Club For Growth adds cash to conservative backing for Scott vs. Thurmond in SC GOP runoff

An influential anti-tax group is putting money behind national conservative endorsements for a black Republican facing the son of former segregationist Strom Thurmond in a South Carolina congressional runoff.

Federal Election Commission records Monday showed that the Club for Growth political action committee spent about $54,000 in the past two weeks for third-party ads and mailings supporting Tim Scott against Paul Thurmond in the 1st Congressional District.

Today is Tuesday, June 22, the 173rd day of 2010. There are 192 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On June 22, 1940, during World War II, Adolf Hitler gained a stunning victory as France was forced to sign an armistice eight days after German forces overran Paris.

On this date:

Panthers WR Steve Smith out indefinitely after breaking left arm playing flag football

Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith will miss the start of training camp with a broken left forearm suffered while playing football.

Flag football, that is.

Smith was injured Sunday while playing in a flag football game. It's an activity that could violate the terms of his contract, although Smith is expected back before the start of the regular season and may avoid serious punishment by the team.

by Jim Kouri

Is Attorney General Eric Holder more interested in bullying Arizonians over immigration enforcement than in protecting Americans from nuclear, biological or chemical weapons?

A report released by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. House of Representatives, reveals that almost nine years after the 9-11 terrorist attacks Attorney General Eric Holder does not have a coordinated plan to respond to the threat and use of weapons of mass destruction.

The use of weapons of mass destruction, whether by a hostile nation, a terrorist group, or an individual, poses a serious threat to the United States, yet the GAO report suggests that anti-WMD policy does not sit high on Holder's "to do" list.

CHARLOTTE – The Community Blood Center of the Carolinas (CBCC) announced today that there is a shortage of O negative blood in the community and is urging O negative donors to donate blood as soon as possible.

"The need for O negative blood in our region's hospitals right now is critical," said Martin Grable, president and CEO of Community Blood Center of the Carolinas. "Summer is a particularly difficult time for all blood centers, supply drops and demand often goes up. While we need donors of all blood types, O negative blood is the universal blood type and the most commonly used. We are asking O negative donors to come together to save lives in our 16 area hospitals by donating blood as soon as possible.”

Profile America -- Tuesday, June 22nd. A simple pack of chewing gum made history this week in 1974. It was the first item purchased by scanning a bar code direct into a cash register -- at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. Whoever made the purchase is not known -- but realizing the significance of the event, the buyer returned the item -- a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit, which is now on display at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The sound of the old cash register is now relegated to history, along with the mournful whistle of a steam locomotive.

GASTON COUNTY - In its meeting on June 10, 2010, the Gaston County Board of Commissioners adopted a new fee schedule for FY10/11. Included are new fees for pet licenses, specifically aimed to encourage and reward pet owners who have their animals spayed or neutered. Currently, all owners pay $15 for a 1-year license and $35 for a 3-year license.

Effective July 1, 2010, owners of pets, who have been spayed or neutered, will pay $10 for a 1-year and $25 for a 3-year license. Owners electing not to have pets spayed or neutered will pay $35 for a 1-year license and will no longer be eligible for a 3-year license.

STAFF REPORTS

Lincolnton, NC - Today officials announced that a new 71- unit Hampton Inn Hotel is to be located at Lincolnton, North Carolina at 129 Roper Road, Lincolnton, NC. Construction of the new Hampton Inn Hotel is scheduled for completion by June 2011.

When completed, the hotel will feature 71 guest rooms, a meeting room, a fitness center with pool and spa, a business center to meet the needs of the traveling guests. The hotel will feature many cost saving benefits for the consumers, including complimentary continental breakfast, free high speed Internet, free local telephone calls, and free in-room movies. Ninety-five percent inventories of rooms will be nonsmoking.

Dallas, NC—Gaston County Museum will host its second Drop-in Day Camp of the season on June 24 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the museum.

