U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced today that he is stepping down to "attend more diligently to personal and family matters." The last day in office for the nation's scandal-plagued HUD secretary will be April 18.

The announcement comes just over a week after Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Senate Appropriations Committee member Patty Murray of Washington requested Jackson's resignation, saying the various controversies engulfing the secretary were complicating efforts to address the national mortgage crisis and related recession.

A Texas native and longtime friend of President Bush, Jackson is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the HUD Inspector General, a federal grand jury and prosecutors from the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section for alleged conflicts of interest involving the controversial redevelopment of public housing in New Orleans and the Virgin Islands. In New Orleans, HUD awarded a $127 million deal to Columbia Residential, an Atlanta firm for which Jackson worked and that still owes him at least $250,000. The probe focuses on whether Jackson lied to Congress when he testified that he was not directly involved in contracting decisions.

Federal agents are also investigating whether Jackson arranged work for friends. One of them, contractor William Hairston of South Carolina, landed a profitable deal with the Housing Authority of New Orleans, which is under HUD control. The National Journal has reported that investigators are also examining financial ties between Jackson's wife and companies that did business with HANO. In addition, the Philadelphia Housing Authority has filed a lawsuit claiming Jackson took retaliatory action after the agency scrapped a deal involving his friend, former music producer-turned-developer Kenny Gamble. A 2007 probe by HUD's Inspector General found that Jackson urged his staff to favor the president's friends when awarding contracts.

But corruption and cronyism were not the only problems at HUD during Jackson's tenure: His agency also oversaw a problematic housing recovery effort on the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that has left many disaster-displaced renters and low-income homeowners struggling to exercise their human right of return and resulted in a doubling of homelessness in New Orleans.

HUD's policies helped fulfill the prophecy Jackson made shortly after Katrina that New Orleans was "not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." Since the storm, New Orleans' black population has fallen by 57 percent, compared to 36 percent for its white population. As a result, a city that was 67 percent black before the disaster is now estimated to be only 58 percent black.

(HUD photo of Secretary Jackson and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in Gulfport, Miss. announcing a plan to help low-income homeowners affected by Hurricane Katrina)

Labels: Alphonso Jackson, conflict of interest, cronyism, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, HUD, Hurricane Katrina, new orleans

BlueNC, a Democrat-supporting blog, is hosting "the first online gubernatorial debate in North Carolina history" tonight, starting at 7:45 pm.

The two leading Democratic candidates, Richard Moore and Bev Perdue, have agreed to participate. Here's more background.

If you're interested in leaving a question for one of the candidates, visit here. They've laid out some guidelines:

Questions should be short. Questions should be challenging. But what makes a question "tough" isn't necessarily the philosophical difficulty of a given issue. In fact, the more complex the question, the easier it is for a politician to dodge it. Sometimes what is interesting and revealing is not a question that necessarily looks "tough" but one that is sufficiently succinct that it is difficult to dodge, and yet provides insight into how the candidate thinks.

Today's Raleigh News & Observer has an interesting piece on BlueNC's rise and their success in influencing the political debate; it's an enlightening read.

Labels: bev perdue, bluenc, Election 2008, north carolina primary, richard moore

The entire country is reeling from the mortgage foreclosure disaster, and the South has been hit especially hard. And when families lose their home, dogs and other pets are often left in bad situations -- abandoned or taken to shelters struggling to meet the growing demand for services.

The victims include dogs like 12-year-old Dexter and Avery of Tampa Bay, Fla. After their owner lost his home to foreclosure and ended up living in his car, he took the terrier mutts to the local shelter, where Director Sherry Silk has seen an influx of pets surrendered under similar circumstances:

"It's really hitting the animals hard," Silk said. "The animals are often the first things to go. It's very, very sad."

To help, the Humane Society of the United States has established the Foreclosure Pets Fund, which offers grants to local shelters, rescue groups and animal care and control agencies to help establish, expand or publicize services or programs that help families care for their pets during the economic crisis. Grants range from $500 to $2,000 per organization.

"Dealing with a financial crisis is scary enough," says Stephanie Shain, HSUS director of outreach for Companion Animals. "We hope to ease the burden in some way for families by helping their local shelter help them keep their pet home and part of the family."

If you'd like to contribute to the fund, you can make a tax-deductible donation online here or make out a check payable to The HSUS and send it to The Humane Society of the United States, 2100 L St., NW, Washington, DC 20037. Write "Foreclosure Pet Fund" in the check's memo line.

Labels: foreclosure, friday dogblogging, Humane Society of the United States

Strangely enough, there has been almost total silence in the political blogosphere about the major new report from the Census Bureau on the explosive growth of metro areas in the South.

As Bloomberg News reports:

The 50 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007 were concentrated in the country's western and southern regions, the Census Bureau said today.

Eight of the 10 areas with the biggest population gains as measured by percentage of increase were in the South. Palm Coast, Florida, led with 7.2 percent growth, followed by St. George, Utah, 5.1 percent; Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina, 4.7 percent; and Gainesville, Georgia, 4.5 percent.

