INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1757, 1, '2016-04-23 11:28:58', '2016-04-23 15:28:58', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is discussing giving <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> for the City''s Electrical Connection Fee.\r\n\r\nWhile the rest of us get stuck paying a fee, which really isn''t a fee at all, but rather a Security Deposit, in order to get the power turned on, those clever enough to <del>game the system</del> qualify for <del>free</del> subsidized housing, food, healthcare, utilities and Obama phones now won''t even have to put up with the inconvenience of ponying up a Security Deposit. Sounds great if you''re one of the privileged. Why doesn''t City Council just waive utility Security Deposits for everyone? <strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents will of course still receive taxpayer money to pay for utilities, they just won''t have much incentive to actually pay the bill. Instead, many will choose to spend the money on more fun stuff like cigarettes, booze and drugs. It''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City, without any real consequences, and many have learned to do so. Now it may become a real cottage industry.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by a City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills... you the taxpayer.\r\n\r\n<strong>Question:</strong> With City Council''s continuing generosity with ''your money'', <strong>why is anyone dumb enough to still be working for a living and actually paying taxes in Laurinburg? </strong><strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 11:28:58', '2016-04-23 15:28:58', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1758, 1, '2016-04-23 11:55:27', '2016-04-23 15:55:27', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis connection fee is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to <del>game the system</del> qualify for <del>free</del> subsidized housing, food, healthcare, utilities and Obama phones now won''t even have to pay a Security Deposit? If it''s such a great idea, why not just waive the fee for all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents will of course continue to receive taxpayer money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have much incentive to actually do so. Some many may choose to spend this taxpayer money on fun stuff like cigarettes, booze and drugs instead.\r\n\r\nIt''s already too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than promising to get caught up sometime in the future and supposedly not to do it again, there are no real consequences. Many have learned how to ''work the system'' and what has been a thriving cottage industry, now threatens to become an avalanche.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by a City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 11:55:27', '2016-04-23 15:55:27', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1759, 1, '2016-04-23 12:12:30', '2016-04-23 16:12:30', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, food, healthcare, utilities and Obama phones now won''t even have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not waive the Fee for all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some could instead choose to spend this money on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are no real consequences. Far too many have already learned how to ''work the system'', and Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s so far been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will be bore by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by a City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 12:12:30', '2016-04-23 16:12:30', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1760, 1, '2016-04-23 12:20:10', '2016-04-23 16:20:10', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, food, healthcare, utilities and Obama phones now won''t even have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not waive the Fee for all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this money on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 12:20:10', '2016-04-23 16:20:10', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1761, 1, '2016-04-23 12:26:14', '2016-04-23 16:26:14', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 12:26:14', '2016-04-23 16:26:14', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1762, 1, '2016-04-23 12:28:49', '2016-04-23 16:28:49', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and City Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need, it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><center>*** EMBED VIDEO HERE ***</center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">HIDE: Author box and Related Posts on side --&gt;</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 12:28:49', '2016-04-23 16:28:49', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1763, 1, '2016-04-23 12:37:44', '2016-04-23 16:37:44', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1419 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Block-Williams-300x242.jpg" alt="Block &amp; Williams" width="300" height="242" />Mayor Matt Block and Police Chief Darwin Williams recent publicity stroll through Laurinburg City Hall appears designed to ensure sufficient ''cover'' is in place prior to shifting gears in favor of the new $5.5 million City Hall/Police Complex.\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #000000;">City Manager Charles Nichol''s meme, <em>''If it’s not now, it’s going to be in five years or 10 years''</em>, is disingenuous and just plain wrong. If things don''t change, Laurinburg is only going to need a tiny office in <em>5 or ten years</em>, as it''s presently headed toward becoming a pastoral ghost town. Businesses are closing, those who can are selling out and fleeing, trying to outrun a tidal wave of violent crime.</span>\r\n</span>\r\n\r\nThis entire City Hall rumpus only got wings and started flying after the City commissioned its ''Needs Assessment''. While it''s great to have a list of needs, <strong>this is not and has never been about ''needs''</strong>, it''s about what Laurinburg can afford, or in this case, <strong>cannot afford</strong>.\r\n\r\nThe Exchange''s recent ''<span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/4588/tour-aids-in-new-city-hall-talks" target="_blank">Tour Aids in new City Hall talks</a></span>'' looks like thinly disguised propaganda seeking to move the new City Hall/Police Complex project forward one more notch.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, there aren''t any ''<em>talks''</em> going on. City Council has done everything possible to cut off public dialogue. This is a one way street. The only <em>talking</em> is between the City and itself.\r\n\r\n<strong>No amount of propaganda, hoodwinking or financial razzmatazz is going to make this dog hunt.</strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">email</span></a>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/open-honest-transparent-city-council-needed/" target="_blank">Open, Honest, Transparent City Council Needed</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/scotland-county-to-build-new-school/" target="_blank">Scotland County’s New School</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/scotland-county-mired-in-depression-part-1/" target="_blank">Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 1)</a></span></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'Mayor & Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1387-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 12:37:44', '2016-04-23 16:37:44', '', 1387, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1387-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1764, 3, '2016-04-23 13:33:46', '2016-04-23 17:33:46', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1768 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/utility-deposit-waiver-program-300x200.jpg" alt="utility-deposit -waiver-program" width="300" height="200" />Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\n\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\n\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\n</strong>\n\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\n\nIt''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and City Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\n\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need; it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">Laurinburg Exchange</span></a>\n\n<center></center><address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/county-considering-tax-rate-reduction/" target="_blank">County Considering Tax Rate Reduction</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/open-honest-transparent-city-council-needed/" target="_blank">Open, Honest, Transparent City Council Needed</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/lack-of-decorum-at-laurinburg-city-council-meeting/" target="_blank">‘Lack of Decorum’ at Laurinburg City Council Meeting</a></span></address><address> </address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\n\n&nbsp;\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\n&nbsp;\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\n\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:33:46', '2016-04-23 17:33:46', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1765, 3, '2016-04-23 13:17:12', '2016-04-23 17:17:12', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and City Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need; it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>123</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;">Read more...</span></blockquote>\r\nLE ARTICLE TEXT:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">LAURINBURG — In upcoming budget talks, the Laurinburg City Council will discuss a possible waiver of the city’s electrical connection fee for Laurinburg Housing Authority residents.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Director Nancy Walker brought council up to date this week on the housing authority’s plan — part of a conservation initiative from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — to shift the responsibility for utility payments to its tenants.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“This is really, on HUD’s part, a conservation tool because right now, with our system, the residents never ever see the utility bills,” said Walker. “The philosophy is, if you give an allowance and reduce the rent, that there will be incentive for the resident, once they know what the utility bill is, to conserve.”</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Walker said that the change should have minimal impact on the bottom line for housing authority tenants, whose total rent and utility payments are capped at 30 percent of their income. Under the new system, tenants will receive a rent deduction to compensate for their utility payments.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“If they use less than the amount allotted for utilities, they keep the difference,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">The housing authority is waiting for direction from HUD before formulating that allowance.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Last week, council discussed how it might handle the addition of 464 housing units to the city’s list of electrical customers, and the feasibility of expecting housing authority tenants to pay a $230 electrical service deposit.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We proposed a plan to the city when we first started this that if they would waive the deposit when they turn the power over, we would for our existing tenants, if for some reason they moved out and didn’t pay, we would guarantee that the city would get its utility money,” said Walker.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Waiving that deposit for all current Laurinburg Housing Authority tenants would mean forfeiting around $105,000 in fees.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Tenants were notified in January of the change, which will not likely take effect until August or September. Walker said that tenants will receive at least 60 days’ notice before they are expected to assume responsibility for their own utilities.