Board of Elections undergoes changeover before investigation of illicit donations

As the North Carolina State Board of Elections prepared to investigate allegedly illicit donations to members of the North Carolina General Assembly and Governor Pat McCrory, McCrory replaced all five members of the board. However, some officials on the state board do not believe the replacement was part of an attempt to suppress the investigation.

“There are areas that really do need to be examined and the staff has already started an investigation,” said Bob Hall, the executive director of Democracy NC, the organization that brought the complaint about the governor to the board. “If the new board does try to halt things, I think people will get very upset.”

Jason Husser, assistant professor of political science at Elon University, added that while the board members control the direction of investigations, work still gets done regardless of who is on the board.

“A lot of times, these investigations are handled, really, by staff members who are permanent staff,” Husser said. “Here, I don’t know the specific role of the staff, but often times they have staff members who are really the ones running things.”

Democracy NC asked the state board to investigate Chase Burns, the owner of International Internet Technologies LLC, a sweepstakes gambling company. Burns was arrested and charged with racketeering and conspiracy.

Burns was the largest donor to the N.C. General Assembly in the 2012 election, donating $235,500 in total to all candidates in the state. According to Husser, in smaller, local elections, large donations can have a larger influence in politics because less is known about the candidates.

“It’s easier to learn about Mitt Romney or Barack Obama,” Husser said. “It’s a lot harder to learn about ‘candidate x’ running for the state representative seat.”

In the state legislature, the top recipients were Senate leader Phil Berger and House speaker Thom Tillis, who received $8,000 and $6,500 from Burns respectively. Burns’ other donations in the General Assembly went to both Democratic and Republican members.

“What we see with the sweepstakes thing is fairly consistent with corporate donations, which is, corporations are trying to not so much buy influence as buy an audience,” Husser said. “They hedge their bets by donating across parties.”

Burns and his wife each donated $4,000 to Gov. McCrory and made other donations to candidates who were reportedly connected to members of the law firm Moore & Van Allen, which Gov. McCrory worked for in 2012 and Burns hired to lobby for International Internet Technologies LLC.

“We’ve filed complains against the Democratic party and against the Republican party,” Hall said.

Hall has issued around a dozen complaints to the state board of elections over the past 15 years, including a complaint that led to an investigation of former House speaker Jim Black, who received illegal donations from video poker companies and was eventually arrested.

“The industries that are on the markets that want to be players or want protection get their cues from the bigger players that they need to put in money in order to be a player,” Hall said. “And the video poker and sweepstakes industry have the additional feature that so much of their business is in cash and they are quite familiar with just throwing cash around.”

Board chair Larry Leake, who has been a part of the state board of elections for multiple terms, was accused by state board staff members of holding up an investigation into Gov. Bev Perdue’s acceptance of more than 40 private campaign flights from donors. But Hall said that the issue was more complicated than people realized.

“The problem was that, for the Republicans on the board, there was information that was not provided to them at the time and they needed to make a decision and information came up later on that went to the district attorney,” Hall said.

Looking back on the state board, Hall ultimately thinks they served their purpose well.

“It was a Democratic board and they convicted several Democrats of wrong-doing,” Hall said. “I think they did a very good job overall.”

Link to the story on the Pendulum website: http://www.elonpendulum.com/2013/05/board-of-elections-undergoes-changeover-before-investigation-of-illicit-donations/

Religion and objectivity panel considers faith in the workplace

In an increasingly technological and Internet-centric society, there are few things people keep secret from one another or feel uncomfortable talking about in a work setting. Except for religion.

“There’s more religion than ever before but everyone’s going into silos,” said Anthony Hatcher, associate professor of communications at Elon University and one of the panelists at the “Religion and Objectivity” talk held in the new Numen Lumen Pavilion on April 25.

The talk, sponsored by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, brought three of Elon’s professors, each of them self-described as religious, to talk about how religion can exist civilly in a workplace environment. One common theme each panelist touched on was a hesitance to discuss religion with others, even outside of work.

“It’s a fear that you will not share the same views as another person,” said Srikripa Chandrasekaran, assistant professor of biology at Elon.

Martin Fowler, a philosophy lecturer at Elon, had a similar view.

“No one wants to talk about things important to them that no one else cares about,” Fowler said.

