A legislative subcommittee on Tuesday said it plans to again send letters telling numerous local units of government to improve their financial record-keeping.
The Legislative Council Audit and Financial Reporting Subcommittee resolved to continue the practice after officials said letters sent last year to noncompliant entities had a positive impact.
Last year, State Board of Accounts officials presented a report to lawmakers showing 88 local entities had either not adopted a corrective action plan to remedy repeat instances of noncompliance in their financial reporting or not made necessary fixes over three audit cycles. Those units include city, town, county and township governments and school districts.
And although the letters haven’t eliminated all noncompliance issues, “we did see a lot of those entities who had either not adopted a [corrective action] plan adopt one or who had not fixed their problems fix one,” said Kendra Leatherman, general counsel and legislative director for the Indiana State Board of Accounts. (More entities — 155 total — will receive letters this year than last year because of the timing of audit cycles, Leatherman told State Affairs after the meeting.)
Of the common trends resulting in noncompliance and the need for a corrective action plan, the most “problematic” were instances of insufficient supporting documentation, overdrawn cash balances, bank account reconciliation errors and improper recordings of financial transactions, Leatherman said.
The subcommittee unanimously voted to send letters again. The Indiana Legislative Services Agency will draft the letters, and, once the subcommittee signs off, they will be sent to the entities, officials said.
Increasing audit workload
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a corresponding influx of federal dollars, the State Board of Accounts has seen an uptick in auditing work, Leatherman said.
The agency’s audit work has increased about 30% compared to a typical year, and “it doesn’t seem to be going down anytime soon,” she said.
“To continue to meet this need, we will have to choose to increase agency staffing or continue to partner with CPA firms to complete the required audit work on time,” State Examiner Paul Joyce wrote in an Aug. 16 letter to Joe Habig, the acting state budget director.
Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne, said the state has been “picking up the difference” of the agency’s increased auditing work.
“That money does have to come from somewhere, whether it be the local government or from the state,” Joyce said during the meeting. “But you do want to … isolate the good players from the bad players and let the bad players pay their fair share.”
The subcommittee did not take action on the matter Tuesday.
Entry-level CPA pay
Leatherman and Joyce also asked the subcommittee to support its request to make the State Board of Accounts’ pay for entry-level certified public accountants, or CPAs, more competitive.
Noting an “overall decrease in the number of individuals who are entering the accounting field,” Joyce stressed in the August letter the importance of raising entry-level CPA pay to compete with other employers, especially private accounting firms.
Leatherman asked for the starting salaries to be tied to “some kind of external factor,” such as the Consumer Price Index, to ensure they remain competitive.
“In the times of inflationary periods, you can’t stay stagnant,” Joyce said. “If we stay stagnant — I mean, I have 80 CPAs that work for me — they are going to find a job somewhere else.”
Joyce said the more CPAs the agency can hire, the more work it can do and charge for, meaning the agency can absorb the increased starting pay scales within its budget next year. Because of its model, the agency could take “interim steps,” such as seeking approval from the State Budget Agency to hire new CPAs above the agency’s minimum salary level, said Cris Johnston, director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget. But Johnston said any changes to the agency’s pay plan would have to go before the State Budget Committee.
The subcommittee approved a motion allowing the State Board of Accounts to work with the State Budget Agency to propose, in Lehman’s words, “what needs to be done so that we don’t … fall below an ability to hire good people to meet the needs we have to do independent audits.”
The state hit a milestone this week as a record 2 million Kansas residents are now registered to vote.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced the record Tuesday. That means more than two-thirds of all Kansans are registered to vote; according to the latest population data, Kansas has more than 2.9 million residents.
“I am pleased to see so many Kansans taking the important step of registering to vote,” Schwab said in a news release.
This year, 83,293 new registered voters have been added to the rolls, Schwab said. He expects that figure to rise before the Oct. 15 registration deadline for the Nov. 5 general election.
Schwab encouraged prospective voters to register online at VoteKansas.gov or check their registration records through Kansas VoterView.
The use of a .gov address ensures security and lets Kansans know they are accessing an official government site rather than a third-party one,” he said.
Supreme Court appoints four to attorney discipline board
The Kansas Supreme Court made one reappointment and three new appointments this week to the Board for Discipline of Attorneys.
The board, made up of attorneys from across Kansas, holds panels to review cases of potential misconduct. The Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, directed by the state’s Supreme Court, presents cases to the disciplinary board, and panels hear cases after a review committee finds probable cause that a lawyer has violated the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
The four appointees will serve until June 30, 2028.
Stacy L. Ortega (reappointment)
D. Shane Bangerter, Dodge City
Katie A. McClaflin, Overland Park
Catherine A. Zigtema, Shawnee
The court also appointed two sitting members to the board’s review committee.
The ongoing turnover among top officials in Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration is a process he says isn’t unexpected or worrisome as his second term in office nears the end.
Holcomb pointed to transition periods from his time as a senior aide to Gov. Mitch Daniels and a then-lieutenant governor and successor to Gov. Mike Pence.
“I’ve been through this season three times, and so I would say concern is not the right word in this case, but awareness is certainly daily,” Holcomb told reporters Wednesday.
Holcomb said he was happy “for folks who are maybe finding greener pastures in their next life.”
“I’d like to recognize state employees who have been here for 20, 30, 40-plus years, but I certainly understand when the folks who come to this office, specifically, and to the administration in very high levels, they’re doing it on a temporary basis, many times, and that’s understood at the outset,” Holcomb said. “I’ve told everyone: ‘I want to help you find your next job. I will help and then we will adjust.’”
The 56-year-old Holcomb has avoided publicly discussing his plans for after his term ends Jan. 12.
Asked Wednesday when he would seriously consider what he will do next, Holcomb replied, “When I’m with my wife and no longer an incumbent governor.”
Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at[email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.
MUNCIE, Ind. — The Indiana Economic Development Corp. turns 20 years old in early 2025. In 2005, Indiana had 104,854 businesses, 2.96 million jobs and 6.28 million people. In the most recent year for that data, 2021, Indiana had 99,280 businesses, 3.23 million jobs and 6.81 million residents.
If the state had grown at the same pace as the rest of the nation, we would have 110,305 businesses, 3.23 million jobs and 7.05 million people. That leaves Indiana with a two-decade growth shortfall of more than 11,000 businesses, 151,000 jobs and 240,000 people.
Unfortunately, the truth about business attraction policies is even worse than this otherwise tragic data suggests. The IEDC was formed to attract primarily new manufacturing firms. Since its formation in 2005, Hoosier factory employment has declined by almost 55,000 jobs, or 10%. Indeed, since Indiana’s LEAP Lebanon Innovation District was announced, the state has shed a further 14,000 factory jobs, while the nation as a whole added 166,000 manufacturing positions.
Over the past two decades, average real wages for manufacturing workers in Indiana dropped by a stunning 14.4%. Nationwide, they rose by just under 1%.
This stunning data cannot come as a surprise to state or local elected leaders or to economic development board members. To be clear, this is broad policy failure in its purest, most unadulterated form. But this dismal data does not reveal a failure of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. Rather, it indicates a failure of state economic growth priority.
