North Carolina Racial Justice Act Struck Down By State Legislators: BLACK Suspects & Death Penalty Cases

NC Lawmakers override veto of Racial Justice Act overhaul

State lawmakers voted Monday to override Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of a bill that overhauls the landmark Racial Justice Act.

About 90 minutes after the Senate voted 31-11 to override Perdue's veto, the House followed suit with a 72-48 vote.

The measure now becomes law.

The original version of the 2009 law allowed defendants to challenge their death sentence based on statistical data.

Now, statistical data alone is no longer enough to convert sentences to life in prison, and defendants would have to show details particular to their case in order to be successful.

"It's time to go froward with real justice," House Majority Leader Paul Stam said, adding that justice "is about individuals, not groups."

Opponents of the revision, mainly Democrats, say that the changes gut the landmark bill, but backers say the law has been abused.

“What we’re doing today is turning our back on the only sensible remedy that has been devised for racism in court as it relates to the death penalty, and I think that’s a sad thing for us to do in North Carolina," House Minority Leader Joe Hackney said.

"We’re supposed to be progressing, rather than regressing," said Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth. "We can still kill people if we want to kill them.

It does not get rid of the death penalty.

These people (who are successful in a Racial Justice Act appeal) will not walk the streets. They will not be your neighbors. They will not walk beside you. They will be incarcerated for life."

"This is nothing but a backdoor attempt, as we all know, to get rid of the death penalty," said Sen. Thom Goolsby, R-New Hanover.

Judges and prosecutors could be trusted, Goolsby said. "Who I don't trust are Statisticians," he said.

The Senate also voted 29-13 to override Perdue's veto of a bill that would allow natural gas drilling in North Carolina.

The House hasn't yet taken up the veto.

Perdue, a Democrat, vetoed the bill Sunday.

The legislation would begin the process of opening the state to natural gas exploration, including the controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking.".

"This bill does not do enough to ensure that adequate protections for our drinking water, landowners, county and municipal governments, and the health and safety of our families will be in place before fracking begins," Perdue said in her veto message.

Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, told members that the environmental protections in the bill would avoid any ill effects from the horizontal drilling and fracturing processes.

But opponents said the bill would leave landowners vulnerable to abuses by energy companies.

Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D-Buncombe, said one part of the measure would allow gas drillers to force some landowners to sell their mineral rights.

"You're going to find that people don't like being told their land can be taken without due process," Nesbitt said.







Judge: Race 'significantly' influenced inmate's murder trial

A Cumberland County Superior Court judge made history Friday morning when he commuted a death row inmate’s sentence in the first test of North Carolina’s fledgling Racial Justice Act.

Superior Court Judge Greg Weeks ruled that race significantly influenced jury selection in Marcus Robinson’s 1994 trial in the 1991 shooting death of a white 17-year-old, Erik Tornblom.

The ruling means Robinson, a 38-year-old black man, will be taken off death row and will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Weeks said Robinson's attorneys "presented a wealth of evidence showing the persistent, persuasive and distorting role of race in jury selection in North Carolina."

"When the government's choice of jurors is tainted with racial bias, that overt wall casts down over the parties, the jury and the court to adhere to the law throughout the trial," Weeks said. "The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutors discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence."

The case is the first of more than 150 pending cases to get an evidentiary hearing before a judge under the Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that allows death row prisoners and capital murder defendants to challenge their sentences or prosecutors' decisions with statistics and other evidence.

Weeks said that, by enacting the Racial Justice Act, the General Assembly made clear that North Carolina's laws reject the influence of race discrimination in the administration of the death penalty.

"It’s a widely accepted truth that race discrimination has historically had an impact on state policy in every aspect of our private and public lives, including education, housing, employment and criminal justice, " Weeks said in his ruling. "Race still divides us, and the Racial Justice Act recognizes that the justice system is not immune from this legacy of discrimination in our nation."

Prosecutors said Friday they planned to challenge Weeks' decision, and Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West declined further comment while the case was being appealed.

"There's justice at last," Weeks' mother, Shirley Burnes, said. "It's bittersweet, because I think about the family (of Erik Tornblom) and my son, but you've got to treat people right. You've got to treat people fair. That's what we depend on when we go through the system."

Tornblom's family left the courtroom visibly upset without commenting on the ruling.

Robinson and co-defendant Roderick Williams Jr. murdered Tornblom in 1991 after the teen gave his killers a ride from a Fayetteville convenience store. Tornblom was forced to drive to a field where he was shot with a sawed-off shotgun.

Robinson came close to death in January 2007, but a judge blocked his scheduled execution.

During a hearing in February, Robinson's defense team argued prosecutors' decisions to reject potential jurors who were black were influenced by race.

They cited a Michigan State University study that concluded black jurors were more likely to be dismissed than white jurors.

The study found that, of almost 160 people on North Carolina's death row, 31 had all-white juries, and 38 had only one person of color. A defendant is 2.6 times more likely to be sentenced to death if at least one of the victims is white, the study also found.

Union County prosecutor Jonathan Perry, who helped the Cumberland County District Attorney's Office argue the case against Robinson, said the study was untrustworthy because it was based on a too-limited sample of death penalty cases to provide meaningful results. The study also failed to detect numerous nonracial reasons that a person might be peremptorily struck from a jury, Perry said.

In his ruling, Weeks reiterated the study's findings, calling it very reliable and an example of the continued role of race in the justice system in Cumberland County and across the state. According to the court, prosecutors deliberately excluded black jurors from service in Robinson's case.

"The state's evidence not only failed to rebut Robinson's evidentiary showing, but in many respects, it reinforced and strengthened it," Weeks said. "The evidence should serve as a clear signal of the need for reform in capital jury selection proceedings in the future."

Weeks also noted that discrimination in jury selection across the state undermines the ability of the justice system to appear unbiased in capital cases.

"The very integrity of the court is jeopardized when a prosecutor's discrimination invites cynicism respecting the jury’s neutrality and undermines public confidence," he said.

Weeks' ruling prompted responses, both applauding the decision and speaking out against it.

People of Faith Against the Death Penalty, one of the most noted advocates for the Racial Justice Act, released a statement calling Weeks' ruling "a huge victory for justice, for the people of North Carolina, for the South and the country as a whole."

"This historic victory for justice would not have come about if not for the courage and persistence of ordinary North Carolina citizens who challenged these legacies of discrimination and demanded passage of the RJA," the nonprofit group said in a statement."

The North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP also released a statement: "Today is a day where we must reflect on a dual tragedy. The loss of life of the Tornblom family is a tragedy that should grieve us all, and the Court's finding is a reminder of the tragedy that racial bias still affects and impacts the judicial process."

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys said it wasn't surprised but "respectfully disagreed."

"Race should never play a role in the criminal justice system; not in decisions made by prosecutors, nor rulings made by judges," it said. "Claims of racial bias are best addressed by the trial judge hearing the case, not by generalized statistics presented more than 20 years after conviction."

Last year, the Republican-led Legislature tried to repeal the Racial Justice Act, but Gov. Bev Perdue vetoed the effort. A subsequent vote in the General Assembly fell short of the required number of votes to override the veto.

A House committee is now looking at ways to narrow the scope of the law.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger responded to Friday's ruling, saying he's "deeply concerned" that it could make Robinson eligible for parole. He was convicted prior to a 1994 change in state law that allowed prisoners serving life sentences to be eligible for release.

"We cannot allow cold-blooded killers to be released into our community, and I expect the state to appeal this decision," Berger, R-Rockingham, said. "Regardless of the outcome, we continue to believe the Racial Justice Act is an ill-conceived law that has very little to do with race and absolutely nothing to do with justice."

House Minority Leader Joe Hackney, D-Orange, also released a statement, saying the law has worked as it was intended.

"Mr. Robinson will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the crimes he committed," Hackney said. "That is appropriate. The courts corrected a death sentence in which race played a significant role. That is also appropriate."



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Sources: AP, CBS News, McClatchy Newspapers, WRAL, Google Maps

North Carolina HOAs Gone Rogue! Lawmakers Refuse To Act! (Developer Political Donations)

HOA forecloses on family; neighbors lose, attorneys profit

Not all the foreclosures emptying homes across the Carolinas originate from banks and lenders. Increasingly, the institution doing the foreclosing is made up of neighbors who run the homeowners association–known as the HOA.

Consider one family’s story:

Michelle Roberts’ parents helped her and her husband buy their first home in Gaston County in 2003. Even though she and her husband Darin paid the mortgage, her mom and dad signed the note. Their names are on the deed. That means her parents are on the hook now that the home is in foreclosure and the courts have ordered her family to pack up and leave this week.

“We're going to have to move back in with mom and dad for a while,” Michelle said, sitting among boxes in her living room. “We have no choice.”

This is not one more bank foreclosure–one more mortgage gone bad. No, the Roberts are losing their home to their neighbors–their HOA.

“We just wanted them to work with us,” said Michelle. “We didn't neglect paying them on purpose. They neglected to notify us.”

The Mountain View Community Association off of Spencer Mountain Road near Ranlo, North Carolina and its management company, Hawthorne Management of Charlotte, did not send a bill to the Roberts for years.

“Not one word for six years,” said Michelle, “Not one word.”

The HOA lost track of the Roberts lot and two others when the builder transferred the property to their family. Then in May of 2009 the HOA sent Michelle’s parents a statement asking for almost six years worth of dues at once–$945.

“I don’t know how we would pay that, and I don’t think it’s fair,” said Michelle’s husband Darin Roberts.

At first the Roberts say they called a neighbor who served on the board of the HOA.

“She said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll work it out. It’s not that big of a deal,’” said Darin.

That was before the lien notices and threatening letters began arriving from the HOA’s law firm.

“We were blindsided,” said Michelle.

So the Roberts tried repeatedly to work out a payment plan.

“They wanted a $444-a-month payment and refused to accept anything less than that,” said Michelle.

“I had my daughter selling brownies on the weekend,” Darin said. “I borrowed from my sister. I did overtime. I’m a middle class family dude that tries to pay his bills and feed his family.”

The Roberts made payments totaling $888 last May–which sounds like they’d paid off the bulk of their original HOA debt.

“You would think wouldn’t you?” said Michelle. “You would think.”

But no.

By that point, the HOA’s attorneys were involved. And they charged far more than the original debt in fees and court costs to try to collect it all. Court records show the Roberts whole payment went to legal fees–not to the HOA.

In fact, the paralegal working for the law firm e-mailed the Roberts that, “Your account will be charged $45 for every payment plan request” even if the lawyers refused to accept the terms.

“It’s just burying us deeper and deeper,” said Michelle. “Trying to fix the problem is just making it worse. Every time they touch it, every time they pick up the phone, we’re getting billed again.”

The Roberts gave up. The HOA and its law firm foreclosed.

“Now it just seems like the HOA’s can do whatever they want anytime they want,” Darin said.

And that original bill of less than a thousand dollars? T he attorneys added almost $6,000 in court costs and legal fees.

“The people that are benefiting are the attorneys,” said Michelle. “They’re getting five times what the original bill was.”

The people who are not benefit ting from this HOA foreclosure? The neighbors. Because the foreclosure means the HOA–the neighbors–now own the Roberts home.

“I don't know what good that is,” said Michelle. “People can't sell their homes who legitimately want to sell their homes now.”