This is an issue Facing South has covered a lot (here for example). But it receives scant attention in the political blog world, with its biases towards the Northeast and West Coast.

But anyone who cares about U.S. politics should be paying attention. These latest numbers show the South is home to growing centers of political power in the South that cannot be ignored -- especially with the upcoming 2010 Census, where Southern states stand to gain Congressional seats and Electoral College votes.

Labels: census bureau, growth, metro, Southern Politics

This is the latest installment in a series on the upcoming North Carolina primaries.

Maybe Sen. Barack Obama will run away with the North Carolina primary after all.

On Wednesday, I tried to make sense of a recent Public Policy Polling survey (pdf) which showed Obama with a whopping 21 point advantage over Sen. Hillary Clinton among N.C. Democrats.

Given that previous polls had put Obama's lead in the 5-8% range, I concluded it was too early to tell if his lead was really that big.

But a new InsiderAdvantage poll suggests Obama may indeed be headed for a rout in N.C. The latest survey shows Obama leading Clinton 49% to 34% in North Carolina -- a commanding 15 point advantage.

Political Wire reports on the key findings:

[According to the pollsters] "A modest but significant portion of whites are drifting from Clinton back into the 'undecided' column."

Said pollster Matt Towery: "If [Clinton] loses badly here, regardless of any modest gains in the national delegate count, her candidacy may be done unless her primary victories in Florida and Michigan somehow end up being seated at the national nominating convention."

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina primary, polls

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman is to be released from prison tomorrow on the orders of a federal appeals court in Atlanta. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said his larger appeal had raised "substantial questions," the New York Times reports:

Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat, had been taken to prison immediately following his sentencing last year, an unusual move by federal authorities in a white-collar case. His lawyers said Thursday that he never should have been imprisoned while he appealed his conviction.

Earlier today, a House committee called for Siegelman's release to testify before Congress about the politics of the case. In the meantime, the FCC is investigating an alleged technical glitch that resulted in one Alabama TV station blacking out a national CBS report on Karl Rove's reported involvement.

Labels: Alabama, don siegelman, karl rove

In a hearing before the Tennessee Senate Environment and Conservation Committee yesterday, Knoxville based National Coal Corp. said that a proposed ban on mountaintop removal mining would put them out of business and affect hundreds of jobs in the state of Tennessee.

When confronted by environmentalists with more than fifty violations at National Coal sites, the company said they amounted to nothing more than "speeding tickets" and said they could explain most of the violations but weren't prepared to offer any explanations at the hearing because they were "blindsided" by the discussion of the charges.

As originally introduced, SB3822 would have required an environmental impact statement before issuing any surface coal mining permits and would prohibit surface coal mining operations to alter or disturb any ridge line above 2000 feet elevation. Another provision would prohibit surface mining operations "within 100 feet of any water of the state."

According to this Knoxville News Sentinel report on the hearing, opponents asked for and received an opinion from the Tennessee Attorney General that the requirement for an environmental impact statement was in conflict with federal law, so this requirement was dropped from the proposed legislation. The bill was also amended to clarify that it would not apply to "surface coal mining activities that are only incidental to underground coal mining if the department determines that surface disturbance and effect is limited to that required to conduct legal underground coal mining."

Despite these concessions to the coal industry, the Environment and Conservation Committee chairman would not allow a vote and deferred the bill until next week so the Tennessee Attorney General's office could appear before the committee to discuss the legislation.

The sponsor of the amended legislation, which he described as a "weak bill," characterized the move as a "stalling tactic" when in fact the committee appeared ready to vote on it.

The bill has made for some interesting coalitions in the Tennessee General Assembly. State Sen. Raymond Finney, the bill's sponsor, is an ultra-conservative Republican and born again evangelical. The House Sponsor is State Rep. Mike McDonald, an environmentalist and a Democrat. State Sen. Tommy Kilby, the Chairman of the Senate Environment and Conservation Committee who blocked the bill, is also a Democrat. He says he doesn't want to put National Coal out of business and opposes the bill because the company "is providing good jobs, benefiting the state by reclaiming land devastated by abandoned mines, and not investing a dime of taxpayer money," according to the News Sentinel report.

The origin of the legislation is another interesting story. It's a faith-based labor of love by Dawn Coppock, the state's top adoption lawyer. She got involved when the Youth Director at her church, Kathy Lindquist, wrote a column about "creation care" and mountaintop removal in the church's newsletter. Following Ms. Lindquist's death in 2005, Ms. Coppock founded the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship (LEAF) to further the cause of faith-based environmental stewardship. She worked with State Sen. Finney to draft the mountatintop removal legislation and has mounted an aggressive lobbying effort to get it passed.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen would likely sign the legislation if it ever reaches his desk. Commenting on another proposal to increase coal taxes in the state, Gov. Bredesen remarked "I don’t think we should be a cheap place to mine coal."

Labels: coal, environmental justice, mountaintop removal

From the Associated Press:

The House Judiciary Committee has asked the Justice Department to temporarily release former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman from prison to testify before Congress in early May about possible political influence over his prosecution.

A spokeswoman for the committee said Thursday that Siegelman, who is serving more than seven years in a Louisiana prison, would travel to Washington under guard of the U.S. Marshals Service. She said Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, wants to hear directly from Siegelman because lawmakers are having trouble getting information elsewhere, including from the Justice Department.

Some are already wondering aloud whether this development will cause any more Alabama TV stations to experience technical difficulties.

Labels: Alabama, congressional hearings, don siegelman

A group of people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina is suing the Federal Emergency Management Agency for housing them in trailers contaminated with dangerous levels of formaldehyde. Filed in federal court last week, the complaint adds FEMA to a batch of consolidated cases against manufacturers for allegedly using shoddy materials and construction methods.

After independent tests conducted by the Sierra Club in early 2006 revealed dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, FEMA was slow to respond. In fact, more than a year after the environmental group released its results, FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison told a House committee he was unaware the trailers posed a health threat. The agency was also accused of suppressing health warnings due to liability concerns and meddling into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's study assessing the trailers' risks, though it insists it's done nothing wrong.

In the end, though, the CDC study confirmed serious problems with the trailers' air quality and sparked a mass relocation of trailer dwellers, with all FEMA-managed group trailer sites to be closed by June 1.

Labels: FEMA, formaldehyde, Gulf Coast, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Hurricane Katrina, lawsuits, toxic trailers

Speaking of health disparities related to social factors, tonight marks the launch of a PBS series titled "Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?" From the promotional materials:

The U.S. already spends twice per person on health care than any other industrialized nation. Yet our life expectancy ranks 30th; Costa Ricans live longer. Infant mortality? We’re tied with Hungary, Poland and Slovakia for next to last among industrialized nations. Illnesses cost American business more than a trillion dollars a year in lost productivity.

Further, research has revealed a gradient to health. At each step down the socio-economic ladder — from the rich to the middle class to the poor — people tend to be sicker and die sooner. It's no surprise that poor Americans die eight years before the rich on average, but middle-class Americans die almost three years sooner than the rich.

UNNATURAL CAUSES looks at what's making us sick in the first place, investigating startling new findings that suggest there is much more to poor health than bad habits, inadequate health care or unlucky genes. The series circles in on a slow killer in plain view: the social circumstances in which we are born, live and work that can affect our risk for disease as surely as germs and viruses.

(Image courtesy of PBS)

Labels: inequality, PBS, poverty, public health, Unnatural Causes

Realizing that internet access is fast-becoming a basic necessity of life, states and localities are taking the lead in initiatives to ensure broadband access to all their residents.

The Progressive States Network reports that in the past few weeks, two states, Washington and West Virginia, have taken steps towards universal broadband. The news from West Virginia:

Thanks to new legislation, HB 4637, proposed by Gov. Joe Manchin, and sponsored by Speaker of the House of Delegates, Richard Thompson, West Virginia is one step closer to meeting its goal of universal high speed Internet by 2010. This legislation will create a Broadband Deployment Fund and a Broadband Deployment Council in order to extend high speed Internet access to unserved areas of West Virginia. The bill has three main components: first, it establishes a state Broadband Development Council; second, it provides for a mapping project; and third, it establishes a deployment plan.

One red flag: the measure allows for the mapping plan to be carried out by a private, third party. Public interest groups like the Center for Public Integrity and Public Knowledge have highlighted the need for mapping data to be collected and held by a public body, to protect broadband customers.

Labels: broadband, joe manchin, west virginia

Residents of coal mining communities have a significantly higher risk of developing serious health problems, according to a new study by West Virginia University scientists. Compared to the average American, residents of West Virginia's coalfields are 70 percent more likely to develop kidney disease, 64 percent more likely to suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure.

And the problem isn't limited to West Virginia: The researchers say premature death rates suggest similar health problems afflict the entire Appalachian coal mining region, which stretches from Alabama to Pennsylvania and encompasses parts of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. They believe environmental pollution from coal-processing chemicals, diesel equipment, explosives, toxic impurities in coal, and dust from uncovered coal trucks are probably to blame.

"Residents of coal-mining communities have long complained of impaired health," said author Michael Hendryx, associate director of the WVU Institute for Health Policy Research. "This study substantiates their claims. Those residents are at an increased risk of developing chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases."

Coal isn't the sole culprit behind the region's poor health; other factors include residents' higher-than-average rates of smoking, poverty and poor education. But even when the researchers controlled for those factors they still found elevated disease rates. They also looked at hospitalization rates in relationship to coal production and found that the risk of hospitalization for COPD increases 1 percent per every 1,462 tons of coal produced and for hypertension by 1 percent per every 1,873 tons.

Hendryx and co-author Melissa Ahern of Washington State University used data from a 2001 WVU Health Policy Research telephone survey of more than 16,400 West Virginians. They correlated that with data from the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey, which shows volume of coal production in each of the state’s 55 counties. The study, "Relations between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia," will appear in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Other detailed reports on mortality rates in coal-mining communities will be published in national journals this spring.

