News-Record.com

From a story scheduled for tomorrow's paper:

State Sen. Kay Hagan said Tuesday she is "looking into" a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Elizabeth Dole .

The Greensboro Democrat's name has been raised frequently by political analysts over the past nine months as a potential contender. However, this is the first time Hagan herself has directly addressed the possibility of challenging Dole, who faces re-election in 2008.

Until now, Hagan has been circumspect in talking about a potential run, saying during this year's legislative term that she was focused on completing the state budget.

Tuesday, Hagan said Dole is "vulnerable" to a challenge.

"I guarantee you, I wouldn't be thinking about this if I didn't think she was," Hagan said. "She's definitely vulnerable. I don't think she's in North Carolina very much and I couldn't tell you a thing she's done for North Carolina."

Hagan said that she would make a final decision on whether to run "sooner rather than later."

She joins at least two other Democrats in considering a run versus North Carolina's senior senator. Rep. Grier Martin, a Wake County legislator, and Forsyth County Commissioner Ted Kaplan, a former state Senator, also have expressed interest publicly.

Martin recently attracted noticed from political insiders when he met with officials who run the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, a conduit for national money and support.

Click here for the full story from today's paper.

Back during the legislative session I wrote about a bill that would make the sale of raw milk for human consumption legal in the state. An extension of that debate is due to come up Friday. From today's paper:

RALEIGH - Call it mooo-shine.

Raw, unpasteurized milk occupies a dicey niche under North Carolina law. Despite a prohibition on sale for human consumption, enthusiasts work to find regular supplies and regulators work equally hard to make sure it's difficult to come by.

On Friday, the N.C. Board of Agriculture is scheduled to take action aimed at cutting off one part of the state supply chain.

Farmers can legally sell raw milk as "pet milk," for consumption by dogs and other animals. An administrative rule the board is scheduled to adopt would require that this milk be labeled "not for human consumption" and dyed charcoal.

Click here for the full story.

The intent of the rule is to make the milk unappealing to those who would put it on the dinner table rather than in fido's bowl. People have been using the "pet milk" provision to skirt the law.

Interestingly, a bill that would let people enter into contractual "cow shares" arrangements passed the Senate this year. The bill is still eligible for passage and in the House Agriculture Committee. For more from the legislative session:

• Click here for audio of the debate.

• Click here for links to my earlier story and background on the raw milk debate.

For more regarding the illnesses in Georgia attributed to raw milk this summer click here and here.

And for more info on the N.C. Department of Agriculture meeting this Friday, click here. The board is holding its meeting out west to coincide with the annual Mountain State Fair.

From a letter writer in today's paper:

"Fundamental disagreements" regarding the state and county responsibilities sounds familiar. That is precisely what happened two years ago on the Gulf Coast. Federal, state and local officials pointed at each other while an entire metropolitan area washed away. Our representatives continue to be more concerned with flowcharts than with human suffering.

Leaks are springing today in the levees that stand between mental health patients and the streets of Greensboro.

The writer is commenting on this.

From the governor's office:

RALEIGH - Gov. Mike Easley today issued a proclamation reconvening the legislative session for Monday, Sept. 10, 2007 at 2 p.m. The session is called for the sole purpose of reconsidering House Bill 1761, which was vetoed by the governor on Aug. 30, 2007.

The veto concerns this bill.

For those interested in the raw milk story, this news release came my way from the Dept. of Agriculture on Friday:

The N.C. Board of Agriculture today approved a rule requiring anyone who sells unpasteurized milk for pet food to add a food coloring to the milk to give it a charcoal gray color. In addition, the product label would have to carry the statement, Not for Human Consumption."

North Carolina law allows unpasteurized milk to be sold for pet food, but not for human consumption. Food protection officials with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services say the new coloring and labeling requirements will help keep unpasteurized milk out of the food chain.

The board voted 5-0 to approve the rule. It is scheduled to take effect Nov. 1, pending review by the state Rules Review Commission.