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“We talked about this in meetings so people would have time to prepare and to make arrangements for this,” Walker said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">Council took no action on Tuesday night, but will discuss the proposed waiver — and how to work with tenants who have outstanding utility bills from prior addresses — as it works on the 2016-2017 budget.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">“There is the matter of the deposit and there is the matter of old bills, but for our public housing residents that is sort of an advantage that they’ve had over all other low-income people in assisted housing, because they don’t get that advantage,” said Walker. “They have to take care of those things before they move in.”</span>\r\n\r\n_ _ _ _ _\r\n\r\nThis article: ____ INSERT LINK\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;">123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"> 123</span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:17:12', '2016-04-23 17:17:12', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1766, 3, '2016-04-23 13:20:34', '2016-04-23 17:20:34', '(PIC)Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and City Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need; it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">Laurinburg Exchange</span></a>\r\n\r\n<center></center><strong><span style="color: #ff0000;">ALL LINKS - Change to Blue</span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></span></address><address> </address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:20:34', '2016-04-23 17:20:34', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1767, 1, '2016-04-23 13:22:01', '2016-04-23 17:22:01', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us.\r\n\r\nTheir service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nWhy does local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheer leading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nYes, the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens.\r\n\r\nSure, LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity. Many LEOs don''t hesitate to lie under oath when they get caught breaking the law.\r\n\r\nLEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a supposed effort to prevent crime.\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>It''s become so blatant that many Departments now build ''theft'' right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasing view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are increasingly trained to view the American people as The Enemy. Are police unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> over the seeming anarchy that <strong>individual freedom</strong> and self expression can engender. This works well in a military setting, but makes it difficult to achieve the <strong>right balance</strong> needed to ensure a <strong><em>free</em> and <em>open</em></strong> society. LEOs must walk a fine line. Theirs has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out, needed or desirable. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful direction?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great, until you realize that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society. Officers appear more interested in manipulating public perceptions than doing the hard work needed to address crime.\r\n\r\nLocal Law Enforcement is among those feeding at the <strong>Federal</strong> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share (through fusion centers) information with Federal agencies that these agencies could <strong>not otherwise legally</strong> obtain. This seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.<em><strong>\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand this is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Germany, only with today''s much advanced technology. <strong>A large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned</strong> and have formed the CSPOA (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation.\r\n\r\n<strong>Local Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect us</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington D.C. schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding these issues. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Police Cheerleading Squad Needed?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:22:01', '2016-04-23 17:22:01', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1768, 3, '2016-04-23 13:30:54', '2016-04-23 17:30:54', '', 'utility-deposit -waiver-program', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'utility-deposit-waiver-program', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:30:54', '2016-04-23 17:30:54', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/utility-deposit-waiver-program.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1769, 3, '2016-04-23 13:34:22', '2016-04-23 17:34:22', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1768 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/utility-deposit-waiver-program-300x200.jpg" alt="utility-deposit -waiver-program" width="300" height="200" />Laurinburg City Council is proposing to give <strong>Housing Authority</strong> residents a <strong>Waiver</strong> from having to pay the City Utility''s ''Electrical Connection Fee''.\r\n\r\nThis ''connection fee'' is actually a Security Deposit designed to help protect the Utility from irresponsible ratepayers who skip out without paying bills.\r\n\r\nIs it right that those clever enough to qualify for subsidized housing, utilities, food, healthcare and Obama phones now won''t have to pay a Security Deposit for electric service? If it''s such a great idea, why not grant a Waiver to all utility customers? Oh that''s right, then everyone would just skip out without paying their bills.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nHousing Authority residents who qualify for ''utility assistance'' would of course continue to receive money to pay utility bills, they just won''t have nearly as much incentive to actually do so. Some may instead choose to spend this allotment on more pressing needs like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.\r\n\r\nIt''s already way too easy for Housing Authority residents to stiff the City''s Electric Utility. Other than ''promising to get caught up sometime in the future and (supposedly) not to do it again'', there are few real consequences. Far too many have learned how to ''work the system'', and City Council''s proposed Waiver now threatens to turn what''s been a small but thriving cottage industry into a full blown avalanche of irresponsible behavior, the cost of which will ultimately be paid by those who actually do pay their utility bills.\r\n\r\nThis isn''t about withholding or even scaling back assistance to those who are struggling and truly in need; it''s about getting hosed once again by an irresponsible City Council that''s totally out of touch with those who actually pay the bills.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #333333;"><em><strong>Sources:</strong></em></span>\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a></span>\r\n\r\n<center></center><address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/county-considering-tax-rate-reduction/" target="_blank">County Considering Tax Rate Reduction</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/open-honest-transparent-city-council-needed/" target="_blank">Open, Honest, Transparent City Council Needed</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/lack-of-decorum-at-laurinburg-city-council-meeting/" target="_blank">‘Lack of Decorum’ at Laurinburg City Council Meeting</a></span></address><address> </address><address> </address><address>Affiliate Disclosure: Some links on this page may be affiliate links which, if used to purchase products, would yield a small commission to CarolinaCrossroads.News. This is how we support our website and efforts to bring you the news and information we believe are important to our viewers. Thank you for your support.</address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'Housing Authority Utility Waiver?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1711-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:34:22', '2016-04-23 17:34:22', '', 1711, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1711-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1770, 1, '2016-04-23 13:35:14', '2016-04-23 17:35:14', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. That''s not exactly breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now <a href="http://youtu.be/t487ILVf87k" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">relocate</span></a> to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be completely torched.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nThe discussion began with our vision of how we could assist the County transition from an obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource demographic.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and were assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1. Stay tuned for Part 2</strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a></span>\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span></strong>\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">email</span></a>.</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-block-council/" target="_blank">City Council Should be Open, Honest, Transparent</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/scotland-county-to-build-new-school/" target="_blank">Scotland County to Build New School?</a></span></address><address><span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Who’s Spying on You?</a></span></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;', 'Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 1)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '920-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:35:14', '2016-04-23 17:35:14', '', 920, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/920-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1771, 1, '2016-04-23 13:56:21', '2016-04-23 17:56:21', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Part 2\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to County Government, School District and the City of Laurinburg.\r\n\r\nToday, Government stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. Unfortunately, government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce. Government is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'' many move on to new government positions where they begin qualifying for a second pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in every month.\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s absolutely destroying public finances, with pension and benefit costs often being the largest government budget item. It''s no wonder many municipal, county and state coffers are running on empty.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 13:56:21', '2016-04-23 17:56:21', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1772, 1, '2016-04-23 14:02:05', '2016-04-23 18:02:05', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Part 2\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and the City of Laurinburg.\r\n\r\nToday, Government stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. Unfortunately, government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce. Government is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This fact has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'' many move on to new government positions so they can begin qualifying for a second pension. Rinse and repeat this process several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each and every month.\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s absolutely destroying public finances, as pension and benefit costs are often the largest budget item. It''s no wonder so many municipal, county and state coffers are running on empty. This situation, as dire as it is, is only going to get worse.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:02:05', '2016-04-23 18:02:05', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1773, 1, '2016-04-23 14:12:33', '2016-04-23 18:12:33', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Part 2\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg.\r\n\r\nToday, Government stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be wonderful except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This fact has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'' many employees move on to new government positions so they can begin qualifying for yet a second pension. Rinse and repeat this process several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each and every month for as long as they live. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nWhile this may be a sweet deal indeed for government types, it''s absolutely destroying public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs are now the largest budget item for many governments. Is it any wonder so many municipal, county and state coffers are running on empty? This situation, as dire as it is, is only going to get worse.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County cannot recover from its deep economic Depression unless Government costs are severely reigned in.</strong> In short, Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size.\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:12:33', '2016-04-23 18:12:33', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1774, 1, '2016-04-23 14:19:58', '2016-04-23 18:19:58', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>Part 2\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. This may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, but it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy itself.\r\n\r\nToday, Government Employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This simple fact has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'' employees often move on to new government positions so they can begin qualifying for yet a second pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers have multiple, juicy pension checks coming in each and every month for as long as they live. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nWhile this may be a sweet deal indeed for government types, it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. It''s already ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely reigned in.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:19:58', '2016-04-23 18:19:58', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1775, 1, '2016-04-23 14:21:15', '2016-04-23 18:21:15', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>for Part 1, <span style="color: #0000ff;">click here</span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. This may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, but it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy itself.\r\n\r\nToday, Government Employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This simple fact has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'' employees often move on to new government positions so they can begin qualifying for yet a second pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers have multiple, juicy pension checks coming in each and every month for as long as they live. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nWhile this may be a sweet deal indeed for government types, it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. It''s already ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely reigned in.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:21:15', '2016-04-23 18:21:15', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1776, 1, '2016-04-23 14:26:20', '2016-04-23 18:26:20', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong>for Part 1, <span style="color: #0000ff;">click here</span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, Government Employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This transfer mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'' employees often move to new government positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple, juicy pension checks coming in each and every month for as long as they live. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nWhile this may be a sweet deal for government types, it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely reigned in.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:26:20', '2016-04-23 18:26:20', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1777, 1, '2016-04-23 14:28:28', '2016-04-23 18:28:28', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, Government Employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This transfer mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'' employees often move to new government positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple, juicy pension checks coming in each and every month for as long as they live. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nWhile this may be a sweet deal for government types, it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely reigned in.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:28:28', '2016-04-23 18:28:28', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1778, 1, '2016-04-23 14:33:35', '2016-04-23 18:33:35', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new government positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several more times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. Your property and other taxes and fees are only going to rise. It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely trimmed.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:33:35', '2016-04-23 18:33:35', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1779, 1, '2016-04-23 14:51:20', '2016-04-23 18:51:20', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new government positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. Your property and other taxes and fees are only going to rise. It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely trimmed.</strong> In short, <strong>Scotland County and Laurinburg City government must dramatically shrink in size. </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County and Laurinburg rely upon Real and Personal Property taxes, along with a host of fees, assessments and state and federal apportioned funds, grants, subsidies, etc. for revenue.\r\n\r\nThe are three ways to increase revenues:\r\n\r\n1. grow the economy.\r\n\r\n2. Milk the same cow again.\r\n\r\n3. Shear the same sheep again.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the cow only has so much milk and the sheep so much wool to give. The well has simply run dry. As we continue to raise taxes, fees, etc., those who can sell out and leave. We''re going to have to try something new.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:51:20', '2016-04-23 18:51:20', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1780, 1, '2016-04-23 14:58:05', '2016-04-23 18:58:05', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County and Municipal coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. Taxes and fees are headed one way... <strong>Up</strong>! It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\nScotland County will never recover from its deep Economic Depression unless Government costs are severely trimmed. <strong>Scotland County, Laurinburg City government must consolidate and dramatically shrink in size. The School District must </strong>Nothing else will work.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County and Laurinburg rely upon Real and Personal Property taxes, along with a host of fees, assessments and state and federal apportioned funds, grants, subsidies, etc. for revenue.\r\n\r\nThe are three ways to increase revenues:\r\n\r\n1. grow the economy.\r\n\r\n2. Milk the same cow again.\r\n\r\n3. Shear the same sheep again.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the cow only has so much milk and the sheep so much wool to give. The well has simply run dry. As we continue to raise taxes, fees, etc., those who can sell out and leave. We''re going to have to try something new.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 14:58:05', '2016-04-23 18:58:05', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1781, 1, '2016-04-23 15:09:03', '2016-04-23 19:09:03', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others made the most of valuable connections and attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor get redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained constant throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers have multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis may be a sweet deal for government types, but it''s destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s only going to get worse. Taxes and fees are headed one way... Up! It''s ''baked into the cake''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland County, Laurinburg and Scotland County Schools must <span style="text-decoration: underline;">dramatically reduce expenses</span> if we''re to have a fighting chance of turning the economy around.</strong><strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nThe second thing we must do is <strong>build ''real'' 21st century jobs that pay living, family wages.</strong>\r\n\r\nThe third thing is\r\n\r\n2. Milk the same cow again.\r\n\r\n3. Shear the same sheep again.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the cow only has so much milk and the sheep so much wool to give. The well has simply run dry. As we continue to raise taxes, fees, etc., those who can sell out and leave. We''re going to have to try something new.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 15:09:03', '2016-04-23 19:09:03', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1782, 1, '2016-04-23 15:17:15', '2016-04-23 19:17:15', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained in place throughout history. No exceptions!\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers retire with multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government types is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things are only going to get worse if we refuse to change course.\r\n<ol>\r\n 	<li><strong>Scotland County, Laurinburg and Scotland County Schools must <span style="text-decoration: underline;">dramatically reduce expenses</span> if we''re to have a fighting chance of turning the economy around.</strong></li>\r\n 	<li><strong>We must organically grow ''real'' 21st century jobs that pay living, family wages.</strong></li>\r\n</ol>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 15:17:15', '2016-04-23 19:17:15', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1783, 1, '2016-04-23 15:29:56', '2016-04-23 19:29:56', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained in place throughout history. No exceptions!\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers retire with multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government types is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things are only going to get worse if we refuse to change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>We Must:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living, family wages.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from dependence upon an institutionalized entitlement-welfare model that is dragging us into the abyss.</li>\r\n 	<li>Offer cutting edge education, free from the shackles imposed by burdensome, obsolete rules and regulations.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 15:29:56', '2016-04-23 19:29:56', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1784, 1, '2016-04-23 15:36:18', '2016-04-23 19:36:18', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been an absolute disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained in place throughout history. No exceptions!\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often move to new positions so they can qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached many government workers retire with multiple pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government types is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things are only going to get worse if we refuse to change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>We Must:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living, family wages.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from dependence upon an institutionalized entitlement-welfare model that is dragging us into the abyss.</li>\r\n 	<li>Offer cutting edge education, free from the shackles imposed by burdensome, obsolete rules and regulations.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick? Do we need more commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals or highly compensated government bureaucrats? do we need a corporation charged with Economic Development, chaired by an expensive Director, paid for out of the public purse?