"People in coal-mining communities need better access to healthcare, cleaner air, cleaner water, and stricter enforcement of environmental standards," Hendryx said. "Our study helps open the door for further explorations of community health and coal mining. We owe it to people in those communities to start protecting and repairing their health."

Labels: Appalachia, coal, public health, west virginia, west virginia university

This is part of an ongoing series covering the North Carolina primary elections this May.

Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are giving North Carolina -- state of 134 Democratic delegates -- special treatment, Obama speaking to a packed crowd in Greensboro yesterday, Hillary addressing the faithful in Raleigh this morning.

But one candidate seems to be working harder for the North Carolina youth vote: Clinton.

The Young Democrats of North Carolina are gearing up for their 80th annual convention this Saturday, and it promises to be huge. Candidates are flocking from across the state to woo the increasingly critical youth vote (nationally, voters aged 18-29 are expected to be 25% of the electorate in 2008). John Edwards and other state Democratic royalty will be on hand.

The Clinton campaign has big guns lined up for the event. James Carville, an increasingly vocal Clinton surrogate (invited months ago) is scheduled to be the keynote speaker.

On top of that, this week the Clinton campaign announced it was also dispatching its #1 asset for reaching the youth vote: Chelsea Clinton, who will be addressing the convention on Saturday and has been making visits across the state for mom.

So who is Obama sending? The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Cory Booker.

True, Booker is an up-and-coming political star and a charismatic speaker who will no doubt represent Obama well. But it seems the Clinton camp is working a little harder, and thinking a bit more strategically, about how to reach the North Carolina youth vote.

A possible explanation floated by state strategists: Does Obama think he already has N.C., and the N.C. youth vote, wrapped up?

Labels: barack obama, chelsea clinton, cory booker, Election 2008, hillary clinton, james carville, north carolina, primary

Yesterday New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at the Times-Picayune newspaper for reporting on a deal landed by his family's company to install countertops for a Central City Home Depot at the same time the store was negotiating tax breaks and other assistance from the city. He complained that the paper's stories were part of a larger pattern of coverage that was unfair to him:

"It's unfortunate that we have to continue to get to this point where minor things are being blown out of proportion," he said. "My sons have followed every rule. I told them going into the business that they couldn't do any city contracts or anything close to a city contract, and the store in question is not one of the stores they're doing business with. So, you know, it's just typical, unfortunately, of what I have to go through."

But Nagin still refused to disclose any details on his involvement in the firm, saying only that he serves as a financier and owns "less than a majority" of the company. When asked for the precise percentage, he said he's "not getting into that." Louisiana ethics laws prohibit city officials from being paid by entities that have or are seeking business or financial relationships with the city. That prohibition would be triggered if Nagin owns 25 percent or more of the firm.

Labels: conflict of interest, ethics, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Home Depot, Hurricane Katrina, new orleans, ray nagin

Sixteen national religious organizations filed formal comments [PDF] yesterday opposing the Bush administration's $150 billion plan to update the nation's nuclear arsenal, calling the proposed Nuclear Weapons Complex Transformation project wasteful, unneeded and dangerous. The plan, dubbed "Bombplex" by its foes, would streamline the nation's current atomic arsenal of some 10,000 warheads and build new nuclear weapons at various sites, including several in the South.

"We call on our political leaders to show the moral and political courage necessary to bring about a shift in our nation’s nuclear weapons posture," stated the comments submitted to the DOE by a coalition of national Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Protestant groups. "Today we have a historic opportunity to begin the journey out from under the shadow of nuclear weapons. We hope and pray that all Americans will take advantage of this moment and join us as we work toward the total elimination of these weapons of mass destruction."

The coalition called instead for a No Production Alternative, which would place a moratorium on new nuclear warhead designs; limit production capacity for new plutonium pits, which act as triggers for nuclear warheads; scale back the existing Nuclear Weapons Complex; and continue the nuclear testing moratorium.

The groups that submitted the comments are American Baptist Churches USA National Ministries and Reconciliation Ministries, Church of the Brethren Witness, Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, Conference of the Major Superiors of Men, Disciples Justice Action Network, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Islamic Society of North America, Methodists United for Peace With Justice, National Religious Partnership on the Nuclear Weapons Danger, NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, Pax Christi USA, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Sojourners, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, and the United Methodist Church's General Board of Church and Society.

This is part of a series of Facing South posts covering the upcoming North Carolina primary elections.

A survey from Public Policy Polling this week turned heads: After releasing a poll in mid-March showing Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama neck-and-neck in North Carolina (Obama 44%, Clinton 43%), PPP came out with another poll this week (pdf) showing Obama with a commanding lead.

In the poll released on Monday, Obama had expanded his lead over Clinton to 21 points -- 55% to 34%. As PPP reports:

This 21 point lead is the largest he has shown in any NC polling to date, and an indication that the Wright controversy isn't causing him any long term harm at least in this state.

