That BOOM you just heard was Gov. Pat McCrory Standing up to the DOJ

Posted on May 9, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

BoomGovernor Pat McCrory’s response to the blackmail letter from the DOJ over HB 2 was to slap them back with a suit of his own.

BOOM.

Opening Sections of the 10 page suit included the seeking of declaratory and injunctive relief. It also included section thrashing the DOJ for its overreaching and radical rules based on interpretation of  Title IX and The Civil Rights Act. The language also takes a stab at VAWA.

See below, emphasis added:

“Plaintiffs Patrick L. McCrory, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of North Carolina (“Governor McCrory”), and Frank Perry, in his official capacity as Secretary, North Carolina Department of Public Safety (“Secretary Perry”), (collectively “plaintiffs”) seek declaratory and injunctive relief against the United States of America (“United States”), the United States Department of Justice, Loretta Lynch, in her official capacity as United States Attorney General, and Vanita Gupta, in her official capacity as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, for their radical reinterpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which would prevent plaintiffs from protecting the bodily privacy rights of state employees while accommodating the needs of transgendered state employees.”

“The Department contends that North Carolina’s common sense privacy policy constitutes a pattern or practice of discriminating against transgender employees in the terms and conditions of their employment because it does not give employees an unfettered right to use the bathroom or changing facility of their choice based on gender identity. The Department’s position is a baseless and blatant overreach. This is an attempt to unilaterally rewrite long-established federal civil rights laws in a manner that is wholly inconsistent with the intent of Congress and disregards decades of statutory interpretation by the Courts. The overwhelming weight of legal authority recognizes that transgender status is not a protected class under Title VII. If the United States desires a new protected class under Title VII, it must seek such action by the United States Congress. In any event, North Carolina law allows plaintiffs to accommodate transgender employees while protecting the bodily privacy rights of other state employees, and nothing in Title VII prohibits such conduct or constitutes discrimination in the terms and conditions of employment of transgender employees. Moreover, the Department has similarly overreached in its interpretation of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (“VAWA”). Even if VAWA specifically includes gender identity as a protected class, the North Carolina law is not discriminatory because it allows accommodations based on special circumstances, including but not limited to transgender individuals. “

Apparently, the Governor has a press conference scheduled for 1 pm.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Government, LGBTQ Issues, NCGA, Pat McCrory, YWBMTC | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Petition: NCAE Doesn’t Compensate Employees Fairly

Posted on May 9, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) has been waging a relatively non-stop campaign against the General Assembly for ‘higher teacher pay’.

Meanwhile, it seems the NCAE doesn’t compensate their own employees adequately according to a petition aimed at the NCAE President, Rodney Ellis.

The petition was started by the “NC SO Crisis Committee”. That’s the NC affiliate of the National Staff Organization, which boasts on their about page to be “The world’s largest union of union staff,”.

The petition reads as follows:

TO: NCAE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

We, the members of the North Carolina Staff Organization the unionized workers at NCAE (UniServ Directors, Program Staff, and Headquarters Union Staff), urge NCAE to provide a reasonable salary and benefits package. Bargaining fairly is a critical way to demonstrate your respect for us as colleagues and professionals

Why is this important?

Our staff is under constant pressure to do more with less since we have not received a salary increase in eight (8) years. It is vital that we collaborate to address how we will continue to provide quality services, despite management’s refusal to fill vacant UniServ positions while filling management positions. When it comes to finding creative solutions in a budget crisis we are, in fact, strong together. But the budget should not be balanced on the backs of the staff that provide quality services to our members.
Thus far we have been flexible, collaborative, worked overtime, lost sleep, picked up second jobs, lost time w/family, watched friends/colleagues retire, and changed our personal schedules in an attempt to stop/slow the bleeding of the association.

We, the undersigned, support our staff in their efforts to gain a reasonable salary and benefits package as they work to rebuild NCAE.

The 2013 IRS filings for the National Staff Organization showed over $1.3 million in receipts.

While the 990 filing seems to indicate there are no paid staff members, UnionFacts.com lists their board members as ironically receiving very lopsided compensation. The listed President makes over $120k, yet the next closest paid member only makes a little over $33k.

The National Staff Organization also has called for a ‘vote of no confidence‘ in the NCAE’s Executive Director, Rachelle Johnson. This vote of no confidence is supported by the following bullet points:

  • Johnsons failure to ensure a safe working environment in the Headquarters building.
  • Working conditions have significantly deteriorated under Johnson’s failure.
  • Johnson has failed to provide the leadership needed to improve the Association.
  • Johnson doesn’t listen to staff concerns or perspectives.
  • No diversity in management staff hiring.
  • Managers receiving increases while staff not receiving an increase in seven years.
  • Johnson’s failure to process grievances in a timely manner.

 

A quick couple of end notes regarding the NCAE.

The organization recently applauded Leftist activist and an NCAE – Organize2020 member, Bryan Proffitt, for being named a “finalist for the NEA Social Justice Activist Award.”

