• Notice how the Fat Cat is treating Uncle Sam like a baby doll? (Thanks to Marilyn Brinker for the photo.)

All right, I admit it. Sometimes when I read the big O's banking news I want to vomit*. You can almost see the newspaper petting Charlotte's darlings on the head — or maybe it's vice versa.

In this corner, we've got Charlotte's daily applauding big bonuses for bankers:

In a plus for the local economy, bonuses are landing in the checking accounts of Bank of America and Wells Fargo employees this time of year.

The payouts range from $500 bumps for rank-and-file employees at Bank of America to multimillion-dollar stock grants for executives at both banks.

As the banking industry slowly recovers, the incentive compensation is a boost for a city that suffered a major setback in the nation's financial meltdown.

Read the entire article here.

Yea! You're waving your pompoms around, right? Woo hoo! Bonuses. Weee!

Meanwhile, The New York Times is reporting that the Security Exchange Commission is ready to crack down on bonuses:

Lavish Wall Street bonuses, long the scorn of lawmakers and shareholders, have met a new foe: the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The agency on Wednesday proposed a crackdown on hefty compensation awarded at big banks, brokerage firms and hedge funds — a move intended to rein in pay packages that encouraged excessive risk-taking before the financial crisis.

The proposal would for the first time require Wall Street firms to file detailed accounts of their bonuses with the S.E.C., which could then ban any awards it deemed excessive. The rules would be aimed at top executives and hundreds of rank-and-file employees who receive incentive-based pay.

The move by regulators to have more say on Wall Street pay highlights the huge role financial institutions play in the economy. Although it would be highly unusual for the government to review the compensation of executives in most other industries, big banks pose a systemic risk to the system and in 2008 pushed the economy to the brink.

Read the rest of this post, by Ben Protess and Susanne Craig, here.

* I'm sure the feeling is mutual.

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Thanks to Gary Brown for the photo.

Can anyone say monopoly?

From the FreePress.net:

They're at it again in North Carolina. Time Warner Cable and its cronies in the General Assembly are trying to ram through a new bill that would prevent local communities from creating their own high-speed Internet networks. A vote could come as early as this Wednesday.

If passed, this legislation would limit the building of new networks to private companies -- most of which refuse to provide service in rural areas.

Read more and, if you're so inclined, find out how to contact your representatives here.

And, here's The Salisbury Post's take on the issue:

Local officials say they have convinced state legislators to exempt Salisbury from a bill that would limit the ability of municipalities to operate broadband networks.

Salisbury recently launched Fibrant, a fiber to the home network that competes with private telecommunication companies to provide Internet, phone and cable TV service.

This marks the fourth year that legislation threatens municipal broadband systems like Fibrant.

But Mayor Susan Kluttz said state lawmakers have assured her they will rewrite the bill to exempt Salisbury and other cities with networks that are up and running.

“We were able to have a really positive discussion with them and explain to them what this situation means and the impact it could have on Salisbury,” said Kluttz, who spent a day and a half in Raleigh with Assistant City Manager Doug Paris meeting with legislators.

Sponsors pulled the bill, which was scheduled to be heard Wednesday by the Public Utilities Committee.

“They did not want to do anything to harm Salisbury or any other city,” Kluttz said. “There was already some partial exemption in the bill, and we expect to have full exemption.”

Read the entire article, by Emily Ford, here.

So, the giant corporate telecom companies and their political allies don't want to harm cities with this bill? That's mighty white of them.

But, what about the folks up on the mountain, outside of the city's jurisdiction? Or, don't we care about them anymore?

And, really? This is the fourth year the same companies have pushed for similar legislation?

Who the hell is running this state — us, or them?

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Thanks to Dennis Aquino for the photo.

Ladies, do you have any idea what's in your makeup? After this article from WPRI.com, you might want to check the ingredient list. Here's a snip:

Are girls increasing their risk of breast cancer by wearing blush, or their chances of reproductive abnormalities by applying lip gloss? It sounds crazy, but critics of the cosmetic industry say the concern is in the ingredients.

