Golf Course Water Controversy for ex-N.C. Gov

There's a bit of a golf-related controversy in North Carolina involving the state's former governer, Mike Easley.

According to an investigation by The News & Observer in Raleigh, while the state was in the middle of a severe drought in 2002 -- which caused Easley, a Democrat, to impose water restrictions on citizens, including urging them to turn their water faucets off while brushing their teeth -- the governer's golf club, Old Chatham, was allowed to pump up to 450,000 gallons of water a day from a local lake.

Further complicating matters, the newspaper claims the golf club waived Easley's annual dues while he was governor, a savings of about $50,000 which Easley failed to list on his financial disclosure forms.

"This is just a total shock to me that they would give up that water then," Lynn Featherstone, a board member of the Haw River Assembly, an advocacy group that monitors local water issues, told the newspaper. "That was a very bad year. ... This is the first we've heard of it."

Easley, who has denied any wrongdoing, refused an interview request from the newspaper.

You can read the story about the controversy here.

--G.R.