A whole concert to celebrate the end of this miserable month of politics. Enjoy.

A monumental waste of time:

AN ACT to disapprove the mitigation program requirements for protection and maintenance of riparian buffers rule adopted by THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION, DIRECT THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION TO ADOPT A NEW MITIGATION PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS FOR PROTECTION AND MAINTENANCE OF RIPARIAN BUFFERS RULE, and amend wastewater disposal system requirements.

SECTION 1. Pursuant to G.S. 150B‑21.3(b1), 15A NCAC 02B .0295 (Mitigation Program Requirements for Protection and Maintenance of Riparian Buffers), as adopted by the Environmental Management Commission on May 9, 2013, and approved by the Rules Review Commission on July 18, 2013, is disapproved.

Bolding mine. Five years of work, done by a Commission that already had more industry input than it should have, tossed aside because a small yet clever group of people saw an opportunity to take advantage of a failsafe that was put in place to keep a small yet clever group from abusing the rulemaking process. We are impressed by such guile, but many lawmakers are not:

This story was cross posted from http://restorenc.org/news/

A toxic slurry of selenium and arsenic can bubble discretely for decades only to spill out and imperil life along miles of rivers and lakes. So too can a conservative legislator lay low for more than a decade until the Tea Party waves of 2010 and 2012 allow him to express himself like a cold sore that arrives when the weather changes.

Read the rest here.

After grabbing headlines about a 7% teacher raise that seems to be...er...misleading at best, the Tillisberger released the budget under cover of darkness. Senators got copies on theirs desks at 8:30 a.m. and were expected to vote on the 260-page bill at 10:15 a.m.

It's no wonder that Phil & Thom want to keep the budget secret, because it has all kinds of sleazy little personal pet provisions in it, including:

• Moving the SBI from the Attorney General's control to the control of the governor whose administration is being investigated by the SBI (something the wing nuts have been trying to do for a long time);
• Moves the ABC & ALE to new places too;
• Eliminates 4 badly needed special judges;