Apr 16 2008
YORK — Mark Boley, a sales manager for Austin Inc. in York, unseated incumbent Johnny McCoy for the York City Council district 6 seat.Boley captured 50 votes to McCoy’s 47 in Tuesday’s election, which had an 18 percent voter turnout, according to unofficial results from the York County elections office. No recount is planned, and McCoy said he won’t contest the votes.
Huh, and some people think their vote doesn’t matter.
Apr 16 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina counties would have to post the details of how they spend money on the Internet in order to get state funding under a proposal added to the state budget.
Senator Kevin Bryant says that temporary law change is needed in Anderson County because county council members have not been allowed to review financial details.
He says it took a lot of work for a council member to find out about big credit card charges at upscale restaurants in Myrtle Beach and that a county worker was using a credit card at a Hooters restaurant.
Easily accessible records are the best way to expose and prevent this kind of abuse. It is our money, after all.
Apr 16 2008
Sen. Barack Obama has two more North Carolina superdelegates in his camp.
U.S. Reps. David Price of Chapel Hill and Mel Watt of Charlotte announced this afternoon that they are endorsing Obama over Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president.
Apr 16 2008
CHAPEL HILL - A midday gun protest expected to draw 32 participants instead drew about 60 to the UNC-Chapel Hill campus today.
The protest, one of about 80 taking place in 33 states, came on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings. Organizers wanted to draw attention to what they believe are lax gun laws.
Th plan was for 32 participants to lie on the ground for three minutes, acknowledging the 32 victims of the shooting. But nearly twice that many participated in Chapel Hill, including one young boy and a chocolate labrador retriever.
We can’t all be blessed with intelligence and it’s amazing how many of those less fortunate in the intellectual realm manage to get accepted to higher educational institutions. One can only hope that as these children enter the real world after Duke and blossom into adulthood a few cells in their heads will split, multiply, and eventually become a thinking brain.
The tragedy of last year’s incident of Virginia Tech occurred for many reasons, but certainly not because of lax gun laws. These demonstrators for some reason continue to forget that most college campuses in this country, VT included, are “gun free zones.” Guns are already banned there, which makes them perfect targets for people like Fu Man Chu who decided to use the school as his personal target practice last year. He certainly wasn’t worried about anyone fighting back during his rampage because he knew he’d be the only one with a gun. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
The issue here is over regulation of the Second Amendment rights of every one of those students. Had they been allowed to have a gun as the Constitution guarantees there is a good possibility that none of these deaths may had even occurred as the shooter may have thought twice about it. Now granted, since he killed himself when he was done, that may not have mattered to him anyway, but the death toll may have been far less if one of the students in the building that he tore through like Rambo could have pulled out their own firearm and shot him dead in his tracks.
Perhaps some day these kid will learn some lessons in logic, but when their Dean is out their engaging in this silliness with them it’s not hard to understand how these young, impressionable minds are getting filled with this kind of gobbledygook.
Apr 16 2008
A task force appointed by local mayors is recommending that the three north Mecklenburg towns, plus Mooresville, join forces to create a regional transportation commission that would plan transportation improvements, lobby state and federal politicians for money, and possibly even spend some new tax money of its own.
It’s not a bad idea, especially since Charlotte hasn’t stepped up to the plate. It’s not real clear how effective this will even be considering that the representatives from the different municipalities are already squabbling over money, voting prowess, etc. Something has definitely got to be done. The area is growing fast and the infrastructure is not accommodating it.
Apr 16 2008
RALEIGH — Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue said last week that her campaign would stop negative attack ads, but at least one key ally has let slip one last hit on her opponent in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
The N.C. Association of Educators and the National Education Association sent a one-page mailer attacking Treasurer Richard Moore, questioning his management of retirement funds and suggesting he favored cutting Social Security.
Both educator groups have backed Perdue and paid for a radio ad that touted Perdue’s accomplishments this year.
In all fairness, this can’t be put on Perdue. It is not her campaign that broke the pledge and she can’t really control what her supporting PACs may do. She can certainly come out and condemn the negativity of the ad, but it doesn’t seem all that negative to me anyway. I don’t even understand why the NEA would mention Moore’s alleged position on Social Security since it has absolutely nothing to do with being Governor of North Carolina anyway. So, I suppose in that respect it can be viewed as a negative cheap shot.
I don’t like the NEA anyhow. They don’t give a damn about any child’s education. They only care about enriching themselves.
