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  Some key infrastructure concerns were a lack of real-time coordinated disease surveillance and laboratory testing, outdated vaccine production capabilities, limited hospital surge capacity, and a shrinking public health workforce.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.

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.

STATEWIDE–North Carolina’s charter school law is weak, according to the Center for Education Reform, a national organization based in Maryland that promotes charter schools.

Lynn Bonner at the Raleigh News and Observer blogs that the organization criticizes North Carolina for limiting the state’s number of charter schools to 100, and for failing to help existing schools with facilities costs. The Center ranks North Carolina 29th of 40 states that have charter school laws.

View state-by-state rankings here.

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.

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.

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.

CASHIERS–David Joy at the Cashiers Crossroads Chronicle examines the impact of alcohol blue laws in Jackson County, and suggests that 2010 might be the year for a county-wide referendum.

An excerpt:

The sale of alcohol in Sylva and Dillsboro, both townships in a supposedly dry Jackson County, may ruffle the feathers of many conservative citizens, but these sales have brought in large revenues for state law enforcement and state alcohol education, as well as county and town recreation and general funds.

Since 2000 the Sylva ABC Board alone has brought $104,109 for N.C. alcohol education and $78,681 for N.C. law enforcement.

Furthermore, the Sylva ABC Board contributes 20 percent of their net profits to Sylva and Jackson County Recreation (10 percent each), and 100 percent of the remaining net profits to the Sylva and Jackson County general funds (50 percent each).

Read Joy’s story here.

REGIONAL–The Smoky Mountain News’s Bibeka Shrestha reports that four far west counties and the Qualla Boundary are moving quickly to organize enforcement of child support laws after the state announced it would no longer handle the chore.

An excerpt:

The state will save about $4 million each year by cutting the program, which now serves 28 out of 100 counties in North Carolina. The rest of the counties, including Haywood and Jackson, already handle the program in-house.

For a successful takeover, the affected counties must learn how to set child support payments and how to punish deadbeat parents who don’t pay by withholding wages, revoking driver’s licenses, and even sending them to jail. Agents will also be responsible for establishing paternity in some cases.

Read Shresta’s story here.

Action shot! The first cold beers for the Hayesville Aztex station. Photo: Clay County Progress

REGIONAL–Many of us who were raised in the mountains spent time taking care of tourists. And part of the responsibility in that line of work is trying to explain alcohol blue laws to people who are baffled by them.

Most of us can’t figure them out, either — whether we agree with them or not — so we usually fall back on general rules of thumb to make travel easier in the hills.

One of these rules is that you can expect laws regarding beer, wine and liquor to change every 100 yards or so. Most counties are dry, while many municipalities within those counties are “damp”, with beer and wine in stores, but not in restaurants, and no liquor; or beer and wine in stores and in restaurants, but liquor in state-run liquor stores only, or sometimes beer and wine in restaurants only, but not in stores. Here and there you can’t buy beer, wine or liquor, but if you have some on you or under the car seat, you can carry it into a restaurant (as long as they have what’s called a “brown bag” permit). Some towns are full-on wet, but not many.

Further complicating matters is a smattering of state laws that allow alcohol at resorts that meet certain size requirements or are near, say, the Blue Ridge Parkway. These were generally pushed through within the past couple of decades by the tourism industry in cahoots with lawmakers who couldn’t get a highball at their favorite backcountry country club.

At any rate, its always an interesting barometer of the times when alcohol laws come up for a vote in the mountains. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recently voted to allow alcohol sales in its casino only, and were plenty frank in explaining that it was just another way to relieve gamblers of their cash. But alcohol sales outside the casino? No way.

Even more recently, voters in Clay County — which is the next county west of Macon — voted to allow beer and wine sales. This is slightly more interesting as a sign of changing times, because rural, relatively sparsely populated Clay County is the type of place that would have utterly rejected the notion of alcohol sales on moral grounds a very few decades ago.

Here’s coverage of the vote from the Clay County Progress.

Elsewhere, Editor James Budd at the Graham Star writes that Graham and Yancey counties are western North Carolina’s lone holdouts on the alcohol issue.

An excerpt from his story:

“I guess you could say Graham and Yancey are the only two counties in the state that are smart,” [Robbinsville Alderman Bobby] Smith said. “As long as I have a vote I would be against it. I think it would be bad for the town or the county.”

Commissioner Steve Odom said he’s opposed to the sale of alcoholic beverages in the county.

“I have seen too many personal tragedies come from alcohol use,” Odom said. “Too many families destroyed. I would personally be against alcohol sales in Graham County for those reasons.”

