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TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: A controversial voter ID measure gets a double billing Wednesday, appearing in a 1 p.m. House Election Committe meeting for discussion only and a 4 p.m. public hearing. A lawyer from the Indiana Secretary of State's Office and the N.C. NAACP's William Barber will present at the earlier meeting. The House will also unveil a major education bill at a 2 p.m. press conference, just hours after a Senate panel considers President Pro Tem Phil Berger's own overhaul plan at a 10 a.m.

Senate committees will also consider bills to increase the speed limit on some highways to 75 mph and provide tax money to the Carolina Panthers for stadium renovations. Gov. Pat McCrory will attend a private reception for the N.C. Homebuilders Association at 5 p.m. The group is advancing two controversial measures this session to limit local control of inspections and design standards for homes that are angering counties and cities. Wonder how Mayor Pat would have reacted to the legislation?

McCRORY'S FIRST 100 DAYS: The governor is nearing the 100-day mark of his term -- a benchmark that means little but will generate a media extravaganza. McCrory is sitting down with various media outlets this week, about 10 minutes at a time, to discuss his accomplishments. WRAL-TV is the first with an interview. Check it out here. 

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TATA'S TUMULTOUS TENURE AS SCHOOLS CHIEF REVEALED: Newly released email shows that former Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata -- and now state Transportation Secretary -- spent his final month in office surrounded by growing distress and concern from school board members and parents over his handling of the school bus problems and student assignment. More than 3,400 pages of email released this week as part of a public records request by news media organizations, including The News & Observer, show how much the bus fiasco affecting thousands of families was a daily concern during the first month of school. (More on this story below.)

TODAY AT THE STATEHOUSE: A bill to limit local governments from requiring inspections of homes in some instances -- a measure that is opposed by environmental groups -- is on the House calendar. The House will also consider legislation to make it a felony for a parent to fail to report a missing child, dubbed Caylee's Law after the Caylee Anthony case, in which the 2-year-old was found dead and her mother didn't report her missing for a month. At 10 a.m., Senate committee will consider (for discussion only) a midwife bill and a measure to put teeth in the state's public records law. On the Senate floor later in the day, the "red route" bill gets a final vote with toll road language attached. Gov. Pat McCrory is making an economic development announcement in Raleigh at 1 p.m.

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The Wake County school system is paying longtime lobbyist Theresa Kostrzewa $35,000 to encourage the General Assembly not to pass legislation changing school ownership and school board elections.

School board chairman Keith Sutton said he picked Kostrzewa because she's effective, is willing to work for the school board and has no conflicts of interest. Kostrzewa was ranked the state's ninth-most influential lobbyist last year by the N.C. Center for Public Policy Research.

"She's a top 10 lobbyist," Sutton said in an interview Wednesday.

The Wake County school system stands to get less than half of the $500,000 it was supposed to receive from disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black for turning over land in Matthews to pay the fine for his state corruption conviction.

Black was allowed in 2009 to turn over 9.5 acres near Charlotte to the school system to settle half of the $1 million fine he was assessed in his state corruption case. On Tuesday, the school board will vote on selling the land to the Town of Matthews for $295,427.

If approved, the school system would get $241,127 with the State Board of Elections receiving $54,300. Read more here.

FINE APPEALED: Don Beason, the once-influential lobbyist who left the profession because of his entanglements with disgraced House Speaker Jim Black, is fighting a $111,000 fine levied by the N.C. Secretary of State's office.

Beason and his son Mark appealed the fine to an administrative law judge, saying that the decision by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall's office was wrong on its facts and the law and that the penalty assessed was "arbitrary and capricious." (N&O)

ISSUE GROWS: The controversy swirling around Wake County's schools has taken on a political life of its own, and regional, state, local and grass-roots leaders are trying to define it for their own partisan purposes. (N&O)

FINANCIAL SHOWDOWN: Senate Republicans united Monday to block debate on legislation that would make the most far-reaching changes in financial industry regulation since the Great Depression - slowing but probably not stopping a bill that has been propelled by angry voters who want to crack down on Wall Street. (TRIBUNE)

Candidates critical of a Wake County school diversity policy swept three school board seats in Tuesday's elections and a fourth, crucial seat appears headed to a runoff.

