The legislature honored the state's long-serving Insurance Commissioner, the late Jim Long.

"We'll miss him dearly, but the people and citizens of North Carolina will miss him more," said House Majority Leader Rep. Hugh Holliman.

"Our state has some of the lowest insurance rates in the nation thanks to the work that he did," said Rep. Alice Bordsen, a Mebane Democrat.

Long died at 68, shortly after he retired.

A bill that tweaks rules governing pollution flowing into Jordan Lake cleared the House on Tuesday.

The bill re-writes some of the rules previously adopted by the Environmental Management Commission. The contentious point dealt with a requirement that municipalities retrofit existing development to improve the amount of pollution flowing to the lake. If those rules aren't enacted by 2014, stricter regulations takes effect.

The House bill extends the time limit on getting those rules in place. Rep. Alice Bordsen, a Mebane Democrat, said the bill was a compromise between municipalities, environmental advocates, developers and regulators. No one was "jumping for joy" about the result, but everyone believed they could live with the rule, she said. 

House members had concerns about a bill that would add teachers who are convicted of having sex with students to the sex offender registry.

Currently teachers or school employees are added to the registry if they are convicted of taking indecent liberties with a student younger than 16. The bill would cover all K-12 students.

Rep. Curtis Blackwood, a Matthews Republican said he was worried about a scenario in which high school students are dating. One student graduates and goes to work for the school.

"He or she is going to be labelled a sex offender for continuing the relationship," Blackwood said.

Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat, said the indecent liberties law includes a provision that the incident is a felony only if the age difference is four years or greater.

"This statute is about a teacher having sex with a student," Glazier said.

More after the jump.

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Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will speak at a Lillian's List gathering.

Perdue will be the keynote speaker at a Jan. 28 "victory breakfast" by the group, which promotes pro-choice female candidates in North Carolina.

The event will be held at the Cardinal Club on the penthouse levels of the Raleigh skyscraper known for the time being as the Wachovia Capitol Center.

It's not known what Perdue will say, but the state's first female governor will no doubt reference the group's namesake, first female Southern legislator Lillian Exum Clement.

The breakfast will also honor candidates backed by the group, including state Reps. Alice Bordsen, Jane Whilden, Margaret Dickson, Alice Underhill, Lucy Allen, Linda Coleman, Maggie Jeffus and Jennifer Weiss.

Tickets cost $100. Sponsorships are also available for $250 to $4,000.

Registration is online here.

Eight members of the House voted against overriding Gov. Mike Easley's veto of a wide boats bill.

Those members are:

Alice Bordsen, D-Alamance

Susan Fisher, D-Buncombe

Sandra Spaulding Hughes, D-Wilmington

Verla Insko, D-Orange

Maggie Jeffus, D-Guilford

Paul Luebke, D-Durham

Mickey Michaux, D-Durham

Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake

In the Senate, Ed Jones, D-Halifax, voted against override, but Jones' vote was not recorded because he paired his vote with the absent Doug Berger, D-Franklin. Under the Senate's rules, Jones can cast Berger's vote for him, but it means neither vote is recorded.

The House and Senate roll call votes are below.

Hillary Clinton focused on education and economic development.

In a brief speech at N.C. State this morning, the Democratic presidential candidate spoke about North Carolina's efforts to promote business through better education.

She highlighted the biotechnology center at the state college, the Learn and Earn Program and the More at Four program.

After receiving the endorsement of Gov. Mike Easley, she said it was politically important, but it was also rewarding because of his economic efforts, which have led to North Carolina being third in biotechnology.

"It's great to have somenoe who really understands what we have to do to transform our country to be prepared for the 21st century," she said.

She noted that she and Easley worked in the past on the American Dream Initiative, which looked at how to encourage young people to attend college.

Clinton also name-checked state Rep. Alice Bordsen and Wake County Commissioner Lindy Brown. 

Last week, several members of the General Assembly stopped into Room 544 of the Legislative Office Building, where a six-member ethics panel was sitting in judgment of their colleague Rep. Thomas Wright.

They included two legislators from the other chamber: State Sens. Julia Boseman, a Wilmington Democrat, and Ed Jones, a Halifax County Democrat, David Ingram reports.

Several of Wright's colleagues came as well: State Reps. Alice Bordsen, a Mebane Democrat; Walter Church, a Burke County Democrat; Dale Folwell, a Winston-Salem Republican; Pricey Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat; Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat; Earl Jones, a Greensboro Democrat; Grier Martin, a Raleigh Democrat; and Trudi Walend, a Brevard Republican.

The full House of Representatives could be asked to vote soon on whether to expel Wright for Rep. Rick Glazier, a Fayetteville Democrat and chair of the panel, called "breathtakingly massive" fraud.

The panel voted unanimously Thursday to recommend Wright's expulsion. It found that Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, violated ethics rules in connection with his handling of almost $350,000 in campaign, charitable and corporate money.

Also sitting in last week were several state and federal investigators, including some who were involved in the corruption case of former House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat.

Twenty-four legislators did not get paid for every day.

According to state records, 17 representatives and seven senators asked not to receive their $104 per diems for at least one day during the 2007 session.

Reps. Angela Bryant, William Current, Annie Mobley, Deborah Ross, John Blust, Bill Daughtridge, Laura Wiley, Ruth Samuelson, Pryor Gibson, David Lewis, Mitchell Setzer, Paul Stam, Jennifer Weiss, Martha Alexander, Pricey Harrison, Alice Bordsen and Paul Luebke did not receive pay for every day.

Luebke was the lowest, receiving pay for just 178 days.

Sens. William Purcell, Fred Smith, Clark Jenkins, Harris Blake, Tom Apodaca, Janet Cowell and Marc Basnight did not receive pay for all 191 days of session.

Basnight was the lowest, receiving pay for just 176 days.

Under state policy, legislators automatically receive pay for every day of session, regardless of whether they attend, unless they specifically ask not to be paid for that day. 

Rep. Alice Bordsen missed three out of every 10 votes.

According to a tally by The Greensboro News & Record, the Mebane Democrat had the most absences during the past legislative session.

She missed most of the votes — including one on the $20.6 billion state budget — during the waning days of the session. A Democratic leader said she had planned in advance to travel overseas.

Rep. Harold Brubaker, an Asheboro Republican, missed about a quarter of the 1,400 votes cast.

A Republican leader said that he was often gone because he was at meetings of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group. (GN-R)

Sen. Fred Smith, a Clayton Republican who is running for governor, also missed about a quarter of the votes.

Six legislators had perfect attendance: Reps. Nelson Dollar, Phil Frye and Bill Owens and Sens. Richard Stevens, Andrew Brock and Tony Foriest. (AP)

How did Rep. Alice Bordsen end up promoting mixed martial arts?

The Mebane Democrat said she originally wrote a bill that would make it more difficult to hold Toughman matches, a form of amateur boxing banned in 24 states. She said regulating the matches was putting a financial strain on state enforcers.

Rather than ban it outright, Bordsen said House legislators decided to make it more difficult to get insurance, hoping that would reduce the number of matches. But insurers said that would put a burden on them to write policies no one would buy.

She said she then heard about mixed martial arts as an alternative.

"It is tightly regulated, has real standards of sport and athleticism, has a low injury rate, is exciting but not as violence-craving as Toughman, and brings significant revenues to a community," she wrote in an e-mail to Dome.

But the Senate added Toughman fights back to the bill and sent it back to the House. Bordsen said the bill is now the opposite of what she originally intended.