The town of Apex saved $13,000 with online notices.

About a year ago, Town Clerk Georgia Evangelist heard that the city of Raleigh was publishing its meeting notices online.

She decided to try a similar program for the town of Apex, which is near Research Triangle Park in Wake County.

Apex and several other Wake towns got permission from a special bill in the legislature last year to publish online, instead of in the local newspaper. A bill filed this year would expand the program statewide.

Evangelist said the town still occasionally advertises in the Apex Herald and The News & Observer. It also sends letters to neighbors who may be affected.

"We still advertise in the paper when it's something we need to get our more widely, like a pre-budget hearing," she said.'

Update: Cary spokeswoman Susan Moran estimated the town spends $20,000 a year on online notices, although it still advertises in the local newspapers as well. 

A bill would allow town meetings to be publicized online.

Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, said he filed the bill to expand a local program in small towns in Wake County that allowed them to avoid expensive legal notices in the local newspaper.

Instead, the towns of Apex, Cary, Garner and Knightdale have posted notices of upcoming zoning hearings and town council meetings on their Web sites. Stam said the program saved the towns money while still getting the word out.

"Most people aren't affected by it," he said. "Most people don't care whether there's an ad in the paper or not. The purpose is to put it out there publicly so that someone who wants to know what's going on has a source to find it."

The bill would not affect all legal notices. Towns would still have to notify neighbors of affected properties by mail, and foreclosure notices and civil actions would still have to be publicized in local papers.  

In addition, Stam is considering adding provisions to help local officials determine whether they have sufficient Internet penetration.

Barack Obama had more offices in Triangle suburbs and towns with a lot of black voters.

A side-by-side comparison of the two lists of campaign offices by the campaigns shows 20 places where Obama had an office and John McCain did not.

The list includes a few suburbs of Raleigh and Durham: Apex, Cary, Chapel Hill, Fuquay-Varina and Clayton.

It also has a handful of cities with significant black populations: Elizabeth City, Lumberton, Morehead City, New Bern, Sanford, Supply and Warsaw.

In addition, Obama had three offices apiece in Charlotte and Raleigh, while McCain had just one in Charlotte and two in Raleigh.

Correction: A second McCain office was not listed in the original version of the post.

After the jump, the list.

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Hazardous waste must be registered, under a new state law.

Neighbors and state government will know more about what sits in drums at hazardous waste storage warehouses as a result of a bill that Gov. Mike Easley signed into law Tuesday, Lynn Bonner reports.

Under the law, hazardous waste warehouses must maintain round-the-clock security and off-site inventory.

The law came about because of an Oct. 5, 2006, late-night explosion and fire at the Environmental Quality Co. in Apex. Firefighters and first responders didn't know what chemicals were stored in the warehouse.

"We see that as our fault on the state level for not requiring more information," Easley said.