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 15:36:18', '2016-04-23 19:36:18', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1785, 1, '2016-04-23 15:46:36', '2016-04-23 19:46:36', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to County Government, School District and City of Laurinburg. While this may have been a good move when viewed from individual perspectives, it''s been a full blown disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce. Government is a drag on an otherwise productive economy. It has never been different, nor will it ever be.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained in place throughout history. No exceptions!\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often migrate to new positions in order to qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government types is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will only get worse if we refuse to change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>We Must:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living, family wages and a sense of self satisfaction.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from dependence upon an institutionalized entitlement-welfare model that is dragging us and future generations into the abyss.</li>\r\n 	<li>Offer cutting edge educational opportunities, free from the shackles imposed by burdensome, obsolete rules, regulations and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick? Do we need more commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, highly compensated government bureaucrats and grants?\r\n\r\nDo we need a corporation charged with Economic Development, chaired by an expensive Director, paid for out of the public purse that''s trying to take us back in time?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-23 15:46:36', '2016-04-23 19:46:36', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1787, 1, '2016-04-24 12:15:11', '2016-04-24 16:15:11', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg government employment. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been a full blown disaster for the economy.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce. Government is a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity.\r\n\r\nGovernment is a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has remained in place throughout history. No exceptions!\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', employees often migrate to new positions in order to qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government types is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>We Must:</strong>\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living, family wages and a sense of self satisfaction.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from dependence upon an institutionalized entitlement-welfare model that is dragging us and future generations into the abyss.</li>\r\n 	<li>Offer cutting edge educational opportunities, free from the shackles imposed by burdensome, obsolete rules, regulations and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick? Do we need more commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, highly compensated government bureaucrats and grants?\r\n\r\nDo we need a corporation charged with Economic Development, chaired by an expensive Director, paid for out of the public purse that''s trying to take us back in time?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 12:15:11', '2016-04-24 16:15:11', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1788, 1, '2016-04-24 13:17:59', '2016-04-24 17:17:59', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. This may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, but it''s been nothing short of a disaster for our economy and community.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has been with us throughout human history. There are no exceptions.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four or more pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government workers is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will get substantially worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe keys to success are already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab them and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow 21st century employment opportunities. Provide living wage, family building jobs that offer a genuine sense of self satisfaction. We have the ability to do this. Do we have the will?</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education. Free our children from the shackles of burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas. It''s time to take advantage of that which our Creator has laid before us.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, rid ourselves of the cruel dependence of institutionalized poverty that''s designed to keep us and future generations in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick?\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nDo we need a highly compensated Economic Development Director trying to take us back to the ''good ole days? How about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''. Should we bulldoze more commercial properties to make way for taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 13:17:59', '2016-04-24 17:17:59', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1789, 1, '2016-04-24 13:23:36', '2016-04-24 17:23:36', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. This may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, but it''s been nothing short of a disaster for our economy and community.\r\n\r\nToday, government employment stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be great except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested mechanism has been with us throughout human history. There are no exceptions.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four or more pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government workers is unfortunately destroying our public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this situation is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will get substantially worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe keys to success are already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab them and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow 21st century employment opportunities. Provide living wage, family building jobs that offer a genuine sense of self satisfaction. We have the ability to do this. Do we have the will?</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education. Free our children from the shackles of burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas. It''s time to take advantage of that which our Creator has laid before us.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, rid ourselves of the cruel dependence of institutionalized poverty that''s designed to keep us and future generations in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about that highly compensated Economic Development Director trying to take us back to the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''.\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze more commercial properties to make way for additional taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads so we can build more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick?\r\n\r\nThere is no ''free lunch'' here.<strong> Carolina Crossroads News</strong> is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 13:23:36', '2016-04-24 17:23:36', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1790, 1, '2016-04-24 13:37:44', '2016-04-24 17:37:44', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County has the most severely depressed economy in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been nothing short of a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with us throughout history.\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, when government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to qualify for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat this process several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four or more pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for government workers is unfortunately destroying public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will get substantially worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe keys to success are already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab them and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs with a genuine sense of self satisfaction. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel, unjust dependence of institutionalized poverty that''s designed to keep us and future generations in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about that highly compensated Economic Development Director trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze more commercial properties to make way for additional taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads so we can build more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nIs this going to be easy? Will it be quick?\r\n\r\nBuilding a prosperous future is challenging. There is no ''free lunch''.<strong> Carolina Crossroads News</strong> is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 13:37:44', '2016-04-24 17:37:44', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1791, 1, '2016-04-24 13:49:21', '2016-04-24 17:49:21', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County has the most severely depressed economy in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been nothing short of a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat this process several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four or more pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some has unfortunately destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this is, it''s ''baked into the cake'' that things will get substantially worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe keys to success are already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab them and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel, unjust dependence of institutionalized poverty designed to keep us and future generations in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nHow do we rebuild prosperity?\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about that highly compensated Economic Development guru trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze more commercial properties, making way for additional taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\n<strong>Rebuilding prosperity will be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>There is no ''free lunch''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 13:49:21', '2016-04-24 17:49:21', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1792, 1, '2016-04-24 13:57:24', '2016-04-24 17:57:24', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County''s economy is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move when viewed from an individual perspective, it''s been nothing short of a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nGovernment places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. Rinse and repeat this process several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four or more pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of the public budget. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will get substantially worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that open the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel, unjust dependence of institutionalized poverty designed to keep us and future generations in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nHow do we rebuild prosperity?\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about that highly compensated Economic Development guru trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze more commercial properties, making way for additional taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\n<strong>Rebuilding prosperity will be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>There is no ''free lunch''.