At 3 a.m., NC Senate GOP strips education funding from Democrats districts

[wildeyed]

This was horrific, even by NC GOP standards. They stole the votes of black and urban voters and now they are blatantly siphoning their tax dollars OUT of our needy districts and into theirs. They have always taken from the more affluent urban Democratic districts, but at least we can afford it. But this is straight-up evil. Phil Berger and his gang are stealing from the neediest kids to satisfy petty political vendettas.

Either the courts fix the gerrymandering and give us back some representations, or I see serious resistance in the future. I don't see why I have to pay state taxes if I don't get a say in how they are allocated.

Most re-shares of any article I have seen on #NCpol and #NCGA Twitter tags for ages too.

The session finally resumed around 3 a.m., and Republican Sen. Brent Jackson introduced a new budget amendment that he explained would fund more pilot programs combating the opioid epidemic. He cited “a great deal of discussion” about the need for more opioid treatment funding.

Jackson didn’t mention where the additional $1 million would come from: directly from education programs in Senate Democrats’ districts and other initiatives the minority party sought.

Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram’s rural district in northeastern North Carolina took the biggest hit from the amendment. It strips $316,646 from two early college high schools in Northampton and Washington counties, and it specifically bans state funding from supporting a summer science, math and technology program called Eastern North Carolina STEM.

snip....

The Northampton County program has received about $180,000 in recent years to serve 90 high school students, many of whom are African-American and from low-income families.

“I don’t know what motivated the amendment, but it will have a devastating effect on an area that is already suffering,” Smith-Ingram said Saturday, adding that the STEM summer program would shut down if the provision is in the final budget.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article150397682.html#storylink=cpy

[PsychoBabble]

1. Having grown up in SC, I remember when NC was

considered our much smarter, saner, more advanced neighbor.

Now? Holy F#ck, they've lost their minds.

Southern hospitality aside, there is no amount of money you could pay me to return there.

THEY HAVE LOST THEIR MINDS!

(Apparently the cray-cray leaked across the border somewhere along the way)

[CrispyQ]

2. These people are simply inhumane.

I loathe them.

[kimbutgar]

3. The Democratic governor can veto this bill though

[wildeyed]

4. And the legislature will override it.

Due to the gerrymandering, they have a veto proof majority, despite only winning a slight majority statewide.

[kimbutgar]

5. These red states have become even more hell on earth for poor and minorities

What will it take to wake up the people to the fact rethugs are their foes and don't care about them?

[wildeyed]

6. Again, it's the gerrymander and voter suppression.

We didn't vote for this. It was forced on us.

[certainot]

7. and 4 NC universities helped NC republicans do this

in NORTH CAROLINA 16 limbaugh stations depend on sport broadcasting for these schools
North Carolina 8, North Carolina State 3, Duke 3, East Carolina 2
to attract the advertising to pay for their constant work on behalf of republicans

basically those unis are helping republican defund public ed, sell voter suppression, and pass bigot bathroom bills

if democrats want to destroy republicans in NC they just have to end that shit.

as soon as one school starts to question their role and thinks about looking for apolitical alts others will too and advertisers for the NC's most important media tool will head for the hills

[That Guy 888]

8. It's always interesting to lift up the rock people like Jackson live under.

From the first page of a google search for Sen. Brent Jackson:

Migrant Workers Sue Sen. Brent Jackson, His Son, and His Farm for Labor Violations
Former worker José Alberto Aguilera-Hernandez says that Rodney Jackson confronted him on October 27, 2015, demanding that he pay $2,400 to replace a gas pump piece broken during a workplace accident. Aguilera-Hernandez refused, was fired on the spot, and was forced to leave the farm.

Jackson then withheld back wages from the previous week's work. Aguilera-Hernandez, a worker on an H2A visa from Mexico, was forced to solicit help from a local storeowner to get back home. The plaintiffs in the case say that farm employees threatened them to try to get them to drop the lawsuit, and after they went forward, were refused employment. With the way the H2A program works, Farm Labor Organizing Committee spokeswoman Briana Kemp says, the worker has to be formally requested by a grower in order to be brought to work in the U.S.

"I couldn’t believe he would treat another human being this way," Aguilera-Hernandez said in a statement. "He knows I don’t know anyone here and don’t have any way of finding a place to stay or a way home."

The Jackson Farming Company was previously a member of the North Carolina Growers' Association, who has a union contract with FLOC. In 2014, union members filed a grievance against Jackson for "manipulating hours and underpaying workers." According to FLOC, over twenty workers received hundreds of dollars in back pay as a result of that settlement, but Jackson left the NCGA last year, FLOC says, to "avoid further scrutiny from the union, and continue illegal practices."

http://www.indyweek.com/news/archives/2016/04/28/migrant-workers-sue-sen-brent-jackson-his-son-and-farm-for-labor-violations

NC senator seeking money from program he created

Raleigh, N.C. — Sen. Brent Jackson's farming business has applied for a $925,000 grant from a program the Sampson County Republican helped create through a 2013 law he drafted and pitched as a needed economic development tool for rural North Carolina.

According to the Department of Commerce, the direct grant to Jackson's farm would help finance what is estimated to be a $1.7 million project. If the application were approved, it would be the seventh funded by the "Ag Gas" program, and the second largest in terms of public funds awarded.

"I have taken no money," Jackson said Monday, saying he applied for the grant because he had heard other farmers encountered difficulty with the program. "I heard so many folks talking about how hard it was to apply to this program. I decided the best way to find out was to apply and see how it works."

Had he landed the grant, Jackson insisted, he would have declined the money, saying he was surprised during a November Joint Legislative Agriculture Resources Oversight Committee meeting to see his farm on the list of projects that were being considered for the program, which he called "my brainchild." He is a co-chairman of that panel and plays an outsized role in agricultural issues at the legislature due to his status as one of the few working farmers serving in the General Assembly.

http://www.wral.com/nc-senator-seeking-money-from-program-he-created/16354438/