The Southern Highland Reader

(Hat tip: Ashvegas)

Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released the seventh annual “Ready or Not? Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism” report, which finds that the H1N1 flu outbreak has exposed serious underlying gaps in the nation’s ability to respond to public health emergencies and that the economic crisis is straining an already fragile public health system.

The report contains state-by-state health preparedness scores based on 10 key indicators to assess health emergency preparedness capabilities.

Twenty states scored six or less out of 10 key indicators of public health emergency preparedness.  Nearly two-thirds of states scored seven or less.  Eight states tied for the highest score of nine out of 10: Arkansas, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, and Vermont. Montana had the lowest score at three out of 10.  The preparedness indicators are developed in consultation with leading public health experts based on data from publicly available sources or information provided by public officials.

Overall, the report found that the investments made in pandemic and public health preparedness over the past several years dramatically improved U.S. readiness for the H1N1 outbreak.  But it also found that decades of chronic underfunding meant that many core systems were not at-the-ready.  Some key infrastructure concerns were a lack of real-time coordinated disease surveillance and laboratory testing, outdated vaccine production capabilities, limited hospital surge capacity, and a shrinking public health workforce.  In addition, the report found that more than half of states experienced cuts to their public health funding and federal preparedness funds have been cut by 27 percent since fiscal year (FY) 2005, which puts improvements that have been made since the September 11, 2001 tragedies at risk.

See a synopsis of the report here.

DILLSBORO–The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld on Tuesday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruling that the Dillsboro Dam should be removed.

From an Asheville Citizen-Times staff report:

The court today denied Jackson County’s petition for review of FERC’s July 2007 order allowing Duke Energy to remove the historic dam.

Read more here, from Lynn Hotaling at the Sylva Herald.

2009-12-18: Fans and foes of a controversial youth dance club in Sylva aired their thoughts before the Sylva Town Board Thursday. Opponents of “Club Offspring” provided a petition asking the board to investigate the business and to consider closing it. Proponents said the controversy is overblown, and provided a petition of their own. Either way, said Mayor Maurice Moody, we have no evidence that any laws have been broken, but we’ll keep an eye on it.

The dust-up arose after the club, which doesn’t serve alcohol or admit patrons over the age of 24, circulated a flyer that invited teens to come to the venue “as wasted as you want”.

Asheville television WLOS spent the day in Sylva — seeming a little more breathless than the story deserved — and aired images from the club’s MySpace page that showed scantily-dressed teens. One club-goer’s response, in so many words, was that when you dance for hours at a time you need a way to cool off.

More here from WLOS.
More here from the Asheville Citizen-Times.
More here from the Sylva Herald (link will expire in one week)

Sylva teen club draws ire

A teen and young adult party club doing business in Sylva has raised the ire of parents by circulating sketchy flyers that urge kids to “come as wasted as they want” to the venue, located near the intersection of NC 107 and Business 23 downtown.

“Club Offspring”, which does not serve alcohol, advertises that it allows “no adults”.

The flyers, which made their way into the local high school, also made their way into the hands of a local parent, Brian Bartel, who went to Asheville television WLOS with the story and is circulating a petition that he plans to present to the Sylva town board on Thursday. The petition asks the town to shut the club down.

It’s unlikely that the board will have legal standing to do so, whether or not it has the inclination.

Here’s the story from WLOS, in which the station notes that the club’s 22-year-old owner is in the slammer for statutory rape.

More here from Justin Goble at the Sylva Herald.

Bryson City pub owner cited in underage drinking death

The Asheville Citizen-Times Josh Boatwright writes that Charles Hutchinson, owner of Mickey’s Pub in downtown Bryson City, served numerous drinks to an underage patron on May 17, and that that patron left and promptly drove into a nearby building, killing himself.

Hutchinson faces a criminal citation and the suspension of his liquor license.

NATIONAL–The New York Times published an extensive feature about drinking water this week, with a focus on outdated regulations and a great deal of extra information.

Here’s the lead from the Times’s Charles Duhigg:

The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.

Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the United States, according to Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Government and independent scientists have scrutinized thousands of those chemicals in recent decades, and identified hundreds associated with a risk of cancer and other diseases at small concentrations in drinking water, according to an analysis of government records by The New York Times.

But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act since 2000.

The Times story package includes access to the Environmental Working Group’s national drinking water database, from which readers can easily find test results on water systems across our region. Examine whether contaminants in your water supply met two standards: the legal limits established by the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the typically stricter health guidelines.

Follow the links below to search up your system:

Jackson County

Graham County

Macon County

Clay County

Cherokee County

Swain County

Read the New York Times story here.

