The drought bill, money in politics and surgery
H 2499, a bill aimed at letting the state government better manage through a drought, became law today. Gov. Mike Easley signed the thing during a news conference this morning. (Click here for the release.)
The new law gives the state more powers to tell local communities to create drought management plans and use them should it look like the state is hitting a dry spell – like the one we’re in right now.
Easley was asked if he would have liked to have seen anything else in the bill or if there are additional steps the state ought to be saying. He said no, he had gotten what he wanted out of it.
But House Speaker Joe Hackney weighed in: “I just want to say this is a good first step, but there’s a lot of water wasted in North Carolina and we need to do something about that as we go forward. An example, are our leaky pipes in almost every municipality or water system in the state.”
Click here for audio from that.
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As the drought bill was going through the General Assembly, there was a lot of discussion over private wells and what exactly the state could or should do to encourage the owners of those wells to conserve. So what changed in the final bill, Easley was asked.
Not much, Easley said. The state really can’t do anything now that it couldn’t do a day ago.
Click here for audio from that.
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After the drought talk, Easley went off topic for a while. He was asked about national independent expenditure groups spending money in North Carolina gubernatorial campaign between Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. The state, Easley said, had done it’s best to keep 527s at bay, but the courts have ruled you can shut them out entirely.
“The truth of the matter is the squirrel always finds a way into the bird feeder.”
Click here for audio from that.
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At the end of the news conference, Easley was asked about his shoulder and why it wasn’t in a sling.
“There’s always some specific moment you remember that really made one of the shoulders hurt,”
Pray tell?
“When Barack Obama came, and I welcomed him, he came up on the stage and we did the little fist bump…”
Ah, so it didn’t just look awkward…go on:
“…and then he wanted go up high with that right arm, his left and my right, and he was grabbing that right shoulder. I was smiling but I was saying you know, I got to get this fixed.”
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