The NCGA decided to go 50-50 on this year’s extortion from the TVA. The plan was, at least according to some sources, to award $11.2 million to counties in the westernmost part of the state for damages done by polluted air wafting over from Tennessee. Then, the state decided its eastern parts were more important and wanted to spend the money there. It is said that those in Raleigh believe the state ends in Charlotte, to which I say, “Good.” Anyhoo, like a girdle, an extra law was passed to squeeze some pork – er, reparations – back to the west.