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Wed.: Close one
posted at 2009-07-08 21:45 | Last modified 2009-07-09 09:19
It does a Body good
The Senate held onto its title at today's legislative milk-chugging contest, but not by much.
The annual event, put on by the Ag Dept., is a publicity stunt for NC’s dairy industry. "Chugging" is kind of a misnomer, though - it’s more like a two-round sipping relay, with each member taking turns slurping milk through a straw, one pint at a time.
Before an enthusiastic crowd of about a hundred lawmakers, lobbyists, and staffers, the House team of Roger West (R-Cherokee), Arthur Williams (D-Beaufort), and anchor David Lewis (R-Harnett) faced off against last year’s Senate champs Bob Atwater (D-Durham), Joe Sam Queen (D-Haywood), and anchor Andrew Brock (R-Davie). (Longtime competitor Dewey Hill served as House coach this time after losing track of his pints last year.)
Lewis and Brock went mano-a-mano.
“Andrew,” Lewis said, popping the plastic ring on a milk bottle, “This is the sound [crack] of your defeat.”
Brock just shook his head. “You can talk the talk, but you gotta walk the walk.”
“The Senate sucks!” Lewis shot back.
Unfortunately for Lewis, he was right. The final leg of the contest was a head-to-head between the two Republican anchors, and in the end, Brock won out – by one slurp.
Delayed? Check. Derailed? ...
Supporters of annexation reform are getting a little frustrated with the hurry-up-and-wait progress of H524. After a stop-and-go couple of weeks, the bill finally made it to the House floor today, only to hit another detour when Budget chair Mickey Michaux asked for a fiscal note.
Michaux moved for the measure to be sent back to Approps. The bill’s bipartisan sponsors argued against re-referral, pointing out that a fiscal note could easily be prepared without removing the bill from the calendar. But other Dems argued that the measure needs “some changes” affecting the title of the bill, which can only happen in committee.
The re-referral vote was a tie – 59-59. Speaker Joe Hackney, who only votes to break a tie, cast an Aye vote to send it off to Approps.
Michaux said on the floor he could move the bill through Approps pretty quickly. But after session, he said it would probably take “a couple of days” for fiscal staff to figure out how more money the Local Government Commission would need for the software and staff to handle its proposed annexation oversight role.
Republican sponsor Edgar Starnes (R-Caldwell) thinks he knows why Dems wanted to send the bill back to committee. “I know there are some Democrats on this floor who won’t vote for the bill with a referendum in it,” he said after session. Makes you wonder what they’re planning in Approps.
Back at the ranch (or duplex, or etc.)
Anti-annexation advocates say they’re tired of getting the runaround at the statehouse. Rowan County Barbara Earley helped to fend off a Salisbury annexation of her home last year. She's been to Raleigh five times in the past two weeks to support H524. Earley thinks people who are about to be annexed should have some say in the matter. And she thinks lawmakers are trying to wear her out.
"We’re really perplexed. We’ve come here so many times and been put off. It’s time consuming, it’s expensive, you know…but we’re not gonna give up. We will never give up."
H524 would limit how cities can use forced annexation, and give opponents a way to fight it via referendum. It could return to the floor for a vote next week.
A little less “conversation”
Lawmakers are one vote away from modernizing some of the state's divorce laws.
NC is one of just a handful that allows a betrayed spouse to sue his or her spouse’s lover, even after the couple has separated. Any offending “third party” can be sued for alienation of affection or criminal conversation (a/k/a adultery) right up till the day the divorce is final.
H1110 sponsor Melanie Wade Goodwin says “hearts-balm torts” were part of English common law, and came over here with the colonists. .
"They are torts that are based on the concept that spouses – in most cases, women – are the property of their husbands. And with the evolution of our society and different attitudes about the role that women play, these are outdated torts that need to be done away with."
Goodwin’s bill doesn’t quite do away with the laws, but it would limit their reach. Her measure would end third-party liability as soon as a married couple separates and no longer lives together. The measure passed the Senate today by a wide margin; House concurrence could happen as soon as Thursday.
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