North Carolina
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20457749 > > Over the past 15 years, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides; blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood; weakened protections for wetlands, increasing the risk of dangerous storm water runoff; and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate-resilience grants. > > > Those decisions reflect the influence of North Carolina’s home building industry, which has consistently fought rules forcing its members to construct homes to higher, more expensive standards, according to Kim Wooten, an engineer who serves on the North Carolina Building Code Council, the group that sets home building requirements for the state. > > > “The home builders association has fought every bill that has come before the General Assembly to try to improve life safety,” said Ms. Wooten, who works for Facilities Strategies Group, a company that specializes in building engineering. She said that state lawmakers, many of whom are themselves home builders or have received campaign contributions from the industry, “vote for bills that line their pocketbooks and make home building cheaper.”
> Nestled in the Appalachian mountains, the community of Spruce Pine, population 2,194, is known for its hiking, local artists and as America’s sole source of high-purity quartz. Helene dumped more than 2 feet of rain on the town, destroying roads, shops and cutting power and water.
> Forty-three percent of likely November voters support Jackson and 36% support Bishop, with 21% undecided, according to the [poll of 676 likely voters](https://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=2ace28b3-222b-4fdb-bf4b-2dc443ac085c), which was released Tuesday. The gap has widened significantly since March, when a [previous WRAL News Poll](https://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=e376c715-218b-400f-ac6b-75a0bd8b5180) showed Jackson with a 41%-to-40% lead over Bishop After my last post I realized I hadn’t seen any polling for the AG race, so I went looking and this is what I found. This is a couple weeks old so take it with a grain of salt
coastalreview.org
> North Carolina’s chief administrative law judge and former head of the state’s environmental regulatory agency has eliminated a state cap on the amount of a chemical solvent some municipal wastewater treatment plants discharge. Chief Administrative Law Judge and Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings Dr. Donald van der Vaart revoked permit limits of 1,4-dioxane for wastewater treatment plants that discharge the chemical substance, one the federal Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a likely human carcinogen, into the drinking water sources of tens of thousands of people. > North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials did not follow the letter of the law written in state statutes when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane, van der Vaart ruled. In his Sept. 12 decision, van der Vaart also said DEQ erred by considering the chemical substance a carcinogen. “The [Environmental Protection Agency] has characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘likely to be carcinogenic to humans,’” he wrote. “The EPA has not characterized 1,4-dioxane as ‘carcinogenic to humans.’” > DEQ has 30 days to appeal van der Vaart’s decision.
> The highest peak at Great Smoky Mountains National Park is officially reverting to its Cherokee name more than 150 years after a surveyor named it for a Confederate general. > The U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted on Wednesday in favor of a request from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to officially change the name Clingmans Dome to Kuwohi, according to a news release from the park. The Cherokee name for the mountain translates to “mulberry place.”
> A dredging company launched with $15 million in state money must cease its work in the Oregon and Hatteras inlets after digging deeper and wider than permits allowed hundreds of times, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. EJE Dredging Service is led by an influential North Carolina Republican who is under scrutiny by a federal grand jury. > EJE Dredging was formed by Judson Whitehurst, a Greenville business owner, three months after state lawmakers provided the $15 million to Dare County for dredging. The following year, company documents showed Jordan Hennessy, a former legislative aide who helped convince lawmakers to provide funding for the dredging, working on behalf of EJE Dredging. He’s been the CEO for at least two years. > Hennessy has been named in two subpoenas linked to a federal criminal investigation for his work on another project funded by state lawmakers in 2020. Subpoenas issued over the past three months show a grand jury seeks information about Hennessy and one of his businesses as it investigates a domestic violence prevention program funded with $3.5 million also appropriated by state lawmakers. > Dare County is a hub for commercial and recreational boating, and has struggled for decades to keep navigational channels open. The Corps operates dredges, but its resources are stretched thin. The federal government, meanwhile, in 2003 decided against a plan to build jetties in the Oregon Inlet that would limit the shifting sands, according to the National Park Service. The $15 million from state lawmakers in 2018 appeared to provide a solution. Then-state Sen. Bill Cook, a Beaufort County Republican, persuaded lawmakers to include the money in the budget that year. Hennessy and Marion Warren, a former director of the state Administrative Office of the Courts, co-wrote the legislation that provided the money. The federal subpoenas also seek information about Warren. Hennessy could not be immediately reached on Wednesday.
~~Sorry for the TikTok link.~~ ~~For some reason he hasn’t published this one to YouTube yet.~~ Updated with the YouTube link
www.wral.com
It takes less than 30 seconds to [check your registration](https://vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup/) with the NC Board of Elections.
www.nbcnews.com
> The home on Corbina Drive is the seventh house to have collapsed in four years along National Seashore beaches in North Carolina, according to the service.
www.newsweek.com
While the campaign paid in advance due to Asheville's policy for short-notice bookings, Trump has a long history of failing to pay cities for billed rally fees, leaving the White House in January 2021 with at least $850,000 in unpaid rally debt. Most of the bills are still unpaid, including more than $500,000 owed to The city of El Paso, Texas.
Wife just sent me this link. Considering Debbie is dumping buckets on us North Carolinians right now, it helps to know where flooding is and might occur. I thought this map was super interesting personally. Everyone please stay safe! Remember, if you're driving and can't the road through the water, don't risk it.
> The state Board of Elections voted to authorize the alternative We the People party, allowing presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on North Carolina ballots in November. > The Board rejected with a 3-2 vote along party lines the Justice for All party, Cornel West’s alternative party. Democrats rejected the Justice for All attempt to become a recognized party in part over questions about signatures on its petitions. > Tuesday’s votes came after weeks of deliberations, a request from Democrats on the board for an investigation into the petition efforts, and pressure from state and congressional Republicans to have both parties approved.
> Republican-appointed leaders of the Environmental Management Commission have twice declined to advance proposed rules that would restrict industry’s release of some “forever” chemical pollution into drinking water supplies across North Carolina. > To further complicate things, the groundwater committee also asked DEQ to remove five of the eight chemicals from the list of what it wants to regulate. > An increasingly frustrated DEQ Secretary Elizabeth Biser, appointed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, said the commission is stalling full committee evaluation of the new rules, a departure from previous practices. “I hate to say that it wasn’t a huge surprise that they once again found reasons to move the goalposts and to not take action. It’s very frustrating,” Biser said.
wcti12.com
TL;DR: Inshore commercial shrimp trawling is devastating our marine fisheries by causing by-catch (untargeted marine animals trapped and killed in the nets) at a rate of 4 to 1 by weight. North Carolina is the only state that still allows inshore shrimp trawling. [Here’s](https://ncwf.org/blog/flounder/) what the North Carolina Wildlife Federation has to say on the topic. It bugs me that they’re framing it as the loss of recreational flounder fishing being the primary consequence, but I suppose whatever brings more attention to the issue is a good thing. The NC Wildlife Commission is [holding a meeting](https://www.ncwildlife.org/hunting/regulations/proposed-regulations#flounder) Tonight at 7:00pm at the New Bern Community College * It’s worth noting that the linked article is to WCTI which is a Sinclair station.
www.wcnc.com
A 12-year-old boy who died at a North Carolina wilderness camp was smothered, according to an autopsy that was released on Monday. The autopsy shows the boy's death is now being reported as a homicide. The child was found dead at Trails Carolina on Feb. 3. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services revoked the facility's license in May, saying it failed to comply with state regulations. The department said the camp failed to follow state law regarding the rights for people living with mental illness, developmental disabilities or substance abuse. An April report by the state found that the camp failed to check if the boy was breathing while requiring him to sleep in a "bivy," a small sleeping-bag-like tent, that was covered by a plastic sheet. At some point, staff determined "there was an issue" with the zipper, according to NBC News. An unidentified staff member assigned to sleep next to the boy heard someone "breathing heavily" at one point, but couldn't determine if it was the boy or another employee. Staff members called 911 when the boy did not respond to attempts to wake him and emergency personnel were unable to revive him, the camp said at the time. In the wake of the boy's death, Trails Carolina was barred from taking in new admissions and all existing children were removed from the facility. Amidst the investigation, a former student sued the program, claiming staff members dismissed her claims of sexual assault by another camper in 2016.
> Mark Robinson, the firebrand Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina, has for years made comments downplaying and making light of sexual assault and domestic violence. > A review of Robinson’s social media posts over the past decade shows that he frequently questioned the credibility of women who aired allegations of sexual assault against prominent men, including Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, actor Bill Cosby and now-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. In one post, Robinson, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor, characterized Weinstein and others as “sacrificial lambs” being “slaughtered.” > Robinson has drawn scrutiny for his incendiary remarks on other issues, including about LGBTQ+ people, religion and other political figures. But his comments on domestic violence and sexual assault stand out for their tone and frequency, as well as Robinson’s repeated questioning of accusers. > While Robinson is, in some ways, emblematic of the Republican Party’s turn under Donald Trump toward rewarding inflammatory, sexist language, his dismissals of women threaten to test Robinson’s appeal with voters troubled by that history, in particular female voters.
www.propublica.org
> Last fall, out of public view, the North Carolina Supreme Court squashed disciplinary action against two Republican judges who had admitted that they had violated the state’s judicial code of conduct, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the decisions. > One of the judges had ordered, without legal justification, that a witness be jailed. The other had escalated a courtroom argument with a defendant, which led to a police officer shooting the defendant to death. The Judicial Standards Commission, the arm of the state Supreme Court that investigates judicial misconduct by judges, had recommended that the court publicly reprimand both women. The majority-Republican court gave no public explanation for rejecting the recommendations — indeed, state law mandates that such decisions remain confidential. > Asher Hildebrand, a professor of public policy at Duke University, explained that in the 2010s, North Carolina had policies designed to keep the judiciary above the political fray, such as nonpartisan judicial elections. However, the gradual dismantling of these policies by the Republican-controlled legislature has driven the court’s polarization, according to Hildebrand.