheduled interviews. Vance stated that he believes she’s only sat down for two interviews since the start of her campaign.
Eric Sandoval, of Jacksonville, said he bought an Uncle Sam costume to wear to the rally held by JD Vance in Raleigh on Wednesday and that he is involved in door-to-door voter registration. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)
“If you want to be the American people’s president, you ought to not be afraid of the friendly American media,” Vance said. Subsequently, he fielded questions from the media for 25 minutes.
During an Asheboro campaign stop in August, Vance criticized the Biden administration for failing to secure the United States-Mexico border over the last three and a half years. Vance received a question regarding his comments about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, a town which he represents as a United States Senator.
Vance responded that while the media often states the 15,000 Haitian immigrants are legally documented, the Biden-Harris administration used two separate programs — mass parole and temporary protective status — to “wave a wand” and choose not to deport these immigrants.
“Who in this room, who in this country, consented to allowing millions of aliens to come into this country?” Vance asked. “None of us did.” The “shamelessness” of the current president, he added, prevents border patrol agents from doing their job while simultaneously declaring those who complain about the influx as racists.
“Very often, the people who suffer the most from Kamala Harris’s open borders are people of Latino descent or they’re Black Americans whose family has been in this country for nine or 10 generations,” Vance said.
In his final pitch to voters, Vance shared details from Trump’s phone call to him following a second assassination attempt on his life last Sunday.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance addresses supporters at Raleigh’s Union Station on Sept. 18, 2024. (Credit: Clifton Dowell)
“What you really want is not a person you agree with all the time,” Vance said. “What you really want is a person who is level-headed and calm in the midst of a crisis, and that is Donald J. Trump.”
Vance recognized Lieutenant Governor candidate Hal Weatherman, North Carolina Republican Party chair Jason Simmons and House Speaker Tim Moore, who were all in attendance. He also acknowledged Congressional candidates Addison McDowell, Brad Knott and Pat Harrigan.
“The best description I’ve heard of it is a firehose concentrated right here in Southeastern North Carolina and particularly in Brunswick County.”
Gov. Roy Cooper, on the devastating rain in eastern North Carolina. (Wilmington StarNews, 9/18/24)
Storm Tour
Renee Spencer, Wilmington StarNews, 9/18/24
After seeing historic flooding on Monday, recovery and resiliency were the messages Gov. Roy Cooper brought to the Cape Fear region Wednesday.
The area was hit by an unnamed storm — known as Potential Tropical Cyclone Eight — which brought more than 20 inches of rain to Brunswick and southern New Hanover counties, which flooded homes and businesses, washed out roads, and damaged infrastructure.
On Wednesday, Cooper toured the area by helicopter and met with state, county and municipal officials. Following the tour, Cooper recalled what he saw in a news conference.
“The best description I’ve heard of it is a firehose concentrated right here in Southeastern North Carolina and particularly in Brunswick County,” Cooper said.
Cooper has declared a state of emergency for Brunswick, New Hanover, and Columbus counties, and he said federal, state and local officials were working together to aid in the response.
“When you have predictions for five to eight inches (of rain) and you end up with 20-plus in some areas, that can cause real significant problems,” he said. Cooper noted that at this time, more than 60 roads in the state — many of those in Brunswick — remain closed. Some of those damaged include sections of highly traveled thoroughfares, including U.S. 17, N.C. 211, N.C. 133, and N.C. 87.
The N.C. Department of Transportation, State Highway Patrol, and local officials are responding to road closures.
Cooper noted that one storm-related death had been reported in Brunswick County, and the incident resulted when a motorist drove around a barricade on N.C. 211 and the vehicle disappeared into the water.
“We will reiterate that it is so important not to drive through flooded areas and to stop at all barricades, stop for law enforcement officers,” Cooper said. “We just don’t know for sure what’s under that water.”
State officials praised first responders for their efforts to keep residents safe.
Many are calling the storm a “one in a 1,000-year event.”
“But I think Southeastern North Carolina is recognizing that’s no longer true,” Cooper added, noting that climate change is resulting in more violent storms.
As a result, he said investing in more resilient recovery is essential to ensure the state is ready for the next storm. Cooper said evidence of the investments made during Hurricane Florence, which hit southeastern North Carolina six years ago, were evident during their tour. He referenced a bridge in Brunswick County that is currently under construction and being built much higher than the current one, which was breached during Monday’s storm.
As the news conference was happening, EMS strike teams from Brunswick County were working to evacuate 85 residents from Southport Health and Rehabilitation Center on North Fodale Avenue. Southport Police Chief Todd Coring said the facility took on water during Monday’s storm, and 12 residents were evacuated from the facility at that time, but damage and mold resulting from the storm forced the remaining residents to be evacuated Wednesday.
Coring said the residents were being loaded into three mass casualty buses and eight ambulances for transport to other facilities located across the state.
North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins and North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray also addressed recovery efforts. Hopkins said the plan was to get roads and highways “open as soon and as safe as possible.”
Ray said it is too early to estimate the damage and economic loss from Monday’s unnamed storm. He said local crews will begin collecting damage assessments later this week and early next week. [Source]
North Carolinians would fare better economically under a second Trump administration than they have under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Wednesday during a rally at Raleigh’s Union Station.
Vance acknowledged that he is a former critic of former President Donald Trump and said it would be impossible for the running mates to be in 100% lockstep agreement on every issue. But Harris, he said, has abandoned the agenda she ran on during her 2020 presidential campaign.
“She has flip-flopped on literally every single proposal that she ran on in 2020 and now she says she doesn’t believe,” Vance said. Harris, he continued, could walk into the room and put on a red “Make America Great Again” hat, because she is “running on a Trump agenda.”
“I actually stand in front of the American people and explain why [“I’ve changed my mind on certain issues],” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind in this country, but when you change your mind, you ought to explain to the American people why.”
An oft-cited criticism of the Harris campaign has been her lack of scheduled interviews. Vance stated that he believes she’s only sat down for two interviews since the start of her campaign.