In case y'all didn't see this over the weekend, Rep. Hugh Holliman had surgery late last week. This is the story our friends at the Associated Press had:

RALEIGH (AP) - House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, who was diagnosed with lung cancer eight years ago, was hospitalized again Friday after doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his lung, according to Speaker Joe Hackney's office.

Holliman, D-Davidson, was recovering in the intensive care unit at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, Hackney spokesman Bill Holmes said. He wasn't expected to attend Monday's special session to consider whether to override Gov. Mike Easley's veto of an economic incentives bill.

Holliman, 63, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1999 and said two years ago he was cured. An electronic scan of his lungs found the tumor, which was confined to the lung and hadn't spread to other organs, Holmes said.

Holliman's illness, as well as the lung cancer that led to his sister's death, have motivated him to introduce legislation that would ban smoking in restaurants and other public places.

For those tuning in to hear whether the N.C. General Assembly will, for the first time ever, over-ride a veto, go grab a Pepsi. The honorables are still negotiating their differences with the governor.

The House is due back at 3:30 p.m., but that doesn't seem like a real firm deadline.

In the mean, the House Democrats and Republicans are scheduled to caucus to discuss a compromise measure that is apparently in the works.

Meanwhile, talk amongst your selves. I'll give you a topic: economic incentives are neither economical nor much of an incentive. Discuss.

Update: House is now waiting until 4 p.m. to come back.

Update: House is now waiting until 4:30 p.m. to come back.

Update: For those keeping count, the House is recessed until 5:30 p.m.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If you're looking for action down on Jones Street, it's on the House side right now. The Gov. Mike Easley's negotiators are working with House members to come up with a compromise that would let everyone walk away from the special session happy, or at least make everyone equally miserable.

But the big question might be whether the Senate would go along with any such thing.

At this point, it doesn't look like anyone from the Senate is engaged in the negotiations, a fact confirmed by Sen. Tony Rand, D-Fayetteville, when I found him chatting up Rep. Jim Crawford, D-Granville, in a conference room a few minutes ago.

Rand is a primary sponsor of the bill and by all accounts displeased in a major way with the governor's veto.

I asked Rand if he or any of the other Senators were involved in the talks.

"We haven't been so far," he said. "We're not invited."

Crawford leaned over and asked, "Would you like to be?"

"Oh, if we're invited sure, we'll be nice," Rand said.

Crawford then joked, "I'll see what I can do about getting you a written invitation."

Crawford then left the room and Rand allowed as how he was a little mystified by the whole negotiation process anyway.

"I can't come to a clear understanding of what a compromise can be," Rand said. Easley has said that he's worried the bill, as it stand, would give up to $40 million to Goodyear but still allow them to fire workers.

Rand said that Easley could, as a condition of the grant, mandate that they not fire any of those workers.

"He could do all of that and he could do nothing," Rand said. Nothing, he said, compels the governor to offer the grant in the first place.

"I'm at a loss," Rand said.

Meanwhile, the House continues to negotiate. They are scheduled to come back from recess at 4:30 p.m., but Speaker Joe Hackney has pushed that time back several times already.

So, as I said above, if the House and the governor do reach a compromise, will the Senate even bother to hear about? The answer may be yes.

One possible - POSSIBLE - way this plays out is the House votes to let the governor's veto and then calls for another special session to pass the compromise legislation. The Senate, which really wants to do something for Goodyear, could get stuck talking about the compromise since they would never get the chance to vote on veto override.

House Speaker Joe Hackney just announced that Gov. Mike Easley is expected to call a special session at 7:30 p.m. And he has recessed the veto session until 9 p.m.

Looks like we're in for a late night.

Strategy-wise, it looks like they're aiming to pass some sort of compromise before acting (or not) on the veto.

-=-=-=-=-=

It's official. From the governor's office:

Gov. Mike Easley today convened an extra session of the North Carolina General Assembly for Monday, September 10, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. to consider legislation regarding economic development to encourage and promote the maintenance of high quality jobs in existing major business and industry in distressed counties within the state.

