News-Record.com

Today's Inside Scoop Column (click here) contains two items of interest for Jones Streeters:

First up, Rep. Earl Jones wants to be Guilford County Caucus chairman next session:

Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat heading back to Raleigh for his third term, is gunning for the post of Guilford County caucus chairman. And Scoop has yet to hear of anyone else who wants the job.

The caucus chairman serves as a point of contact for local businesses, institutions and voters who want to bend the ear of the entire delegation.

The current caucus chairwoman, Rep. Maggie Jeffus, says she has no objections to Jones taking over the role.

“It’s a lot of extra work,” she said. “If he would like to have it, I’m glad for him to have it.”

The job can be a bit like playing scheduling secretary to a herd of cats because it often requires getting all 10 legislators who represent parts of the county in the same room.

“It’s important for the people we serve to understand how successful we’ve been,” Jones said Wednesday. The delegation has been able to bring home funding for endeavors such as the new nanotechnology partnership between UNCG and N.C. A&T and the High Point Market.

Some of that success has to be chalked up to state Sen. Kay Hagan, who held a power appropriations post but is heading to Washington as a U.S. senator in January. So will the delegation still be successful?

Jones says yes, but acknowledges, “Losing a budget writer and that kind of seniority won’t help.”

Hagan’s replacement, Don Vaughan, is familiar with how the General Assembly works, Jones said. And the rest of the delegation has amassed clout as well, he said.

Next up, Rep. Alma Adams may be in the mix for Perdue's cabinet. From the same column:

Jones also worried that the Guilford County delegation might lose one more high-profile member: Rep. Alma Adams.

“She probably will get offered a position by Perdue,” said Jones, referring to Governor-elect Bev Perdue.

Adams is a senior budget writer in the House and chairwoman of the Legislative Black Caucus, a group with clout at the General Assembly. In Raleigh circles — including one online gossip column and in the scuttlebutt that pervades conversation around the state Capitol — her name has been bandied about as a possible nominee for heading the Department of Administration.

“I don’t have a comment on that,” Adams said Wednesday.

Spokesmen with Perdue’s transition team said no decisions on Cabinet-level appointments have been made.

All this talk has raised Scoop’s eyebrows because Adams is on record criticizing Perdue for not having enough gender and ethnic diversity on her transition team, a situation that has been remedied in the past week. Also worth noting: If she is appointed, Adams wouldn’t be the first Guilford County official to lead Administration. State Sen. Katie Dorsett held the post during Gov. Jim Hunt’s second term.

Elsewhere, Dec. 1 is the day new criminal laws traditionally take effect in North Carolina. Ryan Seals reports that means new tools to crack down on gangs while the N+O updates us on new sex offender laws.

Worth noting as well today is the day video slot machines become illegal for sure...until someone else comes up with another way to circumvent the law.

President George W. Bush (remember him!) was in Greensboro today. My friend and colleague Gerald Witt has the story here.

(Credit: Jerry Wolford / News & Record)

Meanwhile, Gov. Mike Easley (remember him!) and governor-elect Bev Perdue were up in Pennsylvania today talking about federal aid for states.

(Credit: The Associated Press)

The Associated Press reported:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ North Carolina Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue says Barack Obama is speaking her kind of language when it comes to an economic recovery plan.

Perdue was on hand Tuesday as the president-elect spoke to current and soon-to-be governors in Philadelphia. Obama pledged to make quick work on an economic stimulus package that would include tax cuts and federal spending.

Perdue told The Associated Press in a phone interview she liked that Obama is interested in giving states money for water and sewer upgrades and other improvements - and not just road repairs. She also appreciated Obama saying that state leaders aren't to blame for the bad economy.

Perdue said she talked with Obama on Monday night during an event for Democratic governors.

Outgoing Gov. Mike Easley also was in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, important people in the legislature will be running to stay important this month.

Legislative Republicans are due to meet in Greensboro this Sunday to choose leaders.

Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam is running again for minority leader in the House, and there's no mention of a challenger in the rumor mill.

Meanwhile, Rockingham County Republican Phil Berger will have competition for his seat. Sens. Bob Rucho of Mecklenburg and Pete Brunstetter of Forsyth are running for the right to lead the 20-seat Republican minority in the Senate.

I don't know either Brunstetter or Rucho well. I will say that Berger and Stam are cut somewhat of the same cloth. They don't play angry, take their victories where they can get them, are confrontational with the majority when it suits their purposes but not overly so. Brunstetter seems like he may be from that same mold but those that know him say Rucho may be a bit more inclined to get in Basnight's face a bit.

Democrats will hold a similar leadership election exercises later this month (Dec. 17) and House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight are expected to hold onto their posts.

(Editor's note: I've deleted a final sentence that was in an earlier version of the post that was copied and pasted into the post out of context and, in fact, made no darned sense as written.)

As the AP and Bloomberg report, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that has to do with whether the EPA can or should regulate water withdrawals by power companies. From the AP story:

The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to let the nation's older power plants draw in billions of gallons of water for cooling without installing technology that would best protect fish and aquatic organisms.