Foreclosures can drive down property values for the neighbors since would-be buyers look to comparable nearby properties – known as “comps” – to gage the price they should pay. And foreclosed homes often sell at fire-sale prices, dragging down the neighborhood average.

“The HOA will get their $975,” said Michelle. “But they’ll also have an empty house along with the others they’ve done this to.”

The I-Team searched through Gaston County Register of Deeds records and found six more foreclosures in the last year and a half in the same Mountain View neighborhood from the same Hawthorne Management company and the same law firm: Sellers, Hinshaw. (Click here to read an e-mail from Sellers, Hinshaw)

“We try to work with people,” attorney Tim Sellers told the I-Team in an earlier interview.

Sellers refused to speak on camera about Mountain View and the Roberts.

“The vast majority of the ones we deal with if they’re not in compliance we work to get ‘em in compliance,” he said.

Sellers sent the I-Team a five page time line (click here to read) detailing two years of back-and-forth with the Roberts concluding, “Collection action was authorized only when the Association received no response from the owners or after the owners defaulted on the written agreement for installment payments.”

The Roberts say they made a good faith effort to try to pay an old debt during trying times and lost their home in the process.

Sitting on her couch before loading it on the truck, Michelle summed it up: “We’re like every other family. We’re struggling. We’ve had to take three pay cuts in the banking industry just to keep a job. My business was cut in half. My father has a rare and aggressive cancer.”

Michelle’s father, Dennis Hiatt, said he may go bankrupt. Between breaths from an oxygen tank he says: “It may be legal what they’re doing but it’s just not right.”




NASCAR driver loses four year legal fight with HOA


Todd Bodine is accustomed to the sound of winning.

The NASCAR driver has won the sport’s truck series twice, most recently last year. But earlier this month, if you were to pass by the Bodines’ well-kept home in the Harris Village neighborhood of Mooresville, you would have heard the sound of Todd Bodine losing, as he and a crew of helpers tore down his prize pool house and tiki hut board by board and piece by piece, the result of an epic four-year battle with his homeowners association, or HOA.

A select committee of North Carolina lawmakers considering reforms of the HOA statutes heard that 53% of owner-occupied homes in the state are governed by HOA’s. But few of those homeowners sue their HOA and appeal all the way to the state Supreme Court, only to lose and have to tear down a structure, plus pay opposing attorneys’ fees and fines in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Bodines did.

“I think I’ve been done wrong,” Bodine said, sitting in shorts by his pool, the remnants of his poolside bar covered with a tarp. “And it’s incredible how unjust it is.”

The disagreement started in July of 2007 when the HOA board president who the Bodines had entertained over beers as they built their pool abruptly told them the pool house was not approved. “The president never said ‘it's OK for you to start building,’” said Keith Black, the Greensboro attorney who represented the Harris Village HOA.

Todd Bodine insists the HOA president had told him verbally to go ahead and build. “Everything was always, fine, OK, looks good,” said Bodine.

The issue came to a head at an emergency meeting in the Bodines’ driveway. Bodine was upset. “It was on then. I got in his face,” Bodine said. He and his wife went inside their home while the board members talked things over. The board members signed a “Request for Architectural Approval” checked “approved” pending the approval of the Town of Mooresville Codes Department, which the Bodines quickly secured.

But the dispute continued. The board’s attorney contends that the document was conditional on the Bodines submitting final drawings with dimensions and that the board never realized how large the structure would be. The HOA had issued interpretations of the covenants limiting the size of “accessory buildings” including tool sheds and utility buildings to 320 square feet. But the document was never recorded as part of the covenants.”They ignored the phone calls, the e-mail and built the thing,” said Black.

So when the Bodines returned home after several weeks on the road racing, they faced threatening letters and the prospect of fines from the HOA. “They were fining us $100 a day which is absurd,” said Bodine. The Bodines filed suit.

Bodine insists the HOA targeted him, knowing he could afford the fines. “I was gouged pretty hard because of who I am,” Bodine said. “I believe a lot of it was because of my celebrity as a NASCAR driver.”

But Black, the HOA’s attorney, says the lawsuit had nothing to do with Bodine’s status, further saying the HOA tried to settle. “They said, ‘No. We're not gonna do it. You're wrong. Kiss our rear end. We'll see you in court,’” said Black.

If it’s true that you can’t fight city hall, Todd and Janet Bodine found you really can’t fight the HOA. They lost at every level. It started when the trial judge gave a directed verdict to the HOA so the jurors who sat through days of testimony never even got to deliberate. “We were all dumbfounded,” said Bodine. Then the Bodines lost on appeal. And finally the state Supreme Court refused to even hear the case.

In the whole four years no one said the Bodines’ pool house hurt Harris Village. “Hell it was nice looking,” said Black. “That wasn't the issue. Nobody said it's ugly and you have to take it down.”

Instead the HOA stood on principle and said if they let the Bodines build a pool house without the permission of the HOA board – then what next? “They open the door for anybody and everybody else to say, ‘Well I want to paint my house purple and have pink toilet seats all over the front yard,’” said Black.

The Bodines say other Harris Village homeowners have broken the architectural guidelines of the HOA, so they believe the fight got personal. “I think it was a small group of people out for vengeance,” said Bodine. “They saw their cash cow and they were going for it.”

So now the Bodines are on the hook for their own attorney’s fees, the HOA’s attorneys’ fees and almost $40,000 in accrued fines. The HOA put a lien on their home for the unpaid fines. Bodine was fed up. “I told ‘em, ‘Take it. Take the house,” he said.

Having exhausted their appeals in the courts, the Bodines would like the state legislature to consider reigning in the powers of HOA’s, a group of almost 18,000 neighborhood governments in North Carolina run by neighbors. “A lot of time their power is just way too strong,” said Bodine.

