News-Record.com

Sorry kids, there will most likely be no bloggy goodness today. I'm headed to a journalism seminar for the day. The comments feature is open if you want to chat among yourselves.

You need a topic? Fine. Pick one from:

Monday's House calendar

or

Monday's Senate calendar.

If you see something that you want to know more about, let me know.

Good morning. Neither the House nor the Senate have very full agendas tonight. As for me, I'm spending the day working on something that won't show up in print for a while.

My six or seven loyal readers here at the blog will know most of what's in this story, which ran over the weekend, but in case you need to catch up on last week there it is.

So what's on your mind this Monday morning? Is there anything you've heard about and want more on? Is there anything you've not seen in the paper that you think we ought to be paying more attention to?

Howdy folks. I was off the radar on Friday, but that doesn't mean we didn't have state government news. Oh no. From the Sunday paper:

Just a few notes to get you through your Friday:

My colleague Lex Alexander announces "we will be launching our redesigned site sometime Monday morning." That's Monday, July 11. There's a couple reasons I'm telling you this:

If you remember from last week, the governor came out of his office for a bill signing ceremony and saw his shadow. According to local superstition up Cap City way, that means at least two more weeks of budget negotiations.

If you're burned out on prognostications from the oracles of Jones Street, here are some stories from this weekend:

Update, from Monday:

Update: This next had been coming Monday, but apparently you get it Tuesday:

Now that I have those Madonna lyrics stuck in your head...

I was going to put up a short post on the upcoming sales tax holiday in this space.

But my colleague Mike Fuchs had beaten me to it over at his
Bargain Blog.

Couple of quick links for you this morning:

I'm heading out on a long-planned vacation starting July 29 and coming back the week of Aug. 8.

And yes, I have really bad timing.

The honorables were supposed to have a state budget done by July 1. They've taken their sweet time and now are a month over-due.

However, chances appear about even that the General Assembly could actually get a budget done during the week of Aug. 1, just in time for me to miss all the fun.

The honorables desperately want to finish the state's tax and spending bills by Aug. 5, which is when the current continuing resolution runs out. If they don't have a deal, they'll need to pass a third continuing resolution, something that most agree will make constituents cranky.

Now don't get me wrong. There's still enough money, hubris and special interests in play to derail the budget train. But assuming the last big questions can be answered by early next week - how much to raise the cigarette tax, how much to pay state workers and how to go about passing a state lottery - then a deal could get done.

If a budget does get done by the first week in August, there's pretty robust speculation around these parts that the General Assembly will end their session before Labor Day, perhaps well before.

While I'm gone, the paper is going to largely be relying on the Associate Press to follow the budget process. When I get back, we'll clean up any budget details specific to the Triad that others miss.

As for this here blog, I will attempt to update a few times while I'm away, but my net access will be somewhat limited. Feel free to use this or any other comment thread to kvetch in my absence.

It's Friday, which means my e-mail box is flowing with all the stuff that government types forgot to send out earlier in the week. From that pile we learn:

Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

• Christine Joyner Greene of High Point to the N.C. Board of Licensed Professional Counselors. Greene is a private licensed professional counselor in High Point.

• Jack Cipriani of Summerfield to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. He is also vice president of the National American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations and the N.C. American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. Cipriani attended New York City Community College.

• James Keith McCollum of Rockingham to the N.C. Forestry Council. McCollum is a forester and procurement manager for Edwards Wood Products. He is a charter member of the National Wild Turkey Federation, a member of the Society of American Foresters, the Council on Forestry Engineering and the safety, logging and transportation committee of the N.C. Forestry Association.

And if that wasn't news enough, we learn that Rep. Pricey Harrison recently sponsored the folks as pages for the House:

• Jill Russell, a student at Western Guilford High School. She is the daughter of Jim and Julie Russell of Greensboro.

• Samuel Heroy, a student at Northwest Guilford High School. He is the son of William and Anna Heroy of Summerfield.

• Jill Russell, a student at Western Guilford High School. She is the daughter of Jim and Julie Russell of Greensboro.

  According to the blurb that comes with those page announcements, "For decades, the State House has relied on the service of pages, who help deliver bills and amendments for Representatives during daily House sessions and committee meetings, offer assistance in individual Representatives’ offices, and run errands around the Legislature. Pages spend a week at the General Assembly assisting members and their staff and learning about the structure of North Carolina government."
  

Not that the lottery was on anyone's mind this weekend, but in case you're curious:

• This story ran Saturday and explains why it might be a while before you'll actually be scratching your lottery itch in North Carolina.

• Somewhere around 50 readers sent me questions about the lottery. I did my best to answer them with this Q and A.

Good Tuesday morning. I hope everybody had a pretty good Labor Day.

As I mentioned Friday, the General Assembly has booked out of town and doesn't plan to be back until May. That means I'm left with only two of the three branches of government operating full time up here in Cap City - the judicial and executive for all you remedial civics scholars out there.

(Although, given the number of statewide offices and quasi-independent bureaucracies we have here, I often think we should change executive branch singular to executive branches plural, but that's another blog post.)

Thanks to the lottery (speaking of quasi-independent bureaucracies) I have a new off-season obsession to feed. And as election season approaches I'll be ramping up political coverage. And I've got a pretty good story list going of things that I ought to get to between now and the New Year.

But I'm not above a little procrastination taking a few good suggestions.

So what's on your mind? Are there any burning state issues on your mind that a mischievous reporter might want to put on his coverage calendar. Is there anything you've ever wondered about that might make a good story?

Send me a shout via the comment link below or via e-mail at mbinker@news-record.com. I make no promises other than I'll read and consider every suggestion sent my way.

Why do print reporters write rather than go all broadcast? Because we're too ugly for TV and too slow-witted for radio.

Want proof?

Check out the podcast I did for with Herb Everett for "The Beat."

If you haven't already, please go and read the series on economic development incentives by my colleagues Taft Wireback and Richard Barron.

Taft leads off the series with this graph from his Sunday story:

North Carolina's job-recruitment policies have developed significant flaws that threaten to squander millions of taxpayer dollars, a News & Record investigation has found.

If that's not enough to get you interested, nothing will. This is a pretty thorough look at how incentives work, and when they don't deliver on promises.

Their series started Sunday and continues through tomorrow. Go read it now.

I've had on my editing hat today (Friday) and will again Saturday.
That basically means I'v been moving copy rather than writing it.

But if you're yearning for my somewhat scatterbrained take on state politics and such, find WNCU 90.7 in Raleigh on your radio dial Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

I'll be on with Kerra Bolton on her last NC Capital Review show. Kerra's leaving the program to pursue other things and I filled in as her last guest this week. (The show is taped in advance.) Topics included the lottery and Gov. Mike Easley's veto of HB 706.

If you haven't seen the paper yet, these stories concern topics you've been reading about here:

• The North Carolina NAACP has a new president following a vote Saturday night. The Rev. William Barber of Goldsboro replaces Melvin "Skip" Alston of Greensboro. More on this in a second.

• I know this will shock, just shock, all you hard bitten political types, but it turns out that the folks who tend to give to state political campaigns also have issues they are pursuing before the General Assembly.

• My colleague Tafe Wireback wieghs in on the lottery and what agencies are doing to prepare to police the game and deal with gambling addiction issues.

-----

A couple bits of after-matter on the NAACP election:

• There will still be a Guilford County Commissioner in a statewide position for the NAACP, even though Alston is now off the board. Carolyn Coleman is now the group's first vice president.

• Coleman had served on the state executive board before. But, she told me last night, when she tried to file to run two years ago Coleman was told that her application was late...by then-President Alston.

• Coleman was running against the current first vice presidnet, Gladys Shipman. Shipman is president of the Greensboro NAACP chapter.

• NAACP candidates do not run in slates, but I was told that Shipman and Alston are seen as closely allied. And indeed, it seems that people carrying around Alston for president fliers yesterday also had a re-elect Shipman flier in the same hand.

• Both Alston and Barber were concearned yesterday afternoon about irregularities surrounding the voting. The issue, as far as I understood it, involved whether some delegates were properly registered and should be allowed to vote.

  The issue was serious enough that it delayed the start of the election and the final result for a few hours. Both men were prepared to lodge a challenge against the results with the national NAACP.

  However, Alston said last night that Barber's margin of victory was sufficient that the issue at hand had not made a difference.

• Alston said that he will remain on the state board of president emeritus.

• In case a discussion breaks out there, I've also posted on this topic at Inside Scoop.

• More comments from Floyd, Sue, and Jerry.

• Barber's own blog here.

Where I should be: Hanging about the legislature today as all the honorables come back to town not to veto a bill.

Where I will be: Sitting in an ugly room listening to some corporate trainer tell me stuff I probably should already know.

Check www.news-record.com for updates. And I've asked my colleague Bruce over at The Chalkboard to keep an eye on the fun and games surrounding HB 706.

Update:
If you are curious as to what a grilled cheese eating contest looks like, well, it looks like this:

Click for a larger image.

Yeah, yeah, yeah ... local elections heating up - relatively speaking - skullduggery in the lottery, John Edwards acting like, well, John Edwards ... all of it important I'm sure.

But today I've been dispatched to the State Fair to cover the big grilled cheese eating contest.

Folks, I took the family to the fair over the weekend and I'm forced to wonder if the grilled cheese eaters (you know the guys and gals who shove as many sandwiches down their gullets during a set period of time) will even rate in the land of giant turkey legs and fried candy bars.

If you're going to be out there today, drop me an e-mail at mbinker@news-record.com or just look for the guy holding a notebook and wearing a slightly bemused look on his face.

This is not the lottery story I wanted to work on.

