POLITICAL WIND: A decision by the U.S. Capitol Police suggesting that pigs were a threat to spread H1N1 to humans created an unlikely alliance between People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Lillington Democrat and farmer. The police were wrong, he wrote, in their reason for denying permission for PETA to blow hog-waste infused air toward Congress. Pigs don't give H1N1 to people, he explained. (N&O)
UNLIKELY ARTIST: The African American man who painted a portrait of Jesse Helms had heard of the North Carolina senator, but didn't know much about him. Rene Dickerson, whose art often focuses on scenes of African American culture, struggled to get the caucasian flesh tone right. (N&O)
MACKEY PLEA: State Rep. Nick Mackey pleaded guilty Tuesday to contempt of court for his failure to show up for a December 2007 trial of a client and had his sentencing indefinitely set aside. Mackey, a Charlotte Democrat, faces a hearing next month before the N.C. State Bar's disciplinary hearing commission over allegations that he failed to pay taxes on time and poorly represented a client. (Charlotte Observer)