“If you want to be the American people’s president, you ought to not be afraid of the friendly American media,” Vance said. Subsequently, he fielded questions from the media for 25 minutes.
During an Asheboro campaign stop in August, Vance criticized the Biden administration for failing to secure the United States-Mexico border over the last three and a half years. Vance received a question regarding his comments about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, a town which he represents as a United States Senator.
Vance responded that while the media often states the 15,000 Haitian immigrants are legally documented, the Biden-Harris administration used two separate programs — mass parole and temporary protective status — to “wave a wand” and choose not to deport these immigrants.
“Who in this room, who in this country, consented to allowing millions of aliens to come into this country?” Vance asked. “None of us did.” The “shamelessness” of the current president, he added, prevents border patrol agents from doing their job while simultaneously declaring those who complain about the influx as racists.
“Very often, the people who suffer the most from Kamala Harris’s open borders are people of Latino descent or they’re Black Americans whose family has been in this country for nine or 10 generations,” Vance said.
In his final pitch to voters, Vance shared details from Trump’s phone call to him following a second assassination attempt on his life last Sunday.
“What you really want is not a person you agree with all the time,” Vance said. “What you really want is a person who is level-headed and calm in the midst of a crisis, and that is Donald J. Trump.”
Vance recognized Lieutenant Governor candidate Hal Weatherman, North Carolina Republican Party chair Jason Simmons and House Speaker Tim Moore, who were all in attendance. He also acknowledged Congressional candidates Addison McDowell, Brad Knott and Pat Harrigan.
Dredging Halt
Dan Kane, The News & Observer, 9/18/24
A dredging company launched with $15 million in state money must cease its work in the Oregon and Hatteras inlets after digging deeper and wider than permits allowed hundreds of times, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday.
EJE Dredging Service is led by an influential North Carolina Republican who is under scrutiny by a federal grand jury.
The Corps suspended permits that it had issued to Dare County to dredge channels in the two inlets after finding that 98% of EJE Dredging Service’s loads of dredged materials over a nine-month period were removed either partially or completely outside designated channels. Data pulled from sensors on EJE’s shallow-draft hopper dredge showed it had dredged as far as 445 feet beyond a 100-foot wide channel in the Oregon Inlet.
“I have been with the Corps for 22 years and I have never seen anything like this,” said Tommy Fennel, the regulatory chief for the Wilmington district, which covers North Carolina.
The Corps expects to meet with Dare County within the next two weeks to go over the noncompliance and make sure they have a plan that is enforceable, said Col. Brad Morgan, the Corps district commander. If that doesn’t happen, the Corps could revoke the permits.
“We want to continue to work with Dare County,” Morgan said. “Their ability to conduct dredging in support of Dare County and in support of these channels is a huge asset and a huge resource for the state. We just need to get them coloring within the lines and within the box that we have authorized for those channels.”
Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said he couldn’t comment until he’s seen the Corps’ information.
EJE Dredging was formed by Judson Whitehurst, a Greenville business owner, three months after state lawmakers provided the $15 million to Dare County for dredging. The following year, company documents showed Jordan Hennessy, a former legislative aide who helped convince lawmakers to provide funding for the dredging, working on behalf of EJE Dredging. He’s been the CEO for at least two years.
Hennessy has been named in two subpoenas linked to a federal criminal investigation for his work on another project funded by state lawmakers in 2020.
Subpoenas issued over the past three months show a grand jury seeks information about Hennessy and one of his businesses as it investigates a domestic violence prevention program funded with $3.5 million also appropriated by state lawmakers. [Source]
Stein Support
Paul Specht, WRAL News, 9/18/24
Democratic North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Josh Stein is touting praise from across the aisle. Stein’s campaign announced Wednesday that he’s received the endorsement of Republican former State Sen. Richard Stevens and other Republican leaders. He plans to unveil a longer list of Republican endorsees during a press conference on Thursday morning in Raleigh.
A spokesperson for the Robinson campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Stevens, a former county manager for Wake County, served five terms in the state legislature before resigning in 2012. Republican leaders picked Stevens to be budget chairman after they gained a majority of the General Assembly in 2011.
Upon his departure from the legislature, Republican Senate leader Phil Berger praised Stevens as “a dedicated public servant whose budgetary expertise, tireless work ethic and ability to work across the aisle made him a successful and effective legislator.”
Stein’s announcement comes a week after a WRAL News Poll found growing support for Stein among conservatives. Twenty percent of conservative voters supported Stein in the latest WRAL poll, up from 14% in a March WRAL poll. Of the respondents who said they plan to vote for former president Donald Trump in the presidential election, 11% said they’ll vote for Stein in the gubernatorial race.
The poll showed Stein with a 14-percentage-point lead over Robinson among all respondents. [Source]
Abuse Lawsuits
Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press, 9/18/24
Challenges to a portion of a state law that gave adult victims of child sexual abuse two additional years to seek civil damages dominated oral arguments in lawsuits heard Wednesday by North Carolina’s highest court.
The state Supreme Court in one day considered five cases involving individuals who have sued based on changes approved by the General Assembly through the 2019 SAFE Child Act and signed by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Before the law, victims of sexual abuse before age 18 effectively had until turning 21 to file such civil claims against perpetrators. Now such victims have until they’re age 28.
Front and center in most of the cases heard Wednesday was another section of the law that gave other victims whose period to sue ended the ability to file lawsuits seeking damages for child sex abuse. They were allowed to file lawsuits from January 2020 through December 2021.
Supporters of the two-year provision have said it allowed victims to ensure their abusers and institutions that allowed abuse to happen pay for the damage, and that abusers are called out publicly.
In Wednesday’s opening case, a lawyer for the Gaston County Board of Education argued the lookback period violates the North Carolina Constitution by stripping away fundamental rights protected from retroactive alterations by the legislature. The board wants the provision declared unconstitutional and the lawsuit dismissed.