The News & Record has been running a lot of wire copy on the lottery shenanigans. Basically, the three big points boil down to this:

• Lobbyists with a pretty strong connection to at least one lottery vendor submitted legal language to the General Assembly that was used in the final draft of the lottery law.
• At least one lottery commission member has pretty strong ties to that same company. Although, to be fair, he knows a lot of different lottery folks.
• At least one person in the House Speaker’s office may have had a legal duty to publicly disclose her lobbying work on behalf of the same lottery company, but didn’t.

As I said, I have other fish to fry (granted, some of them are leaving little IOU notes on my hook, but that’s another story), but there's been enough of a ruckus now that some local perspective is needed.

So here's the question that I’ve been asking some folks today: Given all that, if you are a lottery backer, is your faith in the lottery, or the state's ability to run a lottery, shaken? Even if you’re a lottery opponent, can the game still be redeemed? Or is all this a tempest in a teapot, Raleigh business as usual getting blown out of proportion because it’s related to the lottery?

Send your answers via the comment link below or e-mail: mbinker@news-record.com or ring me up: 919/832-5549.

Thanks.

Only one story from me over the weekend: this one on whether the lottery and video poker can co-exist.

Oh, and I don't know how many folks are out on their "personal watercraft," which I grew up calling a jet ski, this time of year, but the rules on those things are about to change.

You still have to be 16 to pilot one by yourself. But the minimum age for young riders to pilot with adult accompaniment has risen from 12-years-old to 14-years-old.

Click here to read the new law, which goes into effect Tuesday, Nov. 1. Unless folks are into cold-weather water sports, it'll probably affect more vacation plans next summer.

From today's paper, this story tells how the state will reimburse school systems for teach pay increases, even if those teachers are locally paid.

This is a big deal for the school districts, especially ones like Guilford. Although the state pays the salaries for the bulk of teachers, some salaries are covered by local tax dollars. When state-paid teachers get a raise, which usually means the taxpayers are ponying up more money for local teachers.

School superintendents are very reluctant to have teachers on two different pay scale systems. But finding a lot of cash - almost $400,000 in Guilford County's case - in the middle of the fiscal year is no mean feat.

More education fun, including the latest on paper supply shortages in Guilford County, over at The Chalkboard.

Howdy folks. We're once again in catch-up mode here at Capital Beat due to illness. (My two-year-old made the wife sick; the wife gave me a cold; and the cold kept me from talking much above a croak on Thursday and Friday. Fun for the whole family.)

Now onto business:

• In case you didn't wade through the scattering of press releases I posted Friday, Shirley Frye of Greensboro was appointed to the lottery commission but declined the honor. That leaves the commission down one commissioner.

  If she had accepted the post, it would have been one of the few times I can think of when Greensboro had more members on an influential state board than Charlotte did.

• Have you heard about the drought? Yeah, you're probably living with water restrictions of some ilk if you live in a big enough community. Well, Gov. Easley says state workers should live with those restrictions too. I'll check and see if the sprinklers are on today when I wander by the old capital building.

• I blogged a bit ago about some ongoing consternation over the NAACP state elections. A couple phone calls that I couldn't answer on Friday said that the dispute was over. Skip Alston, who lost his post as state president, confirmed this morning that the national office had dismissed the complaint. (Side note: That also appears to be the Wilmington Journal's assessment of things, if you read through this whole article. It's a little surreal to see this blog quoted in the story, but there you go.)

• My colleagues over at Inside Scoop post this year's endorsement letter from the Simkins Pac.(PDF) (For those of you who don't know, the PAC is a group of influential African American political and business leaders.)

  Check the signatures. Alma Adams, a representative in the NC House, signs as chairman. I'm not sure if she is the first ever, but she's the first woman I've seen in the past five years listed as chairman of the PAC. In any event, the post seems like a pretty big mark of approval for the Greensboro Democrat from the venerable political group.

Well, it’s time for me to go get into some new trouble. As always, drop me a line with what’s on your mind at mbinker@news-record.com . And if you’re hanging about Greensboro for the City Council elections tomorrow night, I’ll see you there.

If you missed this Sunday's paper (how could you!), you missed this story, which follows up on the state raising the limit on the percentage of alcohol allowed in beer.

Commonly known as the "Pop the Cap" campaign, beer activists were successful in changing state law to allow malt beverages (beers and other alcoholic drinks that are brewed rather than fermented or distilled) to have 15 percent alcohol. The prior limit was 6 percent, which beer enthusiasts said excluded lots of styles of beers.

For extra fun:

• Check out this website hosted by the NC Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, which lets you search for whether a certain brand or wine or beer has label approval in North Carolina. For more information on related topics, click here.
• To do my story, I needed to get at more data than was available on the web. The nice folks at the commission sent me this Microsoft Excel workbook that contains data on all the brews with more than 6 percent alcohol approved for sale in North Carolina since Aug. 4, when the cap was popped. Data includes name of the beverage, the brewery that makes it and alcohol by volume.