Black and other attorneys representing the HOA’s say that neighbors have legal remedies built into the law and if they don’t like the way the HOA is run they can always throw out the board by electing someone else. “Anytime somebody loses all of a sudden they want it to be changed,” said Black.

But the Bodines are hardly the only homeowners to run afoul of a group of neighbors bent on tearing down their property. And the state legislature is considering several bills to reform HOA’s. None of them will help the Bodines who this month tore their pool house to the ground.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Thom Tillis To Cut Unnecessary N.C. Schools Budget Policy Strings: Educational Freedom

New North Carolina House Speaker To Cut Educational Policy Strings: Educational Freedom


Local schools facing big budget cuts can expect more freedom on how to spend state money, says Rep. Thom Tillis, a Huntersville Republican who's been tapped as House speaker in the new GOP-dominated legislature.

Before he was elected to the North Carolina State Legislature four years ago, Tillis was a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parent volunteer, PTSA president and education activist from the northern suburbs.

Now he brings that experience to a top post in a year that could shake the foundations of public education, with Republicans holding a majority in the state legislature for the first time in more than a century and a $3 Billion gap looming in the N.C. State budget.

Tillis says his PTSA work at Hopewell High gave him a firsthand view of how many strings come attached to state money. While he's not ready to offer specifics, he says Republicans are ready to loosen those strings.

"There's about 500 pages of statutes," Tillis said. "How can we ease the burden?"

That's welcome news to CMS leaders, who have long sought more decision-making power.

Board chair Eric Davis, who is registered unaffiliated, says much of the current control dates to the Great Depression, when North Carolina stepped in as small districts went broke.

"We're now in an economic crisis second only to the Great Depression," Davis said, and he urges state legislators to seize the opportunity to get rid of "rules and regulations that tie our hands."

The CMS board is still working on a legislative wish list, but Davis cited rules restricting furloughs and setting the school calendar as examples that limit local options.

Superintendent Peter Gorman said Wednesday that he'd like to see the state give each district its share of the money with no restrictions. Now, state money is often attached to prescribed jobs. Preliminary state plans for dealing with big cuts in 2011 would reduce the number of teachers available at each grade level, a loss of up to 500 from CMS alone, and eliminate teacher assistants in grades 1-3, leaving them only in kindergarten.

Gorman said he'd like the option of cutting something else to preserve assistants. Making those decisions brings more criticism to local officials, he said, but "I'd rather take the blame and be more strategic."

Tillis says his party has some broad strokes plans for education, from allowing more charter schools to cutting regulations. Starting this month, he said, he and other leaders will meet with educators, officials, parents and others willing to help chart the details.

"We want as many people engaged in the process as are interested," he said shortly after Republicans chose him to become speaker.

Up-close knowledge

Mary McCray, president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators, calls Tillis' CMS experience "a plus-plus."

"He knows what overcrowded high schools are, what they look like," McCray said.

In 2003, Tillis was part of FUME, a north-suburban parent group organized by Rhonda Lennon, who's now on the CMS board. The group was concerned about school crowding created by CMS student assignment and slow construction of suburban schools, along with other issues.

At Hopewell, Tillis said, concerns about safety and discipline led to a PTA survey of teachers. That taught him to listen to rank-and-file educators, he said.

He said he'll work with groups such as the N.C. Association of Educators, a quasi-union in a right-to-work state, but "I don't view the NCAE as being the voice of teachers."

Tillis says his own family has experienced school choice; his two kids attended both public and private schools. His daughter graduated from CMS's Hopewell and attends Central Piedmont Community College, he said, while his son graduated from the private Cannon School and attends American University in Washington, D.C.

One of the GOP's top priorities is lifting North Carolina's 100-school limit on charters, which get public money but don't report to local districts.

"I believe this year if you see nothing else, you will see a more friendly environment for charter schools in North Carolina," he said.

Not all charters are successful, Tillis said, but a wider range would offer more options and more success stories. His goal, he says, is recognizing standouts among charters and traditional public schools.

Swinging for doubles

The 2011 session convenes Jan. 26; that's when new members will be sworn in and the speaker will be formally elected.

The legislature could re-examine the state pay scale, Tillis said. He said he's intrigued by CMS's quest to base teacher pay on student progress and other measures of effectiveness, rather than seniority and credentials.

"I believe it's worked well in business and been successful in some other districts," he said.

And he said he'd consider loosening the state-imposed limits on when the school year stops and starts, as long as changes don't harm the economy. Some businesses that rely on summer vacation trade and/or student labor lobbied for a uniform school year.

Every creative approach that state and local officials can find will help, Tillis said, even though he doubts there's one big answer to dealing with cuts.

"I don't believe there are any home runs out there," he said, "but I do believe there are a lot of singles and doubles."










Thom Tillis Elected New North Carolina House Speaker


North Carolina Republicans narrowly selected state Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County on Saturday as their nominee to become the next speaker of the North Carolina House. Tillis is a relative newcomer with fiscal expertise who was the GOP's floor chief for the past four years.

House Republicans claimed 68 seats on Election Day, all but assuring sole GOP control of the 120-seat chamber and the speaker's post for the first time since 1998. The actual vote for speaker occurs Jan. 26 on the session's first day.

Democrat Joe Hackney, who loses his position as speaker to the incoming Republican majority, issued a statement Saturday congratulating Tillis.

"My Democratic colleagues and I look forward to working with him to make our state better," Hackney said.

"We will also continue to support action consistent with our principles. We will oppose policies that take North Carolina backward, that threaten to destroy the remarkable progress we have made in our public schools, our community colleges and our universities, or that threaten our outstanding and highly lauded climate for business."

Tillis, 50, who just won his third term to the Legislature, defeated three other candidates, including Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, the minority leader since 2007.

