November 28, 2020

Bankruptcy judge orders lobbyists to explain their role in HB 6

A federal judge handling the bankruptcy of a company involved in an allegedly corrupt nuclear bailout has ordered a prominent law firm to explain its role in the affair.

The firm, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, served both as lead bankruptcy counsel to the company receiving the $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout and as a lobbyist for the effort to pass it last year, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alan M. Koschik wrote last week.

The effort to pass the bailout, House Bill 6, has since blown up into what U.S. Attorney David M. DeVillers said is likely the biggest bribery scandal in Ohio history.

He alleged that $61 million from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and associated companies was funneled through dark-money groups and used to make Rep. Larry Householder, R-Glenford, speaker. Householder then led the effort to pass and defend the bailout, most of which will go to two failing nuclear plants in Northern Ohio.

Read more: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2020/11/27/bankruptcy-judge-orders-lobbyists-to-explain-their-role-in-hb-6/

November 28, 2020

Could defeat in nuisance lawsuits herald a reckoning for the NC hog industry?

Shortly after Smithfield Foods lost its third consecutive hog nuisance case in federal court, company CEO Ken Sullivan wrote a letter. In it, Sullivan reassured the company’s employees and contract growers that while Smithfield faced tens of millions of dollars in damages to neighbors of the offending farms, as well as untold legal fees, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals would bend the arc of justice back their way.

“Since the early stages of these cases, we’ve believed North Carolina law is on our side,” Sullivan wrote in August 2018, “and the real case about the plaintiffs and their properties has been buried in an avalanche of distraction, manipulation and manufactured evidence.”

Smithfield would never settle, company officials often said.

Now Smithfield is settling.

Last week the federal appeals court, in a 2-1 decision, sided with the neighbors. Judges found just one snowflake in the so-called avalanche, ordering that a jury recalculate punitive damages without the consideration of company officials’ multi-million-dollar salaries. The rest of the plaintiffs’ arguments were upheld.

Read more: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2020/11/24/could-defeat-in-nuisance-lawsuits-herald-a-reckoning-for-the-nc-hog-industry/

November 28, 2020

Federal protections, state rental assistance not preventing all evictions

Federal and state interventions to prevent mass evictions, including the moratorium set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aren’t protecting everyone and people are still falling through the cracks.

Bailey Bortolin, the statewide advocacy, outreach and policy director for the Nevada Coalition of Legal Service Providers, said since Oct. 1 the Las Vegas Justice Court has already had more than 5,500 cases, which should be a dire warning of what’s to come.

“We know that 2,500 eviction orders have been granted so far,” Bortolin said. “Rental assistance, eviction mediation and the CDC protections are not catching everybody. But if we think about the amount of people it is catching and removing all those protections at once, we have a humanitarian flood on our hands.”

To prevent people from losing housing in the middle of a pandemic, the CDC issued an order Sept. 1 that allowed tenants to be protected from eviction if they meet certain qualifications such as making less than $99,000 a year, had reduced wages or were laid off and would likely become homeless.

Read more: https://www.nevadacurrent.com/2020/11/27/federal-protection-state-rental-assistance-not-preventing-all-evictions/

November 28, 2020

Rural areas in Missouri and Kansas send their sickest patients to cities, straining hospitals

Registered nurse Pascaline Muhindura has spent the past eight months treating COVID patients at Research Medical Center in Kansas City.

But when she returns home to her small town of Spring Hill, Kansas, she’s often stunned by what she sees, like on a recent stop for carryout food.

“No one in the entire restaurant was wearing a mask,” Muhindura said. “And there’s no social distancing. I had to get out, because I almost had a panic attack. I was like, ‘What is going on with people? Why are we still doing this?’”

Many rural communities across the U.S. have resisted masks and calls for social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, but now rural counties are experiencing record-high infection and death rates.

Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2020/11/25/rural-areas-in-missouri-and-kansas-send-their-sickest-patients-to-cities-straining-hospitals/

November 28, 2020

Missouri Senate to vote next week on COVID funding. Fate of liability bill uncertain

The Missouri Senate will meet next week to consider a $1.3 billion COVID-19 spending bill, but the timeline for debating pandemic liability protections is not clear.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday, and the full Senate will spend Wednesday debating the spending bill as the special session called by Gov. Mike Parson resumes after a delay caused by COVID-19 cases among Senate Republicans members and staff.

Those cases became part of the surge in coronavirus infections that has added almost 100,000 new infections in November. The contagion is spreading far faster than at any time previously in the pandemic.

It took from the time the first case was found in the state in early March until Sept. 12 for the state to record its first 100,000 cases.

Read more: https://missouriindependent.com/2020/11/27/missouri-senate-to-vote-this-week-on-covid-funding-fate-of-liability-bill-uncertain/

November 28, 2020

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton said no. President Donald Trump listened.

