The Consul General of France in Atlanta, Pascal Le Deunff, will visit North Carolina in December, his first visit to the Tar Heel State since his September appointment.

While here Dec. 1 through 3, Le Denuff will bestow the Legion of Honor upon three American WWII Veterans from North Carolina; meet with elected officials, university officials, and representatives of economic development authorities to find grounds of cooperation with France; and to meet with the French community of both Raleigh and Charlotte.

On Dec. 1, at the House of Representatives of the former State Capitol, Le Deunff will bestow the Legion of Honor upon veterans Woodrow D. Casey, Robert W. Pyle and Earl W. Norwood.

The National Order of the Legion of Honor is the highest honor in France and recipients of this honor are designated by the President of the Republic. They will receive this award in recognition for their courage. Among their many heroic deeds, they participated in the Normandy landings, which were decisive in the liberation of France.

The Consul General of France will also meet with the Mayor of Raleigh, Charles Meeker, the Mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory, the President of Duke University, Richard H. Brodhead and representatives of economic development authorities.

Pascal Le Deunff is convinced that, despite the unfavorable economic environment, this region offers grounds for cooperation with France. Both France and North Carolina share a common strong commitment for scientific and economic innovation.

Finally, the Consul General will meet with the French Community, especially from the economic arena. He will visit the French company Biomérieux and be the guest speaker of the French-American Chamber of Commerce of North Carolina’s Winter Diner.

RALEIGH, N.C. –  The Cumberland County NC State Legislative Delegation will travel to six locations in Cumberland County to discuss the recently completed long session of the North Carolina General Assembly.

“Legislative Year in Review,” is a series of neighborhood forums to talk about what really happened in Raleigh this session and how it will affect everyone over the next year.

Legislators scheduled to appear for the forums are: Sen. Tony Rand (D-Bladen/Cumberland), Rep. Rick Glazier (D-Cumberland); Rep. Margaret Dickson (D-Cumberland), Rep. Marvin Lucas (D-Cumberland), Rep. Elmer Floyd (D-Cumberland), Rep. William Brisson (D-Bladen/Cumberland).

The schedule for “Legislative Year in Review” is as follows:

Tuesday, September 8

10:00-11:30 am Eastover Community Center (4008 School St., Eastover)
1:00-2:30 pm                 John D. Fuller Recreation Center (6627 Old Bunce Rd., Fayetteville)

5:30-7:00 pm                 Terry Sanford High School (2301 Ft. Bragg Rd, Fayetteville)

Wednesday, September 9

10:00-11:30 am              Simon Temple AME Zion Church (5760 Yadkin Rd., Fayetteville)
1:00-2:30 pm                 Grays Creek Recreation Center (2964 School Rd. Fayetteville)

5:30-7:00 pm                 South View High School (4184 Elk Rd., Hope Mills)

“Legislative Year in Review” forums are free and open to the public.

Sen. Tony Rand represents District 19, Rep. Rick Glazier represents District 45,

Rep. Margaret Dickson represents District 44, Rep. Marvin Luca represents District 42,

Rep. Elmer Floyd represents District 43, and Rep. William Brisson represents District 22.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina lawmakers passed nearly 500 new laws before shutting down for this year, but plenty of updates and reforms were left pending until next year.

Terry Shook of Claremont said Thursday he wants the General Assembly to look again next year at legislation clarifying state law on using deadly force in self-defense. Lawmakers returning to Raleigh next May will consider whether illegal and forced entry into a home allows the resident to shoot without fear of potential prosecution.

State Sen. John Snow said the deadly force legislation was overwhelmed by all the time lawmakers spent finding a compromise on how much to raise taxes and which programs to cut. The Cherokee County Democrat said legislators will try to pass it next year.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina’s General Assembly has closed down for the year after more than six months of work dominated by the recession, a tight state budget and tax increases.

The House and Senate each held brief sessions Tuesday to adjourn the General Assembly’s legislative work.

