It’s really, really free money when you have to do absolutely nothing to get it.

CJ’s Don Carrington follows up on Department of Commerce official Henry McKoy’s alleged money laundering operation that funneled money to four N.C. counties —one of which was Yadkin County —- only to kick the majority back to McKoy’s North Carolina Sustainability Center:

Yadkin County Manager Aaron Church told CJ that even though McKoy selected Yadkin County, the board of commissioners did not pursue the funding actively. “We thought it was odd that we never applied for the money and we never asked for the money,” Church said.

Note also a couple of things —-McKoy senior adviser Libby Smith applied for and received a $150,000 grant from Winston-Salem-based Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation NCSC while she was still a state employee.

Also the N&O reported in its follow-up story that Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco had asked McKoy to resign. McKoy refused, and is still employed at Commerce. Seems to me if you ask a guy to resign, and he doesn’t, then you fire him, right?