FONTANA VILLAGE–A legal battle is brewing between Fontana Village Resort and Graham County government over a first-time $80,000 property tax bill that the resort says is being levied against leased property.

At issue is whether the property leased by the resort from the Tennessee Valley Authority is taxable. Erma Phillips, Chief Tax Assessor for Graham County, contends that a recent court ruling makes “leasehold” properties taxable, and that the Village land is such a property,

Attorneys for Fontana Village say that fees of a comparable amount, paid annually by the TVA, stand in place of the taxes, and that Graham County’s collection attempts amount to double taxation.

Read a story by James Budd of the Graham Star here.

STATEWIDE–Brian Postelle at the Mountain Xpress has a look at statewide smoking regulations that go into effect in early January, and he focuses on the fact that municipalities will have expanded powers to restrict smoking in outside areas.

It’s an obvious subject in Asheville, where hipsters congregate and smoke in lots of places.

Here’s an excerpt from Postelle’s story:

… unlike enclosed bars and restaurants, where secondhand smoke fills whole rooms, some maintain that outdoor areas do not pose as clear a danger.

“We’re outside. Why wouldn’t we be allowed to smoke?” asks Aerin Moonbourne after lighting up with friends at [Pritchard Park].

[Patrick] Mullen, though, points to mounting evidence of secondhand smoke danger. “I don’t think that it’s any question anymore that it’s a health issue,” he countered. The air in the park, he maintains, is “pretty cloudy most of the time, and there’s cigarette butts all over.”

But Gabriel McKinney, also enjoying a smoke at the park, believes there’s a larger agenda lurking behind the ban. “They do this every year,” he asserts. “It’s just digging up dirt to push the homeless out.”

Read the piece here.

ROBBINSVILLE/NATIONAL–The Supreme Court heard arguments recently in a 15-year-old whistle-blower case that had its headwaters in Robbinsville.

Originally, Robbinsville resident Karen Wilson, an employee of the Graham County Soil and Water Conservation District, alleged fraud in the the way the county handled federal disaster relief after a 1995 storm.

A judge eventually threw the case out, ruling that Wilson’s claim was based in part on information that was made publicly available through a Graham County audit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reversed that decision, however, saying only federal administrative reports, audits or investigations would have precluded her suit under the False Claims Act.

In brief, the case might settle the issue of whether federal “whistle-blower” lawsuits can proceed based on information that is publicly available on the local or state level, but might not be known to federal authorities.

Thirty states have joined the side of the Graham County Soil and Water Conservation District in the case, and its outcome, with a ruling due in July, is being closely watched.

Here’s how USA Today described the case in this story:

[The] case tests when some citizen lawsuits might be kept out of court under a provision aimed at opportunistic lawsuits based simply on information publicly available. It is being closely followed by the National League of Cities, a majority of the states and the Washington-based Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund, which encourages citizen lawsuits and strong government enforcement of the False Claims Act.

The act prohibits citizen lawsuits arising from public disclosures “in a congressional, administrative or (Government Accountability Office) report, hearing, audit or investigation.” The question Monday was whether that exemption relates only to federal reports — as the Department of Justice argues — or blocks a whistle-blower from bringing a claim based on information publicly available in a state or local report.

That question, which has divided lower court judges, arose in a North Carolina case before the high court. An employee of the Graham County Soil and Water Conservation District alleged fraud tied to the county’s participation in a federal disaster relief program after a storm in 1995.

A federal trial judge rejected the lawsuit brought by Karen Wilson, saying a Graham County audit of the controversy had documented some of the problems she cited, including the county’s failure to seek competitive bids. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reversed, saying only federal administrative reports, audits or investigations would have precluded her suit under the False Claims Act.

Here’s a piece from James Budd at the Graham Star.

CULLOWHEE–When outfitter Burt Kornegay, owner of Slickrock Expeditions, got an email from a friend inviting him to a save-the-Dillsboro-Dam shindig, he fired off a pithy response. Naturally, it was immediately shared all around the interwebs, where by complete happenstance it filtered all the way down to me.

Here it is, with his permission:

First, the note from his friend:

Yo, read all about it….

Saturday night there is a benefit in support of saving the Dillsboro Dam. So, all you anti-establishment, anti-Duke Power people come on down and catch the 7:30 set of singer-songwriter Barbara Duncan. If you’ve not heard her, you owe it to yourself to check this out and to have a few beers in the process, not to mention to support a good cause. So, let’s make Sat. eve. a party night and fill up Guadalupe (that also serves great food).

Hope to see you there …

Then, Burt’s response:

Hey, Partner, Hold on there!