Economic development organizations at the local or state level do not create jobs, nor do they really attract businesses. At best, they act as a concierge for businesses already seeking to expand or relocate to Indiana. These organizations represent the region to new businesses, but they cannot make a place attractive to businesses — or, more important, people.
As a guy who studies these things, I believe there is good evidence that the IEDC is consistently among the better state development organizations in the country. I’ve published work on the Regional Cities Initiative operated by the IEDC and reviewed their operations a decade ago.
Still, the IEDC is tasked with representing a state with increasingly poor economic fundamentals. As bad as the last two decades have been, the future looks even worse. Again, this surely cannot come as a surprise to Hoosier elected officials, or those who sit on economic development boards. If so, they just aren’t paying attention.
For the first time in history, Indiana has entered what will be a long period of declining educational attainment. The real funding cuts to state universities are now more than 15 years old and have left us with a 10-year cohort of declining attendance and graduation. Even if we were to reverse the trend today, we are stuck with half a generation of declining educational attainment.
We’re doing little to reverse the trend. The inaction is particularly stark when compared to other poorly educated places, like Mississippi, where one-third more high school graduates attempt college each year than here in Indiana.
The lack of action on college completion removes from our economic development organizations the single most important aspect of a region’s future economic performance — educated young people.
To illustrate this disaster, we can look to the recent past. Since 1980, 72% of population growth, and almost all job growth, went to the 15% of U.S. counties with the highest educational attainment. There are only six of those in Indiana—four in the Indianapolis suburbs and the host counties of Purdue and Indiana University.
Over the same four decades, the least well-educated half of Indiana counties lost 13,764 people. This will inevitably worsen in the decades to come. Education is now more, rather than less, important to economic growth and prosperity.
The remedy is so simple, it hardly merits explaining. Indiana must become a place where education and skills of people form the central mission of state and local economic development policies. Nothing remotely like that is the case.
It bears noting that had Indiana spending on higher education simply kept pace with our tepid economic growth, we’d be spending more than $1.8 billion more each year.
Today, in inflation-adjusted terms, Indiana spends less per student on K-12 education than we did in 2010. One result is that the average college graduate working in one of Indiana’s public schools is paid less than they were in 2004. On top of that, Indiana’s proposed high school curriculum will make it among the weakest in the nation.
I understand that it is very difficult for state policymakers to improve educational outcomes. There’s no silver bullet and never has been one. But the surest and quickest way to reduce educational attainment is to cut budgets and standards. To put it in perspective, if spending on K-12 had grown as fast as our slow-growing economy, we’d spend $1.7 billion more per year.
The policy failure is simply this: At a time when global economic growth is almost entirely centered on highly educated adults, Indiana chose to cut funding to education across the board. Had Indiana simply spent the same share of its total economy on K-12 education today as we did in 2010, per-student funding would be about $1,650 higher. Had we spent the same on higher education, there’d be an additional $1,300 each year for every 18-to-24-year-old to pursue postsecondary education.
It is ironic that most of the budget shift went to programs that mitigate the effects of poverty and poor educational attainment — at the expense of spending that prevents it. A result of those policy choices are the worst two decades of state economic growth since the Great Depression, a state that is relatively poorer than it was in 2010, with fewer businesses and worsening long-term economic prospects. The gap between Indiana and the rest of the nation is steadily widening.
Indiana’s flagging economy was not caused by the Indiana Economic Development Corp., and it cannot be reversed by anything the IEDC does or does not do. No LEAP District or READI grant or any other policy will pull us out of our slow growth economy. No amount of cheerleading, foreign visits, tax incentives or happy stories about capital investment records will make any difference to Indiana’s economy.
The choice is clear. Either Indiana gets a lot more kids to finish college each year or it gets used to slow growth, declining relative incomes, fewer businesses, wage declines and economic stagnation.
Michael J. Hicks, Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Contact him at [email protected].
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
Suspicious packages prompt Memorial Hall evacuation, FBI probe: A newly released report spotlighted the quality of care received by minor children and youth in the custody of Kansas’ child welfare system, as the state seeks to meet compliance objectives stemming from a lawsuit settlement.(Resnick, State Affairs)
Wichita’s new water plant is millions over budget and delayed: Wichita’s new water treatment plant is on track to be finished six months late and $20 million over the original budget — in part because of drought conditions in south-central Kansas.
An Emerson College poll finds Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Braun leading Democrat Jennifer McCormick 45%-35%, with Attorney General Todd Rokita besting Destiny Wells by a similar margin. More news below. — Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs
Poll: Republicans lead statewide races but trail Trump— Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun and other statewide GOP candidates have solid leads among likely voters but are significantly trailing Donald Trump in support, according to an independent poll released Tuesday. (Davies, State Affairs)
Holcomb breaks ground on ‘transformational’ I-69 Ohio River Crossing in Evansville: The three-section, overall I-69 Ohio River Crossing project is intended to provide interstate cross-river connectivity to ease traffic congestion while boosting safety for motorists. (Langhorne, Courier & Press)
Indiana secretary of state’s office receives suspicious ‘powdery substance’: Indiana Secretary of State employees on Tuesday reported getting a “suspicious” envelope containing a “powdery substance.” Similar reports have cropped up in numerous states. (Muñiz, Indiana Capital Chronicle)
Morales says 90% of eligible voters registered: Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales says over 90% of eligible Hoosiers are registered to vote and that the state’s voter registration rate continues to grow. (Snape, WRBI-FM)
Indiana coalition rolls out plan to develop up to 50,000 high school apprenticeships: A group of nearly 200 Hoosier leaders released a plan to develop a statewide apprenticeship-pathway program for potentially tens of thousands of high schoolers to work in four key industries. (Charron, IBJ)
Federal judge rules Indiana inmate can receive gender-affirming surgery: A federal judge on Tuesday issued an order that will require the Indiana Department of Corrections to provide a transgender inmate with gender-affirming surgery. (Colombo, IndyStar)
NRC seeks public comment on proposed bobcat trapping rules: The Indiana Natural Resources Commission announced it has opened public comment for proposed changes to allow the limited, regulated trapping of bobcats, pointing to research by the Department of Natural Resources and Purdue University. (Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs)
Purdue says it will work to bring vote center to campus: Purdue University officials, facing blowback over the lack of vote center locations on campus, said Tuesday that they were working with the Tippecanoe County election board to identify voting sites. (Bangert, Based in Lafayette)
LOCAL
22 people shot since Friday in Indianapolis: Community leaders, like Rev. Dr. Charles Harrison, of the Ten Point Coalition, say it’s a troubling trend happening in communities across the city. (Campbell, WTHR-TV)
Bristol officials address concerns about proposed $1B data center: Residents expressed concerns over the impact on property values, infrastructure and sound levels during a public meeting in Bristol to discuss a proposed $1 billion data center. (WSBT-TV)
Breeze Airways adding new service between South Bend and Washington, D.C.: Breeze Airways announced Tuesday it will add new service between South Bend International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport starting Nov. 8. (Semmler, South Bend Tribune)
Developer secures financing for Gibson Solar project: Arizona-based Arevon Energy Inc. said it has secured $351 million in financing for its solar project in Gibson County which is expected to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of more than 30,000 homes annually. (Brown, Inside Indiana Business)
Vanderburgh County sheriff’s pension plan comes up short: Vanderburgh County is currently on a state watch list due to lack of funding for the sheriff’s office pension plan. (Loesch, Courier & Press)
Portland City Council meeting turns contentious over employee complaint policy: Portland City Council member Matt Goldsworthy and Mayor Jeff Westlake got into a back-and-forth at the conclusion of a meeting following a question regarding the handling of employee complaints. (The Commercial Review)
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Lucas visits Springfield, Ohio, plans to file immigration legislation: State Rep. Jim Lucas, R- Seymour, said claims of immigrants eating pets are a “distraction to take away from the larger problem of just the volume, the amount of people that are being dumped and flooded into these communities, overwhelming their social structures.” (Carloni, IndyStar)
Q&A with new state Senator Daryl Schmitt: Newly sworn-in state Sen. Daryl Schmitt, R-Jasper, met with Mitzi S. Morris of Inside Indiana Business to discuss his background and the issues he is most passionate about.