Fowler also delved into the rifts that can come between what one has to do in their profession and what one’s religious beliefs may dictate. Fowler referenced the early Western philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, who were harangued by the Greek governments for not supporting the pantheon of Greek gods.

“Philosophy didn’t get off to a good start with religion,” Fowler joked.

Chandrasekaran brought up one classroom experiment where students had to work with stem cells and some students had a religious objection to experimenting on cells harvested from embryos. While pointing out that these conflicts exist in science, Chandrasekaran also said she suspected these kinds of objections will not last forever.

“A few years ago, organ transplants were a big deal and controversial, but today we don’t even think about it,” she said.

Hatcher recalled his hesitancy to share his religious beliefs when he first entered the workplace.

“It might be hard to hold onto your faith in a secular workplace,” Hatcher said. “When I worked in a newsroom, I heard the word ‘God’ a lot, and not in a very reverent way.”

One of the main themes of the talk was how to remain objective in the workplace when it comes to issues of religion and not letting other people’s beliefs define them. Fowler said that religious discussion can be very fruitful and enlightening, but they have to be started in the proper contexts.

“We only have a few arrows in our quiver of respect and one of them is not to be nosy,” Fowler said.

One part of the night’s talk that neither the panelists nor the moderator anticipated was a discussion between the panel and Ahmed Fadaam, assistant professor of communications at Elon. Fadaam talked about how he and his co-workers in Iraq talked openly about each other’s differing religions and were very friendly about it.

However, when sectarian violence started in his country around 2003, his friends became increasingly edgy about discussing religion, especially when they had different faiths or belonged to different sects.

Chandrasekaran said her grandfather told her similar stories about living during the partition in India, where people he knew had been getting along, but when the partition started, violence between different groups grew.

“Everyone started killing each other over religion because of what some politician did,” Chandrasekaran said.

Elon Poll finds North Carolinians split on General Assembly’s performance

As North Carolina’s new General Assembly has been getting more and more attention both in and outside of the state, the Elon Poll surveyed North Carolinians to see how citizens feel about their new legislature.

The poll, which conducted 770 live-interview calls April 5-9, found 37 percent of interviewees approved of the assembly’s job, while 39 percent disapproved.

The General Assembly has gotten flack for proposing legislation such as a waiting period for divorce (69 percent opposed) and a reduction in early voting time (59 opposed).

“People tend to see the General Assembly, or any large government agency, as this large amorphous body,” said Jason Husser, assistant director of the Elon Poll. “As a result, individual policy proposals are not always connected to that body.”

Along with the state’s General Assembly, the poll also asked citizens for their opinions on President Barack Obama and Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan. While each had mediocre approval ratings — 45, 39 and 40 percent support respectively — Kenneth Fernandez, director of the Elon Poll, said he feels the ratings for the Democratic president correspond to feelings toward Democratic Sen. Hagan, who’s reelection is coming up.

“If we keep asking these questions and we keep seeing Obama’s approval ratings slipping a little bit, it could tap people on the shoulder and say, ‘You know what? I’m going to run against Sen. Hagan,’” Fernandez said.

Governor McCrory saw an increase in his approval ratings since the last Elon Poll in February, from 42 percent approval to 46. While McCrory has received attention for his decision not to expand Medicaid and his appointment of political financier Art Pope as top budget writer, the governor has attempted to remain untarnished by the actions of the General Assembly.

“He has taken this hands-off approach to it and made statements like, ‘We’ll let the process play out,’” Husser said. “By letting it go through this process where, publically, he has a hands-off approach, he’s able to insulate himself from criticism.”

The Elon Poll also asked North Carolinians if they support or oppose gay marriage. The results were split: Forty-four percent said they supported it, and 45 percent said they opposed it. The poll has received higher levels of support for similar questions in the past, but this is the first Elon Poll that used the word “marriage.”

“Once you say, ‘Do you support or oppose gay marriage?’ support is going to drop,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s a good way to measure it because the debate isn’t about civil unions any more. It’s about gay marriage.”

As legislation to eliminate tenure for public school teachers moves through the General Assembly, 54 percent of North Carolinians surveyed said they oppose the current form of teacher tenure in the state. Unlike most states, which require three years before tenure, North Carolina requires four.