Lawyers for the government and electricity producers urged the justices to overturn a lower court ruling that says the Clean Water Act does not allow the government to pit the cost of upgrading an estimated 554 power plants against the benefits of protecting fish and aquatic organisms when limiting water use.

[snip]

Environmentalists want the decision upheld, an outcome that could prompt the EPA to require existing power plants to install the same technology it requires at all new plants. Known as closed-cycle cooling, it recycles water using less from waterways to cool machinery.

You can find a whole passel of legal briefs by clicking here and scrolling down the Entergy case. You can read a transcript of the arguments by clicking here.

Might this be relevant to North Carolina?

A spokeswoman for Duke Power said she didn't know and they'd have to look at the case.

But here's why I think it might be relevant to Duke, Progress and other power generators here:

(Click to enlarge.)

That's a graph from this presentation on water use heard by the General Assembly's Environmental Review Commission last month.

That big orange line? It represents 9 billion (yes, with a B) gallons of water power plants extract from North Carolina waterways every year. That's more than is withdrawn for all other uses in the state, including drinking water and hydro-electric power, combined.

Power companies will tell you that most of that water goes back into lakes and rivers, which is true. But it gets strained, heated up, shoved through industrial machinery and spit back out.

(And right here would be a good place to acknowledge that if you're reading this, you're most likely using a computer sucking up power from a plant like the one I'm describing, so let's not kid ourselves - we all like the lights coming on.)

At any rate, North Carolina has some power plants of a certain age (old) pumping out the juice and I'd be surprised (to the point of falling out of my chair) if they were all outfitted with the latest water conservation devices.

So if the Court goes against power utilities and the Bush Administration here, it could prompt the EPA (soon to be headed by an Obama Administration appointee) to require some expensive retrofits. (Of course the fish and those of us who like to catch and eat them might appreciate the extra steps, as, I’m sure, would the other critters who live in the lake.)

I'll report back here if Duke gets back to me on the applicability to their particular situation.

From today's paper:

When the General Assembly drafted the original lottery law in 2005, it included a mandate that 35 percent of the lottery's proceeds had to go toward education.

In 2007, that safeguard was waived, allowing the lottery to offer bigger prizes but reducing the state's cut of lottery revenues. The logic was that offering better odds and bigger prizes would entice more players, increase overall revenues and therefore produce a net gain for the state.

The gamble appears to have paid off, according to financial statements and audits reviewed by the N.C. Lottery Commission on Wednesday.

Click here for the full story.

Mainly, this story circles back on stories from 2007 when the legislators who approved the change seemed to be a bit leery of the potential impact. This is from a story in July of 2007:

The change to the lottery 's funding formula is aimed at enticing more players to buy North Carolina lottery tickets rather than seeking richer payouts in other states. That, in turn, is expected to pump up lottery proceeds, which fell about $110 million short of expectations during its first full year of operation.

"I guess we all anticipated this," said Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat and lottery critic who voted no on the bill in 2005. "Those of us who voted against the bill were worried that all these restrictions and safeguards would be removed."

As originally passed in 2005, the bill required that at least 35 percent of the money earned by the game would be turned over to education. The measure also set other limits, such as constraining the lottery to spending no more than 1 percent of its revenues on advertising.

Those limits would become "guidelines" under language agreed to by budget negotiators - including House Speaker Joe Hackney and Greensboro Democrats Sen. Kay Hagan and Reps. Maggie Jeffus and Alma Adams.

"I think it is unfortunate that they are going to go on the course of trying to entice more and more people to gamble their money," said Sen. Phil Berger, a Rockingham County Republican and critic of the lottery .

Berger said that he was concerned that if the theory behind giving the lottery more flexibility didn't pan out, it would put even less money into education.

"It sounded ridiculous to me when I first heard it, too," Hagan said of the notion that the lottery could raise more money by letting it put more toward prizes. "I have since been convinced there is a difference."

Thus far, this somewhat counterintuitive idea seems to be paying off. Click here for a spreadsheet of transfers from the lottery to the education fund.

From the same story on lottery revenues mentioned here:

(Lottery Director Tom) Shaheen also asked lottery commissioners for permission to draw up a marketing plan that would include Spanish language advertising. According to the lottery, 6 percent of the retailers who sell tickets serve customers who are primarily Spanish-speaking.

Commission member Bridget-Anne Hampden called the idea "an opportunity" and other commission members agreed, saying the lottery ignored Spanish-speakers at its peril.

The commission is likely to move cautiously to avoid running afoul of part of the lottery law that prohibits the agency from "targeting" any one minority, ethnic or other group through advertising.

The N+O writes more on the topic here.

The actual language from the lottery statute reads:

a. All advertising shall include resources for responsible gaming information.

b. No advertising may intentionally target specific groups or economic classes.

c. No advertising may be misleading, deceptive, or present any lottery game as a means of relieving any person's financial or personal difficulties.

d. No advertising may have the primary purpose of inducing persons to participate in the Lottery.