It's hard to argue with the analysis, but that's still a big jump in one week. How big really is Obama's lead in NC?

The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but with momentum in Obama's favor.

Most other polls of the Democratic presidential candidates in North Carolina were done earlier in March, before the latest round of "controversies" (Obama and Rev. Wright; Clinton and Bosnia).

But they all show an Obama lead, the margin being roughly in the middle of that found in the two latest PPP surveys:

Survey USA (March 8-10): Obama 49%, Clinton 41%
Rasmussen (March 6): Obama 47%, Clinton 40%
PPP (March 3): Obama 47%, Clinton 42%

The latest PPP poll may or may not be an outlier, but it likely does capture some real momentum in Obama's favor. That would be in line with trends over the last few months -- especially since January, when Obama began passing Clinton regularly in the North Carolina polls, as this graph from Pollster shows.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina, polls

CORRECTION: We had an Excel problem which botched our figures on party registration. We correctly reported that 46% of new North Carolina voter registrations since January were Democrats. However, only 17% of the new registrations were Republican. The remaining 37% were Unaffiliated.

This is the first in a series of Facing South posts covering the upcoming North Carolina primary elections, which will be held May 6.

Like other states, North Carolina has witnessed a surge in voter registrations this election year. Nearly 89,000 new voters have registered to vote in the last three months, according to new statistics released last Friday.

Who are these new voters, who will be deciding the now-critical North Carolina primaries on May 6?

One surprise: the majority are Republicans. Even without a competitive primary, the North Carolina GOP is registering voters faster than Democrats. 54% of N.C.'s newly registered voters since January are Republicans. See above correction. Our GOP and Unaffiliated columns got merged; the correct figures are as follows: 46% of new voter registrations Democrat; 37% Unaffiliated; 17% Republican.

As for Democrats, here's a very important statistic: 63% of the growth in N.C. Democratic voter registrations since January has been due to new African-American voters. Black voters make up 45% of registered Democrats in the state, and 20% of the overall N.C. electorate.

A final interesting tidbit: the demographic groups that have added the most voters since January are those identifying as "Hispanic" (10% increase) and "Other" (4%). Those two groups still represent a relatively small share of the state's voters -- 134,000 state-wide, or just over 2% of North Carolina voters. But in a close primary, that could make a difference.

Labels: barack obama, Election 2008, hillary clinton, north carolina, primary, voter registration

Earlier this week we brought you the story of North Carolina state Rep. Thomas E. Wright, a New Hanover County Democrat expelled from the legislature last week over charges that he misappropriated almost $350,000 in campaign and other funds. He and his attorneys -- among them N.C. Central Law Professor Irving Joyner, who has sued the Durham Police Department for civil rights violations and monitored the Duke Lacrosse rape case for the state NAACP -- have characterized the expulsion as racist.

Now they're fighting that expulsion in court.

Joyner reportedly made a stop in Superior Court this week to file paperwork aimed at getting his client back in office. Should that tack fail, they can still take the case to the court of public opinion: Wright remains a candidate in the state's May primary.

Labels: corruption, Irving Joyner, money and politics, north carolina, Thomas Wright

A prominent corporate watchdog group has released its nominees for worst corporation of the year -- and the majority of those that made the list are based in or have ties to the South.

Corporate Accountability International has nominated eight companies for the ignominious award and invited the public to cast their vote for the three worst, or to write in another candidate. The eight companies on CAI's list of nominees are:

* Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Ill. for helping make Indonesia the world's third-worst contributor to global warming through its clearing of endangered forests and wildlife habitat for palm oil plantations.

* Moyock, N.C.-based private security firm Blackwater Worldwide for killing unarmed Iraqi civilians, hiring paramilitaries trained under military dictatorships, and using its close political and financial ties with the Bush administration to secure lucrative contracts.

* Countrywide Financial of Calabasas, Calif. for predatory mortgage lending to elderly and non-English-speaking borrowers and for gouging minority borrowers with discriminatory rates and fees.

* Mattel of El Segundo, Calif. for producing tens of millions of lead-contaminated children's toys and aggressively lobbying against bans on other highly toxic chemicals.

* Switzerland-based Nestlé for labor violations including child exploitation, contributing to the obesity epidemic, and threatening community water supplies with its bottled water brands. The world's largest food company's North American operations include Alcon Laboratories in Fort Worth, Texas.

* Toyota for aggressively lobbying against increased fuel economy standards and state measures to reduce global warming gas emissions while spending millions to advertise its environmental "leadership" and popular Prius hybrids. The Japanese company's North American manufacturing headquarters are located in Erlanger, Ky.

* Retail giant Wal-Mart of Bentonville, Ark. for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security.

* Wendy's, a fast-food chain based in Dublin, Ohio for contributing to the growing childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics and refusing to meet nutritional labeling regulations.

Formerly known as Infact, CAI was the force behind the Nestlé infant formula boycott as well as the General Electric nuclear weapons boycott. For more information about Corporate Hall of Shame campaign and to cast your vote, click here.