Lawmakers spent most of their energy this year balancing service cuts against tax increases in one of the worst recessions in generations. The tough economic times didn’t stop lawmakers from banning cigarette smoke from restaurants and bars, extending tax breaks to Apple Inc. and other businesses promising to create jobs, and bailing out the state-funded health insurance plan for its employees, retirees and teachers.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The General Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to making North Carolina the second state in the country that allows statistical evidence to establish racial bias as behind prosecutors seeking or jurors rendering the death penalty.

The Senate voted 25-18 for a measure the NAACP and other advocates said was needed in a state that in less than three years has released three black men from prison who had been on death row. If Gov. Beverly Perdue signs the bill into law, North Carolina would join Kentucky with legislation supporters called the Racial Justice Act.

“The need for this is critical and self-evident,” Sen. Floyd McKissick, D-Durham, the bill’s primary sponsor.

In one case cited by supporters, then-Gov. Mike Easley commuted the death sentence of Robert Bacon Jr. to life in prison in 2001. An all-white jury had sentenced him to death for stabbing his lover’s husband to death. The woman, who is white and who lured her husband to the spot where he was killed, avoided a death sentence and has since been paroled.

The measure would allow judges to consider whether statistical data show race was a key factor in putting a defendant on trial for his life or receiving a death penalty. A judge who agrees with the evidence could limit a sentence to life in prison without parole.

District attorneys, sheriffs and victims advocates said the measure would make death penalty prosecutions too difficult. North Carolina has not had an execution in nearly three years.

For murder victims and their families, the bill “represents something … that will end up reopening a lot of old wounds that were still waiting for complete closure,” said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham. “This also represents a significant departure from the jurisprudence that we have seen in
North Carolina and the United States that says cases are to be decided by the facts of the case.”

Since the state’s last execution in August 2006, the number of prosecutors winning death penalty convictions has nearly come to a halt and public support for executions has waned.

Just one convict was sent to death row last year and five people have been acquitted of the charges that initially placed them on death row since 2000. Of the 59 capital convicts who had their cases retried this decade, only two were again sentenced to death.

A November 2005 poll from Elon University found that 64 percent of the state’s adults supported capital punishment. The same poll found this March that 58 percent supported the death penalty while 28 percent opposed it. Less than half said this year that the death penalty was the most appropriate punishment for first-degree murder.

The North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys opposed the legislation. Forsyth County District Attorney Thomas Keith said lawmakers did not discuss that any local Superior Count judge’s ruling finding a history of racial discrimination could lead other judges to apply the precedent statewide.

“The ultimate goal is to give an additional protection,” for convicted murderers, Keith said.

Death row defendants would have one year to file a claim of racial bias in their death sentence. Keith said he feared some convicted killers could go from death row to being released on parole.

Almost half of the 163 killers on death row were sentenced for murders committed before October 1994, when the current sentencing system was put into place and mandatory life sentences became an option. If their sentences were reduced to life, those sentenced under the previous sentencing scheme could be considered for parole after serving 20 years, Keith said.

He cited the case of Bonnie Sue Clark, Bacon’s accomplice in the slaying of Clark’s husband. She was paroled last week after serving nearly 22 years of her life sentence.

HEADLINES:

- Budget-writers interested in eliminating support services for mental health patients
- House votes to give treasurer more investment options as pension funds returns underperform
- Top consumer advocate on utilities no longer fighting deregulation of landline phone prices
- Senate considers link of Apple data center tax break to location where economy most sour
- Detailed rules for school district bullying policies approved by House committee
- Allred tells newspaper he’ll retire from NC House after current year session ends
- Delay of high school graduation project requirement heads to Perdue’s desk

THE BRIEF:

COMMUNITY SUPPORT: House budget-writers are interested in
eliminating a heavily scrutinized program that pays for non-medical
care for mental health patients living at home. The elimination of
the “community support” services program is one of about 150
health care program or initiatives that would face cuts in the
draft budget proposal by the health appropriations subcommittee. A
2007 government review of the program said it may have wasted
hundreds of millions of dollars in overpriced or unnecessary care.
Lawmakers would direct state regulators to rebuild the program. The
reductions include cutting Medicaid reimbursements to doctors and
hospitals as well as for personal care services for the elderly and
infirmed.

