Second-hand smoke's worst enemy, state Rep. Hugh Holliman, said he'll try for sweeping changes to state smoking laws this year.

Holliman, the House majority leader from Lexington, said he plans to file a bill Jan. 28, the first day legislators go back to work, that would ban smoking in public places and workplaces, and remove the prohibition against local governments passing smoking bans more stringent than the state's, Lynn Bonner reports.

Holliman has failed in previous years to get the legislature to ban smoking in restaurants. He predicts more progress this year.

"Public awareness has risen where people on both sides of the aisle want to pass this bill," he said.

The American Lung Association gave the state an "F" on its report card on the strength of its "smoke-free air" laws.

Theresa Kostrzewa says this will be a year for streamlining.

The Raleigh lobbyist said that in a tight budget year, legislators will be looking for ways to show their constituents they're working hard that don't involve spending a lot of money.

In particular, she thought that there may be less resistance to reorganizing state government programs to make them more efficient.

Kostrzewa, who represents the Distilled Spirits Council, said she thinks the legislature may be more likely to act on a recommendation from the Program Evaluation Division to modernize the state's Alcohol Beverage Control system.

"Down economic times can be an opportunity to make changes you wouldn't otherwise make," she said. "It would behoove everybody to be as efficient as possible, because if they don't cut it themselves, somebody's going to cut it for them."

Kostrzewa said she also expects legislation that doesn't directly cost government money— such as further restrictions on smoking in public places — will get much more consideration this year.

Wake County Democrats will decide on a new representative next week.

The District 39 Executive Committee will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, at the N.C. Democratic Party headquarters on Hillsborough Street.

Their job is to recommend a replacement for Rep. Linda Coleman, an Eastern Wake Democrat who was appointed head of the Office of State Personnel by Gov. Beverly Perdue last week.

"Any person that is interested in taking her seat is welcome to come and speak," said county chair Doris Weaver. "The committee may also have recommendations that they bring up."

The committee will vote that night on its recommendation, which then heads to state party chairman Jerry Meek and then Perdue, who makes the appointment.

Weaver said she's heard informally from a few people who are interested in the position, but she declined to identify them.

Former Knightdale Mayor Jeanne Bonds, Wake County commissioner Lindy Brown, one-time commissioner candidate Don Mial, Zebulon lawyer Darren Jackson and Knightdale Town Council member James Roberson are rumored to be up for consideration.

The legislature convenes Jan. 28.

A coalition of advocates for the mentally ill and a state Superior Court judge spoke in favor today of legislation that would exclude the severely mentally ill from the death penalty.

Draft legislation introduced at a joint legislative committee today would allow a judge to determine that a defendant suffered from severe mental illness at the time of the killing. The defendant would still face a murder trial, but the worst punishment would be life without parole, Dan Kane reports.

Advocates of the legislation say it would only apply to those with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or from severe brain injuries. Those whose criminal acts were the result of drug or alcohol abuse would not be eligible.

"We're talking about individuals whose distortion of thinking is so severe that it's difficult for us to imagine," said James Ellis, a University of New Mexico law professor who successfully argued to the U.S. Supreme Court several years ago that the mentally retarded should not be executed.

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The appointment by former Gov. Mike Easley on his last day in office of two Raleigh lawyers to the Superior Court bench resulted in some unusual last-minute wrangling to get the incoming judges sworn in late Friday night.

Shannon Joseph and Bill R. Pittman took their oaths at 11 p.m. Friday night in a Wake County courtroom, in front of a crowd of more than 50 that gathered last-minute to watch the proceedings, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Joseph and Pittman’s appointments to special superior court bench will be good for the next five years. They’ll both have offices in the Wake County courthouse, but will preside over cases all over the state, depending on where they are needed.

Joseph, an administrative law judge for the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, had been tied up in High Point that afternoon in a hearing and couldn’t make it back to Raleigh until after the end of the business day.

Wake Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens, who administered the oaths, was on his way to the ball held that evening for Beverly Perdue, who took office the next morning, when he was asked to administer judicial oaths to Pittman and Joseph before Perdue became governor the next day.

