U.S. Sen. Richard Burr has $3,461,445 in his campaign account.

Burr has received more than $3 million in contributions since 2007, according to federal campaign finance records. Of that amount, $1.4 million came from individual contributions and $1.2 million came from political action or other committees.

Contributors include the Associated Builders and Contractors ($5,000), a Bank of America PAC ($5,000), a Federation of American Hospitals PAC ($5,000), Thomas Mann of Raleigh, chairman of GE Insurance ($2,000), Duke Energy President James Rogers of Charlotte ($2,400) and Jerry Smith, CEO of Le Bleu water company ($2,400).

Previously: Democrat Kenneth Lewis who is running against Burr has $184,000. 

The State Board of Education, during its two-day retreat at Raleigh's Sheraton Hotel, set out six goals for students and teachers.

The goals are written in ed-wonk language, but Dome has tried its best to write them in English, Lynn Bonner reports. Essentially, the board wants:

* Every student prepared for global competition.

* Student progress measured in a way that alerts teachers to problems so they can adjust the way they teach.

* Every "learning environment" (Dome thinks this means "schools" and classrooms") to be "inviting, respectful, supportive, inclusive and flexible."

* School leaders that create a culture that embraces change and continuous improvement.

* Financial planning and budgeting aligned with maximizing student achievement.

More after the jump.

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* Democracy South, former Finnish ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter of Greensboro are among the North Carolina victims of financier Bernie Madoff.

* Blogger Gordon Smith points out that Sen. Steve Goss' blog libel bill casts a wide net over the Internet and would be retroactive to Dec. 9, 2008.

* U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx gets a suite named for her at the National Republican Congressional Committee for raising $250,000 more than expected last cycle by calling donors individually.

* Attorney General Roy Cooper presses Bank of America about last-minute bonuses for Merrill Lynch employees after receiving federal bailout funds.

Even a distant connection paid off for some people today.

Soraya Kaloudis, 50, got front-row seats at President Barack Obama's inauguration this morning from her niece's roommate. 

An employee of Bank of America in Charlotte, Kaloudis was just excited to be at the ceremony.

"I never thought I would go to an inauguration," she said. "I've never been politically involved in any way, but when my niece said she had tickets, I couldn't turn it down."

At last night's Arab-American inaugural ball, her niece, Mariam Al-Shawaf, told her just how good the seats were: Just below the platform, about as good as you can get without being a member of Congress or a Supreme Court justice.

Shawaf said that the tickets were almost an afterthought. Her roommate, who works for Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, one of the inaugural coordinators, had e-mailed her a year ago to ask if she wanted tickets.

Now, she said she finally has one on her aunt. 

"She shows us up every year with the best Christmas presents and my mom is always like 'Man, I'm not as creative as my sister,'" she said. "This time, we totally trumped her. We win for life, now."

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue will hold an economic roundtable in Charlotte Tuesday.

The event will be chaired by Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson, Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant and UNC-Charlotte Chancellor Dr. Phil Dubois. It will be moderated by UNC-Chapel Hill professor Ferrell Guillory.

It is the first in a series of roundtables Perdue has planned.

After an overview of current local, state and national economic conditions, the group will have a roundtable discussion with Perdue.

The roundtable will take place at 10 a.m. at UNC-Charlotte's Harris Alumni Center. 

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said President Bush's announcement on bank guarantee seems to be a way to boost credit without putting taxpayers at much risk.

In a prepared statement, she cited two institutions, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo/Wachovia, with North Carolina bases, Barb Barrett reports.

She also said Americans ought to be able to access their retirement accounts without penalties.

"I applaud the treasury for changing course by taking steps to inject liquidity into financial institutions such as Wells Fargo/Wachovia and Bank of America," Dole said. "This seems more sound than spending taxpayer dollars on buying up assets and hoping to turn a profit later. 