Today: Child services study committee to meet — A notice announced the Interim Study Committee on Child Services will meet at 10 a.m. in the House Chamber at the Statehouse. (Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs)
CONGRESS
Young joins legislation to expand penalties for attacking pipelines: Indiana U.S. Sen. Todd Young announced he joined with other Senate Republicans to introduce legislation that would “deter domestic eco-terrorists from targeting pipelines that transport oil and gas in the U.S. by expanding the current criminal penalties to cover vandalism, tampering with, or disrupting the operations or construction of a pipeline.” (Howey Politics Indiana/State Affairs)
Braun, Young oppose failed IVF legislation: Senate Republicans blocked a Democrat-backed bill on in vitro fertilization as the bill failed to garner the 60 votes necessary in the procedural vote, failing 51 to 44. Indiana’s GOP Sens. Young and Mike Braun opposed the measure. (Fox)
Bucshon calls vaccine access for children, elderly ‘critically important’: “We need to get back to a normal place where we understand that vaccination has really changed the world,” U.S. Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., said during an event sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Pathology. (The Hill)
Congressional schedule: The House will meet at 10 a.m. with legislative business beginning at noon and first and last votes by 3 p.m. Numerous proposals may be considered. The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.with multiple committees holding hearings, including Intelligence, which will “examine foreign threats to elections in 2024, focusing on roles and responsibilities of U.S. tech providers.”
CAMPAIGNS
Speaker Johnson stumps for Niemeyer in Gary: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., visited Gary on Monday to stump for Republican Randy Niemeyer at a campaign event in Indiana’s 1st Congressional District. (Carloni, IndyStar)
Banks: ‘This rhetoric on the left has to come to a stop’ — U.S. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told Tony Kinnett at WIBC-FM that the man alleged to have intended to assassinate Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago is “obviously a radical left-wing Democrat who’s bought the line of the Democrats and the Kamala Harris campaign narrative that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.”
PRESIDENTIAL 2024
Trump floats easing cap on state and local tax deductions: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that he wanted to reverse — not extend — a crucial piece of the tax law he signed in 2017, the state and local tax deduction that Trump and Republicans capped at $10,000 per return. (The Wall Street Journal)
Harris calls for end to war in Gaza, no Israeli reoccupation: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris called on Tuesday for an end to the Israel-Gaza war and said that Israel must not reoccupy the Palestinian enclave once the nearly year-old conflict comes to an end. (Reuters)
46% of Republicans, 27% of Democrats say they won’t accept election results if candidate loses: Nearly half of Republicans, and about a quarter of Democrats, say they won’t accept the results of the presidential election if their candidate loses, and some of them say they would “take action to overturn” the results, according to data released Tuesday. (USA Today)
NATION
Pence talks democracy, Jan. 6 during address at Middle Tennessee State University: “When that day came three years ago, I think of the oath I took to the American people and almighty God,” former Vice President Mike Pence said. “It was by God’s grace I did my duty that day, and it was a great honor to do so. On. Jan. 6, President Trump was wrong. I had no right to reject votes.” (WTVF-TV)
Today: Fed rate cut expected —The Federal Reserve is poised to cut rates for the first time in years in a decision that will be heavily scrutinized. (The Wall Street Journal)
White House schedule: President Joe Biden will host a reception in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at 5 p.m. Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference.
The U.S. Senate this week confirmed federal prosecutor Kevin Ritz of Memphis to serve on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a largely partisan 48-46 vote. Tennessee Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood and Bill Hagerty of Nashville both voted no.
Blackburn, a Senate Judiciary Committee member, complained she wasn’t properly consulted by the Biden administration about the appointment. She also raised questions over some of Ritz’s actions as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Tennessee. And the sometimes-fiery lawmaker alleged Ritz’s appointment came about as part of a “backroom deal.”
Ritz succeeds Appeals Judge Julia S. Gibbons, a Memphis Republican. The court hears appeals from federal district courts in Tennessee, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Gibbons has taken senior status. Ritz, 49, clerked for Gibbons in 2005 shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Before he was confirmed in 2022 as U.S. Attorney, Ritz was an assistant federal prosecutor and served as appellate chief and special counsel to the then-U.S. attorney.
Blackburn and Hagerty supported Ritz’s nomination for U.S. attorney at the time. But that changed with an appeals court seat in the balance. During a prior Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April, Blackburn charged that Ritz was “a man whose lack of professional ethics unquestionably disqualifies him from federal judicial service.”
Blackburn questioned Ritz about an ethical misconduct charge filed against him during his time as an assistant United States attorney. She said the defense counsel had accused Ritz of misrepresenting charges during a plea agreement in a criminal case 16 years ago.
Ritz said he was never made aware that any ethics complaint had been filed against him with the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Nor, he said, was he aware of any official finding in the matter and he also asserted he never behaved unethically in the case and that the allegations were false.
“I’ve had a career, senator, of a clean ethical record,” Ritz said to Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Illinois.
Durbin went on to defend Ritz, saying that in such cases the official might not be informed of the issue if the office determines it’s meritless on its face, is beyond the office’s jurisdiction or there is no evidence supporting it.
Blackburn also asked Ritz why his office hadn’t brought federal gun charges against an 18-year-old man allegedly involved in the fatal shooting of Memphis Police Officer Joseph McKinney on April 12.
Jaylen Lobley was facing related firearms counts at the state level following his arrest in March and had been released on bond. Lobley was then allegedly involved in a shootout where he and McKinney were killed, authorities said.
Ritz said his office had accepted the state case for potential federal prosecution nine days before the shootout.
“We were diligently investigating that case,” Ritz told Blackburn. She said Ritz’s predecessor would have acted more quickly to bring charges.
Blackburn also wanted to know why a Tennessee state flag had been removed from his office. Ritz tried to explain that he didn’t want to give the impression that federal prosecutors were speaking on behalf of the state. Blackburn cut him off as he answered.
Blackburn also complained the Senate no longer required “blue slips” be signed by home-state senators before appellate judgeship nominees could be considered. Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, R-Illinois, noted that his predecessor, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, had eliminated blue slip requirements for appellate judges in 2017, shortly after Republican Donald Trump became president. The blue slips still exist for nominations for federal district court judicial candidates.
Durbin voiced openness to reinstating them but added it would be done only before the Nov. 5 general election with the contest between Trump and Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, still up in the air.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, the lone Democrat in Tennessee’s federal House and Senate delegation, recommended Ritz for the nomination.