“If you just ask people, I think that they believe that people should be fired if they’re bad and it shouldn’t be difficult to get rid of bad teachers,” Fernandez said.

On the other hand, the poll also found that around 75 percent of respondents believed that public school teachers are paid too little.

“If a state got rid of tenure but didn’t up the salary, the attractiveness of teaching will become so low that the quality of people that will go to those vocations will be dramatically lowered,” Fernandez said. “If you’re going to get rid of tenure, you’ve got to raise salary.”

Marriage Equality Panel tackles prominent LGBTQ issues

While marriage equality is often discussed in the news and on social media, Elon University’s LGBTQIA panel discussion showed that there are many other pressing issues in the community.

The panel, as part of Elon’s 2013 Pride Week, brought in students and professors from campus to talk about prominent issues for LGBTQIA people both in the United States and around the world.

With the Supreme Court hearing cases on the legality of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8 just last month, marriage equality was one issue of interest for many attending the panel.

Senior Emily Kane, an advocacy and education chair for Spectrum, Elon’s queer-straight alliance, said she believed that not only would DOMA be overturned, but that the court would rule widely on Prop 8 and overturn same-sex marriage bans in all states.

“The nation is ready for it,” Kane said. “Yes, it’s controversial, but what are we going to do, wait another 10 years?”

Part of Kane’s optimism rested in the belief that Chief Justice John Roberts would vote in favor of overturning same-sex marriage bans.

“Roberts is young enough that I don’t think he wants to be on the wrong side of history,” Kane said.

One panelist, senior Laura Lee Sturm, vice president of Spectrum, talked about the importance of gender non-specific housing on college campuses. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently approved gender non-specific housing, and Sturm has worked to lift roommate gender requirements in Elon apartments such as the Oaks.

“What it says is this is an inclusive type of housing where we don’t concerned about labels,” Sturm said.

While UNC Chapel Hill has approved gender non-specific housing, a bill was recently introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly that would get rid of gender non-specific housing in all UNC schools, unless residents are married or siblings. Some schools already offer gender non-specific housing arrangements.

“For those students, this protection that they already had is going to be taken away,” Sturm said.

Another issue close to students was the ban on openly gay members and leaders in the Boy Scouts of America. While there have been efforts to change this policy in the past, the current push has been large enough that the Boy Scouts has started surveying local scout councils about the policy.

“Anyone who believes in the Scouts has an obligation to overturn this policy,” said junior Mat Goldberg, an Eagle Scout who spoke on the Scouts on the panel.

On April 23, the Boy Scouts of America will release the results of the survey, and from that data, they will form a new policy on gay members. Goldberg and others on campus will hold a discussion about the policy on May 2.

Speaking on other national issues, Kat Rands, assistant professor of education, addressed the disproportionate lack of health insurance among transgender and transsexual Americans.

“People who are trans have a higher rate of unemployment,” Rands said. “So that leads to higher rates of uninsurance.”

Rands pointed out that, while the Affordable Care Act would allow more people to get insured, not only are hormone treatments not covered by insurance, but the health care system itself is not geared to accommodate gender diversity. And with more hospital paperwork becoming digitized, Rands argued that the problem is getting worse.

“On a paper copy, you can make notes to the side or skip sections,” Rands said. “Online, you have to follow it as the system is set up.”

Outside of the United States, the panel pointed to important examples of discrimination, primarily a ban on “homosexual propaganda” in Russia. The bill, which has not yet been approved by President Vladimir Putin, would outlaw the “propaganda of homosexuality among minors.” Anything that could be seen by minors as “promoting homosexuality” would be banned, and those who made or distributed it would be fined heavily.

“Russia has already gotten in trouble when it banned pride parades,” said Safia Swimelar, assistant professor of political science. Swimelar predicted that this bill, if enacted, will eventually go to the European courts and be overturned.

While Russia is very powerful by itself, smaller countries like Uganda and Nigeria, which had very strict anti-LGBTQIA laws, softened their laws after international pressure, which Swimelar said is a positive sign of a global diffusion of LGBTQIA acceptance.

“The problem is there is no international treaty specifically on LGBTQIA people,” Swimelar said. “It’s hard to stop discrimination when there’s no law being broken.”

