Friday fracking video

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Obsessed with Roy: Francis de Luca files complaint about ACP permits

The revelation came to him as he was throwing darts at a Cooper poster:

A challenge filed Tuesday against Governor Roy Cooper’s Department of Environmental Quality alleges that the four permits issued by the state for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline “did not meet proper procedure resulting in harm to water quality.”

The petition was filed by Francis DeLuca, former head of the conservative Civitas Institute, and contests permits and approvals recently issued by DEQ to the ACP project, including the federal Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification which is the primary approval required for the project to move forward. The petition also challenges the sedimentation control permit and storm water permits in Nash and Cumberland counties.

You know, when the GOP took over the General Assembly back in 2011, one of the first things they did was go on a "listening tour" to determine just how dissatisfied developers and industry people were over DENR's permitting process. And of course, they were able to find numerous complainers, who told "horror" stories about having to wait 12-18 months to get their permits approved. Ironically, the GOP's "solution" was to cut funding for DENR (later DEQ) by 40%, and bury the remaining regulators in paperwork like economic impact assessments. But setting that aside for the moment, my point is that Civitas and JLF have been moaning about over-regulation by environmental officials for years, complaining about how those delays stifle growth and prosperity and such. But now Fran de Luca is upset because the permits were granted too quickly? There's a word for that, it's called "Hypocrisy." Here are excerpts of a letter JLF signed off on just a few years ago:

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Thursday News: Zero tolerance

DEMOCRATIC REP DUANE HALL ASKED TO RESIGN AFTER SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATIONS: Top Democratic leaders, including Gov. Roy Cooper, called for state Rep. Duane Hall, D-Wake, to resign Wednesday after a left-leaning news site reported sexual harassment allegations against him. NC Policy Watch said it had five sources, one of whom the website named, describing "persistent sexual innuendo from the three-term legislator and, in some cases, repeated, unwanted sexual overtures." The site quotes Jessie White, described as a top campaign official for several Democratic legislative candidates, as saying Hall commented on her looks and weight. After she mentioned some relationship troubles to Hall at a bar in 2016 he whispered in her ear, “If you give me two hours, you’ll forget about all those other guys," the article states. "We must create a culture where harassment of any kind is unacceptable," Cooper said.
http://www.wral.com/calls-for-local-rep-duane-hall-to-resign-after-sexual-harassment-allegations/173...

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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/

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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/

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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:

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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

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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/

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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

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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/

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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/

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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

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