“I’ve never known a judicial nominee to receive more praise from both Democrats and Republicans,” Cohen said in a social media post after Monday’s confirmation vote.
“My opinion on that right now matters very little, because I don’t get to make that decision.”
Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, on his position on abortion. (The Charlotte Observer, 9/17/24)
Abortion Opinion
Mary Ramsey, The Charlotte Observer, 9/17/24
After months of questions about his position on abortion, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson said Tuesday his “opinion on that right now matters very little.”
The Republican governor candidate addressed Charlotte-area business and civic leaders Tuesday at a luncheon hosted by the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club, where he shared his thoughts on the economy, public education and, when asked, abortion.
Robinson for years supported a “heartbeat” bill, which would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, the Raleigh News & Observer reported previously. But in an August campaign ad, he says, “I stand by (North Carolina’s) current law,” which bans abortions, with exceptions, after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Then in an interview last week with WSOC-TV, Robinson said he would sign a 6-week abortion ban if elected governor. On Tuesday, Robinson said he considers the state of North Carolina’s law settled because there is “consensus” around a 12-week ban with exceptions for survivors of rape and/or incest.
“I don’t get to decide this by myself … When I was a social media influencer, guess what mattered? My opinion. When I was an activist, guess what mattered? The group that I was an activist for. As an elected official, guess what I have to go with? I have to go with consensus,” he said.
Robinson said the issue of abortion is brought up in elections to “to move away from” topics such as the economy and immigration. Any potential changes to the state’s law are in the hands of state representatives, “and what they decide, we can sign,” he said. “It is time for us to move on, folks. We dealt with that issue. The people have spoken here in this state,” he said. “My opinion on that right now matters very little, because I don’t get to make that decision.”
Robinson also was asked Tuesday by an audience member to explain his comment on a 2019 Facebook livestream that abortion “is about killing the child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.” Democratic nominee Josh Stein’s campaign has used the clip in ads this election cycle. On Tuesday, Robinson said the ads edited him out of context by cutting out the rest of the line, where he said “or your pants up.”
“I was speaking about abortion on demand,” he said.
Asked about Robinson’s comments, Stein’s campaign referred an Observer reporter to a statement issued after the WSOC interview. “It’s become crystal clear that the only thing Robinson wants more than a total abortion ban is for North Carolina voters to not know the truth about it,” spokeswoman Morgan Hopkins said. “In 50 days, voters will reject his extremism once and for all.”
Asked about past allegations of antisemitism, Robinson said Tuesday he’s not a Holocaust denier. He’s been criticized previously for a past Facebook post that called reports of the Holocaust “hogwash” and other comments on social media, as well as a 2019 podcast appearance when he appeared to endorse the host’s conspiracy theory that Jewish bankers are one of the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
On Tuesday, he called the claims “despicable” and said he stood with Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that set off the latest war in the region despite getting “kicked in the teeth” for it politically. Robinson said he visited Israel after the events of Oct. 7, describing the trip as a “life-changing experience.”
Robinson also pushed back on ads run by Stein’s campaign criticizing him for a daycare he and his wife ran. State officials cited the Precious Beginnings Child Development Center in Greensboro, owned by Robinson’s wife, for several violations in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Robinson said Tuesday the daycare was “one of the proudest moments of our lives” and said the commercial uses footage not of his daycare and interviews with people who weren’t connected to the child care facility. The campaigns’ lawyers have exchanged letters on the ads previously. Lawyers for Robinson’s campaign wrote the ad includes “false attacks” and called for Stein’s campaign to stop airing them. Stein’s lawyers defended the ad in their response. [Source]
Coastal Flooding
The Associated Press, 9/17/24
Parts of southeastern North Carolina were still underwater Tuesday after a storm that wasn’t quite organized enough to get a name dropped historic amounts of rain on an area that has suffered floods of a lifetime at least four other times in the past 25 years.
The flash flooding closed dozens of roads in Brunswick County, including U.S. Highway 17, which is the main coastal route. Floodwaters swamped the highway at several points for most of the day, trapping some drivers on high ground that became an island.
Emergency workers brought food and water to people as they waited for the waters to recede, Brunswick County emergency officials said. No deaths were reported but dozens of roads in the county were damaged and many washed out.
Monday’s deluge centered on Carolina Beach south of Wilmington, where more than 18 inches of rain fell in 12 hours. That amount of rain in that period of time qualifies as a so-called 1,000-year flood expected only once in a that era, meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington said.
Several blocks of the coastal town were flooded to the bottom of car doors for hours Monday as the system, known as Potential Tropical Cyclone No. 8, never organized enough to become the eighth named tropical storm of the season, Helene.
The rain from the system had moved into southeast Virginia on Tuesday. Along North Carolina’s Outer Banks, the storm closed vulnerable coastal highway North Carolina 12 on Ocracoke Island and threatened several homes in Rodanthe, where erosion and rising sea levels have destroyed more than a half-dozen beachfront homes this decade.
The Atlantic hurricane season continues through the end of November.
In an updated hurricane outlook last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was still predicting a highly active season thanks to near-record sea surface temperatures and the possibility of La Nina. Emergency management officials have urged people to stay prepared.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Gordon remained a tropical depression as it swirled through open ocean waters. Gordon could either dissolve in upcoming days or strengthen back into a tropical storm, forecasters said.
Drug Costs
Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi, The News & Observer, 9/17/24
In an unconventional alliance, Republican North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell spoke at a discussion forum Tuesday held by progressive U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the high cost in the United States of popular weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Saxenda.
The State Health Plan voted in January to no longer cover Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist medications for weight loss starting in April. This left thousands of state employees without access to these popular and effective medications. The SHP has cited unsustainable costs as the reason for the cut.
Sanders said Novo Nordisk — the Danish manufacturer of GLP-1 drugs Wegovy, Saxenda and Ozempic — charges Americans with Type 2 diabetes $969 a month for Ozempic. In contrast, the same drug can be purchased for $59 in Germany, $71 in France, $122 in Denmark and $155 in Canada, Sanders said during an expert roundtable event on Capitol Hill, which was live-streamed on his social media.
Sanders was speaking about the list price and not the net price, or the final price of a product after discounts, all taxes and other costs have been taken into consideration.
Folwell said that “this is not a Republican, Democrat, unaffiliated, Libertarian issue” but “a moral issue when people cannot afford the drug they need to take advantage of this.” Folwell is a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for governor. He is capping off his last year as the state’s treasurer.
“We never questioned the efficacy of this drug. We’re simply questioning what we’re having to pay for it,” he said, adding that if the SHP had continued covering these drugs, it would have had to double the individual premiums on state employees. He also cited the recent coverage by Medicaid of these drugs, saying that he’s asked “them what they’re paying for it, and no one will tell me what they’re paying for it”
NC Medicaid started covering FDA-approved obesity management medications for beneficiaries 12 and older on Aug 1. For the added Medicaid coverage, a public notice posted on July 10 on DHHS’ website says that the change will cost the state more than $21 million in 2025 and over $15 million in 2026.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next week. This committee is chaired by Sanders. [Source]
Campaign Dispute
Steve Harrison, WFAE Radio, 9/17/24
North Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs, a Democrat, has released a new campaign commercial in which she says she will protect abortion rights. A spokesman for her Republican opponent, Jefferson Griffin, an appellate court judge, says justices shouldn’t be commenting on issues that may appear before the court. Riggs said she has long been a proponent of abortion rights.
Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights has been one of the Democratic Party’s best issues. A year later, Wisconsin Democrat Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state Supreme Court after campaigning heavily on protecting abortion rights. In North Carolina, Riggs — who Gov. Roy Cooper appointed to the court a year ago — is taking a similar approach.
She narrates her first ad: “I’m Justice Allison Riggs. At 43, I’m the youngest woman to serve on the state Supreme Court and the only one serving during my childbearing years. As women, we should be in charge of our own reproductive health care, but our rights are at risk. Mark Robinson says he wants to ban abortion with no exceptions, and my opponent could decide if his ban becomes law. I’ll fight for your rights, protecting families like mine and yours.”
The state’s Code of Judicial Conduct says judges should “abstain from public comment about the merits of a pending proceeding in any state or federal court dealing with a case or controversy arising in North Carolina.”
In an interview with WFAE last year, Riggs said she planned to talk about abortion rights — but do so in a way that did not violate the code of conduct.
Riggs’ campaign referred questions about the code of conduct to a news release that accompanied the launch of the ad.
“The contrast between Justice Riggs and her opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, should tell North Carolinian women everything they need to know about who will protect their rights on our state’s highest court,” said Embry Owen.
“Justice Riggs has been outspoken about guarding reproductive freedoms. By contrast, Judge Griffin signed onto a judicial opinion just last year, since withdrawn, that stated ‘life begins at conception.’ Similarly flawed legal logic was used by the Alabama Supreme Court, resulting in the loss of women’s access to IVF treatment, and it was used by the Texas Supreme Court to greenlight the criminalization of miscarriage care,” Owen said.
Paul Shumaker, a consultant for Griffin, said the ad “crosses a line set by the Code of Judicial Conduct.” He called the ad a “new low” and said: “She is showing she believes judges should make the law from the bench instead of interpreting our existing laws.” [Source]
AI Ads
Laura Leslie, WRAL News, 9/17/24
A fully AI-generated campaign ad will begin airing next week on broadcast, cable and streaming services. It’s believed to be the first of its kind to appear on the state’s airwaves. It features a parody version of Republican candidate Mark Robinson, uttering statements the candidate has actually made in other venues, from social media to religious services.
Its creator, Democratic donor Todd Stiefel, wants to draw voters’ attention to those statements by using AI to recreate Robinson saying them. He started his own political action committee Americans for Prosparody, which he says is on track to spend about $1 million on this campaign.
“He really said the civil rights movement is crap,” Stiefel said. “He really said and believes the Affordable Care Act is an effort to enslave people. These are really outrageous, hard things.”
Stiefel — a Raleigh investor who, according to state campaign finance records, has donated at least $19,000 to Stein’s campaigns since 2016 — made headlines last year with a parody website, “Mark Rottenson,” which featured a synthesized voice reading made-up quotes from an imaginary memoir.
Robinson spokesman Mike Lonergan on Tuesday criticized Stiefel for those earlier attacks. “Stiefel’s work is full of fake clips and outrageous lies typical of the smear campaign Josh Stein and his Democrat allies are running against Mark Robinson, and North Carolina voters will see right through it,” Lonergan said.
Stein, the state’s sitting attorney general and the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, has been highly critical of Robinson in the past, but his campaign took Robinson’s side in February criticizing the “Mark Rottenson” push for its use of AI, a position it reiterated on Tuesday.
“Using AI in campaign advertising is the wrong approach,” Stein campaign manager Jeff Allen said in an emailed statement that also criticized Robinson’s stances on abortion and education funding.
Stiefel said his latest ad campaign is taking a different approach. “We realized so many people weren’t getting who we were referencing that we kind of had to pivot over to Mark Robinson more directly,” Stiefel told WRAL News. He’s hoping the new ads, which he described as “over the top,” can reach voters who tune out most other political ads.
Using AI in a campaign ad is not against any law at the federal or state level. [Source]
Elections Official
Jacob Biba, Asheville Citizen Times, 9/17/24
A Henderson County elections official admonished last month by the N.C. State Board of Elections for allegedly spreading misinformation about the state’s voter and ballot verification processes and advocating for the Republican party, will remain on the county’s board of elections, causing some fear among voters that their votes won’t be counted.
At an emergency meeting on Sept. 16, the Henderson County Board of Elections addressed voter concerns the board and county elections staff fielded following reporting by news outlets regarding the August email Linda Rebuck, a Republican member of the county’s board of elections. The email, sent to nearly 30 Republican state lawmakers, falsely claimed that a statewide effort to undermine the 2024 election in favor of Democrats was underway.
“I want to strongly state my belief that if you do not intervene immediately either legislatively or legally, we are going to lose NC to the Dems in November which will likely mean we lose the country,” Rebuck wrote in the email, identifying herself as a member of the county’s board of elections. “The responsibility will be yours, one way or the other.”
During the Sept. 16 meeting, Clay Eddleman, the county Board of Elections Democratic chair, told the approximately 70 people in attendance that he had a Sept. 12 conference call with State Board attorneys, who Eddleman said described Rebuck’s claims as “right on the edge” of violating state law.
In an email to the Citizen Times, Patrick Gannon, spokesperson for the State Board, confirmed Eddleman’s account.
In August, Rebuck’s email, which also expressed fear that people who aren’t U.S. citizens will be able to vote in this year’s election and that the State Board isn’t following state and federal law in the ballot verification process for military and overseas citizen voters, was met with a lengthy rebuke from Karen Brinson Bell, the State Board’s executive director.
In an emailed response to Rebuck sent Aug. 25, Brinson Bell said Rebuck’s email to lawmakers contained statements that were false and misleading, and its partisan tone might even violate provisions under state law barring state and county board of elections members from publicly supporting or opposing a specific candidate.
“Whether or not the statements violate these provisions, it undermines the public’s confidence in the fair administration of elections if their elections officials are widely communicating their desire for a particular outcome in an election they oversee,” Bell wrote.
During the meeting Eddleman said that Brinson Bell’s response to Rebuck’s email, which was sent to all 100 county elections board directors and five State Elections Board members, was not intended to spur any further investigation that could have led to Rebuck’s removal, which can only be executed by the State Board. Instead, it was meant to be a “cautionary warning” to elections officials across the state to be “mindful of partisan activities, including written and oral statements.”
Rebuck didn’t appear to agree, claiming Brinson Bell “doxed” her by responding to her concerns via email. Rebuck also said she received “weird and threatening phone calls and emails” since news outlets, including the Citizen Times, published stories about her claims and the State Board’s response to them. “Responding to an email is not doxing,” Gannon, the State Board spokesperson, said in a Sept. 16 email to the Citizen Times. “It is extremely unfortunate if Ms. Rebuck has received unpleasant communications as a result of this situation, and we ask members of the public to refrain from harassing or threatening election officials in any way and at any time.”
Gannon added that the State Board is “reaching out to the county to ensure that any harassing or threatening communications are promptly reported to law enforcement.”
