News-Record.com

I'm back in Cap City tomorrow (Wednesday) after a couple days of training. The calendars are choc full in interesting stuff. A few of the more notable stops along the way:

• The House is scheduled to debate two bills apologizing for slavery and other ills of racism. There is both a House version of the bill as well as a Senate version.

  According to staffers at the General Assembly (who are still slogging away at this hour) they're going to take up both versions of the bill at the same time, which is odd. On almost any other piece of legislation, they'd have picked a vehicle and sent it through solo.

  "I don't know how they're going to handle that. It's a little unusual," said Rep. Alma Adams when I called her this evening. Adams is one of the primary co-sponsors of the House measure.

  Update: A House staffer says the plan is this: They will debate and pass the House version. And then they will pass the Senate version without debate.

  By-the-by, the House resolution is far more blunt than the Senate version. Take this bit from the Senate bill:

  Whereas, North Carolina took legal actions to deny freedom to black people, including an 1826 law that prohibited free blacks from entering the State, an 1830 law that prohibited anyone from teaching a slave to read or write, and a provision of the 1835 Constitution denying free blacks the right to vote;

  In the House bill, it reads:

  Whereas, in the 19th century, the State began to discourage black businesses and the presence of free blacks in North Carolina and passed legislation to restrict the liberty of free blacks. An 1826 law provided that a free black who moved into the State and failed to leave after being notified of the law, after 20 days, could be fined $500.00 or held to labor for 10 years or less. An 1830 law prohibited free blacks from returning to this State after being absent for a period of 90 days or more; and

  Whereas, the passage of such harsh laws served to force free persons of color from the State, often splitting families and resulting in the loss of property and economic gains; and

  Whereas, in 1830, North Carolina law provided that a slave could be sentenced to 39 lashes if he or she was found guilty of teaching another slave how to read;

• Far less serious, but the bill to name the Lexington Barbecue festival the state food festival is also on the calendar.

• Call him "Tex." If HB 573 passes judges will be able to carry concealed weapons in the court room. The House will debate the measure Wednesday.

• On the House Committee calendar, corporal punishment would be outlawed in N.C. schools under a bill in the House Committee on Children Youth and Family.

But wait, there's more.

• The Senate is due to vote on a bill to outlaw alcohol inhalers. Yes, I've written about this before.

So tune in tomorrow. It should be a busy day.