The CEO of Colonial Pipeline, which underwent a ransomware attack in early May that led to massive shutdowns of gas stations across the Southeast, said during a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday that it was his decision to pay a ransom to restore the company’s operations.
“It was one of the toughest decisions I have had to make in my life,” Joseph A. Blount Jr. said in his opening statement. “But I believe that restoring critical infrastructure as quickly as possible, in this situation, was the right thing to do for the country.”
The six-day shutdown led to panic-buying of gas, and many stations, particularly in North Carolina, ran out of fuel.
Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline paid the $4.4 million ransom to hackers, part of a cybercriminal group called DarkSide, in order to obtain a key to unlock their pipelines. The attack sparked new calls to beef up protection of the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Gene Nichol June 10, 2021
The North Carolina Republican Party is well and generously represented in the federal sedition caucus. Mark Meadows, of course, directly aided and abetted Donald Trump's repeated steps to thwart democracy as his chief of staff. Madison Cawthorn famously worked to pump up the crowd who sought to overthrow the government by violently storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. Cawthorn's colleague Virginia Foxx was delighted to make the successful motion to expel Liz Cheney from House Republican leadership because she refused to endorse Trump's lies about the 2020 race. The habitually embarrassing Foxx taunted Cheney in making the motion, calling her a "leader who has no followers" — almost bragging about the absence of character in the Republican House caucus. No Republican House or Senate member from North Carolina voted to establish an independent commission to study the post-election insurrection. Traumatized Capitol Hill police officers expressed their "deep disappointment" in the Republican vote in a letter, writing, "It is inconceivable that some of the Members we protect would downplay the events of January 6th."
Former Republican North Carolina Chief Justice Mark Martin offered his studied legal advice to the former president, indicating — either dishonestly or incompetently — that Mike Pence had the right to reject the election's certification. The loony North Carolina Republican lawyer, Sydney Powell, presented stunning conspiracy theories across the country, in court and out, on behalf of Trump and his campaign — though she later asserted that any sensible person would have known she was lying. Two-thirds of the North Carolina Republican congressional delegation voted, even after Capitol police were brutally murdered in an unprecedented coup attempt, to award the 2020 presidential contest to the losing candidate. Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, and David Rouzer joined Cawthorn and Foxx in an attempt to overturn the results. A similar cohort of our Republican House members earlier signed on to an outrageous Supreme Court brief filed by a buffoonish Texas attorney general designed to unconstitutionally disenfranchise four states and millions of African American voters to throw things Trump's way. Republican Tar Heel Washington officials and their advocates have stepped up eagerly, often, and prominently to dismantle our constitutional order.
And, still focusing on federal office holders, upon learning of Sen. Richard Burr's vote to hold Trump accountable for instigating violent rebellion, the North Carolina Republican Party called an "emergency" meeting to unanimously censure Burr for his heresy. Chairman Michael Whatley said it was crucial to immediately separate Tar Heel Republicans from any effort to stand up to Trump. North Carolina Republicans apparently value the former president more than accountability or truth, and they were quick to show it. Burr responded, accurately, that his "party's leadership has chosen loyalty to one man over the core principles of the Republican Party and the founders of our great nation." And in the now-crowded Republican primary field seeking to replace Burr, embracing Trump's treacherous efforts to overturn the presidential election is said to have become "the litmus test" for fawning would-be candidates.
Benjamin Barber, Chris Kromm June 8, 2021
With debates over voting and elections at a fever pitch across the country, a team of advocates and experts have unveiled a set of bipartisan steps North Carolina can take to improve voting, combat corruption, and promote good government.
The new report, "Blueprint for a Stronger Democracy" draws on the expertise of 10 state and national groups to highlight best practices used by Democrats and Republicans in other states on a range of democracy issues, such as voter access, election administration, and ethics laws.
The report notes North Carolina's history of leadership in embracing bipartisan measures to expand voting access, improve election administration, curb special interest influence, and other pro-democracy initiatives. Beginning two decades ago, Democrats and Republicans passed several pioneering measures, including same-day voter registration during early voting, strong campaign finance disclosure laws, and "voter-owned" public financing of council of state and judicial elections.