The school board races are nonpartisan, although the Wake County Republican Party endorsed the three candidates who won in those races.

Veteran Democratic consultant Gary Pearce wonders if the strong showing of the "bad guys" is a sign of things to come in next year's Congressional and state legislative election. He said Monday on his Talking About Politics blog that in 1993 Republican Tom Fetzer won the Raleigh mayoral race, the vanguard of what became a big Republican rout.

In 1993, like this year, Democrats had just won the presidential election. They were still celebrating, and they were complacent.

Just like this year, Republicans were angry and motivated. Fetzer (with Carter’s help) found a perfect issue in the downtown civic center. Fetzer ran a modern TV campaign while Democrats ran the familiar old handshake campaign.

It was a sign of worse to come in 1994. And tomorrow may be the canary in the coal mine for 2010.

Democratic pollster Dean Debnam of Public Policy Polling is behind a new TV ad criticizing the neighborhood school candidates in the heated race for Wake County School Board.

Debnam, who owns the Democratic polling firm, said he formed Wake Citizens for Good Government to counter what he called Republican "lies" about the school system, T. Keung Hui reports on his WakeEd blog.

He said his ad was not done in coordination with any candidates. Debnam said his company has been doing polling in the school board districts. But he said the data was for internal use and not as a public poll.

Buncombe County Schools will raise class size in higher grades to cope with state-mandated budget cuts to education.

The system lost 42 teaching positions because of a $15 million budget cut, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.

The school system was able to rehire almost all of the teachers who were laid off at the end of last school year, but it wasn't able to fill all vacant positions. In most cases, students will see two or three extra students in their classrooms. Class sizes vary by grade and course, from 17 to 21 students per class.

The state's school system must each decide how to cut spending.

As part of the final state budget deal, lawmakers and Gov. Beverly Perdue mandated $225 million in cuts to local school systems. Lawmakers scrapped language that would have required increased class sizes in grades 4-12. Instead the budget gave school administrators increased flexibility to move money and to spend federal stimulus dollars while encouraging officials to leave class rooms alone.

The state's teacher lobby, Perdue and certain lawmakers said they believe such cuts can be made without increasing class size, which is necessary when schools have fewer teachers. Administrators in Wake say they believe paying teachers with stimulus money, which runs out in two years, would create more problems than it solves.

The higher number of students in class and the cut in teacher assistants will make up $21.7 million in discretionary cuts out of a $35.1 million overall reduction in state funding to Wake, the state's largest school district.

School officials accuse state leaders of dumping responsibility for the cuts on local districts to make them take the blame for unpopular choices.

"They knew class sizes had to go up," said school board member Lori Millberg. "They're passing the buck."

The recently adopted state budget has $225 million in cuts in K-12 education funding, leaving the specific cuts up to local school districts.

But Wake school leaders complained that those cuts weren't as discretionary as legislators have made it appear.

David Neter, Wake's chief business officer, said that until a few weeks ago, state budget writers were calling for raising class sizes in grades 4 through 12 by two students and reducing money for teacher assistants. He told school board members that while those specific details are not in the final budget, the same amount of money is being eliminated and forcing local school systems to raise class sizes and eliminate teacher assistants anyway.

Lawmakers and the state teacher lobby say school systems can tap into millions of federal stimulus dollars — $43 million in Wake's case — to avoid classroom cuts. 

Though school officials are using federal stimulus money to save some existing positions, much of it is being used to create new jobs such as math coaches at elementary schools and additional pre-kindergarten teachers that officials say they can afford to lose when the stimulus money runs out in two years. (N&O)