Tariq Bokhari, who ran for a Charlotte district seat in 2007, plans a campaign kick-off even on July 14th in support of his bid for an at-large seat. The event at Brazwells on Montford Dr. will also include a career fair/networking segment in addition to Bokhari’s formal announce of his candidacy.

In a release on the event Bokhari cited “safe streets, good roads, and low taxes” as priorities and named John Silvia, Chief Economist for Wells Fargo, a Campaign Economic Advisor. “Tariq and I have worked together in the past and I have found his approach to limiting taxes and focusing on true spending priorities essential,” Silvia says in the release. “Charlotte faces budget limits like all of our families and Tariq’s focus on the practical and sticking to priorities is what Charlotte needs today.”

Bonus Candidates: Word on the street is that the Democrat at-large field could include both former councilman Patrick Cannon and councilwoman Ella Scarborough.

WCNC’s Tony Burbeck is back with more on the iffy status of EpiCenter and the contractors who built it.

Not surprisingly, Afshin Ghazi blames the general contractor — whom he owes $1.8m. — for failing to pay the subs who have liens on the property. It will be very interesting to see how the courts rule.

In the meantime, Burbeck reveals that the EpiCenter is still operating under a temporary occupancy permit. It cannot get a permanent permit until the required work — one assumes electrical and perhaps plumbing as well — is done. Contractors will not do the work because they either have not been paid for previous work at EpiCenter — or know that doing the work might not get them paid. The solution?

Pull the temporary permits until the work is done. That way everyone has an incentive to get square. How likely it that? About 1% of a chance given that all of city government and the Uptown crowd is on the hook, trying to make EpiCenter “work.” In a real, non-Disneyfied town this charade would be shut down.

But not Charlotte.

Update: This is why we can’t have nice things, Mr. max.

Ann Helms pried loose a more complete account of the recent layoffs handed down by CMS, fleshing out weeks of confusion and speculation on the topic. Turns out CMS laid off almost 1200 employees, not the 855 on the first list.

But that is not the big news. The shocker — or what should be shocking to anyone not numbed by CMS over the years — is that CMS clearly opted to layoff classroom teachers rather touch highly paid administrative staff. Start with the regional Learning Communities.

Most lost a secretary here and there, usually going from three to two secretaries for office staff of a dozen or so. The Central LC did lose a “coordinator” making $62K, but still has a staff of 13 including two — 2 — area executive directors making over $100K each. Oh, area super Joel Ritchie is paid $144K. The West LC lost no one — not even a secretary from a staff of 11. And the West LC still has six — 6 — administrators making between $116K and $60K below the area super.

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Is that not exactly what Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones is saying here?

Jones said he accepts responsibility for ongoing mismanagement and fraud at the county’s sprawling DSS operation, yet he wants a special meeting with commissioners to address the matter lest the DSS issue “fester between now and my performance evaluation.”

Really? If that is the case Harry, fire someone. Step up, identify the person or person(s) who failed to do their job and cut them loose. Happens every day in the private sector. County government? Hell, we’re still paying our old DSS director $150K a year to twiddle thumbs at UNCC.

Big surprise.

A federal judge has sided with driver Jeremy Mayfield in his bid to lift the suspension NASCAR placed on him following what NASCAR claims was a positive drug test for meth.

Brian France’s family biz botched this number from the start, first by failing to secure Mayfield’s sample in an air-tight, Bill Diehl-proof container. But that is a mere legalism. The bigger misstep was failing to immediately identify Mayfield’s admitted Adderall prescription as a de facto performance enhancing drug for race car drivers.

As I have suggested previously, I believe this is because other NASCAR drivers either tested positive for the amphetamine Adderall or proactively notified NASCAR of their use of the drug. The media’s failure to probe either of these possibilities is quite stunning, as NASCAR’s fumbling of its Mayfield response is clearly explained by wider Adderall use by NASCAR drivers.

As for the meth angle, Diehl predictably hit that one out of the park. NASCAR’s official position was that it took a urine sample to detect that Mayfield was a meth user. A guy driving 180-200mph for hours on end, was tweaked out of his brain, according to France and company. Mayfield is either the greatest trucker ever or — or NASCAR’s labs got this one wrong.

Still, the more pressing question is not if Mayfield improbably used meth and raced, but if additional NASCAR drivers used Adderall and raced. I feel even more like a crazy person than usual on this topic, something so obvious going so roundly ignored.

I am not going to pretend to know exactly what the future holds, but when Standard & Poor’s says MNI will default on its over $1b. in debt by early next year, I pay attention. This analysis comes on the heels of the company’s spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to re-work that debt, which resulted only in a fraction of the relief the MNI wanted. Case in point, the company wanted $60m. in cash, got $3.4m.

And cash is the great unknown going forward. Creditors could always rework terms, but you need cash-flow to keep the lights on and payroll checks clearing. Maybe that is the plan, to the extent MNI’s corporate leadership has one — ignore the debt, keep operations going as long as possible.

Might work. The entire country seems to be going that route, afterall.

The time has come. When you have folks owed money by contractors and contractors owed money and filing lawsuits, it is time for the city of Charlotte to step up and demand answers of its official partner in the EpiCenter project, Afshin Ghazi.

City officials cannot have it both ways — take tax dollars way from small businessmen and women like Rick Treadaway and Karen Codespoti, then not lift a finger when the recipients of those tax dollars fail to pay them. There is a certain plausible deniability to this set-up, but I want to hear Curt Walton, Mac McCarley, and the automatons on city council be that cynical on the record.

One thing is for certain, Ghazi is not talking. He is ducking reporters right and left. He’s got actual lawsuits seeking payment involving Golterman & Sabo Inc., Shiel-Sexton Inc., Cam-Ful Industries Inc., B&B Contracting Inc., and Southern Mechanical.

If I had put some of my money in the kitty to get EpiCenter off the ground and spent untold hours of effort making the project happen, precisely as the city of Charlotte as done, I’d be looking for answers too. But nope, not this bunch. We’ve got a NASCAR Hall of Fame to build.

It is official now, the local Tea Party protest movement has spawned a challenge to our status quo leadership. Craig Nannini, Navy vet and electrical engineer, is running for Charlotte city council at-large as a Republican.

“Charlotte is going broke. I’m a Navy veteran, so I’m familiar with the phrase ’spending like a drunken sailor.’ That’s what our city leaders are doing,” declares Nannini, a new father who lives with his family off of Mallard Creek Rd. in north Charlotte. “They give away millions on pet projects to the politically connected. I want to ensure that every Charlottean is able to successfully accomplish their dreams.”

Nannini plans an official campaign kick-off tomorrow at 6pm at Jackson’s Java in University City.

Read over the accounts of the Ponzi scamster’s sentencing and see if the descriptions and accounts comport with how Jim Black behaved. Or not.

Also note that Madoff did not get away with claiming that some assets were jointly owned with his wife, hence beyond the reach of the court in regard to paying his fines and forfeitures.

We are not making that up. Amtrak was used to smuggle drugs across the country.

Which is another reason North Carolina should steer the hell clear of building “high speed” rail lines.