GOP complaints about Progressive groups prove their effectiveness

Monday News: Just say "No!"

TRUMP ADMIN TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFSHORE DRILLING MEETING IN RALEIGH TODAY: The federal government's only scheduled public meeting in North Carolina to discuss expanding oil and gas exploration off the Atlantic coast and in other waters is expected to attract busloads of people opposing the idea. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is holding local events across the country about a proposal by President Donald Trump's administration to open more waters to drilling. The North Carolina meeting starts Monday afternoon at a Raleigh hotel. Several environmental groups fighting expansion are helping bring residents from the Outer Banks, Wilmington and elsewhere to rally and to speak with agency representatives. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is adamantly opposed to offshore drilling and has threatened litigation unless North Carolina is left out. Top state Republicans, including former Gov. Pat McCrory, generally have supported offshore expansion.
http://www.wral.com/federal-gov-t-holds-n-carolina-meeting-on-drilling-proposal/17373633/

http://ift.tt/2ETGra5

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

STAND WITH NC OR STAY IN BED WITH THE NRA? The National Rifle Association has spent $11.6 million in North Carolina congressional elections – almost all of it on Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. That’s around $682,000 for each of the dead in Parkland, Florida. It is $79,710 for each of the 138 school house dead nationwide since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. The NRA’s investment has paid off — to the benefit of gun manufacturers. Sales of non-essential military-style assault weapons skyrocketed. Meanwhile, the lavish campaign spending effectively thwarted any reasonable, constitutional laws to keep these inappropriate and dangerous weapons away from the public. This is not about doing away with the 2nd Amendment or in any way limiting anyone’s right to hunt. It is about common sense. It is about representing the voters of the state – a majority of whom support a ban on assault weapons.
http://www.wral.com/editorial-stand-with-nc-or-stay-in-bed-with-the-nra/17355270/

http://ift.tt/2FxKQN2

Saturday News: "Help! I'm being oppressed!"

Trial over Judicial Primary cancellation will begin in June

Which ironically is just 11 days before the postponed Judicial filing period begins:

A trial over the legality of a North Carolina law canceling primary elections this year for state appellate court judgeships is scheduled for late spring.

During a hearing Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joi Peake set a June 7 trial date and other filing and evidence deadlines.

Nine days ago I penned an Op-Ed for submission to a regional newspaper, but recent (unfortunate) developments at that publication have made that submission moot. But these words need to be published, and I encourage you to take an extra few minutes to consider the following:

http://ift.tt/2sKBn1O

Friday News: Ineffective and incompetent

MOORE SAYS NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO DEBATE GUNS, CAN'T WE LOCK THE SCHOOL DOORS? “Folks want to try to drag the gun debate into it,” Moore said in the television interview. “Look, that’s a discussion for another time.” The state Democratic Party condemned Moore for rejecting a debate about guns. “Speaker Moore’s tone-deaf comments are shocking and infuriating,” NC Democratic Party Executive Director Kimberly Reynolds said in a statement. “We have a gun epidemic in this country that nearly every American wants to seriously address, yet one of the most powerful legislators in our state is shutting the door on common sense reforms just days after the Parkland shooting.” Moore told journalists Thursday he wanted to focus on solutions that can win support from both sides. "We can agree, for example, that we need to enhance the security of the schools. If somebody shouldn’t be in the school, by golly they ought to not be able to get in. Is there a way that doors can lock better?”
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article201630399.html

http://ift.tt/2F0AXJH

Friday fracking video

http://ift.tt/2CDUieF

Thursday News: Because the Constitution

GOP FACES ANOTHER LAWSUIT OVER FOUR WAKE COUNTY DISTRICTS: Attorneys for the state NAACP, League of Women Voters, Democracy North Carolina, the A. Philip Randolph Institute and four named voters want the courts to change four Wake County districts back to what they looked like in 2011. That was before the GOP majority was forced to redraw the state's House and Senate election maps in a federal case brought by much the same legal team and which found racial gerrymanders in a number of districts statewide. The plaintiffs' lawyers in that case argued repeatedly that Republican legislators violated the North Carolina Constitution in that redraw because they changed district lines they didn't have to. Absent a court order, the state constitution forbids redrawing districts more than once a decade, a process undertaken after the U.S. census produces new population numbers. Attorneys argued Republican leaders didn't have to redraw the four Wake County House districts targeted in this latest case to address the previous racial gerrymander. Those four districts are 36, 37, 40 and 41.
http://www.wral.com/injunction-sought-could-delay-legislative-primaries-in-wake/17360781/

http://ift.tt/2FptGB3

Coal Ash Wednesday: Duke Energy pockets $231 million from Trump's tax scam

And that's just for the last three months of 2017:

Electric Utilities and Infrastructure recognized fourth quarter 2017 segment income of $826 million, compared to $483 million in the fourth quarter of 2016. In addition to the drivers outlined below, fourth quarter 2017 results were impacted by a $231 million benefit related to the Tax Act and a $14 million after-tax charge related to regulatory settlements. These amounts were treated as special items and excluded from
adjusted earnings.

On an adjusted basis, Electric Utilities and Infrastructure recognized fourth quarter 2017 adjusted segment income of $609 million, compared to $483 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, an increase of $0.18 per share.