The 11 p.m. slot Friday night seemed to be the time everyone could make, Stephens said. It was open to the public, he said, but acknowledged that it'd be hard for the public to know about the ceremony.

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When former Gov. Mike Easley said he "chunked" a letter, copy editors wondered.

The American Heritage Dictionary includes "to throw out; discard" for the verb "to chuck" but no similar definition for the verb "to chunk," Michael Biesecker reports. 

Perhaps the governor misspoke, they concluded.

At a news conference Monday, President George W. Bush raised the question anew when speaking about his support for a bank bailout.

"I readily concede I chunked aside some of my free market principles," he said.

Perhaps, after eight years in the spotlight, both men's command of the English language is misunderestimated.

The state's probation system has a new leader, at least for now.

Tim Moose, a 25-year employee who started his correction career with the Wake probation office, will serve as the director of the Division of Community Corrections until a permanent replacement is found, according to an announcement made this morning by the N.C. Department of Correction, Sarah Ovaska reports.

Moose is filling the job left open when Robert Guy stepped aside when Gov. Beverly Perdue came into office this week. Moose was named director by Alvin Keller, the new N.C. Correction Secretary.

The probation office has been rocked by crisis this year, after the March death of UNC-Chapel Hill student Eve Carson exposed problems with the statewide system. The two men accused in her killing were on probation at that time, but received scant supervision.

Last month, the News & Observer reported that 580 probationers had killed since the start of 2000. The series also showed that the probation system had lost track of nearly 14,000 convicted criminals and that Guy and other leaders missed chances to help officers keep up with their charges.

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During last year's Democratic presidential primary, N.C. Sen. Julia Boseman traveled with Bill Clinton as he stumped for his wife, Hillary. Now the former president is repaying the favor.

Clinton is scheduled to headline a fundraiser this month for the Wilmington Democrat in Raleigh. The same day he'll headline another for U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, Jim Morrill reports.

"It's not everyday the president comes down and throws a fundraiser for you," Boseman said today. "It gives me on start on fundraising for next year."

She might need it.

Through October, she'd spent nearly three-quarters of a million dollars on race she would narrowly win. The Senate Democratic committee helped, giving her $438,000.

Shuler is rumored to be considering a 2010 challenge to Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Spokesman Andrew Whalen said Clinton will help raise money for another House campaign.

"Today," Whalen said, "we're running for re-election to the house."

An order by Gov. Mike Easley to preserve e-mail was a surprise.

The Raleigh News & Observer, the Charlotte Observer and eight other news organizations had sued the former governor in April after it became clear that some employees in his administration were deleting e-mails to keep them from becoming public.

Negotiations over the still-active lawsuit had ceased.

As late as December, the former governor said he would not give news organizations what they sought and that he thought the two newspapers were writing stories critical of his administration because of a lawsuit.

But Friday he signed an executive order agreeing in principle with many of the principles put forward by the newspapers. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue, who is now the defendant in the lawsuit, said she is reviewing the executive order before she decides whether to modify or accept it. (N&O)

Update: Post now includes a copy of the order.

Gov. Beverly Perdue appointed Charles Perusse state budget director.

Perusse has 15 years' experience in state budget and financial management. He served as deputy state budget officer from 2002 to 2008 and was appointed acting budget director in September.

Previously, he worked eight years as a fiscal analyst for the legislature's Fiscal Research Division and spent three years as budget coordinator for the N.C. House of Representatives.

"During this time of revenue shortfalls and impending budget cuts, Mr. Perusse's expertise will be a tremendous asset to my office, to our state agencies and to the people of North Carolina," Perdue said in a statement.

With North Carolina facing a budget gap that could be as high as $3 billion, the state budget director will have a tough task ahead.

With Congress likely to soon consider a huge stimulus package, the Institute for Emerging Issues has scheduled a two-conference on the subject.

Jim Hunt, the former four-term governor, met at lunch with journalists at his law office at Womble Carlyle this afternoon to discuss the forum which will be held Feb. 9 and 10th, Rob Christensen reports.