Biosolid application in Burlington remains contested

As long as there are humans, there is going to be sewage. In Burlington, the majority of treated sewage is applied to farmland as a cheap replacement for fertilizer. But some question the safety of this practice.

In a recent report from the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, researchers interviewed 34 North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia residents who said they lived within a mile of where treated sewage, known as biosolids, was applied on farmland. Residents complained about the odor after its application and reported suffering from eye and throat irritation as well as nausea and diarrhea. Residents with chronic conditions such as asthma or a weakened immune system said they stayed inside after biosolid application had taken place.

“Odor by itself doesn’t cause a health risk, but if you’re smelling something, you’re being exposed to other materials that are in that application,” said Janet MacFall, an associate professor of environmental studies and biology at Elon with a primary research focus on soil ecology.

But Eric Davis, Burlington’s water and sewage operations manager, pointed out that the study did not have a control group without exposure to biosolid application. Davis said he did not see evidence in the report that the symptoms came after biosolid applications, as the report does not detail when the symptoms began.

“They are simply reporting what others tell them,” David said. “They are not making accusations saying it’s unsafe.”

Biosolids from Burlington sewage are treated to meet Environmental Protection Agency guidelines at the Burlington sewage plant. Farmers who wish to apply it to their land may do so for free, a practice that saves them a large amount of money.

The biosolids applied on Burlington farmlands are Class B biosolids. Class A biosolids are completely treated for disease and can be spread on any land.

“Class B kills 99 percent of the bacteria and viruses,” Davis said. “The pathogens that remain are managed by the site restrictions.”

Class A biosolids are created by composting treated sewage, but Davis said this is a very space-intensive process and Burlington does not have the resources to only generate Class A biosolids.

Biosolids cannot be spread on cropland and must have a 100-foot barrier between the application site and wells and creeks. These restrictions, as well as exposure to sunlight and other natural phenomena, are put in place to prevent the spread of remaining pathogens.

“It will break down naturally, but the time of breakdown varies by pathogen,” MacFall said. “Some bacteria and viruses will be killed sooner than others. If it’s a rainy day and it gets washed into a stream, it won’t break down as quickly, either.”

MacFall added that there could be materials in biosolids that will not break down like pathogens.

“If there are materials that don’t break down, not biological materials but chemical materials, like detergents or flame-retardants or any kind of material that might be in wastewater, that can build up on the land,” she said.

Davis said wastewater in Burlington is tested for flame-retardants.

While biosolids are currently sprayed on top of farmland for application, Amy Lowman, one of the researchers conducted the UNC study, suggested the possibility of injecting the biosolids directly into the soil instead.

“That method means that the substance of the sludge is less likely to become airborne,” Lowman said.

Davis said that injection is effective at reducing odor, but because the biosolids are then covered by the soil, “deactivation of pathogens is less effective.”

In the UNC report, a common complaint among all respondents was that they were not informed about the biosolids application ahead of time.

“If they knew anything about it, it was because they were first feeling some impact in one way or another, leading them to research it and ask questions to find out for themselves what was going on,” Lowman said.

Davis said that there is no regulatory requirement to inform residents that spraying will occur, but the water resources department contacts the local health department before application and puts up signs informing residents about biosolids and giving their permit number and phone number.

“We’ll notify the school system if we’re going to spray near the schools,” Davis said. “We also try to only spray near schools when they are out of session.”

Link to the story on the Pendulum website: http://www.elonpendulum.com/2013/04/biosolid-application-in-burlington-remains-contested/

Licensed to wed? DOMA, Prop 8 stir debate surrounding marriage equality

The Supreme Court captured the attention of the Elon University community last month as it heard arguments about marital rights of LGBTQ-identified Americans, an issue that has elicited both activism and criticism from students, faculty and alumni.

The court considered both the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 federal law that awards federal benefits according to the traditional definition of marriage, and Proposition 8 (Prop 8), a 2008 amendment to California’s state constitution that legally recognizes marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

During the week of March 25, when both sets of arguments were heard, many Elon students changed their Facebook profile pictures to a pink equal sign to symbolize their support for marriage equality, and some engaged in debate both on and offline.

