From our friends at ProPublica:

Since the FCC formally revealed its plan to expand broadband access on Tuesday, the idea has been generally well-received. And really, what’s there to protest so far? The plan’s stated goal is to connect “100 million households to affordable 100-megabits-per-second service, building the world’s largest market of high-speed broadband users and ensuring that new jobs and businesses are created in America.” It also stresses making broadband faster and more powerful.

So far the only group consistently cited as being the “loser” in all of this is the National Association of Broadcasters, which has expressed reservations about losing its portion of the airwaves to make room for the broadband providers. But which industry players stand to win big if the plan moves forward? Here’s what the Post reported on this point:

Mid-size broadband providers, such as TW Telecom and Cbeyond, are shaping up to be the plan’s biggest beneficiaries, gaining access to more subscribers and the rights to federal funds to expand their networks. Makers of network equipment, such as Cisco, and creators of Web-based content, such as Google, could also experience significant boosts in their business. And cellphone carriers could reap big gains from a proposal to allocate a large chunk of airwaves for the next generation of smartphones and portable devices.

The Post went on to draw a distinction between midsize and major providers:

Major providers, such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon Communications, would gain broader subscriber bases, but they could be forced to share their wireless and fixed-wire networks with smaller rivals, exposing them potentially to stiffer competition.

These major providers, while they’re now giving statements of tentative support to the press—with caveats advocating less regulation—are the same ones who’ve been pushing for this kind of proposal for years.

A letter the providers sent to lawmakers in July 2008 details their support. In the letter (PDF), AT&T and Verizon urged Congress to enact legislation to expand broadband access. The letter’s 31 signatories included major broadband providers, but also groups as wide-ranging as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, American Association of People with Disabilities, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and U.S. Cattlemen’s Association.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which was the largest lobbying group in the entertainment industry in 2009, also signed on to the letter. Comcast, also one of the biggest lobbyists in the industry, signed on too. Since the FCC announced its plan, both the cable lobbying group and Comcast executives have already written blog posts detailing how they would like the FCC to implement it. Together, the three top groups—in third, the National Association of Broadcasters, which has its concerns about the plan—spent nearly $40 million on lobbying in 2009.

And for concerned consumers, the Post points out that the plan “only sets the goal of ‘affordable’ broadband services,” but does not tackle prices through rules or caps.

BY Marian Wang: Marian.Wang@propublica.org. Follow Marian Wang on Twitter.

Learn more about ProPublica here.

Damn. It really doesn't feel like it, though, does it? And, frankly, the economy probably won't feel quite right for a while. Things sank pretty low, and we should expect the economy to take a while to rebound.

All the same, UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton says things are getting better. He's been offering Charlotte a quarterly economic forecast for years.

You can read Connaughton's economic forecast, delivered in Uptown yesterday, by clicking here.

If you'd like to attend future quarterly economic forecasts, sign up for the invite list here. (Look for the e-mail link near the bottom of the page.)

Meanwhile, this is what the Charlotte Business Journal is reporting from yesterday's meeting:

The N.C. economy should grow 3.5 percent in 2010, the first year of growth following two years of decline, according to the quarterly forecast of UNC Charlotte economist John Connaughton.

“While a modest recovery is under way, job growth is still lacking,” Connaughton says. “After two years of consistent job losses, we still haven’t seen a month of job growth either nationally or in North Carolina. Once job growth begins, it will be very slow. It’s likely to take several years for the state’s economy to replace the almost 250,000 jobs lost over the last two years of recession.”

Read the entire article here.

Not too shabby considering the city's recent attempts to re-brand itself as a green-job mecca.

Charlotte ranks No. 20 among 43 U.S. metro areas in a study of the nation’s “green cities.”

The Business Courier of Cincinnati, a sister publication of the Charlotte Business Journal, complied the Green Cities Index. It ranks metro areas based on environmental factors such as air and water quality, traffic congestion, transit use, carbon emissions, the number of energy-efficient buildings and green jobs.

The Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord metropolitan statistical area ranks No. 21 among the 43 markets for congestion and No. 27 for public transportation use.

The study found that 79 percent of the region’s workers drive alone to their jobs. Only 2.3 percent of the local work force uses public transit.

The region also gets low marks because of its smog, ranking No. 33 for air quality. Charlotte’s polluted streams, creeks and rivers place the region at No. 32 for water quality.

On the positive side, Charlotte placed No. 6 for its high number — 82 — of Energy Star-rated facilities. And it ranks No. 12 for the number of properties — 41 — certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program.