(Not having looked at this statute in years, I must say provision (d) looks particularly dumb - why advertise if not to induce people to play?)

The section in question here is (b), which prohibits targeting of specific "groups or economic class."

Back when the lottery law was being written, there was some concern that lotteries pulled money out of poorer communities more so than wealthier communities. Those concerns were fed by stories like this one from the Washington Post in 1998:

Those contrasting images reveal a fundamental truth about what the lotteries in Maryland, Virginia and the District have become: a $2.2 billion- a-year cash cow that relies on a hard core of heavy players, who, on average, have less education and lower incomes than the population as a whole, according to lottery documents and data. The heavy players also include a much higher percentage of minorities.

For example, 61 percent of Virginia Lottery sales to the state's residents are made to just 8 percent of all Virginia adults, according to 1995-96 lottery survey data obtained by The Washington Post. Of that small pool of heavy gamblers, one in five never finished high school, and more than one in three were African Americans, roughly double the rates among all Virginia adults surveyed.

Those heavy Virginia players on average spent $47 for lottery tickets in two weeks, the equivalent of more than $1,200 annually. Yet one in six had household incomes of less than $15,000, according to the lottery data.

So the question is whether Spanish language advertising would be "targeting" or merely translating the same message everyone else gets so that everybody can understand it.

At the lottery commission meeting yesterday, the latter view seemed to hold sway, which was backed up in this quote from the N+O story:

"If you're only doing it in English, you're targeting a specific group," said Tony Asion, executive director of the statewide advocacy group El Pueblo. "It's just a matter of making it available."

Of course, lottery opponents who wanted to put up a fuss about this might look at the Census data used in this AP story from August, which found:

In North Carolina, the report found more than 1 million people, or 14 percent of the state population, living in poverty. While the national poverty rate held steady at 12.5 percent, poverty did rise among some groups. Latinos, children and the foreign-born – demographic categories that overlap considerably – experienced significant increases.

That census data can be found here and here.

Of course, none of that says that all Spanish speakers are poor and/or uneducated. So I don't know if you can make a case based on demographic trends that merely translating a marketing message into Spanish is "targeting" a vulnerable population.

The lottery staff is due to bring this back to the commission at its next meeting, and I imagine this debate might get a fair amount of attention then.

Remember the questions over whether Barack Obama is actually a citizen of the United States? The nation's highest court is going to give them a look-see, according to the Chicago Tribune:

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of Obama's election.

The meeting of justices will coincide with a vigil by the filer's supporters in Washington on the steps of the nation's highest court.

The suit originally sought to stay the election, and was filed on behalf of Leo Donofrio against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

Legal experts say the appeal has little chance of succeeding, despite appearing on the court's schedule. Legal records show it is only the tip of an iceberg of nationwide efforts seeking to derail Obama's election over accusations that he either wasn't born a U.S. citizen or that he later renounced his citizenship in Indonesia.

The Tribune story is here. Some context on which justice forced the issue here.

From a NC Department of Agriculture (and random facts) release:

"North Carolina produced nearly 4.8 million poinsettias in 2007 and generated cash receipts of $15.2 million," said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. "Overall floriculture production contributes more than $194 million to North Carolina’s economy, and poinsettias are a very important part of that."

Poinsettias are grown in greenhouses across North Carolina. They have specific climatic requirements, and need the correct balance of sunlight and darkness in order to produce quality plants for the holiday season.

As Johnny Carson might say, "I did not know that."

From my contribution to today's paper:

Even as issues of energy supplies and conservation have gained national and international importance, a legislative oversight committee responsible for keeping watch over the state’s utility regulators and power companies has met just once during the past six years.

The Joint Legislative Utility Review Committee has been dormant even as the state has enacted new and sometimes controversial laws to encourage conservation and new energy technologies.

Although the committee’s mission may be more important now than when it was formed in 1985, advocates and other legislators complain its co-chairmen have passed on exercising their oversight powers. And, they note, both chairmen are beneficiaries of campaign donations from the power industry and one of them now works for a power cooperative.

"There's never been a more important time to be thoughtful about energy policy," said Rep. Pricey Harrison , a Greensboro Democrat and one of the panel’s 10 members. "This committee is precisely situated to engage in that kind of discussion and oversight, and it’s very frustrating to me we’re not engaging in that."

Click here for the story.

Other good stuff:

• * My colleague (and fantasy football commissioner) Jason Hardin writes about the life of undocumented immigrants here in North Carolina. One anecdote:

  Moises Campos Palencia was on his way to realizing the American dream — a wife, a young daughter, a business he started from scratch.

  Until it all fell apart at a traffic light in High Point a few months ago.

  A police officer pulled him over, saying he’d turned left on red. The next thing Palencia knew, he was in a detention center in Georgia, awaiting deportation.

  Although he had lived in the United States since he was a boy, brought here by his parents, Palencia hadn’t been able to attain citizenship, despite his efforts.

