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UPDATED: DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S PROBLEMS GROW: The head of the North Carolina Democratic Party is facing questions about credit card charges made during a March trip to a Las Vegas casino to watch basketball games with his old college buddies. Records obtained by The Associated Press show state Democratic Chairman Randy Voller made $3,327 in charges to Southwest Airlines and the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on an American Express Business Gold Card embossed with his name and that of the North Carolina Democratic Party. He said he's paid off the balance in full. Much more to this story -- click here.

N.C. LAWMAKERS TO PLAY "THE OTHER CAROLINA" IN BASKETBALL: North Carolina lawmakers will challenge their South Carolina counterparts to a game of hoops Wednesday evening at Reynolds Coliseum. The game is the first in at least four years between lawmakers from the two Carolinas. Rep. Burt Jones, a Rockingham Republican who will coach the North Carolina squad, helped revive the tradition. “The games in the past were pretty competitive,” he said. (Scouting report below.)

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SENATE BUDGET TIME: The state Senate released a $20.58 billion proposed budget late Sunday night that would eliminate class-size limits for the youngest public school students, move the State Bureau of Investigation to a department the governor’s appointee controls and puts various environmental programs under the control of a state agency. The proposal represents a 2.3 percent increase over the current budget and is about $17 million short of the budget Gov. Pat McCrory proposed in March.

Senate budget writers will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. to discuss it in more detail. Full Senate votes are expected later this week. More here.

NCGA PROTESTERS CHALLENGE CHARGES: As protesters gear up to assemble again Monday to highlight concerns about welfare cuts, health care funding, voting rights, racial justice, tax reform, environmental deregulation, workers rights and more, legal analysts are raising questions about whether the General Assembly police are within their power to arrest the nonviolent demonstrators. Irv Joyner, a law professor at N.C. Central University who has observed the demonstrations, said legal challenges of the arrests are being drafted. “We think we have clear-cut First Amendment issues,” Joyner said. Full story.

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Nearly 200 protesters crowded inside the Legislative Building early Monday evening, singing, chanting and echoing many of the same concerns that demonstrators have for the past three Mondays.

As members of the state House of Representatives tended to business, North Carolinians dissatisfied with tax plans, education policies, health care proposals, welfare cuts, environmental deregulation and new voting policies grew louder and louder. General Assembly police used bullhorns to tell the protesters to quiet down. “You have five minutes to leave,” an officer called out to the demonstrators gathered in the second-floor rotunda.

The crowd, diverse in age and backgrounds, was in Raleigh to take part in a growing protest movement organized by the state NAACP and others to highlight widening concerns about the impact of political initiatives coming out of the Republican-led General Assembly and governor’s mansion.

Forty-nine women and men were arrested, zip-ties binding their hands as they were walked onto a bus which took them as a group to the Wake County detention center on Hammond Road for processing. The week before, 30 people were arrested, and the week before that there were 17 arrests.

--Anne Blythe, staff writer

The North Carolina NAACP plans to risk arrests at the General Assembly with its third consecutive week of protests, AP reports. What the Rev. William Barber is now calling "Moral Mondays" will continue following back-to-back weeks of protests resulting in nearly 50 arrests.

Thirty people were arrested last Monday, a week after 17 protesters were taken into custody. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other activists say the Republican majorities in the legislature are backing a regressive agenda on social programs, voting rights, education and tax policy. The civil rights groups and others say the GOP actions disproportionately hurt the poor and minorities. Barber won't say how long protests will continue. He says they're a part of a wider strategy that includes legal action and political organizing.

MORE ARRESTS EXPECTED AT LEGISLATURE: Activists fighting the Republican legislative agenda say they will return to the Legislative Building on Monday and more plan to be arrested. The civil disobiendence, led by the N.C. NAACP and other groups, is design to raise the public's awareness of the policies GOP-lawmakers are pushing this session. A demonstration a week ago led to 17 arrests.

McCRORY TO TOUT DRILLING IN TEXAS: From AP -- Gov. Pat McCrory is visiting an offshore energy trade conference in Texas to try to help build momentum for drilling off the coast of North Carolina and other states. McCrory says he'll participate Monday in a panel discussion with other governors at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. McCrory says the energy industry could create thousands of jobs and reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and generate state revenues.

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ENERGY COMPANY THWARTS FRACKING RULE: After more than six months of congenial meetings, the N.C. Mining & Energy Commission was set to approve its first fracking rule Friday, perhaps the most important of all the safety rules the commission will write to protect the public and safeguard the environment. The standard spells out which chemicals fracking operators have to publicly disclose when drilling natural gas wells in North Carolina.

But commissioners learned Thursday the proposal they had approved in committee in March is on ice. The problem: Fracking giant Halliburton has told North Carolina’s environmental regulators the rule goes too far. The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources is working to get the rule changed.

The developments raise questions about the independence and integrity of the Mining & Energy Commission, a panel created by the state legislature last year to create safety rules for shale gas exploration. Fracking refers to fracturing shale rock formations using high-pressure water and chemicals to release the natural gas trapped inside. Full story.

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Saying they could stay silent no longer, a group of protesters shouted “we fight” outside the N.C. Senate chamber in an act of civil disobedience that led to 17 arrests.

General Assembly Police Chief Jeff Weaver warned the protesters to disperse from the second floor rotunda three times before arresting them minutes before the Senate convened a 7 p.m. session.

The protest was led by N.C. NAACP President Rev. William Barber, who was among those arrested, along with Duke University professor Tim Tyson. Weaver said the people arrested will likely face charges of disorderly conduct, second degree trespass and violation of building rules.

In the rotunda, Barber condemned the Republican legislature’s agenda for hurting the poor and minorities, saying the voter ID measure approved by the House last week prompted the escalation. “We cannot stand for that silently,” Barber said.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT LEGISLATURE: Clergy and students will participate in an act of civil disobedience Monday at the Legislative Building "in response to the collective acts of the legislature," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP. The action, from 5 p.m.- 6 p.m., will be a "form of a pray-in," Barber said. The House convenes at 4 p.m., the Senate at 7 p.m. The NAACP has opposed the legislative actions reducing unemployment benefits, state House approval of photo voter ID, and other legislative measures.

FOXX TO TAKE OBAMA POST: President Barack Obama on Monday will nominate Mayor Anthony Foxx to be secretary of transportation, a White House official said Sunday on the condition of anonymity. The nomination of Foxx, whose city hosted last year’s Democratic National Convention, would make him the only African-American selected for a Cabinet opening in Obama’s second term. (More below.)

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Though much of the political talk these days focuses on the economic struggles of the middle class, a coalition of civil rights groups hopes to give a voice to the state's poorest this election year.

On Tuesday, leaders from the state NAACP, the UNC-Chapel Hill Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity and the N.C. Justice Center announced plans to hold listening tours in poverty-stricken regions. The first leg of what is being called "The Truth and Hope, Putting a Face on Poverty Tour" is set for Jan. 19 and 20 in six northeastern counties. The Rev. William Barber, head of the state NAACP, said the goal is to "shine the light of truth on poverty and despair in North Carolina" with hopes of developing a massive "Marshall-type plan." Read more here.