...the honorables will be back in the morning at 10 a.m.

Alright, here's why your Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and surrounding area) representatives are not going to get all worked up over this incentives debate/veto/intramural tussle among Democrats.

As my friends at Dome and the Tavern are reporting, the honorables are on the verge of creating a $60 million (give or take - details, schme-tails) grant program.

My understanding is that it would still only be for large employers - those with 1,500 or more employees - in Tier 1 - economically poorly off - counties.

Around our area, Caswell and Rockingham Counties are the only Tier 1 counties. Some late night research at the Employment Security Commission and economic developers' websites show that Caswell's largest private employer is Royal Park Uniforms, with somewhere south of 250 workers.

In Rockingham, the largest manufacturers seem to be lead by Miller Brewing and a couple of textile companies, all who have 700 or fewer employees.

So neither, it would seem, could benefit from this new incentive grant.

Of course the less parochial views are:

• What's good for one location in North Carolina is good for all of North Carolina.
• It's all your tax money.
• This is kind of a departure in state economic development policy and could pave the way for future changes in state law.

At any rate, the closest Triad connection to all this seems to be the fact that there is a Goodyear Tire plant in Asheboro, albeit one that's not in the running for these incentives either. Randolph, Davidson and Alamance counties are Tier 2 counties.

While the boys and girls in Raleigh fight over how best to give public money to private industry, stuff is happening in our nation's capital:

• For Greensboro, it's meet the new judge, same as the old judge, as William Osteen Jr. replaces his father.

• Meanwhile, Greensboro's congressional delegation is split on what exactly all these Iraq reports mean.

For those wondering when Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue will finally kick things into gear and announce she's campaigning for something, there's now a date. Perdue campaign aid David Kochman called today to say that the official kick-off will be Oct. 1 in New Bern.

Of course, the lack of an official announcement hasn't stopped the campaigns for Perdue and her chief rival, State Treasurer Richard Moore, from taking pot-shots at one another. The two are running for the Democratic nomination.

Meanwhile, Moore's latest Internet salvo is aimed at health care and President Bush.

So I took the family down to the beach for a few days, leaving the computer and most of my other gizmos behind. Of course, that results in a zillion e-mails waiting for me this morning and the bar has been pretty high as far as getting my attention.

But one from Congressman Brad Miller made me laugh. It is basically an update to constituents following the the Iraq testimony last week, but had this biting bit of commentary:

"I also gave a video interview to The Hill, a publication devoted entirely to Congress and politics. The Hill hosts a blog on which they invite Members of Congress to post entries, which has resulted in some of the most tepid, uninteresting blogging known to man.

Dude, when a Congressman is ripping your blog for being boring, that's just wrong. At any rate, Miller goes on:

They posted portions of interviews with various Members as a "video log," or "vlog." Their question to me was what I would have asked General Petraues if I had gotten the chance."

The question I would have asked was why his very optimistic forecasts of events in the past had proven so wrong.

For those who are interested, click here for Miller's take on things.

And no, Miller's not the only Triad area Congressman hitting the vlog scene.

Howard Coble put his take on Iraq out there as well.

Update: More video from the e-mail box:

Former N.C. Senator (and currentl presidential hopeful) John Edwards gives his response to President Bush's address last week.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue says it looks like someone is doing opposition research on her campaign from a state computer. Of course, that someone seems to be working for State Treasurer Richard Moore, her rival in the Democratic primary for governor next spring.

For those not imbued in the political arts, opposition research is what one campaign does to find facts, figures and, yes, sometimes just good ol' mud to sling against an opponent.

In a letter (Click here to read, along with various backup material. It's a PDF.) to the state auditor's office, Perdue outlines the following:

• Someone sent her office several request for public information regarding The Task Force for a Healthier North Carolina, a committee that operates under the Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which is chaired by Perdue.
• Those requests ask that material be sent to Moore's campaign office.
• The requests themselves seem to have been generated from a state computer, or at least a state IP address, at the Treasurer's official office.
• Perdue says she has complied with the requests.