\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 13:57:24', '2016-04-24 17:57:24', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1793, 1, '2016-04-24 14:09:26', '2016-04-24 18:09:26', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nWhile government can provide some needed services, the fact is, it places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. It''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government positions in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. ''<em>Rinse and repeat</em>'' several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as this is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and provide a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations will remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nHow do we rebuild prosperity?\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThere is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. The truth is,<strong> rebuilding prosperity will be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:09:26', '2016-04-24 18:09:26', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1794, 1, '2016-04-24 14:17:15', '2016-04-24 18:17:15', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nWhile government can provide some needed services, the fact is, it''s inefficient and often corrupt, placing a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. All too often it''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government jobs in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as the current situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and offer a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong>How do we rebuild prosperity?</strong>\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThe truth is, there is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. <strong>Rebuilding prosperity is going to be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do your part?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:17:15', '2016-04-24 18:17:15', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1795, 1, '2016-04-24 14:17:41', '2016-04-24 18:17:41', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nWhile government can provide some needed services, the fact is, it''s inefficient and often corrupt, placing a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. All too often it''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government jobs in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as the current situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and offer a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong>How do we rebuild prosperity?</strong>\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThe truth is, there is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. <strong>Rebuilding prosperity is going to be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do your part?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:17:41', '2016-04-24 18:17:41', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1796, 1, '2016-04-24 14:22:45', '2016-04-24 18:22:45', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nWhile government can provide some needed services, the fact is, it''s inefficient and often corrupt, placing a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. All too often it''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government jobs in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as the current situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and offer a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong>How do we rebuild prosperity?</strong>\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThe truth is, there is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. <strong>Rebuilding prosperity is going to be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to do its part. Are you ready to do yours?\r\n\r\nDietrich Bonhoffer''s quote:\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:22:45', '2016-04-24 18:22:45', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1797, 1, '2016-04-24 14:31:44', '2016-04-24 18:31:44', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nWhile government can provide some needed services, the fact is, it''s inefficient and often corrupt, placing a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. All too often it''s a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nWhen government employee pensions become ''vested'', workers often migrate to new government jobs in order to begin qualifying for yet another pension. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as the current situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs and offer a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong>How do we rebuild prosperity?</strong>\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThe truth is, there is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. <strong>Rebuilding prosperity is going to be challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to carry its share of the water. Are you ready to do carry your share?\r\n\r\n"Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act" Dietrich Bonhoeffer\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<table style="height: 36px;" width="128">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width="85">&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<table width="705">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width="705">Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:31:44', '2016-04-24 18:31:44', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1798, 1, '2016-04-24 14:37:40', '2016-04-24 18:37:40', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Click Here <span style="color: #000000;">to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nScotland County is mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all of North Carolina.\r\n\r\nWhen the mills began shutting down, those with marketable skills left to seek employment elsewhere. Some stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Others attached themselves to the County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. While this may have been a good move from an individual perspective, it''s been a disaster for our economy.\r\n\r\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything, rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\r\n\r\nSure, government provides some needed services, but the fact is, it''s inefficient and often corrupt, placing a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. All too often government is little more than a conduit via which the fruits of others labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested model has been with mankind throughout history.\r\n\r\nGovernment employee pensions are unique. When an employee becomes ''vested'', they can often move to new government job and begin qualifying for yet another pension. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, some government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\r\n\r\nThis very sweet deal for some, unfortunately has destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing pension and benefit costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty? As dire as the current situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will only get worse unless we change course.\r\n\r\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\r\n\r\nThe key to success is already in our pocket. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door to the prosperity we seek.\r\n\r\nWe must:\r\n<ul>\r\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenses</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\r\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family building jobs that offer a genuine sense of self worth. We have the ability to do this.</li>\r\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education that frees our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\r\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from the cruel and unjust dependence of <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\n<strong>How do we rebuild prosperity?</strong>\r\n\r\nDo we need more taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats?\r\n\r\nHow about more highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days? What about more programs like our ''Certified Retirement Community''?\r\n\r\nShould we bulldoze additional commercial properties, making way for more taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks? How about Laurinburg''s new multi-million dollar City Hall/Police Department?\r\n\r\nWhat about arresting more potheads, building more prisons, jails and lockups?\r\n\r\nThe truth is, there is no <em>''free lunch''</em>. <strong>Rebuilding prosperity is challenging, but it''s achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\r\n\r\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows how to reach the goal and is willing to carry its share of the water. Are you ready to do carry your share?\r\n\r\n"Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act" Dietrich Bonhoeffer\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<table style="height: 36px;" width="128">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width="85">&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<blockquote>"<em>Based on its unemployment rate, median household income, population growth, and property tax base per capita, Scotland is consistently <a id="KonaLink0" class="kLink" href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status#"><span style="color: #595959;"><span class="kLink">classified</span></span></a> by the N.C. Department of Commerce as a Tier I county — among the 40 most distressed in the state.</em>" <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></blockquote>\r\n<span style="color: #ff0000;">DIETER - HERE''S PART 1 FOR YOUR REVIEW:</span>\r\n\r\n<strong>Scotland is the most economically distressed county in North Carolina</strong>. Unfortunately, that''s not breaking news.\r\n\r\nWe wholeheartedly agree with sentiments expressed by State Senator Tom McInnes, who recently stated: "The way it is right now, we can’t make anybody locate a plant in Scotland County if they don’t want to come here. We’ve got to give them a reason to come here. We’re going to have to work in a different way than we’ve been working..."\r\n\r\nDespite longstanding and ongoing attempts by County gurus to bring in new industry, the fact is Scotland County will never again be a manufacturing magnet. Mexico''s new and highly automated state of the art plants pay wages of only $2 per hour and No benefits. Even Chinese wages are higher, causing factories there to now relocate to cheaper venues like Vietnam in order to compete. Despite often repeated prognostications, even ''The Donald'' won''t be able to reverse this trend.\r\n\r\nAs Senator McInnis continued: "... we’re going to have to work together... to offer 21st century curricula for <strong>the jobs that we have available and not the jobs that we wish we had.</strong>”\r\n\r\nAmerica was founded upon the concept of a largely self regulating and self righting <strong>Free Market Economy</strong>. This was by no means perfect, but a great, prosperous and self governing republic was built upon its foundation. We became ''The Shining Light on the Hill'' that others looked up to and sought to emulate. Unfortunately, that was a long time ago.\r\n\r\nThere can be no doubt that Scotland County was destined to experience difficult times when mills and manufacturing began fleeing, first to China and then Mexico, but according to Free Market dogma, things would have eventually righted themselves had market forces been allowed to play out.\r\n\r\nThat didn''t happen, and today, decades later, despite massive application of state and federal grant programs and tax incentives being thrown at the problem, Scotland County remains mired in a Deep Depression. Worse yet, subtract state and federal welfare programs, along with generous USDA subsidies, supports, loans and grants, and Scotland County''s economy would be deader as a door nail.\r\n\r\nThe reasons the Revival never took hold here are easily identified, straight forward, and well understood... not complicated at all. <strong>The question is: Are we going do anything about it or do we intend to mire in this pig slop until there is absolutely nothing left?</strong>\r\n\r\nBefore we move on, let us share a brief but telling story. After purchasing a former manufacturing plant, we made an appointment to talk with Scotland County''s Director of Economic Development. He proved to be friendly, intelligent, well educated, articulate and courteous. He was also highly compensated with a salary of $80k per year, plus a generous benefit package.\r\n\r\nWe began the discussion with our vision of how we could play a role in assisting the County from its obsolete manufacturing based economic model to a forward looking high tech model, but nevertheless, one that could, with little training, take advantage of the County''s existing, but largely unskilled human resource base.\r\n\r\nThe Director listened politely, but soon enough broke in, stating with crystalline clarity, that unless we were prepared to bring at least 700 jobs to the County (for starters), it wasn''t worth his time to continue talking with us. We expressed puzzlement as to that magic 700 job number, wherein he replied that the County was putting the final touches on a project that would bring a large Japanese clutch manufacturing operation to the County that would employ 700.\r\n\r\nWe weren''t quite ready to take no for an answer and inquired who was next on the County ladder that we could talk with. The County Manager was ''the man'', but was not presently available. We left our contact information and we assured he would contact us. We never heard back.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<table width="705">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td width="705">Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.</td>\r\n</tr>\r\n</tbody>\r\n</table>\r\n<strong>End of Part 1 - Stay turned for\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nSource:\r\n\r\n<a href="http://laurinburgexchange.com/news/ap-wire/3568/county-could-lose-tier-status" target="_blank">Laurinburg Exchange</a>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or support (at) carolinacrossroads (dot) news</address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-have-enough-to-survive- &lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retirement/" target="_blank">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/baby-boomers- reinvent-to-&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;p&gt;retire/">123</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DONE - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-24 14:37:40', '2016-04-24 18:37:40', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1799, 1, '2016-04-25 14:56:52', '2016-04-25 18:56:52', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us.\r\n\r\nTheir service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nDoes local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheer leading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nYes, the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens.\r\n\r\nSure, LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity. We''ve all seen LEOs shamelessly lying under oath even when they''ve been caught red handed breaking the law.\r\n\r\nLEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a supposed effort to prevent crime.\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build ''theft'' right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasing view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are increasingly trained to view the American people as The Enemy. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> over <strong>individual freedom</strong> and the right to self expression. This works well in a military setting, but makes it difficult to achieve the <strong>right balance</strong> needed to ensure a <strong><em>free</em> and <em>open</em></strong> society. LEOs must walk a fine line. Theirs has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits, eliminating those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Law enforcement is purposely rejecting the very people our society needs to fill these important positions.\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out, needed or desirable. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great, until you realize that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society. Officers appear more interested in manipulating and controlling dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to really address crime.\r\n\r\nOur Local Law Enforcement is among those feeding at the <strong>Federal</strong> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share (through fusion centers) information with Federal agencies that these agencies could <strong>not otherwise legally</strong> be in possession of. This seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.<em><strong>\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany, only with today''s much advanced technology. <strong>A large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned</strong> and have formed the CSPOA (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong>Local Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect us</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington D.C. schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 14:56:52', '2016-04-25 18:56:52', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1800, 1, '2016-04-25 15:14:37', '2016-04-25 19:14:37', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us.\r\n\r\nTheir service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nDoes local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheer leading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nYes, the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens.\r\n\r\nSure, LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity. Yes, we''ve all seen videos showing LEOs shamelessly lying under oath even when they''ve been caught red handed.\r\n\r\nLEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a supposed effort to prevent crime.\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build <em>''theft''</em> right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasing view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are trained to view the American people as The Enemy. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> versus <strong>individual freedom</strong> and <strong>liberty</strong>. This might work well in a military setting, but it can make it very difficult to achieve the <strong>right balance</strong> needed to ensure a <strong><em>free</em> and <em>open</em></strong> society. LEOs must walk a fine line, and theirs has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits to eliminate those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Why is law enforcement purposely rejecting the very people our society needs most fill these important positions?\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out or needed. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology, ALRs (automatic license plate readers) and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <em><strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong></em>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great, until one realizes that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society.\r\n\r\nOfficers appear more interested in controlling and manipulating dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to actually address crime.\r\n\r\nOur Local Law Enforcement is among those feeding at the <em><strong>Federal</strong></em> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share information (through fusion centers) with Federal agencies that could not otherwise legally possess such information. This seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. <em><strong>Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that <em><strong>what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany</strong></em>, only with today''s much advanced technology. A large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned and have formed the <span style="color: #0000ff;"><em><strong>CSPOA</strong></em></span> (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Our Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect u</em>s</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington D.C. schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<em><b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b></em>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 15:14:37', '2016-04-25 19:14:37', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wpzp_posts` VALUES
(1801, 1, '2016-04-25 15:15:09', '2016-04-25 19:15:09', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us.\r\n\r\nTheir service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nDoes local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheer leading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nYes, the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens.\r\n\r\nSure, LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity. Yes, we''ve all seen videos showing LEOs shamelessly lying under oath even when they''ve been caught red handed.\r\n\r\nLEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a supposed effort to prevent crime.\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build <em>''theft''</em> right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasing view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are trained to view the American people as The Enemy. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> versus <strong>individual freedom</strong> and <strong>liberty</strong>. This might work well in a military setting, but it can make it very difficult to achieve the <strong>right balance</strong> needed to ensure a <strong><em>free</em> and <em>open</em></strong> society. LEOs must walk a fine line, and theirs has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits to eliminate those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Why is law enforcement purposely rejecting the very people our society needs most fill these important positions?\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out or needed. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology, ALRs (automatic license plate readers) and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <em><strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong></em>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great, until one realizes that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society.\r\n\r\nOfficers appear more interested in controlling and manipulating dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to actually address crime.\r\n\r\nOur Local Law Enforcement is among those feeding at the <em><strong>Federal</strong></em> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share information (through fusion centers) with Federal agencies that could not otherwise legally possess such information. This seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. <em><strong>Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that <em><strong>what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany</strong></em>, only with today''s much advanced technology. A large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned and have formed the <span style="color: #0000ff;"><em><strong>CSPOA</strong></em></span> (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Our Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect u</em>s</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington D.C. schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<em><b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b></em>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Why do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 15:15:09', '2016-04-25 19:15:09', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1802, 1, '2016-04-25 15:28:15', '2016-04-25 19:28:15', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us. Their service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<em><strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong></em>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nWhy does local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheer leading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nIs it because the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens?\r\n\r\nIs it because LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity?\r\n\r\nis it because LEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a ''supposed'' effort to prevent crime?\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build <em>''theft''</em> right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasing view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are trained to view the American people as ''the enemy''. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> versus <em><strong>individual freedom</strong></em> and <em><strong>liberty</strong></em>. This might work well in a military setting, but it can make things very difficult when it comes to achieving the <em><strong>right balance</strong></em> needed to ensure peace, security, freedom and liberty in an open society. LEOs must walk a fine line, theirs has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits, eliminating those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are much more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Why is law enforcement purposely rejecting the very people our society needs most fill these critical positions?\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out or needed. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <em><strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong></em>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology, ALRs (automatic license plate readers) and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <em><strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong></em>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great until one realizes that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> when necessary to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society.\r\n\r\nOfficers appear more interested in controlling and manipulating dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to actually address increasingly brazen criminal activity.\r\n\r\nLocal Law Enforcement agencies are among those feeding at the <em><strong>Federal</strong></em> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share information (through fusion centers) with Federal agencies that could not otherwise legally possess such information.\r\n\r\nThis seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. <em><strong>Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that <em><strong>what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany</strong></em>, only with today''s much advanced technology.\r\n\r\nA large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned and have formed the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>CSPOA</strong></span></span> (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Our Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect u</em>s</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington''s schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<em><b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b></em>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Why do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 15:28:15', '2016-04-25 19:28:15', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1803, 3, '2016-04-25 15:49:13', '2016-04-25 19:49:13', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us. Their service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<em><strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong></em>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nWhy does local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheerleading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nIs it because the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens?\r\n\r\nIs it because LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity?\r\n\r\nIs it because LEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a ''supposed'' effort to prevent crime?\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build <em>''theft''</em> right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasingly view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are trained to view the American people as ''the enemy''. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> versus <em><strong>individual freedom</strong></em> and <em><strong>liberty</strong></em>. This might work well in a military setting, but it can make things very difficult when it comes to achieving the <em><strong>right balance</strong></em> needed to ensure peace, security, freedom and liberty in an open society. LEOs must walk a fine line, their''s has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits, eliminating those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are much more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Why is law enforcement purposely rejecting the very people our society needs most fill these critical positions?\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out or needed. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <em><strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong></em>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology, ALRs (automatic license plate readers) and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <em><strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong></em>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great until one realizes that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> when necessary to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society.\r\n\r\nOfficers appear more interested in controlling and manipulating dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to actually address increasingly brazen criminal activity.\r\n\r\nLocal Law Enforcement agencies are among those feeding at the <em><strong>Federal</strong></em> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share information (through fusion centers) with Federal agencies that could not otherwise legally possess such information.\r\n\r\nThis seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. <em><strong>Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that <em><strong>what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany</strong></em>, only with today''s much advanced technology.\r\n\r\nA large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned and have formed the <a href="http://cspoa.org/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>CSPOA</strong></span></span></a> (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Our Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect u</em>s</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington''s schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<em><b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b></em>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Why do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 15:49:13', '2016-04-25 19:49:13', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1804, 3, '2016-04-25 15:51:26', '2016-04-25 19:51:26', 'To be sure, there are plenty of bad guys and Law Enforcement stands between them and us. Their service is greatly appreciated and in exchange they are well compensated.\r\n\r\nThe Police are our employees. They work for us. They are paid with our tax dollars.\r\n\r\n<em><strong>Americans are not required to obey laws that are unlawful or unconstitutional, nor is Law Enforcement empowered to enforce laws that defy the Constitution.</strong></em>\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1021 alignright" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/we-support-our-police-300x198.jpg" alt="we-support-our-police" width="300" height="198" />\r\n\r\nWhy does local law enforcement now feel it needs a cheerleading squad to post signs of support?\r\n\r\nIs it because the Internet is brimming with videos showing Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs) harassing, abusing, pepper spraying, tasing, beating, robbing, arresting, shooting and killing innocent citizens?\r\n\r\nIs it because LEOs use powerful, unlawful means like <span style="color: #0000ff;">''<a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/who-is-spying-on-you/" target="_blank">Stingrays</a>''</span> to collect private information, conversations and metadata on <strong>each and every citizen, </strong>regardless of whether we are suspected of criminal activity?\r\n\r\nIs it because LEOs routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://youtu.be/kfzwjd8EWdo" target="_blank">stop citizens</a> </span>going about their normal business, in a ''supposed'' effort to prevent crime?\r\n\r\n<img class="size-medium wp-image-1601 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/police-shaking-person-upside-down-300x168.png" alt="police-shaking-person-upside-down" width="300" height="168" />FBI statistics disclose that in 2014 alone $4.5 billion was <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">stolen</a></span> from the American people.\r\n\r\nHomes, cars, business assets and cash are being routinely <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://www.naturalnews.com/041828_cops_innocent_civilians_civil_forfeit ure.html" target="_blank">seized</a></span>, without any charges filed or even the pretense of illegality or wrongdoing.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, the FBI states that only $3.5 billion was lost due to actual burglaries. <strong><em>That’s right; according to our own FBI, the vast majority of thefts are being committed not by burglars, but by Police</em>. </strong>Many Departments now build <em>''theft''</em> right into budgets so they can plan in advance how much to steal.<strong>\r\n</strong>\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder Americans increasingly view Police as dangerous predators? Should honest, God fearing citizens be forced to cower before those paid to serve and protect us?\r\n\r\nPolice recruits are trained to view the American people as ''the enemy''. Are LEOs unwittingly becoming mafia style enforcers, making sure we don''t forget who’s really in charge?\r\n\r\nLEOs are often ex military, and while there are valuable synergies between the two, there are important and fundamental differences as well.\r\n\r\nThose drawn to military and law enforcement careers often express a strong preference for <strong><em>order</em></strong> and <strong><em>control,</em></strong> versus <em><strong>individual freedom</strong></em> and <em><strong>liberty</strong></em>. This might work well in a military setting, but it can make things very difficult when it comes to achieving the <em><strong>right balance</strong></em> needed to ensure peace, security, freedom and liberty in an open society. LEOs must walk a fine line, their''s has never been an easy mission.\r\n\r\nMany Departments screen potential recruits, eliminating those with high IQ''s, as intelligent individuals are much more likely to question orders they know are illegal, wrong, immoral or unconstitutional. Why is law enforcement purposely rejecting the very people our society needs most fill these critical positions?\r\n\r\nAs if to spray gasoline on an already blazing fire, Legislators pass tons of laws each year, most of which are neither well thought out or needed. The legislative process does not ensure laws are <em>just, lawful or constitutiona</em>l.\r\n\r\nMost legislation isn''t even written by the legislators we elect, but rather by professional lobbyists in the employ of large corporations. Legislators routinely vote for Bills they''ve never seen, let alone read. Such <em><strong>Legislative abuse places an enormous burden upon LEOs </strong></em>who take a solemn oath to enforce the laws and defend the Constitution. How can LEOs defend that which millions of Americans have sacrificed, fought and died to preserve if we don''t give them clear, lawful directions?\r\n\r\nTo make matters worse, Washington DC now showers state and local law enforcement with virtually unlimited taxpayer funded grants to acquire gnarly war wagons, military style combat gear, sophisticated surveillance technology, ALRs (automatic license plate readers) and the latest in crowd control. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Law Enforcement and Soldiers going off to war. <em><strong>This poses a systemic threat to our nation, our freedoms and liberty.</strong></em>\r\n\r\nDepartments are equipping vehicles with Dash Cams and officers with Body Cams in a ''stated effort'' to reign in rogue behavior, supposedly introducing transparency and accountability. This sounds great until one realizes that Officers are able to selectively turn cameras <strong><em>on and off</em></strong> to suit their needs, and despite claims to the contrary, can and do <strong><em>edit footage</em></strong> when necessary to make sure videos fit the narrative they want told.\r\n\r\nWe’ve attended community programs sponsored by Local Law Enforcement, and quite frankly, came away disappointed. There appears to be little understanding and even less interest regarding the role today’s policing is expected to play if we are to successfully battle crime, while remaining a free people in an open society.