More to come on beer and state laws next weekend.

Good afternoon folks. A slightly delayed weekend update brings you these two stories from yours truely if you missed them:

• New laws are going into effect Dec. 1. Read my story on them (from today) here. Read the whole list for yourself here.(Caution, it's a PDF file that has links to html pages in it.)
• Beer and politics...a combination that I've long enjoyed, were the subjects (sort of) of a story I wrote for Sunday. Basically, this story covers the influence that beer wholesalers in North Carolin have, or try to have, over the legislative process.

Also, via our friends at the Associated Press, I'd encourage you to check out this story on the number of registered voters in North Carolina going down.

Good Sunday morning. Here are a few updates from the world of state government. First from me:

• There is this story on local Democratic House members saying they still support Speaker Jim Black, despite his recent publicity problems. And let’s be real: as the story details, there’s so much of a paper trail between Black and local Democratic pols that they couldn’t really hide their ties even if they wanted.
• And the folks at ALE, the agency responsible for enforcing the lottery laws on retailers, say they can't hire all the folks they think they'll need to do the job by April 5, when the game is supposed to get going.

But wait there's more from our friends at the state's other newspapers:

• Raleigh's N+O had this story about retired pols using their left over campaign accounts for, um, non-political expenses.(Registration required if you haven't already.) It leads with former Guilford County legislator Joanne Bowie who bought herself a new car and new computer with the proceeds. Find the actual campaign finance report by clicking here.(PDF) (She also paid some taxes and invested some in a retirement account.)
• Okay, it's not from this weekend, but this Charlotte Observer story about a planned protest against Black in Ashville by former Democrats is interesting anyway.(Yeah, registration required there too.)

And finally, if you're a fan of our Inside Scoop column that runs in the newspaper, you'll want to know it's moving.

See you back here on Monday.

For our loyal Rockingham reader(s): the SBOE has ordered that Stoneville will have itself a new election.

From today's paper, my story on the pending lawsuit against the lottery.

Now, looking abroad:

Do you remember the Sparta Teapot Museum? This was the place that got a $400,000 grant in the state budget and instantly became everyone's favorite piece of pork. Republicans made great rhetorical use of it during the budget debate, alternately using the phrase "teapot museum" as punch lines and something akin to curse words.

Mark Johnson of the Charlotte Observer points to - wait for it -
a connection between the teapots and House Speaker Jim Black's political fund raising in an article today.(Reg. Req.)

And finally, local Greensblogger and celestial center of our solar system Mr. Sun gets a mention on the site hosted by the bawdy doyenne of national political humor, Wonkette, for his satire of the war on Christmas.

Gov. Mike Easley has appointed:

• Jo Ann Currie of Jamestown to the N.C. Interagency Coordinating Council for Children from Birth to Five with Disabilities and their Families. Currie is a program administrator for preschool children with disabilities with Guilford County Schools. Currie is also a board member of the Association for Retarded Citizens (ARC) of Greensboro and was named ARC of Greensboro Teacher of the Year in 1997.

Before getting to the heavy lifting, let me take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and/or Happy Chanukah (we celebrate both in my house) or whatever it is that you happen to be celebrating this time of year.

Now on to business:

From Sunday's paper, I had a couple of stories (or a story and a sidebar if you want get all newsy on me) about lessons learned from other states that have had lotteries. Update:I have links to the stories now. I'd post links to them here, but apparently our web site had a little too much virtual eggnog last night and hasn’t updated with new stuff yet. I'll post links when I get 'em. (In the mean time, consider running out to pick up that old fashion paper thingy that comes with all the glossy after Christmas sale ads inside.)

• One outlines the big state budget shell game that lotteries can become. It also points out how one state – Georgia – did things at least pretty much right. Click here for that one.
• The sidebar looks at a potential side effect of having a lottery, one that worries local school districts. If people hear the lottery is taking care of educational needs enough, they may stop backing local school bond referenda. Click here for that one.

A big note on both those stories is that they have almost nothing to do with the conduct of the lottery itself. Rather, they look at the consequences of what people do with the lottery money once it’s raked in.

The background for this story fills a couple of accordion file folders. But here are some of the best selections from the read-it-yourself department:

• This is the New York State auditor's report from 1998 that I mention in the story. (It's a PDF, kind of big.) The best quote in the whole thing comes from the transmittal letter: "Even today, a new lottery advertising campaign perpetuates the myth that schools receive additional resources from the lottery. The truth is that the Legislature and Governor decide how much state aid will go to local schools and the amount from the lottery is just a small part of that total. Lottery money has never supplemented state aid; it doesn’t today and it likely never will."
• There are a lot of academic studies out there on lotteries. Some are pretty clear, while others are down right obtuse. Rodney Stanley, of Tennessee State University (and a Greensboro-area native) has done some of what I think is the most straight-forward work on his subject. In this paper, he argues "state operated lotteries are failing to offer substantial benefits to students due to the issue of fungibility, and the small portion of actual dollars generated by the lottery for education."
• Just to provide a counter-weight, this paper from Stanford suggests dedicating lottery spending for education does drive up over-all education spending (another PDF) concluding: "While the political motivation for earmarking legislation may revolve around gaining and maintaining political support for operating a lottery, this paper suggests that earmarking profits will in fact have real implications for educational spending in states." This conclusion seems to be the minority report on the topic.
• More locally, Charlotte Advocates for Education has done some work that that cleaves closely to Stanley's conclusions. This group is keen on seeing the legislature pass a constitutional amendment to safeguard the lottery’s proceeds.