The green credentials of certain local professionals also boosted the region’s overall ranking. The region rates No. 6 for its high number of LEED-accredited architects and No. 2 for LEED-accredited professionals overall.

Charlotte ranks No. 19 for generation of energy from renewable sources.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article, by Susan Stabley, here.

Charlotte's smog problem seems to be getting better, though it's a difficult problem to measure.

However, regulators can tell us there's less sulfur dioxide and nitrogen-oxide in the air, and ozone levels are responding according to plan. That's great news for all us breathers in North Carolina, don't you think?

Not only is the reduction in air pollution good for our health, it's good for our economy too. Who wants to relocate a business or their family to a city known for toxic air? Plus, if we want to continue receiving federal dollars for our pot hole-y roads, we've got to get our air quality issues under control. Good roads lead to good things; the Romans figured that one out.

Plus, I don't know about you, but a summer without "code orange" air quality warnings sounds really nice.

Keep up the good work, anti-smog legislation.

The $2.9 billion N.C. utilities will spend to obey a landmark anti-smog law has sent power-plant emissions plummeting.

But where's the proof, a conservative think tank in Raleigh asked Friday, that the money has also cleaned our air?

"I don't know if they're overstating or understating (benefits), but they don't know either," said Roy Cordato, an economist at [The John Locke Foundation]. "I just hope that their feet are held to the fire."

The N.C. Division of Air Quality countered that smog is trending steadily down, reaching the lowest point statewide on record last year. Mecklenburg County, however, still struggles to meet federal standards.

Signs of success came soon after the first controls were installed in 2005 and 2006, she said. Smog levels climbed in fewer places in the spring. Fine-particle pollution stayed within federal limits across most of the state.

Actual ozone levels now are extremely close to what computer models predicted in 2002 when the law was enacted, she said.

The act mandated a 77 percent cut in nitrogen-oxide emissions by 2009 and a 73 percent cut in sulfur dioxide by 2013. It estimated costs to utilities at $2.3 billion.

Under the state legislation, Duke Energy has reduced its sulfur-dioxide emissions by 80 percent. Nitrogen oxides fell by about half between 1997 and 2002, under a federal ozone mandate, and have dropped another 77 percent under the state legislation.

The last pieces, sulfur dioxide "scrubbers" at Duke's Cliffside power plant in Rutherford County, are being installed now, two years before a 2013 deadline.

"We're getting at the right emissions," said Kris Knudsen, a Duke Energy air-quality official.

While federal rules also required Duke to install pollution controls, Knudsen said Clean Smokestacks prompted Duke to do more and install them on a quicker schedule.

The act's total cost to Duke: $1.8 billion, $500 million of which the utility will recover through a 7 percent N.C. rate increase approved in December.

Read the entire Charlotte Observer article, by Bruce Henderson, here.

Though I realize coal ash, and the messes it's capable of causing, has only been a hot topic in the media for a little more than a year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has studied the substance for nearly three full decades, trying to determine whether or not coal ash is hazardous waste — all while attempting to dodge aggressive industry lobbyists and their road blocks. The agency's administrator, Lisa Jackson, promised to announce the agency's decision by the end of 2009. Well, Lisa, we're waiting. This crap is still unregulated, yo.

The EPA's ruling is a huge deal for Charlotte. Two of Duke Energy's high-hazard coal ash ponds are on the edge of Mountain Island Lake, just upstream from where Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities sucks 80 percent of our drinking water from, which happens to be our main drinking water reservoir.

No, it won't be cheap to clean up the contaminated groundwater and contain the coal ash, but would you rather see the problem ignored? Ummm. Arsenic. Who doesn't want a little arsenic in their water? Think about that the next time you turn on the tap.

Of course, the companies that own and maintain these ponds could step up, be good corporate citizens, and clean up their mess before the government forces them to ... just sayin'.

Meanwhile, the gripes about coal ash — and what to do with it — are still getting ink.

"I'm really concerned about my health," said retiree James Gibbs, 53, who lives near a west-central Alabama landfill that is taking the ash. "I want to plant a garden. I'm concerned about it getting in the soil." Gibbs said that since last summer there has been a "bad odor, like a natural gas odor."

After the spill, the TVA started sending as many as 17,000 rail carloads of ash almost 350 miles south to the landfill in Uniontown, Ala. At least 160 rail shipments have gone out from the cleanup site, said TVA spokeswoman Barbara Martocci.

