Former Director of Shuttered Gates Backed Non-Profit Decries Media Reporting

Posted on July 18, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

It would seem that NC New Schools’ former Director, Tony Habit, feels that the press hasn’t been accurately reporting on the closure of the Bill Gates backed non-profit according to an editorial he has penned at the News and Observer.

The ‘highlights’ text from the article reiterates the opening paragraph:

“Regarding the June 12 news article “After New Schools’ collapse, financial questions emerge”: The News & Observer has appropriately reported on the closure of NC New Schools. Because the organization benefited from the trust and investment by foundations, corporations and government, the public should expect accountability. Unfortunately, the series of articles written about NC New Schools has not accurately reported key facts.”

Habit refutes the News and Observer’s reporting and states that NC New Schools was not paying rent simultaneously on two office spaces.

Habit says about the rental spaces that NC New Schools, “structured a deal that allowed us to move into the new facility rent-free for eight months; the cost per square foot in our new office was nearly 15 percent less than the former office.”

Habit also says that funds and grants weren’t misused in any way and then proceeds to throw the finance department under the bus, blaming mismanagement and “rapid” personnel growth.

Interestingly,  Habit mentions accountability. For the past two months, I’ve been trying to get accountability from the General Assembly with regards to NC New School’s role as it pertains to the Education & Workforce Innovation Act (HB 902).  NC New Schools was to administer the program.

I emailed both Rep. Craig Horn and Rep. Langdon, the only remaining sponsors of the Education & Workforce Innovation Act. Neither of their offices has responded to multiple inquiries about recouping grants and monies given to NC New Schools.

The eleven Education & Workforce Innovation commission members are:

  • John Skvarla, Secretary of Commerce
  • June Atkinson, State Superintendent of Public Instruction
  • Bill Cobey, Chairman, State Board of Education
  • Tom Ross, President, University of North Carolina System
  • Scott Ralls, President, North Carolina Community College System
  • Governor’s Office appointees: Billie Redmond, CEO, TradeMark Properties, Commission Chair, Rod Webb, Senior Vice President and Raleigh City Executive, NewBridge Bank
  • House of Representatives appointees: Judy Irwin, Vice President, Human Resources, Golden Corral, Clifton Vann, President, Livingston & Haven
  • Senate appointees: Robin Comer, County Commissioner, Carteret County, Michael Martini, HR Manager, Ball Corporation

According to the committee’s 2014-15 report, 11 grants were given out totaling $1.34 million dollars. According to the report, the grants went to the following school districts:

  1.  Beaufort County Schools – $800,000
  2.  Buncombe County Schools – $800,000
  3.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools – $800,000
  4.  Chatham, Harnett, and Lee County Schools – $800,000
  5.  Davidson County, Lexington City, and Thomasville City Schools – Yadkin Valley Regional Career Academy – $350,000
  6.  Duplin County Schools – $800,000 7. Durham Public Schools – $800,000
  7.  Granville, Franklin, Vance, and Warren Counties – $800,000
  8.  Rutherford County Schools – $800,000
  9.  Surry County Schools – $800,000
  10.  Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools – Kennedy High School – $350,000

 

Related Reading

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NCGA | 1 Comment

Sunday Matinee: Stanley Kurtz on the College Board Monopoly and Common Core

Posted on July 17, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Earlier this year, the Civitas Institute held their Conservative Leadership Conference (CLC) which had a long list of great speakers and break out sessions.

Continue reading →

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core, Video | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Wake County Voting Maps Still in Chaos; Lawmakers Enter the Mix

Posted on July 15, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Earlier this year, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals was responsible for unprecedented disenfranchisement of thousands of North Carolina voters earlier this year for congressional primaries when the court threw out district maps.

This past month, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown yet another election in North Carolina into chaos when it threw out the Wake County voting maps involving the Wake County Board of Commissioners and Wake County School districts.

The timing of the 4th Circuit’s ruling is likely not coincidental. The 4th Court ruled on July 1st, which was the same day the NC General Assembly adjourned for the year.  And as Barry Smith of Carolina Journal writes in an article today, “The primaries for county commissioner were held on March 15. Filing for the school board races ended on July 1, the same day the 4th Circuit’s ruling came out.”

This means that should the an appeal to stay the 4th Circuit’s ruling until after the November election fail, at bare minimum the Wake County Board of Commissioner’s primary race results could be tossed out.

The Wake County maps had previous survived two legal challenges. In response to the first lawsuit filed in 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle ruled the maps constitutional in March of 2014 and Judge James Dever again ruled the maps constitutional in early 2016.

In both prior rulings, the main reason for upholding the maps was that the plaintiffs had ‘failed to make their case‘.

The 4th Circuit panel’s July 1st ruling was a 2-1 vote, which even suggested that the coming November elections perhaps shouldn’t happen. Part of the ruling  states that, “We see no reason why the November 2016 elections should proceed under the unconstitutional plans we strike down today.”