If you have questions about any of that source material, or where you can find more, drop me a line in the comments section below.

The big disappointment for me in this story is not landing one interview: Zell Miller. Before he was a U.S. Senator and an - um - well known political convention speaker, he was governor of Georgia when that state's lottery came about. Since Georgia keeps getting cited for doing things right, I would have really liked to have gotten his insight on the topic. Alas, it was not to be.

As for what the rest of the state was talking about this weekend:

• Sharif Durhams at the Charlotte paper writes about some western legislators call for a special session to consider dropping the rate on the state's gas tax. Sharif writes that Gov. Easley's office was cool to that idea. This idea will have a hard time getting traction because the cost-benefit equation doesn't look that good in the harsh light of day. Most figures I've seen say an average family might get somewhere between $15 and - being generous - $50 back a year, but the account that pays for state road construction would lose millions of dollars. Still, it's a proposed tax cut on what has become a high-dollar item, so look for this idea to get a lot of chatter in coming months. Click here for AP's story on the topic.
• From the world’s smallest fiddle section, our friends south of the border seem to think that NC’s new lottery will cut into their sales.

Right, that's enough of that. It's time for me to help my boy play with his new train set see what Santa left in my stocking.

Good Tuesday morning and welcome to another year in Tar Heel politics. After completing a year where we talked a lot about the lottery, voting machines, ethics and taxes it looks like we're going to spend a new one talking about much of the same. Plus, we have legislative elections this year! (Okay, strange things excite me.)

Just so I don't leave any business from the end of the year uncovered, here's what you might have missed while swilling egg nogg, spinning derides or doing whatever it is you do to commemorate the passing of the year:

• The General Assembly is powering up a new committee to look at energy and fuel costs. Its first get together is Thursday morning at 10 a.m.

  I wrote a story that mentioned this in Saturday's paper.

  The bullet here is this: Republican legislators have been railing for a freeze in the gas tax since September or so. Democratic leaders have largely brushed them off. But the state gas tax went up 2.8-cents Sunday, the biggest one-time jump in the tax's history, giving the GOP more fuel for their fire. And in recent months, rank-in-file Dems have hopped on the lower-the-gas-tax band wagon, especially folks with lower income constituents who are taking it in the hip-pocket over commuting costs.

  There's now a significant movement afoot to call a special session to cap or at least temporarily freeze the gas tax. Thursday's meeting can either be a seen as a first step in that direction or a show-piece meant to demonstrate the legislature is taking action while putting off indefinitely any sort of special session.

  By the way, home-heating prices sometimes get thrown into the mix, but they're actually expected to decline this week.

• I was going to spend some time musing on a series of eat-you-vegetable sort of news releases from the governor's office, but Kera Bolton of the Ashville paper beat me to it.

• The Lottery Commission has scheduled its first meeting of the new year for Thursday, Jan. 6, at 10:30 a.m. (In the ABC Commission Room of the Admin building downtown for those of you who are local.)

  Meanwhile, for extra credit, lottery watchers could review this story that ran in the Washington Post by Charlotte's Mark Johnson and the Newark paper's story that says folks who live in lower-income zip codes tend to buy more lottery tickets. (That last story is sort of old and I may have posted it before.)

• The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners has gotten all down in the dumps over the voting machine deadlines, saying there's not enough time to get new equipment in place. One county, Catawba, has even gone so far as to sue the state.

  Some see a connection between Catawba's suit, the fact that Catawba Commissioner Kitty Barnes is president of the NCACC and the fact that NCACC is fighting the state's new voting rules and regulations. I can't verify that as fact, but boy did they make the line easy to draw.

  Just by the way, there has been subdued chatter of potentially delaying the scheduled May primary since November in elections circles and the murmur has been getting louder as of late. The thinking is there just isn't enough time between now and the end of March (when things really need to be in place) to get all that needs to be done, done. Since the 2004 and 2002 primaries were also delayed (for unrelated reasons) this really wouldn't be a new thing...annoying and problematic for political parties, but not new.

  And lest you think it's just a liberal thing to T-off on voting machine companies and what not, the state's conservative elements are also in on this act.

• Lillian’s List of North Carolina has hired its first executive director according to an e-mail from uber-lobbyist Paula Wolf, although there's no mention on the group's website. For those of you who don't know, Lillian's List describes itself as "an independent political action committee dedicated to electing pro-choice, Democratic women to the North Carolina General Assembly."

  Their new, and I think first full time director is Carol J. Teal, a veteran of Democratic political causes including the Kerry-Edwards campaign.

Raleigh is back up at work after the 3-day weekend. Here are a few items to catch you up on things around town and beyond:

• I was going to include a brief explanation of my Sunday story on accounting for lottery money but ran on at the keyboard too long. Click here for a separate post on the topic.

• Mark Johnson of the Charlotte paper writes that Democrats are standing by Black,(mini reg. required) even in the face of the speaker's troubles. If that sounds like a familiar theme, it should.

• In one of their "Under the Dome" columns this weekend, the Raleigh N+O reported this nugget:

  A member of the N.C. Board of Ethics suggested last week that its efforts to develop recommendations for a proposed ethics law should be done in closed session.

  Mittie Smith, a High Point lawyer who has served on the board since 1993, said she didn't know whether the board could come up with the best recommendations "if we are being watched by the press."

  "I think we would probably be better to do it without the press looking over our shoulder," Smith said.

  Yeah, you'd hate to have those discussions about making sure government is transparent and that people are fair-minded and not improperly influenced by arm-twisting or bribes out in the open. (To their credit, the rest of the ethics board seemed to ignore the suggestion.)

• If Earl Jones is listening, Earl you might want to have a talk with one or two of your colleagues.

  Why?

  Well, the N+O's Dome also reported this tid-bit in the last few days:

  Amid all the ethics reform talk in the state House, Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat, wants to do something about lawmakers who use campaign contributions for personal use. She has asked that a special House ethics committee take up the issue and, ultimately, recommend a ban on the practice.

  "It needs to be changed because when people give money to someone's political campaign, they give it to advance the public policy that the person might affect," said Ross, who is a co-chairwoman of the House election committee. "They don't give it for that person's personal expenses."

  Rep. Grier Martin, also a Raleigh Democrat, said the current law also could allow someone to legally bribe lawmakers by giving them campaign money that they can pocket.

  This idea apparently came up in the context of discussing former Rep. Mike Decker, a Republican who got some healthy campaign contributions at just about the same time he sent the House all higgly-piggly and forced the now-infamous power-sharing agreement between the GOP and the Dems.

  But that kind of restriction would pretty well crimp Jones' style as well. He recently told our editorial board that legislators' pay is so low, they should be able to reimburse themselves for some expenses. (For more editorial ire, click here.)

• She's not a state legislative contender, but an e-mail from Ada Fisher's Congressional campaign address seems to indicate that the Charlotte Republican will be challenging Mel Watt in the 12th Congressional District again. The e-mail was publicizing her talk during an MLK Day celebration and called Fisher "a likely candidate for the 2006 12th District US Congressional race."

  Fisher took about a third of the vote in 2004, which isn't bad considering she was outspent 5-1 and registered Democrats only make up 26 percent of the district that defines gerrymandering in the tar heel state.

• In honor of my trip to visit the parents over the weekend and my home state of Maryland, check out this story on the Maryland legislator over-riding the governor's and forcing Wal*Mart to pony up money for health insurance. I don't know if that could or would happen here, but if it ever got going the fight would be epic.
  

First some preliminary business: if you sent me an e-mail over the weekend send it again. Apparently we did not make the correct sacrifice to the e-mail gods again last week and, well, bad things happened.

But life goes on. Here' a round up of what did make it into the ol' e-mail box and what other enterprising members of the fourth estate were up to this weekend:

• From the Friday appointments file, "Gov. Mike Easley has reappointed Carolyn S. Turner of Greensboro to the N.C. Advanced Energy Corporation (AEC). Turner is the associate dean for research at the N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences... The duties of the corporation are to guide the AEC in developing projects to promote energy efficiency and investigate alternative means of using and producing power."
• Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat, apparently conducted the Greensboro symphony on Friday. I also hear tell she was supposed to sing. Anyone who was there, I'd welcome a review.
• The N+O's Rob Christensen wrote a pretty profile of Art Pope (along with a companion piece) in that paper's Sunday editions. Pope is one of those folks who are very important in the state's political circles - particularly Republicans ones - that most folks probably have never hear much about.
• Based on my conversations with folks who don't focus on politics professionally, a good deal of the population would be hard pressed to name the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. So why is Jim Black's name becoming a household word in North Carolina? Jim Morrill of the Charlotte O took a pretty good swipe telling us why the state House Speaker has become the focus of such attention.

You go read up while I get back to work.

In case you missed some news amongst all the Super Bowl hype this weekend:

• I had a story in Saturday's paper about the Lottery choosing locations for its state headquarters and regional offices.

  I've noted this before, but no matter how much you folks want it to be so, I'm not the guy to call if you're looking for a job or a contract. A fastfax that ran with the story gives the lottery web address and phone number (http://lottery.nc.gov/ and 919/715-6886).

