The old Jim Hunt crowd gathered in Raleigh on Friday for the groundbreaking of the library that will bear the former governor's name and for lunch at the Park Alumni Center at N.C. State University, Rob Christensen reports.

The crowd included a who's who from Hunt's 16 years as governor, including Jim Phillips, former chairman of the UNC Board of Governors; former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell; Norris Tolson, a transportation secretary under Hunt; former Ambassador Jeanette Hyde; Hunt's former spokeman and strategist Gary Pearce; former Human Resources secretary Lucy Bode; former Cultural Resources secretary Betty McCain; former aide Ed Turlington, and former state Democratic chairwoman Barbara Allen.

Just to name a few. 

And what would a gathering of politicians be without a little fund raising? 

At the lunch, Hunt announced a $20 million fund raising campaign to help cover some of the costs of the library that will also serve as headquarters for the Institute for Emerging Issues, the think tank Hunt created.

"This is a marvelous opportunity," Hunt said. "It really is."

North Carolina Court of Appeals Judge Barbara Jackson said today that she will run for the state Supreme Court seat held by Justice Edward Thomas Brady.

Jackson and Brady are both Republicans. Brady has not yet announced whether he will run for re-election, but Jackson's announcement suggests he won't. It would be highly unusual for a sitting Court of Appeals judge to challenge a justice from her own party.

Court of Appeals Judge Bob Hunter, a Democrat, has said he plans to run for the seat, as well.

Judicial races are technically nonpartisan in North Carolina. The candidate's political party does not appear on the ballot.

Jackson was first elected to the appeals court in 2004. She previously served as general counsel for the Department of Labor and as associate general counsel for former Gov. Jim Martin, a Republican. She also clerked for then-Associate Justice Burley Mitchell, a Democrat, on the N.C. Supreme Court.

The speculation is based not only on gossip but the fact that Wynn has twice before nominated for the 4th Circuit only to have his nomination stalled by then Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, Rob Christensen reports.

Some of the key players, have been avoiding reporter’s calls.

Former NC. Chief Justice Burley Mitchell headed a four-member committee that screened potential candidates for Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, would not say who the panel recommended.

But he heaped praise on Wynn, noting that he had known Wynn as a fellow judge and attorney for several decades.

"Nobody in the state is better qualified for the 4th Circuit in North Carolina in my view than Jim Wynn," Mitchell said.

More after the jump.

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Sen. Kay Hagan has forwarded three names to the White House as potential judicial nominations for the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hagan would not disclose the names this morning in a conference call with reporters, because she hasn't told the other candidates that they weren't among the recommendations, Barb Barrett reports.

President Barack Obama will make official nominations to the Senate.

Hagan, a freshman Democrat, said she is committed to seeing two of the four open seats on court go to North Carolinians. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals covers the states of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland.

Hagan named a statewide board this spring to help vet candidates and guide her on her recommendations. Hagan said she met with several of the candidates.

North Carolina now has just one judge on the court, which is represented by 15 judgeships.

Virginia Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner announced Tuesday that they had sent forward the name of Virginia State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Keenan to the White House.

Update: Former Supreme Court Justice Burley Mitchell, who led Hagan's search efforts, said they interviewed more than 40 candidates.

Second Update: Hagan's office said later that she misspoke and there is no list. 

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan said today that federal prosecutor George Holding should stay on the job until investigations of former Sen. John Edwards and former Gov. Mike Easley are completed.

She said she has been in talks with the White House and that she wants to eliminate politics from the process of replacing a U.S. Attorney, Andy Curliss reports.

"It is not in North Carolina's best interest to replace" Holding right now, she said.

Holding is overseeing the two high-profile probes that have been the subject of recent news reports.

Her comments come a day after the resignation of one member of a three-person screening panel that Hagan established to winnow candidates for the top prosecutors' positions in North Carolina.

Locke Clifford, a criminal defense lawyer from Greensboro, stepped down on Tuesday but did not cite a reason. Hagan said he has not been involved in screening for a replacement of Holding.

The panel had been expecting to interview candidates last week and this one, according to the panel's chairman, Burley Mitchell. Mitchell is a former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court and now a lawyer at Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice in Raleigh.

