Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of May 15, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

Important Election Dates:

Early Voting for GOP and Dem. Primary Runoff: May 19 – May 23

Election Day for GOP and Dem. Primary Runoff: May 27

Election Day for Lubbock City Council District 3 Runoff: June 14

Evan Vucci-Pool, Getty Images
Evan Vucci-Pool, Getty Images
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Zheng Not Fired

Lubbock Power and Light CEO Gary Zheng survived a vote that would have terminated his employment. The vote to fire Zheng failed by a 6-3 vote. Voting to fire Zheng were Clayton Isom, James Conwright, and Charlie Dunn.

Not surprising that Zheng survived the vote. Expect more controversy to happen going forward. Actually, we didn't even have to wait that long. According to the Sandstorm Scholar, the Chief Financial Officer of LP&L has gone to the FBI.

On Tuesday LP&L Chief Financial Officer Andy Burcham took concerns he had about past due invoices submitted to the electric utility to the FBI. According to an email obtained by the Sandstorm Scholar via a Public Information Act request, CFO Burcham has taken concerns about invoices from E3 Consulting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The email,  which was addressed to City Manager James Loomis and Electric Utility Board Chairman Greg Taylor and copied to CEO Gary Zheng, was short and to the point.

Greg and James, I wanted to let you know that I did meet with the Federal Bureau of Investigation at their Lubbock office on Monday, May 12, 2014 from 10:30 a.m. until shortly after noon to discuss the past due invoices and related information with E3 Consulting, LLC. (click here for copy of entire email)

You can read more by clicking on the link above.

Benghazi

According to FOX News, a majority of Americans believe that the White House has attempted to deceive the public about the events surrounding the attack in Benghazi.

Fifty-four percent of voters think the Obama administration has been deceitful about the events surrounding the Benghazi attacks. Half say the same about former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (50 percent).

In addition, by a 51-39 percent margin, voters say the White House knowingly lied about the attacks to help President Obama’s re-election campaign.

Among Democrats, 25 percent say Obama has tried to deceive on Benghazi and 23 percent think the White House lied to help the campaign.

The attacks that killed four Americans took place less than two months before Election Day. Even though the Obama administration had intelligence that the attackers were connected to terrorist groups, the White House pushed the story of a spontaneous protest in response to an online video.

On April 29 a previously unreleased email surfaced from a White House adviser that discussed how to characterize the attacks.

A week later House Republicans voted to establish a new select committee to investigate Benghazi. Voters approve of that decision by a large 67-28 percent margin. That includes a 55-percent majority of Democrats.

Continuing the Benghazi investigation is not without peril for Republicans. Despite their distrust of the White House on this issue, voters doubt Republican motives are pure. The number saying Republicans are investigating Benghazi for political gain is more than double the number who see the GOP as doing it to find the truth (63-30 percent).

Even 38 percent of Republicans think their party is politicizing the issue.

One possible reason the Obama administration hasn’t been hurt more by Benghazi is that most voters don’t place all of the blame on the White House. While a combined 72 percent say at least some of the blame for the security failings at the U.S. consulate falls on the administration, just 36 percent say the White House deserves “a great deal of blame” (and 36 percent “some blame”).

Republicans (60 percent) and independents (41 percent) are much more likely than Democrats (15 percent) to place “a great deal of blame” on the Obama administration for security failings.

Overall views are similar on how much blame the administration deserves for failing to bring the individuals responsible for the attacks to justice: 38 percent say Obama deserves “a great deal of blame” for that, while 30 percent say “some blame.”

Meanwhile, 78 percent of voters consider the issue serious, including 52 percent who see the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi as “very serious.” For comparison, 53 percent see government surveillance of everyday Americans as “very serious” and 44 percent feel that way about the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,025 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 10, 12-13, 2014. The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Other Top Stories:

These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

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