Governor's budget veto is overridden
Last week, the NC Senate voted to override Governor Roy Cooper's budget veto.
Today, the House followed suit in a 73-44 vote.
The vote means the state has adopted it's $23.9 billion budget for next year.
The Democratic Governor has had 11 of his 14 vetoes overridden by the Republican legislature.
Also, the News & Observer reports that Republicans' effort to pay a $15 minimum wage to state employees falls short:
About 9,000 state workers had been making less than $15 an hour but will now get a raise, according to Robert Broome, executive director of the main lobbying group for state workers, the State Employees Association of North Carolina.
The new minimum equates to $31,200 a year for a full-time employee.
The new minimum wage applies to most jobs in state agencies and the UNC System. But it excludes temporary workers, even those who work full-time. It also won't apply to any public school or community college employees who currently make less than $15 an hour.
Why would local school employees not be covered? The article does not explain.
The article also does not quote a GOP leader or budget-writer.
Governor Cooper's brother may be violating judicial ethics
Don Carrington at the Carolina Journal has uncovered what appears to be a violation of the NC judicial ethical standards by the Governor's brother.
District Court Judge Pell Cooper, Gov. Roy Cooper’s brother, manages three businesses — an apparent violation of state judicial rules designed to prevent conflicts of interest by judges. In 2009, state officials forced another district court judge who refused to leave two corporate boards to resign from the bench.
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The N.C. Code of Judicial Conduct states judges “should not serve as an officer, manager, or director of any company.” An investigation started in 2009 by the N.C. Judicial Standards Commission led to the resignation of District Court Judge Bill Belk of Charlotte. Belk continued serving on two corporate boards after he took office as judge.
Belk challenged the finding, but in 2010 the Supreme Court agreed with the commission’s recommendations and ruled Belk could never serve as a judge again.
Neither the Governor Cooper or Judge Cooper have commented on this yet.
Driver sentenced for wreck that left a local coach paralyzed
The track coach at Montreat College had his spinal cord severed in a horrific crash in the center of Black Mountain last year, and the man who caused it is heading to prison.
From the Citizen-Times:
A Winston-Salem man will spend at least 29 months in prison after pleading guilty Monday to charges connected to a horrific February 2017 crash in downtown Black Mountain that left a Montreat College track coach paralyzed.
Kyle Donte Carney, 31, was also sentenced to pay $162,456 in restitution for medical expenses to coach Britten Olinger and a $2,500 fine.
Police said the vehicle Carney was driving was traveling 120 mph in a 20 mph zone when it struck Olinger's vehicle at the intersection of State Street and Montreat Road, setting off a chain reaction that damaged three other vehicles and the Town Hardware building.
District Attorney Todd Williams says he wanted to see a longer sentence, but that the state law doesn't allow for it because Carney was not intoxicated.
Williams says the General Assembly should toughen the penalties for extremely reckless or dangerous driving that causes serious injury.
And another thing...
And maybe the best iteration of this meme I've seen: