DENVER - While delegates to the Democratic National Convention are paying their own way, there are plenty of corporate sponsors to help feed and entertain them.

When the North Carolina delegation gathered at the Doubletree Hotel's ballroom this morning, AT&T footed the bill for the breakfast buffet of eggs, bacon, etc., reports Rob Christensen.

Other breakfast sponsors will be Fidelity Investments, Merck, Waste Management and the state's congressional delegation.

Sponsors for evening receptions include AT&T, McGuire Woods and Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein.

What happened to Don Beason's clients?

When the once-top lobbyist resigned his practice last year over a shady loan to House Speaker Jim Black, his lucrative list of clients was up for grabs.

By Dome's count, seven of the 16 clients did nothing. BB&T, Cingular Wireless, Albemarle Mental Health Center, Dale Earnhardt Inc., Sigma Corp., the Association of Settlement Companies, and the Carolina Ballet have no registered lobbyists during the current session.

That may be because they don't face any pending bills in a short session devoted to the budget. 

Three clients still employ Beason's son, Mark, along with other lobbyists: The Association of Health Information Outsourcing Services, AT&T North Carolina and S&M Brands.

Two clients, the city of Hickory and Catawba County, went with a new team of Jack Cozort, Kevin Leonard and noted lobbyist Alexander "Sandy" Sands.

Among the other top clients, Progress Energy went with noted lobbyist Zeb Alley, John Bode and Kathy Hawkins; while IBM went with former lieutenant governor Dennis Wicker and a team of eight lobbyists. Colonial Life Insurance hired Glenn Jernigan and the N.C. Railroad Co. hired Michelle Frazier and John McMillan.

A jury has convicted former Rep. Thomas Wright of three counts of obtaining property by false pretenses.

He was acquitted of a fourth count.

Update: According to the Associated Press, Wright was charged with pocketing $8,900 in donations to his Community's Health Foundation and fraudulently obtaining a $150,000 loan to buy a building for health care offices and a museum. The charge on which he was acquitted related to a donation of $1,500 from AT&T. 

At least two lobbyists helped state Rep. Thomas Wright get a $1,500 check from AT&T, according to testimony Monday.

John Policastro, a former AT&T lobbyist, testified about the money before a legislative committee that is hearing ethics charges against Wright, a Wilmington Democrat, David Ingram reports.

Wright sent an "invoice" to Policastro and AT&T in 2003, asking for a $1,500 payment, and Policastro said he then forwarded the request to superiors because he did not have authority to make the payment. Wright got the check, and investigators say he pocketed the money.

The charity, known as The Community's Health Foundation, did not have IRS approval as a tax-exempt organization. Policastro said he was under the impression that it did.

"I would have not passed this along if I had known it was not a 501(c)(3) organization," he said.

But before Wright sent the invoice, he spoke with another AT&T lobbyist, Larry Bewley, about the possibility of getting a contribution, Policastro said.

More after the jump.

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Rep. Thomas Wright pocketed $8,900 in corporate checks intended for a nonprofit, calling the money "sweat equity," according to papers filed Tuesday at the legislature.

On Oct. 5, the Wilmington Democrat was interviewed by SBI Special Agent Johnnie Umphlet about checks totaling $8,900 from Anheuser-Busch, AstraZeneca and AT&T to the Community's Health Foundation, which Wright ran.

Wright admitted that he received, signed and deposited the checks into his personal bank account, according to Umphlet.

"He called his reimbursement 'sweat equity,' " according to a witness list.

Other potential witnesses include an IRS employee and a Wilmington doctor. (Char-O)

Staff attorneys for Attorney General Roy Cooper are presenting evidence of Rep. Thomas Wright's misconduct.

Senior deputy attorneys general William Hart and Alec Peters said they only investigated Wright once the Wake County prosecutor assured them that it would not interfere with criminal proceedings.

They have just handed out a packet of evidence they compiled. It includes:

* Articles of incorporation for The Community's Health Foundation that inlcudes the names of Wright, Daniel Gottovi, James Lofton and Bessie Funderburg, all of Wilmington.

* An e-mail from Wright to Torlen Wade asking him to write a letter saying that $150,000 in funding will be provided by the state, and the subsequent letter from Wade.

* A notice of foreclosure on the Wilmington building owned by the Community Health Foundation.

* A letter from Wright to the Anheuser-Busch Co. asking for a charitable contribution to the foundation to build a museum to the 1898 race riots in Wilmington.

* Bank records showing donations from AT&T, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Anheuser-Busch worth a total of $8,900.

Hart said that Wright never filed paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to incorporate the Community Health Foundation as a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Thomas Wright is in trouble for work he supposedly did for charity.

In the indictments, the Wilmington Democrat is charged with obtaining property by means of a false pretense for:

* Persuading state employee Torlen Wade to write a letter stating that the state Office of Rural Health would commit a $150,000 grant to renovate a historic building in Wilmington.

* Soliciting a $5,000 donation from Anheuser-Bush Companies, $2,400 from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, and $1,500 from AT&T Corp. for the Community's Health Foundation, then using the money for personal expenses.

* Obtaining a $9,980 loan from South East Community Credit Union for the Community's Health Foundation, then using the money for personal expenses.

* Spending $185,000 worth of campaign donations on personal expenses.

* Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's sons in federal court over a boating accident in June 2003. They argue the other boat did not have its lights on. (N&O)

* U.S. Rep. Howard Coble undergoing treatment for skin cancer; jokes that he'll end up looking like Robert Redford when it's done. (Capital Beat)

* AT&T enlists state Sen. Janet Cowell to help its proposal to end automatic home delivery of phone books to customers for a one-year trial. (N&O)

* Some see strategist Joe Trippi behind John Edwards' new outsider approach to campaigning against U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton. (Washington Post)

Don Beason's biggest contract was with Catawba County.

According to a review of his client list this year, the once-top lobbyist was paid nearly $33,000 to represent a county of 151,000 people having a water dispute with its neighbors.

That's almost four times what Progress Energy paid him, almost eight times the size of his IBM contract and more than 11 times what he earned from AT&T.

Only one other corporate client, Sigma Corp., came close with its $27,000 contract. 

As a public entity, Catawba could not pay Beason with a second contract — ostensibly for something other than lobbying — that it did not have to report to the Secretary of State. 

So its contract is likely close to what Beason actually charges. That means his major corporate clients, including Progress Energy, IBM, AT&T, Colonial Life Insurance and  BB&T, likely paid him the rest with secondary contracts. (At least one did so in a prior year.)

In fact, BB&T's $3,290.38 payments from Jan. 1 to June 30 are exactly one-tenth the $32,903.80 he earned from Catawba in that same time frame.