Rebuck’s original email, which included her personal email address and telephone number, was not included in Brinson Bell’s response to Rebuck and the state’s county elections directors and State Board members, according to Gannon.
“Executive Director Brinson Bell did not send Ms. Rebuck’s original letter in her reply, but Ms. Rebuck’s email became a public record as soon as it entered the inbox of a public employee — whether at the county level or the state level,” Gannon said. “If someone requests that email, the State Board is obligated by law to provide it, as are the county boards of elections.”
It’s unclear exactly how the State Board first became aware of Rebuck’s email, but according to a thread of emails obtained by the Citizen Times, Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, Henderson Republican, forwarded Rebuck’s email to Republican Rep. Brian Biggs, who then forwarded the email to Melissa Kirstner, the Randolph County Board of Elections director. Kirstner forwarded the email to Gannon, seeking guidance on how to respond to Biggs. [Source]
Governor’s Debate
Brian Murphy, WRAL News, 9/17/24
Gubernatorial nominees Josh Stein and Mark Robinson will not meet for a televised debate, Stein’s campaign said rebuffing a challenge from Robinson on Tuesday.
Stein, the state’s Democratic attorney general, leads Robinson, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor, in recent polling. A recent WRAL News Poll found Stein leading Robinson 51% to 37% in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, in line with other polling in the closely watched race.
“Well, Josh Stein, you like to misconstrue my Facebook posts on television, you like to lie about the wonderful daycare center that my wife and I ran, one of the proudest moments of my life, but will you debate me on television?” Robinson said in a video posted on social media. Robinson said he had agreed to a debate on Spectrum News and said he offered several other dates for a potential meeting with Stein.
Stein’s campaign quickly shot down the idea of a televised debate between the candidates.
“Mark Robinson has spent his entire public life spewing hate, lying about his record, and spreading dangerous and false conspiracy theories,” Stein campaign spokeswoman Kate Frauenfelder said in a statement. “A debate would only serve to legitimize him and provide a platform for his vile and dangerous rhetoric, and we won’t be part of that.”
Cooper and Republican nominee Dan Forest, then the state’s lieutenant governor, debated once during the 2020 campaign. Cooper and then-Gov. Pat McCrory debated twice in 2016, including on Oct. 11. [Source]
Morrow Twitter
Matthew Sockol, WNCN News, 9/17/24
Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, is drawing fire from Democratic opponent Mo Green over comments she made about the LGBTQ+ community.
Monday evening, a Democratic supporter asked Morrow on X for her thoughts on charter schools not having guidelines. The question was in response to a former teacher at a Burke County charter school being sentenced for several sex crimes against children.
Morrow replied she would keep all students in every school as state superintendent by working with the North Carolina General Assembly to enforce mandatory background checks for every public school staff member and immediately suspend the license of those arrested for crimes against children. She argued Green would not keep students safe because he is endorsed by an LGBTQ+ equality organization.
“Mo Green has stated the Parental Bill of Rights ‘Does more harm than good’ and he states he is ‘proudly endorsed’ by Equality NC, whose mission statement is to promote LGBTQ+ power,” Morrow wrote. “Newsflash…the ‘+’ includes PEDOPH*L*A!! Mo Green will NOT keep our children safe!”
Green’s campaign responded to Morrow’s comments the following day, calling her “wrong”, “hateful”, and “bullying vulnerable students, staff, and families across North Carolina.”
“Every child deserves to learn, and every staff member deserves to work, in an environment that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive,” Green said in a statement. “Politicians like Morrow use schools as battlegrounds for their culture wars and it’s simply unacceptable. We have to be focused on the very real education challenges in front of us, such as getting a well-paid teacher in every classroom and addressing the shortage of mental health professionals who support the well-being of our students.” Green’s campaign also cited a national survey that reported 90% of LGBTQ+ youth said “recent politics” have taken a negative toll on their overall well-being.
“Michele Morrow’s bullying hurts vulnerable children,” Green’s campaign said in a statement. “She would be a dangerous state Superintendent of Public Instruction.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Morrow’s X post remains up. [Source]
AG Commercials
Steve Harrison, WFAE Radio, 9/17/24
The race for North Carolina attorney general between Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson and Republican Congressman Dan Bishop has begun in earnest, at least on TV. Jackson’s commercial is running in Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.
Jackson had planned to start running the biography ads next week, but his campaign moved them up in response to a negative commercial launched Tuesday by the Republican Attorneys General Association. It highlights an increase in homicides in Charlotte, and says Jackson won’t keep North Carolina safe.
The Republican Attorneys General Association had spent roughly $1 million in the Democratic primary to elevate Jackson’s more progressive opponent, Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry. She lost the race.
The candidates have millions more to spend on ads, but Jackson has raised more than Bishop. He had $5.7 million left to spend at the end of June, compared with $2.6 million for Bishop. [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.
Training Records
Gary D. Robertson, The Associated Press, 9/17/24
A North Carolina appeals court on Tuesday overturned a former county sheriff’s fraud and obstruction convictions, declaring allegations related to falsifying his firearms training requirements didn’t meet the necessary elements for those crimes.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals vacated the convictions against Brindell Wilkins on six counts of obstruction of justice and also reversed a trial judge’s decision refusing to dismiss six counts of obtaining property by false pretenses, for which a jury also found him guilty in December 2022. The ruling comes seven months after a subordinate to Wilkins had his obstruction convictions related to the training overturned.
Wilkins, the Granville County sheriff for 10 years until 2019, was sentenced from six to 17 months behind bars. Last year, Wilkins pleaded guilty to other charges unrelated to the allegations and received another prison sentence. State correction records show Wilkins was projected to be released from a state prison on Dec. 23.
The 2022 convictions stemmed from accusations that Wilkins falsified records to make it appear he completed the annual in-service firearm training required of most certified law enforcement officers and met qualifications to carry a firearm. A sheriff isn’t required to maintain certification or complete the training requirements, Tuesday’s opinion said.
Still, over several years in the 2010s, Wilkins reported to the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Division that he had completed the training and classes when he hadn’t done so. A 2019 investigation of the Granville sheriff department found that Wilkins’ signatures on class rosters had been falsified.
Chad Coffey, a former Granville deputy on trial on similar obstruction counts, was the course instructor. Coffey doctored records and fabricated firearms scores for Wilkins and the sheriff’s chief deputy at their urging, according to evidence at his early 2022 trial.
At his own trial, Wilkins acknowledged he had not completed the training or requalification since becoming sheriff, and testified he submitted the false records for “a personal reason” and that he “wanted to get credit for it,” Tuesday’s opinion said.
Court of Appeals Judge Toby Hampson, writing the unanimous opinion, agreed with Wilkins that prosecutors had failed to prove that fraud was committed.
The count of obtaining property by false pretenses requires a false representation occurred that deceives so that “one person obtains or attempts to obtain value from another.” But Hampson wrote nothing was obtained because the sheriff already had received certification to become a law enforcement officer when he was previously a sheriff’s deputy.
“We conclude that renewing a previously acquired law enforcement certification does not constitute obtaining property,” Hampson said.
As for the felony obstruction of justice charges, Hampson relied heavily on the February opinion he also wrote that overturned Coffey’s convictions. At that time, Hampson wrote obstruction of justice requires intent for “the purpose of hindering or impeding a judicial or official proceeding or investigation or potential investigation, which might lead to a judicial or official proceeding.”