Why do you say that fighting to keep the Dillsboro dam is “a good cause”?  Because doing so spites bad ole Duke?  Let’s not forget that the dam plugs up and drowns the Tuckaseegee River, halting the travel of river creatures and backing up an unnatural mile-long trough of deadwater behind it. Also, from a human perspective now, the dam stands in the way of creating a real, honest-to-goodness “river park” in Dillsboro.  By honest-to-goodness river park, I mean a park with a river that actually flows, like at East LaPorte (probably the most popular public place in our county).  A real river park would make a pleasurable place for all of us to go, and it would be good for businesses in Dillsboro too.  Hundreds of old concrete plugs like the Dillsboro dam are coming down all across the US,  cheered on by river-loving and civic-minded people just like yourself, and I say, Right On!

As for your rebel claim that it is “anti-establishment” to fight for the dam, because doing so is anti-Duke, I say, wasn’t the dam built by the county’s moneyed “establishment” in the first place, back when other segments of the local “establishment” were as busy as beavers gnawing out railroad lines, felling the virgin forest, and turning the Tuckaseegee into flowing mud?  I mean, what could be more “establishment” than a dam?  (Well, perhaps a skyscraper or aircraft carrier.)  And what could be more “establishment” than to align yourself with the likes of county manager Ken “Dam or Die” Westmoreland, who doesn’t mind taxing us to the tune of more than a quarter-million-$ to pay lawyers, in his attempts to do  .  . . what?  Why, to milk still more $ from Duke! When it comes to the Dillsboro dam, the “anti-” lies in taking it down.

Kornegay’s longtime Jackson County business has been the focus of some media features lately. Here and here from the Smoky Mountain News, for example. The Sylva Herald has also written him up (you can search that story at their paid archives, here).

Recent news from the legal struggle over the dam from the Sylva Herald here (link will expire in one week), and from the Smoky Mountain News here.

STATEWIDE–Newly-elected Asheville city council member Cecil Bothwell defines himself as an atheist, and conservatives say that means that under North Carolina law he may not serve in a public office.

Here’s a blog post from the C-T’s Jordan Schrader that outlines the history of state laws that suggest as much.

An excerpt:

… the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and bans religious tests for office, so a lawsuit against City Council would have little legal ground to stand on. But the clause remains in the state constitution, even after a major rewrite of the document in 1972.

Voters have to approve changes to the constitution, and that’s a fight few politicians would want to take on for little or no practical benefit.

Here’s a news story from the Asheville Citizen-Times.

STATEWIDE–A former North Carolina Department of Transportation official from the eastern end of the state was sentenced to over three years in prison yesterday for taking kickbacks from an excavation company.

Dalton Alligood Jr., a former district engineer for the DOT, received 10% in cash from contracts funneled to the company between 2004 and 2006.

Governor Beverly Perdue has stated her intention to be tougher on corruption at the DOT at all levels.

More on Alligood here from AP via the Charlotte Observer.

DILLSBORO–Duke Energy on Monday asked appeals court judge Zoro Guice to block Jackson County’s efforts to condemn the 96-year-old Dillsboro Dam.

Duke Energy seeks to remove the dam to mitigate other hydro electric projects in the region, as part of a settlement reached over five years ago.

Jackson County commissioners feel the county was shortchanged in the settlement, and want to keep the dam and build a park nearby.

Read more from Jon Ostendorf at the Asheville Citizen-Times.

STATEWIDE–Some four dozen new North Carolina laws become active on December 1, including the tightening of probation regulations, new rules about license plate readability and harsher rules for sex offenders.

The state is also shortening some prison sentences to alleviate prison overcrowding.

The tightening of probation regulations came about after the murder of UNC student body president Eve Carson last year, writes Barry Smith for enctoday.com. One of the suspects arrested in her killing was on probation, but because his probation officer did not have access to his juvenile records, his restrictions were light. New regulations give the state’s 2,000 probation officers greater access to such records.

Other new laws require greater control and labeling of venomous reptile pets, restrict fancy decorations on license plates that render them unreadable and make Salvia divinorum, an herbaceous perennial in the mint family sometimes known as “Seer’s Sage”, a controlled substance.

Read a rundown on the new laws from enctoday.com here.

UPDATE: The post below details a schedule for a decision on whether to seek criminal charges against former NC Governor Mike Easley. Since it was written the prosecutor has changed his tune, saying he is consulting with federal investigators and his decision could take many additional months. Story here.

STATEWIDE–The lead from Associated Press writer Gary Robertson:

CASHIERS–The big organized crime mess at Big Ridge, near Glenville, has taken another turn.