This portion of the 4th Circuit’s ruling drew a reaction from judges in North Carolina, including the lower U.S. court Judge James Dever, who ruled the maps constitutional earlier this year.

In an order released late Friday, Dever instructed the Wake Board County Board of Elections to tell him what deadlines were approaching for the fall elections. Dever also asked whether having a new primary for commission races would be feasible or not.  Dever wrote that,  “The people in Wake County deserve and will have elections for the Wake County School Board and the Wake County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 8”.

Dever’s earlier ruling stated that, “The court finds that the General Assembly did not engage in invidious discrimination, act arbitrarily, or act in bad faith in enabling the 2013 Wake County School Board Plan or the 2015 Wake County Commissioners Plan,”.

In a closed session on July 11th, the Wake County Board of Elections  met to discuss the issue. The response came on Wednesday the 13th, when the board voted to appeal the 4th Circuit panel’s decision. The Wake County Board of Elections  will apparently make their appeal to the full 15-member Circuit Court.

This week, state lawmakers are attempting to get back onto the legal playing field regarding these maps.  Barry Smith of Carolina Journal reported:

On Thursday, Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, and House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, issued a statement saying they plan to file a motion to intervene in the lawsuit and appeal the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit, saying Attorney General Roy Cooper refused to provide an adequate defense of the maps for the state. The decision by legislative leaders came a day after the Wake board voted to appeal the ruling to the full appeals court.

Earlier this week, Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, said he hoped Berger and Moore would attempt to intervene as defendants and seek an immediate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said that the House speaker and Senate leader had been “involuntarily dismissed” as defendants from the lawsuit challenging the Wake districts, adding that when the case got to the 4th Circuit, no one went to bat for lawmakers who redrew the districts.

The Carolina Journal article goes on to cite Anita Earls, the attorney for the plaintiffs of the lawsuit, who made the claim that, “The attorney general’s office filed briefs arguing that we had no legal right to add them and they should not be added,”.  Clearly, lawmakers beg to differ.

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Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Campaign 2016, ELECTIONS, LEGAL, NCGA, Voting, Wake County School Board | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

#HB2 Protesters Get Dramatic at School Board Meeting

Posted on July 14, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

According to the Star News Online headline, House Bill 2 (HB2) protesters “stormed out” of a New Hanover County School Board meeting earlier this week when the board didn’t respond to the public comments that were made.

Excerpt from Star News Online:

At the end of the public comment session, some protesters angrily asked members, “what are you going to say to us?” Board chairman Don Hayes responded that the board had listened to them, then moved on to the rest of the agenda.

Hayes’ response drew cries of “shame” and “cowards” as the crowd emptied from the meeting room.

Star News Online has video of this ‘storming out’ and subsequent cries of ‘shame’, which feel rather awkward as the video jumps around and is clearly missing footage.  There was no ‘storming’. The crowd that came to protest got up, milled around and then walked to the door in no unusual fashion.

View the video; around the 30 second mark the ‘storming out’ and chanting begins.

What Star News Online apparently did not capture was the protester activity of targeting a board member during the meeting. That board member was Tammy Covil, who posted an account of what happened at the meeting to her Facebook page on July 13th.

Covil agreed to allow me to re-publish her comments.

July 13th via Tammy Covil on Facebook:

I don’t usually comment about school board activities but since I was targeted by one of the protestors and both media outlets in attendance failed to report it, I’ll share details of the event to give you a better perspective of what transpired last night.

There were 7 people signed up to speak during the Call to the Audience regarding HB2 last night. What you must know is that during the call to the audience, we do not interact with the speakers. This is the public’s opportunity to address the board and
we generally don’t respond, we listen.

Rainbow mask - NHCSB - covil fb 071416

Image of the actual ‘rainbow mask’ slammed down in front of Covil.

As one of the protestors was speaking, a women broke from the crowd, approached my seat, slammed her rainbow colored duct tape mask down on my desk, snarled at me, and then stomped away.

Now, it’s not unusual for people to approach board members to hand out informational material while someone is speaking, so I was not aware of her intent until she slammed the mask on my desk. At that point, the deputies were much more guarded (thankfully). The speakers then became highly emotional and aggressive. It was clear their intent was to bully and intimidate the board until they achieved their desired result. When it didn’t work, they left in a huff chanting “shame, shame, shame” and making ridiculous statements like, “we’ll invite you to the funerals.”

Unfortunately, I’m used to tactics like these. It’s a consequence of having regularly exercised my free speech rights. They don’t have to agree with me. All I ask is for an opportunity to debate the issue. But what these people are trying to do is bully me and people like me into silence. FYI – I will never be censored, no matter how many rainbow colored props you throw at me.