Clifford has not returned calls or made comments. But Clifford's vehicle was spotted at the Easley home on Tuesday.

Clifford was replaced with Jim Phillips.

While Democrats may be counting the days until U.S. Attorney George Holding leaves, the Republicans are urging President Barack Obama to keep him on the job.

Holding, a Republican appointee, has prosecuted a series of Democrats and his office is now investigating allegations involving former Sen. John Edwards and former Gov. Mike Easley, both Democrats, Rob Christensen reports.

"Now is not the right time for a change in leadership at the U.S Attorney's office," said state GOP chair Linda Daves. "George Holding has shown himself to be competent, fair and evenhanded in rooting out and prosecuting corruption in state government."

U.S. attorneys are political patronage appointments that usually change hands when the White House changes parties. Holding, a protege of the late Sen. Jesse Helms, got his job after Bill Clinton left office and George W. Bush came in. (Frank Whitney preceded Holding as U.S attorney under Bush. He's now a federal district judge in Charlotte.)

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan has appointed a panel, headed by former Chief Justice Burley Mitchell, to recommend federal prosecutors for the three districts in North Carolina. Hagan will recommended her choices to Obama.

But the state Republican Party argues that Holding doesn’t just go after Democrats. They note that he also prosecuted such Republicans as former U.S. Attorney Sam Currin and former state Sen. John Carrington.

Burley Mitchell has never gotten the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

But his wife — and his dog — have.

The former N.C. Supreme Court chief justice says his English bulldog, Bruno, received the award in the late 1970s from then Gov. Jim Hunt.

As secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety, Mitchell had started a neighborhood watch program featuring Bruno that was an early predecessor to McGruff the Crime Dog. Bruno became something of a celebrity in local newspapers. 

"It was sort of a spoof," Mitchell said.

He said the award was not taken as seriously in those days. It had started as a symbolic honor for visiting dignitaries, like being a Kentucky colonel, then became more of an honor for notable North Carolinians, such as Mitchell's wife, Lou, a longtime civic volunteer.

But he disputes the idea that it's the state's highest civilian award.

"Some deputy press secretary over there started the notion that its the highest award the state gives and that concept entered the world through Wikipedia," he said.

By statute, the state's highest award is the North Carolina Awards, selected annually by a committee of the Department of Cultural Resources.

* Burley Mitchell tells N.C. Lawyers Weekly that a panel hopes to recommend U.S. attorneys and District Court judges to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan by the end of May.

* U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick wants to make sure that people don't start using their cell phones on airplanes, notes recent experience with rude passenger.

* House bill to require parents or guardians to give written permission before a child could be spanked in school passes 91-24, heads to Senate.

* State Rep. Jimmy Love was not aware of a Facebook group with more than 8,000 members supporting his bill to end the high school graduation project.

The question North Carolina Democrats whisper in the halls is: when are the Republican U.S. attorneys going to be replaced?

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan says the answer is pretty soon, Rob Christensen reports.

Hagan, the Democrat freshman, said she hopes to recommend three new U.S. attorneys for North Carolina in the coming months.

"I would like to get some names fairly soon and make some recommendations," Hagan said in an interview. "I would certainly think by spring or early summer we could have nominees. The timing has a lot do with the president."

She has appointed a panel, headed by former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell to advise her on potential nominees for both federal prosecutors and federal judgeships. Hagan said the group held its first meeting Tuesday.

More after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has named lawyers to help her with judicial appointments.

The Greensboro Democrat announced that former U.S. attorney Janice McKenzie Cole, criminal attorney Locke Clifford and N.C. State Bar vice president Anthony di Santi will serve on the panel advising her.

The panel will be led by former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Burley Mitchell.

"I have brought together some of North Carolina's best and brightest, each of whom offers a diverse range of legal expertise, to help me recommend federal nominees that all North Carolinians, regardless of their political affiliation, will be proud of," Hagan said in a statement.

Each is from a different area of the state: Cole lives in Perquimans County, Clifford lives in Greensboro, di Santi in Blowing Rock, and Mitchell in Raleigh. All four are registered Democrats.

The group will make recommendations to Hagan for U.S. attorneys, federal district cout judgeships and appointments to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hagan hopes to end partisan gridlock over the Fourth Circuit.