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* Public universities in the Triangle will eliminate about 430 positions this year as part of a massive UNC system budget cut.

N.C. State University is eliminating 205 administrative jobs, and UNC-Chapel Hill is cutting 202 positions, according to a report released Thursday that gave the most detail to date on how the system will slash its operating budget 10 percent. N.C. Central University in Durham is cutting 21.5, including four at its law school.

UNC system President Erskine Bowles had said he expected administrative positions to account for 75 to 80 percent of the cuts. That number has subsequently risen to 96 percent, officials now say — an acknowledgment that administrative job growth swelled out of control over the last several years. Few cuts have been made to academics. (N&O)

* A law recently signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue imposes new regulations on the industry that provides human-resources services to businesses -- in exchange for the repeal of a controversial ban.

* The state's universities and colleges are being hit hard with cases of flu, most likely of the H1N1 variety.

A type of influenza easily passed among young people, H1N1 is circulating so commonly that health officials don't even test for it specifically. They simply say students have "influenza-like illness" and assume the strain is H1N1.

The largest numbers are at UNC-Chapel Hill, which through last week had nearly 700 cases. That's more than twice the 309 cases reported by N.C. State over essentially the same period, and NCSU is a larger institution.

Most other universities report far lower numbers. Wake Forest has seen about 200 cases, and Duke has had about 170. At Peace, the small women's college in Raleigh, Murray is one of 13 students to get it.

The totals are likely higher. These numbers represent only students who seek help from a campus health office. The cases are mild and so far have not led to mass absences.

More hand washing could help slow the virus spread. One professor says students need to hear how unpleasant the illness is to get them to wash up. (N&O)

* A program set up last year to help North Carolina homeowners with subprime loans avoid foreclosure has been expanded to include those with traditional mortgages.

UNC President Erskine Bowles turns 65 next August, but he was vague about exactly when he would step down. UNC presidents have traditionally retired at 65.

Bowles says he's not focused on retirement. Not that he's in love with the job right now, he told editors, reporters and editorial writers today at The News & Observer, Jane Stancill reports.

"All things being equal, I want to go home. God knows I love Chapel Hill, but living in that great big museum by myself, eating Chick-Fil-A twice a day, that is my life."

But, he said, there are big issues to contend with, including the fallout from Mary Easley's hiring at N.C. State University and the elimination of costly layers of campus middle managers. He also says he'll demand more accountability from the UNC campuses on their performance of graduating and preparing students.

"We have some issues we need to deal with and I think the buck stops with me," he said.

Advocates and lawyers were trying to understand the impact of a state Superme Court decision, which found that a Garner man, who was convicted of a long-ago felony, had a right to own a gun.

The opinion applied only to Barney Britt, who was convicted of a drug crime in 1979, and it didn't have an immediate effect on the thousands of other felons in the state.

Criminal defense lawyers who practice in federal courts said they don't know what effect, if any, the opinion will have on federal rules, which prevent felons from buying and owning weapons except when a state has restored that right.

The ruling authored by Justice Edward Thomas Brady held that Britt should be able to own guns and that the state unfairly took away his right to own a firearm with a 2004 law that barred felons from owning firearms. Britt was convicted in 1979 of selling Quaalude pills, but he didn't have any further tangles with the law.

Though the opinion focused just on Britt's case, both sides of the gun control issue saw the ruling as significant because the state's highest court found that Britt had a right to bear arms that trumped the state's ability to restrict him from owning any weapons. (N&O)

* The 16-campus UNC system expects to eliminate about 900 administrative positions this year, an acknowledgement by university leaders of job growth gone wild.

Those 900 positions and other administrative costs could account for 75 percent or more of cuts that public university campuses will be asked to make this year as the system pares $171 million from its budget, UNC system officials say.

In cutting so heavily into administrative costs, UNC system President Erskine Bowles and others say they hope to protect academics. (N&O)

* All the clamor over health-care reform doesn't seem to bother freshman U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.

"I remind people I taught high school," he said last week. "Loud and unruly people we call the fourth period."

But the Montgomery County Democrat is toeing a careful line on health care, balancing his own caution against the interests of his party and district just as he has on other issues during his first eight months in office. (Char-O)

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed another batch of bills Friday afternoon leaving five remaining unsigned bills on her desk.

The six remaining are:

HB 104: Clarifies which documents produced by lawmakers are exempt from the public records law. Would make requests by lawmakers sent to state agencies exempt from the public records law.

HB 945: The Studies Act of 2009 catalogues a host of items and issues to be studied while the legislature is out of session.

HB 1166: Insurance Law Changes. Makes several changes including a new requirement that to get a license, insurance agents must submit fingerprints for a criminal background check.

SB 947: Provides more opportunity for a homeowner to halt foreclosure if he or she can demonstrate they can pay what is owed.

HB 836: Makes technical corrections to the state budget.

HB 1329: Consolidates various state stautes regulating criminal record expunctions. 

Among the 40-plus Perdue signed Friday are:

SB 167: Prohibits tobacco products and cell phones in prisons. Makes it a crime to provide tobacco or cell phones to inmates.

HB 667: Allows wineries to sell wine during business hours.

SB 138: Bans the recreational use of salvia divinorum, an hallucinogenic herb. Still allows the mint-like plant to be used in landscaping.