• * The N+O revisits the probation and parole office in force:

  Since the start of 2000, 580 people have killed in North Carolina while under the watch of state probation officers -- 17 percent of all convictions for intentional killings.

  The high profile killing of UNC student Eve Carson is part of this story, as are hundreds of other cases. The killer line in the story is the quote from Corrections Secretary Theodis Beck:

  "This is not something we would have expected to deal with," Beck said. "We're here because of the failure of two cases out of 117,000."

  Granted this is something that three reporters and a team of others at the N+O spent a year on. But if a group of outsiders can figure out this stuff, surely the people who own the data and actually manage the system can...right?

  The N+O has two more parts to this series coming, and I wouldn't expect them to be warm and fuzzy follow-ups.

That's the early take this morning. Let me know what you're reading.

Update: This came to me by way of a Facebook link posted by an acquaintance of mine at the Inky: Smoke and Mirrors: The Subversion of the EPA. It's worth a read and listen.

Last week, my colleague Lex Alexander wrote about an ongoing issue with the VA:

Winston-Salem's Department of Veterans Affairs regional office is among at least 41 VA offices nationwide that improperly placed papers in bins to be shredded, records show.

The papers pertained primarily to veterans' applications for benefits, according to VA records obtained by the News & Record through the service organization Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.

The papers were described in an Oct. 23 VA conference call as "critical," meaning the documents were necessary for veterans' claims to be properly adjudicated. Improper adjudication could keep veterans or their survivors from getting money to which they are entitled.

Mentioned here, because President-elect Barack Obama will formally announce his new Veteran's Affairs nominee today:

President-elect Barack Obama today will introduce retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, bringing to his Cabinet a career military officer best known for running afoul of the Bush administration by questioning the Pentagon's Iraq war strategy.

Shinseki, a four-star general and 38-year veteran who retired shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, will appear with Obama in Chicago at a news conference today commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Obama said Shinseki agreed to join the incoming administration because "both he and I share a reverence for those who serve."

As ranking Republican on the Committee on Veteran Affairs, NC Sen. Richard Burr will have some say relative to the confirmation of that appointment.

I just filed the following for the dead-trees edition of the paper:

-=-=-=-=-=-

Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican who represents parts of Guilford County and all of Rockingham County, will serve a third two-year term as his party’s leader in the Senate.

Democrats hold a 30-20 advantage in the chamber next session, so Berger will once again be minority leader, heading the opposition in a chamber his party hasn’t won for the past century.

“We’re going to try to do those things we’ve been successful at,” Berger said after the election. “One of them being, we are communicating our position.”

Berger said that Republicans would sharpen their message this year and provide specific counter-proposals to what they see as missteps by Democratic leaders.

With Republicans next year only holding two of ten state offices elected at large — Commission of Agriculture and Labor Commissioner — Berger is one of the most prominent GOP voices in North Carolina.

Sen. Harry Brown of Jacksonville will be the Republican’s deputy leader. Sen. Jerry Tillman, who represents Randolph and Montgomery counties, will be the Republican whip, a position responsible for counting votes.

Senate Democrats have not chosen their leaders for next session yet. However, Sen. Marc Basnight of Dare County told Scoop recently he planned to run again and his chances of retaining his post are considered very good. Basnight has lead his chamber’s Democrats for 16 years and is widely regarded wielding influence to rivaling that of the governor.

Meanwhile, in the House, Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, a Wake County Republican, retained his post as House minority leader. Rep. Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg County will be the Republican Whip.

Democrats in the House have yet to choose their leaders, but House Speaker Joe Hackney of Orange, Chatham and Moore counties is widely expected to keep the top job.

Democrats in both the House and Senate are scheduled to pick their top leaders on Dec. 17.

-=-=-=-=-=

Additional note: Sen. Eddie Goodall of Mecklenberg and Union counties, will be the joint caucus leader, a position accountable to both the House and the Senate. This post tries to coordinate action and policy positions between the GOP in the two chambers.

For the past session is was held by Rep. Dale Folwell of Forsyth, but my understanding is it rotates between the two chambers.

Our friends at the Associated Press report:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth.

The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election. Donofrio says that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American and his Kenyan father at the time was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen," one of the requirements the Constitution lists for eligibility to be president.

Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.

At least one other appeal over Obama's citizenship remains at the court. Philip J. Berg of Lafayette Hill, Pa., argues that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as Obama says and the Hawaii secretary of state has confirmed. Berg says Obama also may be a citizen of Indonesia, where he lived as a boy. Federal courts in Pennsylvania have dismissed Berg's lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Slate has a thorough write-through of the issue.

So, I'm hoofing back to my office from the zoo funding study committee, and who to my wondering eyes should appear but Santa Clause, on top of a giant shopping cart, across the street from the old state capitol building.

You heard me.

Santa, the cart and company were hustling business for a food drive today outside the Department of Agriculture Building. Usually when I see the cart tooling around, Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler is at the wheel. But I guess the Reindeer union being somewhat persnickety about wage and hour rules this time of year, Santa needed to borrow the ride.

