It sounds like there’s a criminal trial of some kind going on in New York, but the big trial this week here in North Carolina was the retrial of self-proclaimed billionaire insurance magnate Greg Lindberg. Lindberg was once the state’s leading campaign donor. According to this AP story, a federal jury in the Western District of North Carolina has convicted him of “attempting to bribe the state’s insurance commissioner to secure preferential regulatory treatment for his insurance business.” Lindberg was previously convicted of essentially the same crime in 2020, successfully appealed, and was released from prison in 2022. He now appears likely to be headed back into custody. He is also awaiting trial on another set of federal charges. Keep reading for more news. Prison labor. The AP has a new story up about inmate labor. The investigation’s main finding is that “[n]ationwide, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are put to work every year, some of whom are seriously injured or killed after being given dangerous jobs with little or no training.” The jobs “include prisoners fighting wildfires, operating heavy machinery or working on industrial-sized farms and meat-processing plants tied to the supply chains of leading brands.” It seems that in some cases, the jobs are voluntary (and often highly prized, for the wages and the experience) while in others they are mandatory assignments. State senate passes no-mask bill. According to WRAL, “[t]he North Carolina Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to ban anyone from wearing masks in public for health [...]
Faculty Coordinators
