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Monday: Hold your fire
posted at 2009-08-24 22:02 | Last modified 2009-08-25 07:23
State lawmakers who just spent seven months in session with Senator RC Soles were stunned to hear of a shooting at his home Sunday. Soles has been a lawmaker for 40 years – longer than anyone else on Jones St. – and it’s hard to find anyone who’s been here more than a term or two who hasn’t worked with him on some issue or other. It’s even harder to find anyone who can explain why the powerful but quiet country lawyer would take a shot at someone.
Fellow Columbus Democrat Dewey Hill represents part of Soles’s district in the House. He’s known Soles for decades, and he’s heard plenty about his problems with former legal clients. But he says he was shocked that Soles had shot a would-be intruder at his Tabor City home.
"This is not Senator Soles, what happened. That don’t sound like him. Because he’s a negotiator, you know. I’ve seen him negotiate out of anything, you know. And it really don’t sound like it. He must have….must have been afraid of something, must have been some fear involved there or something, I’m not sure."
The man who was shot, Kyle Blackburn, was a former legal client of Soles’s who was allegedly threatening the Senator and trying to kick in his front door. (The Fay-O reports a security system videotape confirms this account.) Soles’s attorney Joe Cheshire (of Duke LAX fame) says the shooting was a clear case of self-defense. Blackburn was in fair condition this afternoon at Loris Community Hospital, just across the border in South Carolina.
Blackburn was accompanied on his visit to Soles's house by a second man, B.J. Wright, another former client of Soles’s who was released two weeks ago after two years in jail. Wright was uninjured.
I asked Hill what he thought about the other investigations and allegations swirling around Soles, including the house he bought for former client Allen Strickland which someone apparently burned down, and the accusations of molestation first made and then recanted by former client Stacey Scott.
"I don’t know that much about his personal life, but there’s a lot of young people down there that he’s havin’ some problems with. He’s represented a lot of ‘em in some court cases. He’s befriended some of ‘em. But I just don’t know what’s happening now. It’s gettin’ worse and worse."
The SBI announced today it’s taking over the investigation into the shooting. For the record, non-fatal shootings aren’t usually the SBI’s turf. I left a message for AG Roy Cooper’s spokeswoman Noelle Talley asking about the involvement, but as of this evening I hadn’t heard back.
More coverage here from McClatchy, WRAL, the Star-News , the Brunswick Beacon, local ABC affiliate WWAY, and local NBC affiliate WECT.
Save her a seat
Many Wake County students will be up early tomorrow to catch the bus for their first day of school. A few may find themselves next to an unusual seatmate: Governor Bev Perdue. She’s scheduled to ride the bus from the intersection of Mordecai and Sycamore to Conn Magnet Elementary tomorrow morning, where she’ll tour the school and welcome the students back via closed-circuit TV.
Later in the day, Perdue’s expected to address the first meeting of the state Budget Reform and Accountability Committee, also known as “Baby BRAC.”
On the campaign trail last year, Perdue promised to set up a new panel modeled after the base realignment and closure commission, or BRAC - the federal commission that’s been at the head of big changes to military bases since 1988. The mission of Baby BRAC is to find ways to reduce state spending, then submit a list of proposals to state lawmakers. Like Congress, they’ll be asked to vote up or down on the package of BRAC recommendations with no amendments. (BTW, it’s unclear whether there’s any law or precedent to make legislators abide by the no-amendment request.)
The panel is led by two co-chairs: state community college board chairwoman Hilda Pinnix-Ragland and former state Revenue/Transportation/Commerce Secretary Norris Tolson. Other members include Golden Leaf chair and former Easley budget chief Dan Gerlach, former Basnight chief of staff Norma Mills, and former state lottery chairman Charlie Sanders. They’ll meet at 1:30.
Capitolbeat
If you’re wondering why it’s been so quiet around here, it’s because I’ve been in Indianapolis with half of the NC Capitol Press corps at the annual conference of Capitolbeat, the national association of statehouse reporters and editors.
If that sounds dry, I can assure you it was anything but. We heard from the prosecutor who busted IL Gov Rod Blagojevitch, the reporters who chased down SC Gov Mark “Two to Tango” Sanford, a Pulitzer-winning reporter, the editor of Moodys.com, and the founder of Stateline.org. Our opening keynoter was IN Gov Mitch Daniels.
Oh, and I also bagged an autograph from Colts QB Peyton Manning. It’s the first time I’ve ever asked a celebrity for an autograph, but in my defense, I’m a diehard Colts fan.
It was a successful and productive weekend all round, but it’s always nice to be back.
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