DOT memo casts doubt on Perdue's promise

Gov. Bev Perdue pledged in late February to fast-track construction on the last piece of Charlotte's outerbelt and start work sometime this year.

But a DOT memo from late March spells out the funding challenges to starting construction on the last segment of Interstate 485 in 2009.

Today's story says the state is expected next month to propose a plan to fund the outerbelt. It's possible the plan will use money dedicated for another Charlotte project, such as widening I-85 and improving Independence Boulevard.

Matthews Mayor Lee Myers said he expects any proposal will involve cuts to other road projects, and said it would likely be "ugly."

Click here to read the internal N.C. Department of Transportation memo.

- Steve Harrison

First look: CMS releases spending plan

Superintendent Peter Gorman's budget proposal, which the school board will vote on May 12, calls for the county to provide $351 million again this year, sparing CMS from the cuts that would then fall harder on other county services and agencies.

Cuts from county commissioners would trigger further layers of job cuts.

A 210-page budget work book made public today provides more details about how that plan would play out in each department and how proposed spending compares with previous years.

Click here to see the newly released plan.

On its web site, CMS officials are asking the public for their thoughts on proposed cuts and cost-cutting measures:

Click here to let CMS know what you think.

- Ann Doss Helms

Papers: King spent $5,343 on 23-page personal bio

Today's Observer story details accusations about former United Way CEO Gloria Pace King's expenses. A statement from the agency's chief financial officer says King "double dipped" on meal expenses and charged the agency for personal travel.

According to court papers, King spent $5,343.51 for creation of a 23-page leather-bound book profiling her life in business.

Click here to read the sworn statement from chief financial officer Shelley White.

King's attorney Bill Diehl says his client denies all the allegations. King is accusing the United Way of discrimination, wrongful termination and illegally breaking her employment contract.

Click here to read grand jury subpoena and copies of receipts.

State probes former Black benefactor

Don Beason, once one of the state's most powerful lobbyists, is the subject of an investigation into whether he directed clients to underreport their payments to him, according to an investigator's affidavit, the News & Observer reports.

According to the story: "In the four-page sworn statement filed in Wake County Superior Court, John M. Lynch, a special agent with the N.C. secretary of state's lobbying compliance division, wrote that he thought Beason directed some of 24 groups and companies for which he and his son lobbied in 2007 to include inaccurate information on state disclosure forms."

Click here to read the affadavit.

Beason's time as a lobbying powerhouse ended in summer 2007 when reports surfaced that he gave a $500,000, no-interest loan to now-imprisoned former House Speaker Jim Black.

Click here to read the full story.

New Queens Table monuments?

A small group of anonymous donors is proposing a set of new public monuments for Charlotte. The monuments would sit beside the South Tryon Street bridge at I-277.

Click here to see the proposal. (Rendering is on page 7).

The donors established the Queen’s Table Fund in 1991. Prior gifts include Sculptures on the Square; Hezekiah Alexander House, Charlotte Museum of History; Queen Charlotte at Douglas International Airport; Aspire, bronze sculpture on the CPCC central campus; and Wind Sculpture on West Trade Street.

The group hopes to install two monuments at at the north bridge approach of S. Tryon Street Bridge by late summer or early fall.

Annual maintenance costs for the city are estimated at $ 8,450.

FAA: 233 bird strikes at Charlotte/Douglas

The Federal Aviation Administration today released for the first time the time and place of airplane-bird strikes since 1990. The disclosures come after the ditching of a US Airways jet in the Hudson River after bird strikes knocked out both its engines in January.

The data for Charlotte/Douglas International Airport shows that from Jan 2004 to Dec. 2008, there were 233 bird strikes reported at CLT. One strike caused "substantial damage," the report shows.

Click here to see bird strikes at Charlotte/Douglas since 1990.

The Associated Press reports that since 2000, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York reported at least 30 accidents where damage was either substantial or the plane was actually destroyed. Sacramento International Airport in California reported at least 28 such accidents.

Click here for the complete FAA database.

Pastor Jinwright indictment

Bishop Anthony L. Jinwright, senior pastor of two Charlotte churches, was accused Tuesday of tax evasion.

The 52-year-old heads Greater Salem City of God in west Charlotte and Greater Salem at the Lake in Cornelius.

Click here to read the 16-page federal indictment.

Click here to read Bishop Jinwright's response.

- Christopher D. Kirkpatrick