A couple of clarifications: That net $826 million is from all utilities, not just those actually operating in North Carolina. But that was "netted" from about $3.2 billion dollars in revenues, for the 4th Quarter alone. And one of the best ways to judge just how profitable a company is, you need to look at stockholders' dividend payments:

http://ift.tt/2BJP3gI

Another round of layoffs at the Greensboro News & Record

So much for Warren Buffet coming to the rescue:

BH Media Group, a division of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A), citing a decline in advertising revenue, has laid off employees at its two newspapers in Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the company said Tuesday.

The company is reducing staff by six employees at the Greensboro News & Record and not filling five vacant positions, while one person was offered a different job. At its sister paper, the Winston-Salem Journal, one person has been let go, four vacant positions have been eliminated and another two people have been offered different positions.

That may not seem like a big deal, since they cut several times that number just a few years ago. But this one hurts maybe even more. Both Doug Clark and Susan Ladd were let go this time, two strong voices of reason in both their (newspaper) blogs and the editorial pages. They won't be replaced, they can't be replaced. And the overall tone of the paper will suffer. I know some people tend to avoid the editorial pages so they won't be pulled one way or another, but the truth is, those columns help us understand the impact of policy changes; what brought them about, and how they may affect us. And we just lost two of the best explainers.

http://ift.tt/2ogD7v9

Wednesday News: Not-so-silent Sam

NC Business Court: Choice Of Law Dooms Trade Secrets Claim

What choice of law rule applies to trade secrets claims?  No North Carolina appellate court has answered that question, but Judge Robinson of the NC Business Court stepped into that breach in his Opinion in SciGrip v. Osae, 2018 NCBC 10.

The Plaintiff certainly didn't like the answer, as it resulted in the dismissal of its claim for the misappropriation of its trade secrets.

Defendant Osae had worked for the Plaintiff SciGrip for years developing its adhesive products.  He then left to join a competitor, Scott Bader, Inc. (SBI).  SciGrip sued both Osae and SBI in 2008 (in another lawsuit) for Osae's violation of confidentiality restrictions which he had signed while working for SciGrip.  That first lawsuit was settled via a Consent Order, which specified that Osae could not disclose SciGrip's confidential information, and that SBI could not use it.

SciGrip sued Osae again in 2013, after he had joined another company, EBS, which is also in the adhesives industry.  This is the case in the Business Court.  EBS had filed a provisional patent application regarding its adhesives in Europe.  SciGrip alleged that the patent application contained its trade secret information and that Osae was in violation of the Consent Order.

SciGrip also sued Osae for misappropriation of trade secrets.  It sued SBI as well.  SBI, based in the UK, moved for summary judgment on the basis that all of  the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets had occurred outside of the State of North Carolina, and that NC's Trade Secrets Protection Act does not apply to misappropriation that occurred outside of the State.  Osae had done all of his work for SBBI and EBS outside of the State of North Carolina.

The case turned on whether North Carolina's  law ought to apply to the trade secrets claim.  Plaintiff argued for the "most significant relationship" test, saying the North Carolina had the most significant relationship to the events leading to the misappropriation.

Judge Robinson went with SBI's argument, that the proper test was lex loci delicti.  "Under this test, the situs of the claim is the state where the injury or harm was sustained or suffered — the state 'where the last act occurred giving rise to [the] injury.'  Op. Par. 34.

So what was the last act causing harm to the Plaintiff?  Judge Robinson said that "[m]isappropriation occurs when defendant acquires, discloses, or uses another’s trade secret without the owner’s consent or authority."  Op. Par. 35.

Osae had worked for the Plaintiff in North Carolina when he acquired its trade secrets, so that would seem to be the end of the choice of law inquiry.  But Judge Robinson looked to a North Carolina federal court ruling, and decisions from other federal jurisdictions holding

that the lex loci delicti 'is  not the place where the information was learned, but where the tortious act of misappropriation and use of the trade secret occurred.'  Domtar AI Inc. v. J.D. Irving, Ltd., 43 F. Supp. 3d 635, 641 (E.D.N.C. 2014)(concluding that plaintiffs could not bring a claim under North Carolina’s TSPA because defendants’ alleged misappropriation occurred in Canada); 3A Composites USA, Inc. v. United Indus., Inc., No. 5:14-CV-5147, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122745, at *10 (W.D. Ark. Sept. 15, 2015) (applying North Carolina conflict of laws rules and following the approach taken in Domtar); Chattery Int’l, Inc. v. JoLida, Inc., No. WDQ-10-2236, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57512, at *12−13 (D. Md. Apr. 24, 2012) (applying the lex loci delicti rule and stating that “[m]isappropriation occurs where the misappropriated information is received and used, not necessarily where it was taken or where the economic harm is felt”). 

Op. Par. 35.

Under this standard, Osae's alleged misappropriation occurred either in the United Kingdom, where he had worked at SBI's facilities, or in Florida, where Osae had worked for EBS.

Judge Robinson ruled that Plaintiff could not bring a claim under North Carolina's Trade Secrets Protection Act, and granted summary judgment for the Defendants.

This means that claims for violations of NC's TSPA cannot be pursued (at least in the NC Business Court) for misappropriation occurring outside of the State.  I'm already hearing gloom and doom about this decision, but Plaintiff almost immediately noticed an appeal, so we will be hearing from the NC Supreme Court on this choice of law issue.  Probably next year.

And if you are outraged at Judge Robinson's blunting of the reach of the NC TSPA, remember that "state laws may not generally operate extraterritorially."  Carolina Trucks & Equip., Inc. v. Volvo Trucks of N.A., Inc., 492 F.3d 484, 489-90 (4th Cir. 2007).  So there is nothing unusual about Judge Robinson's unwillingness to extend the TSPA's reach to conduct taking place not only outside of North Carolina, but outside of this country.