Labels: blackwater, Corporate Accountability International, Corporate Hall of Shame, Nestle, Toyota, wal-mart

Last week the North Carolina House of Representatives convened for a special session during which they expelled Rep. Thomas Wright by a vote of 109-5. The expulsion of the eight-term African-American Democrat from Wilmington is the chamber's first since Rep. Josiah Turner was thrown out for "obstreperous conduct" in 1880.

Wright stands accused of violating ethics rules and campaign finance laws for failing to report at least $180,000 in campaign cash, much of which he used for personal expenses, according to investigators. He is also charged with pressuring a state employee to write a fraudulent letter to help him obtain a $150,000 loan, which he defaulted on. In addition, investigators say Wright misused a $10,000 line of credit and $8,900 intended for a charity he ran.

Wright was indicted late last year on five charges of obtaining property by false pretenses and one charge of obstruction of justice. He has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and promised to present evidence of it during his upcoming trial.

Wright's expulsion comes a little more than a year after House Speaker Jim Black, a Democrat from the Charlotte area, resigned and pleaded guilty to corruption for accepting cash from chiropractors in return for legislative favors. No expulsion proceedings were started in the case of Black, who is white. Indeed, Wright's attorneys have argued their client faced harsh treatment because of his race, though Black's replacement by a House speaker who promised to crack down on corruption was clearly a factor.

Deepening the tragedy of Wright's downfall is the fact that he was one of the most outspoken champions for justice in the case of the Wilmington Coup of 1898, when a white-supremacist mob violently overthrew the city's elected multiracial government, murdered an untold number of black residents, and ushered in the Jim Crow era. Last year the N.C. legislature passed a measure he sponsored that acknowledged and apologized for the coup, but for a time the bill's fate was uncertain because of the controversy over Wright's alleged wrongdoing.

Wright has a deeply personal connection to Wilmington's troubled racial history: In 1972, his brother, Joe, was falsely accused of firebombing a grocery store and shooting at emergency workers. He spent four and a half years in prison as one of the Wilmington Ten, but his conviction was overturned after Amnesty International deemed the group political prisoners.

Labels: corruption, money and politics, north carolina, Thomas Wright, Wilmington, Wilmington Coup, Wilmington Ten

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

Nearly a year ago, Mayor Ray Nagin headed up a team of city leaders to celebrate the breaking of ground on a new Home Depot store at the corner of Calliope Street and South Claiborne Avenue.

The ceremony marked a coup of sorts for New Orleans: The retailer, America's second-largest, was the first to commit to building a big new store in the inner city after Hurricane Katrina.

With tens of thousands of renovations occurring all over town, the opening of a Central City Home Depot promised to help New Orleans capture millions of dollars in sales taxes from Jefferson Parish. Additionally, the store was to be located in an area considered an economic wasteland.

In negotiating with Home Depot, the city relied on a tool similar to those often used to woo big-box stores: The retailer was approved for a long-term property tax reduction. In addition, the city agreed to sell the streets under the site for a price well below the appraised value.

But few at the ceremony knew that a month before, Stone Age LLC, a granite and marble business founded in early 2005 by the mayor and his two sons, had landed a deal with Home Depot under which Stone Age would be cutting and installing all granite countertops purchased at four of the giant retailer's other local outposts.

The arrangement would violate Louisiana ethics laws if Nagin's stake in the company is 25 percent or more, but it's not clear how involved he is. Official paperwork lists him as a vice president and one of three members, along with his two sons -- but Nagin declined to answer reporters' questions about his role, according to the paper.

The Times-Picayune also revealed that the mayor's 2007 daily planner shows a meeting with "Home Depot" on Feb. 1 at the offices of Stone Age, which landed the deal two months later. Last month Nagin lashed out at WWL-TV for a report about his work habits based on an analysis of his daily planner; he charged that making his personal schedule public put him and his family at risk.

Labels: conflict of interest, Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch, Home Depot, Hurricane Katrina, new orleans, ray nagin

We learned Friday that the still-unnamed individuals who improperly accessed the passport files of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain were not actually State Department employees but worked for two private contractors -- The Analysis Corp.* and Stanley Associates. Both companies are based in Virginia.

Earlier this week, Arlington-based Stanley won a five-year, $570 million contract from the State Department to provide passport services. Stanley also runs immigration document processing centers and recently cut wages for some of those employees despite a surge in applications. Employees protested the pay cut, picketing in front of a federal office building in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Stanley's chairman, president and CEO, Phil Nolan, is a Hillary Clinton supporter, having donated $1,000 to her campaign on Feb. 20, according to OpenSecrets.org.

The Analysis Corp. of McLean was founded in 1990 and acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of SFA Inc. of Crofton, Md. in 2003. The company is headed by John O. Brennan, a former CIA agent who is an adviser to Obama's presidential campaign on intelligence and foreign policy. OpenSecrets.org reports that Brennan donated $2,300 to Obama's campaign on Jan. 28.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversees the State Department, announced Friday that it would investigate the security breaches. The State Department's Inspector General is also looking into the incidents.

