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Every day, scores of motorists heading to downtown Raleigh look up and say to themselves, "What is the question?"

That's because the N.C. Republican Party spent $1,400 on a billboard on southbound Capital Boulevard that reads: "Answer the question BEV."

The party put up the sign for a month. It's part of a concerted effort to tar Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue with the same type of ethical and legal issues that have been swirling around her predecessor, Democrat Mike Easley.

So far, the party's efforts have been focused on news conferences. The billboard is a new front, although it's unclear how effective it has been since most people have no idea what it means.

Party Chairman Tom Fetzer said the billboard refers to a series of questions that essentially ask whether Perdue's campaign engaged in practices meant to skirt campaign finance law.

The questions, Fetzer said, include whether Perdue asked Wilmington financier and N.C. Board of Transportation member Lanny Wilson to give money to the N.C. Democratic Party with the understanding that the money would be funneled back to Perdue. Wilson, in an elections board hearing on Easley's campaign, testified that he funneled money through the party for Easley.

The questions further ask if Perdue's former chief of staff, Zach Ambrose, announced his decision to leave Perdue's office because of what Fetzer said were Ambrose's close ties to Wilson. Ambrose announced his departure on the same day Wilson quit the transportation board, which was also the day a federal indictment against former Easley aide Ruffin Poole became public. Wilson's dealings with Poole figured prominently in the indictment.

When asked by Dome to produce evidence supporting the allegations against Ambrose, Fetzer declined.

A spokesman for Perdue's campaign said the allegations were absolutely false.

"Fetzer continues to use this campaign of innuendo to draw associations. It's like McCarthyism," said Marc Farinella, a spokesman for Perdue's campaign. "Nothing like that transpired, and Fetzer should be embarrassed that he would malign somebody without a shred of evidence to back it up."

When reached Thursday, Ambrose, who was also Perdue's campaign manager, said: "There's no truth to any of that. It's hogwash."

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS: As jubilant Democrats prepared for President Barack Obama to sign their landmark health care legislation in a ceremony at the White House, Republicans opened a campaign on Monday to repeal the legislation and to use it as a weapon in this year's hotly contested midterm elections. (NYT)

NUH-UH: Federal prosecutors defended the charges against Ruffin Poole, a one-time aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, in court filings.

Poole, 38, has been charged with 57 counts of corruption. The indictment accuses him of receiving money, trips and gifts from developers while he was taking official action to ensure environmental permits were processed for the developers. (N&O)

IT TAKES TIME: The head of the State Board of Elections said they are working on reviews of the campaign finances for candidates for governor. The investigations take time, said Gary Bartlett, executive director of the elections board.

"We're working on it," Bartlett said. "I'm certain that what he is trying to do is keep everything in the public domain to keep doing what he thinks is right for his party. You just can't do everything instantly." (N&O)

"If we owe anybody any money, we ought to pay it," Easley testified.

A federal grand jury has issued an updated indictment alleging more crimes were committed by former senior state official Ruffin Poole.

The indictment (link below) drops some previous charges and adds others, including three counts of income tax evasion in 2005, 2006 and 2007, Andy Curliss reports. The tax charges relate to investment payments Poole received from developers but did not report on tax forms, according to the new indictment.

Poole is a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley. Poole had made about $55,000 in profit on the developments, named Cannonsgate and Summerhouse, both of which are Down East. The new indictment also replaces two earlier bribery charges that were leveled against Poole with two counts of accepting "corrupt payments" from the developers.

In addition, the indictment adds three new charges related to email messages between Poole and Wilmington developer Lanny Wilson that the indictment alleges were part of carrying out unlawful activity. The specific charges are "use of facilities in interstate commerce in aid of racketeering." Poole is now chraged with a total of 57 counts, all related to receiving money, trips and gifts from developers while he was also taking official action to ensure needed permits were processed for the developers, according to the indictment.

In January, the grand jury brought 51 corruption charges. Poole has sought dismissals of all of them. Poole is due in court late today. A trial date could be firmed up. Also, he could answer the charges against him formally.

Depending on the vote of undecided U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, half of North Carolina's Democrats could join congressional Republicans this weekend in opposing the final passage of a sweeping health care overhaul.

Already, the state's three most conservative Democrats are expected to vote no — just as they did in November when the health care bill first came up for a vote. (N&O)

In July, Gov. Bev Perdue signed an executive order directing the state's information technology staff to implement a new system "as soon as practicable" to automatically archive government e-mail for 10 years.