\r\n\r\nOfficers appear more interested in controlling and manipulating dialogue and public perceptions rather than doing the hard work needed to actually address increasingly brazen criminal activity.\r\n\r\nLocal Law Enforcement agencies are among those feeding at the <em><strong>Federal</strong></em> taxpayer trough to acquire the latest gadgets, gear and surveillance equipment. In exchange they agree to share information (through fusion centers) with Federal agencies that could not otherwise legally possess such information.\r\n\r\nThis seemingly innocent exchange <strong>is<em> extremely short sighted </em></strong><em><strong>and potentially very dangerous. </strong></em>By the time Americans discover the all too real dangers, it could be too late. <em><strong>Once a nationwide Police State is firmly established, there won''t be any going back.\r\n</strong></em>\r\n\r\nThose who know their history understand that <em><strong>what''s going on today is an exact replay of what happened in Hitler''s Nazi Germany</strong></em>, only with today''s much advanced technology.\r\n\r\nA large and growing number of Law Enforcement officials are themselves extremely concerned and have formed the <a href="http://cspoa.org/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong>CSPOA</strong></span></span></a> (Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association) in an effort to protect our nation. Local law enforcement officials are not members of this group.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>Our Law Enforcement exists to serve and protect u</em>s</strong>, not roll out the red carpet for Washington''s schemers, scammers, kleptocrats and psychopaths.\r\n\r\n<em><b>"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety". </b></em>Benjamin Franklin<b>\r\n</b>\r\n\r\nNumerous attempts were made to engage Laurinburg Police Chief Darwin Williams and Scotland County Sheriff Ralph Kersey regarding the issues discussed in this article. No response was received.\r\n\r\n<address>Sources:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/when-the-state-is-not- your-friend-police-asset-seizures-in-2014-exceeded-all-burglaries/" target="_blank">David Stockman''s Contra Corner</a></address><address>Natural News</address>&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/privacy-surveillance-spying-video/" target="_blank">Privacy, Surveillance, Spying (VIDEO)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/mayor-police-chief-poised-to-shift-gears/" target="_blank">Mayor &amp; Police Chief Poised to Shift Gears</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/we-support-our-police-part-1/" target="_blank">We Support Our Police</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\r\n\r\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>', 'DRAFT - Why do Police Need a Cheerleading Squad?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1258-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-25 15:51:26', '2016-04-25 19:51:26', '', 1258, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1258-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1805, 3, '2016-04-30 13:02:42', '2016-04-30 17:02:42', '<img class="size-medium wp-image-1172 alignleft" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/department-commerce-2016-tier-designations-300x162.png" alt="department-commerce-2016-tier-designations" width="300" height="162" />\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><span style="color: #0000ff;"><span style="color: #000000;">Click <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/scotland-county-mired-in-depression-part-1/" target="_blank">Here</a></span> to read</span> <span style="color: #000000;">Part 1</span></span>\n</strong>\n\nScotland County remains mired in a <strong>Deep Depression</strong>. We''re the most economically depressed county in all North Carolina.\n\nMill and manufacturing operations fled heavily unionized, high tax, highly regulated northern states during the 1940''s and 50''s. Later, when those same companies discovered that NAFTA made it even cheaper to move operations to China and Mexico, they once again skedaddled.\n\nMany with marketable skills left Scotland County seeking employment elsewhere. Others stayed, hunkering down, hoping for a comeback. Still others attached themselves to County, School District and City of Laurinburg governments. This may have been a good move from an individual perspective, but it''s been a disaster for our economy.\n\nToday, <strong>Government Employment</strong> stands as the cornerstone of Scotland County''s economy. This would be fantastic except that government doesn''t actually produce anything; rather it consumes (through the miracle of taxation and fees) that which others have toiled to produce.\n\nSure, government provides some needed services, but the fact is its inefficiency and corruption places a parasitic drag on otherwise productive economic activity. For the most part, government is a conduit via which the fruits of others'' labor gets redistributed to favored friends, political cronies and valuable vote generating demographic constituencies. This time tested <a href="https://youtu.be/zY5UuWkVq8g" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0000ff;">model</span></a> has been with mankind throughout history.\n\nGovernment employee pensions deserve special mention. When employees become ''vested'', they often earn the right to move to new government positions where they begin qualifying for yet more pensions. <em>''Rinse and repeat''</em> several times, and you can see that by the time actual retirement age is reached, many government workers retire with two, three or even four pension checks coming in each month. Talk about striking gold!\n\nIt gets even better (except for taxpayers), as today''s liberal policies encourage the use of ''disability'' as a means of further enrichment. How many able bodied ex-military and government workers do you know who receive disability checks of one sort or another each month?\n\nGovernment also sees to it that everything you''ve worked and saved for is slowly and systematically stolen through <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="https://youtu.be/UrJGlXEs8nI" target="_blank">inflation</a></span>. This, like other scams, works so well that most folks aren''t even aware a thief in the night is robbing them little by little.\n\n<img class="alignright wp-image-1858" src="http://carolinacrossroads.news/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/single-role-toilet-paper.jpg" alt="single-role-toilet-paper" width="96" height="96" />Politicians feverishly maintain <span style="color: #000000;">that</span> there is a ''free lunch'' and we can continue spending money we don''t have without consequences, by creating endless deficits and outright money printing. The facts show otherwise, as inflation has destroyed purchasing power to the point where some can only afford to buy toilet paper in single rolls, one at a time. How many ever expected that wiping their butts would become a cause for concern?\n\nGovernment workers don''t share inflation''s burden, as they receive regular pay increases and ''cost of living adjustments'' (COLAs) regardless of performance or economic circumstances. We pay for problems others create.\n\nThis sweet deal for some has unfortunately destroyed public finances, as skyrocketing salary, pension, benefit and disability costs now eat up an enormous share of public budgets. Is it any wonder County, Municipal and School coffers are running on empty?\n\nAs dire as the situation is, it''s <em>''baked into the cake''</em> that things will get demonstrably worse unless we radically change course.\n\n<strong>BLUEPRINT for PROSPERITY</strong>\n\nFortunately, <strong>the key to success is in our pocket</strong>. It''s up to us to reach in, grab it and turn the lock that opens the door.\n\nWe must:\n<ul>\n 	<li><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Dramatically reduce expenditures</span> of Scotland County Government, Laurinburg City Government and Scotland County Schools.</li>\n 	<li>Organically grow ''real'' 21st century employment opportunities that provide living wage, family friendly jobs. We have the ability, do we have the will?</li>\n 	<li>Deliver ''cutting edge'' public education, freeing our children from the shackles imposed by today''s burdensome rules, regulations, curriculum''s, policies and politically driven agendas.</li>\n 	<li>Banish slavery once and for all, ridding ourselves from cruel and unjust dependence on <em>''institutionalized poverty''</em> designed to ensure that we and future generations remain in bondage.</li>\n 	<li>Eliminate the County''s regressive, corrosive, business killing ''Personal Property Tax''. Until this is done, there will be no economic rebirth.</li>\n 	<li>Get government out of the way, allow ''market forces'' to re-balance. The effects won''t be immediately apparent, and many currently feeding at the taxpayer''s trough would surely be displaced, but we either implement positive, rational, logical, necessary change in a planned, orderly manner while we still have options, or risk waiting until financial crisis overtakes us, guaranteeing extreme pain and an unpredictable outcome.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Here''s what we don''t need:</strong>\n<ul>\n 	<li>More taxpayer funded commissions, boards, blue ribbon panels, study groups, pedigreed intellectuals, bureaucrats, grants, seminars or retreats.</li>\n 	<li>More highly compensated Economic Development gurus trying to bring back the ''good ole days'' by taking money from one taxpayer''s pocket and putting it in another, calling it ''job creation''.</li>\n 	<li>More nonsense like our ''Certified Retirement Community'' program.</li>\n 	<li>More commercial properties bulldozed to make way for additional taxpayer funded ''sculpture'' parks.</li>\n 	<li>More multi-million dollar boondoggles like Laurinburg City Council''s new ''Colonial Williamsburg'' City Hall/Police Department.</li>\n 	<li>More arrests of potheads (following months long intensive, expensive investigations) so we can build and fill yet more prisons, jails and lockups.</li>\n</ul>\n<strong>Rebuilding prosperity will be challenging, but it''s fully achievable if we want it bad enough. </strong>\n\n<strong>Carolina Crossroads News</strong> understands the mission, knows what it takes to reach the goal and is willing to carry its share of the water. What we can''t do is carry your share too.\n\n<strong>Your future is up to YOU!</strong>\n<blockquote>"<em>Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act</em>" Dietrich Bonhoeffer</blockquote>\n&nbsp;\n\n<address>You reach Carolina Crossroads News at (888) 472-7555 or send us an <span style="color: #0000ff;"><a style="color: #0000ff;" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/contact-us/" target="_blank">email</a></span>.</address><address> </address><address> </address><address>Related Articles:</address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/scotland-county-mired-in-depression-part-1/" target="_blank">Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 1)</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://carolinacrossroads.news/lack-of-decorum-at-laurinburg-city-council-meeting/" target="_blank">‘Lack of Decorum’ at Laurinburg City Council Meeting</a></address><address><a title="123" href="http://restlessboomers.com/will-you-work-until-you- drop/">123</a></address><address> </address>[polldaddy rating="8361352"]\n\n&nbsp;\n<p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: 16px; color: #de030b;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans- serif;">We''d love to hear your questions or comments below. Thank you.</span></span></strong></em></p>\n&nbsp;\n<p style="text-align: center;">* * * * *</p>\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">Fair Use Notice: This website post may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for news reporting, educational and other limited purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law.</span></span></em>\n\n<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif;">CarolinaCrossroads.News (‘CCN’) has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references CCN.</span></span></em>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;', 'DONE - Scotland County Mired in Depression (Part 2)', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1177-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-04-30 13:02:42', '2016-04-30 17:02:42', '', 1177, 'http://carolinacrossroads.news/1177-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