Some advice one might want to consider when attempting a similar protest:

A. Everyone has the God-given right to free speech. What is not appropriate, however, is rude and aggressive behavior. You don’t need to act like a petulant child in order to get your point across. In fact, childish behavior denigrates your argument and undermines your message.

B. If those speaking in your protest plan to argue the importance of protecting individual rights and sheltering students from possible bullying and then proceeds to attempt to intimidate and bully a board into carving out special exceptions for a fraction of a percentage of students, please grab a dictionary and look up the word hypocrisy. Study it closely and make sure your group is not taking a hypocritical stance before making your protest.

C. If you tell the media you plan to duct tape your mouths shut in your protest, using masks made from duct tape is false advertising. You appear to be less willing to suffer for your cause than you’d like the public to believe.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EXCLUSIVE, LGBTQ Issues, YWBMTC | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Target Changing Room Policy Bites Them In The Ass

Posted on July 13, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Via Local News 8 in Idaho:

A man who identifies as a transgender woman has been arrested after they took photos of other women inside of the changing room at Target in Ammon.

On Monday the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Ammon Target store where an adult female says a person taking pictures of her while she was inside a changing room trying on clothes. The woman noticed the person reaching over the wall of the changing room with a cell phone to take pictures. The victim confronted the subject who ran from the store.

Detectives interviewed witnesses and security footage from Target which led them to 43-year-old Sean Patrick Smith, who also identifies as Shauna Patricia Smith, a transgender female. After interviewing Smith she was taken into custody by Detectives and booked into the Bonneville County Jail for one felony count of voyeurism.

Detectives are still investigating to determine if any more victims exist relating to this incident.

But this never happens, right?

Read the comments section.  Defenders are already at work:

Amber Skye Miller • 13 hours ago

This behavior is exceptionally rare within humanity and the trans community is no different. If this individual is truly trans and committed this crime, it has nothing to do with them being transgender.

Transgender offender or not, Target’s open changing room policies which have been in place for quite sometime and were only publicly touted this past year, have produced a string of peeping Tom’s.

2015 – Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania

2016 – Florida, Massachusetts, North Dakota and two in Texas, one of which involved a man exposing himself to a 9 year old boy.

Related: Top 20 Sexual Crimes Committed at Target Stores

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), LGBTQ Issues | Tagged | 3 Comments

NC Governor Signs Police Body Cam Legislation – #ncpol

Posted on July 13, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

On July 11th, North Carolina’s Governor signed legislation regarding the use of body cams for police officers. The measure, House Bill 972 / S.L. 2016-88 is titled, “Law Enforcement Recordings/No Public Record”.

Governor McCrory held a public signing of the bill. McCrory said that, “when used by itself, technology can mislead and misinform”. McCrory said the goal of the legislation was “uniformity”, “clarity” and to “expedite tested disclosure for a fair process which ensures transparency”.

Watch:


The new law blocks access by the public to body cam footage, but the footage can be obtained by making a written request.

“A person requesting disclosure of a recording must make a written request to the head of the custodial law enforcement agency that states the date and approximate time of the activity captured in the recording or otherwise identifies the activity with reasonable particularity sufficient to identify the recording to which the request refers.”

Requirements for the request include that the person making such a request must meet certain requirements.

(1) A person whose image or voice is in the recording.
(2) A personal representative of an adult person whose image or voice is in the recording, if the adult person has consented to the disclosure.
(3) A personal representative of a minor or of an adult person under lawful guardianship whose image or voice is in the recording.
(4) A personal representative of a deceased person whose image or voice is in the recording.
(5) A personal representative of an adult person who is incapacitated and unable to provide consent to disclosure.

If a law enforcement agency denies disclosure or has failed to provide disclosure more than three business days after the request, the person seeking the footage “may apply to the superior court in any county where any portion of the recording was made for a review of the denial of disclosure.”.

The court at that point may conduct an in‑camera review of the recording and release it only if the court believes that law enforcement has violated the use of their discretion in the initial request.  However, the person who receives the footage via the courts “shall not record or copy the recording.”.

In short, media or groups seeking body cam footage would have to seek a court order to release the footage requested. That request may not be granted if the court deems the footage to contain confidential information or may place the persons in the footage in jeopardy.  The main reason for a court to release such footage is when it is, “necessary to advance a compelling public interest”.

While keeping the integrity of ongoing investigations is necessary, the onerous nature of having to go to court to obtain footage arguably is not an effort to ‘advance public interest’.

The legislation also contains provisions for a “needle and hypodermic syringe exchange program”. The program would include the disposal of used needles and hypodermic syringe and supply needles, hypodermic and syringes at no cost in order to be sur that needles, hypodermic or syringes are not being reused or shared. This portion of the legislation stipulates that, “No public funds may be used to purchase needles, hypodermic syringes, or other injection supplies.”.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), NCGA, Pat McCrory, Video | Tagged | Comments Off on NC Governor Signs Police Body Cam Legislation – #ncpol