 

 

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NC House seats that need Democratic challengers

At this point there appears to be 33 House Districts unchallenged, with 9 days left in the filing period. Republican (incumbents or open seat challengers) candidates for each seat are listed:

HD4 (Jimmy Dixon)
HD9 (Greg Murphy)
HD10 (John Bell)
HD13 (Pat McElraft)
HD14 (George Cleveland)
HD28 (Larry Strickland)
HD36 (Nelson Dollar)
HD46 (Brendan Jones)

The long list continues below...

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WRAL's Duke University gerrymandering study tutorial video

http://ift.tt/2ogPvuc

Monday News: Tone deaf and self-absorbed

SHOOTING SURVIVORS BLAST TRUMP FOR USING MASSACRE FOR POLITICAL ATTACKS: Students who escaped the deadly school shooting in Florida are focusing their anger at President Donald Trump, contending that his response to the attack has been needlessly divisive. David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said: 'You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us.' Hogg on "Meet the Press" Sunday was responding to Trump's tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn't passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI's failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau's focus on Russia's role in the 2016 election. After more than a day of criticism from the students, the White House says the president would hold a "listening session" with unspecified students on Wednesday and meet with state and local security officials Thursday.
http://www.wral.com/the-latest-shooting-survivors-plan-march-on-washington/17351678/

http://ift.tt/2ocXjOr

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

NO FREE RIDES IN 2018 ELECTION: There is one very important reason. Every candidate, particularly incumbents, should be forced to account for their actions and views. There is no better way than through election campaigns with persistent candidates who make their views known, contrast them with their opponents’ and force the opposing candidates to explain for themselves. While some may want to keep interest in elections low to keep voters away from the polls, contested campaigns generate participation and increase turnout. That is a good thing. It is one of the great strengths of American democracy and a virtue of regular and frequent elections. When nearly half the state legislature arrives in office without any accountability to the voters, it inevitably leads to excesses and abuses of power – the kinds that have been clogging our courts for the last seven years. In the United States, the most power is in the hands of each citizen through their vote. Don’t be relinquished to the sidelines. Don’t let others take your say away from you.
http://www.wral.com/editorial-no-free-rides-in-2018-elections/17334348/

http://ift.tt/2ETf537

Saturday News: It's Mueller time...

13 RUSSIANS INDICTED FOR MEDDLING IN 2016 ELECTION: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment of 13 Russians as a brazen scheme “with the stated goal of spreading distrust” toward the U.S. political system, but the charges lay out a litany of cyber skullduggery aimed at a narrower mission: boosting Donald Trump and bashing Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. The grand jury charges, secured by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, are replete with examples of how an 80-member team, allegedly bankrolled by a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin, managed to flood American cyberspace with social media messages backing Trump or echoing some of his campaign’s harshest anti-Clinton themes. The Russians’ tilt toward Trump began in early and mid-2016, it charges – not late in the campaign as previously believed.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article200653109.html

http://ift.tt/2HrK4Sg

Missouri episode exposes motives and methods of Russian propagandists

Throwing a gas can onto a tiny campfire:

Russian Twitter trolls pounced on the University of Missouri’s woes in 2015 using the same techniques they applied to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, a U.S. Air Force officer wrote in an article published recently in Strategic Studies Quarterly. In the aftermath of the Nov. 9, 2015, resignation of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe during protests over racial issues, some feared a violent white backlash.

It was fueled in part by a real post on the anonymous social app Yik-Yak from Hunter Park, then a student at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, that he would “shoot every black person I see.” The fear was enlarged and spread by a now-suspended Twitter account that warned, “The cops are marching with the KKK! They beat up my little brother! Watch out!” that included a photo of a black child with a severely bruised face and the hashtag #PrayForMizzou.

This might seem like an inappropriate or way off-topic post for BlueNC, but (imo) it is actually critical moving into the 2018 election season. While social media has completely changed the game on organizing and activism, turning out crowds that number in the thousands in just a short period of time, it has also become a minefield of click-bait and disinformation. We (each) have to be our own gatekeepers on Facebook and Twitter, taking that extra ten minutes to vet and verify stories before we aid and abet that disinformation by sharing or re-Tweeting. It's not a conspiracy theory that people are pushing conspiracy theories, there is a concerted effort to undermine and/or redirect the energies of well-meaning activists:

http://ift.tt/2ByTnPv

Friday News: Unfair and Imbalanced

Friday fracking video

http://ift.tt/2o3ZHHr

Bumpy road ahead for Robert Pittenger in NC9

Might be time to sell some of that property, dude:

In a much more expensive race in North Carolina’s 9th District, Republican incumbent Robert Pittenger is facing well-financed challengers in both the primary and the general. Pittenger is seen as vulnerable in the general election and has raised $780,000 compared to his Democratic challenger Dan McCready’s $1.2 million.

First, he needs to fend off his primary challenger — pastor and activist Mark Harris — who has raised more than twice as much money from individual donors as Pittenger. Harris also has nearly as much cash on hand as does Pittenger ($221,911 compared to Pittenger’s $286,607). Harris was narrowly defeated by Pittenger in 2016, so this race looks like a tight one for Pittenger both in May and November, if it makes it that far.