FLEXIBLE INVESTING: Lawmakers are on the verge of heeding
Treasurer Janet Cowell’s requests for more flexibility in on how
her office invests the state pension fund. The House voted 64-50 to
allow Treasurer Janet Cowell’s office to branch into timberland,
securities rated below investment grade, commodities, and Federal
Reserve-sponsored securities backed by auto loans or commercial
real-estate with up to an additional 10 percent of pension-fund
money. The treasurer now is allowed by law to put up to 5 percent
of pension fund assets into hedge funds and other private equities
and up to 10 percent into real estate. The measure next week heads
back to the Senate, which must agree to changes made in the House.
Cowell said without the changes, pension fund investments are
expected to return less than 7 percent a year instead of the
expected annual 7.25 percent return.

PHONE FREEDOM: North Carolina’s top consumer advocate on utility
issues said he no longer opposes an effort to end state regulation
of the prices consumers pay for landline telephone service. Robert
Gruber, executive director of the state Utilities Commission’s
Public Staff, said he’s satisfied by the consumer safeguards in
legislation that allows AT&T and 15 smaller providers operating in
North Carolina to cut loose from regulations setting the rates,
terms, and quality of their landline services. Landline telephone
providers want the option to drop out of Utilities Commission
price-setting oversight of household service because cable,
Internet and wireless rivals aren’t similarly regulated. The
legislation would allow phone companies to set their own prices,
except for stand-alone basic residential service. Rate increases
for the basic service would be limited to inflation adjustments.
Rural customers must be charged a price comparable to urban
customers for basic service.

COMPANY A: The Senate moved one step closer to changing the
state’s tax law amid fresh talk that the $1 billion investment
involved may become reality within days. The Senate voted 42-6 to
go along with conditions including that the company invest $1
billion in a rural area, meet wage standards and provide health
insurance. The Associated Press reported last week that Apple Inc.
is the company deciding where to put its East Coast data warehouse.
Bill sponsor Sen. David Hoyle, D-Gaston, said if the tax change is
given final approval Monday, an announcement by the unnamed company
could follow shortly.

BEAT BACK BULLYING: A Senate bill requiring school districts to
approve more detailed anti-bullying policies is moving forward
after the House Education Committee recommended the measure.
Districts would have to create policies that at a minimum list
perceived characteristics of a person likely to be bullied. The
list is laid out in the bill, which next goes to a House judiciary
panel. Alison Davis of Durham says the bill would protect her three
sons, each of whom are autistic. The Rev. Mark Creech of the
Christian Action League of North Carolina said he was bullied as a
child. But Creech and other opponents argue the required list would
open the door to special protection for specific groups,
particularly gays and lesbians. The bill’s language states no
protected classes of people are being created.

ALLRED OUT?: A House member accused by colleagues of embracing a
teenage female page inappropriately says he will leave the
Legislature after the current year’s session ends. Rep. Cary
Allred, R-Alamance did not return telephone calls to The Associated
Press, but told The Times-News of Burlington he’ll retire from the
House by Sept. 1. A legislative ethics committee last week received
a report from the House sergeant-at-arms collecting accounts about
Allred’s actions in the House chamber April 27. The report made no
recommendations on Allred’s fate. Allred has said he did nothing
wrong and the page was a longtime friend of his family. He also
acknowledged that he had one drink before driving to Raleigh and
getting stopped for speeding before that evening’s House floor
meeting. Allred said he was never impaired.

HIGH SCHOOL PROJECT: High school seniors statewide won’t have to
create a graduation project in order to get their diploma in 2010
unless a local district wants them to in legislation now heading to
Gov. Beverly Perdue’s desk. The Senate voted 48-0 for a House bill
that puts off the graduation requirement until at least 2011. The
measure affirms a State Board of Education decision to put off the
projects. Local school districts still have the option to require
one.

