The House rejected a bill encouraging grocery stores to provide sanitizing wipes to customers to clean shopping cart handles.

Rep. Ed Jones, a Greensboro Democrat, said he filed the bill after learning that researchers determined shopping carts provided some of the most exposure to germs and were most risky for children under the age of six.

The legislation would have encouraged retailers to provide the wipes and instructed local health departments to promote their use.

The bill quickly drew derisive comments from House Republicans.

Rep. George Cleveland, a Jacksonville Republican, said the bill represented the "nanny state having fun."

"I think we're going to lead our society to the point where we're going to be so sterile, we'll all just have to live in a bubble," he said. "When I grew up, I think the saying was you had to eat a peck of dirt or you wouldn't be a healthy kid, and I believe that."

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Tonight will see the N.C. General Assembly — the NCGA? — play its own version of the March Madness sweeping college basketball.

The game will be in Columbia, S.C.

Rep. Phil Haire, a Sylva Democrat, organized this year's lineup, a bipartisan squad known more for passing bills than basketballs.

House Chaplain Jim Harry accurately summarized the pre-game mood when he called upon a higher power to be with the North Carolina squad.

"Please remind them they're not 20-year-olds running up and down the court," Harry intoned.

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A few more House bills from this afternoon:

H.B. 159: Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Reps. John Blust, Mitchell Setzer, Bryan Holloway

H.B. 161: Require Six-Year-Olds to Attend School, Reps. Rick Glazier, Angela Bryant, Earline Parmon and Ray Rapp

H.B. 162: Elec. Record Interrogation / B1, B2, C Felony, Reps. Glazier, Dan Blue and Deborah Ross

A few of the more interesting new House bills:

H.B. 44: Three-Fifths Vote to Levy Taxes, Rep. John Blust

H.B. 45: Zero-Based Budgeting, Reps. Blust, Bryan Holloway

H.B. 48: Line-Item Veto, Rep. Blust

H.B. 49: Citizens Efficiency Commission, Rep. Blust

H.B. 51: Reform Legislative Budget Process, Rep. Blust

State college campuses could soon go smoke-free.

Under a bill that passed in the House today, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors would be allowed to write smoking policies for dorms, buildings and grounds.

House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman, who lost a fight earlier in the session for a smoking ban in restaurants, stressed that the bill would not force all campuses to go smoke-free.

"This bill is permissive, it is not mandatory," he said.

The House approved the bill 104-3. It now heads back to the Senate for concurrence.

Update: The three noes were from Republican Reps. Curtis Blackwood of Matthews, George Cleveland of Jacksonville and Bryan Holloway of King.

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated where the bill goes next.