Just like last time around, I am torn on who to favor (or who to disfavor the most) in the GOP Primary. Pittenger has always been a greedy, opportunistic douchenozzle, but Mark Harris is a born-again, bigoted nut-job. He's guaranteed to be a champion of anti-choice legislation, and would likely take up the new approach of whittling down the number of weeks women have to legally terminate unwanted pregnancies. And of course he will oppose LGBT rights at every turn, just like he championed the ugliness of Amendment One here in NC. This article was found on his campaign page, and the recurring theme is obvious:

http://ift.tt/2o1OC9H

Thursday News: How about "Laws & Regulations" instead of "Thoughts & Prayers"?

THE 18TH SCHOOL SHOOTING IN 2018 CLAIMS 17 LIVES IN PARKLAND FLORIDA: The suspect in a deadly rampage at a Florida high school is a troubled teenager who posted disturbing material on social media before the shooting spree that killed 17 people and wounded more than a dozen others, according to a law enforcement official and former schoolmates. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for "disciplinary reasons." "I don't know the specifics," the sheriff said. However, Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend. Nikolas Cruz asked to move in with a friend's family in northwest Broward. The family agreed and Cruz moved in around Thanksgiving. According to the family's lawyer, who did not identify them, they knew that Cruz owned the AR-15 but made him keep it locked up in a cabinet. He did have the key, however.
http://www.wral.com/suspect-s-disturbing-social-media-posts-being-dissected/17342131/

http://ift.tt/2o9HGGL

Coal Ash Wednesday: Judge refuses to dismiss lawsuit against Duke Energy

When you have yet to clean up your mess, but still want to go outside and play:

A Duke Energy lawyer told a trio of judges on the state Court of Appeals the lawsuit filed by the state's environmental protection agency and joined by conservation groups should be dismissed. Coal ash, the residue left after decades of burning coal to generate power, can contain toxic materials like arsenic and mercury.

The company was in court in part because Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway has refused to dismiss the lawsuit. Ridgeway has indicated he would review the remediation plan the state Department of Environmental Quality approves, then decide independently whether the agency is requiring enough from Duke Energy to clean up the pollution, Long said.

It's no coincidence this legal gambit is taking place 13 days before Duke Energy's first substantial hearing on their massive rate hike request before the NC Utilities Commission. That case contains many "findings of fact" on Duke Energy's negligence in coal ash management, and if they can make that go away, it will strengthen their argument for a rate increase while severely weakening the opposition to it. And just to give a voice to those who will be adversely affected by this unreasonable action:

http://ift.tt/2sqI5da

Patrick McHenry goes swimming with the loan sharks

Proving that weasels can swim if the mood hits them:

If you ever harbor any questions as to what Trumpism looks like in all of its corrupt, dog-eat-dog, predatory splendor, there are two classic examples from our nation’s capital today to jog your memory.

Exhibit One is the laughably entitled “Protecting Consumers’ Access to Credit Act of 2017” — a bill on which the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today at the behest of its chief sponsor, North Carolina congressman Patrick McHenry. As you probably surmised, the measure has nothing to do with protecting consumers and is instead a blatant attempt by the payday lending industry’s favorite congressman to revive the discredited and predatory practice nationwide.

Just to give you an idea of the level of corruption that creeps in with some of these "career" lawmakers, McHenry receives around $100,000 from the payday lending industry every election cycle. They may not always be his top contributors, but they are as reliable as the sun coming up every morning. This pay-to-play nonsense is so blatant it has sparked more than one formal complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics:

http://ift.tt/2o04Pw8

Wednesday News: Resegregation

GOP LEADERS PONDER BREAKING UP SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO COURT SUBURBAN VOTERS: State lawmakers will begin studying next week how to break up North Carolina school districts, potentially paving the way for splitting large school systems like Wake County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Supporters said the state should look at what’s the most effective size for school districts while opponents said it could lead to resegregation of schools. Brawley, Bradford and Malone also represent counties where there’s been support from some suburban residents to break up their school districts. Many transplants to North Carolina are used to individual towns running their own small school systems. In contrast, most school systems in North Carolina are county-based.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article199908649.html

http://ift.tt/2sv8abh

Birds of a feather: Rob Porter's domestic abuse was no secret in Trump's White House

By all rights he should be rotting in jail:

Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, and Jennifer Willoughby, Porter’s second wife, both told the FBI their marriages had ended because of a pattern of physical and emotional abuse. According to their accounts, supported by photos, contemporaneous reporting to others, and a blog post written by Willoughby last April, Porter kicked these women, he punched and choked one of these women, he blackened one of these women’s eyes. He berated and insulted these women. Police were called.

But Rob Porter is also white, and the son of a prominent academic and thinker. He went to Harvard and Oxford, and he had a high-ranking job in the Oval Office, and was reportedly pressing for a higher one. He was dating Hope Hicks, one of the president’s closest confidantes. So nobody did a thing about the allegations.