Since the EPA approved that plan, unusually heavy rain — including about 25 inches from November through February — has forced the landfill to deal with up to 100,000 gallons a day of tainted water.

The landfill operators first sent it to wastewater treatment plants — a common way that landfills deal with excess liquid — in two nearby Alabama cities, Marion and Demopolis.

After what the EPA calls unrelated problems with ammonia in Marion, the landfill in January started using a commercial wastewater treatment plant in Mobile, Ala., 500 miles from the original spill.

A month ago, however, after a public outcry about discharging it into Mobile Bay, that company refused to take more of the landfill water.

A private treatment facility in Cartersville, Ga., also briefly took some of the befouled liquid in February, although Georgia environmental officials said Friday the company did not have a required state permit.

Hi-Tech Water Treatment Services stopped accepting wastewater from the Alabama landfill, manager Amalia Cox said, after becoming "concerned about payments and the publicity."

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management, which is paid $1 for each ton of the coal ash ...

Read the entire Associated Press article, by Bill Poovey, here.

Note: There are two other Duke-owned coal ash ponds in the Charlotte area along the Catawba River, one on Lake Norman and another in Belmont. (Read more about the Catawba Riverkeeper's struggle to protect the river, and us, here.)

Concerned? Contact the EPA and let them know.

This is what happens to a river when the dam holding a coal ash pond in place fails:

AAA's graph of gas prices is a little shocking, but definitely worth studying. Did you realize gas prices are up about 75 cents since this time last year? It's been a slow, steady increase, hardly noticeable unless you track these kinds of things or are working with an already overstretched budget.

The bad news, according to David E. Parsons, President and CEO of AAA Carolinas, “North Carolina motorists should be prepared for gasoline prices to climb upward significantly as we approach the summer travel season.”

Boo, hiss to that.

In good news, the organization's press release ends, "Barring any unforeseen circumstances or catastrophes, however, the rise should be less dramatic than past years."

Wondering why gas prices are up? The reasons are many and, frequently, complex. To sum up: We're not the only consumers who use oil in the world — there's a lot of competition out there for this finite resource. And, when the world isn't at peace (Is it ever, really?), the people who price these types of commodities worry and hedge their bets by raising prices.

Also — no surprise here — thanks to the economy and the resulting double-digit unemployment, people are driving less. Since big oil companies aren't willing to sacrifice their record-breaking profits, the solution they've sold themselves is to raise prices to protect their over-inflated bottom line.

You should also know, in the U.S., several refineries are off line for maintenance. Or, as the press release puts it, "A few refineries around the country have temporarily completely shut down production for maintenance or other various reasons, thus reducing gasoline production."

"Other various reasons."

Other various reasons like limiting supply to balance with demand in an effort to, as I mentioned before, protect the swollen bottom lines of oil companies able to boast greater cash reserves than most countries? Could be. It's difficult to say. I don't know about you, but I find explanations like "other various reasons" to be a little on the vague side of full disclosure.

In the end, our part in this financial game remains the same: If you want to drive, you have to pay the price at the pump. Of course so does CATS, so do taxi companies, so do trucking companies, so do delivery companies. So, expect other prices to swell as well.

The fact that we have state-run liquor stores is, I think, ridiculous. I can go buy a gun at the dicey pawn shop down the street but if I want a bottle of rum I have to go to a state-run store? Bullshit. There are plenty of other states that allow private liquor sales ... and you don't hear about crazy, liquor-fueled goings on from them — do you?

Here's what I want: I want to be able to pick up the liquor of my choice at the grocery store of my choice. Doesn't that make more sense than having to make a special trip to a special store during rigid hours?

Next, I want to be able to buy wine, beer and liquor anytime I want — just like I can buy lottery tickets, cigarettes, bullets and trans-fat laden foods at the closest 24-hour super store.

The way I see it, the state has no right to legislate or regulate morality. (Especially given the constant news about how moral our legislators are ... har, har, har.)

More, the state can make much more money by privatizing liquor sales. Much more. Hundreds of millions of dollars more. Given the Great Recession, privatization seems like a no-brainer.

Like anybody contemplating selling off valuables, Gov. Bev Perdue wants to know how much the state's liquor system is worth.

Perdue and Jon Williams, the state's top liquor regulator, have asked a Chicago firm to determine the value of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control warehouse in Raleigh and the 410 locally run liquor stores across the state. Valuation Research Corporation has eight weeks to deliver the report, for which the state will pay $175,000.

The company will study all aspects of liquor sales in North Carolina, including the real estate value of stores, revenues from the retail outlets and the state's distribution warehouse.