Alvin W. Keller, Jr. (Raleigh News and Observer photo)

Far be it from us to judge a judge by his cover, but we’re concerned that governor-elect Perdue’s choice as the new correction secretary simply might not look the part. How is this guy gonna intimidate anybody?

Soft background, too: retired Marine colonel and military judge. They’ll run roughshod over him.

STATEWIDE–A series of new laws, including specifics involving smoking, health insurance and car inspections, kick in for 2009.

A rundown from the Raleigh News and Observer.

Forget the yellow crime scene tape to mark a crime scene. Students at Southwestern Community College are learning to map crime scenes using cutting-edge surveying equipment.

“We’re combining our criminal justice and surveying classes to expose our students to advanced crime-solving techniques,” said SCC CJ instructor Mike Burnette. “We are one of the first community colleges to do this and we’re one of the first to use a robot to help us.”

Students call the robot – actually a Trimble VX spatial station- Roberta and use her to measure angles and distance and calculate coordinates.

“If you encounter compaction of the soil-either lesser or greater- it could be important,” Southwestern Community College forensic biology instructor Dale Hall, right, tells students digging up evidence at a simulated crime scene. Each shovelful of dirt is carefully examined as it is sifted through a sieve. From left are Victor Curtis of Andrews, Meghan Cribbs of Franklin, Leslie Lossiah of Cherokee, SCC surveying instructor Peter Messier, Jan Craig of Franklin and Serena “Mo” Moody of Robbinsville.

More information:
View snazzy flash video about Trimble VX spatial station
Read about Trimble VX spatial station at company website

“Mike and I team teach the forensic surveying class and the reason we’ve joined with John Matchulat’s crime scene processing class to show the students in both courses how surveying can greatly enhance the capture, positioning, and mapping of crime scene evidence,” said SCC surveying technology instructor Peter Messier.  “It is a wonderful opportunity for cooperation between two disciplines.  The law enforcement students get to see the capabilities and technology that is available, and the surveying students get to see what is needed to properly map a crime or accident scene.”

Matchulat, who spent 25 years with the Michigan State Police, said the SCC students “receive training above and beyond what you get in basic law enforcement. They’ve experienced the big picture of combining crime scene processing, forensics and surveying to properly measure and document a crime scene from an educated best case scenario. It gives them great hireability when they graduate.”

“In a normal criminal justice class you would establish your inner perimeter or “hot zone,” at the crime scene and tape that off,” said student Jan Craig of Franklin. “Then you would conduct a methodical search, sometimes it’s a line search where everybody slowly walks in a straight line down the perimeter looking for evidence. Then you would measure and sketch the scene.

“But now with Roberta we can digitally map out the scene and put in the computer. It’s a whole new perspective because most criminal justice students don’t know much, if anything, about surveying.”

“The surveying makes it so precise and accurate,” said student Meghan Cribbs of Franklin. “One of the things we learned in criminal justice was that if you don’t measure and plot correctly, it can be disputed in court. But there’s no disputing Roberta.”

Another way Roberta helps at the crime scene is marking actual depth, according to Dale Hall, SCC forensic biology instructor. “When we are out digging up bones at a crime scene, we don’t have to estimate depth because Roberta calculates it for us.”

A major benefit of bringing the disciplines together is to let students see how their actions impact others, Hall said. “Each student may be working on just one piece of an investigation but that one piece is part of a big team and you have to do your part right so the next person can do his part right…kind of like running a relay. You can’t drop the baton, all the hand offs must be good for your team to win the race.”

The diversity of the faculty enhances the program, students say. Instructors run the gamut from a detective with an underwater body and evidence recovery team, to a patrol officer who is now a magistrate, a medical laboratory technician and a professional licensed engineer and land surveyor.

“We give them real world knowledge,” said Burnette, “and in doing so we try to show them the big picture of how every piece, every person impacts the whole.”

NATIONAL–A south Texas grand jury has returned multiple-count indictments against vice president Dick Cheney, former attorney General Alberto Gonzales and many others for alleged organized crime involving relations with companies that build federal prisoners and manage them under private contract.

While the District Attorney who brought the charges is a lame duck and (apparently) a bit of showboat, the underlying facts of the case are food for thought.

The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate and prison population in the world, due largely to sentencing structures and drug laws.

Mr. Cheney and Mr. Gonzales, whose regard for constitutional law has been questioned during their respective stints in Washington, are personally invested in the privatization of the prison system, and so could stand to profit from an ever-increasing criminal population.

While the privatization of prisons and the subsequent introduction of a “profit motive” to the criminal justice system has always struck me as a particularly boneheaded idea, rarely are examples of just why it’s such a bad idea made so clear.