News-Record.com

Rep. Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, would like to return video poker to a place among the state's legal amusements. From a story in today's paper:

RALEIGH — Rep. Earl Jones said he plans to introduce a bill this week to legalize video poker, a form of gambling outlawed amid accusations of political corruption and operators skirting rules.

The Greensboro Democrat said it is “hypocritical” for the state to run a lottery but outlaw another form of gambling that some people enjoy.

“I think it’s very unfortunate that you have some folks who are very paternalistic,” Jones said Monday. “Some people can’t pay $200 or $300 to play golf or $100 to go to a Panthers game. This is their entertainment.”

Click here for the whole thing.

Update: When asked about Jones' bill, Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, the Republican leader in the House, said: "That's the bad bill of the week."

Also in the paper today:

• The Washington Watch column update's the Alcoa fight and looks at some recent bill filings from the federal honorables.

• The Libertarian and Green parties had their day before the Court of Appeals, arguing that the state's ballot access laws are too strict.

This week's Washington Watch column talks about earmarks requested by local members of Congress being posted online. Those links include:

• * Rep. Howard Coble, who offers a simple text rendering of his requests.

• * Rep. Mel Watt, who has offered up a PDF of his requests.

• * Rep. Brad Miller, who broke down his requests by agency.

Worth noting for the purposes of this post: Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Winston-Salem Republican, does not put in for earmark funding.

Click here for today's Washington Watch column, in which I talk to Sen. Kay Hagan about joining the group of 15 moderate Democrats on her side of the hill:

Hagan said Monday that the United States was experiencing a fiscal crisis that called for higher than typical government spending.

But, she added, “I also think we’ve got to look at the long term. ... Obviously long term, I’m looking at not incurring as much debt as we’re talking about.”

I've got to admit, Hagan didn't move off her talking points from this news release by very much.

I spoke to Hagan late Monday and we covered a couple items that weren't in the column. Among them, Gov. Bev Perdue's proposed budget, which cuts spending on a number of programs. They include two that Hagan has an interest in:

• * Personal Financial Literacy The recommended reduction eliminates the appropriation which is no longer necessary as Personal Financial Literacy has been integrated into the curriculum and is also available to students through the North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS)... ($500,000)

• * Phase Out Tuition Waiver for NC School of Science and Math (NCSSM) It is recommended that the funding of tuition remissions for graduates of NCSSM entering the UNC system be discontinued. Held harmless would be NCSSM graduates already in the UNC system. Funding would be completely eliminated by 2012-13. Appropriation ($990,619) in 2009-10 ($2,034,190) in 2010-11

Why these two? Both were championed by Hagan when she was a state senator and she cited both on the campaign trail as examples of smaller but important she did in the legislature.

In fact, Hagan took some heat over the tuition exemption bit from more liberal Democrats while she was in Raleigh. They suggested that the tuition waiver for kids already at one of the most prestigious public high schools around was unfair to kids who couldn't get into the school.

"Obviously I think nobody envies the choice Gov. Perdue has to make," Hagan said. Of the tuition waiver, she said, "We put it in place to keep our brightest here in North Carolina. We didn't want to lose them to out of state universities."

On the personal financial literacy piece, which looks like it will live on in some way, Hagan said the current financial crisis shows the need for such education.

"Personal financial literacy has not been something that's been taught properly in the past...It's not rocket science and we need to be teaching it."

The bosses had me launch a new regular feature this week. Click here to check out Washington Watch, albeit without the right formatting.