Text messages show Norton succeeded in getting Trump campaign, national GOP officials to pay upfront, abide by health regulations


The reelection campaign of President Donald Trump bulldozed through state and local officials around the country who sought to limit the size of his rally crowds to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

In Bemidji, for instance, Trump drew a crowd of at least 4,000 people. In Duluth, he drew more than 2,500. Minnesota health officials later traced at least 19 COVID-19 infections to both rallies.

But not in Rochester, where the nonpartisan mayor, Kim Norton, stuck to her guns and limited Trump to 250 people at the Rochester Airport, according to a review of text messages and other records obtained by the Reformer in a public information request.

“Do we have to accept a plane?” Norton asked John Reed, executive director of Rochester International Airport. “We do NOT need a covid outbreak OR unnecessary protests. Just asking. Not happy with this. Say no if we have a choice.”

Read more: https://minnesotareformer.com/2020/11/25/rochester-mayor-kim-norton-said-no-president-donald-trump-listened/

November 28, 2020

Enbridge files federal challenge to Whitmer's Line 5 shutdown order

Canadian oil company Enbridge has filed a federal complaint to prevent the state of Michigan from shutting down the Line 5 dual pipeline, according to a news release from the company Tuesday evening.

The filing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan seeks an injunction to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s actions earlier this month to halt the pipeline by May, citing “unlawful” interference by the state in the pipeline’s safety regulation.

“In the face of continued roadblocks by this Administration it’s time for the State to stop playing politics with the energy needs and anxieties of U.S. and Canadian consumers and businesses that depend on Line 5,” said Vern Yu, executive vice president and president, Liquids Pipelines.

“It is concerning to see the current Administration is willing to compromise these needs. We remain highly committed to protecting the Great Lakes, the environment, and all the people who use these waters while delivering energy that people rely on daily.”

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/2020/11/24/enbridge-files-federal-challenge-to-whitmers-line-5-shutdown-order/

November 28, 2020

Bolden says she has COVID-19 after exposure in House

State Rep. Kyra Bolden (D-Southfield) has tested positive for COVID-19, the lawmaker shared in a tweet Tuesday evening.

Bolden says she got tested after receiving notification on Nov. 12 that she had been exposed to the virus while working with colleagues. She has been in quarantine since, only leaving the house to be tested.

Both Republican-led chambers have insisted that only lawmakers themselves should have the ability to decide whether or not to inform their colleagues and the public. This has led to widespread speculation that there are even more COVID-19 cases among state legislators that are going unreported.

“This virus is very real, and each of us must be responsible to do all that we can to ensure we are staying safe, and that means quarantining after exposure, and informing folks we may have come in contact with after receiving a positive test result,” Bolden said in her tweet thread.

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/2020/11/25/bolden-says-she-has-covid-19-after-exposure-in-house/

https://twitter.com/KyraHBolden/status/1331352456345874432
https://twitter.com/KyraHBolden/status/1331353409837002759

November 28, 2020

Six Possible Contenders Eye Mosby's Soon-to-be-Vacant House Seat

Baltimore City Council President-elect Nick J. Mosby (D) will be sworn in on Dec. 10, which means that his seat representing District 40 in the Maryland House of Delegates will soon be vacant.

At least six Baltimoreans said they plan to apply for the seat, which is the most interest that the city delegation has seen for a vacant seat in a long time, according to the district’s senator, Antonio L. Hayes (D). When Catherine E. Pugh (D) left the Senate to serve as Baltimore City mayor in 2016, there were only three people who were interested in filling her seat, Hayes recalled.

“I think nowadays people are far more attuned to who’s representing them, mainly driven by the attention that’s been given in this latest presidential race, so there is no shortage of them willing to step up and serve their community,” said Hayes, who is not currently promoting any of the candidates.

“We’re very happy that we will have an ally for the 40th District sent to the city council president [seat],” he said. “Nick Mosby was a huge contributor to our delegation in the 40th District.”

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/11/25/six-possible-contenders-eye-mosbys-soon-to-be-vacant-house-seat/

November 28, 2020

Public Transit, Battered by Pandemic, Triumphs at the Ballot Box

Far fewer people are riding buses and trains during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in this month’s election voters still approved more than a dozen proposals to increase spending on public transit.

From California to Virginia, voters supported sales or property tax hikes and bond issues to pay for maintenance, improvements or expansion of mass transit systems that have been hit hard in the last nine months.

“Transit ridership is down in most cities. At the same time, it’s still moving millions of people a day, and a lot of those people are essential workforce—nurses, grocery store workers, people working in warehouses,” said Alex Engel, spokesperson for the National Association of City Transportation Officials. “There’s a lot of recognition that our transit systems need to be there now for them and to make sure we’re maintaining them for the future as well.”

Though President-elect Joe Biden strongly supports public transit, Senate Republicans may favor other funding priorities. This month’s elections show that more local governments will be stepping up to generate their own funding, given the uncertainty about federal help, said Michael Walk, a program manager at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, a university-based transportation research agency.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2020/11/27/public-transit-battered-by-pandemic-triumphs-at-the-ballot-box/