Government

Last Friday more than 250 UNC workers rallied to protest proposed cuts in this years pay raises. According to the Herald,

The rally, one of three coordinated by the State Employees Association of North Carolina, was held in response to recent legislative deliberations that would lower a proposed raise for state employees from $1,086 to $625...

"Everybody's upset," Tommy Griffin, chairman of UNC's Employee Forum, said Friday afternoon. "Everyone had pretty much come to terms with the $1,086."

Yesterday, the N&O reported that House Speaker Jim Black, Rep. Richard Morgan, and Senate Leader Marc Basnight "weeks after the 2004 session, and without disclosing their action" secretly restarted a program to provide an additional 2-3 percent in raises to legislative employees. This action was only discovered when the N&O reporter went over detailed individual pay records, a painstaking task.

Here's an alert from our friends at the Carolina Interfaith TaskForce On Central America:

Public Citizen is phoning members to ask them to phone [Congressman] David Price. He is undecided about how to vote on CAFTA, which will come before the house next week. Call the congressional switchboard at 1-866-340-9281 and ask to speak to him. You can email him at http://www.house.gov/formprice/email.htm .

For information on CAFTA:
http://www.citizen.org/trade/cafta/
http://www.stopcafta.org/

According to Public Citizen:

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday June 25, 2005

Over the 26 years since the accident at Three Mile Island, dangerous and costly nuclear power has seemed a technology on the way out. Now, thanks to the power-industry friendly Bush administration, there is a renewed push for the construction of nuclear power plants. Both area utilities, Duke Power and Progress Energy, are exploring expansion of their nuclear operations. Nuclear power is a cash cow for the utilities with huge profits from construction, state-guaranteed profits from operations and federal protection from liability.

Of particular concern locally is the possibility of additional capacity at the Shearon Harris plant. Originally designed to support four reactors, thanks to the changing economics and politics of nuclear power, the plant was built with only one. Even so, it has been among the worst performing in the nation.

In recent years, Shearon Harris has appeared regularly on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's watch list because of its high rate of emergency shutdowns.