The school board is a defendant in a 2020 lawsuit filed by three former Gaston County student-athletes who also sued a high school coach convicted of crimes against team members. In this case, a divided state Court of Appeals panel last year upheld the two-year window as constitutional.
At least 250 child sex abuse lawsuits were filed in North Carolina under the two-year window, with many of them going back to allegations from 40 or 50 years ago, according to a board legal brief.
Attorneys for the ex-students and the state — which intervened in the lawsuit and is defending the two-year window — said nothing in the state constitution prevented the General Assembly from offering victims this chance to sue for damages.
“It is inconceivable to me that the good people of North Carolina, in adopting any version of their constitution, would have ever intended to prevent the General Assembly from implementing a public policy that recognizes the profound harm that children who are sexually abused have suffered and decided to give them a limited period of time to bring a claim and seek justice,” Bobby Jenkins, the former students’ attorney, told the court.
The Gaston County coach, Gary Scott Goins, was convicted of 17 sex-related crimes in 2014 and sentenced to at least 34 years in prison. Goins was previously dismissed as a defendant in this current lawsuit, according to a court opinion.
School board lawyer Robert King told the justices that children must be protected, and the General Assembly has helped with other provisions in the 2019 law.
But upholding the window would make it impossible for some institutions to mount vigorous defenses given the passage of time and long-destroyed records, King said, and open the door for the revival of other types of civil claims. Felony child abuse charges have no statute of limitations and can come with long sentences.
“If a person is going to be dissuaded from abusing children, if that is possible, it is by threat of spending the rest of their lives in prison,” King said. “It is not by reviving a 50-year-old civil claim that is typically going to be against the bad actor’s former employer.”
The court gave no indication when it would rule. At least three of the six justices hearing the case — not Associate Justice Allison Riggs, who recused herself, as she wrote the Court of Appeals opinion while on the lower court — questioned King’s arguments.
Since 2002, 30 states and the District of Columbia revived previously expired child sex abuse claims with limited or permanent expansions of claim periods, according to CHILD USA, a think tank advocating for the civil rights of children and prevention of sex abuse.
The Supreme Court also heard arguments Wednesday in a case involving a man who sued alleging a Catholic layperson sexually abused him during the early 1980s. The lawsuit seeks damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and the Glenmary Home Missioners, a group of priests and laypersons who serve primarily in rural areas.
A trial judge dismissed claims against the Catholic groups, saying the language in the law permitting a two-year claim window for “any civil action for child sexual abuse” only included claims against the perpetrator of the sexual abuse — not institutions. But the Court of Appeals reversed that decision. [Source]
Voter IDs
Will Doran, WRAL News, 9/18/24
After state and national Republican leaders sued North Carolina to stop the state from accepting virtual ID cards used at UNC-Chapel Hill from being considered a legal form of voter photo identification, the Democratic National Committee is now seeking to intervene in the lawsuit and have it thrown out.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign supported the move, Harris’ lead spokesperson in North Carolina Dory MacMillan told WRAL in an exclusive announcement of the new legal effort.
“This MAGA Republican lawsuit is nothing more than a political effort to keep eligible young voters from being able to cast their ballots,” MacMillan said. “But we will not let them win. With our fundamental freedoms on the line, team Harris-Walz will continue fighting to ensure every eligible voter has a chance to cast their ballot in this election.”
A court hearing over the ID issue is scheduled for Thursday in Wake County Superior Court.
Republicans are seeking to stop UNC’s mobile “One Card” ID from being used as a form of voter ID. College students don’t vote at nearly the same level as older adults, but when they do they tend to disproportionately favor Democratic candidates. Meanwhile, the Harris campaign has spent substantial resources trying to ramp up engagement efforts on college campuses in North Carolina and other swing states ahead of the Nov. 5 election. But Republicans haven’t fought efforts to approve other college student IDs as voter IDs — just the UNC digital identification card.
The GOP lawsuit says only physical ID cards, not electronic ones, should be allowed under the new voter ID law that’s being used this year for the first time in a major election. They’ve said that if there are questions about the validity of someone’s ID, poll workers should be allowed to make a photocopy of it — but it’s unclear how that would be possible to do using an app. Democrats have dismissed the concerns, pointing out that UNC officials already made changes to their ID app, requested by state officials, to ensure that it would legally qualify for use as voter IDs.
The vote to approve the UNC IDs came down along party lines earlier this summer at the State Board of Elections; the board’s Democratic majority outvoted the Republican dissenters 3-2.
“This lawsuit is an eleventh-hour bid to confuse and potentially disenfranchise up to 40,000 individuals who attend or work at North Carolina’s flagship state university, just weeks before they head to the polls for early voting,” the Democratic National Committee claims in its new legal filing.
The lawsuit seeking to ban the UNC IDs is one of several that the state and national Republican groups have filed in recent weeks over voting rules in North Carolina. One of the other lawsuits seeks to kick nearly 250,000 North Carolina voters off the list of registered voters — a proposal state elections officials say would be illegal to do this close to an election. Another lawsuit alleges problems with voting machines, and yet another alleges that the state hasn’t done enough to block non-citizens from voting, all claims that state elections officials deny as false. [Source]
Voucher Opposition
Morgan Starling, The Jacksonville Daily News, 9/18/24
Gov. Roy Cooper is urging residents, specifically those in rural counties like Onslow, Craven, and Lenoir, to contact their legislators in opposition to a program that Cooper says could take around $625 million away from public schools in just the first year.
The General Assembly returned to session last week, passing a supplemental spending bill that approves hundreds of millions more taxpayer dollars for private school vouchers through the Opportunity Scholarship Program.
“This is devastating for education across the board, and we have evidence from other states to prove it,” Cooper told The Daily News. “Studies show that private school vouchers do not improve student performance. Instead, they rob public schools of badly needed funding. Of course, in North Carolina, we wouldn’t know, because they have provided no accountability for these hundreds of millions of dollars that they’re sending to the private schools.”
