A Week In Review

1. Under the campaign called Operation Slow Down/No Need 2 Speed campaign, state law enforcement cited 15,789 motorists for vehicle code violations from March 29 to April 4. A total of 61,766 traffic and criminal citations were issued. You can read the Charlotte Observer article for a complete breakdown of the citations. Court costs in Mecklenburg County are $130. This does not include the additional fine associated with the violation. Assuming only half of those people cited for only vehicle code violations, not any of the other offenses, pled guilty, the state would receive $1,026,285 in revenue from court fines for a one week period.

2.  The Time Warner Arena is only 5 years old, but the roof that was supposed to last 15 years is leaking and going to cost $500,000 in labor to fix. According to WCNC, even though the roof is still under warranty, the cost of labor is not covered so taxpayers are forced to pay the money from an arena repair fund. If the repair fund runs out, there is always Operation Slow Down revenue to help pitch in.

3. According to Associated Press, a person was detained at the California Mexico border after he attempted to cross the border with several lawnmowers in the back of his pick up truck. The lawnmowers were filled with 53 pounds of grass, but not the type of grass from cutting your lawn. The unnamed individual has been booked into a San Diego jail under drug trafficking charges.

4. A Massachusetts man was sentenced to two days in jail for a DWI. However, he will be returning to court shortly after his release after two days to face a new DWI charge. According to the article, he allegedly arrive at the jail intoxicated and let police officers know that he drove himself to the jail.  He was subsequently booked for a second DUI charge.

5. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens did announce his retirement this week. I wrote about this impending announcement last week. Let the political showdown begin on CSPAN.