The NCAE has endorsed Attorney General Roy Cooper for governor. Cooper has been more an NCAE spokesperson than he has been an Attorney General.

Cooper has refused to protect NC children from the Obama administration and the U.S. Department of Education’s overreach into our schools time and again. From Common Core to the abusive interpretation of Title IX —  Cooper has shown that he sides with the Fed and not NC families.

Cooper has shown about the same amount of respect for NC families and children as he did for MLK last year… IN CHURCH.

Related Reading
NCAE’s little secret
NCAE Still Refusing to Disclose Membership Numbers

Useful Links
View the NC NSO’s IRS Filings
View the NSO’s HQ IRS Filings
View details for the NSO at UnionFacts.com

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, NCAE, Organize2020, POLITICS NC | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Petition: NCAE Doesn’t Compensate Employees Fairly

Chad Adams Starts New Radio Show

Posted on May 7, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Chad Adams has departed from the Freedom Action Network news show put on by Civitas and has launched his own show.

Visit the website: http://chadadamsshow.com

You can also visit the show on Facebook.

Here’s a brief preview:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Video | Comments Off on Chad Adams Starts New Radio Show

Teacher shortage? How about 7,300 backlogged applications?

Posted on May 6, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

The narrative is we have a teacher shortage.

In February, Superintendent June Atkinson blamed the shortage on not enough teachers entering the profession:

StuffAtkinsonSaysState Superintendent June Atkinson is concerned about a growing teacher shortage in North Carolina. 

She says over the last five years there’s been a thirty percent drop in the amount of university students in North Carolina seeking a career in education. 

Atkinson says low teacher salaries are partly to blame, but recruitment and retention need to be top priorities.

The truth is that in March we had 7,300 backlogged teacher licensing applications in this state.

Morgantown.com reports on 28 teachers in Burke county still waiting on their applications to be processed. Meanwhile they are having to serve as substitute teachers:

“(NCDPI CFO Philip Price) said they’re down to two positions (in the allotment department),” Lawson said. “They are not being provided the funds to replace positions because of budget cuts and (Price) anticipates even further cuts to the department in the 2016-17 budget. 

“DPI has to clear a license for a teacher before we can pay them as a teacher, so we pay them as a substitute until then. That is $103 per day versus $35,000 per year or $3,500 per month, which equates to far more than $103 per day. (These teachers receive) no benefits or matching or contributing state retirement until the issue is cleared. With that part, we can only go back three months and we can’t go back beyond that. So obviously, we have teachers already who are losing out on contributions to the retirement system because we’re still paying 28 teachers sub pay because of licensure issues.”

Lawson said there doesn’t seem to be an immediate solution to the problem of short staff at DPI. In fact, it may be getting worse.

“(Price) when he talked with us said he had had another person, who we had actually worked with who was our personal contact, had left the day prior to that to take another position. They are able to process 300 licenses a day with the current staffing levels. They have still 7,300 licensure issues backlogged to process. 

“So you do the math. They can’t possibly get through processing them all by the end of the school year.”

Isn’t this one of the Department of Public Instruction’s main jobs? Hiring and licensing teachers?  Arguably yes.

Is DPI working on it? Apparently so.

There was a licensure update at the last Board meeting. A hand out noted the status March outstanding licenses and then showed the status in April.

In March, the total was 7,892; A good 500+ more than reported by the media.  The April number was 4,654.  That’s a one month drop of 3,238.

That same hand out cited the receipt of, on average, 820 applications received per week. Yet, we have a teacher shortage.

Also — How about that background screening process? Where are we with that? It was discussed at the State Board planning meeting on April 6th. The board’s attorney, Katie Cornetto, provided a presentation.

The presentation included four main suggestions:

1. Fingerprint Criminal Background Checks Prior to Issuing a License
Requires: Legislative and Policy Changes, Fingerprinting Fee ($50) and Additional Staffing Resources

2. Add Application Questions to Improve Self-Reporting
Requires: Application Modification

3. NASDTEC Access for Districts
Requires: Successful Pilot, Membership Fee per District

4. Implement Other Recommendations Proposed by Task Force
Requires: Policy Changes and Staff Resources

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, June Atkinson, NC DPI | Comments Off on Teacher shortage? How about 7,300 backlogged applications?

Return Of The Jedi? NC Fights Back Against DOJ

Posted on May 6, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Anyone who knows even a little bit about Star Wars knows that Return of the Jedi was a resounding rejection of the evil Sith, an oppressive regime and the Dark Side of the force.

ObamaDevilHistoryChannelSo it goes with North Carolina.

The Jedi have returned.

Tyranny and Imperial blackmail are being rejected.

This is the most breathtaking Federal overreach in this author’s memory; The forcing of our children to use restrooms and locker rooms alongside the opposite sex by blackmailing a state’s federal education funding.

It’s important for people to know, North Carolina’s education funding is mainly in state dollars. In fact, we rank 7th in the nation for state dollars spent on education.