This literally makes me furious. The Trump connection is an important aspect, but the failures by law enforcement from the local to the national level are indicative of a sickness in the very heart of our society. They like to talk about how much terrorism they've prevented, but terrorist attacks happen every few minutes in America. Not by strangers from some exotic country, but by "loved ones," which makes it even more heinous. And we as progressives need to stop paying so much attention and lip-service to the "preponderance of evidence" approach when these things happen:

http://ift.tt/2F0TQd6

Tuesday News: The word you're searching for is "Draconian"

Tuesday Twitter roundup

Not bad for the first day of filing:

Today 65 Democratic candidates filed for 60 #ncga House races. We're 1/2 way to our #120DistrictStrategy on day 1 of the filing period! #DemocraticRevival #BlueWave #BreakTheMajority #ncpol

— Rep. Graig Meyer (@GraigMeyer) February 13, 2018

But that does leave 55 House seats to push for in the next 15 days. Roll up your sleeves.

http://ift.tt/2Esf0jj

Candidate filing begins today for 2018 (Mid-Term) Election

And you don't have to be a crotchety old man to ride the Blue Wave:

State Senator
At least 25 years of age by the date of the general election
Residence in state for two years prior to election
Residence in district for one year immediately prior to general election1
Registered to vote in the district and eligible to vote for the office

State House Representative
At least 21 years of age by the date of the general election
Residence in district for one year immediately prior to general election2
Registered to vote in the district and eligible to vote for the office

If I'm reading those footnotes correctly, the one year residency requirement is waived if your District is one that was "fixed" (which map, I don't know), but you still need to have set up a residency by the end of the filing period (Feb 28). Here are some other requirements for candidates, and those of you who have announced early need to pay close attention:

http://ift.tt/2nVYmSO

Monday News: The Dreamer debate

MOODY TRUMP IS AN UNKNOWN FACTOR AS SENATE GEARS UP FOR IMMIGRATION FIX: The Senate begins a rare, open-ended debate on immigration and the fate of the "Dreamer" immigrants on Monday, and Republican senators say they'll introduce President Donald Trump's plan. Though his proposal has no chance of passage, Trump may be the most influential voice in the conversation. If the aim is to pass a legislative solution, Trump will be a crucial and, at times, complicating player. His day-to-day turnabouts on the issues have confounded Democrats and Republicans and led some to urge the White House to minimize his role in the debate for fear he'll say something that undermines the effort. Yet his ultimate support will be vital if Congress is to overcome election-year pressures against compromise. No Senate deal is likely to see the light of day in the more conservative House without the president's blessing and promise to sell compromise to his hard-line base.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/national-politics/article199615529.html

http://ift.tt/2o1Nn9T

Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

Trump blocks release of Democrats' memo on Carter Page investigation

Saturday News: Primary problems

COURT OF APPEALS GRANTS GOP REQUEST TO BLOCK JUDICIAL PRIMARIES: Primary elections for statewide judicial races in North Carolina are canceled again after an appeals court granted a request on Friday from Republican lawmakers to temporarily halt a federal judge’s ruling. The announcement came in a two-paragraph notice from a clerk at the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision comes three days before the filing period was to open for candidates seeking the four statewide judicial seats on the ballot in the 2018 elections. Barring any further action by the courts, state elections officials said in a subsequent memo, candidates seeking judicial seats in 2018 will file for election from June 18 to June 29.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article199328524.html

http://ift.tt/2EuWs5f

After dark

http://ift.tt/2zs7eX3

Urban Institute slams NC Republicans for mistreatment of unemployed

That "Rainy Day Fund" is dripping with blood:

A 2013 state law cut both the size and duration of unemployment benefits in North Carolina. Lawmakers said they made the change because the trust fund that pays for the program had a $2 billion deficit.

The fund has recovered and had $3.17 billion in the bank as of December, but that was a result of “a radical reduction in the generosity of your program to the claimants,” said Wayne Vroman of The Urban Institute, a Washington-based economic think tank that studied the state’s unemployment insurance program.

That's actually a $5 billion dollar swing, generated on the backs of those already struggling to survive. Five billion that would have been almost exclusively injected back into the economy, helping untold others laboring on the margins. More depressing and infuriating numbers:

http://ift.tt/2nUXFbu

Another GOP power grab under scrutiny by the court today

When your arrogance far outweighs your common sense:

A three-judge panel will take up motions to dispose of two issues in the separation of powers case, Cooper v. Berger. The first issue involves House Bill 239, a measure that reduced the Court of Appeals from 15 judges to 12, and the second involves a voucher mandate in the budget bill, Senate Bill 257. Cooper argues that Section 1 of HB239 purports to shorten three appellate judicial terms to fewer than eight years. He asks the court to declare it unconstitutional and therefore “void and of no effect.”

As for the voucher mandate, Cooper argues that it’s unconstitutional because the General Assembly mandated what he could include in his base budget. “By mandating what the Governor must include in his proposed budget, the General Assembly is exercising core executive power in violation of separation of powers,” the complaint states.

The key word there is "proposed." The Governor's budget proposal is non-binding. The General Assembly is free to write a completely different Budget, which incorporates little or nothing from what the Governor asks for. By dictating what the Governor must ask for, this bill amounts to a contradictory and oxymoronic "forced bi-partisanship." Allowing Republicans to disingenuously claim "Both we and the Governor support this funding." This is the kind of crap military juntas in third-world countries pull to control their civilian figurehead leaders. And the fact that it has become second nature to NC's GOP cabal should scare the living hell out of everybody.

http://ift.tt/2nT087h

Friday News: You will be missed, sir

Friday fracking video

http://ift.tt/2BLGlPT

Legislative malpractice: Using school children to extort money and power

Basically, class-size and pre-k fix are tied to taking the ACP $58M away from Cooper and limiting his power over Elections board. Bill: https://t.co/SM6GaGBYVD #ncga #ncpol #wral

— WRAL Gov't Coverage (@NCCapitol) February 8, 2018

See below for excerpts of the bill's text:

http://ift.tt/2BkgWM3

Bumbling towards war: U.S. airstrike targets Syrian government-backed militia

Bringing us that much closer to a clash with Russian forces:

The Russian military says a U.S. strike on government-backed troops in eastern Syria reflects Washington's efforts to make a grab for the nation's economic assets. The overnight attack, which killed about 100 according to a U.S. military, came when hundreds of attackers launched an assault on U.S.-backed forces known as the Syrian Democratic Forces who were accompanied by U.S. advisers in the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday the U.S. strike wounded 25 pro-government Syrian volunteers. It noted that the government-backed Syrian forces had failed to coordinate their action with the Russian military prior to launching the mission.

On the plus side, that last sentence is a tacit admission by the Russians those Syrian troops made a mistake in attacking a group with U.S. advisors in it. But that's not much of a plus. It still leaves two wildly different conclusions that could be drawn, neither of them good: a) The Russians are not exerting a level of control over Syrian forces that might prevent catastrophe, or b) They are lying about that prior coordination and maybe even engineered the attack knowing there were Americans present. You might be tempted to dismiss that second possibility because of its recklessness, but take it from an old Cold Warrior: Russian strategy can be very complex. They might view the deaths of a handful of American military advisors as the best way to get the U.S. *out* of that theater of conflict, especially if it appears to be an unfortunate "accident." And filed under the category, "Sounds great but may be dangerous as hell":

http://ift.tt/2BPIBWg

Thursday News: Ace in the hole?

ORIGINAL GERRYMANDERING LAWSUIT BACK IN ACTION: Democrats and voters who filed the first lawsuit this decade challenging North Carolina lawmakers’ redistricting plans went back to state court on Wednesday, seven years after challenging the 2011 election maps, seeking relief from districts they contend still weaken the overall influence of black voters. While that case is on appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court, the critics of the Republican redistricting plans are trying a different appeal to state judges, and they’re doing it through a case that has taken a tortuous path back to Wake County Superior Court, where it stands today. “The stay entered yesterday by the United States Supreme Court does not deprive this state court of the authority or duty to interpret the state constitution and to ensure that Joint Plaintiffs are afforded full constitutional relief,” the 15-page request for relief submitted by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice states.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article198867404.html

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"Holding All The Cards" And Fiduciary Duty Claims

It is hard to base your case on a breach of fiduciary duty when there is a contract in place between the parties.  Contracting parties owe no special duties to each other beyond the terms of the contract.  Branch Banking & Tr. Co. v. Thompson, 107 N.C. App. 53, 61, 418 S.E.2d 694, 699 (1992).

But the NC Business Court twice in January allowed fiduciary duty claims to survive when the relationship between the parties was based on a contract.  The cases are Austin v. Regal Investment Advisors, 2018 NCBC 3 and Can-Dev, ULC v. SSTI Centennial, LLC, 2018 NCBC 9.

Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Claim Against Investment Advisor Gets Past Motion To Dismiss

The Plaintiffs in the Austin case, who had invested funds with the Defendants acting as their investment advisors, sued when the individual Defendant (Barnes) persuaded them to invest in a sketchy venture.  A key claim against the investment advisors was for breach of fiduciary duty.

You probably think that an investment advisor stands in a fiduciary relationship to his client as a matter of law (a de jure relationship), but no NC appellate decision has so held.  Judge Robinson didn't see any need to take that step, and instead ruled that the facts alleged in the Complaint were sufficient at the Motion to Dismiss stage to support a de facto fiduciary relationship.  Op. ¶43.  He said:

that the Complaint’s allegations regarding the relationship between the parties, the amount of discretion given to Mr. Barnes and Regal to manage Plaintiffs’ investments, and the circumstances of the Triton investment, together with the allegations that Plaintiffs, who were not sophisticated investors, relied on Mr. Barnes and Regal for their financial expertise to manage their investment accounts, are sufficient at the Rule 12(b)(6) stage to plead the existence of a de facto fiduciary relationship.

Op. ¶43.

Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Claim Survived Motion For Summary Judgment When Contracting Party "Held All The Cards"

So does it get tougher to get beyond the summary judgment stage when you are claiming a de facto fiduciary relationship?  It didn't for the Plaintiff in the Can-Dev decision. That Plaintiff had entered into a joint venture deal with the Defendants to develop self-storage facilities in Canada.  The contractual relationship was carefully detailed, and Judge Robinson noted the well accepted principle that 

parties to a contract do not thereby become each others’ fiduciaries; they generally owe no special duty to one another beyond the terms of the contract[.]

Op. ¶40 (quoting Branch Banking & Tr. Co. v. Thompson, 107 N.C. App. 53, 61, 41, 8 S.E.2d 694, 699 (1992)).

He then observed that:

the existence of a contract does not foreclose the possibility that a contracting party may repose trust and confidence in the other party, beyond the terms of the contract, such that the other party, in equity and good conscience, becomes bound to act in good faith and with due regard to the interests of the one reposing confidence.

Op. ¶40.

The standard for proving a de facto fiduciary relationship "is a demanding one."  Op. ¶37.  The NC Court of Appeals has said that "[o]nly when one party figuratively holds all the cards — all the financial power or technical information, for example — have North Carolina courts found that the special circumstance of a fiduciary relationship has arisen.” Lockerman v. S. River Elec. Membership Corp., 794 S.E.2d 346, 352 (2016).

Plaintiff Can-Dev got over that hurdle  (and at the summary judgment stage, which is all the more impressive).  The Defendants had taken over control of the development projects which were the subject of the contracts, and had failed to provide financial information regarding the projects to the Plaintiff.  Plaintiffs argued, successfully quoting the Court of Appeals' decision in Lockerman, that this "resulted in Defendants “literally ‘[holding] all the cards — all the financial power [and] technical information[.]’”

