RALEIGH, N.C. – The State Employees Association of North Carolina and the Legislative Black Caucus have thrown their political support behind legislation to regulate and tax video gaming in North Carolina.

State Representative Earl Jones (D-Guilford) today announced the endorsements during a press conference at the Legislative Building in Raleigh.

“We are looking for a resolution to our budget crisis,” said Representative Alma Adams (D-Guilford) chairwoman of the Black Legislative Caucus. “We are here to support video lottery terminals because we see it as a viable option for additional revenue. The games are here, people are playing them, so we need to look at regulating and taxing them,” Rep. Adams said.

“I have supported the lottery, I have voted against video poker but I am here today to take a second look,” said State Representative Jean Farmer-Butterfield (D-Wilson). “It’s time to regulate and tax video gaming as a revenue source for the state. We have to come up with a way to generate revenue. The Legislative Black Caucus cares about people with needs in our state. We see video gaming as a permanent source of revenue.”

“We are in a real budget crisis in North Carolina. As these men and women work here today to find more than a billion dollars in revenue, the Entertainment Group of North Carolina is coming to the General Assembly asking them to regulate and tax the video gaming industry,” said William Thevaos, president of the Entertainment Group of North Carolina.

“While there is an army of lobbyists and special interest groups working the halls of the General Assembly today opposing budget cuts and new taxes, the Entertainment Group of North Carolina is the only group down here on Jones Street asking for more regulation and taxation,” added Thevaos.

Recent Superior Court rulings have validated video gaming rights in North Carolina. Earlier this year, Wake County Superior Court Judge Howard Manning ruled it was unconstitutional to grant video gaming rights to the Cherokee nation without granting the same rights to citizens in all 100 counties.

“Video gaming is alive and operating well in North Carolina,” said Chase Brooks, a video gaming operator from Burlington. “In one mile of the State Capitol, I can take you to a video sweepstake center. These court rulings mean we will see a proliferation of video gaming in the state, that’s why it is critical for the Legislature to take action this session.”

Thevaos said if the Legislature fails to act the lawmakers will be turning back the hands of time. “We cannot afford to return to the dark days. We need to move forward in a partnership with the Governor and Legislature to oversee, regulate and tax video lottery terminals,” stated Thevaos.

“If you really want to clean up video poker, if you want to make video gaming transparent – then enter into a partnership with the industry to regulate and tax it. There are $498 million reasons we need to do it,” said Thevaos.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – Arcade machine owners who want to return to the video poker business in North Carolina say they want to remove the cloud hanging over the games.

A House judiciary committee heard about a bill Tuesday to legalize video gambling terminals again and give the state 20 percent of the profits. The Legislature banned the machines in July 2007, but there has been a series of legal rulings that threaten to invalidate the ban.

Video poker had been tainted because one of its biggest supporters was then-House Speaker Jim Black. He is in federal prison after pleading guilty to a corruption count unrelated to video poker.

No vote was taken on the bill Tuesday. There’s not much support from leaders in the House and Senate.

RALEIGH, N.C.  – North Carolina’s brief foray into video poker was marred by charges of corruption and influence. It triggered a yearslong fight that ended with the machines banned and a sheriff in prison.

Now, after many thought the issue was finally laid to rest, it’s emerging again amid legal uncertainty.

A judge’s decision this week to strike down North Carolina’s ban on video poker machines has rekindled the debate over awkward gaming laws. The state is expected to appeal, and for now North Carolina lawmakers are laying low and watching what happens in the courts.

But the case is being watched around the country as federal and state officials try manage agreements between sovereign states and tribal lands, all under the umbrella of an inconclusive federal law.

The N&O reports that a state court struck down North Carolina’s ban on video poker Thursday, ruling that it was unlawful to allow the machines on an Indian reservation but prohibit them in the rest of the state.

In an inauguration defined by a sense of change, the experience of watching Barack Obama take office was fittingly revolutionary.

Like never before, Americans watched the inauguration of an incoming president online through live video streaming across their computers. And wholly wrapped up in following Inauguration Day 2009 on the Web was reacting to them – blogging, vlogging and tweeting.

Essentially every major news outlet offered live feeds on their respective Web sites in what was potentially the most Web-driven coverage of a significant news event yet. It was partly out of necessity, since many viewers were at work in front of their computers – and away from TV sets – for the midday swearing in.

It was also a notable benchmark in the fast evolution of online video. At the time of the last inauguration, YouTube didn’t even exist.

The major news portals – Yahoo.com, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, AOL News, The New York Times, ABC.com, CBS.com, Fox.com, WashingtonPost.com – all streamed the festivities, some with video embedded right on their home page for the first time. Akamai Technologies Inc., which delivers Internet video for many Web sites, said the inauguration was a record for them, with 7.7 million people watching video streams at the same time.