(Click to enlarge.)

Shortly after New Year's Day I'll be gassing up the car and heading back to D.C. for a week as the new Congress' gets sworn in spends its first few days on the job.The honorables promise to protect, obey and defend the constitution a couple weeks before the presidential inauguration.

I have a few motives for the trip, not the least of which is to see Senator-elect Kay Hagan during her first few days in action. It sounds like the new Congress is going to be hustling to get some bills to President-elect Barack Obama's desk pronto, so Hagan may have a fast and furious start to her federal legislative career.

(I did a similar but less focused report back in 2007.)

And part of my plan is to check in with the other honorables from North Carolina, particularly with those who have districts in or near Greensboro. That's where you come in.

Is there a burning question you've been dying to ask a Congress-critter? Is there some policy or proposed law you have a question about? Is there something that you think got short shrift last session and are wondering why?

Then send me the question, either by the comment link below or in an e-mail (mbinker@news-record.com) preferably before January 4.

A few guidelines:

• * I'll probably ask about the obvious points: the economy, economic stimulus packages, Iraq and Afghanistan, etc... That said, if there's some specific point within those bundles you'd like to hear about, let's have it.

• * I won't deliver insults couched as questions. And I won't ask question based on factually incorrect premises ... at least not intentionally.

• * Your Mama's second cousin's social security payment from last February? You're on your own with that one. Questions need to be of general interest, not related to your own specific situation.

• * I may not get to everything you send, don't take it personally. News frequently derails the best planned interviews.

Other than that, fire away and I'll build as many in to my trip as possible.

The General Assembly has a research arm called the Program Evaluation Division that looks into various aspects of state government and suggests places where there might be some improvement.

Two reports of interest came along today.

First up, the PED concludes North Carolina's alcohol control laws are antiquated and in need of an update.

What, just because there are 158 different local ABC boards, some of which compete directly with one another and at least a few of which lose money every year?

One of the more clearly understood recommendations of the PED was to give the state ABC Board more latitude to regulate the local boards. That way, stores that barely turn a profit can get some help or be consolidated in ways that make sense.

The report is at this link.

Related only in a tangential sort of way, the PED issued the second of three planned reports on the state's mental health system.

The bullet out of the meeting for me was that five mental health systems, including the one that operates in Rockingham County, have been told they need to improve or the state will take a major set of functions away.

Patients coming home from state mental hospitals only get seen by providers in their communities about 54 percent of the time on average. That's not good.

But the Rockingham, Alamance, Caswell system was among five systems where that performance was even worse that the state average.

According to Leza Wainwright, on the co-directors of the division, the state has told them they need to shape up or follow-up care responsibilities will be moved elsewhere.

The PED report itself talks about the need for better follow-up and tracking of patients coming out of state hospitals and the need for more critical care mental health beds in communities. If you've been following the ongoing problems with the state mental health system, neither recommendation will come as much of a surprise.

Click here for the report.

There was news just breaking out all over today. If it wasn't the reports from the Program Evaluation Folks it was the governor-to-be announcing staff. Here are some highlights:

• * According to a release from the Legislative Black Caucus, they've re-appointed Greensboro Rep. Alma Adams as head of the group. Read the release here.

  I haven't had time to call her, so I don't know what that says about prospects for Adams serving in Governor-elect Perdue's cabinet.

• * North Carolina needs more money for roads, to the tune of $1 billion a year for the next decade, according to a blue ribbon transportation panel.

• * So if you need $1 billion a year for roads, I guess it's a bad thing we might be broke. From a news release issued by Gov. Mike Easley's office:

  Gov. Mike Easley today asked all state agencies to develop 3, 5 and 7 percent options to reduce state spending in an effort to deal with the slowdown in the national economy and its impact on North Carolina.

  "The nation lost more than 530,000 jobs in November and that has to mean the unemployment rate in North Carolina will increase significantly," said Easley. "We are not immune from the national economy and we have to continue adjusting the budget as we have done since early this summer."

  Click here for the memo.

• * In the mean time, Governor-elect Bev Perdue has appointed the folks who will be responsible for wringing what little money there is out of the General Assembly. From a news release issued by her office:

  Governor-elect Bev Perdue today announced that she is appointing Andy Willis as her administration’s Senior Advisor for Governmental Affairs and Courtney Crowder as Legislative Director.

  "Andy and Courtney will bring to our team a wealth of experience and proven ability to get things done," said Perdue. "They'll play key roles in making our vision to get North Carolina back on track a reality."

  Willis is currently Vice President for Government Relations for the 17-campus University of North Carolina system, and from 2003 to 2006 served as Assistant to the Chancellor for External Affairs for North Carolina State University. From 1996 until 2003, he served as the Senior Budget Policy and Fiscal Analyst for the Fiscal Research Division of the North Carolina General Assembly. He holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from North Carolina State University.