Results of the private meeting, secret-ballot vote weren't released by caucus leaders, who would only say that Tillis won on the second ballot and that the final margin was thin.

Stam unanimously was elected majority leader, which Tillis called a sign of the amicable competition and the good feelings Republicans had for both candidates. Two other candidates who had sought the majority leader's post dropped out for Stam.

"We went in there unified and we came out unified, and I have every reason to believe that that's why we're going to go into the legislative session and make history," Tillis told reporters after the meeting.

Stam said the GOP will lead cooperatively and constructively. "We're still going to cooperate with Democrats whenever we can. In the past, it was out of necessity because it was the way to get our bills passed, but, in the future, we'll do it because it's good government," he said.

Tillis, a former IBM business consultant first elected to the House in 2006 and became minority whip in 2009, has won points for running the campaign operation that raised money and recruited candidates who defeated more than a dozen Democratic incumbents. He said fiscal issues such as taxation and narrowing a projected $3.2 billion budget gap would be the immediate work of the new majority.

"This is a part-time legislature that's going to try and solve that crisis over a six-month period. Most CEOs would go running for the door if they had to take on the task that we've worked hard to take on," he said.

"Our priorities are going to be what they were in the campaign," Tillis said. "We're going to focus on the fiscal situation. We're going to focus on trying whatever we can to create jobs. We're going to live up to our promises."

Stam, an Apex attorney completing his fifth term, also talked fiscal matters but appealed more to social conservatives and has been involved in Republican Party politics since the early 1970s. He first joined the House in 1989 and returned more than a decade later.

Reps. Ric Killian of Mecklenburg County and Mitch Gillespie of McDowell County also ran for speaker Saturday. They were removed from the ballot after they trailed in the first round of voting.

Outgoing Speaker Joe Hackney, D-Orange, has been in the Legislature for 30 years. State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer said he didn't believe Tillis' relative inexperience is a liability.

"He's going to bring a businessman's focus, a businessman's perspective to the job of speaker. He's not a career politician," Fetzer said. "We need to disabuse ourselves of this notion that people have to be around there forever to effectively lead."

Tillis and Sen. Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, chosen Thursday as the GOP's choice for Senate leader, will become the top Republican leaders in state government, setting the tone for what legislation will be heard and which lawmakers will get plum committee assignments. They'll also serve as chief negotiators with, and likely foils of, Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Tillis said he won't have all the answers leading the House but said he knows where to find them.

"I have the kind of experience that you need to lead a caucus that has tremendous institutional knowledge," Tillis said.

Unity is a sensitive issue for House Republicans, who struggled through a fracturous decade between those aligned with or against former co-Speaker Richard Morgan, R-Moore. The infighting surfaced in primary elections during the 2004 or 2006, taking out several GOP incumbents. Stam, 60, is credited with restoring the caucus.

House Republicans also agreed to nominate Rep. Dale Folwell of Forsyth County as speaker pro tempore, a largely ceremonial position but one Tillis said Folwell initially will use to help with new member orientation. Folwell still must be elected by the entire chamber January. The caucus also elected Rep. Marilyn Avila, R-Wake, as chairwoman of the joint House-Senate Republican caucus.

The day was largely a joyful one for Republicans, who have held control or partial control of the House for only six years since the 1898 elections. When asked what it will be like switching from minority leader to majority leader, Stam replied simply: "We're going to win a whole lot more votes."


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, WRAL, Google Maps

North Carolina Is Bleeding Jobs! Lawmakers Cooking Numbers!

A Closer Look At N.C.'s Unemployment Rate

Can't find a job?

It's easy to blame yourself as you watch the state's unemployment rate plunge, from 11.2 in March of this year to 9.6 in September. You see state political leaders taking a victory lap on television and that makes you feel even worse. If other unemployed people seem to be getting jobs, family and friends point out, surely you can too.

You've been pounding the pavement for months though, and you keep hearing that things are getting better, but you've got this gut sense that they are actually getting worse.

You're not imagining this. The state of North Carolina is bleeding jobs. As in losing them. Gone. Buh-bye. How can that be if the unemployment rate is going down?

The unemployment rate is horribly misleading. As former business writer and MeckDeck.com blogger Jeff Taylor pointed out, since March, when the unemployment rate in North Carolina hit a high for the year of 11.2 percent, the state has actually lost 8,700 jobs.

For those who know how to read it, Friday's jobs report was a bloodbath as 6,700 jobs disappeared statewide in a single month. According to the state employment security commission's seasonally adjusted estimates, the total employed number in September was 4,048,220. That's down from 4,054,885 in August.

An eighth grader could see the arc in state employment in this simple graph on the Employment Commission website. For the first five months of the year, total employment grew steadily as the state and the nation appeared to be slowly recovering. Then it hit a wall in May with a high of 4,095,438 and began to reverse course.

Ever wonder why economists now say they don't expect things to improve until at least 2012 despite the drop in the unemployment rate? This is why.

So why is the state unemployment rate going down? Because 13,186 people dropped out of the state labor pool in September, presumably leaving the ranks of those actively hunting for a job in frustration. That's why the unemployment rate continues to go down even as thousands of jobs vanish.

Meanwhile, the political cabal running the state jumped to take credit for another decrease in unemployment rate ahead of the election. They credited their economic policies, which included, uh, hiking taxes in the middle of a recession and um, spending more than they did the year before while claiming to be broke. As you can see, that's going smashingly.

We can only hope for another tax hike and spending increase next year. Maybe we can knock the raw jobs number down to three million and so many people will give up looking for work that the unemployment rate will go down even further ... like to 8 percent. Problem solved.

As Taylor points out, there were 282,775 fewer jobs in the state in September than there were in January 2008, at the height of pre-recession employment.