But eight months later, only 1.4 percent of the 60,787 e-mail accounts maintained by the state are on the new archiving system. Though there have been some technical hurdles, the problem is primarily money. (N&O)

The ex-aide to former Gov. Mike Easley is returning to a North Carolina federal court and may find out whether the start of his trial will be pushed back. (AP)

In her first 15 months in office, Wood, a Democrat, has issued 10 investigative audits. Those reports focus less on accounting and more on complaints about fraud, waste and abuse. Her predecessor, Republican Les Merritt, released 23 investigative audit reports in the first 15 months of his term that began in 2004. Wood and Merritt have similar totals for the other types of reports published by the agency such as routine audits of financial statements. (N&O)

INDICTMENT FAIL? A lawyer representing Ruffin Poole, a onetime aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, asked a federal judge to dismiss the corruption case against Poole because the indictments fail to show that he did favors for a developer for financial gain and because he cannot be charged with accepting bribes because he was not a public official. (N&O)

CASE CONTINUED: A panel of judges freed him after he served 17 years for a murder he didn't commit, but it appears the police aren't done investigating Greg Taylor.

The Raleigh Police Department plans to look for DNA evidence by testing the clothes taken from Taylor during the original homicide investigation, according to his attorney. (N&O)

A lawyer for Ruffin Poole is challenging an aspect of the allegations against Poole — that the longtime aide to former Gov. Mike Easley "carefully concealed" his financial dealings with a coastal developer by routing the payments through a family business.

In a new court filing, Poole lawyer Joseph Zeszotarski notes that prosecutors allege Poole "carefully concealed his receipt of ... income by having it funneled through a family corporation," J. Andrew Curliss reports on the Investigations blog.

In the filing, Zeszotarski wrote that Poole "had no knowledge, prior to indictment, of anyone contending that he conducted his financial affairs in this manner. Not surprisingly, [Poole] disputes this characterization of the events."

Poole has not entered a plea, but has indicated in court filings that he will fight at least some of the charges against him.

Zeszotarski does not dispute that money went to Poole from a Wilmington financier, Lanny Wilson, after passing through a Poole family company. And Zeszotarski does not say in the filing what part of the government's characterization he specifically disputes.

The financial transactions are at the heart of the case against Poole, a lawyer who was a key figure in the Easley administration on permitting, appointments and political matters.

Poole, for example, did not disclose on required ethics forms that he received money from Wilson, who was a DOT board member and major political fundraiser. Poole did disclose receiving income from his family business.

The trial is set to begin in late April. But Poole wants more time to prepare.

Federal prosecutors say that a request for a trial delay by Ruffin Poole was based on "three faulty premises" and that the trial should take place in April or May — not August, as Poole has sought.

The prosecutors also indicate they want to make decisions soon in a wide-ranging probe that surrounds former Gov. Mike Easley, J. Andrew Curliss reports. They ask a judge to allow for any trial of Poole to be finished by June 4.

"It is in the public interest to conclude the prosecution of this defendant and the broader investigation as soon as practicable," they wrote in a new court filing.

They said in the court filing that the charges against Poole arose from their broader investigation.

Poole, a longtime aide to Easley, is accused of 51 corruption charges related to allegations he invested in coastal real estate deals and took action to help them while he was a senior aide to the governor.

An attorney for Poole, in a filing last week, sought a delay by noting that the government has been preparing its case for about one year; that the volume of material gathered by the government requires extra time for Poole to prepare; and that Poole is outmanned by the government and so he deserves extra time.

Prosecutors disagreed.

The federal government’s corruption case against Ruffin Poole, a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, is so massive that it would be unfair for a trial to take place as now scheduled in April, his lawyer argues in a new court filing.

Poole only recently began getting access to government files in the case, J. Andrew Curliss reports on the Investigations blog.

The filing provides a peek into the volume of information the government has gathered in its probe surrounding Easley as various people visited the grand jury over the past year and agents conducted interviews.

The case against Poole involves allegations that Poole accepted gifts and money from development interests while he was taking government action to help them. At the time, Poole was a senior counsel to Easley who was generally known as his person to see on permits, appointments and other such matters.

The filing says the case includes:
• More than 36,500 pages of documents provided so far to Poole on discs, but that there are more to come.
• More than 160 files boxes and folders held in a room that Poole and his lawyer will be able to visit.
• More than 80 transcripts of secret grand jury testimony.

The documents include thousands of pages from Charlotte-area developers Gary and Randy Allen whose coastal real estate projects are in the middle of the probe, according to the court filing.

Poole lawyer Joseph Zeszotarski says in the court filing that the government has compiled the documents over the past year and has had two prosecutors and four agents reviewing them. But Poole and his lawyer have not been able to finish “even a cursory review” of the materials produced so far.

Former Gov. Mike Easley is viewed favorably by only 16 percent of N.C. voters, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling.

The poll's results are hardly surprising, given the steady beat of stories about federal and state investigations into Easley's administration. Former aide Ruffin Poole has been indicted on 51 counts of corruption.

PPP asked 788 North Carolina voters for an opinion of Easley and 59 percent had an unfavorable opinion while 25 percent were not sure. 

Easley's favorability numbers are comparable to John Edwards, who was seen favorably by only 15 percent of state voters in a recent PPP poll. Edwards had much higher negatives with 72 percent saying they had an unfavorable opinion of him.

The poll was conducted Feb. 12-15 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.