  Crowder currently works in the Government Relations Group at Capstrat, Incorporated and previously served as Legislative Liaison & Special Assistant to the Commissioner at the North Carolina Department of Insurance. He has also worked as a District Representative for Congressman Bob Etheridge. Crowder holds a Masters degree from Duke University and Bachelor of Arts degrees from North Carolina Central University in both English Literature and French.

  A list of CapStrat clients is here.

• * Sen. Richard Burr introduced a new book today, titled, Kids' Passport to Your National Parks Companion. From the news release:

  "This passport offers a hands-on gateway to many of America's most beautiful natural treasures, and I'm sure our children will have a lot of fun filling in the blank pages,” Burr said. "I hope this idea will excite a whole generation of young Americans about the beauty and history of our nation. Too often today, America's youth find their entertainment on television and computers, and hopefully this passport book will help kids realize all the fun there is to be had outdoors."

  Anyone know if the book has a chapter on packing heat while enjoying all those natural treasures?

Okay, that's it. I have to finish committing journalism for tomorrow's paper now.

The House passed a $14 billion rescue package for the nation's auto makers on a 237-170 roll call vote Wednesday night.

The Washington Post story is here. The bill could face a tougher road in the Senate, where opponents have more tools at their disposal to slow the thing down.

Nine of North Carolina's 13 U.S. House members voted against the bailout.

Democrats G.K. Butterfield, Mike McIntyre and Heath Shuler voted with all six Republicans (Greensboro's Howard Coble and Winston-Salem's Virginia Foxx included) against the package.

Reps. Brad Miller, Mel Watt, Bob Etheridge and David Price, all Democrats, all voted yes.

From today's papers:

PED staff ponders ways to make ABC system more profitable.

The Division of Mental Health takes a hard look at the Alamance, Caswell, Rockingham LME. Wake and Orange County are in the same boat the N+O says.

Related reports.

The Senate's rejection of the auto-industry bailout has prompted the White House to consider alternate action, according to the Washington Post.

A side note for North Carolina: our U.S. Senators split on the issue.

Out-going U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted FOR the bailout plan. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr voted against. Both are Republicans and Dole bucked the position the majority of her caucus took.

Following up on the story from Thursday’s paper, folks at the Alamance-Caswell-Rockingham LME said the state has judged them too harshly:

Managers with the public mental health agency that serves clients in Rockingham, Alamance and Caswell counties say they follow up with patients better than a stringent warning from state officials would indicate.

On Oct. 1, the Division of Mental Health put the Alamance-Caswell-Rockingham Local Management Entity on notice that they could lose the funding and authority to coordinate care for their most seriously ill mental health consumers. The state said that 45 percent of those who left a mental hospital and returned home to those three counties received follow-up care.

That's below the state average and made the agency one of five across North Carolina at risk of losing their funding. But agency officials say that by their count, they outperform peers.

"We're at upwards of 65 percent," said Victor Armstrong, the agency's care coordination manager.

Click here for the whole thing.

It should be noted the state is not quite convinced:

"They have had conversations with our staff and they have talked about some of the things they think they are doing," said Leza Wainwright, co-director of the Division of Mental Health.

She was cautious in her appraisal, noting that even though there is information the state doesn’t have -- such as billing records for patients with private health insurance -- that information was missing for all patients in its study. That means the Alamance-Caswell-Rockingham LME was compared to its peers based on the same set of information and its performance lacking relative to the 23 other agencies.

And some things the county may count as a follow-up service may not meet state standards. For example, Armstrong said the county has beefed up the staff that makes contact with patients coming home from the hospital.

This will bear watching in the new year.

And you thought the election was over. From today's paper:

Wayne Abraham will get to do something today that most U.S. citizens never do: cast a vote for president.

Although North Carolinians saw Barack Obama's name on the ballot, they were actually choosing a slate of electors who will meet today at the Old State Capitol in Raleigh. Across the nation, similar groups will meet and the Electoral College will formally confirm Obama's ascension to office.

"I thought it would be interesting and exciting to cast, in a sense, the real vote for president," Abraham said.

He is one of 15 electors who will cast ballots in North Carolina: One for each congressional district and two elected statewide.

Read the full story here. And for more background on the citizenship thing, click here.

From the Sec. of State Elaine Marshall's office:

Raleigh - NC Secretary of State Elaine F. Marshall will convene the North Carolina Electoral College on Monday, December 15, in the Capitol Building’s Old Hall of the House of Representatives at noon. The electors will cast their ballots for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.

The November 4 popular vote determined that electors nominated by the North Carolina Democratic Party will cast the official ballots for the state. North Carolina’s 15 electors will cast their ballots and prepare Certificates of Vote for the President and Vice President of the United States.

The 2008 meeting of the Electoral College will feature comments from Secretary Marshall. The North Carolina National Guard Honor Guard will provide the color guard, and Miss North Carolina, Amanda Watson, will sing the National Anthem.

The House and Senate Democrats are getting together today to choose their leaders.

First up have been Senate Democrats, who just a few minutes ago finished choosing Sen. Marc Basnight as their candidate for President Pro Tempore. He won't be officially chosen until the opening day of session. The whole body has a say in that vote, but Democrats hold 30 of the 50 seats so their choice is pretty much guaranteed election.

