NC Legislature

North Carolina leads the South in the percentage of female legislators, according to an analysis recently released from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

With 25 percent of the General Assembly membership comprised of women, North Carolina has the 18th highest percentage of women serving in the Legislature in the country.

The national average is 24.5 percent. Vermont has the highest percentage at 37.8 percent, while South Carolina has the lowest, with 8.8 percent.

Lillian Exum Clement of Buncombe County was the first woman elected to the legislature in 1920, but even as late as 1971, only two legislators were women.

Now, 43 women serve in the General Assembly, up from 39 during the last session.

The honorables in Raleigh are hard at work this week, sweating like field workers to do the people's business. In what some might call a legislative breakthrough, they are pulling out the stops to give migrant laborers all the comforts of home as they work to pick the food you and I eat every day.

A bill making its way through the legislature would begin to change some of the state's farmworker housing standards. The bill, which has the support of farm groups and advocates for workers, would add new housing inspectors and force more checks at problem farms, while requiring fewer checks at farms that consistently exceed standards.

The only change in what farmers must provide: every worker would be the guarantee of a mattress.

The Mainstream Media absolutely loves the idea of ups and downs. Whether it is the N & O’s pretty arrows, the dunce hats and cowboy hats of the Indy, or the classic Cheers and Jeers; everyone loves to give accolades and hate.

Well, today I am going to try and do the same for North Carolina Politics.

Your emails and phone calls are working. I talked to nearly twenty Representatives and Senators today and found them all quite interested in listening. Rep. Verla Insko, an honest-to-God leader in this fight, had 210 messages in her inbox by 1pm, and she, along with the other legislators are prepared to find a solution to the crisis wrought by Carmen Hooker-Odom's ruinous decision.

The mental health system has been unstable since it was unmoored under the 2001 reform legislation. As private businesses work to create a sustainable infrastructure, they are repeatedly thrown into crisis by the state's decision. Let's remember that the consultant hired by the state recommended a five-year period of stability to foster innovation and build infrastructure.

After years of listening to the anti-tax zealots at the Art Pope Puppetshow, the North Carolina General Assembly has lost its sense of decency and perspective.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get much worse for families in North Carolina relying on the state’s mental health system for support, state officials gave them an unwelcome Easter surprise Thursday afternoon.

It came in the form of a memo announcing that the state was slashing by a third the amount it will pay for community support services provided to children and adults with mental illness. That is likely to mean some of the most vulnerable people in the state will no longer get the help they need.

We the People were out ahead of Dole and Burr on opposition to the OLF. And we are out ahead of our scaredy-cat representatives in Raleigh when it comes to social services.

From the Associated Press:

The North Carolina Senate apologized Thursday for the Legislature's role in promoting slavery and Jim Crow laws that denied basic human rights to the state's black citizens.

Following the lead of lawmakers in neighboring Virginia, the Senate unanimously backed a resolution acknowledging its "profound contrition for the official acts that sanctioned and perpetuated the denial of basic human rights and dignity to fellow humans.

. . .

The North Carolina House would have to approve the measure for it to be formalized. A similar resolution is pending in state House, which adjourned for the Easter holiday weekend on Thursday without taking any action.

10 legislators have sent a letter to the NC Utilities Commission asking them to hold off on approving Duke's request to build two new coal-fired units at their Cliffside station. Sounds like they are starting to connect the dots. From the N&O:

Durham Democrat Paul Luebke, Wake County Democrat Jennifer Weiss and others said Tuesday that Duke's coal plant proposal should be put on hold while the General Assembly considers legislation that would require the state's public utilities to derive at least 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar or animal waste. Bills were recently introduced in the state House and Senate. If the state adopts such an energy policy, building a major power plant might be unnecessary, the lawmakers said.

We do a lot of talking and writing around here, and while that's useful to a point, there ultimately comes a time for action. That's what the theocrats are up to in this comment by Greg. And that's what we need to be up to as well.

Which is why I'm passing along this email I got from a group of progressive Democrats here in North Carolina. (I've edited it for length, so anything that doesn't make sense is all my fault.)

On January 29, 2007, a group of North Carolinians visited our NC congressional members about the War in Iraq and the potential escalation by the current administration into Iran. This effort was organized by United for Peace and Justice and allied organizations. As they met with our representatives or their Legislative Directors, the most profound theme heard in these meetings was the confession that they, our representatives, had become irrelevant in decisions about how our country imposes our narrow interests on other countries, Iraq and Iran in particular.

French poet Paul Valery once said,

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them."

We know all too well how true this is in the Federal Government. The whole “Crashing the Gate” concept is built around tearing down walls between regular citizens, our elections and our government. That, however, is not the only place we are prevented from “taking part in affairs which properly concern us.”

In no political arena is Valery's anecdote truer than in North Carolina counties where populations are multiplying, water supplies are thinning, schools are bursting at the seams and other services are either held together with duck tape and bailing wire, or held up by credit.

the future of Johnston county. It may be the future of your county, too, if you live nextdoor to a metropolitan area.

The room was, as expected, stuffed full of developers, more realtors, and housing industry people. They all cheered and clapped whenever someone stood to expound upon the evil, the destruction and the fear we all should feel from "Smart Growth" initiatives.