Representative Sue Myrick supports 287(g), which allows Mecklenburg and Gaston County law enforcement officials to play with ICE-- Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that is.

Though it's thought the program was intended to remove dangerous criminals — who also happen to be undocumented immigrants (and usually Latino) — from Charlotte streets, it also allows the sheriff's office to keep poor records, arrest undocumented immigrants for routine traffic violations, attempt to deport them and blow smoke up the community's collective ass.

Now Rep. Myrick is upset because the program is being questioned by the Obama administration.

State and local leaders who implemented a federal program in Mecklenburg County that identifies jailed illegal immigrants rushed to its defense Monday after a congressional report criticized it for targeting minor offenders instead of the serious criminals it was designed to catch.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican who helped bring the program to Mecklenburg, said the report by the Government Accountability Office is biased and unfair. She said it could be a sign that the federal government is softening its stance on illegal administration.

“The administration, I'm concerned, is laying the ground work frankly to gut the 287(g) program,” Myrick said in a press conference at the county jail. “And this to me says we're giving up on the fight on illegal immigration. Period.”

Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.

Further reading:

"Report: Deportation program nets minor offenders. Mecklenburg sheriff data shows more immigrants have been arrested on traffic charges than on felonies." This article, also by The Charlotte Observer, can be read here.

Jim Rogers, Duke Power's CEO, is still pouting about not being appointed Energy Secretary.

Jim Rogers has a new opponent in the battle over reducing carbon emissions: Barack Obama.

The Duke Energy Corp. chief executive has quickly become a vocal — and highly visible — critic of the cap-and-trade proposal the president included in the budget he submitted to Congress last week.

Rogers calls Obama’s idea a “cap-and-tax” plan rather than the cap-and-trade approach supported by Duke and others seeking a compromise on environmental issues.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.

You know how, when people are in trouble, they'll re-tell their story over and over again, hoping it sticks and you'll see the situation through their tinted glasses, letting go of your own good sense and shrugging off the reason you were ticked at them in the first place; hoping if they talk long enough you'll just tune them out, nodding in agreement, praying they'll shut up?

That's what this makes me think of:

The story of our economic crisis mirrors every great market bubble in history. Clearly, banks were key participants, but they were not alone. Mortgage lenders, borrowers, regulators, policy makers, appraisers, rating agencies, investors and investment bankers all played a role in pushing economic excesses forward. The institutions that gave in completely to the frenzy are no longer with us. Those that balanced the need to compete with the need to lend prudently survive today and are helping to stabilize the system.

Read the rest of Ken Lewis' Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal here.

North Carolina entrepreneurs are being awarded lucrative grants, looking forward to next year's tax credits and hoping their idea will be the one that helps "meet the state's renewable-energy mandate, the first in the Southeast when legislators approved it in 2007."

Even homeowners are creating renewable energy, able to "sell renewable-energy “credits” to N.C. GreenPower, a nonprofit group."

For all the headaches in running a small hydroelectric power plant, Allen Haneline doesn't regret joining North Carolina's ranks of minor energy moguls.

“What it takes,” he said, “is someone who loves the outdoors and likes to get wet. You get wet about every day.”

Beaver-gnawed sticks float down the Lower Little River northeast of Hickory and wrap around Haneline's circa-1919 turbines, the guts of a plant he bought three years ago. “You can literally see the kilowatts fall,” he said, sniffling after a recent repair.

As owner, operator and chief mechanic, he dons waders, descends into a room below the dam that leaks water with the force of a fire hose, and sets to work. Cleared of debris, the turbines whirl again and pollution-free electricity races off to Duke Energy's lines.

Haneline is among a rising number of N.C. entrepreneurs hoping to wrestle energy – and profits – from the sun, wind, water and organic wastes.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.

If you're interested in this grant opportunity, you must hurry. The deadline for state arts agencies and regional arts organizations is March 13 and the deadline for non-profits is April 2. The good news: The funding will be expedited, too. Awards will be announced in April and July.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Today, the National Endowment for the Arts announces the availability of grant guidelines for The Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5 ("Recovery Act"). This opportunity was created in response to passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes $50 million to assist the nonprofit arts sector through funding to the National Endowment for the Arts. The new program will fund projects that focus on the preservation of jobs in the arts.

Read more of this press NEA press release here.

And, you can thank NASCAR's recent layoffs...

The Charlotte region is on a short list for Carbon Motors Corp.’s planned 1,300-employee, $350 million headquarters, where the startup company plans to make a futuristic police cruiser.

Company executives were here this week to look at sites, says Jeff Edge, senior vice president of economic development for the Charlotte Chamber. “Part of our pitch is the fact that roughly 1,000 folks have been disengaged from the motorsports industry in the last year,” Edge says. Those workers have the engineering and assembly skills that could be utilized by Carbon Motors, he says.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article here.

But, this isn't a depression, unless, of course, you're the one in line.

Central Piedmont Community College will be hosting a job fair on Friday, and thousands of people are expected to attend.

Fifty businesses are registered to attend the event, including Time Warner Cable, Carowinds, McDonald's and Presbyterian Hospital.

The Employers Association in Charlotte surveyed 431 companies around the city, and 42 percent reported having to lay off employees last year. Another 29 percent said they think they’ll have to cut more jobs this year.

Read the rest of this News14 article here.