THURSDAY’S SCORECARD:

In the Senate:
- S584, tightens the law regulating private protective services,
which include private detectives, security guards, and armored car
operators. Passed 47-0. Next: To the House.

In the committees:
- S167, to extend a smoking ban inside North Carolina prisons to
include outside prison grounds and to make it a misdemeanor for
someone to knowingly provide tobacco products or cell phones to a
prisoner or to someone who delivers the items to an inmate.
Recommended for approval, House Ways and Means Committee. Next:
Re-referred to House Judiciary III Committee.
- H135, would allow Internet broadband companies offering
service outside their franchise territory to also include
voice-grade communications services outside their territory. Passed
the Senate Commerce Committee. Next: To the full Senate.

AROUND THE STATEHOUSE:

North Carolina’s Roman Catholic bishops say changes by the state
Senate to a bill designed to prevent racial bias in the death
penalty are “beyond comprehension.” A priest read a letter
Thursday from Bishop Peter Jugis of the Charlotte diocese and
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Raleigh at a news conference outside the
Legislative Building. Other religious leaders attending the event
agreed they’re unhappy with how the Senate approved the Racial
Justice Act with new language also designed to allow executions to
resume in North Carolina. The speakers said the new language should
be stripped from the bill and the original measure approved alone.
Capital punishment has been put on hold for more than two years due
to a legal tangle in the courts.

ON THE AGENDA:

The Senate has scheduled a final legislative vote on changing
corporate income tax laws to attract a $1 billion investment from
an unnamed technology company looking at North Carolina for its
East Coast data center. The Associated Press reported last week
that Apple Inc. is the company deciding where to put the costly
computer warehouse able to handle massive flows of data.

QUOTABLE:

“There’s not a single state employee in my district that
doesn’t come up to me and say, `Yeah, I know I’m going to get hit
with my salary. I’m getting ready to lose something in my salary.
But at least I have a decent retirement.’ ” Rep. Pryor Gibson,
D-Anson. He argued before a House vote that easing restrictions on
how the state treasurer invests pension funds was needed to protect
the promise of good retirement income for state employees.

HEADLINES:

- House gives initial OK for multimillion dollar tax break for Apple, computer data center
- House Majority Leader Holliman, who spearheaded new smoking ban, has lung surgery

- Anti-bullying bill debates Senate measure that requires detailed local policies
- NC House education committee removes proposed requirement to reduce school days
- Tougher penalty OK’d on motorists passing NC school buses and cause death
- NC labor advocates renew push to end collective bargaining ban on public workers
- State employees group roll out first ads targeting lawmakers on health plan
- House reads roll of NC troops fallen since last year, all killed since wars began in 2001

THE BRIEF:

ECONOMIC FRUIT: The state House tentatively approved changing how the state’s corporate taxes are calculated to welcome a company’s $1 billion investment for its East Coast data center. The House voted 81-31 in favor of a bill designed to benefit a single company. The Associated Press reported last week that the company targeted by state business recruiters is Apple Inc. Some bill opponents worried they were being dazzled by a corporation dangling a huge project at a time unemployment levels are at historic highs. The tax changes would affect the way corporate income taxes are calculated by giving breaks to companies making a $1 billion that have a relatively small share of U.S. sales in North Carolina but large shares of their nationwide property and payroll in the state. Companies could qualify only if they located in one of North Carolina’s poorest counties, provided health insurance, met a wage standard, and bypassed other state grants or tax breaks.

MAJORITY LEADER: House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman was in stable condition after undergoing surgery to remove part of his lung. Holliman was already a lung cancer survivor who just last week celebrated a legislative victory when Gov. Beverly Perdue passed Holliman’s bill that bans smoking inside bars and restaurants next January. Holliman’s legislative assistant said he was recovering in the intenstive care unit at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the removed section of his lung was cancerous. Holliman, a former smoker, previously had a cancerous tumor removed from his lung in September 2007. He also was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1999, but declared himself cured in 2005.