Now, the state auditor is Republican Les Merritt, who is himself running for re-election. So here you have a request for a Republican to mediate a political tiff between two high-profile Democrats.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Perdue's office sent the letter to the State Auditor just to create a public record, which could then be disseminated to the media, via the official state computers at the Lt. Governor's office, but I'm sure that's neither here nor there.

I have a couple calls and e-mails in to see if we can sluice through this latest dust up.

Update: Moore's campaign responds. From campaign manager Jay Reiff:

The Lt. Governor's attack today is the height of hypocrisy and phoniness. Everyone knows Beverly Perdue's chief of staff has been running her unofficial gubernatorial campaign for the last two and a half years. This is a political stunt designed to keep people from looking into the fact that he just now started working full-time for her campaign. Additionally, Perdue's campaign chair Robert Zaytoun, who is also a member of her Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission, recently submitted multiple extensive records requests of the Department of State Treasurer.

In an attached letter, we are asking the State Auditor to look into the use of state resources for political purposes out of the Lieutenant Governor's Office. Treasurer Moore will look into whether anyone in the Department of State Treasurer has used state resources inappropriately. We call on the Lieutenant Governor to do the same thing.

Click here for the afore mentioned letter.

Glad we're having a nice clean campaign, focused on the issues.

Update: From the State Treasurer's office:

"The Department of State Treasurer takes these allegations seriously and will look into them. Political motivations are clearly the basis for these actions."

Update: The Treasurer's office updates us again, this time with a quote from Stacey Phipps, the department's chief of staff:

"It was brought to my attention this afternoon that Julie White, an employee of our Department, sent public records requests using a private email account from a state computer under the name of one of her relatives. To our knowledge, no laws were broken. However, Ms. White has violated departmental policies. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."

One of the local troves for government geeks such as myself is the North Carolina Register, the publication where various administrative rules, executive orders, official notices and other bric-a-brac of bureaucratic life gets entombed.

In today's edition (Click here for the main page, and then click on Issue 06 of 2007) we find an initiative to make state workers healthier:

In partnership with the State Health Plan and the Office of State Personnel, each agency shall create and participate in a Worksite Wellness program. The Worksite Wellness initiatives shall address the primary components of a healthy lifestyle including healthy eating, physical activity, tobacco cessation and stress management.

As a representative of an industry that causes a great deal of stress for state workers, I'm considering filing an objection.

Seriously, I don't smoke, but if I give up cheeseburgers, stress and beer I'm pretty much going to have to find another line of work...maybe in a state office somewhere.

You can read the rule in all it's glory here

In case you haven't noticed, this blog occasionally strays from the state capital here in Raleigh to folks who are in that other capital up I-95, or just want to be. And no, I'm not talking about Richmond.

In the race for the White House, I try to keep loose tabs on John Edwards, the former North Carolina Senator who has pretty much taken up permanent residence at third in the polls for the Democratic primaries.

Slate columnist John Dickerson has a piece up right now called "Time To Panic?" In it, he asks if Barack Obama should be worried that he's loosing ground in the polls to Hillary Clinton. In it, he offers Obama several pieces of advice on bouncing back. Among them is this bit regarding Edwards:

Let John Edwards tear down Clinton. Edwards is the Democratic candidate who looks the most like an insurgent. His strategy may seem frantic at times (no SUVs one day, no congressional health care the next), but at least he looks passionate.

On the same day Obama was giving his low-key tax speech, John Edwards' senior adviser Joe Trippi was going after Hillary Clinton with a meat hook over a fund-raiser she was holding. "That no one in the Clinton campaign—including the candidate—found anything wrong with holding this fundraiser is an indication of just how bad things have gotten in Washington—because there isn't an American outside of Washington who would not be sickened by it," he wrote.

