There were several stories reported recently that caught my attention:
1. Most of us remember the fertilizer plant in Winston-Salem that exploded and caught fire last year. Some environmental sampling has been done at the site. It turns out that soil and ground water samples showed high levels of chemicals like benzene, arsenic, nitrite and nitrate. Other items found at levels above groundwater standards included selenium, lead, cadmium, and barium. It is unclear to what extent these findings might be due to the fire, long-term operations at the site or other factors.
2. The city of Greensboro is doing another taxpayer giveaway to help people buy homes. A third program was announced a couple of weeks ago. This program is for employees in the public sector. It therefore discriminates against private sector workers. It offers up to $30,000 in no-interest forgivable loans. This is plainly a wrongful program, as were those that preceded it.
3. State Treasurer Dale Folwell has done it again, calling to account the hospital systems that prey upon the people of North Carolina. He released a report that details CEO salaries for hospital systems in our state. He found, among other things, that these salaries have doubled over the last five years. Among the salaries reported was Cone Health’s former CEO, Terry Akin, who received $2.9 million during 2021 after having urged local governments to lock down in response to Covid-19. It turns out this was on the low end of the spectrum. CEO’s for Atrium and Novant were reported to have received $9.8 million and $11.1 million, respectively.
4. The state of North Carolina has restrictions against dispensing abortion pills. Among the restrictions are a 72 hour waiting period, mandated counseling and in some cases an ultrasound. The state was recently sued in federal court with the objective of striking down these restrictions. Our democratic socialist State Attorney General, Josh Stein, has announced that he will not defend the state against this lawsuit. Stein is a Reform Jew; and this particular movement within Judaism is relentlessly pro-abortion.
The situation in Winston-Salem sound like a periodic table of hazardous materials.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2002-title49-vol2/xml/CFR-2002-title49-vol2-part172-subpartB.xml ( Warning don’t click on this link.. your eyes will glaze over )
No interest forgivable loans to purchase homes… what else to expect from the Peoples Republic of Greensboro.
Good for Folwell for exposing the obscene salaries of NC Hospital CEO. I don’t think the public has any say so in their compensation.
I thought that the AG had a duty to defend the state.. See GS 114.1
Fred, the city has done this before for other favored groups. It is essentially a political pay-off to supporters.
With respect to hospital CEO salaries, it is up to each Board of Directors to keep the salaries in line. They have not done so because Directors are recruited who are allies of the executive class; and because there is a wink-nod arrangement.
And yes, you are absolutely right that Stein has a duty to defend the state. The Republicans have refused to hold him accountable when he has abdicated his responsibilities before, so he keeps doing it. Today, the GOP leaders in the General Assembly filed a motion in court so they can intervene in the court case in lieu of Stein.