TVA-Haney links still questioned
Who in their right mind could think it would be a good idea to let Franklin Haney, a former Chattanooga congressional and gubernatorial candidate who made a fortune developing real estate that he leased to government, buy, finance, run — touch — Bellefonte Nuclear Plant?
Franklin HaneyBut Haney, a clearly brilliant and determined man, in the past four years has spent nearly $1.5 million on lobbyists, in part to push his plan to privately finance the long-mothballed nuclear plant.
In fact, he has pushed so hard and talked to so many people that the newest members of the TVA board of directors — confirmed by the Senate last week — had to sign a letter before their confirmations indicating they would recuse themselves from any involvement on Haney’s Bellefonte financial plan.
Haney was one of the top donors to the 2012 re-election of President Obama and he is a personal friend of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The new board members, Virginia Lodge and Ronald Walter, also are Democrats.
Politics aside, nuclear power is neither cheap nor safe — especially when financiers might seek to make it most profitable for themselves in the only way possible, by cutting corners on expenses. Bellefonte, especially, could be problematic as TVA has found when it tried several times over recent decades to build, or rebuild, the plant even after the utility had sold off the generators and piping there as scrap.
The nearly 40-year-old, half-finished facility in Hollywood, Ala., some 40 miles southwest of Chattanooga, already has proven to be a giant red line to TVA ratepayers. Since 1974, TVA has spent $6 billion on the plant and has estimated that completing just one of the two reactors planned there would cost another $7.4 billion to $8.7 billion.
Haney is a 74-year-old McMinn County native whose trademark is making money from Uncle Sam by leasing building space to the federal government while making use of tax loopholes and credits. He has long hoped to do the same with Bellefonte.
“This won’t cost TVA one penny, but there happens to be $2.2 billion of tax credits [available only to private owners and not to a government agency like TVA] … that nobody is competing for,” Haney told the Times Free Press last year.
But this wasn’t a good idea last year, and it still isn’t — unless Haney could turn Bellefonte into a set of futuristic government offices with attached condos.
Justice for a Georgia magistrate
Bryant CochranA federal jury in Rome, Ga., last week convicted former Murray County Magistrate Bryant Cochran of six federal crimes.
The former court official — who was anything but just — is getting justice.
The jury determined Cochran, who resigned from office in August 2012, is guilty of depriving his female employees of their civil rights and framing a woman for arrest, among other things. Prosecutors told the jury that Cochran framed Angela Garmley for a crime in August 2012, one day before he had to resign from office amid a Judicial Qualifications Commission hearing.
Garmley had told the commission and several media outlets that Cochran tried to have sex with her after she visited his office in April 2012 to try to get warrants against three people who beat her up. She said that Cochran told her he needed a mistress and wanted her to return to office wearing a dress and no underwear.
After Garmley’s story went public, one of Cochran’s tenants planted methamphetamine on Garmley’s car. The Murray County Sheriff’s Office then arrested Garmley. A Murray County deputy and captain who were involved in the arrest later pleaded guilty to federal obstruction charges. Cochran’s tenant also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.
Cochran will be sentenced in U.S. District Court on Feb. 20.
Crime is always disgusting. It’s especially disgusting when perpetrated by someone in a public trust position.