BULLYING BILL: The House Education Committee debated – but did not vote – on a Senate bill that would require local school districts to approve more detailed policies designed to discourage bullying. The bill narrowly passed the Senate three weeks ago but would appear to have a more favorable response in the House because it approved something similar two years ago. The most contentious part of the bill requires local policies to contain a list of perceived characteristics of a person susceptible to bullying, which include sexual orientation and gender identity. Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, said requiring the characteristics ensure that all children are protected from intolerance. But Rep. Paul Stam, R-Wake, calls the bill ambiguous and told the committee a list doesn’t protect all children by singling out certain groups. The committee ran out of time and will revisit the issue Thursday.

EDUCATION BUDGET: House budget writers have dropped a requirement that North Carolina public schools be open fewer days next year. A budget plan last week would have reduced the public school calendar from 180 days to 175 in the next school year and to 170 days the following year. Education supporters criticized the idea as a step backward. Subcommittee co-chairman Rep. Ray Rapp, D-Madison, said lawmakers decided they didn’t want to reduce the school calendar when other countries already have longer school years than North Carolina. The top Democrats leading the full Appropriations Committee are still considering whether to require teacher furloughs for several days. Rapp said local districts could close school for some of those furlough days.

SCHOOL BUS SAFETY: Motorists could soon face a tougher penalty if the driver passes a stopped school bus on the road and strikes a passenger who dies after getting off the vehicle. A Senate judiciary committee approved a measure designed to let school districts use cameras and recording devices to collect evidence designed to prove that someone broke the law passing a stopped school bus. The committee approved the bill and an amendment making a motorist guilty of a felony for striking a passenger who dies. The offender could now receive active jail time if the discharged passenger dies. The measure now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING: Labor advocates and the state NAACP president have urged lawmakers to end a ban on collective bargaining for public workers that they say is a holdover from segregation times. The Rev. William Barber of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said at a rally that lawmakers passed the ban 50 years ago to keep Northern unions from organizing black workers. A Senate committee discussed the repeal Tuesday but took no action. Business groups oppose the change, saying limiting unions holds down the size and cost of government.

STATE EMPLOYEES: The State Employees Association of North Carolina has rolled out its first two ads critical of lawmakers who voted for a bailout of the health insurance plan for state workers last month. The association said it will begin running radio ads in the districts of Reps. Pryor Gibson, D-Anson, and Bruce Goforth, D-Buncombe. The association blames lawmakers for what it calls burdening workers with higher health care costs while failing to force plan adminsitrator Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina to feel some of the financial pain. Association leaders want to target two lawmakers each week.

STILL REMEMBERED: A day after Memorial Day, the House honored all the U.S. service members from North Carolina killed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. The bill honoring the
fallen troops named about 140 service men and women, but the measure had to be amended to include last Thursday’s death of Army 1st Lt. Leevi Barnard, 28, of Mount Airy. He was killed while on patrol near Baghdad. Nineteen who were either from North Carolina or had family ties to the state died since last year’s Memorial Day. Family members of some of the fallen attended the House session. One of the fallen servicemen listed – Lance Cpl. Jeriad Jacobs of Clayton – was the nephew of Rep. Ronnie Sutton, D-Robeson.

TUESDAY’S SCORECARD:

In the House:
- H291, to license people who practice natural hair braiding and have completed a curriculum at an approved cosmetic art school. Final House approval 73-39. Next: To the Senate.
- H746, to increase fees for licensed professional counselors. Final House approval 88-24. Next: To the Senate.

In the Senate:
- H1508, to switch construction of the Biomedical Research Imaging Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from pay-as-you-go funding to bonds by authorizing through mid-2011 up to $240 million in new loans based on a portion of general obligation bonds that recently have been paid off. Tentatively approved 41-8. Next: Final Senate vote.

In committees:
- H85, to permit nonprofits to give away in raffles up to $125,000 in cash and merchandise in a calendar year, compared to the current $50,000 maximum, as well as make clear that real property with appraised values of up to $500,000 can be offered as prizes. Recommended for approval, Senate Judiciary II Committee. Next: To the full Senate.