And it's not just environmental health groups sounding the alarm. Right now, new legislation is being introduced to close what legislators call "major loopholes" in a federal law. The bill's sponsors say the current law leaves Americans unknowingly exposed to potentially harmful mystery ingredients. That's why Eyewitness News is taking a hard look at the debate over whether cosmetics are truly hazardous to your health, especially for teenage girls.

Representative Ed Markey from Massachusetts is introducing "The Safe Cosmetics Act." He says, "From lipstick to lotion, our medicine cabinets are filled with personal care products that may contain potentially dangerous chemicals."

But whether they actually cause cancer or other serious health effects has sparked a huge debate across the cosmetic counter, especially now that more and more girls are using them.

Mia Davis from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics says, "We're not saying that using a lipstick or blush is going to give you cancer, certainly not. But what we are saying is that there are chemicals linked to cancer in these products and on average, teenage girls in this country are using about 17 products a day."

The FDA says except for color additives and those ingredients which are prohibited from being used in cosmetics, "A manufacturer may use any ingredient in the formulation of a cosmetic provided that the ingredient is safe."

Read the entire article, by Susan Hogan, here.

• Thanks to Locace for the photo.

The Charlotte Business Journal is reporting that the average price for a gallon of gas in the Charlotte area has risen to $3.21.

Oh, yawn. Right? What do we care? We're Americans. We'll put that shit on our credit cards. Let the rest of the world spin into chaos; we're too busy with the kids' sports, yoga, walking the dog and picking our toe jam to care about anything outside of our offices or living rooms.

Zombies.

Meanwhile, not even the Saudis can tame oil prices:

The political turmoil sweeping the Arab world drove oil prices sharply higher and stocks much lower on Tuesday despite efforts by Saudi Arabia to calm turbulent markets.

The unrest that has spread from Tunisia to Libya pushed oil prices to a two-year high and has spurred an increase in gasoline prices. The specter of rising energy costs and accelerating inflation in turn unsettled investors.

Oil is now at a price not seen since the recession began, and it is more than $20 above goals set in recent months by Saudi officials as strong enough to satisfy the top producers but not so strong they might suffocate the global economic recovery.

Although there are still plentiful supplies of oil and gasoline in the United States and in much of the world, American consumers are now paying an average of $3.17 a gallon for regular gasoline, a steep rise of 6 cents a gallon over the last week, according to the AAA daily fuel gauge report. With consumers paying roughly 50 cents more a gallon than a year ago, analysts are warning that prices could easily top $3.50 by the summer driving season.

“Higher energy prices act like a tax on consumers, reducing the amount of discretionary purchasing power that they have,” said Lawrence R. Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors. “It represents an additional, potential headwind for retailers.”

Read the rest of this New York Times article, by Clifford Krauss and Christine Hauser, here.

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Thanks to a_siegel for the photo.

Bless the Charlotte Business Journal. The folks over there do a great job. One of their tasks is keeping us abreast of the rise and fall of gas prices, which is critical information for a lot of area businesses. According to them and AAA, you can expect to pay $3.13 per gallon, on average, for gas in the Q.C. right now.

A couple years ago, we would have lost our minds if gas prices were $3.13 ... especially sans major hurricane, oil spill or some other serious disruption. Now? Meh. We've become desensitized to rising gas prices. Which, despite some predictions that gas prices will level out in 2011, is probably for the best, since gas prices will never return to where they were a few years ago. Ever.

And, this is why everyone needs to take economics classes in school. Gas prices are a great example of the supply and demand cycle. How's that? Simple: People worldwide are demanding more petroleum products than ever before. The companies and people that fill that demand — the supply-siders — can either drain their wells trying to meet that demand, or they can try to temper the market by only supplying so much. Either way, when you have more demand than you have supply prices rise.

Why is there so much demand? Look around. Who do you know that only walks or bikes? And, look outside of our country. While we've enjoyed a cushy life here in the U.S. for decades, many other countries are just now catching up and their people want all of the trappings of the American lifestyle that we now take for granted. In addition to gas and oil for their new cars, they want consumer products — many of which are plastic and/or packaged in plastic. Plastic is a petroleum product, one we can't seem to get enough of.

