Worried about steep cuts in Medicaid rates for services county public health offices provide low-income pregnant women and troubled children, child and health advocates last week talked about sick infants dying and public health offices possibly having to fire nurses they couldn't afford. 

After the outcry, Dr. Craigan Gray, the state's Medicaid director, said rate cuts for case management for the children and pregnant women's programs would remain at 19 percent, rather than jump to near 40 percent."It leaves public health a few dollars better off than the 40 percent cut," he said. 

The case management cuts were to the maternity care coordination, child services coordination, health check and early intervention programs. 

Gray said the decision to keep the cut at 19 percent was independent of the public criticism.

 "We've been thinking about this for a long time, and talking about this a long time," Gray said in an interview last week. "It's not a new idea. The direction has been headed that way for many weeks."

Keeping the 19 percent rate reduction will cost the state about $1 million, he said. 

Gray said the concerns about public health offices not being able to pay bills were overblown. Every year, the federal government settles accounts, and pays local offices for their actual costs, he said. To help public health offices keep up with their bills, the state had decided to settle costs every three months, he said. 

Lynette Tolson, executive director of the N.C. Association of Local Health Directors, said Monday she had not heard from the Medicaid office that it would not go through with the 40 percent cut, or that it would go to quarterly cost settlements. 

"This has been our rollercoaster," she said. "We get information from different people, a legislator, it could be from anyone.  The only thing we know there's going to be a 36 percent to 39 percent cut in rates. There's nothing else formal that's come out."

Even if the public health offices will get the higher rate, there are still questions about how the programs will operate, she said. 

Tom Vitaglione, senior fellow with Action for Children N.C., also heard rumors that the public health services would get the lesser rate cuts, and thought the public pressure helped reverse the state's decision. 

'I'm just disappointed we had to go this far," he said. 

If you're 16 in North Carolina and suspected of committing a felony, the state considers you adult. 

Some child advocates want felony suspects who are younger than 18 to have their cases handled in the juvenile justice system rather than adult court. 

Those supporting the change, including Action for Children North Carolina, have failed in recent years to get legislators to go along.

But there's a task force talking about getting the law changed. It met for the first time this week.

Kenneth Lewis, a Harvard-educated lawyer in Durham and fundraiser for then-candidate Barack Obama last year, is running for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate next year.

Lewis, 47, told party leaders and regulars at the annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner over the weekend that he was making a run at the seat held by Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr. Lewis is jumping in early, but he could face hefty competition if Attorney General Roy Cooper opts in.

Lewis said his business experience and years of work with nonprofit groups, such as Action for Children, will help guide his work for ordinary citizens.

"We need to invest in a new prosperity that is broad-based and sustainable," Lewis said.

A Winston-Salem native, Lewis clerked for then-N.C. Supreme Court Justice Henry Frye after graduating from law school in 1986 and has worked at firms in Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham.

He raised money for Obama's U.S. Senate race in Illinois in 2004 and helped lead finance operations for Obama's presidential campaign in North Carolina last year. He lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Holly Ewell-Lewis, and three school-age children.

Previously: Lewis invites Stephon Marbury to Obama fundraiser. 

Two-thirds of North Carolina's uninsured children already qualify for state health plans.

According to figures compiled by Action for Children N.C., a child health advocacy group, 177,000 uninsured children in the state come from families earning below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or less than $41,300 for a family of four.

That means they already should be covered by either Medicaid or Health Choice, two health care plans for low-income children paid for with state and federal dollars.

The state already promotes both programs at hospitals, schools and state agencies, but many parents fail to sign up. Others don't qualify. Children who immigrated illegally cannot receive benefits, while those who immigrated legally still must wait five years to sign up.

Adam Searing, project director for the N.C. Justice Center's Health Access Coalition, said the state can't afford to cover all those children anyway, unless Congress provides more money for the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which funds Health Choice.

"All those kids could sign up, but we don't have the money available," he said.