The raw job numbers aren't just headed to Hades in North Carolina. The national trend is almost identical as the total employed numbers drop and the workforce shrinks because people have given up looking for a job and dropped out.

Between January and April, according to the Employment Security Commission, total seasonally adjusted employment in this country grew by 1,122,000 jobs, a good sign. Then it abruptly reversed course, declining by 64,000 by September. That means that roughly 12 percent of that decline was in North Carolina. Not good.

If you are struggling with the stigma of unemployment, which can eat at your self-image after a while, know this: It's likely not your fault. You are not alone. And you may want to consider a move to Texas. Half the net new jobs in the country were created there over the past year.

The state has no income tax, barebones regulation of business and is among the nation's 10 lowest for overall tax burden. (North Carolina regularly ranks among the top 10 to top 11 highest-taxed states.)

Perhaps this is all just a fluke. Maybe things will get better. But if I were unemployed, I'd be loading up the U-Haul and heading west.


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Sources: Creative Loafing, Meck Deck Blog, McClatchy Newspapers, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

North Carolina Lawmakers Agree To Help Reduce Recidivism Of Black Men

North Carolina Lawmakers Get Ideas On Reducing Recidivism


Within three years of getting out of prison, North Carolina Ex-convicts are 36 to 40 percent more likely to commit another crime, Attorney General Roy Cooper told North Carolina Lawmakers Wednesday.

Cooper addressed the Joint Select Committee on Ex-Offender Reintegration into Society, a group of N.C. House and Senate members that is developing a plan to help former inmates.

He shared some ideas of the StreetSafe Task Force, a group that he and state Correction Secretary Alvin Keller head that offers tools and tips to ex-convicts to make them productive citizens as they return to their communities.

The following are some of the task force's 24 preliminary Recommendations:

Strengthen and support non-profit groups helping ex-offenders integrate back into their communities.

Increase contact between offenders and their families before an offender gets out of prison.

Assign inmates to both educational and work programs to increase participation.
Improve job training opportunities for inmates.

Build networks with private employers and provide incentives to hire ex-convicts.
Establish incentives to develop housing for former inmates.



"When you take this effort, when you coordinate it, when you try to re-integrate people back into society and you reduce the number of repeat offenders, you protect people from crime, you save money and you help people," Cooper said.

A final list of suggestions from the task force will be sent to Gov. Beverly Perdue soon, he said.

The legislative committee is scheduled to meet again in two weeks to learn more about other states' programs for reducing Recidivism.


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Sources: National Geographic, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

Lassiter, Foxx Are Extremely Different Candidates...Only One Is An Experienced, Effective Leader

Mayoral candidates emphasize differences


Charlotte's two mayoral candidates continued to play up their differences Wednesday as they parted ways over a proposed streetcar and the nature of the city's top job.

Republican John Lassiter and Democrat Anthony Foxx spoke to a Charlotte Chamber audience in Pinehurst in the afternoon before bringing what Lassiter called their "traveling road show" to Queens University of Charlotte in a forum co-sponsored by WFAE that night.

Less than a month before the November election, both still are fighting the impression that there's little difference in the men who hope to become Charlotte's first new mayor in 14 years. At the Chamber's Pinehurst retreat, Johnson C. Smith University President Ron Carter told them they "sound alike in many ways."

In response, Lassiter described what he called a "significant difference of performance" and cited his experience as a school board member, planning commissioner and City Council member. It is, he said, "a record unparalleled for someone running for this office."

"I guess I just ought to quit," replied Foxx.

But Foxx highlighted his own record on council and as someone who grew up in Charlotte and has an "emotional connection" to the community. Lassiter moved to Charlotte nearly 27 years ago from Raleigh.

Foxx portrayed himself as someone who has championed the hiring of police, the building of roads and development of road corridors.

At Queens, the two debated financing for the proposed streetcar that would run from Johnson C. Smith through town to Eastland Mall. Last month Foxx and the council's Democratic majority voted to override Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million on an engineering study for the line. Lassiter opposed it.

Though Lassiter supports the project, he said he didn't believe in committing money until the city knows how it would pay for the $450 million project.

Both vowed that they wouldn't raise property taxes to pay for the line. Last month, the city staff outlined scenarios to the council's Transportation Committee, which Foxx chairs. One called for creating a special taxing district along the line and enacting a 4-cent tax hike for every $100 of taxable value. Another called for a citywide tax increase of 2 cents.

Lassiter said it's unclear where the city's estimated $115 million share would come from. Foxx suggested ways to pay for it without property taxes, including an engineering solution that would do away with overhead wires.

Asked whether Charlotte is ready for a full-time mayor, Lassiter said he would try to balance the part-time job with his business and family. Foxx said the city is "moving past the time when a part-time mayor can engage the community."

Foxx said he would revisit the idea of city-county consolidation. Lassiter said he would support more functional consolidation among the city, county and school system in areas such as human resources and information technology.



Hackney knows "all about" Mecklenburg

N.C. House Speaker Joe Hackney blasted Republican legislators today for "trying to fight against us at every turn" during the last legislative session.

Speaking to the Charlotte Uptown Democratic Forum, the Chapel Hill Democrat outlined the difficulty of balancing a state budget that had a $4.6 billion shortfall, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer reports. The Democratic controlled General Assembly used a package of cuts and tax hikes and federal stimulus money to balance the budget.

"We did what we had to do to protect education and our universities," he said, adding that Republicans did nothing but ridicule Democratic proposals. "This session (they) were not serious about government ... It's a national trend."

Hackney also touched on matters closer to home.

"There's often a perception in Mecklenburg, I am told, that nobody cares about Mecklenburg," he said. "I can assure you I keep up with it. I know all about 495," he added, before someone corrected him that it's completion of the I-485 beltway that is a concern to Charlotteans.