So while prices may ebb and flow a little, the trajectory is straight up because our hunger for petroleum products knows no limits. Drop your expectations that prices at the pump will go down in any significant way without a major paradigm shift ... and I don't see that happening any time soon.

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

Here we go ...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson finally got to use her parking space on Capitol Hill this morning. Jackson was the star witness at the newly Republican-run House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearings on the proposed "Energy Tax Prevention Act."

What's that? You weren't aware that there was an energy tax that needed preventing? Well, that's because the Republican majority has decided to frame its battle against the EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse gases as fighting energy taxes, because greenhouse gas regulations equal higher energy costs, which then kill jobs. (That's why the bill to repeal health care reform went down as the "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.")

For her part Jackson—who withstood more than two hours of pointed questioning from Republican committee members—tried to frame the issue in terms of the EPA's larger responsibility to safeguard clean air. To her, the Republican assault on the agency's ability to regulate greenhouse gases would water down the Clean Air Act itself, with consequences for the health of the nation ...

Read the entire Time magazine post, by Bryan Walsh, here.

Further reading: REPORT: Clean air regulations will create jobs — iStockAnalyst.com

When are we going to start putting an appropriate value on our health? (Hint: It's priceless.)

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson also made a presentation at the Good Jobs, Good Environment conference this week. Check it out:

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Thanks to Yale360 for the image.

All right Charlotte, in the spirit of Getting Real: If this city is going to be a green energy hub, we've got to be serious green energy consumers.

It's simple economics: We create demand when we choose to buy something or pay for a service. The more we demand, the more producers will want to fill our demand. (Hello, Supply!) At first, while the supply/demand cycle balances itself, prices may be a little high. But, we expect that with new technology don't we? It's high for a minute, but by a product's second generation — which doesn't take too long to develop these days — the prices have dropped and the quality has improved. Dig? Makes sense, huh?

And this is where you come in, Charlotteans. While the rest of the country can drag their feet on consumption of green energy products and services, we need to put our money where our energy hub desires are ... and right now I'm hearing a lot of yackedy yack, especially with the DNC's big party on the way.

Want to be a green energy hub? Prove it to the people being discussed in the below Yale360.org article:

Wind and solar might get more attention as energy alternatives. But the National Academy and McKinsey reports, both published in 2009, suggested that plain old efficiency had at least as much potential to deliver a rapid carbon-cutting wallop. Both analyses said that within a mere 10 years, the U.S. could cut total energy use by 20 percent or more. As an added benefit, the energy savings could be served up with a side of fiscal dessert: An investment of $500 billion in efficiency would end up saving $1.2 trillion in energy costs, said the McKinsey analysis.

Even more recently, a team of researchers at Cambridge University estimated that the world could save 73 percent of its energy through efficiency measures. Much of that gain could come from deploying basic, already-available technologies such as thicker building insulation and triple glazed windows. (At least one idea seems more far-fetched: limiting automobile weight to 300 kilograms, or about 660 pounds.)

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama touted efficiency as “the cheapest, cleanest, fastest energy source.” Last week, President Obama set a goal of improving U.S. energy efficiency by 20 percent over the next 10 years through a series of tax incentives and grants. Still, efficiency seems to get far less attention than it deserves. If companies like Paul Rak’s can so easily prove efficiency’s merits, why isn’t everyone on the bandwagon?

Read the entire article, by Jon R. Louma, here.

Rhiannon  Fionn-Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

From Facing South, part of the Institute for Southern Studies, some important news for Charlotteans to consider since there are four nearby high-hazard coal ash ponds on the Catawba River, aka our main drinking water source.

The landmark $333 million court settlement that propelled legal researcher Erin Brockovich to environmental stardom involved the contamination of a California town's groundwater with hexavalent chromium, a toxic compound known to cause cancer.

Now the same dangerous heavy metal, usually associated with steel manufacturing and metal plating, has been discovered seeping from coal ash disposal sites nationwide -- and at levels that far surpass what Brockovich encountered.

"Communities near coal ash sites must add hexavalent chromium to the list of toxic chemicals that threaten their health and families," says Lisa Evans, an attorney with the public interest law firm Earthjustice.

Evans is the author of a report released this week titled "EPA's Blind Spot: Hexavalent Chromium in Coal Ash" [pdf] that was produced with Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Environmental Integrity Project. The federal government does not currently regulate the disposal of coal ash, the toxic waste created by coal-fired power plants that's known to contain potentially dangerous levels of heavy metals, combustion byproducts and radioactive elements. But in the wake of the catastrophic 2008 coal ash spill from a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant in east Tennessee (photo above), the Environmental Protection Agency began crafting rules expected to be released this year.

Read the rest of this article, by Sue Sturgis, here.

Here's Brockovich, and others, discussing hexavalent chromium at an event in Texas circa 2009:

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Thanks to Ryan Joy for this photo.

This Associated Press article — snippet below — starts off talking about how the Internet is running out of addresses. Oh my! Then, it's all "no big whoop" right before diving into some super geekery that will make your eyes cross.

*blink*

So ... we're OK then? The Internet isn't going to implode? Or, should we stock up on bottled water? Has Chicken Little been alerted yet?

The spread of Internet use in Asia and the proliferation of Internet-connected phones worldwide are causing the Internet to run out of numerical addresses, which act as "phone numbers" to ensure that surfers reach websites and e-mails find their destination.

The top-level authority that governs such addresses will distribute the last batches on Thursday, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement wasn't planned until Thursday.

That doesn't mean consumers will suddenly find websites unreachable, though. And if everything goes according to plan, Internet users won't even notice.

"It will just be 'business as usual' if everyone gets their job done," said John Curran, CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, or ARIN, one of five regional groups that dole out such addresses. ARIN covers the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

Read the rest of this article, by Peter Svensson, here.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.

• Jared Taylor of American Renaissance

According to The Charlotte Observer, the white nationalist group led by Jared Taylor hasn't given up on hosting his conference in Charlotte. He's the editor of American Renaissance, which labels itself as "A conservative monthly publication" that "promotes a variety of white racial positions."

But why Charlotte? What's so appealing about our city to a group that believes one race is more superior to another?

Can't tell you. Apparently the question wasn't asked at yesterday's press conference at the Government Center. Or, if it was, it wasn't included in the articles that were published about it.

So, let's look back to the group's conference trouble from last year ...

Here's a snip from a blog post, written by Taylor, entitled, "2010 AR Conference Held Against All Odds."

Despite unprecedented threats and intimidation, the 2010 American Renaissance conference took place in the Northern Virginia as originally planned. Four hotels successively broke their contracts to hold the event—the last one just two days before the conference was to begin—so we sent out notices to registrants telling them there was to be no conference.

However, our supporters refused to let us cancel! So many people told us they were coming anyway that we put together what turned out to be a very successful program. Now we are getting complaints from people who say they would have flown across the country if only they had known! There is a tremendous appetite for our people to meet, and hear straight talk about the crises our nation faces, and we were immensely heartened by the spirit of solidarity and commitment that galvanized this conference.

In the end ...

This experience has left us with twice the resolve we had before, and AR will study its options for future conferences. Conferences are central to the mission of American Renaissance, and we will hold them against all odds. The 2010 conference has also brought home to us the passionate commitment of our supporters, who refused to let us cancel this conference and who insisted that we host them for a wonderful weekend of honesty, inspiration, and camaraderie. We look forward to seeing you all next time.

Read the rest of the post here.

Charlotte, you may not want this group here but it appears it's going to take a lot more than a few phone calls and a canceled reservation to deter this group. And, again, I'll remind you that even though you may disagree with what they group is all about and what they have to say — I certainly do — they are afforded the right to believe and say what they want by the First Amendment of our country's Constitution.

Meanwhile, it looks as though other people are ramping up their plan to exercise their First Amendment rights. Check The Charlotte Post for more information on an upcoming rally.

Rhiannon "Rhi" Bowman is an independent journalist who contributes commentary on Creative Loafing's CLog blog four days a week in addition to writing for several other local media organizations. To learn more, click the links or follow Rhi on Twitter.