AROUND THE STATEHOUSE:

This year’s Miss USA visited her home state’s Legislature. Kristen Dalton of Wilmington was honored with a visit to the state House and Senate on Tuesday. Her victory last month has been
largely overshadowed by a debate about gay marriage surrounding the pageant’s first runner-up. Miss California Carrie Prejean said during the pageant she believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. Dalton will represent the U.S. in the Miss Universe pageant in August. The East Carolina University graduate said she would spend her year as Miss USA working to raise awareness of breast and ovarian cancer and to advocate for early detection and treatment.

ON THE AGENDA:

Lawmakers sympathetic to providers of personal care services will participate in a news conference Wednesday as part of efforts to restore spending cuts. The Senate approved a budget proposal last month that reduced by $55 million state funding for personal care services for Medicaid patients living at home. Workers assist patients with bathing and other tasks. The chief executive officer of the Association for Home and Hospice Care of North Carolina also is expected to speak.

QUOTABLE:

“Isn’t this fun? We ran for these jobs. I have to keep reminding myself.” – Rep. Ray Rapp, D-Madison, co-chairman of the House education appropriations subcommittee, joking about the difficult job he and other budget-writers are having this year assembling a budget given that next year’s budget gap is more than $4 billion.

HEADLINES:

- Allred says he plans to leave GOP; Daves wants him to resign from House
- Senate Republican leader wants Democrats to be more aggressive in Easley probes
- Legislature remembers late Insurance Commissioner, former House member Jim Long

THE BRIEF:

ALLRED LEAVING GOP: Alamance County Rep. Cary Allred plans to leave the Republican Party after he said fellow House GOP members told an investigator they were disturbed when he hugged a female page last month. Allred said he would switch his voter registration next week to unaffiliated. Several Republicans were quoted as saying or wrote in letters that Allred’s action was inappropriate. The comments were contained in a preliminary review of Allred by the House sergeant-at-arms for Speaker Joe Hackney. That report is now in the hands of the Legislative Ethics Committee. Allred said he’s done nothing wrong and that GOP members stabbed him in the back with their statements. Later Thursday, state Republican Party Chairwoman Linda Daves called on Allred to resign from the House.

MORE ON EASLEY: Republican leaders remain unhappy about how Democrats in the Legislature and at the Executive Mansion are responding to flaps over former Gov. Mike Easley and first lady Mary Easley. Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, wrote to Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue, Senate leader Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney to investigate more aggressively why the Highway Patrol doesn’t have Easley’s travel records in 2005 and the hiring of Mary Easley and N.C. State University. Democrats in charged of a Senate appropriations subcommittee rejected a request by Berger to hold hearing into the missing records, saying a federal grand jury and the State Board of Elections already are examining private aircraft flights by Easley’s family.

FREQUENT HONORS: The House and Senate passed several resolutions honoring late North Carolina residents, including former Insurance Commissioner Jim Long, who died in February, a month after leaving office. Long previously served in the state House and also served as the general counsel to then-House Speaker Liston Ramsey before being elected insurance commissioner in 1984. The Senate honored late state Rep. Ted Kinney of Cumberland County, who died in November, while the House remembered Medal of Honor winner Jack Lucas, who died last June.

THURSDAY’S SCORECARD:

In the House:
- H291, to license people who practice natural hair braiding and have completed a curriculum at an approved cosmetic art school. Tentatively approved 78-34. Next: Final House vote.
- H746, to increase fees for licensed professional counselors. Tentatively approved 81-30. Next: Final House vote.

In the Senate:
- H65, to reauthorize a law that allows intellectually gifted students under age 16 to attend community college. Approved 47-0. Next: To Gov. Beverly Perdue’s desk.
- H170, to require the Secretary of State to contact political parties and potential electors to remind them about a state law prohibiting a person from serving in two elected offices at once. Approved 47-0. Next: Return to House for concurrence motion.
- H316, to authorize charter schools to give admissions priority to twins and other multiple siblings. Tentatively approved 44-0. Next: Final Senate vote.