He said there were no facts asserted in Coffey’s indictment to support the charge that his actions were designed to subvert a future investigation or proceeding. The same held true with Wilkins’ “nearly identical indictment,” Hampson wrote on Tuesday.
Court of Appeals Judges Hunter Murphy and April Wood joined in Hampson’s opinion. The state Supreme Court could agree to hear Tuesday’s decision on appeal. But the justices earlier this year already declined to take on Coffey’s case, even though both attorneys for the state and Coffey asked them to do so. In October 2023, Wilkins pleaded guilty to several other counts related in part to allegations of improper evidence practices and that he urged someone to kill another former deputy. [Source]
Voter Registrations
Michael Hyland, WNCN News, 9/17/24
With less than 50 days to go until the general election, events occurred across North Carolina Tuesday to coincide with National Voter Registration Day as the state is poised to play a crucial role in determining who wins the White House. North Carolina is seeing an uptick in registrations as the election draws closer.
Last week, registrations increased by about 19,000, according to the N.C. State Board of Elections. Of those, about 55 percent of people registered as unaffiliated.
Since the 2020 election, there have been some significant changes in voter registration data. Unaffiliated voters now outnumber registered Democrats and Republicans, comprising 37.7 percent of the electorate. About 31.5 percent of voters are registered Democrats and 29.9 percent are registered Republicans.
The number of registered Democrats has decreased by about 213,000 while the number of registered Republicans has increased by about 52,000 and the number of unaffiliated voters jumped by more than 430,000. [Source]
Mission Health CEO
Jacob Biba, Asheville Citizen Times, 9/17/24
Chad Patrick is out as Mission Health’s top executive. HCA Healthcare-owned Mission Hospital announced on Sept. 16 that Greg Lowe, the President of HCA’s North Carolina Division, will replace Patrick, who became Mission’s CEO in 2019, following HCA’s purchase of the former nonprofit hospital system for $1.5 billion.
Patrick will serve as CEO of HCA Orange Park Hospital in Florida, according to Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell. It’s a position Patrick previously held.
“This change will streamline administrative structure to better support Mission Hospital and facilitate more direct communication between leadership, medical staff and colleagues,” Lindell said in a Sept. 17 email to the Citizen Times. “This restructuring will be significant in driving action-oriented responses to feedback and providing direct access to the vast resources and support of HCA Healthcare.” Asheville Watchdog first reported the leadership change, citing a Sept. 16 email Lowe sent to Mission staff.
Patrick is leaving as HCA and Mission are the target of numerous lawsuits, including a federal antitrust lawsuit by the City of Asheville, Buncombe County and other local governments, and a lawsuit by N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein claiming Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA has failed to comply with the terms of Mission’s 2019 sale.
In June, Mission announced that it had been found compliant with health and safety rules after the hospital was placed under an “immediate jeopardy” status by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in December 2023, following patient deaths and other threats to patients CMS discovered. Immediate jeopardy, which can result in the loss of Medicare payments to a hospital, is the most serious designation federal regulators can assign.
“Regardless of changes in management, nurses at Mission Hospital are hopeful HCA will settle a strong contract quickly for the benefit of nurses, our patients, and the entire Asheville community,” Kelly Coward, a registered nurse at Mission Hospital told the Citizen Times Sept 17 via email. “We’re unfortunately no strangers to staffing changes and turnover because of the staffing crisis at our facility, which is why fighting for safe staffing remains a top priority for us.”
Additionally, the hospital is in the middle of contract negotiations with its unionized registered nurses over pay, staffing and safety. Earlier this month, the nurses, represented by National Nurses United, voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, which could be used to pressure the health system to meet nurses’ demands. [Source]
Raleigh Amphitheater
Richard Stradling, The News & Observer, 9/17/24
A block of South Street will close in downtown Raleigh early next year to make way for a new Red Hat Amphitheater. The City Council voted Tuesday to close the street between Dawson and McDowell streets as part of a plan to replace the music venue and expand the Raleigh Convention Center.
The vote was unanimous, despite opposition from nearby residents who consider South Street an important connector between downtown and the Boylan Heights neighborhood and Dorothea Dix Park.
City staff didn’t give council members much choice. They said closing South Street was the only way to build a new venue that is comparable in size to the existing one and within the city’s budget of $40 million.
“The closure of South Street is not desirable,” said council member Jane Harrison, whose district includes the street. “But I’m willing to support it today to ensure that Red Hat remains downtown in years to come.”
The vote was met with applause from a room packed with the amphitheater’s supporters, many of whom wore red T-shirts that said some variation of “Save Red Hat.” Many had ties to businesses who say the crowds the amphitheater brings downtown have been a godsend, particularly as the center city recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. [Source]
Filter Costs
Paul Woolverton, CityView, 9/16/24
It’s now expected to cost almost $111.2 million for the Fayetteville Public Works Commission to build a filter system to extract PFAS “forever chemicals” from its drinking water, according to PWC documents. This is $30.2 million more than a previous estimate of $80 million.
The PWC is Fayetteville’s city-owned water, sewer and electricity utility. It serves Fayetteville and nearby communities. The PWC’s customers pay its expenses through their bills.
The $111.2 million price includes anticipated inflation as the construction advances over the next several years, said Cory Hopkins, a senior associate for engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer, during the PWC commissioners’ Sept. 11 meeting. Also, Hopkins said, labor, material and equipment costs are rising, and there’s growing demand for contractors.
Another factor in the new price stems from a need to increase the water treatment capacity of the Glenville Lake water treatment plant, Hopkins said, from the current 18 million gallons per day to 24 million gallons per day. The PWC has another water treatment plant on the Cape Fear River.
PFAS chemicals are man-made substances known as “forever chemicals” because they are slow to break down in the environment. They have been used in many everyday consumer, industrial and commercial products for decades. In southeastern North Carolina, GenX is a well-known PFAS chemical because, for years, the Chemours factory south of Fayetteville contaminated the Cape Fear River and nearby drinking water wells with that substance.
The Environmental Protection Agency in April ordered drinking water utilities to begin removing PFAS from their supplies. The EPA says PFAS chemicals may increase cancer risks, may decrease fertility and cause high blood pressure in pregnant women, weaken the immune system and cause other health issues. Drinking water utilities are required to have their filters or other means to decrease PFAS contaminants in place by 2029. [Source]
Piedmont Natural Gas said Monday it has reached an agreement with consumer and industrial groups in North Carolina that represents an average rate increase of $7.50 per month. In April, PNG requested an average annual increase of just under $12 per month per residential customer, or $143 annually. PNG projects the net annual increase in revenues will be $88 million, about 40% less than the $149 million it originally requested.
The agreement is subject to the review and approval of the N.C. Utilities Commission.
In its April application to the commission, PNG requested the rate hike to help pay for “significant infrastructure investments in recent years.”
“Raising rates is never a decision we take lightly, particularly during challenging economic times,” Brian Weisker, PNG’s president, said in a statement. “These investments in strengthening and enhancing our natural gas delivery system will help ensure we continue to provide safe, reliable service to our customers, while meeting the rising demand for natural gas throughout our North Carolina footprint.”