This year's topic is what North Carolina needs to do improve its infrastructure including building, roads, bridges, water and sewer lines, schools and rail.

The Institute chooses a subject every year to discuss such as taxes or energy.

Hunt, the founder of the forum, said it was luck that infrastructure is so timely because the subject was chosen more than a year ago. The forum, which will be held for the first time at the new Raleigh Convention Center, will include speakers such as Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, New York Times columnist David Brooks, Gov. Beverly Perdue, and and former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Hunt said state spending for road and schools and other projects had not kept pace with growth.

"We have to to do more building," Hunt said "and we got to rethink how we build."

Because of the federal stimulus package, North Carolina should get a lot of new money for public works projects.

The Institute already has working groups preparing recommendations to be discussed at the forum. Hunt hopes the conference will produce some specific recommendations for the legislature.

Former Gov. Mike Easley ordered the state to keep all e-mails.

In one of his last acts in office, Easley signed an executive order that requires state agencies to keep copies of e-mails for at least 10 years and prohibits state employees from deleting messages about state business for at least 24 hours.

It also advises executive branch employees that e-mails are subject to the public records law.

Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts noted that Gov. Beverly Perdue had planned to issue her own order, but Easley beat her to the punch.

On his blog, he notes that the order is double the number of years recommended by a panel after news reports that workers in his administration had deleted some e-mails, though he wonders whether it might allow workers to delete e-mails they decided were not about state business.

"Another question: Why did Easley wait until the end of his administration to issue this order?" Betts writes. "Why not last summer, when it might have done his image some good? Or was he simply waiting until the last minute so his administration would not have to comply with it?" 

Politics + Media = extra $$.

The new state mental hospital needed more than a regular old director.

That's why the state Department of Health and Human Services had to hire J. Michael Hennike as a contractor to run Central Regional Hospital in Butner, it explained in its contract, Lynn Bonner reports.

DHHS hired him under a contract with the UNC-Chapel Hill medical school's psychiatry department for $185,012.

"CRH is in the middle of merging operations between John Umstead Hospital and Dorothea Dix Hospital and the process is highly political and involves the media," the contract's "problem statement" says. "A seasoned manager with vast experience is needed."

Hiring Hennike as a contractor allowed DHHS to pay him about $70,000 more than the going rate for hospital directors.

Although DHHS announced Hennike started Jan. 1, DHHS said he's actually been running the place since Nov. 1. That's when his contract started.

Mark Van Sciver, a DHHS spokesman said Mike Lancaster, the interim director who made way for Hennike, was the "titular head" for a while. Hennike is expected to run Central Regional for two years, according to the contract.

Hennike, who ran the Murdock Center in Butner for years, suspended his state pension payments Dec. 1, according to the state treasurer's office.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the salary. 

Gov. Beverly Perdue promised to create a campaign finance endowment.

In a page on her campaign Web site, Perdue pledged to lead a statewide effort to raise money for a $50 million endowment for public financing of gubernatorial elections.

"Such an endowment should be able to generate between $4-5 million annually in income or $15-20 million over each four-year period between gubernatorial campaigns," the section notes.

The endowment would be managed by a bipartisan group of 12 individuals appointed by the top legislative leaders of both major parties.

To receive the money, candidates would have to pledge they would not run negative ads, would address major issues and attend a series of debates and would not spend any other money on their campaign.

Perdue has already fulfilled part of this promise, signing an executive order today establishing a task force to push for the endowment.

She's already said Tom Lambeth will lead the task force.

A former Wake County commissioner candidate may be appointed to the state House.

The Independent Weekly reports on its Triangulator blog that Don Mial, who ran unsuccessfully for the county board in 2006 and currently serves as vice chair of the Wake County Democratic Party, may be appointed to replace Rep. Linda Coleman.

Gov. Beverly Perdue recently appointed Coleman head of the Office of State Personnel.

Party officials in Coleman's district will nominate Coleman's successor.

The alternative weekly also named former Knightdale Mayor Jeanne Bonds, mental health activist Ann Akland and advocate Bridgette Burge as possible nominees, although Akland and Burge said they're not candidates.