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The North Carolina United Methodist Church has adopted resolutions on Medicaid expansion, family planning, homosexuality and a Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted of murder.

The conference, at its three-day conference in Greenville that concluded Saturday, also took to task the North Carolina General Assembly for a spate of legislation that run contrary to the church’s social principles, including voter ID, cuts in education, access to health care, putting the tax burden on the poor and middle class, and degrading the environment.

The conference supports expanding Medicaid that the federal government would have funded to extend health coverage to about half a million low-income people in the state. The General Assembly and Gov. Pat McCrory refused the expansion.

UNC President Tom Ross weighed in Friday on the House budget that passed this week, saying it has "sobering implications" for the university campuses.

"Across the country, state leaders from both parties are making strategic investments in their public universities," Ross told the UNC Board of Governors. "They understand that talent is the most valuable commodity in today's economic competition and they're gearing up to compete."

Updated Sate Sen. Bob Rucho has resigned his position as co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee in a dispute with the Senate's Republican leader over competing tax bills.

The Meckenburg County Republican prepared a detailed tax-reform bill earlier this year. But this week, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger crafted his own plan, calling it a compromise among Rucho's plan, a House plan and what Berger wants to see.

The Associated Press broke the story. Rucho says in his letter he and Berger have a "fundamental disagreement" over the issue.

"It is a huge disappointment that the Governor and the Speaker of the House did not provide the leadership or have the political backbone to fight the special-interest groups," Rucho wrote.

Rucho's bill would expand services subject to sales taxes, which Berger's plan does not.

Rucho spoke briefly with Dome this morning and said he thought a legislative meeting earlier this year with economists showed "a clear pathway" to tax reform, which his bill reflected.

"There just seemed to be a lot of resistance from a lot of special interest groups that would rather have loopholes than fair tax policy," Rucho said.

Update: Berger's office has released a letter in response, in which Berger "respectfully declines to accept" Rucho's resignation.

Gov. Pat McCrory has writer’s cramp, or he should. He signed 39 bills on Wednesday.

His office is highlighting HB903, a bill related to transferring credits from community college to the UNC system; HB146, which requires the state Board of Education to teach cursive writing and memorizing multiplication tables; and SB129, which prohibits issuance of a certain kind of debt.

Bill sponsors joined the governor for the signings.

Update: BTW, here are the rest of those bills: HB 10, HB 25, HB 32, HB 114, HB 125, HB 142, HB 301, HB 315, HB 361, HB 368, HB 383, HB 384, HB 407, HB 410, HB 449, HB 480, HB 532, HB 581, HB 591, HB 610, HB 687, HB 710, HB 774, HB 788, HB 789, HB 813, HB 821, HB 829, SB 208, SB 210, SB 252, SB 279, SB 433, SB 460, SB 603 and SB 634.

Eight protesters were arrested when they refused to leave the Legislative Building on Wednesday, as part of a larger demonstration by the NAACP.

One of the arrested was Durham City Councilman Steve Schewel.

The eight were arrested as they and supporters loudly sang spirituals outside the chamber where the state House of Representatives was debating the budget. House Speaker Thom Tillis had the doors to the chamber locked for the duration of the protest.

The supporters filled the third-floor rotunda and looked down at the group on the second floor that chose to be taken into custody.

The arrests followed a rally outside the statehouse led by the NAACP’s Rev. William Barber, who led a crowd of about 100 into the building.

Barber said seven of those who volunteered for arrest symbolize the deaths of key figures in the civil rights movement, including Medgar Evers, the NAACP activist who was murdered 50 years ago Wednesday. The eighth person was guiding a man in a wheelchair who was arrested. Two of the eight protesters were confined to wheelchairs.

The NAACP dubbed the event “Witness Wednesday,” following several weeks of “Moral Mondays,” which have drawn thousands of protesters and resulted in more than 350 arrests.

The major gun bill this session was significantly altered in a Senate committee on Tuesday morning to do away with the requirement that people obtain a permit before they can buy a handgun.

The bill would also expand the places that those with permits to carry concealed handguns can bring their weapons to include all educational property, not just colleges and universities, as was in the previous version of the bill.

Still in the bill, which was approved earlier by the House, are provisions that allow concealed permitholders to bring handguns into bars and other places that serve alcohol, unless the owners prohibit it, and prevents cities and counties from prohibiting firearms on greenways.

“We’re here to enhance our Second Amendment rights, which have been too long restricted by the previous majority,” said Sen. Buck Newton, a Republican who represents parts of Johnston, Wilson and Nash counties. “These are, by definition, law-abiding citizens,” referring to those with permits to carry concealed weapons.

The committee heard from supporters and opponents of the proposals. More than one dozen uniformed police chiefs from the state’s university system attended to express their opposition to the provision allowing guns on campuses.

The bill also increases some penalties for gun crimes, and expands mental health background checks. It also makes confidential records of concealed carry permits issued and records of sales of weapons.

The New York Times on Saturday editorialized against North Carolina's repeal of the Racial Justice Act, which is headed to the governor's desk for his signature.

The Times editorial recounts the context around the 2009 law, which allowed convicted killers to try to have their sentences converted to life without parole by proving racial bias against them, including evidence that prosecutors kept African-Americans off juries.

"The persistence of racial bias in death penalty prosecutions makes abolishing capital punishment even more urgent," the editorial concludes.

The protest at the General Assembly on Monday, which will be led by clergy from around the state, brings together a cross-section of Christians, including Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists.

Their involvement marks a noteworthy turning point in the weekly protests, which have led to the arrests of more than 300 people over five weeks. While the organizers of the “Moral Mondays” movement have been partisan, the clergy make a point of saying their interest isn’t political.

“Rather it is a matter of faith with respect to our understanding of the biblical teachings and imperatives to protect the poor, respect the stranger, care for widows and children and love our neighbors,” according to the statement, which was provided to Dome over the weekend.

Former state Rep. Stephen LaRoque has been convicted on 12 counts of federal charges related to accusations that he enriched himself with U.S. Department of Agriculture money that he was supposed to loan to struggling rural business owners.

The verdict came Friday morning in a federal courtroom in Greenville. Sentencing is set for Sept. 10.

The trial began in mid May and involved testimony about complex financial transactions that the government contended amounted to theft and money laundering.

LaRoque, who was represented by Raleigh attorneys Joseph Cheshire V and Elliot Abrams, argued that prosecutors were trying to describe "legitimate transactions" as theft.

Prosecutors contended LaRoque’s defense tried to portray the alleged crimes as “mere ethical lapses” that didn’t constitute crimes. But the prosecutors argued the case was about the theft of $300,000 in federal funds, and LaRoque’s attempts to conceal the theft and avoid taxes through “sham loans.”

The federal jury began their deliberations on Wednesday and came back with their verdict shortly before noon.

-- Anne Blythe

The full House on Wednesday gave its final approval of a bill repealing the 2009 Racial Justice Act, which would re-start executions in North Carolina if it becomes law.

The legislation has to return to the Senate for concurrence in minor changes a House committee made to the bill earlier this month. Wednesday’s vote was 77-39, mostly along party lines.

Democrats say the Racial Justice Act, which allows convicted killers to petition to get off death row if they can prove racial bias in their cases, has been proven as necessary by a Cumberland County judge’s rulings in a handful of cases already. But Republicans say there are other ways of challenging whether a trial was free of bias or not.