                                                                          * * *

This isn't the end of the road for the Plaintiffs in either of these cases.  They still have to prove their claims at trial, because whether a de facto fiduciary relationship exists it is "is generally a question of fact for the jury.”  Can-Dev at ¶40.

I should note that the Plaintiffs in the Austin case (the investment advisor case) are represented by Brooks Pierce lawyers Clint Morse and Jessica Thaller-Moran.

 

 

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Berger's GenX "fix" earmarks $1 million for newly-created Collaboratory

While refusing to fund the purchase of a Mass Spectrometer for DEQ:

The bill contains similar funding to the House version, which Senate leadership rejected outright last month. But instead of directing the state Department of Environmental Quality to buy a high-resolution mass spectrometer, the Senate version tells DEQ to use spectrometers already in place on public university campuses.

In addition to $2.4 million in new, one-time money, the Senate bill would re-direct $1 million a year in university system funding to the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which is run by Jeffrey Warren, a former science adviser to Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger.

And as a glaring example of Berger's failure to grasp irony, the bill also directs DEQ to cooperate with an EPA investigation that a) Doesn't exist yet because Trudy Wade and her Three Mouseketeers just asked for it, and b) Is based on DEQ's alleged inability to perform tasks the NCGA has seriously cut funding for. But irony aside for the moment, let's talk about that Collaboratory. Warren is actually the Research Director now and not the Director/Director, and he does have some serious scientific creds. That being said, it's all about the mission he's been given by Berger, and that mission focuses way too heavily on economics and not nearly enough on actual scientific solutions to water quality issues. From the Collaboratory's project on Jordan Lake:

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Dallas Woodhouse files complaint against Indivisible Flip NC

Alternate headline: Pot Calls Kettle Black:

A complaint filed with the state Board of Elections on Tuesday alleges that Indivisible - Flip NC has been raising money and improperly coordinating efforts with the state Democratic Party without filing paperwork with the elections board and disclosing its donors. The complaint was filed by Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party.

Republicans in suburban areas tend to be the most vulnerable. And Flip NC appears to specifically target at least one suburban Republican: Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary. “If we are going to have rules they have to apply equally to all,” Woodhouse said in an email.

Oh, that's just rich as hell. Over the last 6-8 years, Woodhouse has controlled so much dark money he could have easily launched his own fucking rocket, with that Americans For the Prosperous bus perched on its nose. If (and it's a big "if") the organizers of Indivisible Flip NC have failed to file the proper paperwork, it's due to inexperience, not an effort to conceal the identity (and thus motives) of billionaires and other uber-wealthy anti-democratic potentates. More whining:

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Wednesday News: The real Deep State

REPUBLICANS CALL GENERAL ASSEMBLY INTO SESSION WITH SECRETIVE AGENDA: North Carolina lawmakers are returning to Raleigh this week, but they’re not giving the public many details on what they plan to vote on. Both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate are due back in session Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Republican Senate leader Phil Berger said the Senate might have votes that day, Thursday, or Friday – or maybe all three days – but didn’t say what they might be voting on. “I’m IN the state senate and I don’t know what we’re voting on this week,” Democratic Sen. Jeff Jackson of Charlotte wrote in a tweet. “This is nuts.” Legislative leaders have hinted that votes might be coming on more controversial topics, such as redistricting or judicial reform.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article198725179.html

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Tuesday News: Effect, meet Cause

Tuesday Twitter roundup

Weird (bad) news on the gerrymandering front:

How far will parties go to hold on to the power to choose their own voters through #gerrymandering? How about impeaching judges who rule against them? Once you start undermining democracy, it seems it's hard to stop. How long before the trend hits #NC? #ncpol #ncga #fairmaps https://t.co/YLR6f8jVt6

— Mark Nance (@mtnance) February 6, 2018

This may be happening in Pennsylvania, but I wouldn't put it past NC's Republicans to try it also. Hopefully no film at eleven.

http://ift.tt/2GT6ZWb

Civil Rights Commission convenes exactly where it should

Raleigh is ground zero for unconstitutional voter suppression tactics:

Some people say it was fitting for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to take testimony about the state of voting across the country in the capital city of a state that has been the target of many recent lawsuits in which voters have accused lawmakers of disenfranchising them.

In North Carolina, many of the speakers noted, lawmakers have been accused of drawing election districts to weaken the influence of African-American voters and creating new election laws that with near “surgical precision” were targeted to limit black voters’ access to the ballot.

Unfortunately, regardless of the findings produced by this Committee, those reports will be submitted to a (Federal) Legislative and Executive Branch, neither of which has shown any interest lately on preserving Civil Rights, whether in the form of voting or anything else. And their decision to listen to the twisted ramblings of Hans von Spakovsky is not a good sign, either:

http://ift.tt/2BXkjFv

Monday News: Private sector, public danger

SOUTH CAROLINA TRAIN CRASH COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED WITH AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY: Federal investigators are trying to figure out why a switch was in the wrong position, sending an Amtrak train into a freight train and killing a conductor and an engineer in South Carolina. But they already know what could have prevented the wreck that injured more than 100 passengers: a GPS-based system called "positive train control," which knows the location of all trains and the positions of all switches in an area, and can prevent the kind of human error that puts two trains on the same track. "It could have avoided this accident. That's what it's designed to do," said National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt. Regulators have demanded the implementation of positive train control for decades, and the technology is now in place in the Northeast, but railroads that operate tracks used by Amtrak elsewhere in the U.S. have won repeated extensions from the government. The deadline for installing such equipment is now the end of 2018.
http://www.wral.com/us-investigators-say-deadly-amtrak-train-crash-preventable/17313999/

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Sunday News: From the Editorial pages

COURTS, AGAIN. REMIND GOP LEGISLATORS OF THEIR PLACE: It is unconstitutional to just willy-nilly cancel elections, a federal court ruled Wednesday, for state Court of Appeals judges and Supreme Court justices. "The defendants have made no showing of any governmental interest,” was how U.S. District Court Judge Catherine Eagles put it. It is the definition of disingenuousness to say, as legislative leaders did, that Eagles was “once again injecting chaos and confusion into North Carolina elections at the eleventh hour." Or further that her decision was politically motivated because she’d been appointed to her post by a Democratic president. It is the legislature’s obsessive and unceasing efforts at electoral manipulation that’s brought tumult and uncertainty just days before North Carolina candidates are set to file for office in the 2018 elections. North Carolina taxpayers have been forced to waste millions of dollars paying lawyers – including Thomas Farr, whose nomination to a federal District Court judgeship has been embroiled in allegations of racism and voter intimidation – to use the courts to delay and stall. This has been going on since 2012. It is past time to bring it to an end.
http://www.wral.com/editorial-courts-again-remind-gop-legislators-of-their-proper-place/17307433/

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Saturday News: Nothingburger

The magic number is five: Precinct organizing begins Monday

Regardless of how top-heavy it may seem, the North Carolina Democratic Party is structured from the ground up. Voting precincts are apportioned by population, and there are several thousand scattered across the state. Your precinct is named (and coded) on your voter registration card, and it can also be found by doing a NCSBE Voter Search (Even if you already know this information, you should periodically do the online search, just to make sure your registration is still active).

As referenced in the title, a precinct must have at least five (5) members to be considered "organized." If you have never taken part, that qualification may seem easily achieved. It is not. It takes communication and coordination, and sometimes desperation, just to get that many folks from each precinct to the organization meeting. And it's not uncommon for several precincts in a county to fall short, leaving a whole lot of Democrats with no (official) vote in how the Party operates. From the NCDP Plan Of Organization:

* Editor's note: BlueNC is not affiliated with the North Carolina Democratic Party or any of its committees or divisions, but many of our readers are, or are strong supporters.

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Friday News: Repeat offenders

CHEMOURS LEAKS MORE GENX, NC SENATE REFUSES TO PROPERLY FUND DEQ: Tests by Chemours in mid-December found levels of GenX nearly 20 times higher than the state's health limit of 140 parts per trillion in a water outflow near the company's Fayetteville Works plant. Cassie Gavin, director of government relations for the North Carolina Sierra Club, said GenX and other emerging contaminants are a problem the state will be dealing with for a long time. "I think we're going to continue to see these problems over and over again, and that's why the state really needs to have a concerted effort to deal with it going forward, to deal with emerging contaminants like GenX and like other chemicals," Gavin said. The recent spike is the latest indication that state lawmakers need to restore some of the staff cuts made to DEQ, she said. State House lawmakers unanimously passed a measure three weeks ago to give DEQ $2.9 million in additional funding to respond to GenX contamination, but Senate leaders have so far refused to consider it, saying they believe DEQ can handle the issue with current resources.
http://www.wral.com/deq-investigating-spike-in-genx-near-chemical-plant/17306856/

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Friday fracking video

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February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four

http://ift.tt/2rZc6ki

Russia's top spy chiefs meet with US officials days before sanctions (were supposed to be) enforced

Sanctions? We're not worried about any stinking sanctions:

Russia's U.S. ambassador said Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, was in the United States to discuss counterterrorism with his American counterparts. Naryshkin was accompanied at the meeting in Washington by Alexander Bortnikov, who directs the top KGB successor agency known as the Federal Security Service.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the timing of the meeting is suspicious because it came just days before the Trump administration decided not to issue new sanctions against Russian politicians and oligarchs over Russian interference in the election. He released a letter early Thursday demanding that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats disclose details of the meeting by Feb. 9. Schumer said sanctions against Naryshkin impose severe financial penalties and prohibit his entry into the U.S. without a waiver.

Allowing these two (supposedly) sanctioned Russian spies into the country, not to mention meeting with them, is a message on its own. But what was discussed/conveyed at this meeting is of critical importance, as Schumer said. Keep in mind, even if Trump wasn't immediately informed of the proceedings (I'm sure he was), he gets a daily intelligence briefing after he finishes his cranky Twitter ablutions and crawls out of bed. We'll let Vladimir Putin fill in the missing information in his own words:

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Thursday News: Partial victory

JUDGE OVERRULES GOP, REINSTATES PRIMARIES IN STATE-WIDE JUDICIAL RACES: U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles issued an order on Wednesday that, in part, grants a request by Democratic Party officials who sued state lawmakers for canceling primary elections for all judicial races in 2018 – from the district courts to the state’s highest court. At a hearing last week, attorneys for the Democrats argued that the Republican-led General Assembly violated the party’s free speech and equal protection rights by doing away with the election that would have allowed the winnowing of candidates for the general election. Without primaries, ballots in judicial races could have many names on them. A candidate with just 30 percent of the vote could become a judge, according to changes in the law adopted in October. That, Democrats contended in a lawsuit filed late last year, makes it difficult for the party to put forward its best candidate.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article19...

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