Perhaps Obama can benefit from whatever paint Edwards can strip from Clinton, as Edwards benefited in 2004 from the fight between Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt. But so far, Edwards' attacks haven't worked against Clinton, and there's also no guarantee that the votes would go to Obama even if Edwards were effective.

Click here for the full story.

This notion that "Edwards' attacks haven't worked against Clinton" got me to thinking. Why not? As many strategic advantages (lots of money from powerful contributors, married to the former president, experience in the health care arena, etc...) Clinton brings to the table, she also brings a host of liabilities (lots of money from powerful contributors, married to the former president, experience in the health care arena, etc...).

That which makes here strong also makes her eminently attackable. So what gives?

It may be because Edwards is not only battling his own opponents. Check out this AP column headlined: Is Edwards Real or a Phony?" Edwards is still battling back at the demons of his own campaigns slipups. And that's pretty much a full month after the hedge fund story has been out of the news cycle.

In order to break through the noise, Edwards needs to keep his campaign's house in order.

If Edwards can keep the stories about his campaign from being "here's how bubba shot himself in the foot today" and more about his plans and policies, his critique of Clinton might begin to gain a little more traction. Of course, if that doesn't begin to happen by, say, December or very early January, it may be time for Obama and Edwards to panic.

So, I'm waiting about for folks to return phone calls this afternoon (you know who you are) and trying to be productive at the same time. So I was looking about on YouTube to see who on North Carolina's political scene has been posting videos there.

Treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore has quite a few up, mostly posted by his campaign and clips from press conferences or news broadcasts.

So what about his chief Democratic rival, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue? I could find only one, and it was posted by the Moore campaign. It is meant, I think, to continue firing away at the Lt. Governor on the abortion issue. Moore has accused Perdue of playing both sides, as detailed in this Under the Dome column.

Here's the video itself:

Does this sort of thing matter? It might. Certainly reporters and bloggers will be looking to YouTube among other sources for primary material to back up our stories over the next year. If a candidate doesn't have material up on a favored medium, that could hurt in intangible but very real ways.

My bet would be Perdue will start hitting the net in earnest after her Oct. 1 announcement.

Update: Perdue does have a website, although it pretty much is one big picture right at the moment, and she has a Facebook group.

Moore's website is here but I don't see a Facebook page for him.

By the way, Republican candidates for governor seem to be similarly disengaged from YouTube, although I was able to find at least one video for GOP candidate Bill Graham.

Update: Sen. Fred Smith, another GOP candidate, has himself a YouTube video too, of what looks to be a campaign commercial. (Hat tip: the Dome-meister.)

It's been a while since I've updated my blog list. Making an appearance today is The Soup, an anonymous Raleigh-based blog that weighs in on state government and politics.

Its latest post aims some snarkiness at researcher and one-man-wrecking-crew Joe Sinsheimer. Go check 'em out.

From the lede of a story in today's paper:

RALEIGH — The small hologram patch that began showing up on North Carolina driver's licenses in December hardly looks like the first step down the road to perdition, or a multinational union that sacrifices national sovereignty.

But motor vehicle administrators say although North Carolina may be the first in the nation to use what they call a "common security element," the state isn't on the leading edge of anything other than a new way of telling whether a license is legitimate.

That hasn't stopped conservative Internet sites and talk radio from getting riled.

Click here for the full story.

And click here to see a picture of the patch in question. Click here to see the website for ALIPAC, the group worried about this thing.

When the legislative session ended, there were still some questions lingering over the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus Foundation and its scholarships. The foundation and its fundraising got attention because it is closely linked the legislative black caucus, an influential group of legislators at the General Assembly.

The conundrum revolved around the fact that the foundation could raise money from sources that legislators themselves could not during the General Assembly session and in amounts that exceeded campaign fund raising limits. Those questions came up as the legislature began tighten its ethical bulwark in the wake of former House Speaker Jim Black getting rung up on ethics charges and eventually sent to the federal pokey.

(Click here for background.)

