The Progressive Pulse | Stories and voice that matter | A blog from NC Policy Watch

Time 2021-05-25 16:12:29

Web Name: The Progressive Pulse | Stories and voice that matter | A blog from NC Policy Watch

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Damage from Hurricane Florence (Photo: NC Emergency Management)WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is doubling the amount of federal funding to help states prepare for natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, he announced Monday.His administration is directing $1 billion to the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, which sends resources to communities, states, and tribal governments to prepare for extreme weather events.Those federal dollars will be part of an effort to shift the focus from reactive disaster spending to proactive investments that boost community resilience against weather events, according to the White House.“We’re going to spare no expense, no effort to keep Americans safe and respond to crises when they arise, and they certainly will,” Biden said Monday as he visited the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.The announcement of additional federal aid for disaster preparation comes as the country is preparing for what Biden described as “the busiest time of year” for disasters on both sides of the nation: hurricanes along the Southern and Eastern coasts, and wildfire season in the West.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted another above-average season for hurricanes. The agency has forecast 13 to 20 named storms in the Atlantic Ocean during the current season, and six to 10 are projected to become hurricanes.Those storms would follow a 2020 season that saw 30 storms that were sizable enough to be named — the most on record for a given year. Just seven of those storms claimed a combined 86 lives and caused $40 billion in damage, Biden said.“This is not about red states and blue states, you all know that,” Biden told a room of emergency management officials during his FEMA visit. “It’s about having people’s backs in the toughest moments they face.”The Biden administration also said Monday officials will be tapping NASA resources to better forecast and monitor natural disasters. The agency’s Earth System Observatory will use climate data systems to help understand and track how climate change is impacting communities. The UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Executive Committee held a special meeting Monday to discuss the Board of Trustees’ failure to grant tenure to acclaimed journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones. The committee unanimously passed a resolution asking the board to immediately take up the matter of tenure for Hannah-Jones.“The Faculty Executive Committee strongly urges the Board of Trustees to uphold the long tradition of respect for recommendations from faculty bodies in hiring and tenure cases,” the committee wrote. “And to take up the matter of tenure for Nikole Hannah-Jones immediately, and to explain to the fullest extent possible, without violating the law, the reasons for its decision,”As Policy Watch reported last week, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winner and creator of the 1619 Project was not granted tenure upon her hire at UNC as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism. The Knight Program at UNC has historically hired all of its professors with tenure. The board delayed a vote on tenure for Hannah-Jones. Board members said leaders on the board let the school’s administration know it would not be approved, leading to the five year contract. Policy Watch has agreed not to identify those board members so that they can discuss a confidential personnel matter.Over the weekend Hannah-Jones removed her position with UNC-Chapel Hill from her bio on Twitter, leading some faculty and students to worry she is leaning toward walking away from the job.“I think we need to do it immediately,” said Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman of getting an up-or-down vote of the board of trustees on tenure.  “[Hannah-Jones] is waiting. She will take another job. The committee spent the beginning of their meeting in closed session to discuss “confidential personnel matters,” but returned to open session to workshop their resolution.The committee discussed their anger with the board of trustees for ignoring their recommendation for tenure, as well as their desire for the board to hold a vote as quickly as possible on the matter. I see no reason to hide the fact that we are outraged,” Eric Muller, law professor at UNC and member of the committee said.UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman in Monday s meeting.Board of Trustees Chairman Richard Stevens has repeatedly stressed the board has taken no action whatsoever on Hannah-Jones’ tenure. But members of the faculty executive committee said that doesn’t absolve them of responsibility.