The theme of this year’s Drop-in Day Campis “Discovering the Old South.” Each day, campers will experience a different aspect of life in the 1800s. Tracks, Trails & Flying Machines headline the June 24 Drop-in Day Camp. Campers will learn about life before the automobile by exploring early forms of transportation. We will visit the Daniel Stowe Carriage House and see the various carriages, wagons, and sleighs. They will also learn about the Wright Brothers, early planes, and make models. Campers will also visit the museum’s caboose and depot.

A Dutch newspaper that interviewed Joran van der Sloot in his prison cell in Lima, Peru, said Monday he has retracted his confession to the killing of a young woman there.

De Telegraaf said the 22-year-old Dutchman claims he only signed papers admitting killing Stephany Flores because he was intimidated by police and had been promised he would be transferred to the Netherlands if he confessed.

STAFF REPORTS

Gastonia, NC – Past United Sprint Car Series regional series Champion, Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina charge past 17-year-old rookie hot-shoe Morgan Turpen from Bartlett, on lap twelve of the twenty-five lap USCS presented by Goodyear Southern Thunder main event presented by Biobased USA www.biobased.us at Carolina Speedway on Friday night. Bridges collected $2250 for his efforts in Sue Ellen Wilshe’s Biobased USA sponsored Roush Yates powered #07s J&J Auto Racing car.

Eight-time United Sprint Car Series presented by Goodyear National Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee raced from his eighth place starting position to follow Bridges across the finish line. Bridges was tested with the top six cars on his rear bumper for a green-white-checker, but Gray or none of the others had anything for the charger from Cherryville over the final two circuits.

Photo: Ron Parker (8) and Rambo Franklin (2) battle for the lead during the NDRA GM Performance Late Model main event.

Bottom: Johnny Bridges enjoys victory lane at Carolina Speedway following his USCS win on Friday night. Photos by Randy Houser.

Staff and community to benefit from lessons learned prior to actual move

By Melany Dawn Crouse and Jason Saine

LINCOLNTON - Administration and staff at CMC-Lincoln learned a great deal about their upcoming move to the new facility located at 433 McAlister Road in Lincolnton.

Logistically, moving so many patients, even across a small town, presents a number of challenges and difficulties for personnel. Plus making sure that those patients are comfortable and their health is not compromised in any way, would make even the calmest of people a little nervous about such a large undertaking.

On Saturday, plans for the mock drill went as expected and even the smallest of details were addressed.

CMC-Lincoln invited members of the member as well as some of their Emergency Management external partners to observe how well the mock move went. Partners came from a number of area facilities including CMC-NorthEast, Gaston Memorial Hospital and Catawba Valley Medical Center who all offered feedback and observations during the drill.

(Photo: Patient "Fred Flank", being played by Shane Cody, as discharging RN April Phares works to discharge Mr. Flank. Photo by Melany Dawn Crouse for the Lincoln Tribune and
ImageOneNC.)

STAFF REPORTS

GASTON COUNTY - On Friday, June 11 2010 at approximately 5:00pm, two men approached the home of an elderly female in the area between Belmont and McAdenville and asked to show her fabric they were selling. One the men, described as the older of the two, indicated he knew the homeowner from the past, causing her to feel at ease and let them in. Once inside the home, one of the men unrolled a piece of fabric and held it up, obstructing the homeowner’s view of the front door, while they talked about the fabric at length. The men left the home without incident shortly after the conversation ended.

Once the men left the residence, the homeowner noticed a small safe containing valuables had been taken from another room in the house.

In historic landslide, US-educated former defense chief elected Colombia's new president

A 58-year-old U.S.-educated economist who dealt withering blows to leftist rebels as defense minister has won Colombia's presidency by the largest margin in modern history.

Juan Manuel Santos got 69 percent of the vote in Sunday's runoff in a ringing endorsement of his promise to continue the U.S.-backed security policies of outgoing conservative President Alvaro Uribe that he helped craft.