I had a chance to speak to Rep. Alma Adams (mainly about (other things) today and she mentioned that the caucus and its foundation were still reviewing its books on several matters.

The Greensboro Democrat, and the caucus' chairwoman, said "sometime in October" she'd be ready to talk about the foundation and what its own audits found as well as advice it had gotten from various ethics boards and committees.

She called most of the feedback she had gotten so far "positive."

In the mean time, the group is scheduling its annual legislative and education weekend next June 27 and 28. Adams said they took this year off from doing the annual event to allow the various questions surrounding their fundraising to be answered.

Eddie Davis, who heads NCAE says he is running for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. From his news release:

After a great deal of dialogue and positive feedback from family, friends, colleagues, and advisors, I have reached a decision about my involvement in the election of 2008. Thus, I am announcing today that I will be a candidate for the position of State Superintendent of Public Instruction in the spring of 2008. A formal campaign launching activity will occur on Saturday, October 6 in Asheville.

I strong believe that my candidacy will bring excitement, hope, and the joy of learning to citizens from Murphy to Manteo. Using my extensive classroom teaching experiences and my advocacy skills, I will seek to reach and motivate students, parents and community leaders in order to make public education great in North Carolina. Also, I plan to use the campaign to create more respect, responsibility, and vision for the practitioners in all of our schools. I believe that my stellar 30-year teaching career makes me politically and educationally qualified to be the drum major for life-long learning for each and every student.

I will participate in the pilot program that was recently approved by the North Carolina General Assembly. This new law will place limits on the amount of campaign contributions and, thus, will make the investment into the superintendent’s contest more affordable and more equitable for regular citizens of North Carolina.

As a candidate, I will strive to serve as a positive role model for students and for all citizens. I look forward to running a clean, respectful, and issue-driven campaign.

Davis will apparently give a primary challenge to incumbent June Atkinson, who sent this news release back last week:

Today, State Superintendent June Atkinson announced that she will seek re-election. She states that her number one priority is to increase the North Carolina high school graduation rate. Recently, it was announced that the 2007 graduation rate is 69.4 percent, up from the 2006 rate of 68.3 percent. In addition, she reports that even with the increase in standards in the state’s accountability program, the growth and proficiency rates of schools are up. Schools making or exceeding growth targets grew by 17.9 percentage points from 2005-06 to 2006-07 school year.

Dr. Atkinson says, “Our students’ learning is unprecedented and the state public education system is moving in the right direction. I will continue to work with all partners — the State Board of Education, local school leaders, teachers, elected officials, businesses, professional organizations, and parents to ensure our students are prepared for a global economy. A focus on using technology in meaningful ways and developing a system of professional development will be key to improving student achievement. There is much work to be done to ensure students are prepared for the 21st century.”

Rep. Alma Adams says she'd like the N.C. General Assembly to hold session in Greensboro one day next year to honor the Gate City's bicentennial.

Although the legislature has a permanent home in downtown Raleigh, the honorables occasionally travel to different parts of the state to mark historic anniversaries and occasions. For example, in 2005 the legislature met in Bath to celebrate that town's 300th anniversary.

"I think we should come to Greensboro and I think we should convene on NCA&T's campus," said Adams, who is still shopping the idea to various legislative leaders.

Adams said she hoped to get May 20, 2008 as the date, which would be about a week after the legislative session reconvenes for the year. And by the way, when the General Assembly travels like this, it's more than a ceremonial occasion. They do take votes and have to bring along a full entourage of clerks, sergeants at arms and other officials.

In the world of politics, no good deed goes unpunished nor positive story go without pushback by one's opponent.

Every month I get an e-mail with the agenda for the N.C. Council of State, basically the governor and nine other statewide officers. The group is a vestige of the days when we didn't trust royal/executive authority as far as we could throw the nearest chief executive.

One of the typical things the council does at its monthly meetings is approve a whole bunch of property transactions, sales, purchases and lease arrangements for state facilities.