While the move toward legalized same-sex marriage encourages some LGBTQ activists, others point out that marriage equality is not the most dominant issue for most LGBTQ people. Senior Lauren Clapp, an advocacy and education chair for Spectrum, Elon’s queer-straight alliance, said marriage quality is just one of many issues LGBTQ people face.

“I get really frustrated by organizations like the Human Rights Campaign who pose themselves as the leading LGBT advocacy organization, but are in many ways a single issue organization, and put such a strong emphasis on marriage equality, which really only benefits a select privileged few in the LGBTQ community,” Clapp said.

But Clinton Edmondson, an Elon alumnus and California resident said he believes Prop 8 and other efforts to ban same-sex marriage have encouraged activism for LGBTQ rights in the sate

“I think gay rights has been something that the California public has come to accept as necessary for a long time coming,” Edmondson said. “Prop 8 actually put the nails in that coffin. It’s funny how that has worked for the gay rights movement in general. These lawmakers think they are preventing gay marriage and marriage inequality when in reality it’s more of a ‘don’t kick the hornets nest’ situation.”

Both DOMA and Prop 8 are contentious pieces of legislation that have generated complex debates about their constitutionality. In the case challenging Prop 8, Hollingsworth v. Perry, supporters of the amendment argued that the federal court, as part of the United States’ federalist system of government, could not intervene and overturn a sovereign state’s decision.

“Under the Supremacy Clause, under Article Six of the Constitution, federal trumps state in most things,” said Scott Gaylord, associate professor of law at the Elon University School of Law. “Certain areas are reserved to the state, and traditionally, family law issues are one of those things.”

Those who argued against the constitutionality of Prop 8 said the measure violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In 2009, the Supreme Court of California found Prop 8 constitutional because it allows same-sex couples to receive benefits from domestic partnerships, even though they cannot call their partnership a marriage. But a 2012 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and a 2010 ruling by the District Court of California both determined Prop 8 unconstitutional.

“If the court says, ‘No, the federal government can do it and there’s a broad liberty interest for individuals that trump any interest the states might have, then that would invalidate Proposition 8,” Gaylord said.

In Hollingsworth v. Perry, the Supreme Court may seem poised to decide the constitutionality same-sex marriage once and for all, but the court’s ruling on Prop 8 will likely affect only California. It may not affect other ballot propositions to invalidate same-sex marriage, such as North Carolina’s Amendment One.

This is partly because California already had legal same-sex marriage before Prop 8 was passed, and the Ninth Circuit Court made a decision regarding whether the right to marriage could be overturned in the state.

“The Ninth Circuit wrote a somewhat narrow opinion in that case,” Gaylord said. “You can invoke, possibly, Equal Protection and Due Process provisions, but if you interpret those only for the procedural developments in California itself, then the more limited that opinion is to California.”

While the Supreme Court could still rule broadly and say that marriage is a constitutionally guaranteed right, some, like Edmondson, do not believe this is likely.

“As a gay man, it’s disappointing to see because I think in the public conscience it’s become overwhelmingly clear that marriage inequality is a problem that needs to be addressed,” Edmondson said. “DOMA and Prop 8 are just that. Someone else’s mess. Part of the bigger mess that is our political system where cowardice and conformity has built such a barrier between common sense and lawmakers.”

Even if the people of California win the right to have same-sex marriage back, DOMA would still prevent those couples from getting any of the 1,138 federal benefits that are related to marital status, such as federal work benefits, tax deductions and pension benefits. In United States v. Windsor, the widow in a same-sex marriage was not given estate tax exemptions afforded to heterosexual married couples, so she argued DOMA is discriminatory.

“Arguments are being made that DOMA survives even if states recognize same-sex marriage, because at least the part of DOMA that deals with the federal definition of marriage for federal purposes is irrelevant to state issues,” Gaylord said.

While the possible outcome of the case has garnered a lot of attention and legal scholarship, the justices may simply decide not to make a decision. Supreme Court cases must have the appropriate sides being represented in each case, a policy known as “standing.” In 2011, the Department of Justice said it would no longer defend DOMA in court, so the House of Representatives selected its own legal council to defend DOMA.

According to Gaylord, the court could say the executive branch needs to be the one defending DOMA because it is a federal law. If this is the case, then the court will make no decision on United States v. Windsor.