Expanding private school vouchers would especially impact rural North Carolina counties, where access to private education is limited, and public schools serve as the backbone of communities, according to Cooper’s office. 28 of North Carolina’s 100 counties have no, or just one, private school participating in the voucher program.
Onslow County itself could lose around $1.7 million in public education funding in just the first year of the expanded voucher program, with 12 private schools eligible to participate.
Craven County could lose around $1.5 million with only nine schools participating, Lenoir could lose more than $553,000 with just five schools participating, and Jones could lose more than $102,000 despite having zero schools participating.
Additionally, other surrounding counties that will be impacted include Pamlico, which could lose nearly $148,000 despite having only two schools participating, Carteret, which could lose over $522,000 with seven schools participating, and Duplin, which could lose more than $394,000 despite having only two private schools participating, and more than 94% of their student population currently in public schools.
“Rural counties will be hurt the most,” Cooper said. “Most of the private schools getting this taxpayer money are in urban areas, and when you start doing this, you have to look at the fact that over the last few years, the legislature has not stepped up and properly funded public education.”
North Carolina ranks near the bottom of all states in K-12 funding, spending nearly $5,000 less per student than the national average, Cooper said. The state is also falling behind nationally in teacher pay, dropping in the most recent rankings to 38th. Cooper said there’s even one study that shows North Carolina ranks second to last in the country in how much of its gross state product is invested in public education.
According to Cooper’s office, when Ohio, Florida, and Arizona expanded their voucher programs, the majority of students who received them were existing private school students from wealthier families. Recent reporting from ProPublica also found that Arizona has a $1.4 billion budget shortfall as a result of their universal voucher program.
Cooper told The Daily News he does plan to veto the legislation, and although the Republican-dominated Senate will likely overturn it, he’s encouraging residents to call their elected representatives and encourage them not to. Cooper said there have been rural legislators in other states who have been successful at stopping or slowing down these private school voucher programs, and he believes that those in North Carolina should reassess when they realize their counties are getting the short end of the stick.
Sen. Michael Lazzara, R-Onslow, however, is in favor of the Opportunity Scholarship Program, saying parents deserve the right to choose where their child is educated.
“Each child is allocated a certain amount of money for their education, that money belongs to them,” Lazzara said. “The parents that pay taxes for those children, that is their money. They have a right to use that money in a way they feel best to educate their children. There’s a significant demand for these scholarships.”
Lazzara said the demand is not something the General Assembly anticipated, which is why they added the additional funds to take care of the applicants on the waiting list. There are over 96,000 families that applied for opportunity scholarships this year, Lazzara said, and out of those, about 68,000 were new applications, while the remaining 28,000 were renewals.
“That tells you there is a need for people to have choice in where they want their children educated,” Lazzara said. [Source]
Democratic Fundraiser
Mary Ramsey, The Charlotte Observer, 9/18/24
Gov. Roy Cooper will help raise money for the Democratic nominee in the Charlotte area’s most closely watched state legislature race this election cycle. The Democratic governor will be the “special guest” at a Raleigh campaign reception Tuesday for Nicole Sidman, who is running to unseat Republican state Rep. Tricia Cotham, according to an email to supporters from Sidman’s campaign.
Tickets start at $150 and top out at $6,400 for hosts for “hosts,” according to the email. The fundraiser’s limit is also the legal limit for individuals making campaign donations in North Carolina state elections.
Hosts listed include outgoing Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin, Wake County Register of Deeds Tammy Brunner and Scott Falmlen, former executive director of the North Carolina and Florida Democratic parties and co-founder of an NC-based public relations and political consulting firm.
Sidman and Cotham are facing off to represent the newly redrawn House District 105, which includes parts of southern and eastern Mecklenburg County.
Cotham made national news for switching parties last year and giving Republicans a veto-proof majority in the General Assembly, allowing the GOP to pass a bill restricting abortion access and a sweeping expansion of North Carolina’s school voucher program.
Since then, Democrats have put a focus on unseating her. Sidman, a congregational life director at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, won a three-person primary to face Cotham in March with 57.3% of the vote. Sidman raised more than four times as much as Cotham from Feb. 18 to June 30, the most recent campaign finance data available.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee also named Sidman a “spotlight candidate” in March, allowing them to assist with campaign, finance and communications plans and Sidman to fundraise directly from the DLCC’s “spotlight” webpage.
The recently redrawn House District 105 favors Republicans slightly, according to the website Dave’s Redistricting, which uses a composite of election results from 2016 to 2022. [Source]
Walz Rally
Will Hofmann and Sarah Honosky, Asheville Citizen Times, 9/18/24
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made his Asheville debut during a rainy rally in the mountain city, calling the crowd “the best rally crowd” the vice presidential nominee’s campaign has seen as the Tar Heel state remains a pivotal battleground in the 2024 election.
Often with raucous cheers from the crowd, Walz spoke for around 40 minutes, focusing on topics of gun violence, reproductive healthcare and Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic candidacy, while going on the attack against his Republican opponents and taking shots at North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.
Walz’s biggest cheers came from his comments on reproductive rights. Referring to state Republicans moving to restrict access to abortion, Walz told them to “mind their own damn business.”
Walz also addressed gun violence. Both he and Harris are self-proclaimed gun owners, yet Harris has worked on legislation that calls on states to pass red flag laws. Red flag laws allow family members or law enforcement to seek a court order to temporarily remove access from a gun if they believe a gun owner may harm themselves or others.
“We support the second amendment, but you don’t get to hide behind that when our first responsibility is to the safety of our children,” Walz said, later pointing out that many of the children killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School would’ve been seniors in high school this year.
Walz also spoke about the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate, commenting that if you searched the entire population of America “you would not find a worse candidate than Mark Robinson.”
Trump visited Asheville on Aug. 14, at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in downtown Asheville, garnering a rally size of around 2,055. Salvage Station has a reported outdoor capacity of around 3,000.
