RC Soles Update

(Photo courtesy of StarNews)

Readers here knew there would be an RC Soles update at some point in time.  We’ll have to update the Ola Lewis file soon as well, but for now, let’s stick with RC.

(WWAY) Earlier this week a judge gave B.J. Wright a nearly $4 million bond. On his way out of the courtroom Wright reportedly told a bailiff, “I’ll be home by Christmas.” But today he found out he won’t be going home any time soon.

After years of gaining notoriety for his run-ins with the law, Wright is on the fast track to prison. Thursday, he pleaded guilty to crimes including cocaine possession, running from police, harassment of a juror and obstruction of justice.  District Attorney Jon David says Wright was sentenced to between 12.5 and more than 17 years behind bars.

BJ was one of the small group of young men with close ties to former Senator RC Soles.  While Soles claims to have had mentoring relationships with many of these folks, the preponderance of them ended up being involved in drugs, property crimes, assaults and a number of other tragic life decisions.  The former senator was not present at the sentencing and was unable to influence this outcome.  One has to wonder if BJ will ever want to talk in greater detail about Soles.

Additional stories on Allen Strickland, Kyle Blackburne, and Stacey Scott will appear at some point in the future.

Wasteful Solar Costing You Money!

This isn’t a post about how horrid solar power is mainly because it isn’t horrible or bad.  It’s interesting, but still VERY expensive and worth noting how badly public policy misses that point.

America spent $72 billion on alternative energy in the last four years, a 14,000% increase, and all we got to show for it was bankruptcies and new tariffs on China – and China was the only part of the solar equation that made economic sense, so why Energy Secretary Stephen Chu declared we were in a ‘race’ with them over cheap solar panels is a mystery. 

But wait!

Rather than spend money making older buildings more energy efficient, which has a guaranteed benefit in both emissions and money, California has instead given rebates and subsidies for businesses and homeowners and the state forces utilities to buy the electricity at full price.

Christopher Martin and Mark Chediak at the San Francisco Chronicle note that San Diego Gas&Electric will be shifting about $200 million in annual costs to customers without panels. Solar customers “avoid charges, not just for energy, but also the costs of the transmission and distribution system. That’s why we say it is not sustainable,” Dan Skopec, vice president of regulatory affairs for San Diego’s Sempra Energy, the utility’s owner, told them.  

Martin and Chediak say Pacific Gas  &  Electric will pass on about $700 million in annual costs to people without solar systems while Southern California Edison will hit people with about $400 million annually – $1.3 billion from just three utilities.

SOooo. . the cost of solar is really hurting people who can least afford it.  But it just feels good to say you support it and feeling good is apparently better than actually being good.

Leland: Not In My Back Yard

The town of Leland has decided against allowing a developer to build apartments within walking distance of a supermarket after residents (whose neighborhoods could also have been protested prior to development) protested:

About 100 residents of Magnolia Greens and Waterford packed Leland’s Town Hall to oppose the amendment, which could have led to an apartment development near the Harris Teeter and Goodwill store on Olde Regent Way.

Did the developer meet city planning and zoning regulations?  Yes!  Did they spend lots of invested resources getting to that point?  Yes!  Were the folks who invested their time and energy  and money into this project told it was could be rejected just due to opionins?  Maybe

Leland‘s Town Council unanimously rejected a controversial text amendment Monday evening that would have created a mutlifamily exceptional design district and let an apartment complex be built near Waterford.

“Exceptional design district” and they met the criteria to be there, but won’t be allowed to.  The price of regulations in an uncertain market are already high, but the price of biased opinion is worse.  Leland has a golden opportunity (along with Belville, Navassa and Sandy Creek) to become an economic powerhouse that would rival and might surpass Wilmington over the next two decades, but decisions like this make it unlikely.  Instead of learning from Wilmington’s mistakes, they seem to be interested in simply repeating them.