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Lawsuit Challenges NC Whistleblower Regulations

Consumer advocates have filed a suit challenging a North Carolina whistleblower law. The goal is to stop new North Carolina regulations that help employers punish people who get hired seeking to tell company secrets.

The federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday by several groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Center for Food Safety.

The suit claims the law violates free-speech and equal protection rights. State legislators passed it last summer over the veto of Gov. Pat McCrory.

Opponents say the law was passed to end hidden-camera exposes of animal cruelty at farms and meat-packing plants. They believe it could intimidate other employees from reporting misdeeds like elder abuse at nursing homes.

North Carolina's business lobby pressed for the law, saying more protections were needed against people who land jobs to steal intellectual property.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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