• Gov. Easley and the family are back in the governor's mansion after the state shelled out $4 million to get rid of mold. They moved out last year because the air inside the house wasn't healthy to breath.

• More from the things Jim Black has done in office file from the N+O. And from the Charlotte paper, more on Black and strip clubs.

I have a story that should run Monday regarding how to get in contact with the legislators who represent you in Raleigh in Washington. In summary, the legislators and folks who help them handle their mail say:

• Keep it short. If you're writing more than a page, you may be writing too much.
• Get to the point. A line summarizing the opinion you're trying to pass on or the help you're looking for will help your legislator respond.
• Do ask for help. Whether they are federal or state representatives, a big part of their jobs is helping constituents navigate whatever bureaucracy they may be having problems with.
• Want a response? Include your address and phone number, even if you're writing e-mail.
• Yes, include a phone number. Many state legislators and some of the feds would rather pick up the phone than type send a type-written reply.
• The feds get snail-mail extra crispy. Due to security procedures, mail to U.S. Senators and Reps is inspected 7 ways from Sunday and irradiated. Which means it takes a long time to get there and often damaged. For federal reps it's often more efficient to send e-mail or a fax.

Now, if you're not sure who represents you in either capital, this link will be useful. The zip-code function (third option) takes a little patience, but I've tried it on a couple of my former addresses and appears to work really well.

The feds

You will notice that some federal representatives (in this case, Dole and Burr) don't publish a direct e-mail address. Instead, they offer a web page where you can type your message and send it on. You can find snail-mail, phone and fax numbers on these pages as well.

• Sen. Elizabeth Dole
• Sen. Richard Burr
• Rep. Howard Coble
• Rep. Brad Miller
• Rep. Mel Watt

They person you want to write not on the list? Find other U.S. Senate pages here and U.S. representative pages here.

The state

Rather than give you a bunch of links, just know that you can find a link to your state House member here and your state senator here.

A few tidbits from the weekend papers and beyond:

• If you logged on to talk about the minimum wage hike or see the survey results, Click here
• The church directory story goes national in its own way.(reg. required)
• The N+O's Rob Christensen uses his Sunday column to detail how the Speaker of the House became a position of over-arching influence.
• Filing for the May primary and November general election runs through noon on Feb. 28. Check our updated nightly list of candidates who have filed for Guilford and Rockingham races here. If you're a glutton for punishment, the SBOE has posted a PDF for all races across the state here.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Odds and ends, some election related, from over the weekend and this morning:

• From the "this just in" Department, Kerra Bolton at the Ashville paper reports Rep. Wilma Sherrill, a Buncombe County Republican, will not seek re-election. Sherrill is a legislative ally of Rep. Richard Morgan, a Republican who is none to popular with his own party.

• For those who remember the story about the NC GOP collecting church directories, here's one cartoonists’ take on the issue. Via Cone.

• More on Saturday's Blust story here.

• From the Letters to the Editor column (which I have nothing to do with), NC GOP Chairman Ferrell Blount takes aim at Pricey Harrison for her support of Black.

  It's enough to make one wonder whether the GOP is going to make a serious try at unseating the first-term incumbent. Last election, Harrison unseated long-time incumbent Joanne Bowie, a Republican.

  So far, the registered opposition is Republican Joseph Rahenkamp, a retired fire fighter and very nice man who has run for just about every public office he could over the past decade or so, including City Council and the state house. None of his campaigns have been successful.

  Rahenkamp's campaigns have historically been pretty laid back affairs. To unseat Harrison, an opponent is going to have to get into the political equivalent of a knife fight, something that Rahenkamp hasn't been including to do so far in his political career.

• On Friday, Gov. Easley appointed Michelle C. Collins of Greensboro and reappointed Sampson Buie Jr. of Greensboro to the N.C. Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. Collins is a resource development specialist with the United Way of Greater Greensboro. Buie is a retired deputy secretary with the N.C. Department of Administration.

• The N+O's Rob Christensen tells us graft was worse back in the day.

• Finally, check out this column by the AP's Gary Robertson, the hardest working man in show business around the state legislative building. It's worth the read if only for this reality check:

One thing no one contests is that the cost of running a successful campaign for office has risen dramatically. In 1992, legislative candidates spent $3.9 million, a total that soared to $15 million in 2000 and around $18 million in 2004.

Pawn shops and check cashing operations will be among the businesses that will be licensed to sell lottery tickets in North Carolina.

So?

That was the start of a conversation I had with myself earlier this week. Are these two types of businesses all that much different from the convenience stores and groceries that would be the bulk of lottery retailers?

After asking around for a story scheduled to run Sunday, (Update: Click here for the story) there are at least two schools of thoughts on the matter.

One is that because pawn shops and check cashing operations - in general - cater to the poor, and lottery advocates have pledged the state game won't market to the poor, having the lottery sold in those locations is an inherent conflict.

