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From AP: North Carolina's Democratic attorney general is opposing a state Senate budget provision that moves much of an investigative unit from his department to one headed by an appointee of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory.

Roy Cooper spoke against the idea Monday, alongside police chiefs and prosecutors who also oppose moving the State Bureau of Investigation to the Department of Public Safety, which includes all other law enforcement agencies. Opponents argued the move will inhibits the agency's independence from the executive branch, but they stopped short of calling it politically motivated.

Housing the agency under a department controlled by the governor runs counter to the SBI's mission, he added. "Putting the SBI under any governor's administration increases the risk that corruption and cover-up occur with impunity," Cooper said.

But Republican senators argued the unit is better grouped with the rest of the state's law enforcement divisions to enhance coordination among the agencies. The Republican budget estimates $2 million in savings from the consolidation in its second year. "It simply does not make sense for the state's top attorney to supervise the SBI, just like it wouldn't make sense for your local district attorney to supervise your sheriffs or police," said House Majority Leader Harry Brown, R-Onslow and one of the chamber's chief budget-writers. More here.

UPDATED: McCRORY-COOPER SHOWDOWN: Republican Gov. Pat McCrory's Division of Motor Vehicles is refusing to issue immigrants in the deferred action program driver's licenses but Democrat Attorney General Roy Cooper says they must.

The state Attorney General’s office said Thursday that young illegal immigrants participating in an Obama administration program blocking deportation for two years should be eligible for driving privileges in North Carolina, but by day’s end it wasn’t clear whether the DMV would issue them. But by late Thursday, more than five hours after the opinion was released, acting DMV Commissioner J. Eric Boyette said DMV officials had not formulated their response. “We have just received the ruling from the Attorney General’s office regarding driver’s licenses for people in the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program today and we are in the process of reviewing it,” Boyette said by email.

Lawyers for two civil rights groups called on state officials today to reinstate a policy that made driver’s licenses available to young illegal immigrants who are taking part in a federal program that blocks their deportation for two years (see their letter, below).

“They have all the required documents,” said Kate Woomer-Deters, an immigrant rights advocate with the N.C. Justice Center. “They have an employment authorization card showing their legal presence in the country. They are fully eligible for North Carolina driver’s licenses.”

The state Division of Motor Vehicles says it has stopped issuing the licenses, pending a ruling from state Attorney General Roy Cooper on whether an estimated 180,000 young men and women in the state who are eligible for the federal program are also eligible to drive under state law. Get the full story on the Road Worrier blog.

An advocacy group is asking Attorney General Roy Cooper to investigate the tax status of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that counts House Speaker Thom Tillis as one of its top members.

Common Cause sent the letter Tuesday just weeks after it filed a whistleblower complaint against ALEC with the IRS, saying they are operating as a tax-exempt nonprofit while lobbying state legislatures across the country.

"Common Cause has discovered compelling evidence that ALEC is a corporate lobby masquerading as a charity. ALEC’s compliance with state tax, gift, solicitation and lobbying laws should be reviewed by your office and/or appropriate state regulatory authorities," the letter states.

Paul Wright, a little known Republican candidate for governor, is slamming Attorney General Roy Cooper for his statement against the constitutional amendment on marriage.

Wright writes this: "This is appalling. As a former Superior Court judge, I saw many laws that could have been better written and yet I had the duty to enforce them. Mr. Cooper has already disappointed many by not joining our sister states (VA, GA, and SC) in the lawsuit currently before the Supreme Court against Obama Care. He decided that North Carolina should sit on the sidelines in this epic struggle. Now it appears Mr. Cooper does not want the marriage amendment. I publicly ask all Republicans, conservatives, and particularly all candidates for Governor to request the Attorney General to not interfere and let the people decide and vote their conscience on this amendment May 8th."

State Attorney General Roy Cooper will make monthly appearances on an hour-long radio call-in show on WSHA, the Shaw University station.

Cooper joins the rotation of other public figures on the station's community program. State Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, Raleigh Police Chief Harry Dolan and Wake County Manager David Cooke appear one Monday a month.

Cooper's appearances begin Monday at noon, according to the station.

The revised budget proposal the state Senate made public today would undo the transfer of the State Bureau of Investigation to the new Department of Public Safety.

Attorney General Roy Cooper protested the proposed move, which was included in the budget a key Senate committee approved last week. The revised budget has Cooper's office continuing to oversee the SBI and the state crime lab.

Rep. Pricey Harrison has asked for an investigation into Blue Cross and Blue Shield's campaign against the public option health care proposal.

Harrison, a Greensboro Democrat, has asked the Attorney General and N.C. Department of Insurance to look into whether the insurer violated the state's do-not-call registry with a robocall and whether it is proper for the insurer to use premiums to pay for mailers, reports Mark Binker of the Greensboro News & Record.

"We are a fully taxed medical services and hospital corporation," Borman said, adding that the company paid $162 million in federal, state and local taxes last year.

However, the fact the company paid taxes does not make it a for-profit company, said Adam Searing, a health policy expert with liberal-leaning advocacy group The North Carolina Justice Center.

"They are a nonprofit organization," Searing said. "They are organized under a special part of the nonprofit corporation law in North Carolina. They have a nonprofit board."

The N.C. Department of Justice says it will be an ally to northeastern North Carolina in its fight against the U.S. Navy's proposed Outlying Landing Field.

A letter from the Attorney General's office to U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, a Farmville Republican, indicates the department would enforce laws by which the state would retain some jurisdiction over lands seized for an OLF in counties that do not already have military bases. That would allow the counties to enforce noise ordinances, for example, on the Navy.

"Without full jurisdiction over property acquired for an OLF, it appears that the Navy would have difficulty in operating a military base," wrote Chief Deputy Attorney General Grayson Kelley. "The Attorney General's office will therefore continue to carefully monitor all legal issues related to the OLF siting process and be prepared to act as necessary to protect the economy and environment of eastern North Carolina."

The Navy is considering sites in Camden and Gates counties for a nighttime practice landing field for its pilots from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach. Camden and Gates residents have opposed the Navy's proposals.