On tomorrow's next week's agenda is this item, approving the lease for a new Piedmont Triad Crime Lab that will be located in Greensboro.

Funding for the lab was a pretty high priority for Guilford County's legislative delegation and they had hopped all along that it would be located in Greensboro.

So, seeing that the lab was due to be put in Greensboro I phone up the Justice Department to see who might want to chat about it. Attorney General Roy Cooper happened to be the one to call back.

The story is at this link. It's a short talker on the lab, what it'll do, etc...

Cooper, a Democrat, is a member of the Council of State and has said he will stand for re-election next year, which is where the politics comes in.

Greensboro lawyer Bob Crumley, a Republican and the smiling face on the back of local phone books, is running against Cooper. (Background here.)

Well, being a good candidate, Crumley can't let positive spin for his opponent go answered so he sent out a release today. It begins:

Greensboro, September 24, 2007 - For seven years, Roy Cooper has allowed crimes to go unsolved in this state. With the recent announcement that the State Bureau of Investigation will open a new crime lab in the Triad, Cooper is finally admitting what North Carolina law enforcement has known . the SBI crime lab's inability to process key evidence in criminal cases has not been a priority for his office.

I'll post the full release after the jump.

Kind of makes you wonder, though, what Crumley would say about the expansion of the state's crime lab here in Raleigh.

At least we should have a pretty active campaign for AG next year. Now the jump.

For those following the debate over the death penalty and lethal injection, including the latest twist in North Carolina, the Supreme Court of the United States is about to weigh in. From Stateline.org:

Nine minutes after a lethal dose of drugs was shot into his arms, Texas murderer Michael Richard last night (Sept. 25) became the 929th death-row inmate in the United States to be executed by lethal injection since capital punishment was reinstated in 1977.

The three-drug mixture used to stop Richard's breathing and then his heart is the same chemical cocktail the U.S. Supreme Court — just hours before — agreed to scrutinize in a case that challenges the way 37 states put inmates to death.

The case was brought by two Kentucky prisoners, who argue that the state's drug regimen exposes inmates to illegal cruel and unusual punishment. The appeal doesn't seek to throw out lethal injection as a form of capital punishment but seeks changes in how it's administered and reviewed in the courts.

By agreeing to hear arguments, the high court raised hopes among death-penalty opponents that an immediate, nationwide moratorium on use of lethal injections would result — at least until the justices issue an opinion in the case, Baze v. Rees, sometime next year.

Click here to read the whole story. You can read the petition to the court on behalf of the men here.

Obviously, there are ramifications for North Carolina here. One could well imagine the pending decision being used as an argument for continuing what has been a de facto moratorium here in North Carolina, at least until the justices hand down a decision.

Greetings from the road. I'm away from firebase Raleigh today, but am making time to check in from the 'boro regarding the latest Elon Poll.

You can find a news release here and the raw feed here.

Update: A good summary of the poll, including results on the presidential races, from our friends at the Associated Press is here.

From a local perspective, this is the relevant bit right off:

Do you plan to vote [for or against] Elizabeth Dole as U.S. Senator from North Carolina?

Answer / Percent
AGAINST - 26.0
FOR - 35.3
TOO EARLY TO TELL(v) - 18.5
DON'T KNOW/ NOT SURE (v) - 18.9
REFUSED (v) -1.2

Those who selected "against" were asked:

Who do you think is the best candidate to oppose Senator Dole? (open ended, no options provided)

Answer / Percent
ROY COOPER - 8.2
BEVERLY PERDUE - 7.5
RICHARD MOORE - 5.6
NAMED SOMEONE ELSE/ OTHER (v) - 5.2
KAY HAGAN - 0.5
ELAINE MARSHALL - 0.5
TOO EARLY TO TELL / NOT SURE (v) - 32.6
DON'T KNOW (v) - 39.8
Total - 100.0

I guess this puts Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, in the, "It's an honor just to be nominated category." Rep. Grier Martin, of Wake County, didn't even make the break out list and at this point he has just as much of a claim to running as Hagan does. Both have been taking very similar steps in exploring a run.