“I think not taking an action is an action,” Faculty Chair Mimi Chapman said.Tim Ives, UNC pharmacy professor and committee member, said if the board of trustees did not respond to their resolution they could use legal counsel to take the request to the UNC System office. The resolution would likely be reviewed by System President Peter Hans, the UNC Board of Governors and its University Governance Committee — all of which would be done in closed sessions.“You would hope you ve got a board of trustees and a chair that would at least respond with a rationale,” Ives said.  “That s the bare minimum.”Stevens and UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz did not appear to be present at the meeting.Last week Lamar Richards, UNC-Chapel Hill student body president and  member of the board of trustees, issued a statement demanding a board vote on tenure for  Hannah-Jones.“If we truly want transparency, harmony, and success at Carolina, you all will act swiftly to get the matter of her tenure before our Board in a Special called meeting to discuss further the merits of her application and candidacy – in open session (if legally allowed, once receiving her consent),” Richards wrote. “We have a duty to this University to uphold the values we all hold so dear.”Richards’ letter was the latest in a series of similar public statements from student, faculty and alumni groups, the National Association of Black Journalists, the Knight Foundation and Knight Chair professors from across the country. In a Monday statement on Twitter Susan King, dean of the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, also urged the board to vote on tenure for Hannah-Jones.Policy Watch reached out to Stevens and Guskiewicz for a response.“University leaders are aware of the interest on this matter and will respond privately,” University Media Relations told Policy Watch.N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and Gov. Roy Cooper have both been active behind the scenes as UNC-Chapel Hill navigates the latest in a series national controversies for the school, sources with direct knowledge of negotiations told Policy Watch Monday.The UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees is appointed by the N.C. General Assembly and UNC Board of Governors, which is itself appointed by the legislature. The governor s office played a part in that appointment process until 2016, when Republican Governor Pat McCrory lost the gubernatorial race to Cooper, a Democrat.  In the wake of Cooper s victory, the GOP-led General Assembly stripped the governor s office of his appointments to boards of trustees at the state s universities. There are a lot of political interests here and obviously it would be in everyone s interest to handle this without it being a further embarrassment, one source with direct knowledge of negotiations said. While there s a lot of heat on this issue, there are also some people who feel like it s a good time to see if they can press to get what they want out of it. This isn t really what you re supposed to do with a university system, hold up academic appointments for politics. But right now in this state, there s nothing that isn t political. Policy Watch intern Kyle Ingram is a student in the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Policy Watch reporter Joe Killian contributed to this report.U.S. Rep. Kathy Manning requested $2.759 million in transportation funding for electric buses and charging stations for the City of Greensboro. (Screenshot from GoTriangle presentation)At least seven U.S. House members from North Carolina are among the lawmakers seeking more than $278 million for transportation projects in their districts. According to the House Transportation Committee website, the 50 projects range in size from a request of $180,000 from Rep. Madison Cawthorn for a North Carolina Department of Transportation project in Maggie Valley (Cawthorn has submitted seven additional requests totaling nearly $21.6 million) to a pair of $20 million requests from Rep. Kathy Manning for major highway construction projects in Winston-Salem.Several members — including Representatives Adams, Butterfield, Manning, Price and Ross — have submitted funding requests to support transit options like electric buses and greenways. Rep, Ross is seeking $9 million to construct an ADA Paratransit Facility in Raleigh. Rep. David Rouzer is requesting $3.84 million for r a highway exchange on Military Cutoff Road in Wilmington.These requests come as infrastructure takes on a new significance in the U.S., following an expansive proposal by President Joe Biden for $2.3 trillion in spending that could help states pay for building and repairing scores of aging and failing highways, bridges and transit systems.The White House continues negotiations with congressional Republicans, and it’s not yet clear how much money will be available to dole out or how. But lawmakers have also been presented with the opportunity to earmark transportation funds for the first time in a decade.For example,  U.S. Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana is seeking $1 billion through Congress’ revamped earmarks process. The Louisiana Republican says Baton Rouge desperately needs a new bridge to alleviate a crush of roadway congestion — at a cost of $955.2 million for several projects. That far exceeds the $20 million that House lawmakers have been told could flow back to each district if a new surface transportation bill is signed into law.Graves said in an interview with States Newsroom that his mammoth request wasn’t “a naive error.” Instead, it was an intentional effort to emphasize the price tag of such a project.“Do I have any illusions that we will have a billion-dollar earmark? No,” he said. “But this is a bridge, and I wanted to be transparent about this and what it costs.”The “ask for it all” strategy from Graves is one of several by House members vying for funding in the resurrected earmarks process on Capitol Hill.Earmarks — or money designated for specific projects in congressional spending bills — were banished by Republicans when they took control of the House in 2011 following intense public criticism of corruption and a lack of fairness. The process of inserting local projects was used to flip hesitant legislators to “yes” votes on tough bills, but it resulted in a lopsided allocation of dollars to only some districts.One of the most famous infrastructure earmarks, derided as a national embarrassment, was the $223 million “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska, which was supposed to connect a small city with its airport on a nearby island. The proposal was finally killed a decade after its inception.In bringing back that process this year, congressional Democrats have new guidelines intended to make earmarks more fair and more visible.The projects, which House lawmakers have submitted for both the annual appropriations bills and the upcoming surface transportation authorization measure, must be posted on each lawmaker’s website with documentation and a letter attesting that the member has no financial stake in the project.The last time that the five-year transportation authorization bill included earmarks was in 2006, when it included 5,091 projects at a cost of $14.8 billion. Alma Adams NC-12Roadway Connectivity and Network ImprovementsCharlotteCity of Charlotte4,700,000 NC-12CATS Battery Electric Bus Fleet TransitionCharlotteCharlotte Area Transit System (CATS)8,000,000 NC-12Regional Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Plan and Implementation, Centralina Regional Council, NCCharlotteCentralina Regional Council2,675,000 G. K. ButterfieldNC-01Downtown Pedestrian BridgeRocky MountCity of Rocky Mount4,000,000 NC-01Fork Swamp Canal GreenwayWintervilleGreenville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO)2,316,000 NC-01Greenville Bridge Repair and ReplacementGreenvilleGreenville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO)2,851,200 NC-01Pender Street Pedestrian Improvement, Infrastructure Repair, and ResurfacingWilsonCity of Wilson - Public Works12,500,000 NC-01South Tar River GreenwayGreenvilleGreenville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (GUAMPO)1,775,000 Madison CawthornNC-11Corridor K: Improvement to sections of Corridor K in Graham CountyRobbinsvilleNCDOT3,851,000 NC-11B-5871 Replace Bridge  no. 628 Over Lake Lure 5250. Dam and Broad River Lake LureNCDOT8,000,000 Kathy ManningNC-06Atlantic Yadkin Greenway, Phase 2GreensboroCity of Greensboro6,400,000 NC-06Electric buses and charging infrastructure, City of GreensboroGreensboroCity of Greensboro2,759,000 NC-06I-5880 (interchange construction on I-40/US 311)Winston-SalemNorth Carolina Department of Transportation11,200,000 NC-06J. Douglas Galyon Depot Restoration - Phase 3GreensboroCity of Greensboro2,553,024 NC-06U-2579AA (interstate highway construction along Winston Salem Northern Beltway, eastern section), Winston Salem, NCWinston-SalemNorth Carolina Department of Transportation20,000,000 NC-06U-2579AB (interstate highway construction along I-40/US-421), Winston Salem, NCWinston-SalemNorth Carolina Department of Transportation20,000,000 NC-06U-5754 (ramp and lane construction on US 29/US 70/US 220)GreensboroNorth Carolina Department of Transportation2,920,000 NC-06U-5896 (ramp and lane construction on US-29/US-70/US-220)High PointNorth Carolina Department of Transportation19,695,200 NC-04Bus Replacement Funding for Triangle Transit SystemsChapel HillTown of Chapel Hill/Chapel Hill Transit8,000,000 NC-04Transit Bus Stop ImprovementsChapel HillTown of Chapel Hill/Chapel Hill Transit1,000,000 NC-02GoRaleigh/GoWake Coordinated ADA Paratransit FacilityRaleighGoRaleigh