"485, same thing," Hackney said quickly.



Foxx: No property tax hike for streetcar

Democratic mayoral candidate Anthony Foxx said Thursday he wouldn't raise property taxes to pay for a streetcar, despite his vote to move ahead with the project and suggestions from city staff that a hike may be needed.

"We aren't proposing or considering any increase in property taxes, and now would be a terrible time to think of that," he told the Observer. "I will not raise property taxes for the streetcar."

The streetcar and property tax issues came up when Foxx and Republican John Lassiter spoke to a luncheon of the Charlotte Regional Mortgage Lenders Association at the Myers Park Country Club.

Lassiter has also opposed property tax increases.

The rivals, both at-large city council members, were on opposite sides last month when council Democrats overrode Mayor Pat McCrory's veto of $4.5 million to start design work on the line.

The project, which would run from Johnson C. Smith University through uptown to Eastland Mall, would cost over $450 million. It's unclear where the money would come from.

"I could not promise to build something I didn't know how to pay for," Lassiter told the mortgage group.

Foxx defended his vote. He said the line would bring economic development to neighborhoods that need it. One study showed new development could generate $112million in new property taxes over 20 years.

"The future of our city is dependent on making every part ... a great place to live in," he told the group.

On Monday the city staff outlined ways to pay for the line to the council's Transportation Committee, which Foxx chairs. One option called for creating a special taxing district along the line and enacting a 4-cent tax hike for every $100 of taxable value. Another called for a citywide tax increase of 2 cents.

The city's current tax rate is 45.86cents.

"By supporting the streetcar, I'm not committing myself to a property tax increase," Foxx said later.

During the meeting, he defended his vote for a 2006 city budget that raised property taxes 9 percent - the first increase in at least a decade. Lassiter voted against the budget.

Foxx said the tax hike helped pay for the 70 new officers the police chief requested, more than in the no-new-tax budget supported by Lassiter and McCrory. It also brought in money for new roads and neighborhood improvements.

He suggested that without the tax hike, Charlotte's crime rate might not have gone down. Police say it's down 20percent from a year ago.

"You can't out a price on (a) family's sense of safety, put a value on the life saved because we had the additional police officers," he told the group.

Lassiter has criticized "unnecessary and unmanaged government spending" that he says had nothing to do with police, roads or neighborhoods.

Thursday he alluded to this year's General Assembly actions that raised the state sales tax by a penny and enacted surcharges of 2 percent or 3percent on some taxpayers. He told the mortgage lenders that he'll keep taxes down.

"We're in a high-taxed city in a high-taxed state," he said. "We've got to right the ship."



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Under The Dome, Charmeck.org, North Carolina General Assembly, Google Maps

NC Legislator Resigns Due To Allegations Of Violating Campaign Finance Laws...NC Corruption

Ty Harrell resigns from the House

Rep. Ty Harrell, a Raleigh Democrat who has been under investigation over his campaign expenditures, submitted his resignation Sunday.

Harrell said he needs to focus attention on answering questions about his campaign finances and on his young sons, as he and his wife are in the midst of divorce proceedings.

“The people of District 41, and all citizens of North Carolina, deserve representatives who can make clearly-focused decisions on their behalf,” Harrell wrote in a letter to House Speaker Joe Hackney. “With the recent turbulence in my personal life and continued speculation about my campaign expenditures, I do not feel that I can provide the high standard of representation that my constituents expect and deserve.”

Hackney asked the Legislative Ethics Committee to investigate Harrell’s finances on Sept. 9, after the State Board of Elections began an audit of campaign expenses. Harrell’s campaign expense report for January through June of this year showed an unusual number of expenses for a year with no election. Many of the expenses were to restaurants at a time when Harrell had no source of income other than his nearly $14,000 legislative salary. In an earlier report, he listed paying $235 to a pricey children's clothing store and $191 to Sharon Luggage, with both identified as a "committee meeting."

The descriptions of the expenses often were listed as “donor recruitment,” “strategy meeting” or other explanations that the elections board found insufficient. The elections board’s staff has since asked for more than 200 pieces of additional information on Harrell’s filings, an unusually large request.



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Sources: News & Observer, Under The Dome, Google Maps

North Carolina's Greatest Legacy (Including Charlotte) Is Building More Jails & Imprisoning (Not Educating) Minority Citizens

Cuts mean fewer prisons and programs




- As a result of tough-on-crime sentencing laws approved by legislators 15 years ago, North Carolina's Inmate population is booming and will soon outpace the number of prison beds.

Despite this, the state budget signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue this month orders seven small prisons closed, eliminates 972 corrections jobs and cuts programs aimed at keeping juvenile offenders from becoming hardened criminals.

Administrators say the state Department of Correction can safely absorb the cuts in the short-term by increasing the number of inmates at other facilities. But judges, legislators and others with a stake in the criminal justice system worry that the growth, if unchecked, will soon result in prisons so crowded as to be unsafe for inmates or staff.

Last year, the state budgeted more than $1.5 billion for prisons and probation. That's 3.5 times what was spent in 1985, when adjusted for inflation. The number of inmates has more than doubled over the same period, from 17,430 to about 39,000. The system has about 20,000 workers, making it the largest employer among state agencies.

“We can't just keep putting more and more people in prison,” said Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, a Democrat from Carrboro who co-chairs the legislative committee that oversees justice and public safety. “We can't afford it.”

At the heart of the issue is the conflict between strained state resources in the worst economic recession in a generation and the unwillingness of legislators to budge on laws that require criminals to serve more time.

The $74 million in budget cuts and prison closures requires the relocation of about 950 inmates and cuts programs that are popular with inmates and the public, such as family visitation, gyms and the community work crews that provide cheap labor for local governments. Money for the crews that collect litter along the state's highways was also reduced.