I'm scratching my head a bit over the people who want Moore and Perdue to run, since they're all engaged in another campaign. True, for the Dems it seems to make little since to have Moore and Perdue beat the snot out of each other when one could be spending time beating up on Dole, but that's not the situation on the ground.

From the lede of a story running today (Sunday):

RALEIGH - The compromise children health insurance bill passed by Congress last week is a good deal for North Carolina financially. It would fix a historical funding shortfall peculiar to the state by boosting the federal tax money sent here under the SCHIP program.

But President Bush reiterated Friday that he plans to veto the bill. The resulting political morass could force state officials to freeze new enrollments for children, even those who qualify under current guidelines. It also would complicate efforts to expand health insurance for children spelled out in this year's state budget.

"This bill is kind of the high-water mark for us," said Dan Gerlach, a senior policy adviser to Gov. Mike Easley. "It acknowledges how we have been treated unfairly in the past. If you say no to this deal, then what happens next becomes problematic for us."

Click here for the full story.

For those who want more of a primer on SCHIP from a state's perspective, Stateline had a good overview in August.

As noted in the story, both of North Carolina's U.S. Senators voted against the bill. Sens. Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole sent out a joint press release last week:

Dole and Burr today voted to protect the original SCHIP from a massive expansion of government-run health care funded by a tobacco tax hike that would disproportionately affect North Carolina’s economy. The legislation would more than double the size of SCHIP, spending $60 billion over the next five years, compared to $25 billion over the same period under current law. The program would add nearly 6 million children to the public dole, half of whom currently have health insurance. The bill would allow illegal immigrants to receive health care under SCHIP in addition to moving many insured, middle-class children into the government-run program.

Click here to read the whole thing. The good folks over at Dome have already snarked the semantic back flip involved in that paragraph.

Of North Carolina's 13 members of the U.S. House, all six Republicans voted against the SCHIP bill, including Greensboro's Howard Coble.

Of the seven Democrats, five voted for including Reps. Brad Miller and Mel Watt, both of whose districts cross into Greensboro.

The two "nos" among Dems were Reps. Bob Etheridge and Mike McIntyre. They were two of eight Democrats to vote no.

Read Etheridge's floor speech on the bill by clicking here. It reads in part:

By singling out tobacco for a huge tax increase, the provisions of this bill will cost North Carolina's citizens a great deal in direct cost increases. Researchers at North Carolina State University estimate that North Carolina's economy would lose at least $540 million a year through the tax's indirect impact as well. North Carolina's tobacco farmers grow a legal crop. These hard-working farm families have suffered greatly from transformations in the global economy. Because my district is the second largest tobacco producing district in the country, this bill disproportionately affects my constituents who work hard to be able to pay their bills and provide a better life for their children. This just doesn't pass the fairness test.

The N.C. Department of Agriculture sent me an e-mail this week that offered the same figure. The basic logic is that increasing the tobacco tax would decrease consumption and therefore drive down the revenue collected on tobacco taxes.

So, what's next.

I'm told (but haven't seen for myself) that there is a temporary extension of SCHIP in the bill Bush talked about in his weekly radio address.

Of course, he could back off his veto threat, but given the tenor or material coming out of the White House this week (myth and facts // Weems transcript ), it sure doesn't sound like that's going to happen.

So the bill would bounce back to Congress. The Senate has the votes to over-ride, but not so the House. Of course, I've read where House Democrats plan to keep sending SCHIP bills along - in part of press the point and in part as a political tactic. They think voters overwhelmingly support the SCHIP expansion and the more they can get Republicans to vote against the bill the better. (AAS(reg req.), WP and Bloomberg. )

Meanwhile, folks who have SCHIP coverage for their kids, or might be thinking of seeking coverage, might be left scratching their heads over all this. If you're among those, I'd love to hear from you in the comments section below or via e-mail: mbinker@news-record.com.