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Planely speaking

Though their intentions may have been good, city and county leaders were right to cancel a July 7 trip to Washington on developer Roy Carroll's jet.

The contingent had planned to go to D.C. to seek stimulus funding for a new county schools headquarters. But Carroll does business with local governments and is embroiled in an ongoing debate over a proposed downtown design guide that eventually will go before the City Council.

Plan B avoids that potential conflict of interest: The group will meet with members of Congress here when they return soon for recess. Then go to D.C. in the fall -- not on Carroll's jet.

Carroll was kind to offer. But too much legal and ethical baggage would have gone along for the ride.

Springing for crab pots

Buy a man a crab and you can feed him a meager lunch. Buy him 1,100 crab pots and, with hard work, he can make a nice living.

Whether the state should spend $38,000 of taxpayers' money to do that is another matter.

Recent news reports said the N.C. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services did exactly that for a hearing-impaired, unemployed Beaufort County man, using federal funds.

Some legislators, finding out about the deal, wanted to put a pinch on the program.

At the risk of sounding crabby, investing that kind of money in one person's business seems unusually generous. Don't other crabbers along our coast have to buy their own gear?

The government's role should be to teach job skills and provide small-business loans. If the state's buying crab pots, will fishing boats be next?

Subsidized job shifting?

In May, Continental Automotive laid off 90 workers at its manufacturing facility in Burke County.

Last week, it announced an expansion of its plant in Henderson County -- helped by $2.2 million in state grants.

Is the state now subsidizing the shifting of jobs from one county to another? It looks like it.

Continental makes brakes and brake components for autos. While it didn't expressly move operations from Burke County to Henderson County, and its expansion represents a net employment gain, it's still being rewarded for job creation but not penalized for layoffs. It's not even clear whether the displaced workers will be first in line for the new jobs.

While Henderson County undoubtedly appreciates the state's help, folks in Burke County might wonder how much of it was afforded at their expense.

A Corvette summer

There's a hot debate in Wake County over whether the sheriff's department's sleek Corvette Z06, confiscated from a drug dealer, is just for tooling down the interstate or an effective tool against drugs.

The way-cool car has seen success in nabbing speeders and chasing down, so far, one drug suspect. But Wake school board members want to sell it and use the money to save a couple of teaching jobs.

Both have the law on their side. While the constitution says public schools should get the money from selling court-confiscated property, a state law counters that law enforcement agencies can keep vehicles for official use.

The road rocket may not be a total necessity, but it may prove an effective deterrent.

Maybe school board members should be patient. As any sports car owner knows, keeping one on the road can be costly. And given the hype, when this '07 Corvette finally goes on the auction block, it should fetch a pretty penny.