This would be Basinght's ninth term.

Sen. R.C. Soles will once again server as caucus chairman. Word is today is Soles' birthday and they were supposed to have cake to celebrate. But sources inside the meeting say there was no cake - maybe a reflection of the economic times.

Sen. Katie Dorsett, of Greensboro, will once again serve as whip.

When some scruffy reporter types caught up to Basnight after the meeting, he talked about the next year and things the General Assembly has to get into. He cited problems with the probation system along with ongoing problems like mental health reform.

"We're seeing a mismanaged government, that has to be corrected," Basnight said.

He also talked about finding efficiency in government and cutting costs where costs can be cut - sounded darn near like some Republicans I've talked to recently.

House Democrats are meeting as I type. They are expected to chose Hackney as Speaker.

House Democrats once again chose Rep. Joe Hackney as their nominee for Speaker. Like Basnight, he'll have to wait until the first day of session before the choice will be official. Given that Democrats hold a majority of seats in the House and there's little dissension in the ranks, Hackney will almost certainly win a second term as the House's top dog.

Rep. Hugh Holliman of Davidson County will once again serve as majority leader.

After the caucus meeting this afternoon, Hackney said he was looking forward to working with Republicans, the new governor, the Senate, etc... to tackle the problems that need tackling. Like Basnight, he put the ailing probation system and mental health at the top of his list, adding that education classroom spending needed to be held harmless.

Asked about the budget gap Hackney observed that we really don't know what the budget numbers are. The folks predicting a $1.3 billion current year deficit and those predicting a $3 billion deficit can both make a case.

But both numbers are "pretty raw speculation" Hackney said.

While Basnight talked about the need to find new revenue - even if only through closing tax loopholes - Hackney was much more circumspect about looking for new money to spend.

There are a few things that public officials say that are an automatic FAIL, the public service equivalent of Godwin's Law..

Somewhere near the top of that list is saying something like, "Well, sure this went wrong, but why'd you go and write about it," or "Hey, good job fixing this, but why did the public know there was a problem in the first place."

And from the N+O's "Crosstown Traffic" blog we have an example of a Greensboro DOT Board member reaching the point where Vanna comes on stage, hands out some lovely parting gifts and points the way to the door:

Who let the horse out of the barn? That’s what Andrew Perkins Jr. of Greensboro, a member of the state Board of Transportation, wanted to know.

At a board meeting this week Perkins said he was satisfied with how the state Department of Transportation responded to a critical audit and review by the Federal Transit Administration.

But he didn’t like seeing a newspaper story published before DOT had a chance to put the best face on its problems with the feds. He chided DOT for the bad press.

[snip]

"How did we get all that into the news media before you even got an opportunity to correct it?" Perkins asked Roberto Canales, DOT deputy secretary for transit, at a board committee meeting Wednesday.

Because, really, why would the public have any interest in knowing about the use, misuse or non-use of government tax dollars, right?

Click here for the full post.

Perkins, by the way, is the assistant vice chancellor for business and finance/facilities at NCA&T, an institution with a view of press relations that might charitably be described somewhere between quixotic and quirky.

DOT lawyers did point out that pesky open records law made keeping things like this on the DL kind of hard. And in general, it's the policy - if not always practice of the state - to have an open and accountable government.

I don't think that explanation stuck. More from the post:

Perkins said that reporters' inquires should be referred to a DOT spokesman, and that the messy details of DOT exchanges with the FTA should not be made public.

'There ought to be a way in which we can deal, when they come in with an FTA review or any federal review. And that stays within the department in terms of coordination between the federal agency and the department.

"And there is only one spokesman for that. It should only come out of the public relations area, and that be a de-sanitized version. Do not let yourself be manipulated to come up with something that's inflammatory, " Perkins told Canales.

Thanks for playing, but you don’t make it to the bonus round.

After they were given unofficial nods to head their chambers again next year, House Speaker Joe Hackney and Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight stopped to chat with reporters yesterday.

Basnight talked about cutting back and looking for efficiencies and making sure government programs aren't redundant. But come on, don't we hear that every year?

"When you are forced into situations, you make different kinds of decisions," he said. Basically, he said, yes we always talk about cutting back, but this year we really have to do it.

Click here for more of that answer.

And he offered some thoughts on all the government programs that have gone amuck in this clip.

Hackney was more circumspect, saying "We need to look to programs with a careful eye."

Click here for more of that answer.

Both Hackney and Basnight said there were big problems that needed to be fix in the executive branch agencies but gave Gov. Mike Easley high marks as he prepares to leave office after eight years. I asked Hackney to square those two thoughts.

Click here to listen to that. (No, he really didn't answer the question.)

And click here for more of Hackney's thoughts on the session.

(Headline cultural reference for the humor impaired.)

Listening to legislators may not be enough. A House panel says you should see how the sausage is made.