The budget also cut $33 million and 122 jobs from the state Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, eliminating the Governor's One-on-One program, which provides mentors for at-risk youth. Legislators cut two state-funded wilderness camps for children with behavioral problems. Support Our Students, an afterschool program aimed at keeping youngsters out of trouble, is also being discontinued.

Inmates going to other prisons

Many of the positions are vacant, but about 620 employees at the N.C. Department of Correction will lose their jobs if other positions for them can't be found in the system. Inmates at the prisons being closed will be transferred to other facilities. In some cases, cells now used to hold one inmate will be modified to bunk two, while custody classifications at some facilities will be lowered to increase dormitory-style housing.

Jennie Lancaster, chief deputy secretary at the state Department of Correction, said there are limits to how many facilities can be converted to hold more prisoners, especially at the higher security levels.

“We need to run a safe system,” said Lancaster, a former warden who has worked in the state's prisons for 32 years. “We have said to legislators, we consider this a temporary solution. … The state is going to have to either keep adding prison beds or find a way to slow down growth in the prison population.”

A review by the legislature's fiscal research office this year projected that by 2018 the state's prison population will outpace the planned beds by 7,488 inmates. That projected shortfall takes into account 2,268 prison beds scheduled to be added through new construction by 2012 at a budgeted cost of $101 million.

Each maximum-security bed the state adds costs as much as $136,500 in construction, not including the recurring annual expense of feeding and guarding those additional inmates. On average, it costs the state $27,310 a year to keep someone behind bars.

Sentencing guidelines tweaked

Much of the growth in North Carolina's Prison System is driven by two legislative changes made in the mid-1990s as a response to rising crime rates. In 1994, legislators required offenders to spend more time in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Two years later, legislators ended statewide caps on the prison population.

Legislators passed two laws this year sponsored by Kinnaird that will decrease the inmate population in future years by tweaking sentencing guidelines. But a third bill that would have cut the prison terms of many felons by three months and added that time to the length of post-release supervision failed to even come up for a vote.

“The three bills together would have had a tremendous impact, essentially stopping the growth,” Kinnaird said. “But they (legislators) couldn't go along with that.”

Kinnaird said cuts to juvenile programs and funding for the state's mental health division could exacerbate the expected growth in inmate population.

“The Department of Correction is very nervous,” Kinnaird said. “Double-bunking sets up a very dangerous situation. You only have to look at California to see the disaster of having 6,000 inmates in facilities built for 3,000. The increased violence becomes harder and harder to control.”

Often cited as a worst-case scenario, the California prison system is one of the most crowded in the nation, with many of its facilities holding more than double the number of inmates they were designed for. A federal court concluded this month that overcrowding and poor health care is resulting in an avoidable inmate death each week. An Aug. 5 riot and fire at a prison outside Los Angeles left 250 inmates injured and 55 hospitalized.

District Court Judge Marcia Morey of Durham said eliminating programs in North Carolina aimed at helping juvenile offenders and at-risk children is short-sighted, and will potentially cost taxpayers far more down the road.

“I think we're going to pay,” said Morey, who advocates for stronger state services for juvenile offenders. “When you cut community-based services, curfew checks and counseling, you're going to see the results out the back door. It's a recipe for increased juvenile delinquency, which will escalate into adult crime.”

Another issue is that more than a third of those entering prison are ex-offenders who either violated the terms of their probation or were arrested on new charges.

Bill Rowe, a lawyer for the liberal N.C. Justice Center, advocates doing more to help those released from prison to find jobs, housing and vocational training.

“The current system of incarceration and re-incarceration is not working and is eroding the safety of our communities,” Rowe said.

Texas worth imitating?

A coalition of groups supporting reform heard a presentation last month by Jerry Madden, a GOP legislator from Texas who helped revamp that state's corrections system to blunt overpopulation.

Texas is one of nine states in a program run by the national Council of State Governments aimed at lowering prison spending and inmate numbers by investing in programs that improve law enforcement and living conditions in targeted neighborhoods where data show the most crime occurs. Since 2006, Texas has managed to halt growth in its prison population while lowering rates of violent crime.

“I think we came to the conclusion it was smarter and a wiser utilization of our money to invest in programs that can change people's lives, save taxpayers money and at the same time make the community safer,” Madden said Friday.

N.C. Department of Correction administrators and some legislators say they're interested in instituting similar initiatives. The new budget allocates $100,000 for studying programs within the state and across the nation that have reduced the numbers of people going to prison.

But reducing sentence lengths for criminals is likely to be a tough sell at the legislature.

You can't just let a lot of folks out

Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican from Eden, said the state needs to spend whatever it takes to build enough prisons to keep up with the number of inmates entering the system.

“There is recognition, even amongst Democrats, that you can't just let a lot of folks out of prison,” said Berger, the state Senate's GOP leader. “Many of those people are in prison for a reason, and when they get out early or you reduce sentences, we see examples of folks creating havoc once they're released.”

Kinnaird said she is hopeful a bipartisan solution can be found before overpopulation becomes a crisis.

“If we can convince a conservative Republican from Texas there is a different way to go, I think we have a very good chance of explaining to people here that we're approaching this all wrong,” Kinnaird said. “We can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”





Feds consider sites in N.C., Md. for new prison

Winton, N.C. — The Federal Bureau of Prisons is considering building a new privately owned and operated facility in eastern North Carolina to keep up with demand for bed space.

Officials are looking at putting the facility for about 1,380 low-security prisoners from the Washington, D.C., area in Winton, a small town along the Chowan River in Hertford County.

The other site being considered is in Princess Anne, along Maryland's Eastern Shore.


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Sources: Charlotte Observer, Newsobserver, WRAL, US Federal Bureau of Prisons, Federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention