RALEIGH, N.C.  – A panel of North Carolina lawmakers has approved a measure banning smoking in bars, workplaces and other public locations after deciding police officers should issue citations to smokers who refuse to stub out their butts.

The measure approved by a House judiciary committee on Tuesday had initially said only a local health department official could cite smokers who ignore a request to put out a cigarette. The infraction includes a fine of up to $50.
 
The proprosal still says local health officials are the only people authorized to cite bars, restaurants or other employers who condone indoor smoking. Fine for that offense could reach $200.
 
The committee also decided against giving municipalities the option to make smoking in public places a misdemeanor.

The legislation now heads to the full House.

University of North Carolina schools could have a tougher time attracting out-of-state athletes under a pair of changes proposed in the state Legislature.

A House education subcommittee approved legislation Thursday narrowing a 2005 provision counting out-of-state athletes as in-state students. The law costs taxpayers about $7 million a year.

The law helps university booster clubs that provide athletic scholarships, because those athletes are charged in-state tuition even if they’re not North Carolina residents.

The changes would keep the tuition savings but count those out-of-state students in a cap that limits out-of-staters to 18 percent of each freshman class.

Rep. Angela Bryant of Nash County said the moves preserve admission slots for North Carolina students.

RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina municipalities could help local candidates run for election with taxpayer money under a proposal working through the General Assembly.

A House legal affairs committee on Thursday approved the bill to allow more towns and cities to participate in a voluntary public financing program. Chapel Hill is now the only town authorized to have a program for taxpayer financing in local elections.

The measure still must be approved by the full House and Senate.

Democratic Rep. Earl Jones of Guilford County says the plan could help reduce the effect of big-money contributions in races to which few people donate or take notice.

Republican Rep. Tim Moore of Cleveland County says it’s a poor use of taxpayer money.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – Sales taxes or vehicle registration fees could be raised in all of North Carolina’s 100 counties to pay for public transportation projects in legislation that cleared a House panel.
 
The bill approved Wednesday by the House Transportation Committee would allow halfpenny sales-tax increases in five urban counties and quarter-cent increases in 94 other counties if approved by local voters. Mecklenburg County already has an extra half-cent on the sales tax for transportation and couldn’t raise it further.
 
Proceeds could be used as matching money for a proposed state fund for public transit grants. The bill is supported by environmental and transportation advocates as a way to reduce congestion.

The measure has a long way to go. It next goes to the House Finance Committee.

RALEIGH, N.C. – A bill that would ban nearly every driver from talking on hand-held cell phones in North Carolina has stalled in a committee.

The Senate Commerce Committee considered the bill Tuesday and approved amendments that watered down the measure. No final vote was taken.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Charlie Dannelly of Mecklenburg County, got a similar bill through a committee two years ago but it went no further. Dannelly said it may be different this year because some senators opposed to the idea have changed their minds.

The approved amendments would exempt drivers who call immediate family members, presumably in an emergency. The ban also wouldn’t apply to handsfree phones.

A committee vote could come next week.

By SEAN MUSSENDEN
Media General News Service

WASHINGTON-Regular C-SPAN viewers may have noticed that Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-Banner Elk, has received more face time on the cable network of late.

Since joining the House Rules Committee in January – a powerful body that sets the framework for debate on bills that come to the floor – Foxx has helped manage the Republican opposition to a handful of Democratic bills.

Last week, she led floor debate against a Democratic push to postpone until June the transition from analog to digital TV signals. The measure passed largely along party lines.

Foxx said party leaders asked her to manage the debate, and she was happy to oblige.

“I don’t seek to be in the spotlight, I don’t seek being on C-SPAN,” she said in an interview.”

“What I have told the Republican conference is that I want to help where they need me to help. If they need me to speak on the floor, I’ll speak on the floor. If they need me to stuff envelopes, I’ll stuff envelopes,” she said.

PRAYER BREAKFAST
At prayer breakfasts each week, members of Congress gather to read scripture, share stories, and pray. And they sing hymns – usually not very well, Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, told the crowd at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington Thursday.

As co-chair of the annual breakfast, Shuler introduced President Barack Obama, telling an international audience that included former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that his young children were moved by Obama’s inauguration and said, “Daddy, let’s pray for the president.”

“Children, politicians and everyday citizens around the world are showing their hope, their faith, through their prayers for this president,” he said at the breakfast.

Before introducing Obama, Shuler introduced Casting Crowns, a Christian rock group whose performance, he said, spared the audience from listening to members of Congress sing.

“I think God really appreciates that,” Shuler said.

CENSUS CONTROVERSY
A decision by Obama to have the White House directly oversee the 2010 Census brought fierce opposition from Republicans.

In a letter to the Obama administration last week, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-Cherryville, the top Republican on a subcommittee that oversees the Census, said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the decision, which he called an attempt to “politicize the operations of the Census Bureau and jeopardize the fairness and accuracy of the 2010 Census.”

Traditionally, the Census is overseen by the Commerce Department. But Hispanic advocates questioned whether Obama’s nominee to head the department, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., would conduct a fair accounting of minority groups.

ADOPTED DOG
Rep. Walter Jones, R-Farmville, will be honored by the Humane Society of the United States on Tuesday for helping the family of a Marine killed by a rocket blast in Iraq adopt his German Shepherd, a military bomb-sniffing dog who was injured in the attack.

The military initially denied the adoption request from the family of Cpl. Dustin Lee, saying the dog, Lex, had to remain in service for another two years. That changed after Jones, whose district includes Camp Lejeune, lobbied top Marine officials to allow the adoption to proceed.

Lee’s family and are planning to bring Lex to Washington for the ceremony.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – New faces have been added to lead the most powerful committees in the North Carolina Senate. Senate leader Marc Basnight released committee assignments in the chamber for the next two years on Wednesday.

Democratic Sen. A.B. Swindell of Nash County has been named a co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He joins Democratic Sens. Linda Garrou, Charlie Albertson and Charlie Dannelly as leaders of the chief budget-writing panel.

Another Democrat, Sen. Clark Jenkins of Edgecombe County, is now a Finance Committee co-chairman. He replaces the retiring Sen. John Kerr.

Basnight retained a handful of Republican senators for leadership positions. Sen. Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County is the only Republican to be the sole chairman of a panel – a judiciary committee.

A committee said Friday that North Carolina needs to place a $50.2 million annual cap on bond sales for next five years, the TBJ reports.

WASHINGTON – The Senate Intelligence Committee has voted to approve retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the new national intelligence director.

That’s the word from committee spokesman Philip LaVelle. It was a closed hearing.

The full Senate is expected to confirm Blair later today by a wide margin.

He would be President Barack Obama’s top intelligence adviser, overseeing a budget of nearly $50 billion across 16 intelligence agencies.

Blair would replace Michael McConnell who resigned the post Tuesday after nearly two years in the job.