SB 786: Authorizes capital projects on University of North Carolina system campuses. The projects have a funding stream to repay debt for the projects. List includes $21.8 million for a parking deck at N.C. State University, a $10 million renovation of the Carolina Inn at UNC-Chapel Hill, $35 million for a Partnership, Outreach and Research for Accelerated Learning Building at UNC-Charlotte.

SB 464: Requires statistics on race to be kept to help identify and prevent racial profiling by law enforcement. Also requires that a law enforcement officer ensure a child is in safe hands if the child's parent gets arrested. The last provision would have prevented a case last year in which three children were stranded on Interstate 85 in the middle of the night for eight hours when a sheriff's deputy arrested the children's mother, an illegal immigrant.

Correction: Perdue had six bills to sign, not five as we previously reported. Dome regrets the oversight. 

* The man shot Sunday by state Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. had been to the elected official's Tabor City home before.

Thomas Kyle Blackburn, 22, was arrested last year and charged with trespassing and attempted breaking and entering at the senator's house, according to police records. Those charges were later dropped.

An attorney for Soles said Monday the senator was acting in self-defense when he shot Blackburn in the leg with a handgun. Blackburn was released Monday from a hospital across the state line in Loris, S.C. He could not be reached for comment.

B.J. Wright, 23, was also at Soles' house when the shooting occurred, according to police. Wright told a Wilmington television station that Blackburn had been drinking and Soles asked the men to leave numerous times.

The SBI is investigating the case. (N&O)

* A tuition break for out-of-state athletes at University of North Carolina schools gives booster clubs a $10 million annual subsidy, but it also has a less-publicized impact: The lion's share of student body growth at UNC-Chapel Hill is going to students from outside the state.

The budget for the University of North Carolina system includes $137.8 million in federal stimulus funds.

Notable cuts include:

* A $72.9 million cut that should target senior and middle management, centers and institutes, low-enrollment degree programs, faculty workload, speaker series and institutional trust fund balances.

* A tuition increase of the lesser of $200 or 8 percent at all UNC institutions to raise $34.8 million.

* Reduces the Legislative Tuition Grant for students attending private colleges by $100. The grant would go from $1,950 to $1,850 to save $3.2 million. 

* Reduces funding to centers and institutes across the state by $12 million. The budget specifies reductions for specific campuses, but allows campus officials to decide how to make the cuts. The proposal also requires the UNC System to reduce funding for centers and institutes by another $1.7 million. 

THINGS CHANGED: Though they once dismissed talk of big tax increases, state Democratic leaders reached what they thought was a budget deal this week. Just as lawmakers and weary staff members began to envision an approaching end to the session, Gov. Beverly Perdue shredded the deal and sent negotiators back to the meeting room.

LOOKING AHEAD: Lots of folks were dreaming about their political futures this week. Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, like Rocky Balboa, is contemplating a rematch. Legislative Republicans all but began writing campaign literature for next year about the Democrats' tax increases. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall tried to build buzz on a possible challenge to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

HEALTHY DEBATE: Pharmaceutical company ads praised our U.S. senators on TV. At the RBC Center, hundreds enjoyed a Mexican food buffet and tales of a nightmarish future brought on by President Barack Obama's health care reform plan. The president's campaign apparatus awoke within the state. So apparently there's a big health care debate going on in Washington.

IN OTHER NEWS: State residents were shocked to learn this week that UNC-Chapel Hill has a bloated administration. Bill Harrison threw in the towel and announced he would retire as the state schools CEO, clearing the way for elected Superintendent June Atkinson to run the schools. A bill on its way to becoming law eliminates the waiting period to become a member of "private clubs," the technical definition of most bars across the state. Best to go get that drink before the new sin tax kicks in.

UNC-Chapel Hill has too many supervisors, bloated administrative costs and a bureaucracy that hamstrings everything from assigning courses to classrooms to purchasing supplies, a consultant has concluded.

Bain & Company, an efficiency expert hired to examine the university's financial processes, will present a 107-page report Thursday suggesting an institution with too many layers, Eric Ferreri reports.

UNC-CH officials hope the analysis leads to millions in savings. A campus task force will soon begin discussing the recommendations, though changes could take years to implement.

"The economic crisis is probably not over, and we want to shelter research and teaching as much as we can," Chancellor Holden Thorp said Tuesday. "The more we know about our research and teaching and how it's funded, the better we can protect it."

The report found that the campus, with an annual operating budget of about $2 billion, spends more on administrative costs than it does on academics, a balance Thorp said he'd like to flip-flop.

Supervision is 10 layers deep in some areas. The consultant was hired with private funds donated anonymously.

The folks at UNC-Chapel Hill's medical school couldn't be happier with President Barack Obama's recent nomination of geneticist Dr. Francis Collins to lead the National Institutes of Health.

After all, the NIH doles out $30 billion a year and is the largest source of university research money in the nation. That doesn't include an extra $10 billion headed to NIH through the federal stimulus package.

Collins has close ties to UNC, where he started his medical career. He graduated from UNC's medical school in 1977 and then did a residency in internal medicine in Chapel Hill, 1978-1981.

Collins most recently headed up the National Human Genome Research Institute, the agency that worked to map the human genetic code.

The affable geneticist received widespread attention for his 2006 book, "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief," in which he argues that faith and science can coexist.

He's also known as a heck of a graduation speaker. The UNC Health Care blog features a You Tube clip of Collins singing to graduates at the University of Michigan.