Rosa Gill, the soon-to-be newest member of the General Assembly, says she'll be a strong advocate for education.

Gill doesn't expect she'll be seated in time for next week's budget discussions in the state House. But she plans to make her voice heard when the final votes are taken later this session on the budget.

"Maybe I can persuade them not to cut as much from schools," said Gill, who is currently chairwoman of the Wake County school board. "I'm going to be an advocate for education when I get there."

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While the House was still  looking at cutting the schools budget by more than 11 percent, public schools CEO Bill Harrison asked members raise taxes to raise more money.

He thanked the House on Thursday night for actions that would save jobs and prevent class-size increases in the lower grades, Lynn Bonner reports.

After the jump, the statement. 

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* Liberal blogger Doug Gibson outlines 10 things North Carolinians should know about the state's budget problems.

* Conservative blogger Justin Thibault says proposals to require loyalty oaths and close state Republican primaries are bad ideas.

* Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza is still convinced that either U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre or Rep. Bob Etheridge will run for Senate. 

* Meantime, Rep. Heath Shuler's got troubles of his own, receiving criticism for the appearance of preferential treatment on water access. 

APPLE BITES: This week it was all about Jobs — with a lower-case and upper-case J. The same day that Gov. Beverly Perdue signed into law changes to the state's corporate taxes designed to lure Apple, the company founded by Steve Jobs announced it would build a $1 billion data center. Opponents of corporate incentives, meantime, felt more like the biblical Job, suffering yet again.

BURR'S CRUSADE: U.S. Sen. Richard Burr stood up for tobacco in the Senate. The Winston-Salem Republican spent more than four hours on the floor arguing against a bill to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He said it would stifle innovation in nicotine delivery systems and hurt the "gold standard" of food and drug oversight. He and Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan proposed an alternate bill.

EMPTYING HOUSE? Another state representative is leaving. Rep. Bonner Stiller, a Brunswick County Republican, will step down this month to spend more time with his family. He joins four other legislators this term who've stepped down to accept a gubernatorial appointment (Rep. Linda Coleman) or move to the state Senate (now Sen. Dan Blue) or because they died (Sen. Vernon Malone) or were under investigation (Rep. Cary Allred).

IN OTHER NEWS: An East Carolina University professor will discuss his studies of the vice presidency with Joe Biden. ... Elizabeth Edwards is not interested in running for U.S. Senate, but she will open a furniture store in Chapel Hill. ... Former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole will make her first political appearance since losing in November when she introduces one-time GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in Charlotte next week. ... Hagan ran into Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in the ladies' room at the Capitol.

Residents of adult care homes are taking to YouTube to lobby the legislature.

The industry group Friends of Adult Care Homes has filmed a three-minute video featuring residents and their family members speaking about the benefits.

The video notes that state budget proposals would cut $25 million from adult care homes, arguing they are already "consistently underfunded" and some would fail. 

"I would live with my family, but they all go to work," says one woman in the video. "I'd be all by myself. I don't know if I could handle myself any more, so I do need somebody."

Friends of Adult Care Homes is e-mailing a link to the video to legislators and other people in Raleigh.

"Since the frail and elderly residents who live in North Carolina's adult care homes can't all come to Raleigh, we're bringing their voices directly to you," says executive director Lou Wilson in the e-mail. 

The video had been seen 236 times this morning. 

For now, Democrats plan to attack Sen. Richard Burr on the economy.

Eric Schultz, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, took issue with the headline of a previous post on Burr's chances in 2010.

He rattled off several criticisms of Burr: The controversial ATM statement and his votes against President Obama's stimulus package, the Senate budget resolution, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

"North Carolinians deserve two senators who will work to get this economy working again," he said. "Not one who stands in the way at every turn."

Several things were notable about the criticisms. They focused on contrasts between Burr and Obama, they centered on the economy and they were recent.

Of course, things change. At this point in the 2008 election cycle everyone thought the race would be about illegal immigration. 

* U.S. Rep. Howard Coble received an award from the American Conservative Union; his lifetime rating is 89.21 over 24 years.

* Democratic pollster Tom Jensen thinks state Sens. John Snow or Joe Sam Queen would make good candidates for Rep. Heath Shuler's seat.

* Greensboro News-Record reporter Mark Binker says Gov. Beverly Perdue quashed a rumor that she would submit a do-over on the budget.

* Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts gives state schools CEO Bill Harrison props for speaking out for a tax hike for education.

Rep. Paul Stam saw the giant inflated bounce sitting on the grassy lawn behind the legislature and wondered aloud what he had gotten himself into.

He was going to be interviewed. While jumping. In the bounce. While a video camera rolled.

The interview was with Mark Roberts, a former WRAL traffic reporter, who is working on a show for the station's Web site.

The segment that landed Stam in the Moonbounce? "Bouncing Around Ideas with the North Carolina Legislature."

Wocka Wocka Wocka.

Stam did his best to ham it up. "This is right where this needs to be because this place is a joke," he tried to a few groans from the few bystanders gawking at the sight of two grown men in suits climbing into a kids' bounce.

More after the jump.

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* The Appropriations subcommittee on health proposes "massive" cuts to state programs, some legislators call for tax hikes instead.

* Former Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Mike Munger proposes an alternative way of thinking about the Apple incentives.

* Conservative columnist David Frum takes the rivalry between Carolina and Duke to a whole new level: Tuition. (Hat Tip: Jon Ham)

* Charlotte Observer columnist Jack Betts eulogizes Jim Stephenson, policy analyst for the N.C. Coastal Federation, who died Thursday.

SEANC is running ads against two state lawmakers.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina will run radio ads criticizing Democratic Reps. Pryor Gibson of Anson County and Bruce Goforth of Buncombe County.

The ads criticize the legislators' votes for a fix to the State Health Plan that would raise costs for state workers.

"Representative Bruce Goforth voted to raise the cost of health care for the State’s working families, making North Carolina forty-ninth in its employees' family coverage, while the State had a no-bid contract with the non-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield that pays their CEO over 4 million dollars," one ad notes.

The ads are another salvo in an ongoing fight between SEANC, which represents 55,000 state workers, and the legislature during a tight budget year.

Gibson told The Insider that he is married to a state employee and could not understand the logic of the attack.