What North Carolina procured from the Fed in K-12 Title IX dollars was around $861 million last year. In comparison, the NC University system garnered around $1.4 billion in Title IX funds.

What was spent procuring those dollars should now be under scrutiny and the question should be asked: If such odious strings can be attached to federal funding, is it worth taking it at all?

Civitas Institute is leading the way with a petition to reject this federal blackmail.

GO. SIGN. IT.

We Reject Federal Blackmail

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, Government, NCGA, YWBMTC | Tagged , | 4 Comments

NC Officials Present Unified Front In Face Of DOJ Threats – #HB2

Posted on May 5, 2016 by A.P. Dillon

Care or SueYesterday, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice sent threatening letters to both Governor McCrory and also to UNC’s Margaret Spellings.

The letters basically threatened North Carolina’s Title IX funding. The letters allege that HB 2 violated the Civil Rights Act and Title IX.  The letters provide a May 9th deadline for responding.

North Carolina officials across the board called the DOJ’s letter a massive ‘overreach’ and ‘politically motivated’.   Meanwhile Mayor Roberts of Charlotte, who started this whole mess, is oddly silent.

Read the letters:

I have said this before. I will say it again. These claims by the DOJ and U.S. Department of Education are all based on interpretation, not actual law.  A simple solution? Dump Title IX funding.

Where did they get this interpretation? Likely from the Human Rights Campaign who began pressuring politicians and the White House several years ago.

The results of that pressuring culminated in President Obama signing an Executive Order in 2014 that sought to alter the Equal Employment Opportunities Act to add ‘gender identity’ and’ gender expression’. This position was quickly adopted by the Department of Labor, OPM, EEOC, OSHA and US Department of Education.

Leading up to the DOJ’s letter, Education Secretary John King called HB 2, ‘hateful‘.

Meanwhile, 50 parents are now suing Illinois over a high school’s transgender bathroom policy which was the result of a US Department of Education Title IX lawsuit.

Project Veritas visited North Carolina recently and exposed the dangerous lengths to which UNC Asheville officials will go to allow anyone to use any bathroom they choose.

The reaction from North Carolina leaders to the DOJ’s threats was a unified, swift and to the point set of statements.

The Governor’s press release hit the Obama administration on their national machinations, stating that, “A claim by the Obama administration charges that one part of House Bill 2, which requires state employees in public government buildings and students in our universities to use a restroom, locker room and shower facility that match their biological sex, is now in violation of federal law. The Obama administration has not only staked out its position for North Carolina, but for all states, universities and most employers in the U.S.
 
“The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps.”

Lt. Governor Dan Forest issued a press release with a single stinging sentence that read,  “To use our children and their educational futures as pawns to advance an agenda that will ultimately open those same children up to exploitation at the hands of sexual predators is by far, the sickest example of the depths the Obama Administration will stoop to ‘fundamentally transform our nation.'”

Senator Phil Berger also issued a short, but stinging rebuke to the DOJ, which included citing 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Niemeyer,  “This is a gross overreach by the Obama Justice Department that deserves to be struck down in federal court, and I cannot say it any better than Fourth Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer did recently:

“‘This unprecedented holding overrules custom, culture, and the very demands inherent in human nature for privacy and safety, which the separation of such facilities is designed to protect. More particularly, it also misconstrues the clear language of Title IX and its regulations. And finally, it reaches an unworkable and illogical result.’”

House Majority Leader Mike Hager and Rep. Dan Bishop issued a joint statement, which can be found both on Twitter and on Rep. Hager’s Facebook page:

“Today, the Obama administration issued a breathtaking threat to the Governor and University of North Carolina. President Obama’s Justice Department, Civil Rights Division, asserts that North Carolina’s law providing for separate men’s and women’s bathrooms and showers in government buildings violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex,” said Representative Dan Bishop (R-Mecklenburg). “Based on a novel interpretation by the federal bureaucracy, not yet confirmed by any court, and without any change by Congress to the 50-year-old law, the Obama Justice Department now seeks to stop North Carolina from protecting the privacy and personal safety of women employees and customers from the presence of anatomical males in a bathroom or shower on the absurd notion that it constitutes sex discrimination to do so.”

“First Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and City Council moved to mandate genderless bathrooms and showers, and the General Assembly acted to protect privacy and safety. Now, President Obama reinterprets a 50-year old law to impose genderless bathrooms and showers,” adds Majority Leader Mike Hager (R-Rutherford). “Do you think there might be a plan? But there’s more. The Obama administration’s newly announced threat also implies that every employer in North Carolina and across the nation that employs more than 15 must also allow male employees into bathrooms or showers for women. How much will the American people take?”

From where this author sits, this is more of the Obama administration’s typical ‘punish your enemies’ activity and that yes, it is politically motivated.

2012 was the year of ‘war on women’. In 2016, we have the Democrats and Left waging an actual war on women — and children.

 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, Government, LGBTQ Issues, Lt. Gov Dan Forest, NCGA, Pat McCrory, YWBMTC | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments