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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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Carl Mumpower, a conservative blogger from Asheville, clinical psychologist, former Asheville City Councilman and former GOP congressional candidate, accuses the legislature of the "theft" of the Asheville water system.

"Representatives Tim Moffitt, Nathan Ramsey, and Chuck McGrady are a few days away from commandeering Asheville's water system. Asheville's City Council is to be commended for their decision to fight back with one of the few cards remaining in their deck. Taking legal action merits support and enthusiasm by all citizens - especially those with a firm interest in fair play. Much repeated misassumptions merit challenge-

1. "This is a waste of money" - No, just the opposite. Spending several hundred thousand dollars in the attempt to salvage a billion dollar plus asset is a smart .

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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STATE ELECTION OFFICIALS TO INVESTIGATE GAMBLING DONATIONS: State elections officials are calling for an investigation of $235,000 in political donations to dozens of North Carolina candidates from an Oklahoma sweepstakes operator, contributions that they say may have violated state campaign finance laws, AP reported. Gov. Pat McCrory, state House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate leader Phil Berger are among those who received the checks, many of them mailed from a Charlotte lobbying firm where McCrory worked until just before he took office.

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: The House will consider three highly contentious measures Tuesday: first, a sweeping immigration bill at 10 a.m. in House Judiciary Subcommittee B and a gun bill at the same time in House Judiciary Subcommittee A, and then, at 2 p.m., the full House convenes to hear a voter ID measure. Immigration advocates are expected to appear in full force at the legislative building today to lobby. Also today: a House panel will also consider a bill to adopt a state marsupial, among other state symbols, and a Senate committee will hear a bill to make hospitals more transparent in their billing.

Gov. Pat McCrory -- and legislative leaders -- will attend the NFIB meeting in Raleigh at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. Later in the day, the governor will sign Kilah's Law (HB75) at a 4:30 p.m. ceremony at the Capitol.

Thanks for reading the Dome Morning Memo -- our thoughts are with Jamie and Nation Hahn's family and friends today. More North Carolina political news and analysis below.

A bipartisan bill filed this week would place firm restrictions on drones. The North Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union immediately praised the legislation as providing needed safeguards.

“Across the country, law enforcement agencies are greatly expanding their use of domestic drones to conduct surveillance on citizens, often without any oversight,” state ACLU policy director Sarah Preston said in a statement.

House Speaker Thom Tillis on Wednesday announced his choices to lead several key committees, elevating several second-term representatives to prominent positions.

State Republicans are highlighting seven Democratic House seats they believe could go their way in the fall based on polling results published by two conservative-leaning polling outfits.

Democrats hold 68 seats and Republicans hold 52 seats in the state House. The House Republican caucus believes the polling data shows it has a chance at taking enough seats to win a majority.

The polls were conducted over the last few months for the conservative Civitas Institute and by the Carolina Strategy Group, a Raleigh firm whose principals lean Republican. The polls in question were generally surveys of registered voters in a district, which doesn't necessarily measure opinion of the people who will actually vote in a local legislative race.

But the analysis is instructive as to which races Republicans are targeting for the House. Notably, the list includes the seat now held by Democratic Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat. Holliman faces his 2008 challenger, Rayne Brown.

A look at the other races after the jump.

House Democrats have five seats in their sights.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman told Dome that he hopes to expand the 68-seat majority to as many as 75 seats in the fall elections. Here are his top five districts:

25th: In a double primary, Democrats Randy Stewart and Carnell Taylor face off against either Republican W.B. Bullock or Robert A. Coats for the seat of Republican Rep. Bill Daughtridge.

36th: Recently retired IBM executive Al Swanstrom of Cary, a Democrat, will challenge second-term Republican Rep. Nelson Dollar.

53rd: Dunn attorney and political newcomer Joseph Lindsey (Joe) Tart, a Democrat, faces off against Rep. David Lewis.

87th: Banker and former State Board of Community Colleges chairman John Forlines, a Democrat, will challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Edgar Starnes.

116th: Jane Whilden, an Asheville Democrat who ran Gov. Mike Easley's western office, squares off against Asheville Republican Tim Moffitt for the seat of Rep. Charles Thomas.