"While I dislike these expensive interventions into the markets, this course of action does seem to be less risky to the taxpayers and should  free up credit to help jumpstart the economy. I still feel it is vital to take steps to provide direct relief to individuals, such as allowing Americans to access their 401k/Individual Retirement Accounts without taxes and penalties."

Previously: Hagan praises bank guarantee plan. 

Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole was criticized Tuesday for attempting to loosen banking regulations earlier this year at time a time when the financial crisis was growing.

Democrat Kay Hagan noted that Dole had introduced legislation that would have made voluntary, rather than mandatory certfication by CEOs and outside auditors of the internal accounting controls of banks, Rob Christensen reports.

Hagan said quoted an industry publication as saying such legislation was “supremely naive” after all all the corporate scandals.

She also said that Dole received a campaign contribution of $2,500 from Bear Stearns’ PAC six days after she introduced the legislation. The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., a New York-based investment bank, collapsed last month as part of the subprime mortgage crisis.

"Once again she is a rubber stamp for President Bush," Hagan said in a teleconference with reporters.

The Dole campaign dismissed the allegations. The loosening of standards of the Sarbanes-Oxley law had been requested by First Citizens Bank of Raleigh and supported by the state Bankers Association as a way to relieve the regulatory burdens on smaller banks, said Brian Nick, Dole’s chief of staff.

"To say that Bear Stearns some how benefited from this is absolutely preposterous," Nick said. "It shows a total lack of understanding that Kay Hagan has."

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Kay Hagan worked in banking for a decade.

In a recent TV ad, the Democratic Senate candidate touts her work as a lawyer in the estate and trust division of NCNB Corp. from 1978 to 1988. 

Hagan eventually worked her way up to vice president.

NCNB, which stood for North Carolina National Bank, was formed in 1960 after the merger and acquisition of several smaller state banks. 

After several other mergers, it became NationsBank in 1991, and then Bank of America in 1998. The second largest bank in the U.S., it is currently headquartered in Charlotte. 

In 1988, at the time that Hagan left, the Washington Post called it "the largest bank in the Southeast."

Pat McCrory says state Democrats are on a "fishing expedition."

The Republican gubernatorial nominee said today that the N.C. Democratic Party has filed a public records request for correspondence between the mayor, the city manager and his staff and three Charlotte businesses for the past 12 years.

In a press release sent out shortly before 5 p.m., the McCrory campaign says that City Attorney Mac McCarley estimated the request would cost "more than $100,000" and take "up to a thousand hours" of work to complete.

"I am disgusted by this fishing expedition being conducted by the North Carolina Democratic Party with the blessing of Beverly Perdue," McCrory said in a statement, calling it "dirty tricks."

Perdue spokesman David Kochman said they were aware of the records request and had no problem with it.

"One of the reasons we have campaigns is for voters to learn about candidates and the work they've done," he said. "I would hope that the mayor has nothing to hide. If that's the case, there shouldn't be any problem sharing more information about his record."

On the issue of cost, Kochman said that it's standard for a government body to charge reasonable costs to comply with a records request.

Update: McCrory spokeswoman Amy Auth said that the request was for correspondence related to two Charlotte-based companies, Bank of America and Duke Energy — where McCrory formerly worked — and U.S. Airways, which has a hub in Charlotte's airport.

She said he has nothing to hide.

"He will gladly compare his record to the rest of state leadership," she said.

Second Update: In its two requests, the Democratic Party offered to pay to defray the cost of copies up to $200, for a total of $400.

Third Update: McCarley, the city attorney, said this would be the biggest public records request in recent memory, topping a $100,000-plus request from an unsuccessful bidder on a city contract and a citizen who supported the unsuccessful effort to repeal the sales tax.

He said that the charge to the Democratic Party would probably be between $200 and $1,000 for the cost of copies, with the $100,000 figure referring to the cost of staff time, which can't be recouped. He said it will probably take "most of the summer" to comply.