Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon resigns after corruption charges by Geezer

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Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon resigns after corruption charges

POSTED BY: GEEZER
UPDATED: Friday, March 28, 2014 23:11
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Thursday, March 27, 2014 8:57 AM

Keep the Shiny side up

Quote:
The mayor of the largest city in the US state of North Carolina has resigned, hours after he was arrested by the FBI on corruption charges.

Newly elected Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon, 47, is accused of accepting more than $48,000 (£28,953) in bribes and gifts from undercover FBI agents.

He promised access to city officials in return, investigators said.

Mr Cannon faces up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines if convicted on theft and bribery charges.

"I regret that I have to take this action, but I believe that it is in the best interest of the City for me to do so," he wrote in his resignation letter.

According to a complaint filed in federal court, between 17 January 2013 and 21 February 2014, Mr Cannon accepted payments from undercover FBI agents on five separate occasions.

In return, he offered to connect the agents to city officials responsible for planning, zoning and permitting.

'Inexcusable'

Mr Cannon, a long-time Democratic city counsellor elected mayor in November, accepted cash, airline tickets, a Las Vegas hotel room and the use of a luxury apartment from the FBI agents, who reportedly posed as real estate developers, according to the complaint.

Before his election as mayor, Mr Cannon founded a car park company and was the long-time presenter of a radio chat show.

The corruption investigation reportedly began in August 2010 following a tip from an undercover local police officer.

At that time, Mr Cannon held an at-large seat on the city council of Charlotte, a major centre for the US financial industry with a population of about 775,000.

Among the allegations against him, Mr Cannon is accused of accepting a $12,500 cash payment from an undercover agent that Mr Cannon said he planned to use to develop a feminine hygiene product called Hers.

In exchange, Mr Cannon offered to help the agent obtain permits to open a nightclub.

Republican Governor Pat McCrory, himself a former mayor of Charlotte, said Mr Cannon's alleged behaviour was "inexcusable and cannot be tolerated".

"My heart is broken for the city of Charlotte," he said. "This is not the city that I know, served and love."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26755913

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Thursday, March 27, 2014 5:27 PM

WHOZIT

So many Democrats, so few handcuffs.

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Thursday, March 27, 2014 5:34 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

I see Geezer is sporting his newly pressed KLANSMAN cap and gown.

So much hate.

So very much.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Thursday, March 27, 2014 10:54 PM

JONGSSTRAW

After all the recent Democrat sex scandals with Filner, Weiner, Edwards, Menendez, and Spitzer, it's so refreshing to just have a good old-fashioned Democrat corruption scandal. Marion Barry, Blago, Charlie (Aruba lounge chair) Rangel, Jesse Jr. ... miss you guys!

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Thursday, March 27, 2014 11:35 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

http://news.uci.edu/press-releases/made-in-china-for-us-air-pollution-
as-well-as-exports/

Made in China for us: Air pollution as well as exports

Chinese air pollution blowing across the Pacific Ocean is often caused by the manufacturing of goods for export to the U.S. and Europe, according to findings by UC Irvine and other researchers published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study is the first to quantify how much of the pollution reaching the American West Coast is from the production in China of cellphones, televisions and other consumer items imported here and elsewhere.

“We’ve outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution, but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,” said UC Irvine Earth system scientist Steve Davis, a co-author. “Given the complaints about how Chinese pollution is corrupting other countries’ air, this paper shows that there may be plenty of blame to go around.”

Los Angeles experiences at least one extra day a year of smog that exceeds federal ozone limits because of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emitted by Chinese factories making goods for export, the analysis found. On other days, as much as a quarter of the sulfate pollution on the U.S. West Coast is tied to Chinese exports. All the contaminants tracked in the study are key ingredients in unhealthy smog and soot.

China is not responsible for the lion’s share of pollution in the U.S. Cars, trucks and refineries pump out far more. But powerful global winds known as “westerlies” can push airborne chemicals across the ocean in days, particularly during the spring, causing dangerous spikes in contaminants. Dust, ozone and carbon can accumulate in valleys and basins in California and other Western states.

Black carbon is a particular problem: Rain doesn’t easily wash it out of the atmosphere, so it persists across long distances. Like other air pollutants, it’s been linked to a litany of health problems, from increased asthma to cancer, emphysema, and heart and lung disease.

The study authors suggest the findings could be used to more effectively negotiate clean-air treaties. China’s huge ramp-up of industrial activity in recent years, combined with poor pollution controls, has unleashed often fierce international debates.

“When you buy a product at Wal-Mart,” noted Davis, an assistant professor, “it has to be manufactured somewhere. The product doesn’t contain the pollution, but creating it caused the pollution.”

He and his fellow researchers conclude: “International cooperation to reduce transboundary transport of air pollution must confront the question of who is responsible for emissions in one country during production of goods to support consumption in another.”

Jintai Lin of Beijing’s Peking University is the paper’s lead author. Others are Da Pan, also of Peking University; Qiang Zhang, Kebin He and Can Wang of Beijing’s Tsinghua University; David Streets of Argonne National Laboratory; Donald Wuebbles of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Dabo Guan of the University of Leeds in England.

About the University of California, Irvine: Located in coastal Orange County, near a thriving high-tech hub in one of the nation’s safest cities, UC Irvine was founded in 1965. One of only 62 members of the Association of American Universities, it’s ranked first among U.S. universities under 50 years old by the London-based Times Higher Education. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Michael Drake since 2005, UC Irvine has more than 28,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. It’s Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $4.3 billion annually to the local economy.

Media access: UC Irvine maintains an online directory of faculty available as experts to the media at today.uci.edu/experts. Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UC Irvine faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UC Irvine news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."

-- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. V (1776)

OONJERAH
We are too dumb to live and smart enough to wipe ourselves out.

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Friday, March 28, 2014 12:28 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Chinese air pollution ?

Huh?

Quote:
Mythical Climate Change Consensus Hits An Iceberg

Posted 03/21/2014 06:54 PM ET

Junk Science: Climate change "deniers," as global warm-mongers call those who think empirical evidence is more reliable than computer models, may soon count among their number a 50,000-strong body of physicists.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/032114-694249-american-physic
al-society-reviews-climate-change.htm?p=full

Oh man, I just LOVE that... " WARM-mongers". CRASSIC !!

Also ?? Not the best week ever for Democrats - Anywhere.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Friday, March 28, 2014 9:07 PM

REAVERFAN

You quote the silliest things.

I hope Cannon gets hard time for this, if it's true. I don't want any politician, Democrat or otherwise, pulling crap like that. Off with his head!

We deserve ethical representation, and should make an example of those who cheat and lie.

Too bad Pelosi wouldn't go after Bushcorp.

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Friday, March 28, 2014 9:15 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:

Too bad Pelosi wouldn't go after Bushcorp.

There's no THERE there, to go after.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Friday, March 28, 2014 10:58 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

http://www.scientificcomputing.com/news/2014/02/science-academies-expl
ain-global-warming-reality?et_cid=3795625&et_rid=366206770&type=headline

Science Academies Explain Global Warming Reality

WASHINGTON (AP) — Man-made global warming is worsening and will disrupt both the natural world and human society, warns a joint report of two of the world's leading scientific organizations.

The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, which is the national scientific academy of the United Kingdom, are releasing an unusual plain language report on climate change that addressed 20 issues in a question-and-answer format.

"People do have persistent questions all about climate change," said study author Ben Santer of the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California. "This is a one-stop shop for many of those questions."

The report, released on February 27, 2014, addresses new issues, such as the recent slowing in the increase of world temperatures and how heat-trapping gases are connected to extreme weather. Increases in extreme weather, melting glaciers, rising seas and oceans getting more acidic are already happening, the 36-page report said.

And those changes "are expected to increase greater warming and will threaten food production, freshwater supplies, coastal infrastructure and especially the welfare of the huge population currently living in low-lying areas," the report said.

The report said that, while the rate of warming is slower in the 2000s than it was in the 1990s, it doesn't negate the 150 years of observations that show the world is warming. The report also says that more of the 90 percent of the heat trapped by greenhouse gases lately has been absorbed into the oceans' deep water, which for a while slows surface warming but not the long-term trend.

There is enough evidence on the science to warrant action, Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, said in a news release.

"We've changed the chemical composition of the atmosphere; that's not a belief system. We know that beyond shadow of a doubt," Santer said in an interview. "We ignore this at our peril."

U.S. National Academy of Science: http://nationalacademies.org/

Royal Society: http://royalsociety.org/

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Friday, March 28, 2014 11:04 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Go get laid, for cryin' out loud. Psycho.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Friday, March 28, 2014 11:11 PM

JONGSSTRAW

No one cares about her psycho climate threads, so she's taken to polluting all threads now with her demented spew. Quite a spectacle of desperation.

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