Hollywood might say “hooray,” but critics pan taxpayer costs

By Bill Flanigen | Carolina Journal

RALEIGH — North Carolina may soon get to host more blockbuster film productions and high-profile movie stars, but the state’s taxpayers would be paying dearly for the privilege.

On June 17, the state House of Representatives tentatively approved a controversial expansion of incentives for the film industry. House Bill 1973, the “Keep North Carolina Competitive Act,” extends the state’s tax credit for film production at a cost of $166 million over the next four years, according to a study by the General Assembly’s Fiscal Research Division.

While it also renews or creates numerous other refunds, exemptions, and credits to the state’s tax code, more than half of the projected $300 million cost of the bill goes to the tax credit for film productions.

Kevin Starr | County Extension Director
NC Cooperative Extension Director

LINCOLNTON - Recently a group of folks from our Master Gardener Association built a raised bed garden behind our Farmers Market shelter in Lincolnton. The garden will be used as part of a 4-H class this summer which will emphasize a healthy lifestyle. The raised bed will also help us teach adults intensive gardening. I want to thank our Master Gardeners as well as the Lincoln County Maintenance and Grounds departments for their help in completing this project. We’ll be adding a cattle panel trellis and then planting the garden later this month; so check it out periodically when you come to the market. (A cattle panel is a type of rigid fencing available at farm supply stores.)

By Rich Lowry

"Decades later the Declaration of Independence was canonized as American scripture," the vinegary historian Walter McDougall writes of the nation's founding document, "but in 1776 it was generally read once -- in army camps, taverns and village greens -- cheered, and forgotten."

Its fate might have been to be forgotten forevermore, if it weren't for George Washington and his Continental Army. When our great adventure in liberty still seemed an impossible risk, they were the embodiment and vindicators of the Declaration. Our nation was born on the shoulders of an army, whose exertions and principled patriotism gave the famous parchment its life.

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) A plan you've kept on hold for a long time finally could be greenlighted. But in typical Aries form, you'll need to be sure that everything is in place before you hit the "start" button.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Others might urge you to act more quickly on your ideas. But you'd be wise to follow your Bovine instincts and get more facts to bolster your position when you finally present it.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the state-controlled gas monopoly Monday to cut gas supplies to ex-Soviet neighbor Belarus over its debt for Russian natural gas supplies.

Medvedev's order follows his warning to Belarus last week to start paying off the $200 million debt to Gazprom or face cuts. Belarus has challenged the Russian claim and refused to pay.

Asian stock markets rose Monday as investors took heart from China's announcement over the weekend that it was ending its currency's two-year peg to the dollar, though there was no immediate change in the yuan's exchange rate.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index gained 177.18 points, or 1.8 percent, to 10,172.20 in the morning session.

South Korea's Kospi rose 0.9 percent to 1,726.86, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.7 percent at 4,604.30.

Profile America -- Monday, June 21st. As of 7:28 a.m., Eastern daylight time, summer is here. While welcomed by many, it's a season with mixed blessings. On the one hand, there are trips to the beach and mountains, boating, cookouts, and wearing lighter clothing. On the other, it's also a time for crowds, bugs, higher gas prices -- and higher temperatures. The highest thermometer reading ever recorded in the U.S. was 134 degrees Fahrenheit at Greenland Ranch, California, on
July 10, 1913. Next highest was 128 degrees 16 years ago at Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Today is Monday, June 21, the 172nd day of 2010. There are 193 days left in the year. Day. Summer arrives at 7:28 a.m. Eastern time.

Today's Highlight in History:

On June 21, 1788, the United States Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.

On this date:

A NASCAR ruling cost Marcos Ambrose his first career Sprint Cup Series victory Sunday when he stalled his car under a late caution at Infineon Raceway and was forced to forfeit his lead to Jimmie Johnson.

Johnson went on to win his first career Cup race on a road course and ended a 10-week victory drought for the four-time defending series champion.

Ambrose, who led 35 laps, had to settle for sixth after coughing up yet another chance at a victory.