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Former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque’s trial on federal charges, which had been tentatively scheduled for October, won’t happen before next year.

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm J. Howard granted a joint request by prosecutors and defense attorneys for a delay because the case is so complex.

A federal judge has laid out a schedule of deadlines leading up to a tentative fall trial in the federal theft and money-laundering indictment of former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Malcolm J. Howard, in an order he signed last week, cautioned attorneys  on both sides that failing to meet his deadlines could result in the tardy motions being denied. Such motions might include defense requests that prosecutors share evidence or that some evidence be suppressed, the judge noted in his order.

Howard will preside over the trial, which he proposes would start Oct. 9 at the federal courthouse in Greenville. Responses to motions would have to be filed by the end of September.

N.C. Policy Watch, which first broke the story of LaRoque’s questionable management of federal loans, reported the scheduling order earlier Tuesday.

LaRoque, a Kinston Republican, was indicted in July. Federal prosecutors say he enriched himself through nonprofit and for-profit entities acting as middle-men to loan struggling businesses in rural areas funds through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program.

LaRoque has denied any wrongdoing. He resigned from the General Assembly as a result of the indictment.

An internal review by the federal agency that provided former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque with the money that led to his indictment criticizes the North Carolina operation on several fronts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development division, in a report delivered to the Raleigh office in April and obtained by The News & Observer this week, faults the state office for inadequate oversight and for loan delinquencies. The state has reported $34.6 million in lost federally guaranteed loans and poor internal control over one loan program "has raised concerns in the national office," the report says.

But the report, which gives passing marks to some of the agency's practices, raises issues that for years have dogged some of the loan programs and are not limited to North Carolina.

The review is posted below.

Federal investigators say state Rep. Stephen LaRoque, a Kinston Republican, paid himself more than $2 million over the past 15 years through a complex scheme using federal loans meant to help rural businesses. How the feds found out about it is a story in itself.

The Obama administration has been engaged in some outreach into Raleigh-Cary Jewish community – although they had a sort of an odd way of going about it.

A top U.S. Department of Agriculture official held a “Jewish Roundtable” on Monday at Beth Meyer Synagogue. The event was sponsored by the White House, the USDA, and the Jewish Federation of Raleigh-Cary.

Surely, this was not being held to discuss the problems of Jewish farmers in the Raleigh-Cary area.

The event featured Jonathan Adelstein, USDA Rural Utilities Service Administrator, and was described as one in a series of events administration officials were holding across the country to hear about community concerns.

This was not, the invitation stressed, a campaign event.

They're not the Obama Administration headliners, but a bunch of deputy federal agency administrators were in the state today talking up the Obama jobs plan. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deputy Bob Perciaspece and U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy Kathleen Merrigan were in Brevard this afternoon to release a report economic development in small towns and rural communities.

The director of the Office of Special Education Programs for the U.S. Department of Education was at Sedalia Elementary School today talking about the jobs plan and education.

They follow trips to the state by Obama and his secretaries of homeland security, treasury and education in the last four weeks and further highlight the state's importance in next year's election.

Archie Hart, Knightdale resident and administrator in the state Department Agriculture, has a hand in setting federal agriculture policy, too.

As vice chairman of the federal Minority Farmer Advisory Committee that's reporting to U.S. Secretary Tom Vilsack, Hart is helping shape recommendations on ways the department can promote participation of minority farmers and ranchers in federal agriculture programs.

Hart is back this week from a three-day committee meeting in Tennessee where he and other members heard from the public about how to make the USDA more accessible.

Black, Native American, Hispanic and female farmers have all brought discrimination lawsuits against U.S. Department of Agriculture at one time or another.

"Basically, all people are asking to be treated fairly," he said. "They want to reduce paperwork."

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan applauded the committee's goals.

"Agriculture is a $78 billion industry in North Carolina, and it is imperative that this critical sector of our economy be open and accessible to all of our residents,” she said in a statement.

 

U.S. Senators left Washington last week on a five-week break without agreeing to spend $1.25 billion to back an agreement between the federal government and black farmers to settle discrimination claims.

The agreement would settle a class action suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where black farmers claim they were treated worse than white farmers when they applied for loans, and were given loans to cover expenses long after the money could be useful.

Lead advocates for the farmers had hoped the Senate would approve the money before its recess, worried the issue get buried by pre-election politics preceding the mid-term election.

About 4,000 North Carolinians could be eligible for money under the settlement.

No, not the kind you're thinking about.

In this case, we're talking about what's known as "the other white meat."

Seven of North Carolina’s members of Congress have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to protect the pork industry from its economic troubles by buying $100 million worth of meat for the USDA’s federal food assistance programs.

In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, they say the recession and the recent swine flu outbreak have hurt the industry. The lawmakers thanked Vilsack for his push earlier this year to call the swine flu virus H1N1 to disassociate it from pork products, but they said the impacts of the scare have hurt the industry.

The letter notes that USDA already has announced $30 million in purchases through the end of the fiscal year, reports Barb Barrett.

“We asking for additional help with the economic crisis the U.S. pork industry currently faces,” the letter reads. “Without your assistance, we are putting thousands of rural jobs and businesses at risk.”

The N.C. lawmakers are Democratic U.S. Reps. Bob Etheridge, Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, Brad Miller and G.K. Butterfield, along with Republican U.S. Reps. Howard Coble and Walter Jones. Fifty-five other lawmakers also signed the letter.

They want Vilsack to use $100 million to buy pork for federal food assistance programs, with an emphasis on sow meat to reduce breeding stock.