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Every day, the state Department of Labor dispatches workplace inspectors to check for proper emergency exits, ample fire extinguishers, active safety training programs and dozens of other items needed to keep North Carolina workers safe on the job. One thing they’re not asked to look for: proof of workers’ compensation coverage for injured employees.

A News & Observer analysis found 300 businesses whose workers’ comp coverage appeared to be expired at the time of the inspection last year. It’s a simple cross-check of databases but no one in state government has bothered to do it. Read more here.

Other political news:

--President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are dining with winners of a campaign contest that included David Garcia, an associate music professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

What is it that makes some politicians, despite being well-educated, silk-stockinged and pedigreed, try to speak like a field hand – or at least as though they’d never set foot inside an English class? Columnist Barry Saunders writes: I call it political linguistic slumming – PLS – and the most recent egregious example is being committed by gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory in his new TV ad. Read his full column here. 

More political news: 

--On the final stop of his North Carolina tour Sunday, a buoyant Mitt Romney bounded from his bus in the middle of a High Point street. Followed by his new running mate, he walked along waving to supporters who lined the curb, even obliging some with high-fives. It was hard to tell who was more enthusiastic, the candidate or the crowd. Full story here.

State House Democratic leader Joe Hackney, said he finds it hard to believe that the GOP is trying to take credit for raising the high school graduation rate during the year and half they have been in control of the legislature.

"After firing more than 6,000 educators in the past two years, Republicans are now unbelievably trying to take credit for the remarkable improvement in our state's graduation rate," Hackney,  the fomrer House speaker said.

More than 80 percent of North Carolina public school students are now graduating from high school — the first time the state has reached that milepost.

Education leaders say a variety of state and local efforts aimed at encouraging students to stay in school have helped raise the graduation rate by nearly 12 percentage points in the last six years. “None of us are proud of 80 percent,” said Gov. Bev Perdue at a news conference on the graduation results. “ But wow it’s a good day, a great way forward for North Carolina.” (Read more here.)

Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis waded into the who-deserves-credit game: “This achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our state’s students, parents, teachers, principals, and superintendents, and they are to be commended for their results," he said in a statement.

This is the last year of a much-maligned system that made parents angry, caused teachers to complain that they had to “teach to the test,” and kept principals up nights worried about showing improvement. The ABCs are gone after Thursday. In its place is a new measuring stick that emphasizes national standards and students’ readiness for college and work. Read more about the changes here.

More political news:

--Michelle Obama attended a campaign rally in Greensboro, previewing her role at the Democratic National Convention, and then attended a fundraiser in Raleigh in which she defended her husband's administration.

--Even in the wake of last month’s Colorado shooting rampage and a gunman’s spree last year that nearly killed former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, don’t expect Democrats to arrive in Charlotte armed with renewed calls for tougher gun laws. The issue is too risky.

Democratic state Superintendent June Atkinson is traveling the state on a political tour talking about spending cuts to education testing a new line: Republican budgets lead to larger class sizes and hurt learning.

Dubbed the "Class Size Matters" tour, it's a twist on the Democratic message about how the Republicans' budget led to about a thousand fewer teachers. Fewer teachers "means larger class sizes  and that means teachers are stretched thin," Atkinson said in a conference call Monday to introduce the August tour organized by the N.C. Democratic Party.

A weakness in the message: the numbers. Atkinson and the party are unable to cite any statistics showing class sizes have increased under the last two Republican budgets.

A proposal for the state’s first online charter school hit a major roadblock Friday toward its planned opening in August.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Abe Jones overturned a May decision by a state administrative law judge that would have allowed N.C. Learns, a nonprofit organization, to open the N.C. Virtual Academy.

Sen. Fletcher Hartsell, a Republican from Cabarrus County and attorney representing the online program, said the principal backers of the idea would get together and decide whether to appeal Jones’ ruling or seek approval from the State Board of Education. Full story here.

UPDATED: Republican legislative leaders on Wednesday urged Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue to sign the state's $20.2 billion budget, saying her quibbling about $100 million in money for education doesn't outweigh the other spending priorities.

"$100 million in a $20.2 billion budget, it seems to me, is not the difference between nirvana and devastation," said Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger.

"The governor is literally willing to oppose this budget over a fraction and put all of this funding at risk over a fraction ... less than a percent," House Speaker Thom Tillis added.

Local elected officials, immigration activists and others had mixed reactions to Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that threw out key provisions of a controversial Arizona immigration law. Read more here.

More political headlines:

--From AP: Rielle Hunter says she and former presidential candidate John Edwards have ended their relationship. Hunter told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday that she and Edwards were still a couple until late last week, as details from Hunter's memoir became public. The breakup was painful, but Hunter said Edwards will still be involved with their daughter, Quinn, who is 4 years old and lives with Hunter.

State legislators want high school students to take the stanadardized tests ACT and WorkKeys, but provided no money in the budget for them.

Legislators last year endorsed the move toward these national standardized tests as a means of measuring school quality and student readiness for college or work. Schools gave 11th graders the ACT this spring, but the state Department of Public Instruction had to scrape together the money to pay for it.

June Atkinson, state superintendent of public instruction, told legislative leaders in a letter last week that the department probably wouldn't be able to scrounge up enough money to pay for another round.