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UNC-TV has scheduled a series of gubernatorial forums.

The public television station has sent letters to the five Republican and Democratic gubernatorial candidates inviting them to participate in a series of three forums before next May's primary.

The forums will be held at 8 p.m. on Thursdays in Research Triangle Park and aired live on UNC-TV. Each will focus on a single topic, based on the results of a recent Elon University Poll which identified the issues North Carolinians said were the most important.

The first, on Jan. 10, will be on the state's economy. The second, on Feb. 7, will focus on health care. The third, on April 24, will cover education.

Each forum will be 60 minutes long, with the time divided equally between Republican and Democratic candidates. A coin toss will determine which party goes first.

The candidates were asked to reply by Oct. 19.

More than two-thirds of North Carolinians oppose the transfer tax.

But nearly 50 percent would support the tax if its proceeds went entirely to schools, according to a recent survey.

A new state law allows counties to levy a tax, if voters approve in a referendum. More than a dozen counties have put the transfer tax on this fall's ballot.

But the Elon University Poll shows the tax's fate rests on where people think the money is going.

When asked if they would support a transfer tax for local government, 67 percent of respondents said they would oppose or strongly oppose the idea.

But when they were asked if they would support the tax if all of the revenue went to education, only 43 percent were opposed or strongly opposed, and almost 50 percent were in favor of it.

The poll of 664 North Carolina residents was conducted Sept. 24-27 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.

James Moeser will step down as chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Moeser, 68, made the announcement at an annual speech Wednesday, saying he would return to teaching after a term in which he raised $2.2 billion, established a nationally recognized financial aid program and stood firm on academic freedom.

"This university in on an incredible roll," he said.

Over the last eight years, Moeser has overseen a $2 billion construction boom, a rise in the number of research grants and a new emphasis on sciences such as genomics and nanotechnology.

He's also won approval from trustees for the 50-year buildout of Carolina North, a new research campus.

His retirement is effective June 30. (N&O) 

John Edwards wants to make Smart Start national.

In a speech at a Des Moines middle school Friday, the Democratic presidential candidate unveiled an education reform plan that included a nationwide version of North Carolina's early childhood education program, the Boston Globe reports.

Edwards unveiled a similar initiative, called "Great Promise," during his 2004 campaign for president.

The new plan also calls for a partnership to pay teachers more to work in high-poverty schools, create a national teachers university to recruit and train teachers and overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act.

"I grew up in a small, rural town and my parents didn't have a lot of money," Edwards said in a statement. "But I was lucky to have public school teachers who taught me to believe that somebody from a little town in North Carolina could do just about anything if he worked hard and played by the rules."

High schoolers in Hickory quizzed U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry over the Internet.

Using a live Webcam, the students asked the Cherryville Republican about the federal government and the U.S. Constitution, the Hickory Daily Record reports.

The best amendments: Equal voting and civil rights, he said. The worst? Prohibition, which he said should have been a law instead. He told the students that education should be left to local and state governments.

Interestingly, he also praised Congressional gridlock:

"The House can pass a bill with an hour's worth of debate, and in the Senate it can take a week's worth of debate, or it can never pass. I think the founding fathers were brilliant with the inefficiencies because it can take so long to get a bill passed. That's the kind of friction the founding fathers intended," McHenry said. "It's allowed great things to occur. It's tough to pass a bill into law, but that means that fewer bad bills get passed into law, and bills are usually better when they are passed."

Beverly Perdue called her "hometown paper" Wednesday.

After the news broke that the lieutenant governor would kick off her campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination on Oct. 1, Perdue rang up the New Bern Sun Journal.

She wanted to call "my hometown paper to tell my friends at home how excited I am."

In the brief interview, Perdue said she would focus on improving public schools, community colleges and universities and improve health care.

"A big personal goal is that, at the end of the day, I leave North Carolina better than I found it," she said.

As with other candidates, Perdue left her heart in New Bern.

A native of Virginia, she moved to the coastal city in 1975 and raised her family there. After serving in the legislature for Craven County districts, she was elected lieutenant governor in 2000.

Since 2000, Perdue has mostly lived in a house in Chapel Hill, but she maintains a home in New Bern and is still registered to vote there.

Richard Moore wants to buy land for schools before they're actually needed.

In a letter to county commissioners, the state treasurer proposed a new nonprofit corporation called the N.C. Future School Partnership to buy land and start permitting schools before they're needed. He said that would help lock in lower prices.

"Getting started on projects earlier and completing them faster will save counties and taxpayers millions of dollars that can be used to invest in other worthy projects or to hold down property taxes," Moore writes in the letter.

He estimated that the nonprofit would be able to save between five and 20 percent on each school, or up to $6 million on a $30 million high school. The state needs about $10 billion in new schools to meet demand over the next five years.

Moore is running for the Democratic nomination for governor.

Gov. Mike Easley is widely expected to veto a bill to provide incentives to the Goodyear tire company.

If so, it would be the eighth veto he's made — as well as the eighth in North Carolina history, since he is the first governor to use the veto.

As this list shows, Easley has vetoed bills on a wide variety of issues: Making legislative appointments, changing mortgage lending laws, changing teacher certification, compensating billboard owners, changing teacher certifications, selling an airport site to Currituck County for a dollar and granting access to state buildings to employees associations.

Hat Tip: Denise Jones

Correction: An earlier version of the post incorrectly said that Easley was the first governor to have veto power. He is the first governor to use the veto.

The state budget includes $500,000 for athletes at black colleges.

The scholarship fund was tucked into the budget a few hours before the final vote and did not come up for debate in a committee.

Under the fund, two athletes at each of the state's 10 historically black colleges and universities will receive a $1,250-a-year scholarship, paid from the fund's interest.

Five of the colleges are private institutions, including Shaw University and St. Augustine's in Raleigh.

Athletic scholarships at public colleges are typically funded by private donations.

State Sen. Charlie Dannelly, a Charlotte Democrat, said he requested the money. (N&O)

Bill Graham said the state budget was "irresponsible."

The candidate for the Republican nomination for governor said that the annual budget has caused spending to grow too fast, noting that it increased by 9.5 percent or about $1.8 billion since last year.

"This type of irresponsible spending is simply not acceptable," he said in an Aug. 6 statement. "North Carolinians deserve better."

Graham said the budget "failed to properly address" the state's high school dropout rate, traffic-congested roads or high taxes.

"Seldom have so few spent so much to accomplish so little," he said.

Earlier: Richard Moore likes budget, but not debt; Beverly Perdue praises its new tax credit; Bob Orr calls it "smoke and mirrors."