* I originally reported that the company involved was The Analysis Group; I apologize for the error.

Labels: barack obama, hillary clinton, john mccain, passport snooping scandal, stanley associates, state department, the analysis group, virginia

Virginia lawmakers are giving prosecutors a powerful new tool to crack down on the brutal practice of dogfighting. Earlier this month, they passed a bill adding the crime to others covered under the state Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which has been used in the past against criminal enterprises involving drugs, gambling and child pornography.

Making dogfighting a RICO crime gives Virginia prosecutors enhanced investigatory powers as well as more generous statute limitations, tougher sentences, bigger fines, the ability to "seize and freeze" a defendant's assets before conviction, and forfeiture of any gains. Written by the national nonprofit Animal Legal Defense Fund, the legislation was shepherded through the assembly by state Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds. ALDF Executive Director Stephen Wells says the new law "sends a very strong message to the dogfighting community."

The move comes after authorities busted a Virginia dogfighting operation last year involving former Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick, who's now serving a 23-month sentence in federal prison. Vick's co-defendant Tony Taylor was released from prison this week after completing his two-month sentence, the lightest of the four due to his cooperation with federal officials.

Virginia is not the only state that's getting tougher on dogfighting: Georgia lawmakers recently passed a bill that stiffens penalties for dogfighting and that makes it illegal to be a spectator at a dogfight. The measure also outlaws owning, breeding, purchasing, or transporting a dog for the purpose of fighting or baiting. And at the federal level, Congress last year passed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, which makes it a felony to organize a dog fight.

(Photo of a fight-scarred pit bull courtesy of the Louisiana SPCA)

Labels: dogfighting, friday dogblogging, Georgia, Michael Vick, pit bulls, virginia

Those of us following the disaster on the Gulf Coast know the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave hurricane-displaced families temporary housing that was later found to be contaminated with hazardous formaldehyde. We also know the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dragged its feet before finally studying the trailer contamination and complied with FEMA's demands not to consider long-term impacts like cancer.

Well, it turns out the toxic trailer debacle is part of a bigger story about the ATSDR's failure to protect public health.

The Washington Independent just published a two-part investigation examining what it calls the agency's "questionable approaches" to communities with environmental health concerns. The first installment posted last week examined evidence of cover-ups in ATSDR's health studies of the Great Lakes region (initially uncovered by the Center for Public Integrity) and an eastern Pennsylvania community with unusually high rates of a rare blood cancer. (I've also been covering the Pennsylvania study on my Hometown Hazards blog.)

This week's installment looks at the agency's actions in two Southern communities -- Midlothian, Tx., and Athens, Ga. In Midlothian, the ATSDR considered health effects of air pollution from several industrial facilities at the request of local residents concerned about the rate of birth defects. The agency came up with "indeterminate" findings, but critics of the study -- among them a former CDC epidemiologist -- say the agency used faulty monitoring data from the state and failed to consider key pollutants.

The Athens case involves a health study requested by resident Jill McElheney, who was living across the street from a petroleum tank farm when her 4-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia; subsequent lab tests found their well was contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to the cancer. The ATSDR also came up with inconclusive findings in that study -- but failed to consider a facility less than 200 yards from the sick child's home, ignored air emissions, and declined to talk with the families of five other local children with leukemia who McElheney knew.

The series' conclusion?

The ATSDR's approach to public health studies of environmental sources has proven negligent in all the cases investigated by The Washington Independent. Some members of the local communities say the agency expends energy to make sure no health problem is found.

Labels: ATSDR, birth defects, CDC, FEMA, Georgia, leukemia, polycythemia vera, texas, toxic trailers

It's been over a week now that the sermons of Rev. Jeremiah Wright -- Sen. Barack Obama's pastor in Chicago -- have been the top media headline of Election '08.

The question of whether it makes sense to judge politicians by the company they keep is valid, but the media's sudden interest in such guilt-by-association is a bit surprising.

For example: Where was the media's zeal for connecting politicians and the outrageous statements of their friends after Hurricane Katrina?

Consider Rick Scarborough. A Baptist minister from Pearland, Texas, Scarborough founded Vision America, one of the leading Christian conservative political operations in the country. In between speaking engagements and writing books with titles like "Liberalism Kills Kids," Scarborough organizes the Patriot Paster network, which claims some 5,000 religious leaders in the Midwest and South. Rev. Jerry Fallwell hailed him as one of the biggest new leaders of the religious right.

As a 2005 piece in the Washington Post documented, Rev. Scarborough also counts many leading Republicans among his closest associates. He boasts of frequent conversations with Senators Sam Brownback (KS) and Rick Santorum (PA), and worked closely with Sen. Bill Frist (TN) in pushing for the "nuclear option" of doing away with filibusters to block judicial nominations.

Brownback and Sen. John Cornyn headlined Vision America's "War on Christians" conference in 2006, and once-influential Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) called him "one of my closest friends."