By law, PNG does not mark up the cost of natural gas and must pass through the actual cost on a dollar-for-dollar basis to customers, which can result in a slight lowering of monthly costs.
“If the market price for natural gas remains low, then Piedmont will seek additional rate reductions for pass-through natural gas costs in the coming months to further lessen the impact to customers,” PNG said.
In recent years, the commission has operated similarly to the N.C. Insurance commissioner in approving rate hikes, though sometimes negotiating a smaller increase than initially sought. [Source]
Health Coalition
Jaymie Baxley, NC Health News, 9/18/24
People of color, low-income populations and other marginalized groups are disproportionately affected by certain health risks yet remain underrepresented in clinical trials and studies that inform medical practices. The disparity can create inequities in care — something Chris Shank, president and CEO of the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, has experienced firsthand.
“I got sick about two and a half years ago, and I remember sitting in the doctor’s office and him telling me that they were going to put me on this medication,” Shank, who is Black, said in a recent interview. “The medication was designed for what I was there for, but my doctor wasn’t sure if it was going to work for me because there were no people of color in the research part of it.”
That’s partly why her organization is involved with THIS-NC, a new coalition that hopes to make health care research more inclusive through the involvement of “safety net” providers who work directly with historically underrepresented communities.
An acronym for Translational Health Institute of the Safety Net in North Carolina, THIS-NC launched in August with a ribbon cutting at First Choice Community Health Centers, a facility that serves low-income patients in Harnett County. Other organizations affiliated with the coalition include North Carolina Central University, the North Carolina Rural Health Leadership Alliance and the North Carolina Association of Free and Charitable Clinics.
The latter organization’s CEO, April Cook, said the 70 clinics represented by the association cater to a largely uninsured population that “typically doesn’t have a voice.”
THIS-NC seeks to change that by bringing clinical trials and other studies to marginalized groups through the providers they already know and trust.
Becca Hayes, director of health research equity for the North Carolina Community Health Center Association, said one of THIS-NC’s goals is to encourage federal agencies to allow safety net providers, which are generally known and trusted among marginalized communities, to host clinical trials. [Source]
CMS Donation
Joe Bruno, WSOC News, 9/17/24
Carolina Panthers and Charlotte FC owners David and Nicole Tepper are donating $1 million to the CMS Foundation. The CMS Foundation is the nonprofit partner for the district, bridging CMS and the philanthropy community. The announcement came at the CMS Foundation’s luncheon on Tuesday. The gift will support the CMS Teaching Residency Program, the CMS Foundation Innovation Center, and other projects over a four-year period. [Source]
Election Rides
DJ Simmons, WFDD Radio, 9/16/24
The Move To the Polls initiative looks to remove transportation and information barriers to voting in the upcoming election. Greensboro Transit Agency’s Marketing and Communications Specialist Kevin Elwood says the nonpartisan initiative aims to tackle a commonly heard challenge: getting to the polls.
“This was an area that we felt like that we could help make a difference by not only providing a free transportation on Election Day, but also going beyond that, and educating our riders about the elections and making sure that they are well aware of their rights and privileges,” he says.
As part of the campaign, the agency will be conducting voter registration at the J. Douglas Galyon Depot downtown along with other locations. The Greensboro Transit Agency is also offering a downloadable voter guide for information on election dates and poll locations. [Source]
School Supports
Billy Chapman, Hickory Daily Record, 9/17/24
Newton-Conover High School will present at a national conference in Minnesota on success it made implementing a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS).
Newton-Conover High School Principal Chris Penley praised staff for the progress the school made with academically struggling students. “I tell my staff all the time, ‘My job is to lead you, put tools in your toolbelt, get resources,'” Penley said to school board members at the board of education’s meeting Monday night. ‘”I can fight battles, you guys win the war. You guys are in the trenches, in the classroom, getting it done.’”
The tiered system provides interventions to students as needed. Most students start in tier one where teachers differentiate instruction in the classroom based on student needs. If a student begins to fall a year behind, the student receives tier two supports. In tier two, students may receive interventions in a small group setting.
Students who are more than a year behind academically receive tier three support services. These interventions are more intense and can involve a modified schedule or removing the child from the general education setting.
The school reported that 15 students receiving tier three support graduated from high school this past year. [Source]
Wadsack pleaded not guilty in Tucson City Court on Tuesday, where she and her attorney announced their plan to file a Notice of Claim against the city. This was her first appearance in the criminal speeding case where she was clocked going 71 in a 35 by a Tucson officer and later served with the citation due to legislative immunity. She is being represented by Chandler-based attorney Brad Miller, an unopposed candidate running for Pinal County Attorney. Miller is also representing Kelli and Michael Ward in the “alternate electors” case. “It does look like this has some sort of political motivation, so we look forward to investigating those issues,” Miller said of the planned Notice of Claim. “I’m very glad to see this moving forward,” Wadsack said in a text message to our reporter. “I had great support show up.” Her trial is slated for 9 a.m. Oct. 28.
Richer and Fontes are headed to court Tuesday after discovering about 100,000 registered voters may not have provided documentary proof of citizenship in line with Arizona law after discovering a 20-year-old coding error in the motor vehicle division records. Fontes said though they cannot confirm, he had “no reason to believe that there are any significant number of individuals remaining on this list who are not eligible to vote in Arizona.” As for the breakdown of impacted voters, Fontes said the cut largely impacted those within the ages of 45 to 60, with the plurality, but not majority, being Republican voters. The state required documentary proof of citizenship to register and vote across all state and local races starting in 2005 and denoted drivers licenses issued after Oct. 1, 1996 as an acceptable proof of citizenship given a then-enacted law that required proof of lawful presence to obtain a license or state ID, with those lawfully present but not citizens receiving a different class of license. Voters who received a license prior to Oct. 1 1996 would only have to attest to their citizenship. The Arizona voter registration system is programmed to return data on license issuance dates given October 1996 cutoff, but if a voter initially obtained a license prior and requested a duplicate after Oct. 1, 1996, the system did not alert the county that the license was originally issued sans proof of citizenship. Richer’s office discovered the issue by finding a non-citizen was registered to vote as a full ballot voter. Though the individual had not cast any ballots in prior elections, the finding triggered a review by county and state officials. Hobbs issued a statement noting her office had directed MVD to “aggressively develop and implement a solution and, out of an abundance of caution, will be implementing an independent audit to ensure that MVD systems are functioning as necessary to support voter registration,” and Fontes confirmed they had tested the recoded system this morning. “As for the future, we don’t have a problem,” Fontes said. But the question remains how to handle the 100,000 or so voters impacted by the oversight in 2024. Richer maintains that the registrants who have not satisfied DPOC laws should vote a federal-only ballot “unless and until they provide DPOC to confirm their citizenship.” Fontes wants those affected to remain full ballot voters, given the closeness of the election. The two are now engaging in “friendly litigation” at the Arizona Supreme Court to get an answer. Richer filed his petition to the Arizona Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon. Fontes said he planned to file a response by Wednesday. The AG’s office will not be involved in any legal action, per a spokesperson for Mayes, nor would Hobbs’ office. But Fontes encouraged any other interested parties to jump in, though noted they would need to act fast. Ballots will be sent to military and overseas voters Thursday, and early ballots go out Oct. 9.
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