No Faberge eggs on first full day of former state Rep. LaRoque’s trial

4 Comments

May 22, 2013 at 7:03 amCategory:Uncategorized

by

The criminal trial against former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque began in earnest Tuesday, with testimony from former board members of his non-profit and federal agriculture officials who oversaw the rural lending program he ran.

Yet to be mentioned are a dozen replica Faberge eggs and jewelry the Kinston Republican is accused of buying with money he stole from his economic development non-profit, East Carolina Development Company. (Click here to read a past blog post about the eggs LaRoque bought, and a brief history of the eggs themselves.)

The trial is being held at the federal courthouse in Greenville in front of Senior U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm Howard.

Former ECDC board member John Melling, a New Bern insurance agent, said he served on the board of East Carolina Development Company for eight years and left in 2006 because he didn’t feel at ease serving a board consisting largely of LaRoques—Stephen, his brother Walter and wife Susan.

“I just felt uncomfortable,” Melling said. “You had three directors, they were all related. Stephen, his brother and his wife.”

Melling had also said he was pleased with the non-profit’s earlier work. Read More…

Sharing the DREAM of college access, crossing a bridge to a brighter future for North Carolina

2 Comments

May 21, 2013 at 7:26 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Last night, the DREAMers did it again. They took a hopeful message and their own personal stories to a new audience, asking members of the Winston-Salem City Council to support a resolution on in-state tuition for North Carolina high school graduates, regardless of immigration status. The DREAMers keep insisting that our public policies must reflect our deepest values of fairness and equal opportunity, showing that the power of people is stronger than inhumane laws and a broken immigration system. Read More…

Superintendent on voucher bill: What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander (video)

5 Comments

May 21, 2013 at 6:33 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Members of the House Education Committee will wait until next week to vote on the “Opportunity Scholarship Act”, but State Superintendent June Atkinson left them with something to ponder at Tuesday’s hearing.

Dr. Atkinson told lawmakers if public schools were going to be judged on an A-F grading scale, then private schools receiving taxpayer-funded vouchers should face the same scrutiny.

“Each school receiving taxpayers dollars should be graded in the same manner in order for parents to have the necessary information to make wise decisions,” said Dr. Atkinson.”If a grading scale of A-F is good for public schools, then it should be good enough for private schools.” Read More…

Quick and decisive action needed to resolve judicial emergencies

No Comments

May 21, 2013 at 5:07 pmCategory:Uncategorized

by

Close to 100 attorneys, progressive advocates and Triangle-area residents gathered today to discuss the continuing judicial vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, growing numbers of federal judicial vacancies elsewhere, delayed U.S. Senate confirmations of presidential nominees and the ongoing need for increased diversity on the bench.

Speakers at the event, “Why Courts Matter,” included 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James A. Wynn, Jr., and Andrew Blotky, director of Legal Progress at the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C.

As Blotky pointed out, there are 82 current vacancies on the federal bench, with an additional 20 vacancies that will occur this year—meaning that nearly 65 percent of the population lives in a community with a courtroom vacancy.

And while it took roughly 35 days for the Senate to get George W. Bush’s nominees to a vote, it’s taken 150 days for Barack Obama’s to get to that point.

Both Wynn and Blotky called for the quick confirmation of fair, impartial, clear-thinking and diverse judges to fill those vacancies—which even when filled, Wynn added, would only solve the backlog. The U.S. Judicial Conference has called for the creation of additional judgeships to meet caseload demand.

The judges who sit on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina handle one of the heaviest caseloads in the country, approaching nearly 800 cases per judge in 2012. And they’ve been waiting for help for close to eight years now.

The court, based in Raleigh but with courtrooms elsewhere along the eastern part of the state, now has the dubious distinction of having the oldest federal judicial vacancy in the country. The seat&mdashh;opened up on Dec. 31, 2005, when Judge Malcolm J. Howard took senior status—has been unfilled for more than 2,500 days. Read More…

Follow the money: how the Senate pays for its budget

1 Comment

May 21, 2013 at 4:15 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center

by

Perhaps the biggest news story of the week is the release of the Senate leadership’s budget proposal. Yesterday, the Budget and Tax Center provided an overview of what the budget pays for. Today, we took a close look at how it’s paid for.

How the state will raise the billions of dollars that fuel the state budget gets relatively little scrutiny compared to the rest of the budget. But because the Senate budget this year includes tax cuts for the rich, dramatically reducing resources to pay for vital services, it’s more important than ever to examine how the state will make up for the tax cut’s $770.2 million price tag in the next biennium.

Here’s what’s important for you to know about how the Senate pays for its FY2014 budget: Read More…