Lunch Links

Hopefully all Policy Watch readers are taking a bit of their lunch break outside – as we break into the 70s and finally get to enjoy more daylight.

If you’re still getting caught up on news from the weekend, Governor Pat McCrory has been busy responding to criticism over his administration’s protection of the environment.

The governor brushed off questions raised by the New York Times, and told WSOC that his “administration has taken the most aggressive action in North Carolina history”  in pushing for clean air and water.

However it appears they are making that push with far fewer people.  The News and Observer reports that just last week, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources eliminated another 13 percent of the staff in the Division of Water Resources.

Rep. Pricey Harrison also weighed in on the downsizing of DENR on NC Policy Watch’s News & Views over the weekend. Click below for a short excerpt of that interview or here for the full radio segment.

The legislature’s Environmental Review Commission meets this Wednesday to continue their discussion of coal ash storage.

Also be sure to mark your calendar for Thursday evening when the Headwaters Group of the NC Sierra Club will hold a panel discussion in Durham on “Is the State Doing Enough to protect Your Water?”

UNC-Wilmington professors Scott Imig and Robert Smith are back in the news with their  latest survey that finds an amazing number of parents deeply unhappy with recent changes to public education.  As education reporter Lindsay Wagner reports,  survey respondents “overwhelmingly trusted teachers and administrators — not lawmakers — to make educational decisions for the state’s public schools.”

Our chart of the day comes from Pew Research, with a look at the Millennial generation – and how this racially diverse, independent group will shape our future elections:

Pew Research Center surveys show that half of Millennials (50%) now describe themselves as political independents and about three-in-ten (29%) say they are not affiliated with any religion. These are at or near the highest levels of political and religious disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the quarter-century that the Pew Research Center has been polling on these topics.

Finally, it’s unlikely many millennials know who Pat Boone is, but the 1950’s clean-cut,  pop singer has just endorsed David Rouzer for Congress.  We thought we’d close out today’s lunch links with this release from Boone’s 1997 album In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy: (Apologies in advance to any Pulse readers who are Deep Purple fans.)

We open today’s Lunch Links with an important public service announcement, particularly in light of the report out this week showing North Carolina still woefully behind other states in providing legal assistance to those who can’t afford an attorney — a number that unfortunately continues to grow.

Tomorrow, March 7, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., the state Bar Association will host its annual “Ask a Lawyer Day,” during which callers can get free answers to legal questions and problems.  Here’s more information:

Statewide, there will be eight call centers filled with lawyers answering callers’ legal questions. Locally, lawyers will be manning the phones at the Volunteer Center, and Greensboro’s WFMY News 2 will be covering the event live. Anyone with legal questions may call the local call center by dialing 877.391.6179 and speak directly to a lawyer. A call center for Spanish speakers is available at 855.455.4255 between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. All calls are free and confidential– callers will not be asked for their name or contact information.

The event is part of the Bar Association’s “4ALL” campaign to raise support for Legal Aid.   Last year, close to 500 lawyers, paralegals, law students and other volunteers answered questions from nearly 10,000 callers.

Click here for the event announcement. Click here if you’d like to participate.

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Speaking of justice, and injustice, the U.S. Senate yesterday refused to confirm President Obama’s nominee for assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Debo Adegbile.  The reason?  Adegbile did his job as an attorney  when he was litigation director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, representing Mumia Abu-Jamal on an appeal of his death sentence for killing a Philadelphia police officer decades ago.

That vote should be cause for concern for most attorneys, as well as for anyone who understands and believes that  “a fundamental tenet of our justice system and our Constitution is that anyone who faces loss of liberty has a right to legal counsel,” as the president of the American Bar Association, James R. Silkenat, explained to the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Lawyers have an ethical obligation to uphold that principle and provide zealous representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government—even to those accused or convicted of terrible crimes,” he added

As Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick says in this blistering critique of the Adegbile vote:

Sunday’s spring-like forecast seems like a distant memory as we’re watching temperatures drop this lunch hour and the water cooler talk is more about the next ‘snowpocalypse’ than last night’s Oscars.

So keep one eye on the radar and we’ll run through a couple of quick lunch links to divert your attention away from the wet, icy mix that’s upon us.

First, if you missed it over the weekend, North Carolina once again made the front page of the New York Times. The headline alone – Ash Spill Shows How Watchdog Was Defanged –  paints a very worrisome picture about recent changes within the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Here are two short excerpts from Trip Gabriel’s article:

Current and former state regulators said the watchdog agency, once among the most aggressive in the Southeast, has been transformed under Gov. Pat McCrory into a weak sentry that plays down science, has abandoned its regulatory role and suffers from politicized decision-making.

A second supervisor, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “A lot of us never considered ourselves political creatures. What’s happened here has really blown us out of the water. People speak in hushed tones in the hallway to each other. We go offsite to talk. It’s totally changed the culture of this organization.”

Mr. Skvarla said in an interview that he was “speechless” to hear such a sentiment, adding, “I think we have taken politics out of this agency.”

While on the subject of our environment Mother Jones magazine offers a frightening field guide to common plastics, that will have you thinking about how your food and medicine are packaged.

WUNC reports on a new study out of Duke University that indicates retaining students means more discipline problems in other students:

The findings come at a time when educators and policymakers are debating a new North Carolina law that could increase the number of older retained students. The “Read to Achieve” program, which went into effect this year, requires all third-grade students to read at grade level or risk being held back.

Matt Ellinwood, a policy analyst with the NC Justice Center’s Education and Law project, also discussed some of the flaws with the “Read to Achieve” program over the weekend on News & Views with Chris Fitzsimon. You can watch a portion of that radio interview below:

The Huffington Post reports that MoveOn.org is launching a new ad campaign this week targeting Republican governors who have rejected Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. Their campaign will begin with billboards popping up in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Virginia.

Think Progress reports that the Supreme Court will hear today what could be the biggest death penalty case in nearly a decade.

The Hill has the latest on the push to enroll more Americans in Obamacare before this month’s deadline.

The Washington Post has the skinny on the latest well-being index, and why West Virginia  may be the most miserable state in the country.

On the lighter side even if you missed the Oscars chances are you didn’t miss the Ellen DeGeneres selfie – now the most retweeted  tweet of all time, according to Buzzfeed.

And of course, that has lots of folks creating their own celebrity selfies and sharing those online. (Why yes, that is me on the left, no need to make a big fuss about it. And yes, Kevin Spacey was just as charismatic as Frank Underwood.)

Happy Monday…time to get back to work!

North Carolina’s “food deserts” take center stage this afternoon as legislators hold their second meeting to discuss how to make healthy, fresh food more available in rural areas and in communities where transportation is a barrier.

Among those testifying is Demetrius Hunter, who runs Grocers on Wheels. Hunter is profiled in today’s News and Observer where he discusses how mobile produce markets may be one solution for low-income residents in Wake County.

Rep. Yvonne Holley is hoping these hearings build support for her proposal that would offer tax credits to businesses that open or expand operations that sell nutritious food in the state’s food deserts zones.

Do you live in one of these desert? To find out, check out the recent graphic (above) by the good folks at the NC Budget & Tax Center.

Also on the subject of food insecurity, visit PBS News Hour for an eye-opening photo essay: Picturing Hunger in America.

Finally, we have two additional infographics  for you to digest today.  First, Mother Jones explains why California’s drought is quickly becoming everyone’s problem.  And we’ll leave you with this fascinating graphic from Yes! Magazine on Why Corporations Want Our Public Schools. (Click on either image below to see the full-size original.)