Apr 16 2008
RALEIGH (AP)- The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to approve a widely used method of lethal injection may not be enough to bring an immediate end to North Carolina’s unofficial moratorium on the death penalty.
Issued Wednesday, the ruling from the nation’s high court signed off on the procedures used in Kentucky, where three drugs are used to sedate, paralyze and kill inmates. Similar methods are used by roughly three dozen states, including North Carolina.
But neither of the lingering legal challenges to North Carolina’s death penalty _ which have effectively kept execution on hold for more than year _ are addressed directly addressed by Wednesday’s ruling.
A spokeswoman for State Attorney General Roy Cooper said attorneys are studying the Supreme Court ruling and trying to determine how it may affect North Carolina.
“We’ve got attorneys who are studying the ruling and are trying to determine how it may impact North Carolina,” said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper.
This is a cop out on Cooper and Easley’s part. There is absolutely no reason not to reinstate executions in this state. The Supreme Court was clear on their ruling, so what “impact” has to be studied? The Democratic Party in particular has for years been fidgety with the death penalty and that’s all this is. They really don’t want to reinstate it. I have never understood this sympathy that so many of them have for murderers.
Apr 16 2008
I’ll hit these each piece by piece:
“He has increased spending in Charlotte 10 percent a year,” Smith said.
McCrory boasted that he vetoed every property tax increase that came his way, and the only increase was when city council overrode his veto. He said Smith and his fellow legislators cut spending that then requires local governments to fill in the gap.
“They run commercials saying, `I didn’t vote to raise taxes,’ ” McCrory said, “and pass on the burden to local property owners.”
I think this is kind of just useless bickering. Yes, spending has increased in Charlotte at a high rate. Yes, McCrory has vetoed spending and yes, the Democratic controlled City Council has overridden some of it, at times with the help of Republican City Councilmen. McCrory only has so much control over that when the opposition party has a sizable majority. However, I still haven’t heard anything about Pat vetoing the water hike increase. That would certainly send the message that he is committed to keep spending down when in Raleigh.
As far as McCrory accusing the legislature of cutting back funding, I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. I prefer to see as much local control as possible so that the people using the funding are the ones paying for it rather than money being redistributed throughout the state where some benefit and others do not. Without knowing the specifics of what McCrory was referring to it’s hard to know if his complaint towards Smith is justified.
Smith started the day with a new radio commercial, his first negative ad, criticizing cost overruns in Charlotte’s new Lynx light-rail system.
“North Carolina taxpayers can’t afford Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory,” the ad says. “On McCrory’s watch as mayor, they overspent the budget for light rail by over $200 million.”
The estimated cost of the Lynx Blue Line jumped from $227 million in 1998 to $463 million when it was completed. City officials blamed contractors for much of the overrun and for related design flaws.
The cost of the light rail is a legitimate issue to hit McCrory on and can be damaging to the image he has created for himself that he is conservative on spending. The cost of the rail has more than doubled and critics have long been arguing that ridership of the rail system will come nowhere near meeting the levels to cover the continued costs of maintaining and building it. Furthermore, McCrory was out front and center petitioning to keep the 1/2 cent transit tax, which passed with 70% of the vote
In an interview after the debate, McCrory responded that cost overruns are common in transportation programs, including the state roads built by Smith’s construction company. Of the 16 state road projects completed by Smith’s company since 2004, five have run over budget, according to state Department of Transportation data.
I don’t think five out of 16 is all that big a deal, but what bothers me about this is that Fred Smith’s construction company has a contract with the state of which he is a legislator. Isn’t that a huge conflict of interest?
Apr 16 2008
ASHEVILLE – Slumping property values and rising health care costs could mean no tax break for city residents next year.
That’s what Asheville elected officials heard Tuesday in an update on next year’s city budget, projected to run a $3.9 million deficit if all city departments are maintained at current rates in spite of rising costs.
About $40 million in new initiatives proposed by City Council members, such as tax breaks, increased public safety and environmental initiatives could go by the wayside as Asheville faces lower tax revenues and higher costs, Vice Mayor Jan Davis said.
“We’re going to keep our services and things we need, but we’re not exactly in the position to do other things,” Davis said.
At least they have enough sense to dump the excess, however the Asheville City government has a history of frivolous spending. Perhaps if they had been a little more fiscally responsible in the past they would have the financial capital to keep with the rising costs.
More so, if costs such as health care are rising for the city they are rising for the residents too. They should keep the tax break and scale back on the city departments which aren’t of vital importance. More money in the residents pockets will help keep the local economy afloat.