We posted about it earlier, here and here.

Here’s the latest, from Ruminations from the Distant Hills, which reports that federal prosecution is afoot.

STATEWIDE–Twenty North Carolina legislators have filed a complaint against Blue Cross and Blue Shield concerning its anti-health reform campaign in the Tar Heel state, and, as detailed in this story from the Associated Press’s Gary Robertson, state Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office has launched an investigation.

Robertson’s lead:

State lawmakers and attorneys are scrutinizing Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina for its attempt to influence the national health care debate through direct mail and possibly illegal automated phone calls.

At issue is whether BCBSNC, which operates as a “unique not-for-profit corporation”, has enjoyed tax-protected status in North Carolina and handles an enormous slice of the health insurance market in the state should be conducting campaigns to influence public policy.

BCBSNC has mounted an aggressive statewide campaign against health reform in recent weeks.

Of the 20 policymakers who filed the complaint, only one, Madison County’s Ray Rapp, is from the mountains.

Read Robertson’s story in the Washington Post here.

Read coverage from the Progessive Pulse here.

WAYNESVILLE–The Smoky Mountain News wraps up coverage of 11th district rep. Heath Shuler’s misadventure with the Tennessee Valley Authority with this news story, from reporter Giles Morris and an editorial.

Morris’s lead for the news story:

While Congressman Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, was cleared two weeks ago by the House Ethics Committee of any wrongdoing related to a Tennessee real estate deal, controversy erupted again a week later when the Tennessee Valley Authority released a report that showed he’d been lying to the media for months.

The lead from today’s editorial:

Now that it’s clear that Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, did indeed mislead everyone about his involvement in a land deal that one of his companies negotiated with the Tennessee Valley Authority, constituents will be forced to make a character judgment that could stick for the rest of his political career.

STATEWIDE–A Wilmington Star News investigation into salaries paid to Alcoholic Beverage Commission board employees in New Hanover County has led NC Governor Bev Perdue to order a statewide survey of ABC Board salaries and ethics policies.

Writes Shelby Sebens for the Star News:

… in response to the StarNews’ salary information request, State ABC Commission Chairman Jonathan Williams took the matter to the office of the governor, who ordered a look at all the state’s boards.

“Our office has become aware of concerns regarding compensation in local ABC systems and of the reluctance exhibited in responding to a proper inquiry by the press,” Williams stated in a letter dated Thursday to all North Carolina ABC Boards.

The letter requests each board fill out a questionnaire asking for detailed salary and benefits information as well as questions about ethics and nepotism policies.

Meanwhile, today, the Asheville Citizen-Times’ Jordan Schrader details the arrangement between ABC boards in Bryson City and Sylva to split the proceeds of liquor sales at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, which could be enormous. Alcoholic beverage sales at the decade-old casino were approved during a recent tribal election.

The arrangements for handling the casino liquor sales took some while to work out, as the Sylva board, which holds the casino license, and the Bryson City board, which is closer to the casino, tried to reach an agreement with considerable input from the state.

Portions of ABC proceeds fund law enforcement and substance abuse programs, and so ABC sales are matters of close attention from county-to-county.

CHARLOTTE–The Charlotte Observer reports that two Cullowhee area men were sentenced to federal prison Monday for “… attempting to transport, buy or sell an American black bear”.

Bobby Allen Gibson, 24, and Steven Louis Broom, 31, were charged in July of last year.

Both will spend ten months in prison, a year on federal parole and perform 100 hours of community service. Their punishment also includes banishment from federal lands, revocation of hunting and fishing privileges, and, in Broom’s case the revocation of the right to own a dog of any kind.

The Observer story is here.

Asheville Citizen-Times story here.

REGIONAL–The Hendersonville Times News, along with the Knoxville News Sentinel, have followed closely 11th District Congressman Heath Shuler’s real estate misadventure involving the TVA in east Tennessee.

The Times News warned early on that even the appearance of influence-peddling in real estate matters would recall memories of Shuler’s predecessor, Republican Charles Taylor.

In a Friday editorial, the Times News “wraps the thing up neatly, and says Shuler’s damage in this case is self-inflicted.

Here’s the lead:

KNOXVILLE–The Knoxville News Sentinel’s Josh Flory has closely followed the controversy surrounding 11th District Congressman Heath Shuler’s real estate dealings and contacts with the Tennessee Valley Authority, and has reported new information.

Shuler was cleared of ethical misconduct allegations last week by the house ethics committee, but a new report seems to contradict Shuler’s assertion that he did not contact the TVA to exert influence in what amounted to a personal business matter.

Read Flory’s post here. See more posts about this story in the left hand column.