Local NC Senator Bill Cook Sponsors Two Important Bills | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: North Carolina Senator Bill Cook has sponsored two very important bills in the NC General Assembly, and our publishing friend, the Beaufort Observer, has published information to that effect. Here below, we bring those post to you in this one.

Bill Cook sponsors a bill to provide for armed school Safety Marshals

    Senators Bill Cook and Norman Sanderson are among the sponsors of S. B. 27 which would provide for certified school "Safety Marshals" to carry weapons on school campuses. The bill establishes a system of training and certification for Safety Marshals. Presumably, current employees could be certified and selected by local boards of education and charter school boards of directors to serve as Safety Marshals while also serving in other capacities at the school. But there is nothing in the bill that would prohibit the hiring of fulltime Safety Marshals provided they meet the certification standards to be developed if the bill becomes law.

    Cook has been a strong supporter of providing schools with a means to defend the staff, teachers and students from an armed threat, such as the shootings at several schools recently. Cook told the Observer in an earlier interview that he favored having well trained and qualified people on every school campus that are armed and trained to respond to a shooter on campus. Clicking here to read the bill and bookmark the page to track the bill as it works its way through the legislative process.

    Meanwhile, the Wyoming House passed similar bill Thursday. Click here to read about that.
NC Senator Bill Cook speaks to his constituents: Above.     photo by Stan Deatherage

New bill would propose a constitutional amendment prohibit taking private property for anything but public use

   A bill was introduced in the N. C. House today (1-31-13) to submit a constitutional amendment to the people of the state that would provide that private property can only be condemned for public use and that a jury would determine "just compensation." The effect of the bill would be to outlaw the taking of private property for "public benefit" such as the recent condemnations committed by the City of Washington to improve the appearance or use of property that the Elites believed should be used for a different purpose than what the owner of the property chooses to do with it.

   Last year, the Washington City Council condemned a piece of property because it was in bad shape and the owner would not fix it up. The owner had wanted to demolish the structure but the city would not allow him to do that, because the Historic Commission said the house was a historic landmark. But no bank would lend enough money on the house to fix it up at a price that would return enough to pay off the loan. So the owner was caught in a Catch 22 position. He could not get financing to fix it and the city would not let him tear it down. So it continued to deteriorate. The city ultimately condemned it and put it up for sale. A condition of the sale was that the buyer would have to restore it. Nobody was willing to do that. So the city made the taxpayers pay to have the house demolished—exactly what they had refused to allow the owner to do. They then sold the property for less than it cost them to demolish the house.

   Such abuse of property rights would be prevented by this bill and subsequent amendment to the state's constitution if the people vote to approve it.

    Click here to go to read the bill and if you bookmark the page you can follow the progress of the bill during the session.