Similarly, with Prop 8, the California executive branch is not defending the ballot proposition. The proposition’s official proponent, ProtectMarriage.com, is arguing the case instead. Like with DOMA, the court may decide that they do not have standing in this case.

“If they lack standing, if they’re not proper parties before the court, then everything would be vacated back to the district court,” Gaylord said. “And the district court’s decision saying that these individuals have a right to marry would stand, but that’s a narrow holding with regards to California law.”

Even if the courts decide to overturn both DOMA and Prop 8, Clapp is worried that some people may believe this means that LGBTQ people have achieved full equality.

“I think that federal marriage rights are certainly an important step, but when I can legally be fired or denied housing because of my sexual orientation or gender identity in more than half of the states in the US, it’s clear to me that we still have a long way to go,” Clapp said.

Sequestration may trim budgets of Elon students, Alamance County organizations

The sequester is often discussed in broad, technical terms, but real people in Alamance County, including Elon University students, may be affected by the automatic spending cuts enacted by the federal government earlier this month.

Sequestration refers to a plan to activate $1.2 trillion in spending cuts across an eight-year period, $85 billion of which will take place in 2013. The cuts will affect almost all non-entitelment spending.

The cuts were scheduled to impel Congress to create more practical deficit reduction legislation, but a bipartisan deal proved elusive before the March 1 deadline. Now, the government may decrease funding for food  inspection, federal college grants and domestic abuse programs.

If its budget is reduced, the Department of Justice will withdraw $20 million from its Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) programs. Money distributed by the VAWA benefits many Alamance County organizations, including CrossRoads and Family Abuse Services, which use federal money to offer legal services and shelter for abuse survivors.”

“When one partner is so dependent on the other because the abusive partner tends to want power and control over the survivor, it comes out in economic abuse and isolation. So the partner that is the survivor might not have any other resources,” said Rebecca Bishopric, Elon’s coordinator for violence prevention and response. “Homelessness is a huge result of domestic violence in the United States.”

Bishopric works with abuse resource organizations around Elon and helps them raise funds. Last October, Elon partnered with Family Abuse Services to raise awareness and money through its “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event. Bishopric is also trying to obtain funding for abuse prevention efforts on campus.

“We’re applying currently for a campus grant through the Violence Against Women Office in the Department of Justice, so them losing that money decreases our chances of getting funded,” Bishopric said.

College loans and grans may also be affected by federal spending cuts. According to Pat Murphy, director of financial planning at Elon, these programs will not receive less funding, but rather less funding increases in coming years.

“What’s happening is not really a cut in those programs, it’s a reduction of the fair share increase,” he said. “So we’re still going to see a natural increase in the funding from what we had this year to what we will be able to use this year.”

The sequester will reduce the increase in funds for federal work-study grants by $49 million and supplemental educational opportunity grands by $37 million. The origination fee for federal Stafford loans will also increase.

“When you get a loan, the government takes 1 percent off the top, so if you’re getting a $3,000 loan, you’re only getting 99 percent of that,” Murphy said. “What they’re going to do is increase that fee to about 1.05 percent. Unfortunately the student is still on the hook for the full amount of the loan.”

While Pell grand fudging will not change this year, the 10 percent of Elon students who receive Pell grants may be affected if Congress does not act to end the sequester.

“If it maintains, it is supposed to issue these cuts over a ten-year range, so for 2014 and beyond, if they don’t get things worked out, we would begin seeing cuts in the Pell grant program,” Murphy said.

Plans to trim funding from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are still unfolding, but the cuts are expected to total $51.8 million. This will likely decrease the number of food safety and meat inspectors, resulting in a reduction of the meat supply.

Although a smaller supply of meat would mean higher prices, ARAMARK, Elon’s food service provider, said its management of the supply chain allows it to bypass price increases.

“Our purchasing power enables us to lock in pricing for a longer period of time, giving us more stability with pricing and menu planning,” said Kate Nelson, marketing manager for ARAMARK at Elon.

According to Nelson, this supply management, as well as ARAMARK’s efforts to minimize waste, enables the supplier to adjust for increases that may come if food inspectors have been laid off or furloughed.

“Controlling food waste gives us some flexibility to handle price increases, such as those seen recently with meat, dairy and grain,” Nelson said.