The firm's work will help inform the governor's Budget Reform Advisory Commission, which has been exploring ABC system changes that include privatization. The analysis will also likely be used by legislators when they convene in May. A special committee appointed by legislative leaders last month is also studying ways to reform the liquor system.

Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article, by Mark Johnson, here.

Some people trudge to work and trudge home, turn on the TV and zone out — accepting each day as something to survive.

Others look at life through different lenses, find different work and different ways to live and be and do. Different ways to make our world a better place.

David Johnson was tired of the Western media exploiting Africa with scenes of death and destruction while giving back little in return.

And every time he traveled overseas on summer breaks during the eight years he taught English at Providence Day School, he became more convinced that new and different stories were waiting to be told.

Three years ago, Johnson, 34, dropped his correcting pen and picked up his long-lens camera full-time to document those stories in two picture books spotlighting Africa.

His giveback – all profits go to dig wells in Sudan and provide micro-business loans to African women. His first book raised $50,000.

“I’m just kind of looking for stories that I feel aren’t being told well,” says the Charlotte Catholic High and UNC-Chapel Hill grad.

As president of the Charlotte-based nonprofit, Silent Images, Johnson has turned his lens on street children in Kenya, sex trafficking in Cambodia and homeless youth in Charlotte. His latest book, “Voice of Beauty,” spotlights African women, young and old.

“The thing I began to see through the lens of my camera was the strength, beauty and resilience the women had held on to, in spite of their conditions,” says Johnson. “No one really shows off their beauty. Of course, if you have been to Africa, you see their beauty everywhere. I want to help people come to a fresh perspective on the African woman.”

Read the rest of this Qcitymetro.com article, by Patsy Pressley, here.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was expected to rule on coal ash — re: is it a hazardous waste, or not — in December. However, the coal lobby and waste management lobby is pushing back, delaying that ruling as long as they can. (Current rumor: Ruling will come in April.)

The EPA has only been trying to determine whether or not coal ash is a hazardous waste now for, oh, about 30 years. Meanwhile, coal ash ponds soak in the groundwater table for decades, barely regulated.

Gosh. What does this sound like? The banking industry? Health care? When will we learn that we can't count on giant corporations to regulate themselves?

Environmental groups have identified serious water contamination problems caused by coal ash dumps at 31 locations in 14 states, bringing to over 100 the number of U.S. sites where damages from coal ash have been confirmed -- and strengthening the case for the release of delayed federal regulations.

The latest coal ash damage cases are documented in a new report by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project titled "Out of Control: Mounting Damages From Coal Ash Waste Sites." North Carolina has six, tying with Pennsylvania for the state with the most sites in the report. The other states where new damage cases were found are Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia, with a majority of them in the South.

At 15 of the 31 sites, arsenic and other toxic contaminants have already moved off the dump-site property at levels harmful to human health -- and 25 of the problem dumps are still actively taking coal ash today. The report notes that the contamination is concentrated in communities with family poverty rates above the national median, raising environmental justice concerns.

"These unregulated sites present a clear and present danger to public health and the environment," said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans. "If law and science are to guide our most important environmental decisions, as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has promised, we need to regulate these hazards before they get much worse."

Read the rest of this article from the Institute for Southern Studies, by Sue Sturgis, here.

Read more about the two high-hazard coal ash ponds on the edge of Charlotte's drinking water reservoir, and the person fighting to protect that water, here.

No, we don't need health care reform. Humpft. Naw. The insurance companies are looking out for our their best interests. Aren't they? Well, aren't they? I mean, I was really hoping for a 50-percent premium hike this year ... weren't you?

In this state, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, a nonprofit insurer that controls most of the state's market for individual policies, is allowed to raise those rates an average of about 12 percent this year.

But the company recently increased monthly premiums 50percent or more for some members, forcing them to drop coverage or switch to cheaper plans with fewer benefits and higher deductibles. Blue Cross blames the increases on surging costs and demand for expensive medical care and services. It sets specific rates based on age, medical history and other factors.

David Swanson, a Durham investment adviser, received new rates for his teenagers. The monthly premium for his 15-year-old son increased about 11 percent to $185.15. The rate for his 17-year-old daughter jumped 54percent, to $255.57.

When he called Blue Cross to complain, Swanson was told that premiums for young women used to increase when they turned 18. The insurer lowered the age to cover rising costs.

Read the rest of this Raleigh News & Observer article, by Alan M. Wolf, here.