N&O Two explanations for BellSouth contribution"

Former state representative Bill Culpepper still having trouble explaining why he took a $2,000 campaign donation from BellSouth just days before he was named to the State Utilitie panel that overs the utility. Amazingly his predecessor Bobby Owens served in the seat without conroversy for years. Get your story straight Bill then get over it.

N&O-Weird but good news

Two stories out or Raleigh this morning. First the N&O reports that coastal Republicans are getting good marks fromm enviromentalists. Rep. Walter Jones is mentioned prominently for his support of the renewal of the Clean Air Act. But this support comes with the typical WJ slant.

"It's a gift from God to have this beautiful coast, and we need to protect it," Jones said.

The second story is not really a story but a column by lead political writer Rob Christianson. He analyses how corruption in NC politics has changed over the years... for the better Yeah, it could get worse. Key comment

Unsigned campaign checks? Old pols tell me stories of wads of cash in brown paper bags. Former state Rep. Michael Decker landing a job as a political reward? There have been thousands of Michael Deckers over the years.

This was politics as it was practiced in North Carolina for generations. Today, the same actions could get you thrown into federal prison.

Of course some of the practices today should get people thrown in to prison but we won't quibble.

Bill Culpepper returns PAC money

Bill Culpepper gets an a wake up call. In the wake of all the talk about Speaker Jim Black's campaign finance quagmire WRAL reports that former Rep. Bill Culpepper decided to return a questionable contribution he recieved from the Bell South PAC just before he was sworn in as a memeber of the state utilities commission ... that regulates Bell South.

"In a phone interview with WRAL, Culpepper intially downplayed the PAC money, stating: 'I said to them, â€ï¿½Go ahead and send it. I'll probably give the money to the Democratic Caucus. I don't see a conflict.' “ WRAL called Easley’s office on Thursday, asking him for a comment on the contribution. After they called Culpepper, he contacted WRAL later Wednesday, stressing there was no wrongful intent when he accepted the money. However, after more thought, he's now decided to give the donation back to the BellSouth PAC."

Good for you bill but should you really have taken a campaign contribution after you weren't going to campaign anymore?
Click on the video to watch WRAL show Culpepper sweating under the lights. Bill's a great guy and its not surprising he did the right thing. What is surprising is that he let himself get into the little pickle at all.

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Here is the story as told by the N&O. Apparently when this was written the decision to return the $2,000 had not been announced.

"The beach is our levee"

This report is self explanatory.

"The beach is our levee"

Topsail Voice by Connie Pletl (2/22/06)

SUNSET BEACH - The levees in New Orleans were built to protect the city from floodwaters. According to Ocean Isle Beach Commissioner Dean Walters, healthy beaches should be maintained to protect coastal communities. "The beach is our levee," Walters told North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Beverly Purdue. Other North Carolina coastal leaders quickly took up the phrase, stressing the importance of wide, healthy beaches to the infrastructure and residents of coastal communities. Lt. Gov. Purdue said she understood the need for healthy beaches as a first line of defense and expressed concern that there is no money in the proposed federal budget for North Carolina beach projects. "It worries me to death that there is not a continuous string of funding from the federal and state governments," said Lt. Gov. Perdue. She urged coastal leaders to be aggressive and meet with state and federal legislators often to stress the economic importance of healthy beaches and navigable waterways. "Talk to your representatives and get fired up," said Lt. Gov. Perdue, who was just one of the speakers at the Coastal Communities Winter Meeting held at Sea Trails Resort in Sunset Beach Feb. 16 and 17. Officials from North Carolina 's coastal communities meet annually to discuss issues of mutual importance and hear from experts on coastal issues. The two day event touched on many topics but hurricane preparedness and response was a subject that came up over and over again. "We need to be assured that we would receive 100-percent cooperation if a hurricane like Katrina hit," said Walters. Lt. Gov. Purdue said she felt confident that North Carolina 's response would be adequate if a Category 5 where to hit the state. "I feel good about the state's hurricane response," said Lt. Gov. Purdue. North Carolina Sea Grant coastal construction and erosion specialist Spencer Rogers discussed whether a hurricane like Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf Coast last year, could ever hit the North Carolina coast. "We are likely to see more bad storms," said Rogers . "But the destruction of a Katrina is not likely to happen here." While the North Carolina coast could be hit by a Category 5 storm like Katrina and suffer serious destruction, the damage caused by the storm surge would not be as severe because of the differing coastal geography, explained Rogers. Chris May, of the Cape Fear Council of Governments, stressed how important the beach communities are to their counties and how much revenue they contribute, even though county residents who do not live at the beach might not be aware of it. "If beach communities washed away as the result of a major storm, taxes in the counties would probably double," said May. This year's coastal communities meeting was hosted by Mayor Debbie Smith of Ocean Isle Beach , next year's will be hosted by Emerald Isle.

Filings for Dare Commissioner

As of 4:30 Monday the following had filed for Dare BOC.
Democrats
District 1 - Roanoke Island & Mainland
Virginia Tillet
District 2 - Nags Head, Colington & Kill Devil Hills
Stan White
District 4 - Chicamacomico, Avon, Buxton, Frisco & Hatteras (two year term to replace the late Mac Midgette)
Alan Burrus
District 5 - At Large
Ray Midgett
District 3 has no seat up for election

No Republicans had filed through Mon. at 4:30

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All incumbents but Ray Midgett, the leader of BeachHuggers. It will be interesting to see how Ray plays with the Democrat base in a primary fight. If there is no Republican primary expect wholesale registration changes in Southern Shores so his base can vote for him. Independents can vote in the Dem. primary in NC. Republicans can't.

New developments on 2 threatening fronts.

Reports today of developments on two fronts that could have major impact on the Outer Banks, offshore oil drilling and wetlands protection.

Offshore Oil Drilling

The N&O reports that Virginia may be about to push Congress to repeal the ban on petroleum exploration off its coast. This is part of a larger push in Congress to restart offshore drilling halted years ago.

Nationally, there was a move last year by energy companies to open more U.S. waters to offshore drilling, but the ideas didn't make it into the massive energy bill that Congress approved last fall.
Now, some in Congress -- including Sen. John Warner of Virginia -- are trying again.
Sometime this year, likely before June, Congress is going to make a decision about whether to allow more offshore drilling.

Last year there was a big push to convince local leaders that if the state relented in its opposition to drilling the feds might share some of the royalties (see this post about who is paying what) Dare County postponed a vote on a resolution supporting drilling when the energy bill was pushed through without resolving the issue. Meanwhile the issue is continuing to surface in Va. where there is support in Richmond and possibly in Tidewater. Carolina state government has not started to move on the issue but you can believe that supporters are already working the halls of the legislature and looking for openings like a Dare County resolution in support. The article talks about Sen. Burr hosting hearings with the Chairman of Peidmont Gas. Piedmont owns the local gas franchise that was originally developed by RV Owens and former NC Power executive John Hughes. You can bet the carrot of money for beach nourishment will be hung out again to try to get the Dare board to bite on off shore drilling.

Wetlands protection

Meanwhile, the NY Times reports the Supreme Court will hear a case on Tues. challenging the governments right to regulate some wetlands. There are actually two related cases and the outcomes could range from no change to a sweeping revision of the regulation of wetlands development.

The central question is where federal authority ends along the network of rivers, streams, canals and ditches. Does it reach all the veins and arterioles of the nation's waters, and all the wetlands that drain into them? Does it end with the waterways that are actually navigable and the wetlands abutting them? Or is it some place in between?
Also at issue are who draws those lines — and how — and who decides what the Clean Water Act means by "navigable waters" and "the waters of the United States."
Tucked into the larger question is the issue of how many of the nation's 100 million or so acres of wetlands have a close enough connection, or nexus, to regulated waters to fit under the same regulatory umbrella.

It does not sound like much of Dare County could be affected. Most of the regulated wetlands here borer navigable waters but upstream in NC and Va. the case could be very different. If federal protection for wetlands falters look to the state to pick up the slack. This may happen in the coastal region where the Coastal Resources Commission is well suited to the task, but who will promulgate the rules for the rest of the state. Think the legislature controlled by real estate and construction money will be so enlightened. Don't count on it. Lets hope the Supremes understand the national interest in clean water and the progress that has been made over the last two decades through federal regulation. Any change to eliminate rules would be a big step backward.

The New Yorker: THE MEMO

A fascinating and illuminating article in the New Yorker details the discussions within the Pentagon as the parameters of the administration's policy on interogration were developed and applied. Guess who is quoted below:

“To my mind, there's€™s no moral or practical distinction,â€� he told me. “If cruelty is no longer declared unlawful, but instead is applied as a matter of policy, it alters the fundamental relationship of man to government. It destroys the whole notion of individual rights. The Constitution recognizes that man has an inherent right, not bestowed by the state or laws, to personal dignity, including the right to be free of cruelty. It applies to all human beings, not just in America—even those designated as â€�unlawful enemy combatants.’ If you make this exception, the whole Constitution crumbles. It’s a transformative issue.â€�"

Some left-wing liberal critic, guess again. That is the former general counsel of the United States Navy, appointed by the current administration, talking about how destructive government sanctioned cruelty is to the fabric of our democracy.
I guess the element that strikes me hardest is that each time the administration advanced a legal basis for dtorture it was eventually set aside by the very people who first espoused it and who authorized its use. The arguments about absolute Presidential power and the ends justifying the means just don't hold up when exposed to the light of day. Both the Gonzales "Torture Memo" and the Yoo memo authorizing specific levels of torture have been disavowed by the government when they became public. Even though they served as the operating instructions for interogaters for quite some time.
Given the administrations assertion of absolute Presidential power in war time, how can we not be scared about our rights. The same assertions that drive the torture debate drive the wiretapping scandal. The courts have held that the president is not above the law, yet the president just doesn't seem to get it. What other secret determinations have been made by Bush/Cheney to protect us.
Critics of this blog want the ends to justify the means, saying we are better than the terrorist because we don't behead people, that our torture is less than Saddam's torture. Is that really the standard we want in America, anything is sanctioned to keep us safe (not free but safe). The New Yorker article lays out the administration's efforts to institutionalize torture as American policy and their success in doing so. It also offers a sliver of hope that there are still some willing to fight for the honor of this country and to protect our freedom.

OB Sentinel: Beach Nourishment finanncing

Some big facts right but lots of important errors in the Outer Banks Sentinel's report on the beach nourishment financing plan presented to the Nag Head Board of Commissioners on Wed. night.
On the right side: The project cost projections $26.75 mil and the cost used by the committee $30 mil. Also right recommended distribution of costs 25% Dare County, 25% property tax, 50% assessment on benefitting property owners. The story also reported that the Town would have to hold a referendum before going ahead with the project.

On the error side

"Revenues for 25 percent of the cost is projected to come from the one-cent occupancy tax currently collected and held by the Outer Banks Tourist Bureau, " While the OBVB is funded by a one per cent occupancy tax the committee was referring to a separate one cent occupancy tax passed several years ago to fund shoreline management. This fund has been used to pay the local share of the match for the proposed federal project and was used to pay for real estate acquisiton for the federal project. Interestingly the report refers to the right fund in the next paragraph.

Error 2

"A common method used by the Army Corps of Engineers is a cost assessment on property owners who would benefit from beach nourishment" The COE doesn't use anything to finance beach nourishment. An accurate statement would have been "A common method of financing the local share of beach nourishment projects undertaken by the COE is a cost assessment on property owners who would benefit from the project"

Semi-Error 3

According to the Committee, oceanside property owners east of NC 12 and 1243 are a relatively small group but they will receive direct benefit from the project. I am not sure where the small group thing came from. There are few voters in this subset of Nags Head property owners but it still represents a lot of people. The implication of this paragraph is that the town should ask a small group to pay most of the cost and that no one else has a direct benefit. What the reporter fails to mention is that the committee opened talking about finding an equitable distribution of costs that reflected, in some, measure the benefits from the project.

Semi-Error 4

This same paragraph continues with a ramble about the varying benefits to other property owners. It is taken from a discussion paper the committee developed and distributed that talked about the variety of options for distributing costs but had little to do with the proposed plan.

Error 5

During the meeting Mayor Cahoon allowed Chas Winkler, a Nags Head resident who was in the audience, to comment. In the article his comment was attributed to a "Yogi Hart". Actually Yogi Harper, also a Nags Head resident, had spoken to the board during public comment. Mr. Harper represents a group of oceanfront property owners in south Nags Head. He was asking for a report on the town's plans for this area. He supports beach nourishment. Had he made the comments attributed to him (or someone whose name sounds like his) his clients might doubt his sanity. Yogi should sue the Sentinel for slander except they couldn't even get his name right.

Error 6

The comment made by Winkler but attributed to Yogi was that the town should look at the results of the recent repeal of the sales tax for beach nourishment and consider if the public wants beach nourishment. Fair enough and accurately reported (except for who said it) Then comes a nice set of facts. "In the Dare County referendum vote, Nags Head residents voted 380 for and 221 against, a clear sign that residents don't want to see a tax increase. In fact, results throughout the entire precinct show more votes for the repeal of the sales tax that is to pay for beach nourishment than against." This is typical OB Sentinel style. Up the this point the article was factual, though with some mistakes, but little opinion. Now suddenly it is an editorial interpretting the results of the referenedum. Reporting the results of the referendum is a good addition to the story, doing it twice (the second sentance) is a bit over the top but OK its factual, up to a point. Of course it didn't say Nags Head had the highest percentage of support of any precinct in the county, It didn't report that county wide turnout was about 25%, lower than the municipal elections that put the current board in office, many on platforms supporting beach nourishment. No, the only facts the Sentinel wants you to know is that defeated referendum means something other than what people voted for.
Let's back up a little. Certainly the referendum indicated that a lot of people didn't want to pay a sales tax for beach nourishment and some of those votes were cast because people don't want higher taxes in general and perhaps a smaller group were cast as a direct all-consuming vote against beach nourishment (see Chas Winkler). But those distinctions weren't on the ballot and reporting as if they were just isn't accurate.
At least in Nags Head discussion about beach nourishment will continue a little while longer. The town will have a workshop next Wed. (2/22/06) at 7:30 in the council chamber. Maybe the Sentinel will be there to tell us what happened or at least some of what happened, partly accurate.

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The full report from the Beach Nourishment Committee can be found under agenda item C of the Fed. 15 agenda.

Proposal to take sales tax revenues draws objections

Once again the The Outer Banks Sentinel nails a big story. Medicare costs are eating up North Carolina counties and someone has come up with a fix; The counties give up one of the one cent sales taxes they collect and the State uses the funds to pay Medicare forever. It sounds great except in a few places the tax raises more than Medicare costs. In Dare County it raises a lot more (about $6 million). The county would lose the revenue and would have to impose another one cent sales tax to make it up. (Sound familiar) The county has no desire to go through another referendum. The idea has not been picked up in the mainstream news media yet. In part because a lot of counties would benefit from the deal.

Replacing Speaker Black

House Speaker Jim Black's political troubles don't need to be recounted here. The N&O has done a good job. and you can find the news results with a google news search of his name. The more interesting question is who will succeed him as Speaker if he resigns and many observers seem to feel this is only a matter of time. Former Rep. Bill Culpepper was Black's right hand in the legislature. He engineered the last 2 speaker votes as Rules Committee Chairman and was one of the Black's top confidants for the last 3 years. There was supposition for years that Bill aspired to the Speaker seat but he has now left the legislature and is serving on the State Utilities Commission. You have to believe that he would have been a strong candidate for the Speakers job. His biggest drawback is that he serves the same area as the Sen. President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and it is hard to believe that the legislature would have given any one area that much power. Still for a good while E. NC was represented at the highest levels in both chambers. Here is what NC Spin's e-mail newsletter says about the varous contenders.

Some of the more liberal female House members are putting together a strategy, we are told, to put Joe Hackney, House Majority Leader, in as acting Speaker when Black relinquishes his post. Their theory is that even in a temporary capacity Hackney would have an advantage in a full election for Speaker.

But, as we have stated previously, there are others wanting the gavel. The latest names we are hearing is Bill Owens (D-Pasquotank) and Drew Saunders, also a Mecklenburg Democrat. Most observers don't think Owens would have much of a chance, given the fact that he represents much of the same district as does Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight. They believe Saunders probably wouldn't get the nod because he would take orders from Black. The thinking still prevails that Hugh Holliman still has the edge. If Black steps down, Speaker Pro Tem Richard Morgan would assume the podium, something the Dems don't want.

Seasoned observers tell us to watch the Black caucus to see which way the wind is blowing. With 18 members, they hold the cards.

Note the comments about Rep. Billy Owens from Elizabeth City. Bill was almost as influential as Culpepper. It will be interesting to watch. Be sure that Eastern NC will be involved in the fight somehow

More snaps from Abu Ghraib - General - News - smh.com.au

These are not for the weak of heart. If blood makes you queasy then then don't view these photos. If you want to see the truth of American policy then click.
More snaps from Abu Ghraib - General - News - smh.com.au: "Some of the 60 previously unpublished photographs that the US Government has been fighting to keep secret in a court case with the American Civil Liberties Union."
About 15 of the pictures are available in this slideshow. This is what happens when you abandon your principals and decided that it is important to win at any cost. The same mentality that encourages this behavior leads to warrantless domestic spying. The really sad thing is that most experienced interrogators will tell you that this type of torture does not help get accurate information from prisoners. It gets you whatever the prisoner thinks you want so you will stop the toture.
I will grant that these photos are not recent. They were taken several years ago and yet reports circulating as late as Monday indicate that this was not an isolated incident and that inhumane treatment of prisoners may still be going on at Guantanamo Bay.

N&O: Options sought on cheap housing

Carrboro has a requirement that new subdivisions and multifamily projects must provide affordable housing as part of the project. The N&O reports that one developer is having a problem fitting this into his plans so he has suggested a diffferent approach:

O'Dwyer's plans call for 18 units -- 10 single family homes and 8 townhouses -- to be built on 8.65 acres along Hillsborough Road where it meets with Old Fayetteville Road.

He said allowing 15 percent affordable housing in Carrboro Greens would actually create a loss for him. And with the topography of the land, he said he can't combine the units in any other way and still yield the best outcome.

Instead, to show his support of keeping housing affordable in Carrboro, O'Dwyer offered to donate 2.5 percent of the sale price or appraised value of each unit to the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust or to some other program that helps increase affordability.

He projects that the contribution would come out to be about $162,000.

This is a approach that might work well in Dare County, rather than try to shoehorn homes into areas where the market doesn't generate them, why not charge a fee per house and use the money to build provide workforce housing either through ownership or rental subsidies. Nags Head averages around 100 new homes each year. I think the number for the county is around 500 let each home contribute $1,000 and you have a half million dollars real quick. That could supplement a lot of rent. A larger fee could do even more.
The fee could be scaled to bedrooms or house size if there are complaints about equity. This system is probably more palatable than adding about a half of a cent to the county tax rate which would raise about the same money ($750,000). We hear constant complaints about the affordablity of housing in Dare County but no one has a plan to do something about it. Levying a fee and passing it on to the Outer Banks Community Development Corp. would be a good place to start solving the problem.

Intersting contrast

Two stories from the Gulf region caught my eye this morning. Seemingly unrelated but the contrast is striking. The NYT reports that changes to the tax laws regarding royalties for oil companies will result in major oil companies avoiding paying about $65 billion in oil and gas royalties over the next several years. This results from incentives granted during the Clinton years to promote oil exploration and all seems perfectly legal and proper. But it does contrast with the next story.

Thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina became transients again on Monday, wheeling their entire lives onto the street on luggage carts or dragging bulging garbage bags through hotel lobbies, when the federal government stopped paying their hotel bills.

Again NYT reports that yesterday saw aid ended for many families displace by Hurricane Katrina who have been staying in hotels. Many have been left homeless even though they knew this change was coming. The Bush administration first deadline for this move was about a week before Christmas. Someone in the administration may have realized that the image of storm victims being turned out of there hotels on the eve of our great religious holiday might not helped the Presidents 39% approval rating.

Anyway, here we have the government stopping support for hurricane victims while giving away enough money to rebuild New Orleans and put sand on Nags Head beaches. And don't think they don't intend this action. Congress wants to tax the oil companies on their windfall profits generated by the sharp rise in gas prices. But...

By contrast, the White House bluntly promised to veto the Senate's $60 billion tax cut bill because it contained a one-year tax of $5 billion on profits of major oil companies.

Enough ranting. Federal funds are tight. People need relief from storm damage. People need protection from storm damage. Who does the Bush administration take care of the oil companies.

I made it all the way this far without any jokes about VP Cheney's hunting accident. If you want to read all the questions and innuendo about this incident check out Direland.

Avian Flu in Africa and European Union

Two articles in the NYT hailed the expansion of Avian Flu into new frontiers. First Africa as reports of Nigeria come in about the slaughter of 40,000 birds in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease. The reports that the flu has shown up in the EU for the first time, with cases in Greece and Italy. A couple of points that are relevant to the OBX.

It is being carried by migrating birds, so all countries on their flight paths are vulnerable.

We have lots of migrating birds and Eastern NC is home to a huge poultry industry. An appearance in local birds would be devastating to the local agricultural interests. Further an outbreak in humnas could have an impact on tourism in general.
Finally a nationwide or global pandemic could mean travel controls similar to the SARS incident. What impact with this have on foreign tourists and perhaps more importantly on the foreign students who now make up so much of the work force in the summer months. It seems a distant menace but one we need to be wary of it. A major outbreak could have direct local effects as well as the potential for worldwide disaster.

Nothing shelled out for beaches newsobserver.com

Good artticle at newsobserver.com explaining how the beach nourishment for Dare COunty was handled in the Presidents budget. Basically there was no money and the towns (KDH and NH) and the county are working to get the congress to "earmark" budget funds for the project, which is the same approach other parts of the state are using. The article talks about water lapping under homes in Nags Head.

Burrus chosen as Hatteras Commisionner

The Executive Committee of the Dare County Democratic Party chose former Board of Education member Alan Burrus to succeed Joseph "Mac" Midgett on the Dare County Board of Commissioners. Midgett died in early January after being hospitalized for injuries sustained in a fall. Burrus served 3 terms on th Dare County Board of Education ending in 2002 (I think thats riight).
The meeting to pick the successor was held at the Dare County Justice Center on Roanoke Island. Representatives from all the precincts attended. The 3 announced candidates Burrus, Chris Hardee and Scott Legett gave brief statements. Committee members asked questions that focussed on beach nourishment (all 3 support) to services on Hatteras Isalnd and how best to bind the county together.
The vote was not close with Burrus getting a substantial majority on the first ballot.
OB Sentinel described the run up to the selection

Results from the Referendum

Here are the final numbers from the vote on the repeal of the 1% sales tax for beach nourishment.

Yes (repeal tax)	5363	78%
No (retain tax)	1531	22%

About a 30% turn out, as I had predicted. The margin was somewhat larger than I had expected altthough the outcome was not a surprise.

In Nags Head the margin was more on the order of Yes 63%, No 37%. Kitty Hawk also was closer than the county average. No particular surprise since both of these area suffer from severe problems with erosion.

Next question what does the County do about beach nourishment. They are about to get pushed to support a lobbying campaign for the federal money, they also may soon be asked to provide money to help a Nags Head locally funded project if federal money is not forthcoming soon.
The supporters of repeal have been making threats about the political future of the supporters of beach nourishment, particularly Chairman Stan White who warned the if the referendum passed voters could expect property tax hikes to fund beach nourishment.

Dare County and Nags Head #1 again

In a report released today the conservative policy analysts of the John Locke Foundation again ranked Dare County and Nags Head the best in their respective categories. They released their annual analysis of tax burden per capita,John Locke Foundation | By The Numbers 2006: What Government Costs in North Carolina Cities and Counties . This report calculates the amount of local revenue divided by a county or communities permanent population. Since Nags Head has a very low permanent population but a large service population in the summer this ratio is very high, almost 15% higher than the next town in our category (towns 1,000 to 4,999). All of Dare County towns ranked in the top ten in their category with 2 firsts (KDH and NH), a second (Manteo), 2 thirds (KH and Duck). Southern Shores lagged behind at 7th in that Nags Head lead. This means that new Mayor Don Smith now heads a town with one of the largest per capita tax burdens in the state. Shame on you Mayor Smith.
In defense of the authors they have included some disclaimer. This year the refer to Dare Counties summer tourist population and in past years they have identified coastal communities as special cases due to the difference between permanent population and service population.

They also point the finger where it really belongs to the legislature in Raleigh:

“Taxpayers are paying an increasing share of their income to city and county governments in North Carolina, for a variety of reasons,” said Chad Adams, CLI director and a Lee County commissioner. “One of the causes has been the willingness of officials in Raleigh to balance the state budget by imposing additional costs on local government or taking away their traditional revenue streams.”

Here is a comparison. Nags residents pay over twice the local taxes that Charlotte residents pay:
Nags Head Dare $5,191.51
Charlotte Mecklenburg $2,185.13

Interstingly, the press release announcing the report doesn't even give Nags Head credit for the highest combine ratio in the state. It fails to mention either NH or Dare County instead focusing on the evil city of Charlotte.

Phelps returns Ring (FINALLY)

I posted about this story back in early Jan. Briefly, ECU dean of archeology digs in Buxton Woods, finds large Indian site, finds a gold ring at the indian site that probably came from the Lost Colony (not the play the real original settlers) BIG DEAL, really big find. Prof. retires, takes ring with him to Florida, ECU wants ring back Prof. procrastinates, as Professors do.
So now we learn that David Phelps has returned the ring to ECU. Lets hope we all get to see it very soon. It is a remarkable link to the very earliest days of tourism on the Outer Banks (sorry but thats easier to spell than colonial exploitation). Actually it would be neat to see the ring and wonder about the contact between the Indians and the settlers. Was it given or taken by force or found some time after the settlement collapsed. If it was given what was the exchange, how much contact was there. What happened to the Lost Colony? Anyway this is a good thing and maybe Dr. Phelps will write us his notes soon so we can learn more.
Here is the story of the Lost Colony from the NPS.

Beach Nourishment News from here to Brunswick County.

OB Sentinel Letters and Beach nourishment artcle

Sentinel's article on Beach Nourishment
Interesting debate between Andy Coburn of Duke (a Pilkey guy) and the facts in the form of Spencer Rogers of UNC Sea Grant. The seminal point from Progers:,

he [Rogers]worked with beach communities to evaluate oceanfront erosion-related damage in the wake of hurricanes Dennis and Floyd. Rogers was particularly interested in the aftermath of nourishment projects in Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure beaches. These beaches experienced Hurricane Floyd's highest storm surge which was considered a 75-year surge event...Rogers’ study states that, "Not a single building was threatened behind the rebuilt dunes along these three projects. The beach nourishment and dunes proved to do exactly what was intended -- protect the communities from hurricane-related erosion."

