Southern Pines Pilot: An annexation agreement between the villages of Foxfire and Pinehurst won approval, but not after sparking anger among many Foxfire residents.  Both village councils voted Tuesday. Pinehurst unanimously approved the measure — which defines what land Foxfire and Pinehurst could annex in the future. But the Foxfire Village Council voted 3-2 in favor of it at a contentious meeting later that evening.  more…

Letter to the Editor, published in the Lexington Dispatch: In Tryon in Polk County, the newly elected town council has voted 3 -1 to rescind their annexation plans. The local Citizens Against Forced Annexation had an opportunity to sit down with one of the newly elected Councilman, Doug Arbogast, and lo and behold, this gentleman actually listened.  more…

The Olympian:  (1/14/10): State Attorney General Rob McKenna kicked off his legislative campaign to toughen state eminent domain laws today.  He held a press conference at the Legislative Building with property owners who have had their land taken, and others who want to see state law changed to make it harder for government to take property, then turn it over to private development.  more…

From The Fayetteville Observer: The Foxfire and Pinehurst village councils took a step toward approving an annexation agreement between them on Tuesday night, but another vote will be required in Foxfire later this week. Debate sometimes became heated at the Foxfire meeting, which was standing-room only.  more…

From The Cato Institute / written by Ilya Shapiro: Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided not take up an important takings case, the infelicitously titled 480.00 Acres of Land v. United States. As I blogged previously, Cato filed an amicus brief in the case in the hopes that the owner of the “480.00 Acres of Land,” Gil Fornatora, would ultimately receive the “just compensation” to which he is constitutionally entitled.  The Court also missed the chance to correct the pattern of due process abuse that is apparently rampant in Florida.  The case involved the federal government maneuvering to unjustly drive down property values before taking land for (legitimate) public use — in this case expanding the Everglades — thus greatly diminishing the compensation it was obligated to pay the owners.   more…

From The News & Observer: The Durham Planning Commission declared the Rolling Hills/Southside area to be legally “blighted” Tuesday night, but its deliberation was dominated by “eminent domain.”  more…

Eminent domain is being used by bureaucracies across the country to take people’s land, and the public is routinely cut out of the process. A big fight is brewing over this in the Big Easy.

Transparency ought to be the order of the day in a dispute involving a third of a billion dollars, the health of tens of thousands of post-Katrina New Orleanians and the fate of a 25-square-block neighborhood of historic homes and buildings threatened by eminent domain. Instead, secrecy rules.

The full editorial is posted here.

From The News & Observer: On Aug. 27, 1776, British forces routed George Washington’s novice army in the Battle of Brooklyn, which was fought in fields and woods where today the battle of Prospect Heights is being fought. Americans’ liberty is again under assault, but this time by overbearing American governments.The fight involves an especially egregious example of today’s eminent domain racket.

Click here for the full column.