Asbestos exposure victims’ cases stalled; Purple Ballot series with outgoing state legislators Ashton Clemmons and Jason Saine

Due South

The Charlotte Observer's Ames Alexander joins Due South to talk about his investigative reporting on a controversial legal maneuver used by billion-dollar companies. The strategy, called the "Texas Two-Step," creates a subsidiary of the parent company that then files for bankruptcy, while the primary corporation still profits. This tactic has stalled more than 80 lawsuits filed in North Carolina by plaintiffs seeking compensation for asbestos-related illnesses.

Then, in another installment of Due South's Purple Ballot series, co-host Jeff Tiberii talks to two state lawmakers resigning from the General Assembly.

First, Representative Ashton Wheeler Clemmons (D-Guilford) recently announced her resignation and her plan to take a position as the UNC system associate vice president for strategy and policy on education from preschool through high school. Clemmons talks with co-host Jeff Tiberii about her three terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives, her decision to leave the GA, and reforms she believes would make the legislature more representative of the people it serves.

Then, Representative Jason Saine (R-Lincoln) was appointed to a seat in the North Carolina House in 2011, the first year in which Republicans reclaimed control of both chambers for the first time in more than a century. Jeff Tiberii talks with him about chairing the budget committee, his leading role in the legalization of sports gambling, and what’s next for him after the state legislature.

Sign up for WUNC's new Politics Newsletter here.