Tim Harris

22/08/2022

"Seid’s $1.6 billion donation is a landmark in the era of deregulated political spending ushered in by the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. That case, along with subsequent changes and weak federal oversight, empowered a tiny group of the super rich in both parties to fund groups that can spend unlimited sums to support candidates and political causes. In the last decade, donations in the millions and sometimes tens of millions of dollars have become common.

Individuals could give unlimited amounts of money to nonprofit groups prior to Citizens United, but the decision allowed those nonprofits to more directly influence elections. A handful of billionaires such as the Koch family and Soros have spent billions to achieve epochal political influence by bankrolling networks of nonprofits.

Even in this money-drenched world, Seid’s $1.6 billion gift exceeds all publicly known one-time donations to a politically oriented group."

In the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, industrialist Barre Seid funded a new group run by Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, who guided Trump’s Supreme Court picks and helped end federal abortion rights.

31/07/2022

"After taking $1.5 billion in taxpayer funded COVID relief meant for struggling hospitals, North Carolina’s biggest and richest hospitals reaped $7.1 billion in cash and investments returns from 2019 to 2021.

Even though the tax dollars were intended to provide relief and ensure people could access care, dominant hospital systems did not share their profits with disadvantaged patients. Charity care spending fell across a third of all North Carolina hospitals in 2020. Some hospitals even increased billing for poor patients eligible for charity care. Atrium went so far as to sue hundreds of patients.

During the height of the pandemic, only a sliver of their billions of growth in cash and investments was devoted to increasing charity care spending despite record unemployment rates and economic pain from the pandemic and the lockdowns."

North Carolina's biggest and wealthiest hospitals turned a taxpayer funded bailout into $7.1 billion in growth, all while fighting measures that would lower patient costs.

16/07/2022

23/06/2022

"Over the years, the lowest-valued homes [in Buncombe County, NC] have grown in taxable value by 323%, while the highest-valued homes have increased by 138%. While both home types have increased in value, one group is experiencing a more shocking increase when they receive their tax bill."

Recently, the North Carolina Ad Hoc Appraisals Committee was challenged to face their own biases and fix their broken property tax assessment system. Here’s what happened.

26/04/2022

We must be better than this.

13/04/2022

"Rather than defend ShotSpotter’s technology and its employees' actions in a Frye hearing, the prosecutors withdrew all ShotSpotter evidence against Williams.

The case isn’t an anomaly, and the pattern it represents could have huge ramifications for ShotSpotter in Chicago, where the technology generates an average of 21,000 alerts each year. The technology is also currently in use in more than 100 cities.

Motherboard’s review of court documents from the Williams case and other trials in Chicago and New York State, including testimony from ShotSpotter’s favored expert witness, suggests that the company’s analysts frequently modify alerts at the request of police departments—some of which appear to be grasping for evidence that supports their narrative of events."

Prosecutors in Chicago are being forced to withdraw evidence generated by the technology, which led to the police killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo earlier this year.

11/03/2022

Let's bring some freedom to this City!

People over Profits. We need a Mayor who will work for ALL of New Bern

12/02/2022

"...while we might still think of Hawley as the fringe of the establishment, the difference between Hawley’s anti-liberalism and what we used to think of mainstream conservatism isn’t about whether the state should trample freedom to maintain a certain way of living, but how far out of step culture is allowed to get from those traditionalist ideals before it does."

Its eagerness to usher a post-liberal order in the wake of Trump proves that

10/02/2022

Save Union Point Park

10/02/2022

09/02/2022

Join the fight to save Union Point Park. The petition will not be enough - they don't intend to listen to us - but we need to get the signatures on the record

The New Bern Board of Aldermen cooked up a secret plan to collude with hotel developers and sell off part of our city's beloved Union Point Park to build another useless hotel to flood and sit rotting after the next hurricane comes through. Join the fight against this travesty by signing our petitio...