The N.C. attorney general can’t keep and distribute money from a settlement over hog waste that leaked and overflowed from lagoons.
A split 2-1 panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals, in an opinion issued Tuesday, Dec. 15, ruled money resulting from a settlement between Smithfield Foods and the N.C. attorney general must flow into the state treasury.
The ruling effectively ends the attorney general’s hog settlement “slush fund,” says Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation. It could also end any similar deals in the future involving officials in the state’s executive branch.
New Hanover County Schools has delayed the transition to Plan A.
The New Hanover Board of Education had voted to adopt five-day face-to-face instruction at its Dec. 8 meeting, to begin on Jan. 11.
Now pre-K through 5 schools will switch from remote learning, which will take place Jan. 4-15, to in-class instruction on Jan. 19. (Students are off Jan. 18 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.)
Since only elementary schools are covered by the governor’s order, which allows for face-to-face plans so long as schools screen students at the door and require face coverings, students in middle and high school will remain on Plan B.