Easley stops in D.C., Florida too


Gov. Mike Easley is on the road this week, but he won't say exactly why.

Easley took a state jet to Philadelphia yesterday for an economic summit with President-elect Barack Obama and other governors.

According to publicly available flight records, the Cessna Citation twin-jet plane left Philadelphia International at 1:33 p.m. for Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

After a three-hour layover, the plane was scheduled to go to Hollywood International Airport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., arriving later tonight. A flight plan filed with the N.C. Department of Commerce, also a public record, shows the plane won't leave Florida until 1 p.m. on Thursday.

Although the flight records are widely available on the Internet and through public records, spokeswoman Renee Hoffman would not discuss Easley's travel plans "for security reasons" and gave only a vague answer about his reasons for stopping in Washington and Florida.

"I can tell you that the governor is on a business trip to make a speech and attend a meeting," she said in an e-mail to Dome.

The flight plan shows Easley is traveling with executive counsel Ruffin Poole and a sergeant from the N.C. Highway Patrol.

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Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

After internal discussion sparked by a complaint from a reader, we have decided to delete a comment using offensive and abusive language.

— RTB 

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

Here's hoping he's down there negotiating discount spring break rates for all the hard working college students of North Carolina. They'll need them after all the tuition increases Easley and Perdue have put through.

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

I'll have a post up shortly with Easley's schedule, which was provided today. I'm not going to take down these comments because they don't violate our policies. If I deleted every comment that was inaccurate, there wouldn't be a lot left.

— RTB 

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

Hey Guys: Please take these abusive and inaccurate comments down. Easley's at a foreclosure prevention meeting with attorneys general from around the country.

Re: Easley stops in Florida - not to worry.

I visited Florida over the Thanksgiving holiday and I did not see a cheeseburger with fries that cost anywhere near $60.00. We either have a favorable exchange rate with Florida or either they have right many cows. I don't even think a cheeseburger with fries would cost $60.00 at DisneyWorld.

We'll probably get an art exhibit out of this trip. Or maybe a museum exhibit. They have some real nice alligator museums down there in Florida.

The trip will be worthwhile.....you can bank on that.

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

When is SLEAZELY going to REimburse NC taxpayers for over 200 non business jet trips???

WHEN will state gov. employees march and riot around the Gov. Mansion in protest of that woman, Mary Easely?

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

Amazing, a governor that does not communicate with the people that elected him. We are not entitled to information about our governor or his schedule, purpose or anything. Yep, totally amazing. Well at least the Campbell boys are not flying him on this mission....

Re: Easley stops in D.C., Florida too

He's hiding all the money he's stolen in as many places as possible. Simple as that. And looking for places to tell Bev where she can hide
all she's going to scam.