AROUND THE STATEHOUSE:

The head of state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said lawmakers should take steps to keep prosecutors and juries from disproportionately imposing death sentences on black defendants. The Rev. William Barber said at a news conference there’s proof that evidence that racial prejudice plays a role in sending innocent black men to death row. Legislation that passed the state Senate last week would allow an accused killer to challenge his conviction or death sentence if he can show that race played an inappropriate role. An amendment to the bill would allow executions to restart after a two-year halt.

ON THE AGENDA:

The General Assembly is essentially taking another long weekend, this time for Memorial Day. The Senate won’t have a regular session Monday, while the House will convene but hold neither committee meetings nor recorded votes. The Legislature didn’t vote on any legislation last Monday night either after working long hours the week before to pass hundreds of bills before a self-imposed deadline. House budget subcommittees also will resume working early next week.

House Speaker Joe Hackney says Miss USA Kristen Dalton will visit the Legislative Building on Tuesday. Dalton is from Wilmington and has a degree from East Carolina University. She won the pageant competition April 19 in Las Vegas.

QUOTABLE:

“The harsh reality is that the state of North Carolina has killed innocent black men and placed black men on death row because of their race or because of the race of their victim.” – the Rev. William Barber, state NAACP chapter president, at a news conference seeking support for the Racial Justice Act, which would allow capital murder defendants to ask a judge to stop the death penalty from being considered in a case if race played a significant factor in a prosecutor seeking a death sentence.

HEADLINES:

- Lawmakers take no recorded votes during Monday night session after long crossover week
- Berger wants Senate committee leaders to look into missing patrol travel records
- Barbara Blake, wife of Sen. Harris Blake, dies at age 79

THE BRIEF:

MAKING QUICK WORK: The House and Senate completed their work within 15 minutes of gaveling their floor sessions in on Monday night. The chambers took no recorded votes to give lawmakers a four-day weekend from the Legislative Building if they chose to stay away after working long hours last week to beat the General Assembly’s self-imposed crossover deadline. About the half of the Senate’s 50 members and 50 of the 120 representatives were on the floor as the chambers took care of administrative work before adjourning.

REPUBLICANS: Senate Republican Leader Phil Berger wants a Senate committee to look into why the Highway Patrol doesn’t have travel records for former Gov. Mike Easley in 2005. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported earlier this month that the patrol couldn’t provide records for the first year of Easley’s second year while it could for surrounding years. Berger wrote a letter asking the leaders of the Senate justice and public safety subcommittee to call on the Highway Patrol commander and state crime control Secretary Reuben Young to testify to explain what went wrong. The ex-governor’s travel records are notable because a federal grand jury investigation has asked for patrol records related to flights Easley and his family took or privately owned aircraft. The patrol already has said it’s investigating why the 2005 records are missing.

SENATOR’S WIFE DIES: The wife of Sen. Harris Blake, R-Moore, has died. The funeral for Barbara Blake was Monday at Community Presbyterian Church in Pinehurst. She died Friday night at her home at age 79. Harris Blake had missed several floor sessions in recent weeks. The Blakes were married for 56 years. Barbara Blake was a former school teacher who helped start the speech therapy program in the Moore County public schools. She also was active in her church.

MONDAY’S SCORECARD:

No recorded votes taken.

ON THE AGENDA:

- Gov. Beverly Perdue will sign into law Tuesday a bill approved by the Legislature last week that will ban smoking in all restaurants and bars in January. The measure provides some exceptions for country clubs and patios that have two or fewer walls. The signing ceremony will occur in the old House chamber inside the old Capitol building a block away from the Legislative Building. North Carolina is the nation’s top tobacco-growing state. More than 30 states have passed similar legislation.

- A House bill that would ban drivers from text messaging or sending e-mails with their cell phones is slated to be heard Tuesday in a Senate judiciary committee. The House approved the bill last month by a wide margin. Violators of the law could pay a $100 fine and court costs.