You can say beach nourishment doesn't work but here is the proof. .It can provide enhance protection from storm damage. That is a big part of why we need it.The article comes starts with the old saw that erosion isn't a problem for the beach but for the buildlngs. That's wonderful but the bulidlings don't care either. Its really a problem for people because of the relationship between the beach, the buidlings and the future fo the community. It is a community decision. With current state regualtions regarding sandbags and beach bulldozing the idea that there will always be a usable beach is just wrong. Where is the usable beach in front of the house in the photo. That house still sits in the same relationship to the ocean. Beach nourishment will change that. If you don't want beach nourishment are you really ready to accept that over the next 50 years about one third of the northern beaches tax base will be destroyed by erosion and unless the rules change there will be sandbags along the entire oceanfront. Just aksing
No position from the Sentinel but over all not too bad an artcile
Too mamy letters to the editor to comment on all but in answer to Browning who is "insulted by the arrogance of developers and real estate agents who are pushing and propagandizing to keep the sales tax increase for beach nourishment. " Yes the sales tax revenues could be used to replace sound bulkheads and deal with erosion problems on the Soundside. The revenue is pledged to :Shoreline Management: and that includes both the ocean and the estuarine shore line.

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Corps negotiations stall Ocean Isle sand project

The Brunswick Beacon reports that negotioations beween the COE and Great Lakes Dredging over the cost and volume of sand to renourish beaches in Ocean Isle have fallen through and there is now no chance the project will begin before Nov. 1.

Negotiations between the corps and the one bidding contractor faltered last week, and the sand cannot be distributed until at least Nov. 1, Town Administrator Daisy Ivey and Mayor Debbie Smith announced Tuesday.

The size of the dredge needed for the project appears to be the issue.

Report Card

Getting up early is wonderful. You get a chance to just browse. Found a new NC group. Democracy-NC This is a group dedicated to cleaning up politics in NC. Particularly as it relates to money in elections. Campaign financing is the biggest problem in government today. It has a corrupting influence throughout local, state and national government and is undermining citizens confidence in their governments. Few people today think government decisions are made based on the best interests of the governed and the worst part is that they are probably correct.
You can read the Report Card and see what you think. Here is a blurb from the press release:

"“Jim Black is clearly at the vortex of the swirl of the state and federal investigations proceeding on multiple fronts,” said Hall. “But the report card shows there are other positive and negative reasons, unrelated to Black, for considering 2005 the year that could open the door for significant legislation affecting ethics, lobbying, and campaign financing.”"

State of the Onion

Onions smell, the State of the Onion address usually smells worse than that. I haven't watched many SOTU addresses over the year. Didn't watch Clinton's don't usually watch Bush ( though I did see him lie about uranium from Niger). One of my favorite blogs did a nice analysis of the SOTU address Here is an example of how they debunk W's bull.
Example:

SOTU: Bush Pushes Two Hijacker Myth

Bush said: "We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al-Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know their plans until too late."

FACT - WE KNEW THE TERRORISTS WERE THERE BEFORE THE ATTACKS. BUREAUCRATIC PROBLEM, NOT SURVEILLANCE LAW, WAS THE REASON THEY WERE NOT DETAINED: Cheney made the same claim a couple of weeks ago, and the Washington Post debunked it:

But Cheney did not mention that the government had compiled significant information on the two suspects before the attacks and that bureaucratic problems - not a lack of information - were primary reasons for the security breakdown, according to congressional investigators and the Sept. 11 commission. Moreover, the administration had the power to eavesdrop on their calls and emails, as long as it sought permission from a secret court that oversees clandestine surveillance in the United States.

The bigger problem was that the FBI and other agencies did not know where the two suspects - Cheney's office confirmed that he was referring to Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar - were living in the United States and had missed numerous opportunities to track them down in the 20 months before the attacks, according to the Sept. 11 commission and other sources.

Sometimes you just have to wonder how much the country can stand. Between the incompetence of the Bush bureaucracy the budget busting deficits and the corrupt politics of Karl Rove et.al. We are sinking into a moral quagmire that we may not escape from. Where is the honest leader on the national scene. Certainly it is not the our current president.
Take some time comparing the words of Bush with the reality of the Administrations actions. It is frightening.