Transit System9,000,000 NC-02Wake County Transit Access and Safety ImprovementsWake CountyResearch Triangle Regional Transportation Authority d/b/a GoTriangle4,000,000 David RouzerNC-07MILITARY CUTOFF ROAD (US 17)/EASTWOOD ROAD (US 74) INTERCHANGE (DRYSDALE DRIVE EXTENSION) (U-5710A)WilmingtonWilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization3,840,000 (Photo: Creative Commons)An Enviva wood pellet plant would emit more than 380,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year under the terms of proposed changes to its air permit, the subject of a public hearing tonight.The plant between Gaston and Garysburg, in Northampton County, has operated since 2013, and is allowed to produce up to 625,225 oven-dried tons of pellets per year. It is classified as a Title V facility, which applies to major air pollution sources. The permit has been amended several times to account for changes in equipment and processes.The virtual meeting starts at 6 p.m. DEQ has published details of how to attend on its website. The public comment period ends Wednesday, May 26. DEQ has also included instructions on how to submit comments.The industry frames wood pellets as renewable because trees can be replanted. However, that definition glosses over the myriad environmental harms resulting from the process. From cradle to grave, wood pellets release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, major drivers of climate change. Enviva uses trees logged from North Carolina forests — some of them hardwoods — which removes some of the valuable “carbon sinks” from the landscape. Trees are carbon sinks because they absorb and store carbon dioxide.Obtaining the pellets also requires the deforestation of parts of eastern North Carolina, fragmenting wildlife habitats and removing natural flood control provided by large stands of trees. Once the trees arrive at an Enviva plant, they are ground into kibble-size pellets; that process also emits pollutants into the air, the amount of which is regulated by state air permits. The company then transports the pellets by truck or rail to the state ports — again, using carbon-emitting transportation — where they are loaded onto a carbon-emitting ship and hauled across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. There, in lieu of coal, the UK burns the pellets, which emits carbon dioxide, to fire electricity-generating power plants.In the governor s Clean Energy Plan, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality rejected the idea that burning trees for fuel qualifies as low-carbon, renewable energy.The Garysburg plant is one of four Enviva facilities in North Carolin; The others are in Ahoskie, Faison and Hamlet. All of the facilities are in environmental justice communities. In Garysburg, federal and state data show that of the 1,441 people living in the census block group, 71% are persons of color and 55.24% are low-income. Rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and child mortality are all well above the state average.This table shows the pollutants the plant is expected to emit annually, based on NC DEQ documents. PM10 stands for particulate matter that is 10 microns in size. PM2.5 is the more harmful type of particulate matter. It is about 30 times smaller in diameter than a human hair and can burrow deeply into the lungs, causing or worsening heart and lung problems. Long-term exposure toPM 2.5 also has been linked to more severe COVID-19 symptoms. Carbon dioxide equivalent measures emissions from various greenhouse gases — methane, for example — on the basis of their global warming potential.Estimated emissions per year, in tonsCarbon monoxide — 171Nitrogen oxide — 213PM10 — 89PM2.5 — 75Sulfur dioxide — 39Volatile organic compounds — 120Hazardous air pollutants — 18Carbon dioxide equivalent — 383,222This table, based on the company s draft permit submitted to DEQ, shows the historical actual emissions from the plant. HAP stands for hazardous air pollutants. According to the EPA, chronic exposure to methanol, such as by inhaling the gas or drinking substances with high levels of it (moonshine, for example), can cause headache, dizziness, giddiness, insomnia, nausea, gastric disturbances, conjunctivitis, blurred vision, and blindness. Judge Wayland J. Sermons, Jr. heard Hasson Bacote s Racial Justice Act claim in Wake County Superior Court on May 20, 2021.The first case re-evaluating the role of racial bias in the death penalty began last week in Wake County, the result of a landmark 2020 state Supreme Court decision.Hasson Bacote was convicted of murdering Anthony Surles, an 18-year-old high schooler in Johnston County in 2007, WRAL reported. A jury sentenced Bacote to death in 2009.That same year, the General Assembly passed the Racial Justice Act, which then-Gov. Bev Perdue signed into law. The RJA allowed individuals on death row to seek sentences