TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalLate candidacy could help Democrats win North Carolina Supreme Court race
RALEIGH — A last-minute candidacy has the potential to dilute Republican votes this fall for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat and boost chances for the Democrats to expand their majority on the court.
Raleigh attorney Chris Anglin filed on the last available day last week as a registered Republican to run for the seat held by another Republican, Associate Justice Barbara Jackson, who is seeking re-election. Civil rights lawyer Anita Earls is running as a Democrat.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports Anglin actually was a registered Democrat until he changed his voter affiliation in early June, a couple weeks before the judicial candidate filing period began.
Paul Shumaker, a GOP consultant, said Anglin could split the GOP vote in the three-way race. Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Supreme Court, so an Earls victory would expand the party's margin to 5-2.
Read more: https://www.journalnow.com/news/elections/state/late-candidacy-could-help-democrats-win-n-c-supreme-court/article_458f25af-7304-5210-b5d3-1fa3db655a8c.html
40 NC education employees laid off, including some who help low-performing schools
RALEIGH -- Layoff notices were given Friday to 40 employees at the state Department of Public Instruction — including several who work with North Carolina's low-performing schools — to help meet a $5.1 million budget cut ordered by state lawmakers.
Most of the cuts were in Educator Support Services, a division that helps low-performing schools and districts, and in the Information Technology Division. In addition to the 40 layoffs, 21 vacant positions were eliminated, according to State Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson.
“Today, we implemented the budget reductions required by law for the 2018-19 fiscal year," Johnson said in a written statement. "The plan we developed, drafted by members of the DPI leadership team with the understanding and support of the State Board of Education, was informed by the recommendations contained in the third-party operational review of the agency completed earlier this year by Ernst & Young (EY)."
This is the second year in a row that cuts have been made to divisions that work with low-performing schools. Several employees in that division were fired last year as part of a $3.2 million cut ordered by state lawmakers.
Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article214065504.html
A Mecklenburg inmate signed up for Ramadan fast. Now he's suing because he got hungry.
During a holy month when he was supposed to be fasting, a Muslim inmate in the Mecklenburg County Jail still wanted his lunch.
So Travaile Speller has sued, claiming that his jailers and the Mecklenburg Sheriff's Office discriminated against his religious practice by forcing him to eat only two meals each day during Ramadan.
"That is clearly depriving me of necessary calories, as well as the recommend(ed) daily volume of nutrients that my body requires to function normally," Speller says in his hand-written complaint. "They are intentionally eliminating one whole meal (lunch) which is cruel and unusual punishment directed towards all Muslims."
There's just one problem: During Ramadan (which took place this year from May 15 to June 15), practicing Muslims are limited to two meals each day. Those are known as suhoor, which can be eaten before dawn, and iftar, which is served after sunset.
Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/crime/article214262529.html
NC congressional candidate suggested woman's career can interfere with biblical role
Republican congressional candidate Mark Harris, a former Baptist pastor, once delivered a sermon questioning whether a career was the "healthiest pursuit" for women.
The 2013 sermon was discovered by a Democratic-linked Super PAC, American Bridge, and first reported Thursday by ABC News.
In the sermon, Harris, then pastor of Charlotte's First Baptist Church, spoke about "God's plan for biblical womanhood" and barriers to it.
"The first one . . . is that we’ve had in our own culture a new supreme pursuit," he said. "There is a new supreme pursuit from the traditional pursuit of being a wife or a mother . . .
Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article214403394.html
As more Democrats question RNC, chances rise for Charlotte City Council to reject event
More Democratic City Council members are questioning whether Charlotte should host the 2020 Republican National Convention, raising the possibility of a high-stakes, politically charged vote this month on whether to accept the convention.
Council member LaWana Mayfield this week reiterated her opposition to hosting the GOP, which is expected to nominate Donald Trump for a second term. Mayfield, who represents west Charlotte, said she would support hosting what she said would be a normal Republican convention, but said Trump leading the party makes this a unique situation.
She said she can't support hosting the convention because of the president's "hostility towards minorities and people of color."
Democrat Justin Harlow, who represents northwest Charlotte, said Thursday he is concerned about protests overwhelming the city.
Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article214376054.html
Voters could create a powerless governor -- but might not realize it
At the beginning of this year’s legislative session, a reporter asked Republican leaders if they planned to take any more powers away from Gov. Roy Cooper.
“Does he still have any?” Senate leader Phil Berger asked with a laugh. “If you have any suggestions, let us know,” added House Speaker Tim Moore.
Someone must have sent in suggestions, because the governor is weaker now than when the session began in May. Several constitutional amendments on the ballot this November could shift even more power to the legislature.
Some of this session’s power grabs were minor. But Republicans waited until the final weeks of session to really stick it to Cooper. The legislature finally took action on Cooper’s appointments to key state boards and judicial seats, some of which were nominated more than a year ago.
Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article214097769.html
The General Assembly Knows Better Than Silly Jurors: Big Pork Must Be Protected
On Sunday, state Representative Jimmy Dixon, a Republican from Duplin County, published a remarkable op-ed in the Goldsboro News-Argus. Reacting to the $25.1 million verdict that came down against Smithfield Foods Friday in the second of twenty-six scheduled hog-farm-nuisance trials taking place in Raleigh, Dixon, an unabashed Smithfield apologist, lashed out at the plaintiffs' lawyers (who are trying to "rape these families" and have "raped and prostituted" their clients) and Judge Earl Britt ("who doesn't have his thumb on the scales; his sorry ass is sitting on the scales!!!" [sic]).
Family farmers, he argued, were under attack: "We, the people must continue to rally and demand justice for the property rights of our hard-working family farmers ... and we must do it in the court of public opinion because we are damn sure not getting justice in Judge Earl Britt's courtroom."
For years, this is how Dixon and other Big Pork allies have framed the debate over the noxious odors and swarms of buzzards and pests that the mostly poor, mostly African-American neighbors of the state's hog farms have complained about: as the meager family farmer being beaten down by the greedy out-of-state lawyer who is willing to burn and pillage North Carolina's agriculture industry in his quest for lucre.
Only they, the brave souls of the General Assembly, stand in the way.
In 2013, about five hundred neighbors of farms that raise Smithfield pigs sued the company, alleging that the farms' method of waste disposal, which involves open-air cesspools and spraying liquefied waste onto fields, infringes on their right to enjoy their property.
Read more: https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/the-general-assembly-knows-better-than-silly-jurors-big-pork-must-be-protected/Content?oid=15658164
Republican leader Hardister disavows white supremacist candidate
Rep. Jon Hardister, a Guilford County lawmaker and the majority whip, has disavowed a fellow Republican state House candidate who recently came under scrutiny for white supremacist comments, calling on him to withdraw from the race.
The News & Observer reported on Wednesday that Russell Walker, the Republican nominee in House District 48, is responsible for a website that says, “What is wrong with being a white supremacist? God is a racist and a white supremacist.”
Hardister wrote on the Greater Greensboro Politics Facebook page on Thursday: “I totally disavow this kind of rhetoric. It is shameful. He should totally apologize and drop out of the race.”
-snip-
The NC Republican Party officially withdrew support from Walker on Tuesday, according to the News & Observer. The newspaper quoted state GOP chairman Robin Hayes as saying, “Based on recent behavior and previous statements, the North Carolina Republican Party is unable and unwilling to support the Republican nominated candidate for North Carolina House District 48. The NCGOP along with our local parties in Hoke, Scotland and Robeson counties will be spending our time and resources supporting Republican candidates that better reflect the values of our party.”
Read more: https://triad-city-beat.com/republican-leader-hardister-disavows-white-supremacist/
Incel -- or, as we used to call it, Darwinism
I had never heard of the group of onanistic internet humans who self-identified as “incel,” which is a portmanteau of the term “involuntary celibate,” until reading about them in Jordan Green’s piece, “Citizen Green: The alt-right hates women, too,” on June 21.
They’ve got their own websites and hashtags, their own terms — a “Stacy” is a sexually unavailable woman, while “Chad” refers to the sort of dude with whom Stacy would rather be spending her time, their own little silo wherein sexual intercourse becomes something that is owed them rather than something that is freely given, a birthright that is being unjustly withheld.
I suppose I had always known about that caste of humanity — almost exclusively male, though there are some female outliers — who for whatever reasons were unable to convince anyone, anywhere, to have sex with them, ever. I was, after all, a bartender for many years. And while I bore witness to many successful unions, I learned more about how not to attract the opposite sex than anything else.
And though I’ve been out of the game for a while, I imagine that labeling one’s self as an involuntary celibate and forming a stupid little club about it is a big, red flag.
Read more: https://triad-city-beat.com/incel-or-darwinism/
Newport News health care provider settles $3 million in fraud claims
A Newport News provider of in-home Medicaid services has agreed to pay a $3 million settlement against allegations of fraudulent claims it submitted to the Virginia Medicaid Program, authorities said Monday.
Under the terms of the settlement, Hope In-Home Care LLC will pay $3,345,065 to the United States and Virginia, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney’s office, Eastern Division, Richmond.
The U.S. attorney’s office and the Virginia attorney general’s office alleged the provider engaged in multiple fraudulent schemes during a near three-year period, from January 2011 through September 2013.
The provider employed and submitted claims for uncertified “personal care aides” who were ineligible to provide services.
Read more: http://www.dailypress.com/news/hampton/dp-nws-medicaid-fraud-20180702-story.html
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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