The slate of speakers introducing the Democratic vice-presidential nominee seemed, like Walz himself, to be reaching out beyond the blue island of Buncombe County, extending a hand to those undecided or across the aisle.
“We’re going to make calls, we’re going to knock on doors, we’re going to register people to vote, we’re going to make a plan to get people to the polls,” said Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, the first of several speakers who took to the stage ahead of Walz at the Sept. 17 rally.
Among the evening’s speakers was former state Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr, a longtime Republican, who said the party, one he was part of for nearly five decades, “is not a party that I recognize anymore.”
He was there to ask for people to support the Harris-Walz ticket, and said the two have “reached across the aisle and are working to gain the support of Republicans, moderates and independents who cannot support Donald Trump and his MAGA-ally Mark Robinson and their extreme agenda.”
He pointed to growing “Republicans for Harris” coalitions, and the backing of prominent Republicans like former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and numerous former Trump administrative officials. As the speech wound down, the audience began chanting, “thank you,” to which Orr responded, “thank you … and you can count me in.”
N.C. state Rep. Lindsey Prather said, in her opening lines, “like all of you, I am ready to flip North Carolina.”
N.C. state Rep. Caleb Rudow, also running for U.S. House of Representatives against incumbent Republican Chuck Edwards, released a statement on Walz’s visit that pointed to this messaging: “When he invited disenfranchised Republic voters to join us, he did something important: he reminded us that no one should feel stuck on a team that isn’t delivering for them.” [Source 1] [Source 2]
DMV Closure
Richard Stradling, The News & Observer, 9/18/24
The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles is closing another driver’s license office because it doesn’t have enough employees to run it. The DMV announced Wednesday that it will close the Lillington office in Harnett County on Monday, Sept. 23, until further notice.
It’s the third driver’s license office the agency has closed in recent weeks because of inadequate staffing. DMV offices in Laurinburg and Raeford, southwest of Fayetteville, were closed Aug. 19. The agency was able to reopen the Laurinburg office on Sept. 11, but Raeford remains closed.
In each case, the DMV did not have enough driver’s license examiners to staff them. The agency has closed offices in the past because of a lack of staff, but only for a day or two, according to spokesman Marty Homan. These are the first extended closures due to a lack of workers.
Lillington normally has two driver’s license examiners. One is retiring on Friday, Homan said, while the other is being moved to the larger Erwin office, where someone is on leave.
Homan said the DMV has 25 new examiners lined up to take the required five-week training class starting in September and another 25 starting the class in November. It hopes some of those new trainees will enable it to reopen the shuttered offices by the end of the year.
The Lillington office had been accepting people on a walk-in basis only, so no one will lose their appointment. The DMV is encouraging Harnett County residents to use offices in Erwin, Sanford, Smithfield and Fayetteville.
The DMV has been plagued by staffing shortages statewide for years. As recently as 2022, about a quarter of all driver’s license examiner positions were vacant, contributing to long lines and wait times. Higher pay and one-time sign-on and retention bonuses have helped reduce the vacancy rate to about 12%. But DMV officials say to fully staff the driver’s license offices, they need authorization and money to hire more examiners. [Source]
Homeless Education
Chantal Brown, Education NC, 9/17/24
The McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Act is a law that mandates each child of a homeless individual or homeless youth receive a free, appropriate public education. The act is also known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, signed into law in 2015 in North Carolina.
According to the Public Schools of Robeson County, 390 students were unhoused during the 2023-24 school year. Over 37,000 students did not have permanent housing across the state, according to a press release from the district, up from the previous year.
Robeson’s McKinney-Vento program and its community partnerships were recently praised in a clean audit from the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The audit results said that the Robeson County McKinney-Vento Program has shown “commendable efforts in addressing various indicators related to the identification, enrollment, retention, and support of homeless children and youth. This includes establishing effective procedures for identifying homeless students, ensuring immediate enrollment, and supporting their retention in school,” the district said in a press release.
Shaneitha Nance is the district’s McKinney-Vento liaison.
“Ms. Nance is diligent in her work with the district’s homeless education program and she ensures that the identification and enrollment of a student experiencing homelessness is in alignment with the law and that all students receive the appropriate resources needed for their academic success,” Lisa Phillips, state director for the education of homeless children and youth at DPI, said in a press release.
Nance said that the audit results were thanks to the collaboration between school social workers and community partners helping with their program. She said that she reaches community partners by word of mouth and has made connections by serving on several committees and boards across the county. [Source]
Mecklenburg Tax
Woody Cain, WFAE Radio, 9/18/24
Mecklenburg County Commissioners voted 6-3 on Tuesday night to ask the North Carolina General Assembly for authority to put a one-cent sales tax on the ballot in Nov. 2025 to fund the Red Line commuter rail to northern Mecklenburg and Mooresville, as well as other road and transportation projects like the Silver Line light rail. County Manager Dena Diorio told commissioners the vote is not the end of the process.
“If the legislation is ultimately approved, then the county commission again gets to vote on whether or not to actually put that on the ballot. So this is really the first part of the process, not the last part of the process. Even if we put it on the ballot and it’s approved by the voters, then you have to adopt a resolution to actually levy the tax. So Mecklenburg County is in total control,” she said.
All local municipalities have supported the plan except Matthews, which is against it because it would replace rail with bus rapid transit there. [Source]
Commissioners Dispute
Mary Ramsey, The Charlotte Observer, 9/18/24
A pair of Mecklenburg County commissioners on Tuesday took turns comparing each other to former President Donald Trump during a debate over transportation funding. The board voted 6-3 to pass a resolution asking the N.C. General Assembly for a referendum to increase the county’s sales tax to pay for roads and public transit.
Much of the night’s discussion focused on concerns about the spending breakdown in draft legislation. But when District 2 Commissioner Vilma Leake spoke, she used her time to accuse Board Chairman George Dunlap of trying to silence her. “I’m sick and tired of it, George. And this is all you’ve done during these two years … You’re no good,” she said. “… You’ve done nothing but try to embarrass me.”