That view is summed up by Bill Rowe of the N.C. Justice Center. From the story:

“I think it’s unfortunate because there was a great deal of debate about not marketing the lottery to poor people,” said Bill Rowe, general counsel for the N.C. Justice Center, a progressive think tank that lobbies state government. “It doesn’t take much to connect the dots. If you’re pawning your possessions for money or don’t have enough money to have a bank account, it’s probably not a great idea to spend your money on lottery tickets.”

Others have a different view. Why should the state discriminate against any sort of business? From the story.

Jim Greene, the owner of Coins & Stuff on Lexington Avenue in High Point, describes his business as mainly a jewelry store. But he does hold a pawnbroker’s license and makes small loans by holding jewelry and coins as collateral.

Greene said he saw no reason he shouldn’t have a lottery terminal. When asked whether he would sell a lottery ticket to someone who had just pawned an item or taken out a loan, he said he would.

“If they’ve got the merchandise and want to pawn it, what they do with the money is their business, not mine,” Greene said. “If they don’t play here, they’ll play somewhere else.”

If you have a chance, read the story. And then discuss below.

From the in-case-you-missed it files:

• Did you come to chat about the lottery? Click here to talk about whether pawn shops ought to be able to sell lottery tickets... or head over to Doug's joint.
• Local candidates are raising money to run for office. Incumbents have a big lead in the money chase. In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
• N+O writes about religion and politics here and here. More here.
• John Ross Hendrix, a Republican candidate for the 13th Congressional district, dropped by this old blog to share his thoughts on former Winston-Salem council member Vernon Robinson jumping into the race. Among them:

  Neither I nor anyone else living in the 13th district want this kind of "courage" and "practicality" in the face of heavy odds representing us. I will never be accused of "cherry picking" a contest to enter and I will always chose to represent the people of the district where I LIVE. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my" have invaded my turf. I will defend it to my last dime, even if I have to pawn the computer from which this message is sent.

• If you missed my colleague Nate DeGraff's story on racism preserved in deeds, go read it now. And be sure to check out the multimedia presentation.

Want to gripe, cajole, coax, praise or plead with your friendly local state legislator in person? Guilford County residents will have two chances to do so this spring.

• March 30, 6 p.m., in Greensboro at the Melvin Municipal Building – the place most folks would call city hall. Directions here.
• April 13, 6 p.m., at High Point City Hall, , 211 S. Hamilton Street.

The shindigs are being organized by Rep. Maggie Jeffus, who this year is the chairman of the Guilford County delegation in the General Assembly. A release announcing the forums reads:

“This hearing titled, Take It To Raleigh, will provide an opportunity for the delegation to receive input from citizens about their concerns and issues, as well as provide opportunities to receive input from local municipalities and other entities representing Guilford County”, said Representative Maggie Jeffus, Delegation Chair.

…

Citizens are encouraged to come to either location to share their thoughts with the Guilford County elected members of the North Carolina General Assembly. Speakers will be given a limited time and are asked to call (919) 733-5191 to sign up. Organizations and individuals who need additional information are asked to contact Representative Jeffus’ office.

Having attended a number of these things over the years, expect a pretty packed house, although not over-flowing. Various groups will organize legions of presenters to get around the time limits imposed (usually in the 3-to-5 minute range) and to try and impress with numbers.

Some local government types will come out as part of a pro-forma thank you and to offer gentle nudges on certain issues. And there will be the odd assortment of folks who wanted to get something off their chest and saw the opportunity to do it.

All in all, short of shelling out for a spot at a fund raiser (or stalking the delegation like I do for my day job), this is one of the public’s best opportunities to get face-to-face with those who represent them in Raleigh.

A round up of stuff you may have missed while you were hopelessly glued to the ACC tournament or catching up on work this morning:

• My interview with Rep. Howard Coble’s challenger Rory Blake is here. An interview with Coble should be forthcoming later today.

• "Talking About Politics" talks about Richard Morgan and the primaries.

• The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog interviews John Edwards.

  An excerpt:

  Are you running for president or not?

  You waited this long to ask that question? I have not decided anything about that. I'm trying to make sure Elizabeth is well. I'm trying to do everything I can about poverty in the country and that's where my focus is. I'll figure that out later.

  
  You know, I've seen or heard at least four or five pretty lengthy interviews with Edwards since the New Year. In all of them, he strikes me as tackling policy issues much more head on than he did during the 2004 presidential campaign. (Maybe that's a freedom that comes from not being a Senator any more?)

  So his answer to the "are you running" question has had me scratching my head every time. He sure acts like he's running, or at least is trying to position himself to run. He's maintaining a deliberately high profile to keep his name in the national news. Heck, this latest interview with "The Fix" was even done with the premise of him being a potential contender in 2008.

  So why beat around the bush?

That's it for now. As always, the comment link is open.

You hear the one about a reporter who wasn't all