From our friends at the Associated Press:

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A state House panel says the chamber should broadcast live video on the Internet of its daily sessions and some committee meetings.

A House committee approved the idea Thursday, sending the findings to House Speaker Joe Hackney for consideration.

Democratic Rep. Cullie Tarleton of Watauga County, the committee's chairman, said all the equipment should produce broadcast-quality video.

He wants television stations to be able to use the footage, and said someday the equipment may be used to broadcast sessions on television.

The Legislature currently provides only audio from the House and Senate floor and two committee rooms. Setting up video coverage could cost the state more than $1 million in upfront costs, and hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Gov. Mike Easley is spending some time here toward the end of his term doing interviews with us scruff media types. The barkeep's is here, News 14's is here.

My turn is scheduled to come tomorrow (Tuesday). So what should I ask? What do you want the man to look back on after eight years in office?

When I asked this question on Twitter I got this suggestion:

It would be interesting to see if Gov Mike is happy where the Lottery is today? Has it done all he thought it would?

What's your thought? Get 'em to me by Tuesday mid-morning.

I spent some time earlier this week interviewing Gov. Mike Easley, who will wrap up his second term in office next month. Although one never says never, Easley sounded pretty certain that he would not return to elected office.

I'll have a Q+A in the paper sometime over the weekend, but here are some audio clips of the more interesting bits of the conversation.

-=-=-=-=-=

Early in his career, Easley prosecuted a bunch of local corruption cases. Then he started prosecuting folks in drug-running organizations, who in turn started threatening to kill him.

"They're all getting paroled at the same time I am," Easley said. "I hope they're not as poor sports as when they got convicted for trying to kill me."

Click here for the full segment.

-=-=-=-=-=

Since he had prosecuted so many corruption cases early on in his career, I asked him if he weas surprised by the likes of former Speaker Jim Black, former Rep. Thomas Wright and others who went to jail during his term.

"I was surprised at the level at which it occurred," he said.

Click here for the full segment.

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

A question has been rattling around in my head for Easley since the primaries: Why, with about a week to go before the May vote and every poll in the field showing Barack Obama was going to take North Carolina, did he back Hillary Clinton?

The short answer: He made a promise early on, even before the Iowa caucuses. The same promise, by the way, is what kept him from campaigning for former Sen. John Edwards in Iowa, as he had done in 2004.

Click here for the segment.

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

One of Easley's big policy pushes has been to help kids get college credit while in high school. He says that idea was pushed over the edge by an encounter with Unilin, a flooring company that was expanding in Davidson County.

Click here for the full segment.

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

So has the lottery lived up to his expectations? Easley said yes - it's money he's glad is in the treasury.

Click here for the full segment.

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

What's next? He doesn't know, but it won't be full-time legal work: Click here for the full segment.

Easley talked about trying to get away by himself during the early part of his run and why he doesn't like deer hunting but does like shooting birds: Click here for the full segment.

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

I asked Easley about efforts to fix the mental health system: Click here for the full segment.

And he said the state still might not have the systems in place to right the ship. I asked him how much of this or any problem could be laid on his desk: Click here for the full segment.

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

Offered without comment: Easley talked about his relationship with the media, particularly the Raleigh and Charlotte papers: Click here for the full segment.

I put out the audio earlier, but click here for my Q+A with Gov. Easley. Commentary on the interview has come already from Doug Clark on our editorial page and James at BlueNC.

My other story this weekend is something all us scruffy media types tend to write a dozen times over: what's coming up next year during the General Assembly session. This year's story, no matter who has been writing it, pretty much focuses on the gap between what the state wants to pay for and the money it can raise.

Elsewhere in the big wide media world, the N+O's Rob Christensen demonstrates the perils of political prognostication, but goes ahead and forecasts for 2009 anyway.

Winston Salem's James Romoser explores the fact that only one NC inmate was sentenced to death in 2008.

Charlotte's Lew Powell offers his year in review, worth clicking on if only for the graphic.

And by way of confession, seeing this cover from Vanity Fair in the local Target prompted me to surf to the site for the first time in a while:

If you go, this profile of Tina Fey is worth reading, even if it was written by Maureen Dowd.

Now, as I've said to my oldest child this morning, go play outside - it looks like a nice day out.

The U.S. Senate Campaign between state Sen. Kay Hagan and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole continues to get love from the national press. The latest examples come from The Politico and The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog.

Politico names Hagan's victory one of their "Top 10 political upsets of 2008." The Fix calls Hagan's "the best Senate campaign of 2008," saying:

Hagan got into the race as a virtually unknown candidate both in North Carolina and nationally, but quickly showed a capacity to raise money that opened the eyes of many people in Washington. On her first trips to the nation's capital, she wowed even the most cynical of party operatives with a charisma about campaigning and a no-nonsense approach to what needed to be done to beat Dole.

[snip]

But, she proved a strong -- and on-message -- candidate in her own right. When Dole went after Hagan in an ad for attending a fundraiser with the Godless Americans political action committee, Hagan was quick to respond with an effective (and cutting) response.