So much video meant bandwidth was stretched considerably for many sites and many servers. On the whole, the webcasts appeared to function well, albeit with some lags. Keynote Systems Inc., which tracks Web site performance, said the Internet’s top 40 sites slowed down by as much as 60 percent when the ceremony started at 11 a.m., and many news sites saw even sharper declines in performance.

Many sites streaming the festivities gave four different perspectives on the ceremony, giving the viewer the option of watching the primary feed, the crowd amassed along the Mall or other views. The Associated Press’ Online Video Network provided a webcast for many news outlets, including AOL News.

Several outlets looked to combine traditional coverage with new media interactivity.

CNN partnered with Facebook (for users of the social networking site) to include status updates from friends alongside the webcast.

The result was that it (kind of) felt like you were watching along with your friends.

As of 3:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, CNN.com said it served more than 21.3 million live streams globally since 6 a.m. That was nearly four times the amount of live streams on the site on Election Day when there were 5.3 million lives streams.

Mimi Wong, a 28-year-old public defender from Brookline, Mass., watched the CNN.com webcast at work with her colleagues.

“It was pretty cool,” said Wong. “I was actually kind of surprised that the connection was so good.”

Current TV, the user-driven TV network co-founded by Al Gore, likewise combined streaming of the event with Twitter messages or “tweets.” Messages from viewers played at the bottom of both Current’s broadcast and webcast.

Other webcasts were offered by Hulu.com, C-SPAN.org, Joost.com, Ustream.tv (whose feed was available on iPhones, too) and the Presidential Inauguration Committee itself (www.pic2009.org).

But not everyone had a seamless experience watching online. Lyndsey Lewis, a 22-year-old student at the University of Florida, wanted to catch the inauguration online at her school library before heading to class. She checked the webcasts from numerous sites, including CNN and Hulu but was frustrated by the interruptions.

“There were so many pauses that I missed really crucial moments of the inauguration,” said Lewis. “I didn’t expect it to be TV quality, but I definitely thought it would be a lot better than it was.”

Loath to leave behind his BlackBerry, Obama is easily the most tech-savvy president and the country’s first president of the Web 2.0 era. Shortly before taking the oath, he also issued a tweet of his own:

“We just made history. All of this happened because you gave your time, talent and passion. All of this happened because of you.”

The inauguration committee offered official inaugural news updates, transportation notices and invitations by cell phone text messages.

“There’s just a lively discourse on our Web site,” said Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the inauguration committee. “It’s very satisfying because our goal here is to make people feel connected to the party and to the events in Washington and to their government.”

Several sites aimed to let people in on the celebrations in Washington.

The Huffington Post hosted a ball Monday night in Washington that included blogging from attendees, live video on the Web site and photos.

Second Life and Wee World also hosted virtual inaugural balls so that even if you were far away from the festivities, your avatar could be partying the night away.

A number of sites offered bells and whistles to their coverage.

The Washington Post provided satellite imagery of the District of Columbia area and culled a user-generated photo mosaic of Obama through submissions on Flickr.com. (The photo site also began to see pictures pour in Tuesday from Washington and elsewhere, documenting the day.)

YouTube partnered with C-SPAN to gather inaugural addresses from presidencies past. One of YouTube’s stars, Obama Girl, streamed her take on the events live on Stickam.com.

MSNBC.com created a video explorer to let users search transcripts of the past 18 inaugural speeches, matching words with the corresponding video. MSNBC.com and CNN.com both touted Microsoft’s “photosynth” technology, a 3-D panorama of the inauguration.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric followed the network’s prime-time special with an hourlong webcast on cbsnews.com. A more laid-back Couric reported live from the Commander in Chief Ball and apologized if she seemed “a little cuckoo” after being on the air for so long.

A digital transition was also evident at the official site of the president. At noon EST, WhiteHouse.gov unveiled a new design.

It announced: “Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov.”

RALEIGH, N.C. – A state House panel says the chamber should broadcast live video on the Internet of its daily sessions and some committee meetings.

A House committee approved the idea Thursday, sending the findings to House Speaker Joe Hackney for consideration. Democratic Rep. Cullie Tarleton of Watauga County, the committee’s chairman, said all the equipment should produce broadcast-quality video.

He wants television stations to be able to use the footage, and said someday the equipment may be used to broadcast sessions on television.

The Legislature currently provides only audio from the House and Senate floor and two committee rooms. Setting up video coverage could cost the state more than $1 million in upfront costs, and hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Shortly after 9 a.m. on Oct. 19, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president during the taping of “Meet the Press” on NBC. Within minutes, the video was on the Web.

Republicans and Democrats aren’t just split on the issues, they go about finding online video in different ways. Democrats use traditional news sites and social networking sites to discover video, while Republicans generally rely on search engines to find video. However, both parties were almost equal in their use of YouTube.