Tag Archives: Charlotte North Carolina

The Negative Consequences Of Going Green

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North Carolina is a beautiful state with a fairly moderate climate. It is a state where having an electric car for local and short-distance driving can be practical. However, we need to upgrade the technology before we use electric vehicles in critical situations.

On Monday, WSOC-TV Charlotte, North Carolina, reported:

CHARLOTTE — A little more than a month after the Charlotte Fire Department held a ceremony celebrating the city’s first all-electric fire station and fire truck, the city’s electric fire truck is in the shop.

A spokesperson for Charlotte Fire confirmed to Channel 9 that the city’s electric fire engine is currently out of service while warrant-related items are being addressed.

Yahoo News reported on Monday:

“As with any newly delivered, highly specialized apparatus incorporating emerging technology, minor adjustments and corrections are handled in coordination with the manufacturer under warranty,” a Charlotte Fire spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Charlotte Fire says response coverage has not been impacted. A reserve engine is in service to ensure an uninterrupted response.

In 2022, the Charlotte City Council spent $1.9 million to purchase the electric fire truck.

Charlotte Fire says the decision to add an electric-powered engine was “strategic.”

“As Charlotte continues to grow, we are committed to evaluating new technologies that enhance operational capability, efficiency, and long-term sustainability,” a CFD spokesperson said. “Introducing this engine allows our department to gain hands-on experience with evolving apparatus technology while continuing to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding city.”

Again, Charlotte opened its first all-electric fire station and put its first electric fire truck in service in January.

There Are Some Serious Fraud Problems In Medicaid

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On October 17th, American Greatness posted an article about Medicaid fraud in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The article reports:

The FBI on Thursday raided the home of Cedric Dean, a notorious community activist in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Federal investigators accuse Dean of exploiting homeless people to defraud Medicaid out of millions of dollars. According to federal court documents, Dean used the money to buy homes, cars and more to fund his exorbitant lifestyle. The Feds said they were moving to seize those assets.

According to the civil forfeiture complaint filed by the FBI, Dean allegedly obtained Medicaid information from vulnerable people at homeless shelters, encampments, and halfway houses in North Carolina, in exchange for food or temporary shelter.

Dean then allegedly billed Medicaid for mental health services that were never provided, sometimes using fake diagnoses. He allegedly paid his staff through services like CashApp.

Authorities said his company, Cedric Dean Holdings (CDH), billed Medicaid approximately $14.5 million between September 2024 and June 2025, with nearly $9 million reimbursed, while not operating with enough staff to adequately provide services.

The Feds have seized his bank accounts, vehicles, including two RVs and luxury SUVs, and multiple properties in Charlotte and Shelby, that were allegedly purchased with fraud earnings.

Neighbors who live near one of Dean’s properties in Charlotte, told the media they were concerned about the suspicious nonstop activity at the address.

So he applied for $14.5 million and actually received $9 million. Based on the article, it is amazing it has taken so long to catch up with this person.

The article notes:

Dean has a criminal record dates back to the 1980s, including charges of assault, armed robbery, and kidnapping, according to police.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in the mid 1990s on federal drug charges.

While in prison, he started an anti-violence foundation, SAVE (Safeguard Atone Validate Educate), to steer children away from gangs. In November 2017, he was released from prison after serving nearly 24 years behind bars.

Dean is also the founder and CEO of the HELP (Heal, Empower, Love, Protect), a substance abuse program that houses people at a north Charlotte hotel.

The article concludes:

The Department of Justice announced in June that its “National Health Care Fraud Takedown” had resulted in 324 defendants charged in connection with over $14.6 billion in alleged fraud.

The Capital Research Center (CRC), a conservative watchdog based in Washington D.C., recently released a report exposing how left-wing organizations have hijacked the homelessness policy space to advance their radical ideologies. CTC’s 113-page research dossier landed on President Trump’s desk last week during the White House’s Antifa roundtable.

When the government is involved in a program, fraud will often follow.