of life without parole if they could prove racial bias or discrimination was a significant factor in the decision to seek or impose the death penalty in their case.After the RJA s enactment, lawmakers gave those sentenced to death one year to submit their petitions. More than 100 did so, and four petitioners had their death sentences commuted to life without parole, according to Gretchen Engel, director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.In 2013, however, state lawmakers repealed the Racial Justice Act. Soon thereafter, the commuted death sentences for the four were reinstated, and other petitioners were denied the RJA hearings they had sought.Bacote s attorneys submitted evidence at his original trial that Johnston County prosecutors excluded qualified Black jurors at more than three times the rate of white jurors, according to the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, which represents Bacote and many other petitioners.However, because of the RJA repeal, Bacote s claims of racial bias were not heard.As Policy Watch has reported, the state Supreme Court in a 6-1 decision, ruled last year that it was unconstitutional to deny hearings to those — such as Bacote — who had filed claims before the law was repealed. Associate Justice Anita Earls wrote in the case State v. Ramseur that applying the repeal retroactively was unconstitutional. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby was the lone dissenter in that decision.The state Supreme Court later reaffirmed the re-sentencing of life without parole for one of the four Cumberland County petitioners who originally won their RJA cases.Lower courts can now reevaluate defendants’ claims of racial bias in sentencing, as long as those claims were filed before the Racial Justice Act was repealed in 2013.Bacote s case is the first to be re-evaluated since the Supreme Court s ruling.There are 137 people on death row in North Carolina.Center for Death Penalty Litigation director Gretchen Engel. The Racial Justice Act is really a unique law, and there aren t very many states that have the courage to enact something like the Racial Justice Act that s really going to take a hard look at our criminal punishment system in our most serious cases and deal with the history of racism and the death penalty, so we re going to be doing that now, Engel said.The Thursday hearing, held in Wake County, was presided over by Judge Wayland J. Sermons Jr., who first heard Bacote s RJA petition about a decade ago. Bacote was not present.Bacote s RJA petition relied on an analysis of demographics of defendants, victims and jurors from 1990 to 2009 in 1,500 North Carolina cases. The study was conducted by Michigan State University researchers, who had testified at previous RJA hearings. The researchers found that in capital cases, qualified Black jurors were eliminated from consideration more than twice as often as white jurors.Jonathan Babb, a Special Deputy Attorney General representing the state, asked the defense counsel to disclose more information about the underlying data and biographies of the researchers. The judge granted part of the request. Both the state and the defense team are expected to call expert witnesses to testify on the validity and relevance of the MSU study.The defense team, including lawyers with the ACLU and the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, requested that the state examine records of racial bias in trials dating to 1980, the beginning of the modern-day death penalty in North Carolina. Judge Sermons approved the request. Now the state Department of Justice must gather evidence involving training for district attorneys and communications concerning the race of jurors for the past 40-plus years.Despite Babb s objection, he also directed the Attorney General s office to collect information about the racial makeup of all prosecutors and staff in state district attorney s offices.Babb said he could not comment on Bacote s case.In an interview, Henderson Hill of the ACLU, who is one of Bacote s lawyers, said the defense team is seeking the information because many prosecutors had an immense influence in their offices that extended beyond long tenures. Hill cited former Robeson County District Attorney Joe Freeman Britt, who gained prominence as a tough on crime prosecutor. If you went to a Joe Freeman Britt training, what he said influenced lawyers and the state prosecutors in the state for 20, 30 years, Hill said.Judge Sermons did not hear factual arguments. He said he wanted to be as fair and neutral as possible before the next evidentiary hearing, where he will reexamine the jury selection notes, training records and other documents, likely in the original jurisdiction of Johnston County. Before that, there will be a hearing to check in on the status of records in 90 days.

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