Leake accused Dunlap of “orchestrating” a primary challenge against her in March — when she defeated Charles Osborne with 63% of the vote.
Dunlap donated $250 to Osborne’s campaign. He told The Charlotte Observer in February he is a longtime friend of Osborne’s father and has known Osborne since he was a child.
Leake, who has made previous comments accusing fellow commissioners of being inconsiderate about her age, said during her remarks Tuesday she could sue Dunlap for age discrimination. “That’s all you’ve shown me, is your behind to kiss,” she said. When Leake stopped talking, Dunlap asked, “You done?” Leake responded, “I hope you’re done.”
“Donald Trump if I ever heard it,” Dunlap said next in reference to the former Republican president and current nominee, who frequently makes negative comments about his political opponents. Leake then said, “You’re Trump. A Black Trump.”
It’s not the first time either commissioner has drawn attention for their public comments. Dunlap faced criticism earlier this summer from some on the board when he opposed adding a proclamation in support of Pride Month to the board’s agenda over a procedural issue. He said Commissioner Pat Cotham submitted the proclamation too late, a claim she denied.
Commissioners passed a resolution unanimously weeks later. [Source]
Wilmington Security
Molly Wilhelm, Wilmington StarNews, 9/18/24
On Saturday, Donald Trump is expected to host a rally in Wilmington — less than a week after the former president faced a second assassination attempt.
Trump’s Wilmington rally is scheduled to take place on Saturday. The event will be held near the grounds of the Wilmington International Airport at the Aero Center. The former president planned to host a rally at the same venue in April, which he ultimately missed as a result of severe weather. At the time, he told the crowd via phone that he would reschedule.
While specifics could not be disclosed for safety reasons, Lt. Jerry Brewer confirmed that the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office is coordinating with federal agencies to provide security for the rally.
Brandon Shope, communications specialist with the Wilmington Police Department, did not confirm whether the agency would be assisting with security for the event and declined to comment on the former president’s security detail, as the U.S. Secret Service is the primary agency handling security.
There has been no indication that the recent assassination attempt in Florida will dramatically alter Trump’s campaign schedule. Prior to the Wilmington rally, the former president is expected to make stops in Flint, Michigan; Uniondale, New York; and Washington, D.C. [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.
Neighborhood Preservation
Chantal Allam, The News & Observer, 9/18/24
On a cloudy morning this July, a sheriff’s deputy pulled up to Edith Neal’s 1959 ranch home, carrying a summons to her doorstep in east Raleigh’s Woodcrest subdivision. She’d officially been served. Raleigh builder Steve Sypher is suing Neal, 61, over her property’s restrictive covenant. In fact, he’s suing most of the neighborhood.
Sypher wants to build 12 four-story townhouses across about nine-tenths of an acre at 524 and 528 Barksdale Drive — next door to Neal. The city recently gave the green light. But Sypher faces another hurdle: removing the subdivision’s decades-old covenant, tied to his properties as well as his neighbors’, that restricts the land’s use.
On May 28, 1958, George Building Company, which developed the Woodcrest neighborhood, recorded in Book 1319 on page 253 of the Wake County Registry: Only detached, single-family, two-and-a-half-story homes allowed.
To proceed, Sypher is now suing anyone whose property is subject to Woodcrest’s covenant, roughly 58 households spread across four streets.
Neal is one of 87 defendants (some properties have multiple owners) named in the complaint filed by Steve Sypher Designs in Wake County Superior Court on July 1 and amended on Sept. 6. This largely blue-collar neighborhood includes a mix of young professionals, public servants and retirees, including a 95-year-old former police officer who is an original owner.
In the lawsuit, he argues that the covenant is no longer binding “due to the passage of time” and the North Carolina Marketable Title Act, which helps clear old claims and defects from property titles, reducing the risks for disputes over property ownership. After meeting with a group of residents last year, Sypher calls it “a real and existing controversy.” He wants the declaration removed so that it no longer restricts development. He’s asking a judge to decide.
“I’m really not trying to be the bad person in this situation,” Sypher said in a phone call on Tuesday. “I didn’t create the zoning. My concept is not outrageous or over the top.”
But neighbors are fighting back, including Neal. “It’s mind boggling. I can’t believe somebody would do this to our quiet neighborhood,” said the manufacturing plant worker.
Starting in 2021, Raleigh began loosening zoning rules to incentivize developers to build what it calls “missing middle” housing — like duplexes, townhouses and accessory dwelling units — in single-family neighborhoods. Proponents say the policy boosts supply and is a more efficient use of land. They say it also creates more affordable housing options for young families, singles and seniors. But it’s also sparked backlash and lawsuits.
Critics argue it’s illegal and doesn’t adhere to the rezoning process. They say it destroys the character and aesthetic of established neighborhoods and strains existing infrastructure, such as roads, schools and public services.
It also doesn’t always guarantee affordable housing, they say. In March 2023, a group of Hayes Barton residents sued the city and a developer, arguing it didn’t follow proper procedures when it approved plans to raze a 1925 home to build 17 luxury townhomes — at $2 million a piece — in one of the city’s most historic and sought-after neighborhoods. The proposed project is stalled while the case is resolved. [Source]
Brunswick Meals
Shea Carver, Port City Daily, 9/18/24
A worldwide organization focused on feeding people during crises will be set up on Pleasure Island on Wednesday and Thursday, as it assesses where help is needed in Brunswick County. World Central Kitchen is providing free meals to the community over the next two days, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at The Help Center, located at the corner of Raleigh and Third streets in Carolina Beach.
Michelle “Mama” Rock of T’Geaux Boys food truck will be serving étouffée and red beans and rice, according to WCK’s Sandie Orsa. Food from WCK distribution sites are open to everyone — residents, first responders, construction and line workers.
The organization deploys in areas facing natural disasters or in war-torn countries to ensure no one faces hunger during stressful situations. After the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the nonprofit was founded by celebrity chef José Andrés, whose restaurant group operates 31 eateries worldwide. To date, the nonprofit has served people in need, to the tune of 400 million meals worldwide as it approaches its 15th year anniversary.
WCK teams operate in multiple places worldwide currently. They recently wrapped up in Bangladesh, due to flooding, and are finishing up a line fire in California. Teams are also in Poland and the Czech Republic, responding to flooding, as well as continuing their efforts in Ukraine and Gaza. [Source]
Justice Honored
DJ Simmons, WFDD Radio, 9/18/24
Justice Henry Frye and his wife Shirley Frye were given a key to the city of Greensboro Tuesday to recognize the work they’ve done across the state and locally.
The North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University drumline kicked off a celebration of the couple’s legacy. Around 100 people gathered at Center City Park for the occasion. The Fryes have called Greensboro home for the past 70 years. Henry served as the first Black chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Shirley led the integration of the city’s two YWCAs in the 1970s.
Henry said everyone has the potential to leave a positive impact. “I believe that everybody can do something and that you should choose to do whatever that good something is. You may get it done, but if not, you tried,” he said.
A statue of the Fryes was also unveiled in the park earlier this year. [Source]
Conviction Dismissal
Sarah Johnson, Statesville Record & Landmark, 9/18/24
In a majority vote, the N.C. Appeals Court found that 75-year-old Blaine Dale Hague did not receive a fair trial in 2022. Two of the three judges voted to overturn the conviction and ordered a new trial, according to an order filed on Aug. 20. Three days after the decision was announced, the N.C. Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to stay the decision, according to court documents.
On Aug. 27, the N.C. Supreme Court granted the request to temporarily halt the order of the N.C. Appeals Court, according to court documents.
The deadline for the Attorney General’s office to appeal the N.C. Appeals Court decision is Sept. 24, N.C. Department of Justice Press Secretary Nazneen Ahmed said in an email on Tuesday. Ahmed said she could not provide additional information about the court process since the case is pending.
Hague, of Union Grove, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 46-year-old Baron Thomas Cass. An Iredell County jury found Hague guilty on Dec. 9, 2022. According to court documents, Cass was shot by Hague during a confrontation. Hague maintains the shooting was self-defense. [Source]
Death Investigation
Cassidy Johncox, WBTV News, 9/18/24
The family of a Black man found dead under a tree in northeast North Carolina is calling for transparency and a thorough investigation.
Javion Magee, a 21-year-old from Aurora, Illinois, was found dead on the morning of Sept. 11 in Henderson, North Carolina. The Vance County Sheriff’s Office reported on Sept. 13 that Magee was found “near the base of a tree in a seated position with a rope wrapped around his neck” off of Vanco Mill Road near US-1. The other end of the rope was “attached to a tree,” the police report read. Magee’s body was taken to the North Carolina Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Raleigh, officials said.
The family was told by police that Magee died by suicide, according to family members. During a press conference held on Wednesday, Sept. 18, attorneys for the family said it’s too early in the investigation to officially declare Magee’s cause of death.
While the family isn’t ruling out suicide, their attorneys said a deeper investigation is required before reaching such a conclusion.
Multiple attorneys representing the family were present during Wednesday’s press conference. Among them were Lee Merritt and Harry Daniels, known civil rights attorneys. Leading up to the press conference, the attorneys said Magee’s death “bears disturbing similarity” to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, 14, who was lynched while visiting Mississippi. Till was also from Illinois.
Magee’s family and their attorneys did not explicitly call Magee’s death a hate crime or a lynching. They did say, however, that it can’t be ruled out.
The three attorneys representing the family — which includes North Carolina lawyer Jason Keith — said their job in this case is to apply pressure on law enforcement to ensure they conduct a thorough investigation into Magee’s death. Attorneys also said they were there to push for “continued transparency” with law enforcement.
Magee was captured on camera purchasing rope from a Walmart store in North Carolina near where he stopped.
The state attorney general’s office is investigating the case. [Source]
Flight Attendant Strike
Chase Jordan, The Charlotte Observer, 9/18/24
Flight attendants associated with American Airlines overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote and are threatening to go on strike if their demands are not met for more pay and other benefits, according to union representatives.
The Association of Flight Attendants-Communications Workers of America is negotiating for employees at American Eagle’s PSA Airlines, the union said Tuesday. Almost all of the members voted to authorize a strike after months of proposals from PSA management during contract negotiations.
PSA Airlines is a subsidiary of American Airlines operating 500 daily flights to nearly 100 destinations. American and PSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. AFA-CWA represents more than 1,300 PSA flight attendants.
Close to 650 flight attendants are based at Charlotte Douglas International Airport for American Eagle, and the airport is a hub for American.
Negotiations will continue next week with oversight from the National Mediation Board, a federal agency that works to find resolutions for labor-management disputes in the rail and airline industries. [Source]
Special Use Permits
Eliot Duke, State Port Pilot, 9/18/24
Oak Island Town Council approved a motion on Sept. 10 to eliminate the special use permit (SUP) option for developers and property owners. In a 4-1 decision following a public hearing during the board’s regular monthly meeting, the council voted to no longer use the SUP in planning and zoning considerations, removing a tool many residents feel is a way to skirt the town’s unified development ordinance. SUPs either are approved or denied through a quasi-judicial hearing that legally binds council to make the decision based on certain factors that can be viewed as broad, such as requiring a new home to conform with surrounding homes in the area. SUPs have enabled new houses to exceed 4,000 square feet and council could do little to stop their construction, despite public outcry.
“In over seven years serving our town, there has rarely been such a pervasive concern and request, such a persistent one … such a passionate one,” Councilman John Bach said of the SUP. “That tells me something as a public servant.”
Bach said he would vote to eliminate the SUP.
