Archive for North Carolina
Chris Dixon, candidate for State Senate District 48, highlights this good economic news:
“The Asheville Tribune” Touts Benefits of Federal, State, and Local Economic Stimulus
As the Democratic candidate for State Senate District 48 (Buncombe, Henderson, and Polk counties), I have made local job creation my #1 campaign issue. It was the loss of the Volvo plant in Arden in December of 2009 that spurred me to run. So, I was heartened to see the following headline in The Asheville Tribune (Aug. 26-Sept. 1, 2010): “Fletcher company to offer 100 new jobs in expansion plan.”
This is surely good news for a town in the heart of my district, and the page 3 article gives plenty of encouraging details. All told, brake manufacturer Continental Teves will add 388 jobs in “three to four years,” doubling the plant’s workforce to 625 workers. This will more than replace the 250 jobs shed by Volvo—mostly to unionized plants in Pennsylvania.
However, the most interesting commentary in the article follows:
(Kathryn) Blackwell (corporate spokesperson in Auburn Hills, MI) said brake-making has perked up since deciding a year ago to expand the Fletcher facility. “Then we had two major customers (G.M., Chrysler) coming out of bankruptcy, with no sign of light at the end of the tunnel. But at this point, we’re seeing volumes picking up considerably—beyond most experts’ analysis.”
North American auto production is 25 percent above industry projections this year, Blackwell said, with Detroit’s Big Three needing brakes and other parts. “This is the first good news we’ve had in over two years.”
The article goes on to mention that the Fletcher expansion beat out plants in Europe and Mexico thanks to what Blackwell describes as “Fletcher and Henderson County tax incentives and a state grant of up to $2.2 million.”
Hmmm. Let’s see. GM and Chrysler are still in business thanks to a federal intervention. The Wall Street Journal’s Detroit bureau chief declared, “…President Obama’s auto industry initiatives are working and the president is entitled to take a bow, no matter how much that might pain conservatives.” Henderson County’s all-Republican board of county commissioners conspired with the Fletcher town council and the Democratic administration of Gov. Bev Perdue to bestow various economic incentives upon Continental Teves.
How long before we see a Tea Party protest at the plant gate? Surely, they won’t sit idley by as socialism and economic bipartisanship (the horror!) gain a foothold in Fletcher.
This is what we need more of–a lot more!
WSJ link: http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703999304575399670446387614.html
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Chris Dixon for NC Senate
PO Box 1913
Skyland, NC 28776
(828) 290-9710
“Let’s send a NEW voice to Raleigh.”
More of that, please.
Lots to discuss. RCP ranking the NC-11 race a toss-up. Speaker? Jobs fair. Miller Ad. Buncombe’s jilted progressives. BCGOP shenanigans.
Shuler’s votes on energy, environment, education, and labor look great. Shuler’s votes on health care and civil rights don’t. GOP’s lame attempts to again tie him to a demonized Pelosi look silly.
Heath Shuler is monied, and Jeff Miller is not. The Asheville Tea Party decided not to endorse Miller, so the WNCGOP formed their own Tea Party to make sure he got a Tea Party endorsement of some sort. The Buncombe GOP is putatively leaderless. The Buncombe Dems have a lot of energy, but will they have vols? Can Susan Fisher, Patsy Keever, and Jane Whilden coattails translate into votes for Heath?
I can’t wait to hear everyone’s take on the race. Fire away in the comments. You can bet that both campaigns will be reading.
Disclaimer – I am definitely voting for Rep. Heath Shuler.
From an email sent by Drew Reisinger, Campaign Manager for the inimitable Patsy Keever:
The Buncombe County Democratic Party Executive Committee voted to recommend Patsy Keever to fill the North Carolina House of Representatives District 115 seat recently vacated by former Rep. Bruce Goforth. The Committee’s recommendation will be sent to Governor Perdue for her signature and official appointment of Keever to serve the remainder of the term.
Read More→
From the most excellent Alan Escovitz:
Please join us on this Sunday, August 29th, from 1:00-3:00 PM for a Picnic in the Grove Park (338 Charlotte Street) with Patsy Keever, Democratic candidate for the State Legislature, NC House District 115. We will be serving hot dogs, chips and soft drinks for everyone and you can meet and greet Patsy, an uncommon public servant with a great deal of common sense. Campaign contributions are not expected.
Patsy offers deep local experience and practical progressive ideas. As a public school teacher for 25 years, Patsy is committed to quality public education, closing achievement gaps and ensuring our next generation is well prepared for a better future. Patsy is dedicated to nurturing our natural resources for the public good and protecting our environment, and passing state-wide rules now for steep slope development.
Read the whole post. From A-B Tech’s web site:
Forty dental chairs will fill A-B Tech’s gym in the Coman Student Center next week, waiting for patients in need of a cleaning, fillings and other services. The North Carolina Dental Society will bring its Missions of Mercy, a free dental clinic for the community, to A-B Tech’s Asheville campus from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug 13 and 14.
If you or someone you know has a dental condition they have been putting off having treated (for lack of funds), get down to the A-B Tech gymnasium early tomorrow. We’ve covered clinics like these for awhile now, here, here, here and here. And as you don’t need reminding, the need for them isn’t going away any time soon.
Congressman Heath Shuler’s office sent out this press release today. He’ll be visiting the clinic tomorrow:
For Immediate Release
August 13, 2010
Contact: Julie Fishman
office: (202) 225-6401 / cell: (202) 731-5114
***MEDIA ADVISORY***
For Saturday, August 14, 2010
Rep. Shuler, Honorary Chair of North Carolina Dental Society’s Mission of Mercy free dental clinic, to Attend the Clinic
Washington, D.C. – On Saturday, August 14th, U.S. Representative Heath Shuler (D-Waynesville) will attend and show his support for the North Carolina Dental Society’s Mission of Mercy (NCMOM) free dental clinic. NCMOM will set up a mobile dental clinic, including sterilization, digital x-rays, and supplies. Over the course of two days, as many as 1000 people are expected to be treated, and more than $500,000 worth of dental treatment will be donated.
What: Mission of Mercy Free Dental Clinic
Who: U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, NC Dental Society, Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministries, Eblen Charities, A-B Tech
When: The event takes place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Aug. 13 and 14
(Rep. Shuler be present at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 14th)
Where: A-B Tech’s Asheville Campus, in the gym at the Coman Student Center
Background (From the NC Dental Society):
The North Carolina Missions of Mercy (NCMOM) portable free dental program is an outreach program of the North Carolina Dental Society. The program is sponsored by the North Carolina Dental Health Fund. Since its beginning seven years ago, the program has received national and statewide recognition. The North Carolina Dental Health Fund is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization whose mission is “To provide free dental services to those in financial need with few or no other options”. The goals of the program are to:
- Provide free dental care to as many under served persons within North Carolina as is possible.
- Involve as much of the dental community of the state in the treatment of the under served as is possible.
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(Scrutiny Hooligans is honored to host a post from our Democratic Representative for NC House District 114, Susan Fisher. You can learn more about Susan at her website. While you’re connecting with her, click here for her Facebook page and here for her Twitter page.
We’re grateful to have our legislators participate here at ScruHoo, and I hope you’ll drop a comment to let Susan know that you’re grateful too.)
As families across the state get ready for the 2010-2011 school year, probably one of the last things on their mind is sex education.
But if we want our children to finish school and stay healthy, we need to think about sex ed.
Parents of girls should know that pregnancy is the number one reason that girls drop out of school – 30% of all girls who drop out quit because of pregnancy or parenting. Back in 2007, I co-chaired the Joint Legislative Commission on Dropout Prevention through which I became more convinced than ever that if we are to support girls in graduating from high school, we must prevent teen pregnancies.
In terms of protecting our children’s health, it is dangerous and short-sighted not to pay attention to sex ed. A recent report from DHHS reveals shocking statistics from the first half of this year in North Carolina. The report shows that in Buncombe County alone, 433 cases of chlamydia were reported in the first six months of this year (I was shocked to learn that this number is considered low compared to Mecklenburg County’s more than 3300 cases). Across the state, a graph of sexually transmitted infections (STI) by age shows a nearly perfect bell curve with 15-19 year olds squarely in the middle.
While Buncombe County’s sex education program has been ahead of the curve in terms of providing info about STI transmission and protection, I believe the disturbing statistics that show young people bearing the burden of STI’s across the state are the result of the bare-bones, non-medically-accurate, head-in-the-sand policies that have dominated the way that sex ed is delivered to our young people in NC public schools for the past 20 years.
