National Roundup

Alaska
Suit challenges plans to use virus relief aid
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska resident is challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s plans to distribute federal coronavirus relief aid.

Eric Forrer said the process used to approve the spending was improper.

Court records show the lawsuit was filed in state court Thursday, days after a legislative committee signed off on the most recent list of requests. The lawsuit names the state and Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney as defendants.

Department of Law spokesperson Maria Bahr said by email that the department will review the case and respond “in the appropriate time.”

The lawsuit could be nudging the Legislature, which has been in recess since late March amid coronavirus concerns, to reconvene.

In a statement, House Speaker Bryce Edgmon said it “appears imminent the Legislature will have to reconvene to approve the COVID-19 money. The details are still being worked on, and more will be known tomorrow.”

The constitution allows for regular sessions of up to 121 days, with an option to extend for an additional 10. The 121-day mark is May 20.

Dunleavy submitted his plans for distributing federal aid dollars to the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee under a process set out in law. That process allows a governor to submit to the committee plans to accept and spend additional federal or other program funds on a budget item. It delays for 45 days use of the funds unless the committee earlier agrees.

The committee, composed of House and Senate members, has agreed to more than $1 billion in spending plans. It agreed to a large tranche of requests Monday despite concerns about whether the process could appropriately be used for some of the items. Some lawmakers have argued the full Legislature should reconvene to address those items.

Legislative Legal Services Director Megan Wallace, in a May 5 memo to Rep. Chris Tuck, the committee’s chair, said if the committee agreed to items that had been flagged as problematic, she would recommend the Legislature ratify the expenditures if it supports them.

The lawsuit points out as problematic plans for community, small business and fisheries aid.

Forrer said he knows communities are hurting. “But breaking the constitutional structure is not the answer,” he said.

Forrer, a former member of the state Board of Regents, sued the state under Dunleavy’s predecessor over plans to use bonding to pay off the state’s oil and gas tax credit obligations. A Superior Court judge dismissed the case, a decision that was appealed to the Alaska Supreme Court.

Virginia
Lawsuit over schools named for Confederate leaders dismissed
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the NAACP in Virginia that sought to remove the names of Confederate leaders from two public schools, saying in part that because the schools opened more than 50 years ago, the statute of limitations had expired.

U.S. District Judge Robert Payne said during previous hearing that he thought the lawsuit was time-barred. The Hanover County school board had argued the civil rights group should have gone to court more than a half-century ago.

The group sued Hanover County and the county school board in August over the naming of Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School.

The lawsuit argued that black students were forced to attend schools that venerated Confederate imagery in violation of both the First and Fourteenth Amendments, and that the county was compelling speech in support of “a legacy of segregation and oppression.”

Payne ruled that a two-year statute of limitations for personal injury complaints had expired, and that the lawsuit failed to allege sufficient facts “to state a claim for relief,” news outlets reported. The lawsuit against the county was previously dismissed.

“The School Board respects, values, and cares about all students and will continue to focus on providing them with the best educational opportunities possible,” the board said in a statement obtained by news outlets.

Hanover NAACP President Robert Barnette told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that the chapter was discussing an appeal.


Mississippi
High court upholds sentence in child’s slaying
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi State Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence and verdict of a Gulfport man convicted in the death of a 5-year-old girl.

The Supreme Court affirmed the sentence Thursday against Alberto Garcia, saying “the sentence imposed - death - is proportionate compared to other similar cases.,” WLOX-TV reported.

Garcia pleaded guilty to the 2014 death of Janaya Thompson. He was accused of sexually assaulting the little girl and hanging her by using socks, which led to her death by strangulation on July 16, 2014. Search teams discovered her body in an abandoned trailer a day after her disappearance and death.

He was sentenced to death by Judge Lisa Dodson on Jan. 25, 2017. Before handing down the sentence, Dodson said, “This is one of the worst I’ve ever seen in terms of what happened to this child.”

South Carolina
Teacher on leave after Nazi accusation
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina middle school teacher was placed on leave after a social media post accused him of being a Nazi who helped make travel arrangements for white supremacists attending a 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that ended in violence.

Lexington County School District One spokeswoman Mary Beth Hill said they were investigating racism allegations against a social studies teacher at Pleasant Hill Middle School, The Post and Courier reported Thursday. The district didn’t name the teacher or elaborate on the accusations.

Tim Manning Jr. was the teacher named in a Twitter thread Wednesday, Manning family lawyer Elizabeth Millender confirmed in a statement.

The thread accused Manning of having a Twitter account labeling himself a Nazi and said he made travel and lodging plans for white nationalist rally participants.

Millender said Manning had nothing to do with the “repugnant Twitter account” referenced by the thread. She also said the family doesn’t “sympathize in any way with, fringe or otherwise prejudicial groups or associations.”

Manning’s wife, Melissa, also denied the allegations Thursday, the newspaper reported.