Councilman Mark Martin opposed the motion after unsuccessfully attempting to table the issue due to concerns over a lack of a financial impact statement. Martin said too much focus is being placed on a possible future instead of the present where Oak Island already has a blend of many different size houses, as well as current protections in the UDO that limit what property owners can build on any particular lot.
“I am trying to figure out when Oak Island no longer became family-friendly or small or attractive,” Martin said. “Today, Oak Island is attractive, small and family-friendly. We have everything here. That’s the beauty of the diversity of being able to build what the property owner sees as their vision.” [Source]
New Superintendent
Will Michaels, WUNC Radio, 9/18/24
The Alamance-Burlington School System has sworn in Aaron Fleming as its new superintendent. Fleming has served as the superintendent of Harnett County Schools for the past seven years, and was previously an education policy advisor to state House Speaker Tim Moore.
“There are three guiding principles that will shape my leadership: authenticity, clarity and consistency,” Fleming said, after being sworn in Wednesday.
Alamance-Burlington schools fell into a financial crisis last year when administrators spent $26 million to clean up mold at nearly all of its school buildings. The move divided the school board and Alamance County Commissioners over the district’s spending, and led to the departure of two administrators, including the former superintendent. Fleming said he would keep working to stabilize the district’s finances.
Fleming did not rule out more cuts to school programs, but said he would attempt to avoid cutting jobs. “Within the next year or two, I really want to be able to start bringing back some positions that we did cut: assistant principal positions, media coordinator positions, additional student support like counselors, mental health support,” he said.
Fleming signed a four-year contract with an annual salary of $233,000. [Source]
MrBeast Lawsuit
The Associated Press, 9/18/24
MrBeast is accused of creating “unsafe” employment conditions, including sexual harassment, and misrepresenting contestants’ odds at winning his new Amazon reality show’s $5 million grand prize in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by five unnamed participants. The filing alleges that the multimillion-dollar company behind YouTube’s most popular channel failed to provide minimum wages, overtime pay, uninterrupted meal breaks and rest time for competitors — whose “work on the show was the entertainment product” sold by MrBeast.
A spokesperson for MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, told The Associated Press in an email that he had no comment on the new lawsuit.
Donaldson’s “Beast Games” was touted as the “biggest reality competition.” It was supposed to put the North Carolina content creator in front of audiences beyond the YouTube platform where his record 316 million subscribers routinely watch his whimsical challenges that often carry lavish gifts of direct cash.
But its initial Las Vegas shoot began facing criticism before it even wrapped. Donaldson’s companies cast 2,000 people in an initial tryout this July where half could advance to the actual show’s filming in Toronto.
Contestants only learned upon their arrival that the Las Vegas pool surpassed 1,000 competitors, according to the lawsuit, which significantly reducing their chances of victory. The five anonymous competitors said that “limited sustenance” and “insufficient medical staffing” endangered their health. The filing alleges that production staff created a “toxic” work environment for women who faced “sexual harassment” throughout the contest.
MrBeast’s team also faces new accusations they “knowingly misclassified” the contestants’ employment status to the Nevada Film Commission in order to receive a state tax credit for more than $2 million. Last month, amid several public relations crises, Donaldson ordered a full assessment of his YouTube empire’s internal culture and outlined plans to require company-wide sensitivity training. [Source]
Burke Business Park
Miya Banks, The Morganton News Herald, 9/16/24
The Burke County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 on Tuesday night to rezone about 780 acres of land for a business park totaling about 1,300 acres. The rezoning to an industrial conditional district makes way for a large business development off Interstate 40. Burke County got more than $35 million from the state in 2023 for Burke County Development Inc. to buy the property to develop it into the Great Meadows megasite.
Chairman Jeff Brittain and commissioners Johnnie Carswell, Scott Mulwee and Randy Burns voted in favor of the rezoning. Commissioner Phil Smith voted against the rezoning.
“I have struggled with this. My wife can tell you I’ve laid awake at night not knowing what to do,” Smith said. Smith said many reasons were given for why the rezoning should be approved, but “I’m like old King Agrippa, ‘almost thou persuadest me,’ Acts chapter 26.” Smith said he is not persuaded that this is what Burke County taxpayers want. Smith was met with applause from the audience. [Source]
Carteret Resignation
Brad Rich, The Carteret County News-Times, 9/17/24
Carteret County Assistant Manager and Planning Director Gene Foxworth has resigned and will work his last day on Oct. 3. County Manager Tommy Burns made the announcement during his monthly comments at the end of the board of commissioners meeting Monday night in the board room on Courthouse Square.
The manager said Foxworth, who has been successful in getting many grants for the county and has guided countless planning and zoning efforts, has a new opportunity that will be very good for him and will keep him in the county he loves. He also thanked Foxworth for exceptional service. “I enjoyed working with you,” he said. “We have had a good run.” [Source]
Railbirds say they’ve heard concerns that Hobbs’ office might be blocking emails from RockAuto customers concerned the company will stop doing business in Arizona due to a legal battle with the Department of Revenue over sales taxes. The online auto parts retailer is currently appealing a lawsuit to the state Supreme Court after ADOR asked it to pay more than $11 million in sales taxes that the agency alleged the company should have paid from 2013 to 2019. RockAuto asked its Arizona customers to email the governor’s office and encourage her to drop the issue because the decision to pursue the company was made under Ducey’s administration. RockAuto’s CEO Jim Taylor said the company’s email was included on over 5,500 messages sent to Hobbs’ office since asking customers to reach out on Aug. 29. However, one railbird said a staff member at ADOR told RockAuto that the influx of customer emails has burned bridges and will not convince the Hobbs administration to back down from the case. The railbird said customers have reached out to RockAuto indicating that emails have bounced back or received auto-replies from members of the governor’s staff who were copied. RockAuto encouraged customers to reach out to Hobbs, but to also copy her chief of staff, Chad Campbell, deputy chief of staff, Will Gaona, and four other staff members. Neither Hobbs’ office nor ADOR responded to requests for comment.
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