News-Record.com

There are two items from me in this Sunday's paper.

The first idea came when I heard President Barack Obama mention charter schools in his speech to Congress last week. North Carolina has charter schools but the legislature seems kind of conflicted about them. From that story:

State law limits to 100 the number of charter schools, which are funded by tax dollars but are run by private boards. That reflects a certain legislative ambivalence toward the schools, which were created under a 1996 law but never fully embraced by the General Assembly's top voices on education.

Despite Obama's call to increase funding and "help create new, high-quality charter schools," N.C. lawmakers remain cautious.

"I don't, at this point in time, support raising the cap on the number of charter schools," said Rep. Maggie Jeffus , a Guilford County Democrat and former teacher who is involved in education policy in the General Assembly. She said some charters she had visited had excellent programs, but others struggled to keep pace with expectations in academics and management.

Click here for the whole thing.

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Next up is an update on the Jordan Lake rules. (Background.) This is one of those subjects we get to write about every so often because it's important, but not one that moves at a terribly fast clip. The real news from the story was that the parties trying to reach some resolution on the rules were on the precipice of negotiation. Or as I used a lot more words to say::

Lawmakers now will have to decide whether rules put forward by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will achieve their goals or merely cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars during a time they can least afford it.

"I expect it will be contentious because it has already been contentious," said Rep. Lucy Allen, a Franklin County Democrat who chairs the House environment committee. "We hear all of the objections coming from the communities up that way."

Although state law gives opponents of regulations a clear path to appeal to the General Assembly, it gives lawmakers little guidance on how to settle disputes. Allen has filed one of a handful of bills that would wipe the Jordan Lake rules from the books, although few expect that could pass as it is.

Lawmakers like Allen are looking for parties on all sides to come to some accord. At least some of various groups say they're ready to start talking, even if they're not sure when or in what format.

"I'm optimistic," said Steven Levitas , a lawyer and former deputy secretary in the Department of Environment. He has been hired by Durham to help negotiate a compromise and is one of the point people for all the groups opposing the rules.

As described by Levitas and others involved, there have been discussions between various parties one-on-one. The trick now is to get representatives for all concerned in the same room.

Click here if you're trying to cure some sort of sleep disorder.

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And believe it or not, there was even more news in the state last week than President Barack Obama coming to visit. A sampling:

• * Winston-Salem's James Romoser writes about the unborn victims bill and why it has a hard time passing in North Carolina. Some of the reasons will be familiar if you've read up on the gay marriage law recently: both are politically volatile and could lead places counter to the interest of the folks who lead the General Assembly.

• * The federal stimulus money was on people's minds this week, whether those folks are running zoo's that my current N+R colleague Ryan Seals says won't get any help, or the home energy efficient efforts that my one-time News & Record colleague Paul Garber (now of the Winston-Salem Journal) wrote about or the high speed rail lines that the N+O wrote about.

• * Charlotte's Jim Morrill say Gov. Bev Perdue may raid lottery funds to balance the budget.

• * Raleigh's Dan Kane says in his Saturday story that the fees Blue Cross Blue Shield is charging the state for health plan transactions are getting people's attention, and not in a good way.

• * From last week, WUNC's Laura Leslie writes up a news conference with Greensboro Rep. Pricey Harrison on her proposal to ban the use of mountain-top removal coal.

Enjoy your Sunday.

This week, Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr gave the GOP response to President Barack Obama's weekly radio address. Obama spent the time pitching his budget proposal, while Burr said that the federal government needed more spending restraint.

Click here for Obama's radio address.

Click here to listen to Burr's response.

Now that all the fun and games of inauguration are over, it's time for Barack Obama and his administration to get to work.

Nearly as soon as he was sworn in, the White House website got a remaking. It's structure looks a lot more navigable than the President Bush's website. The biggest question I have right at the moment is how quickly things will be put online, but the Obama online crew seems to move with a fair bit of alacrity.

For those who want to keep up with the campaign promises Obama keeps or breaks (yes, I expect both) the Politifact website has a new feature for you. During the campaign, it tested the truthfulness of campaign ads and claims.

Now, the post-election version (click here) is tracking progress on Obama's campaign promises. Some of you might prefer this version.

For those too lazy to click over, as of this post they have him pegged at two promises kept, one stalled, 12 in the works and 495 with no action.