Enter the Healthy Youth Act taking effect this school year in public schools across North Carolina. I was proud to sponsor this legislation that for the first time in two decades mandates that students in grades 7-9 receive information about both abstinence and other medically accurate, science-based, age-appropriate ways to protect themselves from sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy.
I am grateful for all of the work of parents, students, and community members to help pass this legislation this year, giving our students a fighting chance at graduating from high school and staying healthy.
I am looking forward to checking that DHHS report this time next year – I believe that we will see numbers that are less grim and more reflective of what happens when young people are empowered with information to make safe, healthy decisions.”
Another dead factory in Morganton, NC
One of the great things you can say about Asheville is how many people — natives and new residents — are eager to do good for the community. Many are socially conscious investors. If only they could put their money to work doing good in struggling local communities…
On Tuesday, Gov. Beverly Perdue signed North Carolina’s new L3C law that encourages social entrepreneurship. Durham native, political consultant David Gergen, has called social entrepreneurship “the most important movement since the civil rights movement.”
So now I’m eager to hear how I can contribute to one of these social entrepreneurship ventures in our region. I mean, hey, if we aren’t committed enough to attracting manufacturing investment in Buncombe, fine. I’ll take my money to Burke, Catawba or Caldwell Counties and put it to work there.
From Thursday’s Hickory Daily Record:
The bill creates a new type of legal entity known as the “L3C” that is a type of limited liability company designed to attract private foundation money for the revitalization of endangered manufacturing enterprises, thereby providing well-paying jobs in high unemployment areas.
Foundations are required to pay out 5 percent of their net worth annually to maintain their tax-exempt status.
[The bill's principal sponsor, Sen. Jim Jacumin] said the L3C law will help industries such as furniture and textiles to return to North Carolina because the foundation setup will change a manufacturer’s cost structure to allow a company to flourish even with low profits.
From what I’ve heard from Jacumin and others, this is more than a pipe dream. One foundation has something already in the works, but I’m still trying to get details. This report from Americans for Community Development explains how it’s supposed to work:
Read More→
You miss things being out of town so much. Like this Citizen-Times LTE from Jane Robinson that a friend put me on to:
Several weeks ago there was mention that Forsyth County and Winston-Salem were negotiating with Caterpillar Inc. to build a parts plant for large mining machines that would eventually employ approximately 500 workers, with an average wage expected to be in excess of $40,000. This weekend, the AC-T confirmed that the plant will be built….
With the closure of the Arden Volvo plant in March of this year, a 400,000-square-foot facility, designed for this type of manufacturing became available along with workforce of over 220 people already trained and ready to go in the area. We feel certain many of these same people are either still unemployed, underemployed or had to leave the area to find employment. There was not any mention in the paper that there was an attempt to bring that operation here. Where were the leaders of Asheville, Buncombe County, and AdvantageWest Economic Development Group? Why was Caterpillar not courted to take advantage of an almost turnkey operation? An explanation would be appreciated.
Don’t hold your breath, Jane.
Caterpillar plans to make heavy truck axles in Winston-Salem. Locally, Volvo’s heavy equipment assembly plant is gone and investors right now are bearish on ArvinMeritor. The company did, however, just receive a “$2.2 million state tax credit over seven years” from hard-hit Michigan to create jobs in Troy that it won’t be creating in WNC where (before sending the line to Mexico) ArvinMeritor once made — wait for it — heavy truck axles.
But then, you know by now that we just cannot compete for such jobs in WNC. It’s a matter of oh, I don’t know, not enough land or lack of state incentives or how we can’t compete with foreign local labor, South North Carolina or, um, lack of local will and the right talent?
from Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, where smoking indoors and “cigarette girls” are still permitted, where the ATM machines spit out hundred dollar bills, and where if the “Nutroots” criticize Democrats, Rush Limbaugh says it’s like “Hezbollah going after Hamas.”
We came all this way to bump into NC Democratic candidate for US Senate, Elaine Marshall. This afternoon Democracy for America’s Jim Dean posed with Elaine wearing one of our Elaine tee-shirts made by “On A Roll.”
Great media training just now with Joel Silberman.
It’s not Belle Chere, but it’s pretty colorful.