But none of these high-ranking Republican leaders have been called on to recant their relationship to Scarborough, even though he's made statements that most would consider a bit radical. For example, the idea that God sent Hurricane Katrina to devastate New Orleans as punishment for U.S. policy in the Middle East. As Scarborough said in an email alert to his supporters:

“One other factor which must be considered: Days before Katrina nearly wiped New Orleans off the map, 9,000 Jewish residents of Gaza were driven from their homes with the full support of the United States government. Could this be a playing out of prophesy (’I will bless that nation that blesses you, and curse the nation that curses you’)?”

Of course, Scarborough wasn't the only religious right figure to say that the Gulf Coast had it coming due to our country's sinning ways: influential conservatives Pat Robertson, Hal Lindsey and Charles Colson all chimed in with similar sentiments (and also have many friends in Washington).

But was Sen. Brownback ever asked about his relationship to Scarborough on the presidential campaign trail before he dropped out? Has Sen. Cornyn ever been asked to repudiate the statements of this minister in his home state that he closely collaborates with?

All of these politicians -- and others connected to Christian conservatives who made such statements -- should be asked: "Do you really believe God intentionally sent Hurricane Katrina to kill 2,000 people in the Gulf Coast, as claimed by your close political associates?" If not, follow-up questions could ask whether they 100% repudiate these leading figures of the religious right.

Until this happens, we'll know the Obama/Wright flap is a cheap campaign ploy that the media is all too gullibly reporting as "real news."

Or maybe we knew that already.

UPDATE: Barbara Ehrenreich has an interesting piece about Sen. Hillary Clinton's ties to a right-wing evangelical group in Washington, "The Family," which among other things has aided various dictatorships over the years. The definitive account of the group was written by Jeffrey Sharlett for Harpers in 2003.

Interesting information -- although I don't see Clinton's association with a powerful D.C. right-wing outfit popular among the Washington elite playing out in the media the same as Obama's connections to a fiery black minister in Chicago.

Labels: barack obama, Hurricane Katrina, jeremiah wright, rick scarborough, vision america

Two environmental organizations went to court today in the latest attempt to stop Duke Energy from building a controversial new coal-burning power plant in western North Carolina. In separate lawsuits, Appalachian Voices and the N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network are challenging the state's decision to issue the plant an air pollution permit.

Appalachian Voices' novel legal approach is based on a provision of the Clean Air Act that requires regulators to consider the environmental impacts associated with the entire cycle of coal-generated electricity, which in Duke Energy's case includes mining coal through mountaintop removal. Duke is the nation's third-largest consumer of coal mined via that method, in which explosives are used to blast off mountaintops, with the resulting debris dumped into adjacent river valleys. The practice has already destroyed more than 470 mountain peaks, buried or polluted more than 1,200 miles of headwater streams, and wiped out some 800 square miles of diverse ecosystems in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

"Giving them a permit for a new coal plant is almost guaranteed to mean devastating impacts in terms of global warming pollution and mountaintop removal mining," says Appalachian Voices Executive Director Mary Anne Hitt.

Earlier this month, Appalachian Voices along with the N.C.-based Canary Coalition filed another federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy and the Treasury Department that seeks to end taxpayer subsidies for the building of power plants that burn coal mined by mountaintop removal.

Other than West Virginia, North Carolina is the largest consumer of coal mined by mountaintop removal, followed by Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia. To find out whether your local power plant relies on coal mined this way, click here.

The other suit filed today by N.C. WARN charges that Duke's proposed Cliffside plant would increase emissions of greenhouse gases at the same time the Southeast already has a glut of electricity. It also claims North Carolina violated federal law by failing to require state-of-the-art controls on mercury and other toxic pollutants from the facility, where construction is already underway.

(Photo of mountaintop removal operation courtesy of Appalachian Voices. For more images from the group, click here.)

Labels: Appalachian Voices, Cliffside, coal, Duke Energy, mountaintop removal, NCWARN

The Center for Responsible Lending reports on a major development in Arkansas:

Good news out of Arkansas: after a hard-fought legal and political battle, the state should soon be rid of predatory payday lending.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel ordered all payday lenders operating in the state to cease and desist their practices yesterday, insisting that the lenders void all current and past due debts. The attorney general threatened litigation should payday lenders fail to comply with his order.

Arkansas has a constitutional interest rate limit of 17 percent, but payday lenders have been charging over 300 percent interest in the state since 1999, when a state law was passed declaring that their fees were not interest. Attorney General McDaniel said a state Supreme Court ruling last month makes it clear that payday lenders are subject to the interest rate limit.

"These businesses have made a lot of money on the backs of Arkansas consumers, mostly the working poor. Charging consumers interest in the range of 300 to 500 percent is unlawful and unconscionable, and it is time that it stops," McDaniel said.

Facing South reader KE points out that Southern states have led the charge on cracking down on predatory payday loans, which, according to the Center, gouge Americans for about $4.2 billion a year.

Georgia and North Carolina have already outlawed the practice, and Virginia is taking steps towards reform.

Labels: arkansas, center for responsible lending, payday loans