Freedom Needs Fences

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In his poem, “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost quotes a neighbor in the poem who says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” There is some debate as to whether the poem is pro-fence or anti-fence, but the statement is generally true. Studies of children’s playground behavior show that when their play yard is fenced, they tend to roam the entire yard. When their play yard is not fenced, they tend to huddle near the building adjacent to the play yard. To children, the fence provides a sense of security.

When our Founding Fathers created our Constitution, they put certain principles into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those principles were based on Nature’s Law and God’s Law. The Declaration of Independence states that our rights come from God and that they are inalienable. These rights are fundamental and cannot be taken away or transferred. The Declaration of Independence lists these rights as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Protecting those rights is the basis of our judicial system (which includes consequences for those who attempt to deprive people of those rights). Our Constitution provides a ‘fence’ to block anyone trying to take away our rights.

On August 22nd (although not reported in the mainstream media), there was a stabbing attack on the Charlotte, North Carolina, light rail train. Iryna Zarutska, 23 years old, a refugee from Ukraine who came to America for safety, was stabbed to death by 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., a man who had been arrested fourteen times before, but was walking free.

The ’fence’ in our law that should have kept him in prison was for some reason left open, and a young girl is dead. She was returning from work, still wearing her pizzeria uniform, sitting quietly, looking at her phone when Brown, sitting behind her on the train, chose to attack her. The video is available on the internet if you care to watch it.

It’s time to put the ‘fences’ back up. It’s time to enforce the laws and keep people who break the law in prison until they are tried. Part of the problem is the no cash bail laws in some of our major cities. Congress is beginning to act to end this practice. The “Ending Cashless Bail in Our Nation’s Capital Act” and the “Keep Violent Criminals Off Our Streets Act” are being led by Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, in the Senate, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., in the House. We need to end no cash bail laws for both federal and local crimes.

Let’s protect law-abiding citizens—not criminals–so that everyone can use public transportation without fearing for their life.

NOTE:

An article about the murder of Iryna Zarutska can be found at PJMedia.

This Really Isn’t A Surprise

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Posted at Real Clear Politics yesterday:

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police spokesman Todd Walther told CNN’s Erin Burnett Thursday night that 70% of those arrested in race riots in that city this week were not locals.

“This is not Charlotte that’s out here,” he said. “These are outside entities that are coming in and causing these problems. These are not protestors, these are criminals.”

“I’m not saying all the people, but we’ve got the instigators that are coming in from the outside. They were coming in on buses from out of state. If you go back and look at some of the arrests that were made last night. I can about say probably 70% of those had out-of-state IDs. They’re not coming from Charlotte.”

So logically, shouldn’t someone investigate who is paying for the buses and consider pressing RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) charges? Protesting is a legal activity–looting and rioting are not. It would be very interesting to find our who is paying for the buses.

Losing Our Right To Free Speech

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Yesterday Deadline.com reported that brothers David and Jason Benham have had their “Flip It Forward” television series on HGTV cancelled.

The article states:

After the group Right Wing Watch reported the twins who star in HGTV’s recently greenlit reality series Flip It Forward are anti-gay activists, the network said this morning it had given the hook to the series, which was set to debut in October. Yesterday, HGTV said it was “currently in the process of reviewing all information about the Benhams and we will provide an update as soon as possible.”

The network then tweeted that they were not going to move forward with the series. Now let’s look at the details of this a little more closely.

The article reports:

Right Wing Watch reported Tuesday that David Benham had led a prayer rally outside of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC in 2012, in which he told conservative radio host Janet Mefferd that America’s Christian majority must repent for tolerating  “homosexuality and its agenda that is attacking the nation” and “demonic ideologies tak[ing] our universities and our public school systems.” He also said his brother had joined him in the prayer protest. The group also claimed David leads protests outside of abortion clinics.

So essentially what David Benham is guilty of is politically incorrect speech. He expressed a Biblical view of homosexuality–that does not make him an anti-gay activist any more than gay movie stars are not anti-Christian activists–they are simply gay people (or Christian people) expressing an opinion or living a certain lifestyle.

Anyone in America has the right to stand up for what they believe. We have recently seen an attempt to limit any speech that does not fit a certain template espoused by the political left. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of homosexuality, this is a dangerous precedent.

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